Filipino Fictionists Fixated On Foreign Formulas – Why Not True Tribal Tragedies & Triumphs?

What are Filipino English writers doing? Nobody writes in support of farm families, and there are millions of them!

To borrow from Shakespeare, I write not to bury Caesar but to praise him.

People, did you know we have 6 National Writers Workshops? At least the ones I can count:

1)  Ateneo National Writers Workshop (Loyola Heights, QC)

2)  Iligan National Writers Workshop (Iligan City)

3)  IYAS La Salle National Writers Workshop (Bacolod City)

4)  Silliman University National Writers Workshop (Dumaguete City)

5)  UP National Writers Workshop (Diliman, QC)

6)  UST National Writers Workshop (Baguio City)

That means we Filipinos are encouraging our writers in English in the fields of fiction. Now then, let us listen to National Artist for Literature F Sionil Jose delivering his keynote in the 27^thIligan National Writers Workshop[1] held 30 November to 05 December 2020 at the University of San Carlos, at the MSU Iligan Institute of Technology, speaking 01 December 2020, reported without title in the 07 December 2020 issue of PhilStar.com. F Sionil said:

(The Workshop) has so much to contribute to our national culture – not just the indigenous literatures on this big island, but so many facets of its culture, the folk arts, the dances and the history of its courageous and enterprising people about whom we know so little.

So, all those national writers workshops have been focusing on the PH local arts, cultures and indigenous literatures.

I hope that this workshop will also have discussions on history, politics and philosophy, that it enlarges its focus to include nationhood, that it nurtures the bonding of writers and that it imbues them with a higher purpose that will make them more human, more compassionate.

F Sionil is encouraging Filipino writers to engage in history, politics, philosophy – and nationhood, “to make (writers) more human, more compassionate.”

Ha, ha! I have just the right attitude for a proselytizer for Filipino writings in, as my title suggests, “tribal tragedies & triumphs.” As a creative writer for agriculture, I am of course referring to tribal lands and technologies. I dream of Filipino creatives becoming nonfiction writers – supporting PH Agriculture.

And here is relevant news: “World Bank invests P629 million in Mindanao[2]” (Louise Maureen Simeon, 14 December 2020, PhilStar.com). This is through the Philippine Rural Development Project of the DA, for Mindanao alone. That comprises some 108 sub-projects. There are a total of 24,000 beneficiaries for 54 sub-projects. The report is not complete, but 24,000 people alone should be worth at least 24,000 little & big stories in agriculture!

This is where we need non-fictionists badly. Not only hundreds but thousands of stories of Filipino farmers await to be told.

There are 116 state colleges & universities, SCUs, in the Philippines – if only 50 of those SCUs nurtured each 2 non-fiction writers, that is, writers of and for PH Agriculture, we have 100 active journalists supportive.

And they should be enjoying Freedom of the Impress because they are public, not private bodies. Inexpensive too, via freeblogs.@517

 

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[1]https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2020/12/07/2061962/keynote-speech-delivered-iligan

[2]https://www.philstar.com/business/2020/12/14/2063553/world-bank-invests-p629-million-mindanao?fbclid=IwAR3W0BvlaEggTwGxUFEyQTZOUtuOYNJCdaBLkHUk-F10TufkKAhkVyCW9Fc&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&utm_term=Autofeed