It is so unfortunate that I could not join you today and be inspired by your sharing and discussion.  I actually am not sure what more I could contribute after you’ve had several days of discussions and interactions with some of the world’s greatest women artists.  But I join you today, more in the spirit of “sisterhood”.  And I hope that through this, I could add one more voice to the collective voices here seeking for more meaningful and transformative art for women.

 Now, I have been asked to speak about globalization and culture.  Though I am a social science researcher and an academician, I have this thing about reducing people’s lives into data and statistics.  What I would like to share with you are images and stories of women and people’s lives that tell the story about globalization and how these have affected them.   And these, I will share with you, coming from a particular context and history, the context and history of a colonized people, the history of a struggling and militant people.  I come from the perspective of a teacher, a participant of the women’s movement, the teacher’s struggle, a social development activities, a community organizer, a women, in a third world country.

But before that, lets go quickly into some definitions.

What is globalization? 

For many people, at first glance, globalization would mean easier access to imported goods, to technology, especially ITC (information and communication technology).  Upon affirming our membership to the WTO, our government promised that globalization would be an impetus to maker our producers and workers more “globally competitive”.  That the entry of foreign investors as a result of trade liberalization, would mean more jobs for the Filipinos.  But what indeed has globalization meant for most of us during the last years?

For poor and third world countries, globalization is a sugarcoated word for an old concept.   Globalization is actually imperialist globalization; it is the continuation of colonization, especially of third world countries.   To paraphrase Vandana Shiva, an eco-feminist and social activist from the third world,  “development and modernization in the third world” (within the neo-liberal framework that is prescribed and sponsored by the first world countries), is a continuation of the process of colonization: an extension of the project of wealth creation in modern western patriarchy’s economic vision, which is based on the exploitation of people of the third world, on the exploitation and exclusion of women, on the exploitation and degradation of nature, and on the exploitation and erosion  of other cultures.

Let me go quickly through some of the features of globalization as succinctly explained by Sr. Mary John Mananzan, one of the “mothers” and pillars of the women’s movement here in the Philippines.  Globalization, according to her means: 

1. Borderless economy – advocates the elimination of protective tariffs and gives free play to the market
2. Import liberalization – corollary to the “borderless economy”, this means goods from all other countries can enter poor countries.  This may seduce us as consumers to think that it is good because then we can have many choices and the competition can put down prices.  But this will also kill local industries and make us dependent for our basic needs on other countries.  This certainly will not ensure food security for our countries.
3. Free play of the market (or deregulation).  This advocates less control from the state, making market forces the main criteria of activities.  This will make profit and market demand the values.  Everything else will be sacrificed to these – consumers, labor, etc.  (Thus, for instance, the oil industries here have been deregulated, and therefore prices of gas have gone up several times within the year.)
4. Privatization – all productive enterprises will be put into private hands and, in our case, into foreign hands.  This includes basic services (water, electricity, housing), into private hands, which has profit as motive and therefore subsidies will have to be taken away and prices of basic services will soar.

To this, may I add the impact of globalization on our culture.  Globalization endangers the diversity of cultures as it “homogenizes” tastes, lifestyles, as dictated by the markets created by monopoly capitalists.  Again, to quote Sr. Mary John, imperialist globalization had intensified cultural imperialism, which has led to the “Mcdonaldization and coca colalization” of our culture.  Globalization has led to the commodification of our cultures.

Globalization, to me, has rendered women’s lives and women’s spirits even more fractious and splintered.  The economic, political and cultural conditions it perpetuates sees women struggling to make ends meet, struggling to keep body and soul in tact, not to mention keeping her art, her craft, her ways of knowing, her ways of expressing, her ways of nurturing alive, despite it being continually marginalized, rendered invisible, insignificant. 

May I share some of the images I’ve seen of how globalization has invaded and destroyed our peoples lives, our culture, our sustainable, self reliant, community life. 

In the Cordilleras, up in Northern Luzon, the youth do not want to till the land nor remain in their upland farming communities.  They have been enticed by images of Bill Gates to study computers and ITC and earn their first million in five years.  Sadly, their parents succumb to this, because the influx of imported rice and vegetables has rendered farming an unsustainable source of livelihood.  The practice of mono cropping to respond to the demands of the local and international market v-a-v our commitment to the WTO-GATT, not to mention the use of high-yielding varieties that are dependent on imported farm inputs, has also destroyed the fertility of the land

The influx of imported goods, rendering Baguio the Mecca of imported RTWs and “ukay ukay” (cheap overruns or rejects of garment factories in EPZs or relief goods from the salvation army, peace corps) has displaced the local weaving industries of the women in the Cordilleras.

In Southern Tagalog, communities around the world-renowned Taal Lake, once self reliant from the bounty of the lake is now threaten by eco-tourism.  Free entry of foreign investors have caused the mushrooming of foreign-owned and export oriented fish pens around the lake as well as resorts, restaurants, bed and breakfast places, spas, mimicking Bali and Bangkok.  This has physically and economically displaced our local fisher folk who once subsisted comfortably on their daily catch and ensured the fish supply of the region.  The livelihood of our local fisher folk have also been threatened by the entry of imported fish which is supposedly cheaper for the government to buy, rather than providing subsidies to our local fishing communities.

      Another feature of imperialist globalization is the reinforcement of the international division of labor – with the first world countries providing surplus capital and technology, and poor countries supplying the world with cheap labor, especially in sectors that are labor intensive and where workers are treated as flexible labor and lowly paid.  The Philippine government has capitalized on the demand for labor in the service sector by intensifying its export of labor policy, especially of domestic helpers and entertainers, calling them the “new heroes” of our land.

Thus, in Pozzorubio, one town in a province in Central Luzon the whole municipality has been transformed into a small Hong Kong, reminiscent of the plaza in Hong Kong where domestic helpers converge every Sunday to bond with other Filipinas.  On the surface, its not so bad, for isn’t it true that in every major city, there is a small China Town.  Sadly, this “monument” this tribute to Hong Kong is a shining symbol of every young girl’s dream in Pozzorubia – that she be an “entertainer” or a “domestic helper” like her mom, sister, aunt, so that she can bring in money into the family, buy all the clothes and chocolates she wants and build a house with all the appliances and comforts she sees on TV and the magazines.

Likewise, In Taiwan extolled as one of the Asian Tigers, women workers bear the brunt of the collapse of their export-oriented industries.  Like women workers in the Philippines, women workers in Taiwan, who have been their army of flexible and cheap labor, now suffering from displacement due to shutdowns, labor contractualization.

In the Pacific, women fear that their indigenous knowledge on healing is being stolen from them by large pharmaceutical companies who repackage their herbs, medicinal plants, and indigenous ways of healing.  These indigenous of healing, protected and preserved by women, but communally owned, are now being cooped and put into   glossy packages for mass distribution, with international pharmaceutical brands stamped on them, and   intellectual property rights laws of the WTO ensuring the ownership by international pharmaceutical companies.

In many South Asia and South east Asian countries, farming communities have been robbed of their indigenous rice and grain varieties, with large grain companies like Cargill, Monsanto and others, getting these grains, genetically modifying them such that communities have to keep on buying the seed every planting season.  With the booming of the market of healthy and organic products, it is these big grain companies gaining, and not the women and men farmers who nurtured these seeds in their small farming communities for centuries.  The commercialization of these grains now poses a grave threat on the food securities of our farming communities.

In India, China and Korea, women are learning to use the computer and computer software to facilitate data banking of women’s indigenous knowledge, to facilitate communication and networking.  But women are struggling to have access and control over computer hardware and software, so that large computer companies do not use these new found women’s skill to tie them down to the large ITC monopolies, to co-opt and commodify women’s knowledge

Yes, these are sad stories.  But women and their communities are facing these challenges, are fighting these attacks on their lives, on their culture.  And they see that the urgent task ahead is to unmask the so-called “benefits” of globalization and pose alternatives, and bring about the resurgence of social values that give primacy to social equity, to community, to communal and ecological ways of living that have been proven sustainable.

      As artists, as educators, we have within us powerful tools for education and information dissemination.   As artists, as educators, we could be powerful agents for social change.  But for the arts, for theater to be a tool for education, for cultural transformation, they must always be in an interrogative mode and must be a tool for political advocacy.   I do not share the belief of doing art for art’s sake.    To my mind, art cannot be neutral.  By being neutral, we already are taking sides, the side of the status quo.

By interrogative mode, I mean, it must not only reflect our lives, it must question the power relations, the contradictions, the social injustice, the inequities pervading our lives.  It must surface, unmask the “taken for granted realties” that appear to be harmonious. For instance, the trivialization, the normalization of violence against women, the commodification of women.  It has been part of our “taken for granted reality”; our role is to question why it persists, and to unmask the reality

            By advocacy, what I mean is that as artists, as educators, we not only critique, we pose possible alternatives.  And that is why we have such a great responsibility, to really research, study, discern, what are the appropriate alternatives, what is the perspective, what is the standpoint we must take, we must advocate.  For me, it is important that we take the standpoint, especially of the marginalized sectors, of the sectors that are the primary stakeholders of social transformation. 

Here in the Philippines, in many parts of Asia where I have gone, I’ve seen how communities are reclaiming their sense of community, their indigenous ways of knowing, of coping, of understanding and addressing their realities, through community cultural groups, through community theater.   Community Theater remains alive and vibrant in many communities, and it has such great potential for sustaining the process of conscientizing, organizing, inspiring and mobilizing people.  And these community theaters, these sectoral cultural groups, these street plays speak not only of the issues and problems, but of the struggles, the small victories, the gains of the people’s movement.

And as such, our art, in a sense, can lead to healing.  Our art can be cathartic, and this catharsis can lead to healing.  Not in the sense that it could immediately solve our individual and social ills.  But in the sense that it can help us recognize that individually, collectively, we have the power to transform our situation, to reclaim or reformulate our cultural identity.  Despite the onslaught of globalization on our culture, on our lives, collectively, we can

Let me end with another story/image.  About two years ago, I was involved in UNDP Asia Pacific gender program.  One of the projects that were sponsored was a regional project promoting gender responsiveness in science and technology.  One of the countries I went to for project monitoring was Vietnam.  We went to a farming community close to Hanoi to visit a promoting the use of biogas among women farmers for their homes and their backyard income generating projects.

During the visit, I got into a long conversation with the woman who was one of the beneficiaries of the project.  But her interest in me was more than my involvement in the project.  She said that she was so amazed that I could so around different countries, meet other women, learn about the lives of other women, how they struggled to go beyond the confines of their homes and be recognized part of their community, stories about women making a difference in their community, struggling to improve the situation of their country.   As I was leaving, the woman embraced me tightly and tearfully she said that she hoped that I could continually bring stories of women to other women, stories of struggle, stories of hope, stories of victory.

Sisters, it is my hope that with our art, with our stories, we can continually bring hope, courage to reclaim our cultures, our identity, to continually forge collective action towards the struggle for a better world.  Thank you very much.

Prepared by Marion Jimenez-Tan, for the International Conference of WPI; Manila, Philippines, November 15-19, 2003