Baquirin: Call for hope

Thursday, February 9, 2012

“Kay tagal kong pinag-aralan

ang puno’t dulo ng digmaan

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sa dulo’t naunawaan

na ang pagiging babae

ay walang katapusang pakikibaka

para mabuhay at maging malaya. (Joi Barrios)

RECENTLY I was in a room full of women who lent most of their lives to the women’s movement in the Philippines. It was something else, the energy of all those women, combined with the power of their purpose; it was really a momentous day for me. Not to say that they did not have differences, or that they never disagreed with each other in the past or the present, but they had a common concern. If not concern, at least a common question. How to access justice, framing that exploration in the women’s movement, was the common reason why they were there. I am no great expert on these things, but what really struck me was that they were actually asking questions that, to me, were relevant. I was hearing stories about how they worked in the communities, I heard stories about women from Mindanao and Visayas, and their stories sounded really familiar because they held true even for other provinces in the North.

The first week of this month, the End Impunity Alliance asked me to read a poem for their exhibit opening. They gave me a poem by Joi Barrios. I had read that poem before already but reading it again gave me a jolt that I remember I got the first time I read it. Many times my sobs got caught in my throat. She expressed in her poem that living as a woman in these times, in this country is living in times of conflict and war. The truth in our everyday realities really has that effect. And then yesterday I read that there have been 12 LGBT killings in the Philippines, 2 of those in the Cordilleras and I could not help but think that the poem was true for women, children and the LGBT community. I could not help but feel that it is almost hopeless for us to find justice for victims of injustice and or impunity. How easy it is to lose faith in a local government who can turn a blind eye on injustice. They cannot even defend our city’s trees, how much more defend its citizens?

It is valuable to hear stories about the struggles of those who came before us. They who until now are looking for ways to bring about change are the ones we have to look to. I am aware that that may not be the best solution, but something has to be done, soonest time possible before they get tired of fighting against a system that has stopped caring about its people.

The times we live in call for us to move, to care and to not lose heart. Just when we think that all we do is futile, we have to find hope, if not for us, for our children.

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