Sunday, November 24, 2013

Homemade Globe | Samar, Philippines

                                                                      Homemade Globe, Samar, Philippines   September 1988 © Marissa Roth

Every news account of the aftermath of Typhoon Yolanda, which struck the heart of the Philippines a few weeks ago, mentions the strength and resilience of the Filipino people. The inability of both the national and local governments to provide immediate aid to the typhoon victims was heartbreaking to witness, but not new news.

It has been ever thus in the Philippines, where two handfuls of powerful families control politics, money and the land. I had a bitter laugh when I heard that the mayor of Tacloban is a nephew of Imelda Marcos, and a senator for Leyte is Bongbong Marcos, son of the late dictator. And of course, the Philippine president is the son of Ninoy and Corazon Aquino. Shakespeare couldn't have written a more ironic tragic tale, where the second generation of adversaries is now using the poor as pawns in their feudal game.

Yes, Filipinos are resilient and ever willing to smile and pick up the pieces. And yes, the global relief effort picked up the tab and will continue to do so for may years, while the powerful Filipinos lustfully fill their pockets and point feeble fingers untouched by any manual labor.

This photograph which I pulled from my archive, was taken in Samar in 1988, when I was working on a story about provincial schools. The Central Visayas, where Samar and Leyte sit, is one of the poorest regions in the Philippines. One of the geography teachers at a school on Samar was struggling with meager supplies - hardly any books or writing paper and pencils. Rather than be discouraged, he made a handmade globe out of rebar and rice sacks, in order to give his students a sense of the world. He drew the continents and their positions from memory.

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