Rare Periodicals

Panorama

Item

Title

Panorama

Description

All these are either original productions or selective adaptions and condensations from Philippine and foreign publications. Usually brief and compact, lasting from two to ten minutes to read, each article offers a rewarding experience in one’s moments of leisure.

Issue Date

Volume XIII (Issue No. 10) October 1961

Publisher

Community publishers, Inc.

Language

English

Subject

Books and reading.

Recreational reading.

Rights

Place of publication

Manila

extracted text

'anoiainaj Magazine of Good Reading Zell your friends about the Panorama, the Philippines’ most versatile, most significant magazine today. (jive them a year’s subscription — NOW! they will appreciate it. Subscription Form ................ 1 year for P8.50 ................2 years for F16.©0 ................Foreign subscription: one year $6.00 U.S. Name ...................... ................t...................................................... .. .. Street ...................................................................................................... City or Town ................................... Province .................... z............. Enclosed is a check/money order for the cmount specified ab/ove. Please address all checks or money orders in favor of: COMMUNITY PUBLISHERS, INC. Inverness St., Sta Ana, Manila, Philippines CONTENTS Beer and the Germans Martis Post ......................................................................... 2 Our Problems in Education Dr. Vicente G. Sinco .................................................... 3 Masonry and the Revolution Teodoro A. Agoncillo ................................................. 17 Economic Advancement and Social Justice Pio Pedrosa ....................................................................... 22 The “Synoptic Scientist” Ritchie Calder .................................................................. 29 The Challenge of Fidelismo Hernando Abaya ............................................................. 33 Progress, Learning and the Youth Dr. Pascual Capiz ..................... 47 The New Japanese Woman Kathleen Costello ........................................................... 54 The Years That Counted Evelyn T. Miranda ........................................................ 61 A Second Look Felino Neri ......................................................................... 65 The Literature of the Filipinos (II) Leopoldo Yabes ............................................................. 73 Criteria tor the Living Standard in Development Countries ...................................................... 80 The Muses Go Out in Summer............................................. 84 The ILO Story ............................................................................ 88 PANORAMA is published monthly by the Community Publishers, - Inc., Inverness St., Sta. Ana, Manila, Philippines Editor: Armando J. Malay Art Director: Ramon Esperas, Jr. Business Manager: MRS. C. A. MARAMAG Subscription rates: In the Philippines, one year P8.50; two years P16.00. Foreign subscription: one year $6.00 U.S.; two years $11.00 U.S. Single copy 75 centavos. Meer and the Germans Marl is Post The popular notion that beer is the “national bever­ age” of the German nation ap­ pears to be justified in a way by figures, for statisticians have found out that last year every citizen in the Federal Republic of Germany con­ sumed 95 litres of beer on an average. Beer brewers can be satisfied with their annual sale of 53.7 million hectolitres. And yet: it would be wrong to call the Germans a nation of beer drinkers. They con­ sume and love many other types of beverages, and there are regions with a very small beer consumption. Beer, how­ ever, nourishes and has also been called “liquid bread” by many people. Beer definitely is popular, and always has been: an old German law of 1564 says that this beverage must be made only from four basic compo­ nents—barley, hops, yeast and water. This law in essence is still valid today, and strictly adhered to. German beer grows ever more popular ab­ road, as the. export figures show. In 1960 no less than 915,000 hectolitres of beer were exported, which is nine per cent more than in the prev­ ious year. Germany, however, is not the country were beer origin­ ated. The old people of Baby­ lon and of Egypt, five thou­ sand years ago, did already number this beverage amongst the basic elements of their diet. Greek and Roman historians later on reported that the original inhabitants of Germany, the Germanic tribes, were beer brewers. But the Germanic nations in those days loved another beverage much more dearly: mead, a beverage made of water and fermented honey. The oldest German brewe­ ries were established in the 12th century in Southern Ger­ many, where, by the way, more beer is consumed than elsewhere. Soon the art of beer brewing was known all over the country. World-fame came to German beer, how­ ever, only in the middle of the nineteenth, century, when due to a far-reaching modern­ ization of brewery operations, Germany became Number One amongst the beer brew­ ers in the world. (Continued on page 92) 2 Panorama OCTOBER 19 6 1 Xnterwd m weond el*M mail matter at the Manila Poet Office on Dec. 7, 1955* VOL. XIII MANILA, PHILIPPINES No. 10 OUR PROBLEMS IN EDUCATION Dr. Vicente G. Sinco We need to remind our­ selves that nothing could be more vital and more critical to a democracy than education. A dictator­ ship or an oligarchy can af ford to be unmindful of the intellectual condition of the people within its orbit. But the reality of a genuine de­ mocratic system of govern­ ment and society, the system we have decided to adopt, is not possible without educa­ tion. And when we speak of education for a democracy, we mean intellectual upbring­ ing designed not merely for an elite or a chosen few, not even for a larger group such as a privileged political par­ ty, but all citizens. The va­ lidity of this statement may be easily confirmed by the cases we see at present in the countries which have lately become independent states in Asia and in Africa where the spirit of national­ ism fomented by a mere handful of individuals has precipitated their political se­ paration from the colonial powers without adequate ad­ ministrative training and educational preparation. Much as we sympathize with them in their desire for inde­ pendence, in moments of ser­ ious reflection we cannot help but view with deep ap­ prehension the undesirable conditions, the state of dis­ order, perplexity, confusion, and even suffering they find themselves in. We can only hope that having been thrown into the sea of polit i c a 1 manumission all by themselves they might man­ age to learn how to swim before they sink and get drowned. In expressing these thoughts of apprehension, it is not our purpose to assume an attitude and position of superiority. For while in some respects we have in­ deed attained a certain level of education and a sufficient­ ly widespread literacy, often­ times we are assailed by doubts whether or not the educational competence of our^ people as a whole has reached the degree necessary to create an atmosphere, a cli­ mate, that could invigorate the processes of democracy in our country and could thus insure the enjoyment of the rights and blessing that go with it. We do not need to be profound observers to de­ tect a considerable amount of weak spots in our present system, not so much in its formal framework as it is in the implementation of the es­ sential methods and practices which are the real determi­ nants of a democracy. The education that is need­ ed to strengthen democratic institutions is not merely quantitative but also qualita­ tive. It is not necessarily ac­ quired by the establishment and operation of a multitude of schools and colleges. If the instruction in these institu­ tions is inadequate and in­ ferior in quality, mere num­ bers do not have much signi­ ficance. On the contrary, it may only deceive us and give us a false sense of satisfac­ tion. We are well acquainted with the rapid multiplication of the number of graduates from educational institutions awarding diplomas and deg­ rees in different professions and occupations — from tea­ chers. stenographers, secreta­ ries, and lawyers, to engine­ ers, doctors of medicine, ar­ 4 Panorama chitects, pharmacists, etc. In many cases, these diplomas are not much better than mere certificates of attend­ ance over a certain number of years in the colleges issu­ ing them. They are far from being reliable evidence of quality education their hold­ ers received. Let there be no mistake about this: that the problem of education in our country cannot be solved by merely increasing the number of schools, colleges, and univer­ sities, and by making it pos­ sible for them to increase the number of pupils, students, and teachers. The problem cannot be considered solved until there is a definite im­ provement in the quality of in­ struction and in the educa­ tional competence resulting from it. It is safe to say that the percentage of persons going to our schools and colleges has been increasing rapidly every year since the end of the last War. But it is also safe to say that the quality of instruction and education that these persons have been receiving during the same period ’ of time has been de­ teriorating almost as fast as the increase of their number No wonder that in the report of a group of American and Filipino educators that made a survey of our educational system a little over a year ago under the chairmanship of Prof. J. Chester Swanson of the University of Califor­ nia, we find these words: “Much of the education of the Philippines is simply not good enough to justify the great faith of the people. What will happen to this un­ questioning faith in educa­ tion when the people learn that it is not solving their problems? Will they lose faith in education or in those who are responsible for their edu­ cational services?” Those of us who are neith­ er too proud nor too self-cen­ tered to accept honest and objective criticisms have to admit the validity of this un­ complimentary statement. We have to admit that the qual­ ity of the education that the large majority of our child­ ren have been receiving has not been good enough. It has deteriorated, I repeat, since the second World War; and the deterioration has been ra­ pid and alarming. We have not taken so far any deter­ mined step to arrest it. No wonder that the report of this mixed group of educa­ tors has this suggestion to make: “Educators must-Wbrk to provide a public school October 1961 5 program good enough to prove that faith in education is justified. This will require not only providing good schools, but also creating in the public an understanding of the difference between good and poor schools.” There are several causes of this state of educational de­ terioration in our country to­ day. One of them may be the insufficiency of filnds made available for our educational program. Undoubtedly, much can be done to raise educa­ tional standards if appropria­ tions for educational devel­ opment be set aside in lar­ ger amounts. But like invest­ ments in business or in in­ dustry, their size does not al­ ways guarantee success if funds are mishandled, mis­ used, and misdirected. It is, therefore, absolutely necessa­ ry that a study of the system, the personnel, and the mate­ rials involved be seriously and intelligently undertaken in order to avoid as much as possible not only financial losses but also unnecessary wastage in time, attention, and effort; and what is more, in order to prevent disillu­ sionment and frustration in our faith in education as the firm foundation of individual and social development. Public opinion is extreme­ ly important for any success­ ful implementation of any program of educational im­ provement. It must be arti­ culate, insistent, intelligently directed, and courageous. It should aim at creating public appreciation ' of efforts 'to raise the quality or standards of our schools and colleges. Such appreciation should be expressed frankly, openly, and sincerely, not in mere words but in deeds, in action, and in decisions. The coopera­ tion of all parents, business­ men, industrialists, and all other elements of the com­ munity has to be actively gi­ ven if we are sincere in our belief that our social, poli­ tical, economic, and moral betterment depends largely upon education. There has been no well-di­ rected and strong public opinion on the problem of good and desirable education in our country. This is shown by the fact that what is al­ most invariably considered by the press as a crisis in education is the usual delay in accommodating the 800 thousand or more children in the public schools in June. When the Department of Education gives the usual as­ surance that additional clas­ ses would be open, the so6 Panorama called crisis in education is considered solved and ended. To call such condition as a crisis in education is a gross exaggeration. The real crisis in the education of this country consists in the steady decline of the effectiveness of our schools and colleges in maintaining reasonably good standards of teaching and learning. Unless the basic causes of this state of educational im­ poverishment are correctly recognized and arrested, no amount of financial assist­ ance will be of much help in improving our educational work. One of these causes has reference to the character and content of the curricu­ lum. Another cause concerns the qualifications of our tea­ chers. The third has rela­ tion to the attitude, and in­ terest of our youth in work and study. * * Any intelligent and objec­ tive analysis of our educa­ tional problem is bound to discover these three factors as among the most basic causes of the weakness of our educational program and of the inferior academic record of the great majority of our students. There are, however, a few schools that have been turning out fine products in spite of handicaps arising from the excessive centrali­ zation of our educational sys­ tem. They have been able to remedy to a certain extent these basic defects. Their re­ cord shows that with a well qualified teaching staff and with the proper motivation, discipline, and determination on the part, of the school au­ thorities, there can be no question that the youth of the nation will acquire a super: ior type of education. The young Filipino has the capa* * BREVITY The ' best illustration of the value, of brief speech reckoned in dollars was given by Mark. Twain.His story was that when he. had listened for five minutes to the preacher telling of the heathen, he Wept, and was. going to^contribute fifty dollars; after ten minutes more, of the ser-. moil, he reduced the amount-of. his-prospective contribution to twenty-five dollars; .after half ah hour more of. eloquence, he cut the sum. to five dollars. At the. end. of an hour of oratory -when the plate -waspassed, he stole two dollars.October 1961 city for acquiring it. What he needs is proper stimulation to awaken that potentaility in him for better performance. But before discussing these basic causes of the weakness of our school system and its educational efforts, I should like to bring to your atten­ tion the significance of the problem of education today. Time and again we have told ourselves that the most val­ uable resources of our coun­ try are our human resources — our >people; just like our abundant natural resources, they have to be correctly cultivated in order to draw out from them the best qual­ ities in their possession. To­ day we live in an age of intensive development in science and technology which are causing tremendous changes not only in our con­ ditions of living but also in our ideas and in our atti­ tudes in life and work. The nation that cannot keep up with the rapid strides of ad­ vanced countries will have to face more numerous and more complicated problems affecting its economic, social, and political conditions. Such problems as unemployment, standard of living, economic and social stability, popula­ tion explosion, food supply, public sanitation and health, and peace and order may well become threats to the security and even to the very existence itself of a na­ tion as an independent poli­ tical unit. They have to be solved not in the distant fu­ ture but at the present time or during this generation. These considerations ren­ der the problem of educa­ tional improvement for our people a matter of transcen­ dent importance. Any post­ ponement in the adoption of practicable solutions to this problem will make it more and more difficult and will increase our inertia to impe­ rative changes. Let us bear in mind that educational stagnation neutralizes and even defeats in the long run movements of improvement in practically all the other phases of the nation’s life and work. We are about to reach what modern economists call the take-off stage of econo­ mic development. We have reached a point when our in­ dustrial development is quite well started. But that en­ couraging growth of our in­ dustrial and economic life is bound to be slowed down if not aborted and arrested un­ less we pay much attention Panokama to the problem of the educa­ tional improvement of our people. It is not enough that we talk about education. That is the easiest thing to do. As a matter of fact when it comes to the subject of education in conversation or speech-mak­ ing almost every one seems to talk as an expert and feels qualified to express critical opinions on college methods, university programs, and aca­ demic activities without hav­ ing seen actual academic per­ formance nor understood edu­ cational objectives nor read and studied books and publi­ cations on current educational practices and theories pro­ duced by learned scholars and experienced educators. To pass judgment on the work of our educational ins­ titutions, we need to be deep­ ly involved in the study of educational problems. We need to participate actively in tasks or activities of indiv­ iduals or groups regularly en­ gaged in serious educational work. Otherwise, judgments and criticisms based on halfbaked ideas or obsolete prac­ tices are likely to produce more harm than good. It does not seem to be widely known among our people today that a great deal of interest and deep concern in the problem of education­ al improvement are being ta­ ken in all progressive coun­ tries today. Let us take for example the United States. In spite of its leadership in the field of industry and eco­ nomic activities and of the excellent work of its colleges and universities, its leaders, not only in educationa itself but also in politics, in busi­ ness, and in civic and reli­ gious affairs, are nevertheless very much concerned with the quality of the education that the young Americans have been receiving over the years. They realize that edu­ cation cannot stand still with­ out affecting the welfare and improvement of the nation. Beginning with President Truman, clear through Pres­ ident Eisenhower, and down to President Kennedy com­ missions and committees have been formed for the purpose of analysing the con­ ditions of American schools, their teachers, their acade­ mic and technical courses, their methods of instruction, and their policies. They are determined to discover what­ ever weakness exists in the products of their educational practices. National as well as local surveys have been un­ dertaken and reports of the results of such surveys have 9 been published so the peo­ ple could be fully informed. The reports are live subjects of private and public discus­ sions in large and small con­ ferences, in newspapers, and in radio and TV programs. All these activities indicate the intense interest of the people of the most powerful country in the world today in the value and the urgent need of being constantly aware of the swift changes of educa­ tional ideas and methods. There is more than mere fear and apprehension of the Russian advances in science and technology shown by. leaders of the United States in their intense concern with the quality of the education of the American youth. There is a deep realization on their part that in this age of revo­ lutionary changes the country that is satisfied with what it has today will be left far be­ hind tomorrow. Its economic, social, political, and other problems assume new. aspects and it is only through the improvement of education that these could find satis­ factory solutions. We in our country; on the other hand, do not seem to be keenly apprehensive of the condition of our educational institutions. Our leaders have not been deeply disturbed by the poor educational perform­ ance of our youth in general. We do not seem to be wor­ ried over the large number of young men and women who finish the high school and even the college course without knowing enough of the subjects they are sup­ posed to have taken. We do not seem to mind that many of these graduates do not even know how to read with comprehension or to do mul­ tiplication and division. Our attention is absorbed in poli­ tics and elections. Even these reflect the low educational level of most of our electo­ rate. Issues are absent. The struggle for public offices is carried out on the basis of personal attacks, exposure of private faults, and accusa­ tions of alleged moral delin­ quencies and puerile compari­ sons of individual school achievements. While we should elect only the able and the honest to public posts, it is sheer childishness and po­ litical immaturity to have oneself elected by an appeal to personal prejudice and hatred of one candidate against another. Democracy is not intended for the illite­ rate, the moron, and the fee­ ble minded. Neither is it in­ tended, for the sage and the philosopher alone. It is in­ 10 Panorama tended for the man who is sufficiently educated so that he can with understanding, appreciate whatever is excel­ lent in life, and is able and willing to use his mind and do his own choosing. To keep and maintain it, the people should worry about educa­ tion, superior education. Coming now to the causes that have retarded our educ a t i o n a 1 development as pointed out by competent ob­ servers, we should mention first of all the defective cur­ riculum of our schools in gen­ eral. It is defective not in its quantitative aspect but in its superabundance of subjects and activities, some good, others indifferent, and still others useless. Too many sub­ jects clog and confuse the mind of the student, produc­ ing what might amount to something like mental suffo­ cation. Without going into the de­ tails of the solution of this problem, all I can say at this moment is that the improve­ ment of the curriculum calls for a reduction of the num­ ber of subjects it contains to those that are most essential in developing the power to understand and to think ac­ cording to the different stages of a ‘person’s intellec­ tual maturity. As all men and women of experience know, no more effective way of learning is the process of taking one. thing at a time. Concentration is needed in every task and activity that requires mental or physical effort. For this reason the British scholar and mathe­ matician, Alfred North Whitehead, made this signifi­ cant statement: “In all mo­ dern educational reforms the watchword must be concen­ tration” The improvement of the curriculum therefore is best achieved by limiting its content to the basic sub­ jects needed for the cultiva­ tion of the intellectual com­ petence of the student. For we should all understand that education does not con­ sist in the accumulation of more information in one’s memory, but rather in learn­ ing how to think and how to arrive at pertinent conclu­ sions. While we need mate­ rials which are necessary in the process of thinking, and while it is necessary that such materials be of high quality, their acquisition may be easily left to the mind that has learned how to learn. Superior education is not possible without superior teachers. Our educational problem has reached a criti­ OCTOBER 1961 11 cal stage simply because the great majority of our schools and colleges have not had a sufficient number of wellqualified teachers. A large proportion of the teachers now employed in our schools are not competent enough to produce good students. They are graduates of schools of education that emphasize me­ thods of teaching and pay scant attention to learning subject matter. It is quite ob­ vious that one cannot give what he does not have, no matter how much he knows the method of giving. The good teacher should not only have the know-how but also the know-what and the knowwhy. It goes without saying that to improve the education of our youth good teachers are indispensable. To produce them there is need for change and modification in the sys­ tem of education for our tea­ chers. Consequently, some time and much effort are needed before we could hope to transform our educational institutions today into cen­ ters adequately equipped to improve the quality of the instruction for our youth. The improvement of the cur­ riculum is not as difficult as raising the quality of instructon. The curriculum does not work automatically. Without well qualified teachers, the curriculum is of very little use. The third cause of the de­ terioration of the educational performance of our students proceeds from the character, the habits, and the attitudes of a large portion of our youth. The general complaint of our teachers and profes­ sors in our university is that a large number of our stu­ dents do not study; they do not spend enough time to pre­ pare their lessons before com­ ing to class. Study is work, mental work. There are times when I feel that this aversion on the part of our students to men­ tal work might be attributa­ ble to the idea propagated by some educationists that work experience is gained only through manual work and physical exertion. There are moments when I suspect that this aversion to mental effort on the part of many students. especially those coming from the public schools, might be the effect of the so-called activity me­ thod which stresses the prag­ matic principle of learning by doing and even by play­ ing. Professor Brand Blanshard of Yale University commenting on this princi12 Panorama pie stated: “We are all prag­ matists from five to ten. But I am inclined to think that a person who is still a prag­ matist at forty is suffering from arrested development. A person who limits the fruits of the spirit to those that that can be tested in action is not so much freeing himself from older dogmaticism as fettering himself by a new one.” And I should add that education is a fruit of the spirit. The development of the mind is not something that can take place by the mere presence of a good teacher, by the mere possession oi proper books and other nistructional materials, by the mere attendance of the stu­ dents in the classroom, and to wait for the teacher to pour the precious liquid of knowledge into his empty brain, after which he could go out and be ready to pour the needed amount of learn­ ing into the job he has se­ lected for himself or into the problem he meets in life. Education is more like a pro­ cess of developing the mus­ cles or of building up the skill of a prospective athlete so that he could win a prize or at least make a good showing in a contest. To repeat, many of our students today come to their classes without spending even an hour in preparing their lessons. And there are many among us parents who complain when their sons and daughters have to observe class schedules that demand even only a modicum amount of preparation or else flunk in their subjects. This is a problem that serious-minded educators and responsible ci­ tizens of our country should frankly face; and they should welcome gladly every re­ quirement prescribed for its solution. For it involves more than the mere fulfillment of academic duties. It involves the fundamental need of dev­ eloping the habit of work, di­ ligence, persistence, and the quality of moral stamina and even physical endurance. It is this dicipline of work, purposeful wor-k? that quality education requires and en­ courages. That is why quality education inevitably pro­ duces men of character, not weaklings, persons of integ­ rity, not drones, parasites, or grafters. These problems have faced our Board of National Edu­ cation in its work of plan­ ning a program of educa­ tional improvement suitable to the needs of our nation. OCTOBBK 1961 is After the completion of the survey of our public schools undertaken by the mixed group of American and Fi­ lipino educators I refered to a while ago, the Board creat­ ed a committee in May, I9­ 60, to study the possibility of reorganizing the entire Philippine educational sys­ tem. That committee met practically every week from July, 1960 until April, 1961, when it rendered its final report to the Board. The membership of the commit­ tee consisted of ranking of­ ficials from the Department of Education, the University of the Philippines, and out­ standing citizens in business. It was assisted by members of the staff of the Bureau of Public Schools and of the Colleges of Education, Arts and Sciences, and Engineer­ ing of the University of the Philippines. Its report has been widely published in the different newspapers of this city. The suggestions and re­ commendations embodied in it have been appreciated by persons interested in the im­ provement of our education­ al system and by the press in general. We do not have the time to discuss them in detail at this moment. I shall therefore mention but very briefly the general objectives and the overall organization of the educational system proposed. The present organizational setup of the elementary school consisting of a four-year pri­ mary and a two-year inter­ mediate curriculum is pre­ served. The reason is that it is an urgent obligation under our Constitution for the gov­ ernment to provide at least free primary instruction and that the actual government budget for the support of our public schools is so li­ mited that to comply with this constitutional mandate it is imperative that unneces­ sary prolongation of the ele­ mentary curriculum should be avoided. The objective of elementary education is to produce functional literacy. The goal of secondary edu­ cation is intelligent citizen­ ship. A basic secondary school of three years is pro­ posed, offering a rounded cur­ riculum of general education which covers only the essen­ tial subjects needed by the in­ telligent citizen. The basic secondary school serves two purposes: One is to provide a terminal course for all those who may not wish to continue their studies. The other is to serve as a foun­ dation for two distinct cours­ es, namely, the collegiate sec­ 14 Panorama ondary course and the voca­ tional secondary course. The collegiate secondary course, as well as the voca­ tional secondary course, ex­ tends over a period of two years. The collegiate second­ ary course serves as a prepa­ ration for college work. The vocational secondary course is intended for the training of moderately skilled work­ ers and craftsmen. For those who desire to improve them­ selves further, an additional two years of vocational courses are offered, leading to the training of technicians or more highly skilled crafts­ men. Then for those who de­ sire to become teachers in vo­ cational schools or to develop themselves into technologists, an additional course of two years in higher technical training is suggested. The courses for colleges embody two important fea­ tures. One is the reduction of the number of required subjects to the essentials in mathematics, the natural sciences, humanities, and so­ cial sciences. The aim is to develop the power to think, to improve the ability to make relevant judgments, as well as to enhance a person’s liberal education. The second feature of the suggested col­ lege curriculum is flexibility; The purpose of this is to give the authorities of a college a greater degree of freedom in adopting additional ' courses that they might consider val­ uable. To raise standards of uni­ versity education, the com­ mittee suggests that for an institution to be recognized as a university, it must have post graduate courses in na­ tural science, social science, and the humanities; and that it should have at least two thirds of the members of its faculty serving as full-time professors exclusively for the university. Dr. James B. Conant, for­ mer President of Harvard University, not very long ago declared that educational practices are not exportable commodities. Hence, every country should adopt its sys­ tem and its methods of edu­ cation that are best suited to its social conditions, its his­ torical traditions, and its va­ ried needs. The validity of these ideas is beyond doubt. But we have, unfortunately in our country, ignored them by adopting a system of edu­ cation which is a mere imi­ tation or image of the Am­ erican educational system. That system has its good points but it must have some very poor points otherwise, October 1961 15 the American leaders, as I stated previously, would not have been so apprehensive about improving them. It is high time that we should es­ tablish a system of educa­ tion suitable to us as a dis­ tinct people, with limited financial resources, with problems peculiar to our own conditions. We should not forget, however, that in many * * ways education is universal in character. Therefore, we need to discover and to learn whatever is good in the edu­ cational ideas of other coun­ tries; then we should import them, if necessary, not, how­ ever, through a system of adoption but through a pro­ cess of adaptation. Thus we may be able to enrich and develop our own. * NEW BLOOD TEST FOR BODY DISEASES A simple blood test for diseases of the heart, liver and other body organs based on the iden­ tification of enzyme “fingerprints” was described at a recent meeting of the American Chemical So­ ciety. The test depends on LDH (lactic dehydro­ genase), an enzyme that regulates several im­ portant chemical processes in the body, accord­ ing to medical authorities. LDH occurs in five distinct forms caled isoenzymes, which appear in different proportions in different organs. Clinical tests indicate that when an organ is damaged it releases enzymes into the blood stream. “impress­ ing its LDH isoenzyme pattern on the blood, like an identifiable fingerprint,” the authorities ex­ plained. Blood tests can. therefore, serve to identify an injured organ, and they are especially suitable for the detection of heart and liver damaae be­ cause these LDH patterns differ markedly in their resistance to heat. A larae amount of LDH destroyed by heatinq a sample of the blood se­ rum at a relatively low temperature indicates li­ ver disease while a large proportion of lactic de­ hydrogenase stable at a relatively high tempera­ ture indicates heart damage. 16 Panorama MASONRY AND THE REVOLUTION Teodoro A. Agoncillo asonry played a signifi*** cant role in the Revolu­ tion. It was through Mason­ ry that the propaganda activ­ ities against the injustices, immorality and brutality of the authorities were directed. Realizing the need for con­ certed action in the parlia­ mentary struggle, the fiery Graciano Lopez Jaena found­ ed lodge Revolution in Barlona, on April 1, 1889. It was exclusively for and by Fili­ pinos. But it was, however, short-lived. The following year; lodge La Solidaridad was founded and the affi­ liates of . the defunct Revolu­ tion transferred to the new lodge. The Filipino Masons, among them Jose Rizal, Mar­ celo H. del Pilar, Graciano Lopez Jaena, Antonio Luna, Pedro Serrano Laktaw and others were responsible for introducing to the Cortes pieces of legislation that would benefit the Philip­ pines. Up to 1890, the Maso­ nic activities that were tied up with the Philippine pro­ blem were restricted within the Peninsula. A year later, however, An­ tonio Luna and Serrano Lak­ taw returned to the Philip­ pines to. establish masonic October 1961 17 lodges. Conferring with Moi­ ses A. Salvador and Jose Ra­ mos, Serrano Laktaw decid­ ed that it was propitious to introduce lodges as the arm for political action. Lodge Nilad was consequently founded on January 6, 1891. The Gran Oriente Espahol officially recognized it on March 10, 1892. Like all the intellectuals of the period, the Masons cla­ mored for reforms in the ad­ ministration of the govern­ ment. There was not even a hint of revolt in their actions or speeches. Everybody want­ ed the Philippines to be a province of Spain under which the Filipinos, as Spa­ nish citizens, would enjoy the rights and privileges of Spa­ niards. What may be termed “revolutionary”, in the eyes of the Spanish authorities, was the unexpected call for reforms. Thus, the Masons prepared their platform on the issue of peaceful reforms: It is the eight million people who have been, for the duration of three centuries, under tyranni­ cal oppression. The social life they lead is destitute of freedom; the natives have no right of associa­ tion; they have no tri­ bune where they could express their needs ... And with respect to their individual life, the Filipi­ nos have not, as in other countries, the security against the abuses of the authorities, and for this reason, the ... secret de­ portation of reputable persons has been repeat­ edly perpetrated upon the notorious instigation of the friars, x x x We want a regime of democracy, a genuine and effective autonomy of the individual as against the enslaving pre­ tensions of an ambition that nourishes its life by absorbing the rights of the people and waters its happiness with the tears of the needy. We want a good gov­ ernment and a good ad­ ministration. We want our country to have the right to be represented in the Cor­ tes: not a single Repre­ sentative or Senator is defending its interests in the Spanish Parliament. Its government is depen­ dent upon the Overseas Minister .who, by and for himself, legislates and governs the Philippines through Royal Orders, while in Manila the Gov­ ernor-General executes 18 Panorama and annuls the order of the Ministers. We want our country declared a province of Spain, with all the rights and obligations. In a word, we want reforms, reforms, reforms. Considering the time and temper of the period, the Ma­ sonic platform was bold. But precisely because of its bold­ ness, the secret movement reached the masses and. even­ tually, the Spanish authori­ ties. Thinking men and wo­ men, isolated by the intoler­ ance of the authorities and the friars, found consolation in Masonry. Up to May 1893, the Masonic lodges number­ ed thirty-five, nine of which were in Manila. But Masonry in the Philip­ pines was not intended to be a political arm. It was prima­ rily a propaganda machine designed to work for re­ forms and to denounce ab­ uses, corruption, brutalities, and injustices committed by the Spanish authorities on the hapless people. This func­ tion of Masonry was clearly expressed by Marcelo H. del Pilar in his letter to Juan Zulueta : The Peninsular Mason­ ry is a means of propa­ ganda for us. If the Ma­ sons there [in the Philip­ pines] intend to make Masonry an organ of ac­ tion for our ideals, they make a serious mistake. What is needed is a spe­ cial organization devoted especially to the Filipino cause; and although its members, or some of them, may be Masons, they must not depend upon Masonry. It was the timidity of the intellectuals, most of whom were Masons, that led An­ dres Bonifacio, also a Mason belonging to lodge Taliba, to found the revolutionary Kapunan. Some Masons join­ ed Bonifacio in his new un­ dertaking, among them Jose Dizon, Jose Turiano Santiago, and Emilio Aguinaldo. It must be emphasized that the Katipunan was not a Maso­ nic society, although some of its members were Masons. This is important in view of the fact that the Spanish au­ thorities accused Masonry of having been the “brains” of the Katipunan and the ini­ tiator of the Revolution and, therefore, of the separatist movement. Thus, the Over­ seas Minister, writing to the Governor-General of the Philippines on April 4, 1895, said that “an alarm exists here about the separatist work in That Archipelago October 1961 19 through Masonic propaganda that excludes all Spaniards and is directed exclusively by natives. I request Your Ex­ cellency to inform me hourly of this, and, if true, to re­ double the vigilance and to issue necessary orders to the [provincial] governors.” It cannot be doubted, how­ ever, that Masonry left its imprint on the Katipunan. For the initiation rites of this secret society were based on those of Masonry. Its struc­ ture, however, was based on that of La Liga Filipina, most of whose members were Ma­ sons, namely, Jose Rizal, Timoteo Paez, Jose Ramos, Moises Salvador, Apolinario Mabini, Bonifacio Arevalo, Numeriano Adriano, and oth­ ers. It is perhaps for this rea­ son — namely, that many Masons were affiliated with the Liga and the Katipunan — that the Spanish author­ ities thought of linking Ma­ sonry with the separatist movement. Masonry was in fact condemned as “infernal” and the “workshop where hatred for Spain and the Spaniards was cast.” The charge was, of course, as sil­ ly and preposterous as the contemporary charges of “communistic” or “commu­ nist-inspired” directed by paid stooges at those who disagree with them or those whose opinions do not square with their wild specula­ tions and parochial views. For Masonry in the Philip­ pines, as I have pointed out earlier, stood for reforms and never for independence. ID ut why did Masonry flourish, ramify and make converts throughout the Philippines during the last decade of the Spanish regime? The answer lies in the condition of the time and place. There was no freedom to speak of. Its meaning had been negative during the three centuries of Spanish rule: freedom to be exploited ruthlessly, freedom to remain ignorant and superstitious, freedom to be confused, and freedom to be brutalized. Wherever and whenever courageous men are found, there they seek release from this negative freedom —if there is such a thing — and join hands to forge a potent weapon in their struggle for self-expression. The early Christians suffered heroical­ ly all the indignities and in­ justices of the Roman em: perors and their underlings. But, searching for freedom, they went underground, join­ ed forces with other victims of oppression, and fought 20 Panorama their battles with results that are today common know­ ledge. And so with the Filipinos of the last decade of the nine­ teenth century. Led by Ma­ sons, they closed ranks, went underground, and fought, first, a war of propaganda, and then, a war of emanci­ pation. With the “Cry” that reverberated through the hills of Pugadlawin and Pasong Tamo, the dawn of a new era streaked in the Phil­ ippine sky and showered light where there was dark­ ness. With a bit of pardonable exaggeration, one may safely say that Philippine Masonry and the Revolution were re­ lated to each other. For the men who shouldered the res­ ponsibilities of the Republic at Malolos, both in the ad­ ministration and in the field, were Masons — from Presi­ dent Emilio Aguinaldo down to his Cabinet Ministers and field commanders: Apolinario Mabini, Gracio Gonzaga, Baldomero Aguinaldo, Am­ brosio Flores, Vicente Lukban, Mariano Llanera, Boni­ facio Arevalo, and Timoteo Paez. Viewing the revolution from this perspective, it may be said to have been the child of Philippine Masonry — an unwanted child per­ haps, but a legitimate child nonetheless. The men who carried on the burden of the propaganda—which was in­ tended to bring about re­ forms but which, contrary to their expections, resulted in a national blood bath — were Masons, men who were steeped in the lore of demo­ cratic ways, men who were sensitive to the pulse of changing mores. And Andres Bonifacio, the founder and the guiding spirit of the Ka­ tipunan, carried over the symbols of Masonry to the Society and breathed into it Masonry’s climate of free­ dom. October 1961 21 * * * TABLETS FOR WASHING YOUR HANDS '‘Pulia” is the tracle-mark of tablets for wash­ ing your hands, manufactured by Messrs. Puhi & Co. of Berlin. You take one tablet into your hand, add a little water, and squeeze the tablet. The resulting pulp is used for washing your hands, as if it were soap. The tablets remove even coarse dirt. Pocket-size packages are available. economic ^dvanceme Pio Pedrosa CThe strongest motivation * that animated President Quezon’s public life was Fili­ pino national self-assertion. It can hardly be said that there was an instance in his pub­ lic career that was not ins­ pired by the wish to advance the country and our people on the road to dignified, res­ pected and self-respecting nationhood. No one in our generation is unfamiliar with the antecedents of our poli­ tical emancipation. I believe he did not consider indepen­ dence his ultimate aim. On a par with winning the free­ dom and civil liberties of the people was his deep pre­ occupation for their preser­ vation through upliftment of their social and economic status. The two objectives were to him interacting. In­ dependence was the environ­ ment in which social pro­ gress could best be promo­ ted. In an atmosphere of free­ dom alone he thought could the people’s genius for self­ realization be nurtured. On the other hand, internal peace and the integrity of the national sovereignty would have been unstable, political independence could have been but a sham, if the country did not rest on firm foundations of the economic well-being of the people. ‘‘There are countries,” he said once, “that are nominally indepen­ dent but which in effect are under foreign rule. There are still others which have in theory and in fact national independence but whose peo­ ples know no freedom ex­ cept the freedom to starve, the freedom to be silent, the freedom to be jailed, or the freedom to be shot.” The task of improving the economic position of the peo­ ple is always one of great magnitude. The need in our case for its dedicated pur­ suit, President Quezon fore­ saw, would be a long, con­ tinuous endeavor. To insure that the promotion of gene22 Panorama ut and Social justice ral well-being and economic security should be a perma­ nent duty and obligation of government in the future, he made social justice a declara­ tion of paramount principle of the Constitution. The wis­ dom of this mandate is today as of unquestioned validity as it was in his time. In our rural areas, in our barrios and country-sides, the main problem still revolves around the crushing havoc of pover­ ty: the destruction of morale and the frustrations of mil-' lions that find nothing to do, the inroads on vitality by the pangs of permanent hunger, the hopelessness of meagerly rewarding perfunctory toil, the inevitably high and tra­ gic incidence of early death. These seemed to be the char­ acteristic earmarks of our rural community way of life. President Quezon was res­ tive for economic growth. De­ generation should not have been the attribute of the peo­ ple he was leading into free­ dom, into membership in the circle of the progressive peo­ ples of the world. He plan­ ned and carried out an ac­ celerated program of that growth. The first requisites were fiscal and monetary stability. These he achieved. At the same time he caused measures to be taken that would enable the people to share in their life-times the. opportunities for obtaining more nutritious food, better shelter, healthier surround­ ings, more dependable secu­ rity for their future. He as­ pired for them the necessi­ ties and amenities of culture, of decent civilized living. These were the material in­ gredients of human self-res­ pect and national dignity. To­ day, we could ask how far forward the mandate of so­ cial justice he inscribed so indelibly in the Constitution has been carried into effect, to what extent the promo­ tion of the well-being of the people as a prime obligation of government has been ad­ vanced. It would manifestly be un­ realistic, unjustifiably dero­ gatory, to deny or belittle the material advance achiev­ ed in the county’s economic pursuits of the last fifteen OCTGBBR 1961 23 years. Substantial progress has been made in agricultu­ ral production, in industrial expansion and diversification, in domestic and internation­ al trade, in capital formation, in technical and entrepreneural progress, in the utili­ zation of technological and scientific processes. All econo­ mic indicators attest to the peceptively even if slowly and haltingly improving standard of living of our people. We know that our masses in the rural areas are still eking out the barest subsist­ ence, beggars are scavenging the night garbage dumps of the cities. Criminality against property is rampant, doors and windows of dwellings have to be grilled in iron and steel. Men begging for bread, or scrounging dirty rice sweepings, or forced by hun­ ger to steal bananas are shot dead. Public services may not be availed of in many places except upon bribery. Tax ad­ ministration is often an ins­ trument of blackmail and inti­ midation. Business enterprise must purchase influence or pay tong for obtaining license to operate. Lives and proper­ ty may not be saved in con­ flagrations except upon sub­ mittal to extortion. Usury is rampant, oppressive interest rates are legalized, credit fa­ cilities to increase production in the rural areas have been proselytized to political ends. It is perhaps beyond possi­ bility that criminality will be entirely suppressed. There will always be a certain am­ ount of human perverseness, of sub-normal psychosis, of moral and spiritual delin­ quency below heaven. On the other hand, we can not ex­ tenuate blame for ourselves when we permit the perpe­ tuation of conditions which make us all callous to the pervasive degeneracy into which our institutions have fallen. We are not without responsibility for a society that denies to fellow citizens the opportunities to earn a livelihood other than to beg and scrounge and steal. Economists talk about per capita income as the measure by which the state of well­ being can be gauged. Per ca­ pita income is the total na­ tional income divided by the number of the popula­ tion. The national income, as you know, is the aggregate earnings of labor, manage­ ment, property, and capital in current production. This average is supposed to re­ ject the economic status of the people. It is not an abso­ lutely correct index, how­ 24 Panorama ever. It takes no account of little islands of luxury and wealth happy unto them­ selves on a vast ocean of rest­ lessness and misery. Be that as it may, ours in the Philip­ pines is not a very impres­ sive national or per capita income. The per capita in­ comes in Malaya, Hongkong, North Borneo, Japan, and Singapore, — to mention a few in our immediate neigh­ borhood, are higher than in ours, which is less than P400.00. Parenthetically, if we would wish to regale our­ selves with what we can call consuelo de bobo, our per ca­ pita income is higher than that in many countries of Asia, Europe, Africa and South America. The larger among these, China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, and seve­ ral of the Soviet republics and satellites, with popula­ tions aggregating almost onehalf of the human race, have their tremendous masses wal­ lowing in more dreadful po­ verty and misery. In spite of misconceptions per capita income figures can create as yardsticks of eco­ nomic development, they are useful as an index for regis­ tering the results of planned measures carried out to in­ crease the national produc­ tion. The success or failure of any program to combat poverty can be determined in a general manner by the re­ sulting comparative per ca­ pita incomes registered year after year. Disregarding dis­ tribution distortions, an in­ creasing per capita income is a sign of growth. It is an indication of increased na­ tional production. It reflects a diminution of the ravages of poverty and disease. It points to an improvement of the standard of living of the people. Therefore the only formu­ la there is for eradicating poverty, for advancing the standard of living, — if we might restate it, — is produc­ tion. And it must be produc­ tion that should outstrip the growth as well as the grow­ ing needs of the population. Planning for production ex­ pansion and growth could, consequently, take as a spe­ cific goal a predetermined per capita income at a pre­ specified future. If our per capita income now is P400.00, the tempo of productive ac­ tivity could conceivably be quickened to increase that fi­ gure to, say P800.00 five or ten years from now. That could be the target of the new production effort. Then the next step would be to harness the requisite tools October 1961 25 and factors of production and gear their use in that direc­ tion. The instrumentality that coordinates these tools, these factors, and lines them up together into a driving force that pushes the pro­ ductive power forward is bu­ siness enterprise. Without business enterprises produc­ tion is an impossibility. Busi­ ness enterprise, however, inevitably must operate un­ der systems of governmental, monetary, fiscal and other statutory rules or regulations. These rules and regulations can help the productive pro­ cesses to move ahead. They can also hold them back. Rules and regulations ob­ struct business enterprise by curtailing the full and bene­ ficial utilization of the re­ sources contituting the tools and factors of production. When they do, they obstruct not business enterprise alone, they obstruct production it­ self. To the extent that such obstruction exists, the effort to eradicate poverty, to push forward the promotion of so­ cial justice, to improve the well-being of the people is correspondingly halted and stalled. These rules and re­ gulations are thus the deter­ minants of the climate and the environment in which business enterprise will eith­ er fail or succeed in the rea­ lization of the national ob­ jectives of expanding pro­ duction, improving consump­ tion, lessening the ravages of poverty, raising the standard of living of the masses of our people. The aims of the constitutional mandate to promote social justice and economic amelioration are subserved depending upon whether these rules are regu­ lations are constructive or obstructive. We can not go into a de­ tailed analysis of many of the various roadblocks to production business enter­ prise must reckon with to­ day. Offhand, we must give credit to the general effort exerted towards loosening the reins that have held back the productive processes. There has been such effort. But we could have been more consistent, less contra­ dictory and less self-defeat­ ing. We expand the money supply, we ease production financing, we expand govern­ mental deposits in the bank­ ing system. Yet we syphon off the same money supply and tighten credit with the continued imposition of prem­ ium fees in the sales of for­ eign exchange and with the immobilization of large vol­ umes of the monetary cir­ culation stashed by govern­ ment banks in inactive gov­ 26 Panorama ernment securities. We adopt ostensible measures to ban the importation of luxuries, but we refuse to curtail the unbridled activities of favor­ ed individuals by the contin­ uance of the barter system on a non-selective industry basis. We are encouraging domestic production for selfsufficiency of consumption staples, foodstuffs and com­ modities, yet we are bringing ruin to local industrial in­ vestments by indiscriminate and unnecessary licensing of imports of competing com­ modities of foreign produc­ tion. We subsidize the im­ portation of rice at the rate of one peso per dollar, which goes to the foreign rice farm­ er and importer, in order, it is said, that imported rice might be sold at P0.85. If we did little more than pay lip­ promises of encouragement to domestic rice production, we could have paid that peso to the Filipino rice farmer and he could also have produced rice to sell at P0.85. We are loud in our protestations of welcome to foreign invest­ ments, but we harass even those who have made signal contributions with their past investments to the develop­ ment of our economy. We try to attract visitors to visit our shores, but we mulct them when they come, we discourage provision for their safety and comfort by sub­ mitting attraction policies to the veto power of vested in­ terests. We want the foreign exchange income augmented to achieve a healthy balance of payments position, but we promulgate rules and regula­ tions on exports, on foreign loans and investments, on earnings remittances, on ca­ pital repatriations, and on others that scare the entry of foreign exchange or faci­ litate the stashing of the pro­ ceeds of overshipments and of excess valuations of im­ ports in foreign depositories. We adopt patriotic shibboleths that would emphasize coun­ try first, forgetting President Quezon’s admonition that we can not isolate ourselves from the rest of mankind, because such slogans become conven­ ient for serving self first, self second and self all the time. We announce economic development programs but af­ ter their promulgation we forget them and go back to compromise and accommoda­ tion. We pass laws to shield policy-making bodies so they could function in the gen­ eral interest of the nation, but we break down the de­ fenses against political inter­ vention and allow politics to guide policy implementation. We make a great show havOCTOBER 1961 27 -ing adopted plans to return to free enterprise but the results have been to favor groups with windfalls from our debased currency. We all know, however, that the situation is not without hope. The spirit of dedica­ tion to social justice and the mandate bequeathed to us to labor incessantly for the eco­ nomic upliftment of our po­ verty-stricken people can not be lost when vigilant organ­ izations like Rotary, dedicat* ♦ ed to service to fellow-men, with identical inspirations as those that animated Pres­ ident Quezon, take a day like this to remember his memo­ ry. In paying tribute to him, we can not but remember also the people in whose be­ half he spent himself. In spite of all our present frus­ trations and difficulties, his labors and self-sacrifices have not been wasted on them; they have not, in the words of the Apostle, been sterile in them. * NEW PAINT MEETS DEMANDS OF NUCLEAR SUBMARINE U.S. technicians have developed the first in­ terior paint to meet the demands of the nuclear submarine. The new coating, an acrylic latex, is practically free of air pollutants that would ser­ iously restrict submergence time of the vessel, according to Donald E. Field, a chemist of the US Naval Research Laboratory. The paint loses 95 per cent of its fumes within 24 hours after appli­ cation and releases the rest in harmless amounts. Extended drying periods that can keep sub­ marines out of action in an emergency are eli­ minated by the new formulation which dries in 20 minutes. It can be used 'for both bulkhead and deck applications and “does not constitute a health hazard to the crew if used during sea ope­ ration,” Field revealed. In a 26-day test on the USS Triton, the paint compared favorably with enamel in gloss and dirt resistance, and it was superior in ease of application and freedom from odor and toxicity. Panorama 28 "JU "SifMptk ScwM" Ritchie Calder The Kalinga Prize for the popularization o f science has been awarded to Ritche Calder, wellknown British science­ writer. He is the ninth winner of the Prize, whose purpose, as stated by its donor, the Indian industrialist Mr. B. Patnaik, is to offer recogni­ tion to leading interpret­ ers of science and also to strengthen links between India and scientists of all nations. Mr. Calder, who is 54, has been science editor off the News Chronicle and of the New Statesman and Nation. He is Profes­ sor of International Rela­ tions at Edinburgh Uni­ versity. His fifteen books on scientific subjects ranging from medicine to the struggle for life in the Arctic have been transla­ ted into a dozen lang­ uages. ------- 0O0-------The tools of my trade as a science-writer have been — apart from a typewriter — three questions: “What are you doing?” “How are you doing it?” and “Why are you doing it?” With patience on the part of the scientist and patience on the part of the inquisitor, there are few things in science, however apparently abstruse or novel or difficult, which cannot be explained in comprehensible terms. One of the major difficul­ ties is the terminology—the jargon of science. The scient­ ists in the various branches and disciplines of science October 1961 29 have invented their own language of convenience. Where once the terms were descriptive they are now cryptic—sometimes one feels that like the code-names for military operations, they have been deliberately in­ vented to mislead and, like the sign-language of the me­ dieval crafts, designed to pre­ serve the inner mysteries for the few. ... What the scien­ tist, who in the restricted company of his colleagues uses them as common-place terms, does not always rea­ lize is that such words are like index cards; to him they convey a whole filing-cabinet full of meaning, but he for­ gets that others do not have access to that filing-cabinet. This is, also, inevitable. With the proliferation of science, the scientist is entitled to his “language of convenience” but he must, when necessary, define those terms. A cen­ tury ago, any man of science was intelligible to any edu­ cated man; terms had a com­ mon-root etymological mean­ ing and in that sense were descriptive. Today, I repeat, they are cryptic. I have sometimes described myself as a “babelologist”, a student of that babel of tongues which is science. I also boast that I am an ex­ pert on experts — one who knows to whom to turn for the information one has not got. In that I personify the science-reporter, who is the trustee for the common man for whom he seeks enlighten­ ment in the common tongue; who never relies on what he knows but turns to the ex­ pert sources for current guid­ ance; and who does not make ihe mistake which many aca­ demics do of confusing ig­ norance with lack of intelli­ gence. I have, after thirty years of trying to explain science, a reinforced confi­ dence in the capacity of or­ dinary people to grasp what is made intelligible, provided that their interest has been enlisted and their imagina­ tions illumined. But that af­ ter all is surely the essence of all good teaching. The crisis of our times is the breakdown of communi­ cations — not just in the sense of political barriers, but in this all-important area of science. Our lives, our hopes, and our survival de­ pend upon the uses which are made of science. To pro­ gress, we have to use scien­ tific knowledge and discove­ ry to its utmost advantage. Science, in the advanced countries, is developing so fast that it is almost impos30 Panorama sible to keep pace with the knowledge—and the gadgets —which are aggregating. I believe that some 3,000,000 original scientific papers a year are published. No one can compass so much infor­ mation. .. One set of scien­ tists does not know what an­ other set is doing, and yet there may be an important affinity which may be of ma­ terial value to mankind. There are too few commu­ nicators within science and the bridges are broken be­ tween the humanities and science. Those who have to make the social judgements about science have usually no scientific training—worse, their own education makes them feel that anything which involves such inten­ sive training is beyond their comprehension and that they must “rely on the expert”. But there is little in the train­ ing of the scientist, preoccu­ pied with all that has to be learned in his own subject, which gives him the capacity for social judgements. We are in danger of being sub­ jected to the tyranny of the experts — faceless men at the elbows of the uninstruct­ ed. They are not tyrants by disposition but by our de­ fault. How are we to teach peo­ ple enough about science to allow them to make judge­ ments, to decide priorities, and to see that science, with all its potential for good or evil, is directed to the ad­ vantage of mankind. How much more resources and at­ tention should we be giving to the problems of this pla­ net on which 4,000,000,000 people will have to contrive to live 20 years from now? Is space adventure more im­ portant than the food and po­ pulation problem, for in­ stance? And how, with all the spectacular advances of today, can we close the wi­ dening gap between the prosperity of the scientifical­ ly-advanced countries and the impoverished ones? Without arrogating to the science-writer all the wisdom of the world, it is true that he has the opportunity for better undestanding. He is a “synoptic scientist”; he tra­ vels across the advancing fronts of all branches of science and can see, at first hand and in survey, what preoccupied scientists cannot see for themselves and what men-of-affairs can never see panoramically. His job is to pass that knowledge on — either along the line of science or to the public. He OCTOMR 1961 31 TWO NEW MUSCLE RELAXING COMPOUNDS REVEALED Two new muscle relaxing compounds, said to be five times as potent in animal tests as mephenesin, a presently used relaxant, have been developed in the United States. The new chemi­ cals, based on the compound pyrimidine, block muscle activity by 80 to 100 per cent, according to Dr. Donald E. Heitmeier, a senior organic che­ mist at Irwin, Neisler and Company in Decatur, Illinois. Besides their muscle relaxing ability, they are sedatives comparable to the barbiturate drugs and also have hypnotic properties, he said. They have not yet been clinically tested. Muscle relaxants are used to depress body reflexes during surgery and to treat spasms asso­ ciated with certain forms of paralysis. The new drugs, resulting from chemical changes in phenyramidol, whicli, is both an analgesic and a mus­ cle relaxant, showed “marked enhancement of centrally induced muscle relaxant properties, a sharp reduction in analaesic activity and the ap­ pearance of strong, sedative-hypnotic properties,” Dr. Heitmeier told a recent meeting of the Am­ erican Chemical Society. * * is, by the accident of his trade as a collector and dis­ seminator, the prototype of what should exist in acade­ mic and public life, the com­ municator of information on which judgements can be made. In his own working life, his function is to con­ vey to the mass of people the facts about science, but also to convey an interpreta­ tion of the social implica* tions of new developments. I know that many of my colleagues think that they should confine themselves to description and explanations and leave the value judge­ ments to others. I disagree profoundly. Our access to in­ formation. our point of van­ tage on the scientific scene, give us responsibilities which, in the present situation, we must not shirk. — (tjnesco) 32 Panorama THE CHALLENGE OF FIDELISMO Hernando Abaya Tt is now about six months A since the CIA-trained Cu­ ban “freedom fighters” land­ ed on the Bay of Pigs. In the agonizing post-mortem on what is now known as the Cuban fiasco, all the bones have been dug up with pain­ staking thoroughness by the American and the rest of the world press. Yet the confu­ sion and ignorance over Cu­ ba has continued to hound us, and the implications of jidelismo on the vast under­ developed areas of Asia, Af­ rica and Latin America have remained vague and incom­ prehensible to most of us. It is little surprising that a Ma­ nila newspaper of vast pre­ tensions can still refer to the 26th of July Movement as “the biggest hoax and crud­ est betrayal yet perpetrated on the Cuban people” without so much as drawing a line of perceptive comment from any of its readers. Yet this “hoax” of the Cu­ ban social revolution is such a reality that President Ken­ nedy has been compelled to launch in mid-August his $20 billion “Alliance for Pro­ gress” program of aid to La­ tin America, precisely to wean away the perenially poor and largely illiterate Latin American campesinos from the enticing winds of fidelismo blowing from the Carribean. For Mr. Kennedy sees radical social reform as the best hope of economic progress and political stabili­ ty, not only in Latin Amer­ OCTOBEB 1961 33 ica, but in the other under­ developed areas of Asia and Africa, where the United States must face the relent­ less Soviet challenge to ride the crest of a surging social revolution. Speh political solutions, however, are anathema to the privileged landed gentry and. their foreign backers who have exploited the underdev­ eloped areas of the world. And, as in the case of Latin America, in the apt words of a New Statesman editorial, “a skin of capitalism has been grafted onto a feudal framework, and this ugly and inefficient hybrid — kept alive indeed only by constant injections of dollars and arms — has cannibalised democ­ racy in order to live. The peasants have got neither bread nor votes.” Land reform must come if there is to be any social pro­ gress. There is the immediate challenge that faces the Ken­ nedy Administration. In ef­ fect, how to counter the lure of fidelismo. “It is an image with many faces,” writes The Economist in a special issue on the Latin American Fu­ ture. “At its simplest, it means to millions of Latin Americans that in a remoter but still a sister, country, a man as glamorous as any film star has given land to the poor, rooked the rich, and put gringos in their place. It is a concept that pleases them. The young President and his ebullient corps of Harvard dons now realize only too well that so many Latin Americans are irresisti­ bly drawn towards the lights of fidelismo. And they must offer the Latin Americans a third option which is, in the words of Walter Lippmann, “economic development and social improvement without the totalitarian discipline of Communism”. It is a picture of fidelismo in action that the eminent sociologist, C. Wright Mills, etches in his book Listen, Yankee in an earnest pl§a to his fellow Americans to wake up and listen to the “angry voice” of Castro’s Cuba so that they may not commit “disastrous mistakes of ig­ norance.” This plea, it would seem, was unheeded. About a year later came the Cuban blunder. There were similar pleas from no less eminent sources. Besides Lippmann: Herbert Matthews, Ray Brennen, Jules Dubois, Fred J. Cook, and the liberal weeklies, among others. And there were also the consistently ob­ jective and penetrating stu­ dies in British journals and 34 PANORAMA newspapers like The Econo­ mist, The Manchester Guard­ ian, The Observer, The New Statesman, and the staid Lon­ don Times. By and large, however, the American press simply reneged on its jobs. “In my 30 years on the New York Times,” Matthews told the American Society of Newspaper Editors on April 21, 1960, “I have never seen a big story so misunderstood, so badly handled, and so mis­ interpreted as the Cuban re­ volution.” Mills tries to capture the collective voice of Cuban re­ volutionaries and to express something of their reasons for the revolution and how they feel. about it. He pens his chapters in the form of letters from the Cubans to the Yanqui and spells out the Cuban mood as gleaned from his discussions and in­ terviews with Cubans, from Castro and the intellectuals to the rebel soldier and the lowly peasant, during his month’s stay in Cuba in Au­ gust, 1960. A sociologist, he applies the same searching analysis and uncanny insight that he uses in his now clas­ sic The Power Elite to the story of the Cuban social re­ volution. He delves into the long his­ tory of the colonial exploita­ tion of Cuba, its place in the American dream as a slaver’s haven, the repeated inter­ vention by American Marines on behalf- of the “‘Yankee bankers,” the old order that went out with the “butcher” Batista — “an order of po­ lice terror and grief and po­ verty and disease and illite­ racy and the corrupted poli­ tics of the thief and the ca­ pitalism of the robber.” He tells of the revolution, its be­ ginnings, its leaders, its trials and problems, its ends, its meaning. And he recounts its gains in terms of social reform and political stability — higher literacy, more em­ ployment, rising production, new schools, better homes, lower rents, better food, low­ er prices, and other benefits of an agrarian revolution. The Cubans admit, says Mills, they are influenced by the Soviet Union, just like other peoples in under-developed areas, but they deny they are “under Communist orders.” Their economic deals with the Sino-Soviet block are bu­ siness deals. “We are going to take the help we need from whoever will give it to us.” It is pure McCarthyism, as­ serts Mills, to call Castro and his revolutionaries Khrush­ chev’s stooges. He stresses the fact that the Cubans’ “on­ ly real fear,” their “only real worry,” is the “menace” of October 1961 35 the United States to all their efforts. (The Cuban invasion merely confirms this fear.) He sums up what Cubans want from the United States: “Just let us alone.” Or, sim­ ply: “Nothing.” He under­ scores the problem of Latin America vis-a-vis the United States: So long as U.S. cor­ porations own Latin Amer­ ica’s riches they will control its politics. The beneficiaries of U.S. aid have all been the feudal oligarchies. “Inside Latin America, the U.S. Gov­ ernment has supported reac­ tionary circles and do-noth­ ing ruling strata,” writes Mills. “Its role has generally been and continues to be that of stabilizing their dominion and so the continued sloth. Its aid has been largely to give them arms and other military support, in the name of ‘Hemispheric Defense,’ which has meant defense against their own people.” Harper's Magazine in a re­ view of Listen, Yankee says the message Mills put in the mouth of the Cuban is, in effect, “a piece of propagan­ da — uncritical, emotional, oblivious of the faults of the Castro regime.” This is per­ haps true. Yet it is not so easy to dismiss his document­ ed testimony. For his conclu­ sions are reflected in the main by other competent writers and observers, Amer­ ican and British, in many ar­ ticles and studies written be­ fore and since the Cuban fiasco. Moreover, there is lit­ tle about Castro’s Cuba that has reached us through the American press and other news media that has not turned out to be- propaganda. This explains the failure of intelligence all around on the Cuban fiasco — of the press, of the ICA and other intelligence services, of the diplomatic corps. All these men, to quote The Nation, “seemed to have been fet­ tered by ideological blinkers of the kind that obscure so­ cial, economic and political realities.” The Cuban fiasco was the aftermath of the Big Decep­ tion. Even Mr. Kennedy and his intellectual coterie were taken in. Castro had ranted as early as last December that the United States was preparing an invasion, and he kept at it right up to the eve of the landings, the while beefing up his defenses. The U.S. press ridiculed this claim as a figment of the La­ tin imagination. Yet, from scattered sources had come reports of feverish prepara­ tions in Guatemala and Flo­ rida under the CIA. (These preparations clearly had “the knowledge and consent of 36 Panorama the American government.”) A few other sources may be mentioned. The Hispanic Am­ erican Report described in detail such preparations by Cuban exiles under the CIA in its issue of October, 1960. On information supplied by its editor, The Nation report­ ed on November 19, 1960 the existence in Guatemala of a training base for anti-Castro guerrillas. British journals with competent observers ab­ road similarly sounded the alert. In February, two months before the invasion, The Observer reported: “It is now officially and widely believed by the Cubans that the United States intends to destroy their revolution. They believe that the Central In­ telligence Agency (CIA) in Washington is financing a counter-revolution based on Miami to repeat their Gautemala success of 1954.” The Economist and The New Statesman carried similar re­ ports on the eve of the inva­ sion. For the first time, writes The Economist, in a percep­ tive comment two days be­ fore the invasion, there seem to be grounds for Castro’s re­ peated assertions that Cuba is about to be invaded by counter-revolutionary forces supported by the United States. It notes the publica­ tion of the State Depart­ ment’s White Paper of April 3, 1961 denouncing Cuba “bell, book and candle,” fol­ lowed by the Cuban exiles’ call to arms in New York, and then Mr. Kennedy’s warning a week before the invasion that Castro “would grow more dangerous unless action were taken against him.” So­ lemnly, The Economist says: “If Mr. Kennedy has decided to encourage an attack by the exiles, the United States is entering an extremely dan­ gerous period in its relations with Latin America.” And it adds: “If the invasion (still) fails, it will be a major disaster for the reputation of the United States.” And so it came to pass. The debacle was swift. Without an air umbrella, the invaders did not have a chance. The simultaneous “popular rising” the CIA was sure the land­ ings would touch off simply did not materialize. The Am­ erican failure, and ignominy, was no more sharply drawn than by the unhappy figure of the respected Adlai Ste­ venson denying categorically before the United Nations, in reply to the Cuban delegate’s charges of U.S. intervention, that the United States had had any hand — any hand at all — in the attempt to overthrow Castro! Such October 1961 37 charges, he said, were a tis­ sue of lies delivered “in the jargon of Communism.” Ap­ parently, even he had not been told the truth! The disenchantment among thinking Americans that fol­ lowed in the wake of this de­ bacle is perhaps best express­ ed in what the American stu­ dents at Oxford, including 14 Rhodes scholars, wrote in a letter to the White House: “We had hoped that under the new Adminis­ tration the United States foreign policy would reach a new level of ho­ nesty and good will. We did not expect that our Ambassador to the Unit­ ed Nations would have to resort to deception and evasion; and that our ac­ tions would have to be justified by balancing them against Soviet sup­ pression in Budapest; and that consequently world opinion would turn against them.” A group of Harvard profes­ sors bought a half-page ad in the New York Times to pour out their anger and dis­ appointment over the Amer­ ican involvement in the Cu­ ban affair. Manila’s newspapers for the most part felt let down, after the first day’s flurry of screaming headlines of new landings, new beach­ heads, thousands of freed prisoners joining invaders, a reign of terror in Havana, and all the wildest claims of the anti-Castro forces. Taking the cake was a scary one: REBS MISS FIDEL, BAG RAUL. Correspondents burn­ ed the wires of the Associat­ ed Press and the United Press International, and the Agence France Presse. Fact and propaganda were never so happily, so recklessly blended. An American writer who was in Havana at the time of the invasion, said an AP story of street fighting in Havana and a UPI story that the Hotel Havana Libre had been “totally destroyed” af­ ter an air attack on Havana were only typical of 25 “com­ pletely false dispatches” by the two major U. S. news agencies he had seen. “I rode and walked through the streets of Havana from the evening of April 14 when I arrived, until the afternoon of April 26 I left,” he said. “There was no fighting any­ where, any time. I lived in the Havana Libre that entire period — quite a trick, isn’t it, to eat and sleep in a hotel that has been ‘totally des­ troyed.’ ” But when the big story of the CIA’s complicity in the 38 Panorama invasion was carried on the AP wire, only one Manila newspaper printed it. The rest of the morning dailies, which had played up every anti-Castro claim no matter how fantastic, were silent. They gingerly picked up the story only after Washington had made grudging admis­ sions. Yet, this was the one big story about Cuba: who plotted the invasion and why it failed. Only a week later, when the whole story of the CIA’s ignominious role had been exposed, did one paper feel it necessary to ex­ press “the people’s sympathy” to the United States for its patience and forebearance in the face of Castro’s provoca­ tions. “Such sympathy, how­ ever, is tinged with regret (sic!) that the U.S. has fum­ bled in its chosen task,” it said. The American intervention in Cuba raised questions and issues that found the United States and its Western allies, notably Britain, in sharp dis­ agreement. One big issue was the Monroe Doctrine. Was the United States justified in intervening in Cuba in the interest of hemispheric secu­ rity? Even if Castro were a Communist? / The London Times: raps Mr. KennedijI d)rrrtl;erknubkles.,fOy &riitchiBg Orths'J McwMFoe Thwt trine to mean that in the last resort the United States “uni­ laterally reserves the right to use force” to reverse a re­ gime in a neighboring coun­ try where the regime might be considered to rely on or encourage “outside Commu­ nist penetration.” Who could “unerringly draw the line between indigenous Commu­ nism and outside influences”' asks the journal. Even.mqre open to question, it says, wag Mr. Kennedy’s point- that; were the United States to intervene in a neighboring country, it would have,.after, the suppression of the 'Hun­ garian revolt, no lessons to receive from Moscow. “If the leader among the free na­ tions of the West is going to justify its conduct by the ex­ ample of its opponents, then there will be nothing left but naked self- interest as the mainspring for action.” Even more pointedly writes The Manchester Guardian, “No one outside the United States sees anything sacro­ sanct in the Monroe Doctrine. Even if Dr. Castro has be­ come a Communist stooge, that is no justification for trying to remove him by force. Rhetoric about an ideo­ logy ‘alien to the Western hemisphere’ will cut no ice iw Africa or’. Asia, or even ini ,’iM li r ,‘(3OTaBKRcJ1961 “To the peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America,” comments The Observer, “the United States is not a revo­ lutionary power, but — al­ though Americans can never believe this — the greatest and most powerful fulfill­ ment of Western imperialism. To them. Castro is not a communist dictator, but the heroic champion of an op­ pressed people or (at worst) a rather muddled man who has been forced to rely on Russian aid because of Am­ erican hostility. In their eyes Cuba may be a Russian ally but is certainly not a Russian satellite, or a mili­ tary danger to the United States.” (At the height of the de­ bate on Cuba in the U.S. Congress, Congressman Frank Kowalski (D-Conn) said: “Castro may be an unpleas­ ant irritant, a thorn in our side, but I certainly hope no one believes Cuba is a serious challenge to the United States.” This was what Lipp­ mann referred to when he said: “They need to cool off. They might ponder the wisest remark which was uttered during the debates about Cuba—that Castro is a thorn in our flesh, but he is not a dagger in our hearts.” But adds The Observer, even if Mr. Kennedy’s pic­ ture of the situation were true and were seen to be true, “it would still be doubt­ ful if his tactics were right.” These “dangerous tactics” ig­ nore the long-term diploma­ tic interests of the West, which are to build up the international order. “The aim should not be to play Mr. Khurshchev’s game,” it stres­ ses, “but to press him to ac­ cept new rules.” American power “cannot be used to im­ pose an American anti-Communist ideology on other na­ tions.” A week later, The Observ­ er castigated the Americans even more sharply. Com­ menting on Mr. Kennedy’s speeches and actions since the fiasco, and the reactions of the American press, The Observer says the Cuban ad­ venture appears to be “not an isolated blunder,” but the result of an “anti-Communist blindness,” which seems al­ most universal in the United States. “To a far greater ex­ tent than they would like to admit our American friends are the prisoners of an ideo­ logy almost as narrow as that of the Communists and just as fervently believed.” The American ideology “equates capialism not only with free­ dom but very nearly with virtue.” Saying that Mr. Ken­ nedy seems to believe that 40 Panorama destiny has chosen him to lead the forces of freedom in a desperate attempt to stop the rot by using the same, (i.e., Communist) methods, The Observer soberly con­ cludes: “It would be a gro­ tesque and disabling conse­ quence of an emotional anti­ Communism if the West, which ought to be the pio­ neer of tolerance, came to ap­ pear almost as intolerant and blinkered as those it opposes.” John Douglas Pringle, the brilliant deputy editor of The Observer, analyzed this “anti-Communist blindness” can­ didly in a series of on-thespot studies of the basis of Mr. Kennedy’s foreign policy. “Except in a lunatic fringe,” he writes, “ this anti-Communism cannot be called hys­ teria; it is a dogma deeply held and sincerely believed.” The great majority of the Americans could not see that there was anything wrong with the invasion. The fail­ ure was humiliating, but the fact that Mr. Kennedy had tried at all “proved that he was sound of heart.” Mr. Kennedy “exploited” this feeling with “consum­ mate skill to turn the crisis from a Suez into a Dunkirk.” The response was overwhelm­ ing. A Gallup poll showed that Mr. Kennedy, elected last autumn by the barest majority, now had the sup­ port of 84 per cent of the na­ tion. The President (remarks Pringle) must have reflected ironically that “nothing suc­ ceeds like failure.” Therein lies the danger. The United States is now in “a dangerous mood of frus­ tration which would not easi­ ly accept another defeat.” Says The Economist: “Frus­ trated by their failure to get the first man into space, and Dr. Castro out of Cuba, they (some Americans) are temp­ ted to conclude that the time for negotiation is over and the moment for blunter measures is at hand.” It notes that Time magazine has expressed this mood. Say­ ing that Mr. Kennedy had come into office with some naive notions about the pos­ sibilities of easing cold war tensions by negotiations, Time magazine declared that the events in Cuba had brought his three- month pursuit of this “will o’the wisp” to an end. More bluntly, the colum­ nist Stewart Alsop wrote that one lesson Cuba taught the Americans is summed up in the old adage: “If you strike a king you must strike to kill.” The implica­ tion is plain. “Some day, one way or another,” says Alsop, “the American commitment October 1961 41 to bring Castro down will have to be honored. The commitment can only be ho­ nored if the American gov­ ernment is willing, if neces­ sary, to strike to kill, even if that risks the shedding of American blood” (Under­ scoring supplied) Those who hold this view, The Economist points out, misunderstand both the na­ ture of the cold war and the causes of its recent frosting over. The only thing the Cu­ ban fiasco proved, says the financial journal, is that “there will be a sharp heigh­ tening of tension in the world (and a sharp drop in respect for the United States) if the Americans cofnbine an attempt to or­ ganize the overthrow of a foreign government with an incapacity to do the job pro­ perly.” And it reminds the Americans that they “can never be in a position of exact equality” in the com­ petition with Communism. In this situation, there is the danger, as John Pringle points out in his study of cold war issues, mentioned in an earlier paragraph, that, if Mr. Khrushchev proves un­ willing to discuss cold war solutions, Mr. Kennedy “may decide too quickly that the tough school is right” and that the only practical poli­ cy to meet Communism is to “fight fire with fire”—which means the use of subversion, guerilla warfare and even, if necessary, direct intervention. “The Administration does not seem to have considered,” re­ marks Pringle, “whether it can reconcile such a policy, which must in some cases mean breaking international law (as it did in the. Cuban invasion), with the support of the United Nations against Communist transgression, which is at present one of the great strengths of the West.” This was why the revela­ tion of the CIA’s role as the chief instigator of the Cuban invasion wsa so shocking to America’s allies. The histo­ rian Arnold Toynbee termed the CIA actions in the inva­ sion attempt “another ex­ ample of governmental gang­ sterism.” If intelligence agen­ cies are made responsible for policy as well, as the CIA was in the Cuban interven­ tion, “the information they get will be coloured to fit their policies.” The Observer therefore suggests: “Govern­ ments should reflect that if their under-cover activities are not compatible with a democratic open society, it is not the open society which is at fault but their activities. The first duty of a free press 4*2 RAKORAl^A everywhere is to stop its gov­ ernment doing silly and sha­ dy things by reporting all the news that’s fit to print.” Clearly a dig at the Amer­ ican press for its sins of omis­ sion in the Cuban fiasco. More succinctly, Walter Lippmann comments: “In a free society like America’s, a policy is bound to fail which deliberately violates her pledges and her principles, her treaties and her laws. It is not possible for a free and open society to organize suc­ cessfully a spectacular cons­ piracy ... In the great strug­ gle with Communism, Am­ erica must find her strength by developing and applying her own principles, not in abandoning them, x x x The only real alternative to Com­ munism is a liberal and pro­ gressive society.” On a similar vein, The Na­ tion writes: “If we believe in democracy and support its adherents everywhere, if we abhor dictatorship and op­ pose it everywhere, we may not triumph, but no one will despise us. All that is certain is that our present course of expediency will convict us of hypocrisy and, as Cuba shows, will not even prevail militarily.” The change must come. In the final analysis, the Am­ erican attitude towards Cuba remains a decisive factor. In Latin America, the battle is now joined. For Mr. Kenne­ dy must realize that in Latin America, as it is in Asia and Africa, the race is, as John Pringle has noted in The Observer, between a social democratic revolution, help­ ed by the United States, and a Communist revolution, helped by Russia. But there is again the question: How will the United States con­ gress, whose support he must have, react to the change he envisages in his “Alliance for Progress” for Latin America? Will it in­ terpret land reform as “sub­ sidising socialism”? A socialdemocratic policy is a policy of the Left, “but the United States is a country of the Right. Americans are conser­ vative because they are wealthy and see no reason for change.” Can such a country, asks Pringle, “real­ ly conduct a policy of social revolution abroad with any hope of success.”? The Economist poses the problem more concretely: To what extent is America wil­ ling to let capitalism be blended with socialism in La­ tin America? Decisions must be made in three fields: land reform, capital formation, and trade expansion. How far will the United States October 1961 44support land reform? The raising of capital for rapid economic growth is a “harsh business” for backward coun­ tries. If the processes of ca­ pitalism strike them as slug­ gish, “they will experiment with Marxism.” How will Mr. Kennedy react? Trade should flow where the price and the service are best rath­ er than along channels mark­ ed out by ideologies. This means more trade with the Communist countries. How far will the United States agree to let the Latin Am­ ericans expand their trade with the Communist world? There is as yet no evidence that the Kennedy Adminis­ tration has thought its way through these three questions. Until it does, the Latin Am­ ericans are in a difficult po­ sition. “They are tempted,” says The Economist, “to imi­ tate many of the measures of the Cuban revolution.” But here again they are up against the stubborn Amer­ ican attitude towards fidelis­ mo. What has been attacked in Cuba (according to The Economist) is not Russian in­ fluence but an “indigenous revolutionary movement.” But Americans do not believe that fidelismo, with its vir­ tues and its vices, is a native Cuban product. They there­ fore insist on applying the Monroe Doctrine to Commu­ nism in Latin America. And indications are that they will not back down on this issue. For one thing, it has become clear in the wake of the Cuban fiasco that Mr. Kennedy is even more vigor­ ously hostile to Castro than Eisenhower was. The Amer­ icans are still interventionist at heart because they cannot see that intervention is “im­ perialism.” In so doing, they justify to some extent Rus­ sian policy in Eastern Eu­ rope. Pringle makes this point in his discussion of U. S. foreign policy. “If Mr. Kennedy can say that Com­ munism is ‘not negotiable’ in Cuba,” he says, “why should not Mr. Khruschev continue to say that democracy is ‘not negotiable’ in Hungary or Po­ land or East Germany?” Clearly Mr. Kennedy labors under a big handicap. “With all its fearful faults Mr. Khruschev's Communism is a reality which all can recog­ nise. President Kennedy’s social democracy is still but words.” How will this race end? The sombre words of The Ob­ server commend themselves to our conscience: “One will begin to believe in the possi­ bility of ending the cold war by negotiation only when the two leaders tell their peoples 44 Panorama WORLD'S LARGEST SUN TELESCOPE Construction work is now under way on a new astronomical observatory which, when com­ pleted early in 1963, will house the largest solar telescope in the world. The observatory is on a mountain in Arizona, a state in the southwestern part of the United States. It will be known as the Kitt Peak National Observatory. The telescope will be housed in a ten-story high tower near a sheer mountain cliff. Its top­ most part will be a two-ton flat mirror, 80 inches (203 centimeters) in diameter, known as a he­ liostat. Moving automatically, the heliostat will fol­ low the sun as it travels across the sky. The sun­ light that strikes it will be reflected to a 60-inch (152-centimeter) parabolic mirror located 480 feet (144 meters) away, at the bottom of a shaft drill­ ed into the mountain. From this mirror, the sun­ light again will be reflected to a 48-inch (122centimeter) mirror. This mirror, in turn, will re­ flect the sunlight to an underground observing room. There a 34-inch (86-centimeter) image of the sun, several times larger and more brilliantly il­ luminated than images obtained with any other existing telescope, will' appear on a sheet of white-painted metal mounted on a table top. Scientists will be able to study the image through dark glasses, and will be able to photograph it, and direct its light to spectroscopes. ♦ ♦ ♦ that the cold war is not go-, ing to be won by anybody, that it is much too danger­ ous to go on fighting it at all and that the only sane object for human beings in the twentieth century is to cooperate in building up an international order under which Cuba can choose Com­ munism or Hungary democ­ racy, or India some system of her own, without upsetting the balance of power and endangering the lives of eve­ ryone else in the world.” October 1961 45 PROGRESS, LEARN! Dr. Pascual Capiz Tt is clear to any one who 4 wishes to divine the fu­ ture of the Philippines that the present conditions do not provide much room for op­ timism. This pessimism is not the result of a realization that this country is poor, for it is rich in natural resources; nor that this nation has reached a certain dead level of national and material development, for it is young; nor that its geographical location is a cause for concern, for one can count only Great Britain, Japan, Indonesia, and the continent of Australia as more fortunately free from any border invasion; nor even that its population is small, for there are nations of les­ ser people which count bet­ ter in the counsel of nations. Not these, but the human re­ sources or rather the lack of them is the reason for gen­ uine pessimism. Because of our colonial past we have a distorted sense of value. We do not yet have a sense of the na­ tional interest. We believe that patronizing the language and customs of the Spaniards and the Americans is the high road to national and so­ cial improvement. We forget the saying, Charity begins at home. Our indifference and even cynical attitude to­ wards the poverty of the masses does not reveal in us something that makes for a better social order. A nation that is ambitious in the way of self-improvement must first be a united people. But no nation is ever united five per cent of whose population is very rich and ninety-five 46 Panorama NG and the YOUTH per cent is very poor. Such a cleavage based on econo­ mic interest is a barrier to the attainment of a social or­ der and a permanent seed of revolution. We are proud of our so-call­ ed freedom of the press, our social and political freedom. Most of these freedom are more apparent than real. 'Tt is true we freely publish many things, but we also freely do not publish many things that should come to the knowledge of the public in the interest of good gov­ ernment and society. Furth­ ermore, how can there be press freedom when about eighty per cent of the peo­ ple cannot read the metropo­ litan papers because they are published in English? It is the discussion of the people in the organs of publication that makes the freedom of the press real rather than the opinion of some patronizing political salesman from ab­ road. Can there be, indeed, real social freedom when the highest public and education­ al institutions of the land are not our own? Can there be freedom when much of our military bases, our banking and economic institutions, and the organs of publica­ tion and dissemination of in­ formation are largely in the hands of foreigners? We like to think we are free. But if we want to change the struc­ ture of our economic and litical institutions to suitHaie circumstances of our history and the real' interest of pur people, can we reallyicd-sift without . cPyeorfecprLefcfln interventions fromf; the intf-r truments of foreign d$>min?B tion? Finally, it is hard tokfop^ lieve, as we would like oto believe, that we are a people, politically free if you: will, when the governing class, supposedly the best' and highest of the land, with few exceptions, are graft-rid­ den and corrupt. These facts are passed in review not to castigate anew old beaten horses, but to un­ derscore the point that we have to go a long way, in fact we have to do almost the very opposite of what we do now, if we want to attain national progress. Our atti­ OCTOBER 1961 47 tudes and the present out­ look of the people are in the way to national development Therefore, there must be a social revolution; there must be a transvaluation of values to prepare the youth who will take the helm of the state in the next generations. Since moral and intellectual progress must precede all oth­ er kinds of progress, the young people now who will be rulers of tomorrow must be conditioned to be lovers of wisdom and moral virtues before they are lovers of wealth. It is ever thus in the his­ tory of civilization, the his­ tory of Egypt, Greece, India, China, and Japan, that a por­ tion of their population is the custodian of learning. And it is from this class that the ruling group was drawn The case in point is the priestly class of ancient Egypt or the aristocrats of the Greek city-states from which Plato had painted the guard­ ian class of his Republic, or the Brahman and Kshastriya classes of India, or the Man­ darin of China, or the Sa­ murai of Japan. The success of the Chinese civilization and the amazing continuity of the kind of government and social order that had been established by the Chi­ nese people for more than twenty-five hundred years are to be attributed in a large measure to the system of what is universally known as the Civil Service Examina­ tion system. By this system the officials of the Chinese government have always been the men of learning. But the Chinese system of govern­ ment is only the practical ex­ emplification of Plato’s theo­ ry in the Republic that the guardian or ruling class must be possessed of the highest knowledge, in addition to the possession of justice, temper­ ance, and courage. To be doubly sure that the guc ian class would work for the the happiness of the whole society rather than its own happiness, Plato advocated that the ruling class, though not the artisan or the lowest class, should have their wives and property in common. If there is a lesson to be learn­ ed from this great book of Plato’s it is this: the confi­ dent assertion that know­ ledge is the highest require­ ment in the conduct of gov­ ernment. Just as in the indi­ vidual reason must prevail over passion, so in politics the wise men must rule over the others. The history of civilization, therefore, points to this inescapable conclusion that there is no progress, which men call civilization, 48 Panorama without wise and good gov­ ernment, and there is no wise and good government with­ out wise and good men. With­ out learning there is no pro­ gress. One of the most illustrious passages in the whole of Chinese literature and politi­ cal philosophy, which shows the relation between learn­ ing and government, is this one from “The Great Learn­ ing” of the Confucian School: The ancients who wish­ ed to illustrate illust­ rious virtue throughout the kingdom, first order­ ed well their own states. Wishing to order well their states, they first re­ gulated their families. Wishing to regulate their families, they first culti­ vated their persons, they first rectified their hearts. Wishing to rectify hearts, they first sought to be sincere in their thoughts. Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts, they first extended to the utmost their knowledge. Such extension of know­ ledge lay in the investi­ gation of things. Things being investigat­ ed, knowledge became complete. Their know­ ledge being complete, their thoughts were sin­ cere. Their thoughts be­ ing sincere, their hearts were then rectified. Their hearts being rectified, their persons were culti­ vated. Their persons be­ ing cultivated, their fami­ lies were regulated. Their families being regulated, their states were rightly governed. Their states being rightly governed, the whole kingdom was made tranquil and happySo, it is on the investiga­ tion of things and on the knowledge that results from the investigation that the foundation of government and a tranquil society must be laid. Confucius and Pla­ to are agreed on the belief that knowledge is the foun­ dation of a good society. If it is the experience of mankind that learning is es­ sential to progress, material, political, and cultural, it is hard to see how we can make ourselves, this nation, the exception to the rule. At pre­ sent, it seems that wealth is the highest value of our so­ ciety, judging from the fact that the best, the most ho­ norable, the ruling group of our people are in pursuit of it. We cannot continue to ig­ nore the experience of man­ kind, or else we shall suffer, October 1961 49 as it is ever the fate of stu­ pid men, enslavement under wiser nations, wiser because they put .their trust in their good and wise men. Indeed, the cultivation of learning in our nation may very well de­ cide our destiny. It can be confidently stated that as long as learning is not the primary qualification of our officials in the government, the Fili­ pino nation is doomed to failure. We must first be one peo­ ple with a definite goal, not for Americans nor for Span­ iards but for ourselves, show­ ing some appreciation and d'eyotfou to the higher goals of rJifce.vTfce Inqham-epic. MahafaawifL, lief-four, goals oflife;- which rStf-epd^ty- (dhar-> ma), ►wealth; ment (kawa)^^pdgIteration. (moksa).- rIf,.^ems. that,.as a nation' our JyisioriTias jreaphed only as^iar '^s JWaftft and enjoymefit'^h^^g ^bals of life. Our public! officials, than whom we. cannot find a more representative group among our ’ people, consider their public trust as only an op­ portunity for making money. In their capacity as public servants the times are many when they have to choose between money and duty. Usually the choice is money; thus every time this happens the public official has be­ trayed his country and humi­ liated the Filipinos as a race. One recalls the case of tenyear-old little Fortunato in Prosper Merimee’s story, Ma­ teo Falcone. For a dangling silver watch he betrayed his solemn promise to hide an outlaw, from whom, previous­ ly, he had received five francs. Mateo Falcone, the father, shot his son to satis­ fy the demands of justice. Our public official deserves no less, his crime is greater. But our people condone the erring officer because their ideal is the same as his. I hold no brief against the politicians as a group.. I agree with Cicero when he said that the state is divine, as it embraces -within it almost everything of human good. Therefore the men who con­ duct the affairs of the state have.an honorable, if not a divine, calling. But our politi­ cal officials fail far short of their highest opportunities, either because they are not aware of the dignity of their office or they are weak and succumb easily to the temp­ tation of wealth. They may profess devotion to duty, but there are only a handful of them who are sincerely dedi­ cated to their work, certain­ ly not enough to tip the bal­ ance between what is a good government and what is a 50 162PAM0MM9 corrupt government. I agree with Leif Nylen, a Norwe­ gian rehabilitation expert who spent two years in the Philippines as International Labor Organization observer. He is reported (The Manila Chronicle, December 28, 1960) as stating his private opinion as follows: I have faith in the young, the old are cor­ rupt. The Filipinos lack guts, lack the fighting spirit to pull themselves out of the rut of poverty where they spend their lives. The average Filipino is poor and will remain poor as long as the re­ gime is so corrupt that every aid from other countries disappears and does not reach the com­ mon people. Certainly there is no future for our country under a nor­ malized system of corruption. Even if we can fully indus­ trialize, the problem of po­ verty and the good society will not be solved. We must first order our hearts before we can order our material well-being. If we cannot or­ der our hearts, to have more wealth is only to increase hu­ man misery for the nation. What then is the hope of the future? We stand on the threshold of our history when, not by any other means but by in­ telligence and willingness to sacrifice, we must change and direct the development of our country. We shall not be content with riding on the initial push of the past for that has been mixed with much evil. Let us remember that we have been puppets in the hands of the Spaniards, and the Americans, and even the Japanese in thir short stay; and we have been made to look at ourselves after their own image. In this sense we have learned to dis­ trust ourselves. They have succeeded and are even now succeeding, as witnessed by our continued patronage of their language and their cus­ toms and their ways of life, which are contrary to ours. We must change all these if we intend to take a creative hand in the making of our history. Surely the meaning of progress in history is not that things will get better as time goes on. Rather, the human good may be realized according to a predetermined end. This is the only mean­ ing of progress I know. For nature and human nature begrudge the good to him who will not work for it. Since, therefore, we cannot rely on the present genera51 NEW DISTILLATION PROCESS FEASIBLE The recently announced thin film water dis­ tillation process, developed by the General Elec­ tric Company of the United States, has now been proved feasible for use by cities and industrial concerns. With General Electric’s distillation process, salt or brackish water is literally ‘wiped” in a very thin film by wiper blades over the inside surface of a heat transfer tube. Heat from steam passing over the outside fluted surface of this tube causes the inside film of feed water to eva­ porate. The' vapor produced is then condensed to pure, fresh water. Previous experiments by General Electric with a full-scale engineering model of the thin film unit also demonstrated the value of the con­ cept for marine applications where restrictions of size and weight are critical. * ♦ ♦ tion of public servants we shall look to the youth of new vision, cherishing better and higher values. Our fu­ ture government must be in the hands of the young whose highest standards of public performance are the virtues of justice and learning. The goals of human society are easily set. It is the realiz­ ing of them that is difficult. Among these goals may be social justice, peace, and hap­ piness of the people. But peace, as the Schoolman said, is the fruit of justice, and peace is a precondition of happiness. No justice can be realized if the government is not just, and the govern­ ment cannot be just if every official is not just; and ulti­ mately the justice of every single official may be traced back to the just or corrupt life in which he privately lives. The future officials of our government must be men of the highest probity in their private lives. They shall be men who are more concern­ ed how they would appear to their conscience than to the public. These are the men who will value honor more than money and wisdom and love of justice above all things. This is seed-time for the Filipino nation; and the har­ vest of human good can be ours in the modest compass of our country if we are first 52 Panorama possessed of the higest spirit­ ual values common to all mankind. Being a young na­ tion we cannot expect fullest maturity and ripest judgment in our conduct as a people. It is enough that we have the dynamism of youth and a new outlook. By the new outlook I mean that we must as a people, individually and * collectively, be possessed first of the highest intellectual and moral values before we can be possessor of our lands. To do otherwise is to repeat our history. Let us see if the youth can be better than the old in the possession of the new outlook and the new vi­ sion of a greater and happier Philippines. ♦ * NEW COMPOUND FOUND TO INHIBIT ONE TYPE OF TUMOR IN ANIMALS A new compound which in animal experi­ ments inhibits one type of tumor by 90 to 100 per cent has been fashioned from a potential cancer drug now undergoing clinical tests in the United States. The chemical, a piperazine derivative la­ belled A-20968, is effective against Carcinoma 755, a transplantable mouse tumor, and also shows activity against two common types of can­ cer, Sarcoma 180 and Leukemia 1210, according to Dr. John A. Carbon, a research chemist at Ab­ bott Laboratories, North Chicago, Illinois. The new compound has not yet been tried on human beings. The model for the compound was called A-8103, and it represents an entirely new type of. chemical structure to show activity against tumors, Dr. Carbon said, adding: “Although it is probably a member of the class of anti-tumor agents known as ‘alkylating agents,’ it possesses a chemical structure of an entirely different type from the known com­ pounds of this class. It thus offers an opportunity or ‘lead’ for the organic chemist to synthesize many closely related compounds as possible tu­ mor growth inhibitors.” October 1961 53 THE NEW JAPANESE WOMAN Kathleen Costello A new Unesco paperback, “The Changing Social Posi­ tion of Women in Japan”, by Takashi Koyama, brings to­ gether studies by Japanese specialists — mostly women — in the fields of labour, the family, the rural community, education, civic activities and public opinion. Japan’s New Constitution revolutionized the legal basis of Japanese new institutions. In this study, JVIr. Koyama and his collaborators describe the sweeping reforms that gave women equal rights be­ fore the law and investigate the present relationship bet­ ween legal and actual status. On paper, the rights of Ja­ panese women now compare favorably with those of any women in the world. At one bound the legal family unit 63 passed from the patriarchial to the conjugal type, skipping entirely the intermediate ma­ rital structure sanctified in the West by the Code Napo­ leon. The study makes plain that it will take many years for Japan to absorb the psy­ chological shock of this par­ ticular reform. In contrast, the new rights of women to vote and to be elected to public office seem to have been taken in stride. In the 1958 elections to the House of Representatives, men and women exercised the right to vote in almost the same proportions, with 75.8 percent of eligible males and 74.4 percent of eligible females going to the polls. After the first ’pust-war electio'ns for?the Diet,'in 1946 and ' 1947’,? 8.4 ■ -percent ■ of members IdQfPANOBXMX of the House of Representa­ tives and 4 percent of. mem­ bers of the House of Council­ lors were women. As for lo­ cal bodies like Domestic Courts, prefectoral, municipal and village Boards of Educat i o n, Eugenics Protection Committees and Civic Liber­ ties Commissions, the number of women represented on them increases each year. In 1957, they held 21.5 percent of Public and Child Welfare Commission posts. The gap between principle and practice is much wider with regard to the Constitu­ tional right to equal pay for equal work — guaranteed al­ so by the Labour Standards Law of 1947. However, if wo­ men’s wages are still discri­ minatory, they are slowly growing less so. The present ratio of men’s wages to wo­ men’s — 6 to 4 — compares favourably with the pre-war 6 to 3, or 6 to 2. Among gov­ ernment workers there is al­ most no discriminatory treat­ ment. But millions of women, particularly on farms, are still unpaid family workers. As might be expected, it is inside the family that the con­ flict between old and new ideas is sharpest. Here men women have to work out their own personal terms of ad­ justment — here they reject, October 1961 accept or compromise with the new status, of women as defined by law. Changing Patterns in Family Life In the past, every detail of traditional Japanese family life was ritually prescribed. As a result, Mr. Koyama is able to analyze changing pat­ terns in very specific terms. The Japanese wife always spoke of her husband as shujin (master). And legally, he was in fact the master of the patriarchal household. Stu­ dies show that the word is still used 50 percent of the time; but many women now intentionally say, . “my hus­ band”. When the husband ad­ dressed his wife he would call Oi, oi (Hey, Hey). This usage is rapidly vanishing, and the use of first names is spreading. In the elaborate ritual go­ verning meals, any choice food was offered first to the spirits of the ancestors, then to the patriarch and eldest son. Wife, daughters and other sons had to be content * with poorer meals, which they ate after the patriarchal table had dined and wined. Only 14 per­ cent of adult Japanese grew up in families where food was shared equally. But now, 38 percent of all families share5& alike. (Fifty percent of farm families adhere to the old custom). Bed - and - bath - times had their fixed etiquette, too. If the wife went to bed before the husband, she was called an “idle wife”. In the morn­ ing, she had to get up first so that he would not see her looking dishevelled. The first bath was always for the hus­ band. Although these priori­ ties are still observed in rural areas, they are becoming obs o 1 e t e in urban families, which now pay more atten­ tion to convenience than to custom. The change in attitudes is also illustrated by an innova­ tion in sharing domestic res­ ponsibility. Before the war, it was unheard of — or, ff heard of, was shameful — for a man to help his wife with the housework. But only a few years after the war, a survey showed less than half of all Japanese still uncondi­ tionally disapproving. Choosing a Marriage Partner All these are improvements in woman’s position after marriage. But what is the si­ tuation with regard to the method of choosing a mar­ riage partner? Article 24 of the new Constitution says: “Marriage shall be based on­ ly on the mutual consent of both sexes..” But 1955 Minis­ try of Labour figures show that while 63 out of 100 Jap­ anese thought that, “one’s own choice of a spouse” is better than the “parents’ choice”, only 27 percent of women replied that they, themselves, would dare to op­ pose their parents’ wishes. And a 1957 table indicates that 73 percent of marriages in large cities were still miai (arranged) marriages. Mr. Koyama, however, com­ ments : “Among young people the old procedure is rapidly succumbing to the new no­ tion of marriage which re­ gards a man and a woman as constituting the basis of mar­ riage. In conjunction with the change in legal and moral norms, reform of actual mar­ riage practices is expected to take place in the near future.” On the whole, the statistics assembled in “The Changing Social Position of Women in Japan” describe a trend, not a landslide. It cannot be said, and Mr. Koyama makes no effort to do so, that the last 15 years have effected a ra­ dical transformation of the Japanese woman’s life. The impression given by this stu­ dy is of creeping rather than dramatic change. 56 Panorama Education: The Keynote of Progress But there is one exception. Equal education for children of both sexes became not on­ ly a legally recognized right, but a fact. Article 5 of the 1946 Fundamental Law of Education states: “Man and woman shall respect and co­ operate with each other. Co­ education shall be recog­ nized.” The provisions of this law were put into effect with incredible speed. Compulsory education was extended from six to nine years for all children; and in a country where boys and girls had been separated af­ ter the third grade, co-educa­ tion was also made compul­ sory for the whole period. Before passage of this law, girls’ secondary schools exis­ ted only to make “good wives and mothers” for middle and upper-class families. After the sixth grade, no effort was made to provide either a cur­ riculum or level of teaching in any way comparable to what was offered to boys. Girl graduates of this system were equally unqualified for higher education and gainful employment. Acceptance of women’s right to equal education shows up strikingly in figures for enrolment after the compul­ sory nine years. Taking 1950 as a base year, the index of high school enrollment for girls had climbed to 173.9 in 1957 (as compared to 134.7 for boys) and to 284.7 for wo­ men in colleges (as compared to 144.3 for man). * In the same year, of the 51.2 percent of female college graduates who were employed, 63.6 per­ cent were professional and 27.9 percent clerical workers. * Actual enrolment for senior high schools: 1,203,749 boys, 733,766 girls; for colleges and universities: 364,642 boys, 40,668 girls. This movement of women into positions that command social respect is a post-war phenomenon almost entirely attributable to the introduc­ tion of equal education. The author feels that this deve­ lopment, “will be likely to modify considerably the past tendency to belittle women and will contribute towards the enhancement of women’s position.” The graduates of the new co-educational system of edu­ cation still constitute a mino­ rity of the population of Ja­ pan. But there a^e already enough to make them an im­ portant leaven in Japanese at­ titudes. In this basic minori­ ty lies the promise of a hap­ pier, fuller life for the gene­ ration of women now grow­ ing up. (UNESCO) October 1961 57 CARDIAC INFARCT Walter Theimer Cardiac infarct is a fre­ quent cause of death. This ex­ plains the interest taken by life insurance companies in this particular disease. The Association of Life Insurance Companies at Karlsruhe has ma-de a study of heart in­ farct, frequently regarded as a “managers’ disease”, with the collaboration of many cli­ nics. Life insurance compa­ nies give financial support to research on cardiac infarct, Since they would obviously benefit from a decrease in infarct mortality. A High-Class Disease The analysis of 18,000 cases showed clearly that cardiac infarct is by no means a dis­ ease peculiar to “managers.” One-half of all cases are found in the upper classes, among manufacturers, office workers, government offi­ cials and in the professions with a university back­ ground. Manual workers par­ ticipate only to the extent of 20 per cent. The group known as managers has only the average mortality. Why the upper classes are more involved than others, is a problem still waiting for elu­ cidation. It is often said that psychological tension due to the race for customers and careers is responsible for the increase of infarct, and even automobile-driving is some­ times accused on account of the nervous tension it im­ plies. Yet these hypotheses are not proved. Members of the civil service have a safe career, but they get cardiac infarct much on the same scale as “managers” do. The fact that managerial people are not under greater danger from cardiac infarct than other upperclass people is cer­ tainly of interest to medical science and life insurance di­ rectors. Possibly nutrition and the general mode of liv­ ing have greater influence than people used to think. 58 Panorama The word “infarct” derives from Latin infarcire, to obs­ truct. A coronary artery is obstructed by a bolus, a small clot of coagulated blood. The bolus is produced at some place in the system and is carried into the coronary ar­ teries by the circulation. Why and where a bolus is produc­ ed, is another unsolved rid­ dle. Now in the region of the heart muscle supplied by the obstructed vessel the tissue dies because of lack of oxy­ gen and malnutrition. It be­ comes necrotic. Usually a white wedge is formed, its thin end pointing toward the bolus. About eight hours af­ ter the fixation of the bolus the well-known symptoms of breakdown appear. An infarct can end in death, but the pa­ tient may recover after two months. Infarcts can occur repeatedly. One prerequisite is a narrowing of the coro­ nary arteries, which may be due to sclerosis or perhaps even nervous tension. A deg­ ree of coronary sclerosis is practically normal in men of sixty and over. 76 per cent of the cases studied were men. Females have only a proportion of 24 per cent. Cardiac infarct is definitely a disease of men. One-fifth of the male cases occurred between the 55th and 59th years of life. Below 40 the proportion was less than 2‘per cent. The danger zone begins after 40. The in­ farct peak of women is be­ tween 65 and 58, a decade la­ ter than in males. The Preliminaries of Cardiac Infarct A high proportion of the patients had suffered from cardiac and circulatory trouble previous to * the infarct. An infarct often seems to come as a bolt from the blue, but in fact it is preceded by fairly long-term changes such as high pressure or an­ gina pectoris. The prelimina­ ry changes may pass un­ noticed. About 17 per cent of the cases had suffered from infarct before. The season is important. In­ farct is more numerous in winter and in the months of transition than in the sum­ mer months. January is the month most dangerous; Sun­ day is the day of an infarct minimum, while Monday is the peak. This may be due to ample and fat feeding on Sundays, combined. with smoking and drinking. Par­ ticularly the elderly are .in danger on Mondays. 85 per cent of the cases were smoker?. Still the pro­ blem of the connection beOCTOBEE 1961 ■59 MANY DIFFERENT KINDS OF GLASS NOW MADE Research is continually revealing new facts about the nature of glass and its potential uses, and is enabling glass manufacturing companies to make special types for different applications, according to a survey made by the National Geo­ graphic Society. As a result, glass is no longer a fragile mate­ rial of limited utility. In recent years scientists have created a number of tough and versatile “wonder glasses.” Some heat-resistant glasses, for example, can be baked until they are red hot and then plunged into ice water without breaking. A lead oxide glass cast in slabs 10 inches (25.4 centimeters) thick is almost as heavy as steel. It remains clear even when subjected to heavy atomic radiation. Tempered glass, made by heating glass until it begins to soften and then quickly cooling the surface, has the strength of cast iron. ♦ ♦ * tween smoking and heart in­ farct remains open. Despite the belief that fat food is responsible the recent study showed that light people are more endangered than hea­ vy ones. Tall men have more frequently infarct than smal­ ler men have. Yet on the whole it would seem that the influence of weight and size has been overrated. Thera­ peutically the narrowing of the coronary arteries is the point to be attacked? There are drugs widening those ves­ sels. In the case of sclerotic alteration this is possible on­ ly to a limited extent. Older men usually have a measure of sclerosis of the coronaries, and the trouble is part of the difficult problem of arte­ riosclerosis, refractory to ul­ timate explanation in spite of an enormous amount of research. Scientists are in­ clined to think that the ris­ ing consumption of fat plays some part. Yet this assump­ tion is far from proved, even if there are some impressive pointers. 60 Pamoxama The Years That Counted Evelyn T. Miranda “If I were to live my past again, I would follow the same course I took. I have no regrets. I have no com­ plaints.” His voice rang with earnestness as he leaned back in his swivel chair. Leaning there, 58-year-old Professor Saturnino Cabanatan was a picture of years and exper­ ience. On the other hand, sitting informally on one of the steps of the spiralling stair below the azotea of the Lit­ tle Theatre of the Universtiy of the Philippines, friendly and always-smiling Professor Alfonso Santos confessed: “Whatever I am now, I owe to .those hard days when I was a young man.” Both mentors in the Uni­ versity of the Philippines, Ca­ banatan and Santos paused from their hectic schedules and took time out to sit back and muse over those days gone by, days which to them made the years count. Those “younger days” were about forty years ago in the 1920’s when both were still at their prime. They were ambitious young men but without the means to im­ prove their lot. However. America made all the differ­ ence in their lives. Filled with the spirit of adventure as characteristic of youth, they sailed for the United States with one common aim — to get a better and higher education by all means! “It was easier to go to the United States then than to­ day,” Cabanatan explained. “No visa or anything of that sort was necessary. A cedula could bring you to any point of the country. Don’t you think we were luckier?” he chuckled. It was in May 1926 when the 23-year-old Cabanatan sailed for the new land. He had only a few hard-earned pesos tucked in his pocket when he went down the steer­ OCTOBER 1961 age, the cellar section of the boat that would carry him to America. His adventure brought him to Washington where he be­ came a dishwasher in restaur­ ants for about a year. That was the best thing that he could do in the meantime, considering that he was com­ pletely a stranger in the country and that his resources were fast thinning out. For another two years Cabanatan wandered around the United States doing all kinds of me­ nial jobs that came his way. “I spent a couple of weeks in Seattle picking strawber­ ries. It was a back-breaking job, but besides your pay you could eat as much strawber­ ries as you want until your teeth ached. Another time I went to California to pick asparagus,” Cabanatan re­ counted. “I also went to Alas­ ka and worked in a salmon­ canning factory. Just for ex­ perience, I tried stevedoring there, too.” After saving enough dol­ lars to enter school, Cabana­ tan enrolled in the Univer­ sity of Michigan. “I was both a university student and a waiter in the university un­ ion,” he said. “The job that really kept me in school until I finished my Master of Arts in English was dishwashing. It was a great meal-saver.” One of Cabanatan’s ‘firstrate” jobs was as assistant of Mr. Freize, a professor in the University of Michigan. Ca­ banatan helped him in the revision of the Oxford Dic­ tionary by reading all kinds of newspapers and listing down certain words showing how they are used by news­ paper writers. Cabanatan said he got about a thousand dol­ lars during his entire stay with Professor Freize. Another job that helped him greatly in solving many of his financial problems was as machine-tender in the Pac­ kard Motor Company. He was paid $80 to $90 every fifteenth day of the month. But soon hard times came. “I experienced real pover­ ty in 1933,” Cabanatan smil­ ed as if to dismiss the whole incident as a bad dream. “The United States was in an eco­ nomic crisis, and so was the whole world. I found myself out of school. I was then in my first year working for a doctorate. I looked for work — any kind of work — just to keep both body and soul together but jobs were so few. I later landed in Califor­ nia picking fruits and getting the measly sum of twenty cents an hour! That w^s ter­ rible. Before the crisis, fruit­ pickers were paid fifty cents an hour.” Panorama Famine reigned all over the country, and there was no immediate sign that the cris­ is would end sooner. Caba­ natan, after saving enough money to pay for his fare, packed and came home to the Philippines. Looking back at those dif­ ficult years, Professor Caba­ natan, now U.P. assistant dean of student affairs, could only sigh and say: “I enjoyed those years. Hard work was nothing to me. I have been working as far as I can re­ member.” Professor Cabanatan got married after his arrival from the United States. He is the proud father of three practicing son-lawyers and a daughter who is studying in the U. P. Professor Alfonso P. Santos of the English Department, like Cabanatan, was a poor man’s son. He left San Anto­ nio, Zambales for the United States at the tender age of 16. “I persuaded my parents to mortgage our only piece of rice land so that I might be able to go to the United States. With P250 which was the mortgage cost, I boarded a boat for America. I stayed in steerage and I had the cows for company,” he recall­ ed with amusement. He stayed in Palo Alto, Ca­ lifornia for a year and start­ ed his first year studies there. He transferred to Glendale and stayed there until he finished high school. All the time, he was working his way through school. “I was a jack-of-all-trades. I practically handled all the lowest jobs there were. I be­ came a dishwaster, janitor, waiter, cook, bellboy, tele­ phone operator, ice-cream can washer, ice-cream and candy maker and many oth­ ers.” Santos gave a good laugh while enumerating his string of achievements. After he graduated from the high school, he enrolled in the University of Southern Cali­ fornia as an A.B. student. Studious and hard-working, he graduated cum laude. Santos was a popular fig­ ure in the campus. For three consecutive years he was the “poet laureate” of their uni­ versity. He was also the reci­ pient of many scholarships. Asked how he managed to excel in so many fields, San­ tos revealed his assets: “It was all a matter of mental concentration and discipline. My poverty was my discip­ linarian. I believe,” he addgd, “that poverty should be res­ pected.” After getting his Bachelor of Arts, Santos continued stu­ OCTOBER 1961 63 dying until he got the mas­ ter’s degrees in education and English. He was about to get his doctorate’s when the Sec­ ond World War broke out. After undergoing military training in the United States army in New Guinea and Australia, he became the per­ sonal aide of General MacArthur, with the rank of staff sergeant. “Indeed, it was quite a pri­ vilege for me to be so close to so great a man as General MacArthur,” he said. Santos came home in 1945 after the Liberation with one intention — to marry a Filipina girl. Asked why he did not pick an American for a wife, Santos simply replied: “Sandwich and bagoong just cannot go together.” As a scholar and poet, San­ tos appears in Who’s Who in American Education and in the Directory of American Scholars, 1957. He is also an elected member of the Aca­ demy of Political Science. Professor Santos has pub­ lished three volumes of poems. They are the Santang Buds, Etude in Blue and Di­ liman Echoes. Presently he is working on another volume called Yellow Bells. Even as poor, struggling students during their college days, Cabanatan and Santos were not devoid of youthful joys. Now and then they went out with American girls to movies, ball games, par­ tiesx and other social activ­ ities. “Of course there was a slight racial discrimination,” Santos explained, “and for that matter, Filipinos and other colored students were not welcome to fraternity or sorority organizations. Any­ how, we still had fun.” Those were the years, the years that did count in the lives of these two humble scholars. They did count be­ cause they were spent care­ fully and wisely. Today, as Professors Cabanatan and Santos recall the past, no trace of regret or disappoint­ ment could be noted in their voices. There is only warmth and enthusiasm as they nar­ rate their stories because they know they have quite a story to tell. ♦ ♦ ♦ 64 Panorama LET'S TAKE A SECOND LOOK Felino- Neri Old habits, they say, die hard. Unlike old soldiers, they do not easily fade away. This is the reason perhaps why I still continue to in­ dulge in the old habit of closely following the conduct of our foreign relations and developments in the interna­ tional scene at large long after I had ceased to have any participation in this vi­ tal government function. It has been more than three years since I left the diplo­ matic services but I have found it difficult to get rid of my abiding interest in this all-engrossing field. My present detachment from the making and exec­ ution of our foreign policy has its advantages. It has en­ abled me to view the think­ ing behind some of its basic premises in sharper focus and wider perspective. And they have given rise in my mind to certain doubts concerning their continued validity. Our So-Called Asian Policy Let us start with what may be conveniently called our Asian policy. It had its be­ ginning at a time when the countries around us, coun­ tries which we are bound by geographic, ethnic and cul­ tural ties as well as common colonial experience, were en­ gaged in throwing off the shackles of foreign rule. It was therefore logical that we, who had just then re­ acquired our sovereignty should express that policy by pledging our support for the aspirations of subject peoples for self-government and independence. After they, too, and others farther away from our common area, became sovereign and inde­ pendent, after sensing that despite our professions of sympathy and protestations of identity with these na­ tions we were somehow not counted as one of them, we gave voice to a desire to re­ OCTOBER 1961 65 establish that identity, to res­ tore our Asian moorings, so to speak. We went about this task by such traditionally ac­ cepted methods as extendng diplomatic recognition to these countries in their new status, exchanging diploma­ tic representatives, conclud­ ing amity and cultural trea­ ties, sending goodwill mis­ sions and occasionally voting with their delegates in the councils of the United Na­ tions and other international organizations and gatherings, in keeping with our own in­ terests. But all these have apparent­ ly not been enough to bring about acceptance of the Phil­ ippines as part of the group and of the fact that we Fi­ lipinos share the same Asian roots. We still do not belong. Let us accept the fact that we continue to be suspect in most Asian eyes. Our long Western association, the in­ fluence of this association on our thinking, outlook, ways, likes and dislikes, our align­ ment with the West in the current struggle for world power have kept us apart. I believe the time has come for us to stop deluding our­ selves in this respect and to adopt another approach. Let us stop begging for accept­ ance at our neighbors’ doors and outgrow the attitude of self-deprecation in pleading for admission to the “Asian club.” Instead, let us first prove to them that we are worth accepting. We can only do otherwise at the ex­ pense of our dignity and selfrespect. We believe in re­ gional exchange and coope­ ration but not in paying for them at so high a price. It cannot be denied that compared with most of the newly-independent countries in Asia, we were better pre­ pared to take on the respon­ sibilities of independent na­ tionhood and have since made appreciable material progress. We are ahead of some of them in political and even economic development although we could have gone farther with more efficient management without official corruption and given a dedi­ cated, strong and responsive leadership. We are learning how to develop our natural wealth and how to use that wealth in improving the lot of our people. We have been able to forge ahead partly with the help of other friend­ ly countries, particularly the United States. Let us take, to cite a few examples, the strides we have made in modern farming methods, co­ operatives, community dev­ elopment, distribution and 66 Panorama marketing, soil conservation and irrigation, health and sa­ nitation, anti-Communist sub­ version, hydroelectric power development, light industries, education and other fields. We have taken these gains for granted and have even spoken depreciatingly of them at times in the heat of partisan political strife. But measured in terms of what some of our neighbors in Asia have achieved, we have, I believe, accomplished more. Our job is to turn their eyes to these accomplish­ ments, modest as they are./ These are the commodities we should also export. They are the arguments that should “sell” us to our Asian neighbors. Several of these countries have begun to take notice. Sometime ago, an In­ dian delegation made it a point to pass through Mani­ la to learn more about com­ munity development before proceeding to Geneva to at­ tend a world conference on the subject. Malayans have come to find out the reasons for our success in defeating the Huk movement. Once we have shown that we have employed the West­ ern ingredients of our nation­ al upbringing for our own be­ nefit without giving up what is ours, once we have some­ thing useful for other Asian countries to emulate or adopt, acceptance may not be difficult. Japan is a case in point. It has never been any­ thing to other Asian coun­ tries but Asian and * of Asia regardless of how much the Japanese have learned from and imbibed of the West. Nationalism of Rising Peoples With us Filipinos, the spi­ rit of nationalism rose'to its zenith at the time of our li­ bertarian fight against Span­ ish rule. It continued up to the American regime and spurred us in our subsequent struggle for independence. During all this time, most of our fellow Asian countries were still parts of colonial empires although they alrea­ dy felt the same stirrings of freedom and made repeated attempts at achieving self­ emancipation. To us and to them, in that difficult but glorious period, nationalism and patriotism carried the same meaning. This is not meant to imply that these virtues die after the aims which they have in­ spired have been achieved. But it is a fact that nation­ alism subsequently acquires some degrees of tempering, breadth and maturity, a kind of seasoning that goes with the sober realization of the October 1961 67 magnitude and complexity of the challenge of nation-build­ ing. Every young nation goes through this process sooner or later. The Philippines passed through such a transi­ tion ahead of most of her Asian neighbors. We were al­ ready hard at work in mak­ ing our country stand on its feet and our young democ­ racy succeed while some countries around us were still trying to free themselves from their bondage as subject peoples. We have reached a point of maturity well be­ yond their reaction to this change which in most cases took on xenophobic under­ tones. But caught in the tide of nationalistic fever that con­ sumed these countries, con­ scious of our isolation from them as a result of our West­ ern associations, we lately be­ gan tracing a course for our foreign policy based on the nationalism that we knew and practiced during the re­ volutionary stage of our history. Thus, our abortive attempt to put a label to this trend by borrowing Japan’s wartime expansionist slogan of “Asia for the Asians” and the advent of what our pre­ sent policymakers refer to as “respectable independence” and the “Filipino First” poli­ cyAlbert Camus, that great and late-lamented French philosopher and resistance leader, once said that he “loved his country too much to be a nationalist.” What he meant perhaps was that there is a kind of nationalism which is not synonymous with patriotism because it is harmful to a country’s inter­ est. If Manuel Luis Quezon were alive today, he would have expressed this thought by saying that his national­ ism ends where the good of his country begins. The Philippines has been a free and sovereign nations member of the community of these last fifteen years. In her present status she has ac­ quired responsibilities and obligations that have made it impossible for her to live in a world by and unto her­ self.. From considerations of national security and econo­ mic advancement alone, she must accept the concept of a world, one and interdepen­ dent, as well as its practical realities. There no longer are such things as complete and absolute independence, poli­ tical or economic. Other As­ ian countries have since gra­ duated from this attitude. Hence we find the policies of 68 Panorama India, Burma and Pakistan on foreign investments, for example, more attuned to these realities. We in the Philippines, on the other hand, have failed to adjust ourselves to these facts. On the matter of the participation of foreign capi­ tal in our economic develop­ ment, we have only sown con­ fusion among our own peo­ ple and the outside world by our inconsistencies and con­ tradictions. While we ex­ tend a welcoming hand to foreign investors and solemn­ ly assure them of our need, for their assistance to en­ able us to make full use of our natural resources and ad­ vance the pace of our econo­ mic growth, we blithely adopt policies that are antagonistic if not outright hostile. During all this time we have also shown a naive and compla­ cent attitude on the use which international Communism, through its homegrown ad­ herents and hirelings, have made of nationalism to serve its destructive ends. In asserting our national­ ism, we must guard against confusing substance with form, the important with the inconsequential. We have been wont to strike nation­ alistic poses, for example, on such graver issues as our na­ tional defense, overlooking their far-reaching and vital implications. We forget that, as in the case of foreign mili­ tary bases in our country, for instance, we had temporarily waived the full exercise oi our sovereignty over these areas in order to more ef­ fectively insure our security and that this act of voluntary and temporary relinquish­ ment in the interest of a lar­ ger common good is of itself an expression of sovereign prerogative. A people devoid of nation­ alistic spirit is dead. But there is great cause of fear for a nation heading towards nationalism in its narrow and myopic form, especially a nationalism that consents to exploitation and prostitu­ tion by the ruling powers for their own selfish ends. This may be the moment, there­ fore, to restore order and im­ part coherence to our under­ standing and practice of na­ tionalism and extend our thinking beyond its present parochial bounds. The Case Against The United Nations We have declared, as one of the basic tenets of our for­ eign policy, adherence to and support for the aims and principles enunciated in October 1961 69 the Charter of the United Nations. This declaration is an expression of faith in the effectiveness of that world or­ ganization in keeping world peace. In practical terms it means that as part of that body we look up to it to fur­ ther safeguard our national security. Through our mem­ bership, it is true, we have taken our rightful place among other sovereign states and have benefitted from its assistance in the economic, social and cultural fields. But the principal considera­ tions behind our participation in the UN is related to the problem of our security. The weight of the moral force that the UN is supposed to exert against aggression and other breaches of world peace, the promise of collec­ tive assistance from fellow members in the regional se­ curity alliance which we have joined and the more categorical pledge of similar help under our mutual de­ fense pact with the United States, are the three legs on which the structure of our national security rests. But events have tended to de­ monstrate how weak the first two supports of this structure are. One has only to recall, with unhappy me­ mories, the futility that were Korea, Vietnam, Hungary, Suez, Tibet, the Congo, An­ gola and now Laos, Cuba, Biserte and Berlin. Laos is said to have brought about the recently-formed Association of Southeast Asian States (ASAS) because of the fai­ lure of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) which came in the wake of the disaster of Dien Bien Phu, to live up to our ex­ pectations. The organization­ al structure of the UN itself is under Communist siege with the Soviet demand for a drastic and far-reaching change in the office of the Secretary-General. The record of that world body, in other words, has not served to strengthen our faith in it. That record has given us reason to think twice about the assumptions we have earlier and more hopefully held. That faith has been shaken instead. The late John Foster Dulles, one of the principal architects of the Charter, voiced this hope once by saying that much can be done under the UN that cannot be done by it.” By this he must have anticipated the difficulties which now. beset that organ­ ization. Time has since proved him right in the sec­ ond part of this statement. There is not much to show, 70 Panorama however, that he was also right in the first. Writing in the July issue of Fortune magazine, Max Ways advanced the thesis that our hopes and expectations “would be valid only if the UN were capable of recog­ nizing, promulgating and en­ forcing rules of international order.” “Some Americans,” he added, “speak of the Unit­ ed Nations as “above’ the na­ tions. This is true only in the sense that an attic is at the top of a house; it is where the nations put their interna­ tional problems. The UN de­ bates. The UN sometimes de­ cides, as when it instructs its Secretary-General to isolate the Congo from big-power politics. But the UN never seriously attempts to estab­ lish the rules that would li­ mit its member govern­ ments.” Mr. Ways further advanced the opinion that “no reword­ ing of the Charter is going to work unless it clearly re­ cognizes an objective source of international law outside the nations themselves.” Quoting the same author still further, “more and more, the Communists show they they re^gnize the UN as a mag­ nificent arena for propagan­ da.” Harry A. Kissinger concise­ ly described the way in which the new nations use the UN in the following lan­ guage : “Many of the leaders of the new states want the best of two worlds: of neutrality and of judging all disputes... Playing a role ,on the inter­ national scene seems more dramatic and simpler than the complex job of domestic construction... Domestical­ ly, each action has a price. But on the international scene, it is possible to be the center of attention simply by striking a pose. Here ambi­ tious men can play the dra­ matic role so often denied to them at home and so con­ sistent with their image of the role of a national lead­ er.” It has been said that “a workable foreign policy can never be static. To build a policy on a status quo is an illusion that can lead only to disappointment. For na­ tions, like human beings are, born, live through a period of adolescence, become ma­ ture, and die. Stand-still acts as a cancerous disease on a nation’s body.” Let us take heed that the march of world events does not leave us with October 1961 71 NEW DRUG APPEARS EFFECTIVE AGAINST HAY EVER A new drug that has given good results to some 500 patients in combating hay fever created considerable interest among doctors who attended a recent meeting of the American Academy of Al­ lergy. The drug is called allpyral, a short term for “alum.precipitated pyridine-ragweed complex” In practice, allpyral is used to desensitize pa­ tients who get hay fever from ragweed pollen be­ fore the hay fever season arrives. It differs from standard aqueous pollen extracts in that it con­ tains the pollen oils as well as the proteins. Allpyral is absorbed slowly by the body, and physicians can therefore give much larger doses of it at one time. This means that the number of infections can be reduced. From present indica­ tions it appears that one injection of allpyral every four to six weeks is sufficient. With the aqueous solutions, one injection a week is usually needed. In the 500 or more patients already studied in the United States, 89 to 93 per cent have shownimprovement. With standard aqueous solutions, about 80 to 85 per cent improve. * * * a foreign policy that is out­ dated and no longer work­ able. These then are some of the thoughts that a former diplomat, turned business­ man and armchair diploma­ tic analyst, offers to those who are presently in charge of charting and steering our country’s course in the tur­ bulent sea of world affairs. These views may not find ready concurrence, especially among the uninitiated and uninformed. But in the diffi­ cult business of providing one’s country with the best possible of such courses and of trying to keep to it, we opn only ignore these realities at great risk. 72 Panorama THE LITERATURE OF THE FILIPINOS Leopoldo Y. Yabes Part II IV. American Colonial A number of interesting works depict the Filipino so­ ciety in transition from the late Spanish colonial to'the early and middle American colonial regime. Among them are Claro Recto's “Solo Entre las Sombras”, Nick Joaquin’s “La Vidal”, Paz Marquez’s “Dead Stars”, Wilfrido Guer­ rero’s “The Old Teacher”, and Kalaw’s The Filipino Rebel. As would be expected the authors are inclined to be more sympathetic to the pre­ vious than to the existing re­ gime. Joaquiq is more hostile to the existing regime than any of the more competent writers. “La Vidal” is the sto­ ry of the degeneration- of a well-born, conventbred wo­ man who originally married a poet of the Revolution and who ended up marrying the unscrupulous physician, a product of the American re­ gime, who had practised abor­ tion on her as a result of her love affair with a man after the death of her first hus­ band. The portrait of La Vi­ dal, the woman, is quite un­ flattering. “Solo Entre las Sombras” is also the story of two sisters, the older belong­ ing to the Spanish-educated generation, who find them­ selves in love with the same man, who is married to the older sister. The more aggres­ OCTOBER 1961 73 sive and unscrupulous of the two, the younger sister bears a child of the brother-in-law. The revelation is too much for the older girl and she dies from shock, leaving her hus­ band and her sister to suf­ fer the consequences of their crime, which is considered as very grievous. “Dead Stars” is a quiet picture of the quiet but relentless change in the cultural milieu taking place in the early third decade of the century. “The Old Tea­ cher” is the story of an old classroom science teacher at the University of Sto. Tomas who uses both Spanish and English as languages of ins­ truction. Educated in Spanish he is not quite at home in English, but he has to use the language once in a while be­ cause the young generation in the colleges and universities had been brought up in Eng­ lish. The Filipino Rebel, a longer work, gives a more de­ tailed picture of the conflict between the passing and the up-and-coming generations. One cannot escape noticing, however, that the American democratic tradition was slowly permeating Philippine society as reflected in the writings of the younger art­ ists during the third decade. The tradition-bound society at the turn of the century has been transformed into the freer society found in many of the stories of Casiano T. Calalang, Arturo B. Rotor, A.E. Litiatco, Fernando Leano, Lo­ reto Paras, Paz Latorena/Jose Garcia Villa, and Salvador P. Lopez, and in some of the dramas written by Carlos P. Romulo, Jorge Bocobo, Bue­ naventura Rodriguez, and Vi­ dal A. Tan before the 'close of the third decade. This note of freedom became more evi­ dent during the later years of the American colonial re­ gime and during the early years of the Commonwealth. The impact of American de­ mocracy and technology was felt in all segments of socie­ ty but particularly those that had gone to school under the American-b u i 11 Philippine educational system. As might be expected, most of the lea­ dership of this movement came from the University of the Philippines, the capstone of that educational system. V. Late American Colonial and Commonwealth This covers the last years of the American colonial re­ gime, the establishment of the Commonwealth, and the out­ break of the war, when there was a resurgence of nation­ alism. This period may be traced to the beginning of the American business depression and the passage, largely be74 Panorama . cause of pressure from eco­ nomic groups adversely affec­ ted by Philippine products entering the American mar­ ket free of duty, of the law by the American Congress granting independence to the Philippines after a ten-year transition period. Of course it should end around the year of Philippine independence. This was an era that be­ gan with hopes for the new independent nation that was a-building, despite the worldw i d e business depression which ushered in the Hitler regime, and wound up in the maelstrom of war. It was a great era for the Filipinos both as individual members of the national community and as the national communi­ ty themselves. Two representative works in the earlier part of this period were Salvador P. Lo­ pez’s Literature and Society (1940) and R. Zulueta da Cos­ ta’s Like the Molave (1940). Although critical of the faults and shortcomings of their own people, both young men expressed faith in their people’s ability to build a strong independent nation. One of them dreamed of “gods walking on brown legs”. The other did not believe merely in aestheticism but in full-blooded proletarian lite­ rature. Both of these works won major prizes in the Common­ wealth literary contests which were established in 1939 by President Manuel L. Quezon upon the strong recommend­ ation of the Philippine Wri­ ters’ League, to promote the development of literature in English, Tagalog, and Spanish, which derives its importance from its treatment of socially significant problems. There was heated controversy over this avowed objective of the Writers’ League. This quarrel raged for more than two years, and was put to a stop only after the awarding of the prizes in the second year of the contests, when the Ja­ panese attacked the Philip­ pines in December 1941. That attack was the most cogent argument for the stand of the League. Carlos B u 1 o s a n’s The Laughter of My Father (1944) is a burlesque on Philippine small-town and country life during the early years of the period. But his America is in the Heart (1946), although it begins as a picture of poverty and social degradation in both the Philippines and the Ame­ rican west coast, ends on a note of faith in-American de­ mocracy as a result of the heroic performance of the Fi­ lipino and American soldiers in the Battle of Bataan. Juan October 196| 75 C. Laya’s His Native Soil (1941) is the story of a Fili­ pino repatriate from America who, after being told his fur­ ther stay in America was no longer welcome, could not ad­ just himself in the society to which he had returned. It is not an inspiring picture of pre-war Philippine society in a small provincial town. His next novel, This Barangay (1950), however, which is •about life in wartime Philip­ pines, is a reaffirmation of fatih in a better future for the country because of the war and enemy occupation. Three other novels about the war strike the same note of faith in freedom and de­ mocracy as a way of life for the Philippines. Javellana’s Without Seeing the Dawn (1947), as the title indicates, is an eloquent affirmation of that faith. It shows most ele­ ments of the population as contributing their little bit for the liberation of the coun­ try from the invaders, inclu­ ding even the prostitute who did service to the Japanese soldiers in -the hope that her disease -would be contracted by the enemy soldiers. E.K. Tiempo’s Watch in the Night (1953) and More Than Conquerors (1959), especially the latter, echo the same note as Javellana’s novel. The spirit shown by the. conquered in the latter novel was more in­ domitable than that of the conquerors. The leading wo­ man in the story, who is the mistress of a Japanese offi­ cer, makes possible the free­ dom of a Filipino prisoner who had been condemned to death, at the cost of her own life. Although not written in the same vein, Nick Joaquin’s Portrait of the Artist as Fili­ pino (1952) is nevertheless a glorification of the Old City of Manila, and all that it stood for, which had been destroyed by the war. It is a picture of the pre-war Wall­ ed City — especially of a Ca­ tholic family and its head, the artist, who refused to compromise his own integri­ ty as a Filipino and as an ar­ tist for greater affluence. VI. National and Contem­ porary The national scene since 1946 has not been very clear; in certain areas it Is quite confused. The development of the Filipino nation-state since its establishment has not. been very steady;, in. fact it has been, reflected in: much of the. literature produced. Only a few. of . the representa­ tive works of this period can be discussed here. Rigodon .(1958), a fulllength play by A. O. B.ayot, 76 Panorama gives a picture of the rich land-owning and globe-trott­ ing class of our society. The main woman-character, how­ ever, is given a social cons­ cience and rebels against her own class. Although dealing with an aspect of PhilippineAmerican relations during the war years and a little after, You Lovely People (1955), by B. N. Santos, will hold more significance during the pre­ sent period because of the as yet unremoved irritants in Philippine-American r e 1 ations. In La Via: A Spiritual Journey (1958), Ricaredo Demetillo points out the way to spiritual bliss from the spiri­ tual morass of the present, not through asceticism or mortification of the flesh but through the proper exercise of the psychosomatic func­ tions of the body. “We have begun to see authoritatively,” the poet says in his preface, “that nature herself has set up sex as the amative bath to invigorate the human psy­ cho, a reservoir which can last almost indefinitely unless its sources are dammed up by fears and guilts.” It ends with a beautiful because po­ sitive and harmonious song to the “Lady,” a goddess of beauty arid begetter of gods and poetry. “Fairy Tale, for a City” by Estrella Alton seems to have a theme simi­ lar to that of La Via, but the voyager fails to attain bliss at the end of the voyage and dis­ covers, to his dismay, spirit­ ual hypocrisy instead. The Women Who Had Two Navels (1951), another of Nick Joaquin’s pieces indicting Fi­ lipino society of the present, describes the sub-rosa activi­ ties of two Filipino women commuting between Manila and Hongkong in the post­ war years. A story depicting sordid life, it leaves one with a feeling of puzzlement that there could be such a Manila as pictured by Joaquin, a city of dirt and slime — a veri­ table human wasteland. N. V. M. Gonzalez’s latest novel, The Bamboo Dancers (1959), also pictures Filipinos in rela­ tion to other peoples, a broa­ der subject matter than that dealt in his previous novels The action involves America. Japan, and the Philippines, and the characters include Filipinos, Japanese, and Ame­ ricans. As the title itself in­ dicates, the novel seems to be symbolic of the opportunism of present-day Filipino socie­ ty. Like the skillful bamboo dancers, the Filipino’s main ambition seems to be to get along cleverly and well in life and his chief concern is not to get caught in the toils of the law. October 1961 77 VII. The Past Few Years Notwithstanding the ob­ vious lack of a sense of direc­ tion in creative work during recent years, there has been much productive activity ne­ vertheless, especially during 1960. And that is what seems important — to be produc­ tive. Sooner or later the wri­ ters will find their own bear­ ings and feel a new sense of direction. A self-respecting in­ dependent people will redis­ cover their own integrity as a people and this discovery will inspire the birth of a new literature, which will be a faithful expression of a rein­ vigorated national soul. There has been a perceptible trend toward such a direction. The Republic Cultural Heritage Awards could be a sign of such a reawakening to the possibilities of the future on the basis of the national he­ ritage. The promotional aspect of this literary movement has been reenforced during the past year. In addition to the Palanca memorial, Free Press, and Zobel awards in litera­ ture and the Standard Vac­ uum Awards in journalism, there is now the Stonehill fellowship award for the no­ vel in English, sponsored by the Philippines Center .of PEN International. The University of the Philippines for its own part held literary contests in the novel, drama, poetry, and short story in connection with its golden jubilee. And of course there was the first post-war National Writers’ Conference held in Baguio late in 1958 under the auspi­ ces of the Philippine Center of PEN International. Modes­ tly, it can be claimed that that conference had a catalyzing effect on the writers, not ne­ cessarily towards a more in­ tense nationalist direction, but certainly towards more intense creative activity. Al­ so, the visit of such great in­ ternational figures like the philosophers Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Sidney Hook and of such lesser lights as Edmundo Blunden, James Sa­ xon Childers and Hortense Calisher could not but have stimulated more intellectual and creative activity. Therefore there is hope of more and better literary pro­ duction in the hear future. VIII. Some Observations As an expression of the ex­ perience of the Filipino peo­ ple through the centuries, Philippine 1 i t e r a ture, as roughly outlined in this short study, constitutes a rich source of material for the stu­ dy of a variegated culture with great potentials for de­ 78 Panorama velopment. As a result of ac­ culturation to more advanced cultures of both East and West, the culture of the Phil­ ippines today represents a unique product of the blend­ ing of basic Oriental traits and assimilated Western ele­ ments. Although still retain­ ing many of the characteris­ tics of the Oriental “status” society, the Filipino people are slowly emerging into the essentially “contractual” so­ ciety of the modern Occident. The society described in Bantugan and Maragtas is different from the society pic­ tured in Noli Me Tangere and Urbana at Felisa, while the society pictured in the later works is quite different from the society that constitutes the matrix of Without Seeing the Dawn and Rigodon. There is definitely more freedom in the later than in the earlier Philippine societies, even if the basic factors are not changed. With the cultural influen­ ces now at work, which are reflected in contemporary Philippine writing, it should not be difficult to evolve in the Philippines a new and vi­ gorous cultural system that will embody in itself the choicest elements of both the Western and Eastern cultural traditions. A cultural system of this kind should be in a good position to contribute to peace, understanding, and goodwill among the peoples of the world. LAUNDRY-DRYING IN THE ROOM The washing needs no longer to be hanged out on the line. An electric dryer will dry it conven­ iently inside the room. The Francksche Eisenwerke Company of Adolf shutte-Dilleriburg in Hesse makes an “Oranier” Laundry Dryer, a small white box with six bars over which the laundry is hanged. Drying requires from 30 to 90 minutes according to the type and wetness of the wash­ ing. An electric blower drives warm air of 60 deg­ ree centigrade from top to bottom. The dryer is mobile with wheels, and it can be used for heat­ ing the room also. It takes a charge of 10 lbs., in­ cluding nylon and perlon. OCTOBER 1961 Criteria for the giving Standard in Development Countries If the ruler of an oil-rich sheikdom of the Persian Gulf receives high royalties and profit percentages from a foreign oil concern, statistics on the per-capita-income in this small country—small, when going by the population figure—jump. But the slum-huts housing the fishermen, the primitive camps of the camel shep­ herds, the clay “houses” of the oasis peasants still tell as little about a high standard of living as do the corrugated sheet-iron barracks of the workers in the oil fields. If the per-capita-income is measured within political frontiers of a state instead of within economically linked regions, there is at once a source of mis-apprehensions (though, of course, not of er­ rors because the mathema­ tics are correct). If the spread of incomes can not be shown statistically, the pic­ ture may be so distorted as are the reflections in a con­ cave mirror. There-surely are statistical methods for the true balanc­ ing-out of the spread-factors, but there are no reliable data for the factual spread: no bazar-merchant, high ranking civil servant or policeman will readily disclose his real income, and any evaluation in terms of money of the “ra­ tions” of the lowest clases is extremely difficult. The Quality-Quantity Problems It may be immensely dif­ ficult to express values es­ tablished in the local curren­ cy in terms of a realistic rate of exchange related to the ac­ tual purchasing power of a local currency and thus al­ lowing for international com­ parisons—but, this is nonethe­ less possible. The real difficulty is in the nature of the “comparison problem” between quality and quantity, sociological and economic evidence. We know these difficulties from attempts to calculate the economic values of “cul­ tural demand” or “training investments”, the “prestige value” or “status”, from our own experience. Particularly the advertising industry faces 80 Panorama time and again the problem that economic figure-standdards and “imponderables” are not comparable. This has indeed been the cause of a number of bankcruptcies as a result of unforeseen trends in the public’s taste. In evaluating the standard of living it is perhaps not necessary at all to side-step into a third and only alleged­ ly common level of the mo­ ney value. Perhaps there are objective standards. Search for an Objective Standard The search for them is go­ ing on all the time, anyway. One has constructed “con­ sumer baskets”, one has com­ pared, calories’ quantities, one has also tried to include mini m u m requirements for clothes or houses. There are obvious objec­ tions against these endeav­ ours: Allegedly, one quarter of a litre of wine belongs to the daily minimum for “the” Frenchman, whereas he will willingly abstain from con­ suming the Russian oatmeal. The minimum demand for spices is probably higher in Africa or Asia than it is in the case of the prosperous people in Europe. An Eskimo certainly needs more clothes than an inhabitant of a Paci­ fic island, and the housing problem is quite different in Southern Europe than in Central Europe, Canada or Cuba. On the strength of these ob­ jections the attempts to ar­ rive at an objective standard should, however, not be aban­ doned. But they call for mo­ desty on behalf of all con­ cerned, because neither the economist, the sociologist, doctor of medicine or the technical expert, can alone solve the problem without all-round liaison and coopera­ tion. It will not be possible quickly to arrive at actual figures, rather will it be ne­ cessary initially to agree on quantitative standards. Climatically Comparable Areas It is no longer the case that groups belonging to different levels of culture or prosperity live exclusively within cer­ tain latitudes. There are peo­ ple of all cultural groups in all climatic zones: there are Negroes in Alaska as well as North-Europeans in the equa­ torial belt. There even are closed-in areas with a recog­ nized high standard of re­ quirements in zones previous­ ly reserved for other groups of the society—such exam­ ples are Hawaii or NorthEastern Australia. October 1961 81 One should in the beginning not set universal patterns but, instead, compare only climatically comparable areas with each other. It is, for ins­ tance, possible that air-con­ ditioned installations in the hot zone contribute towards indolence or comfort; it is equally possible that air-con­ ditioning has favourable psy­ chological influences on health, appetite, working per­ formance and mental capa­ bilities. Once these aspects have been clearly varified—but not before—it will be .possible to try and establish their econo­ mic value. It is also necessary to find out whether air-condi­ tioning has been installed in only one room of each dwel­ ling house, public building (such as Government of­ fices), hospital, school and large shopping centres or whether there is air-condi­ tioning throughout the floor space. Perhaps the value of an air-conditioning system is after all only limited when compared with the tradition­ al building style in climati­ cally hot ountries? Between the extreme of a modem house with electric air-conditioning and the hot and sticky mud-hut there are, however, many ^radiations; other factors—sucn as the building density, water sup­ ply, sanitary facilities, the cleanliness or the neighbour­ ing vegetation — are often more important for comfort and psychological effect than all technical building details together. It is equally possi­ ble to think in terms of a value-scale taking into ac­ count such things as protec­ tion against the heat of the sun. wind, rain, inquisity, theft, dangerous animals or insects, as well as other as­ pects: supply with fresh air, lighting, cleaning, durability, earthquake-proof. For in­ stance. on the Indian-Pakis­ tani sub-continent it is quite possible to evaluate the fenc­ ing of open verandas, which is as expensive as it adds to comfort and health. Tangible characteristics of this kind can be established also in the field of clothing, food, learning and training or health, preservation. It is for instance controversial whether whisky really contri­ butes towards a high living standard in development countries. It has also not been established whether tinned pork represents a necessity in hot climates. It is, however, not open to doubt that not merely calories are required for the preservation of the full working capacity, but a2 Panorama proteins and animal fats. Whether a woman wears a sari, a loin cloth or a cotton dress can be left out of the considerations—not so, how­ ever, the necessities of min­ imum protection from weath­ er and insects, as well as from others’ view, in colour­ ful and tasteful tissues not irritating for the skin and which are available in suffi­ cient variety and quantities Standards Arising from the Practice In other words: in finding standards from day-to-day practical experience and ob­ servations we must abstain from basing our evaluations on questionable original sta­ tistic^ and, should, instead, endeavour to develop — from inter-disciplinary spade-work — concrete standards arising from the practice... stand­ ards which are of importance for the economic-social eva­ luation and commercial mar­ ket prospects. * * Romantic or interest-condi­ tioned gossip that this group or the other is said not to want this or the other im­ provement may well be left out. It may of course be that some families did not like to go over from potatoes and in­ ferior fats to a more differ­ entiated diet. It has all the same been established that this change-over was good for them. Many people on our earth may not have a de­ sire for electric current or healthier drinking water be­ cause their power of imagi­ nation has up to now been limited. Nevertheless, the transformation from the light-less night to the lamp or the waterpool via the well to the water-tap should, and can, be evaluated. Science has a chance to prove, on the example of the working-out of standard mea­ sures, whether in the age of development aid it will and can face the mastering of tasks of this nature. CONSTANCY His companion bent over the dying man, to catch the last faintly whispered words. The ut­ terance came with pitiful feebleness, yet with sufficient clearness: “I am dying—yes. Go to Fannie. Tell her— I died—with her name—on my lips, that L—loved her—her alone always ... And Jennie—tell Jen­ nie—the same thing.” October 1961 THE MUSES GO OUT IN SUMMER Although in June or July of every year the generouslysubsidized German theatres and opera-houses close for the summertime, theatrical and musical events are likely as not to be offered. The stages that are chosen for the sum­ mertime theatrical and musi­ cal events are likely as not to be the courtyards and gardens of castles and palaces. These often provide settings more spendid and enchanting than any indoor stage’s painted canvas can offer. Authentic Settings for Historical Dramas What is more, on some of these outdoor stages an un­ surpassable authenticity of setting can be achieved— namely, when a play is enact­ ed at the very place where the events that it portrays took place. An excellent example of this is picturesque Castle Jag­ sthausen, in the south-west­ ern part of Wurttemberg. This castle was once the seat of the famous knight Gotz von Berlichingen; now, every year in July and August, Goethe‘s drama Gotz von Berlichingen is performed in its courtyard. A similarly appropriate event takes place at Rothen­ burg, on the Tauber, which, with its well-preserved me­ dieval houses, is a great tour­ ist attraction at any time of year. There, a play entitled Der Meistertrunk (The Mas­ ter-Draught), recalling an event of the Thirty Year’s War (1618-1648), is perform­ ed. History has it that Rothen­ burg’s burgomaster saved his town from being ravaged by accepting a challenge. He managed to drink at one draught a beaker of wine so 84 Panorama large as to confound his chal­ lenger Field Marshal Tilly. The Flemish strategist had stipulated the successful downing of the “master draught” as the condition on which the town might be saved—and, in expecting the burgomaster to fail, un­ derestimated a Rothenbur­ ger’s capacities under stress of patriotism. Every summer, too, the courtyard of Nuremberg Cas­ tle serves as a stage for folk plays by Hans Sachs. This 16th-century shoemaker and poet of Nuremberg was later immortalised by Richard Wagner in his Meistersinger. Cloisters and Town Walls as Backdrops Besides courtyards, a great number of other venerable settings are used as stages for summertime theatre fes­ tivals, whether or not they happen to have any historic links with the subject-mat­ ter of the plays performed. One of the most striking examples of such setting is the thousand year old cathe­ dral church in Bad Hersfeld, which has been a singularly picturesque, roofless ruin ever since it was war-damaged in 1761. It is the scene of an annual theatre festival that is under the patronage of the Federal President. Not long ago, the producer Wil­ liam Dieterle—of Hollywood fame —was put in charge of the Hersfeld festivals. This year, the plays he staged there included works by Aes­ chylus, Shakespeare and the contemporary American play-wright Archibald MacI.eish. And Hugo von Hof­ mannsthal’s Das grosse Welt­ theater—ideally suited as it is for outdoor presentation—is performed every year at Bad Hersfeld. Another place where this Austrian author’s works are a familiar part of every sum­ mer is the small Wurttemberg town of SchwabischHall. There, on the broad steps of St. Michael’s church, one or another of his plays is performed year after year. Among the more notable outdoor festivals, one with an entirely “classical” reper­ toire. is a summertime event at Luisenburg (Franconia). In the same “classical” cate­ gory are the performances in the cloister of the monastry at Feuchtwangen (Franco­ nia). So are those at Augs­ burg (Swabia), which take place in front of a particular­ ly beautiful gate in the old town wall. Along Rhine and Ruhr Even places as world-fam­ ed as the Rhine and its Lo­ Octobe* 1961 8S relei are recruited as theatre settings in summer. On the waters of the Rhine at Koblenz there is a floating, anchored stage where comic­ opera performances are of­ fered. In an open-air theatre on -the Lorelei Rock, high above those same waters, well-known actors and actres­ ses interpret the classics of German dramatic art: the plays of Goethe and Schil­ ler. An especially lively even­ ing is promised by a visit to the open-air theatre of Bad Segeberg, in the northern province of Holstein. This theatre is devoted to drama­ tic versions of the works of Karl May, whose . romantic adventure stories about Am­ erican Indians have fired the imaginations of several gen­ erations of German boys and girls—and their parents. Special mention is due the Ruhr Festival at Recklingha­ usen. It stands out not only for its scope and quality but also for the. fact that it is organised in particular for miners and steel workers of West Germany’s chief.indus­ trial area. Music in Baroque Castle Gardens Not only dramatic art, however, comes into •'its suirimertime splendour in out­ door settings replete with his­ torical reminiscences. Music goes outdoors, too. Favourite settings for summer concerts are Germany’s Baroque pa­ laces, with their spacious parks and terraces. Concerts and operas are presented at the Hanoverian Schloss Herrenhausen (which has one of the loveliest gardens of its kind‘in all of Europe), Sch­ loss Pommersfelden (Franco­ nia); Schloss Nymphenburg (Munich); Schloss Bruhl (be­ tween Cologne and Bonn); Schloss Schwetzingen (near Mannheim); Schloss Eutin (Holstein) and Schloss Ans­ bach (Franconia). Nor does the Heidelberg Schloss, dear­ est of all to the hearts of countless tourists, fait to pro­ vide music in its courtyard on summer nights. But for music, as for works of the theatre, other types of outdoor settings are also chosen; Then concerts that take place in the Gothic cloister of the former Monestry Alprisbach (Black Forest) are particularly po­ pular events of the German summer. The International Level Another category of sum­ mer festivals devoted1 to the arts , is that nf the big, inter­ national; often world-famous Panorama. events. Some of these take place not in borrowed set­ tings but in their own thea­ tre buildings. First among them, no doubt, is the Ri­ chard Wagner Festival in the theatre that has been special­ ly built for it at Bayreuth. This year, as every year, well-known Wagner operas will be performed there — Tannhauser, Der fliegende Hollander, Parsifal, Die Meis­ tersinger von Nurnberg, Ring der Nibelungen. Summer festivals are also sponsored by the opera house of Munich in the old Residenztheater and the Prinzregententheater, both of which look back on a long stage tradition. This year, the pro­ gramme includes a contem­ porary opera—by Hans Wer­ ner Henze — and Wagner, Strauss and Mozart operas. Towns that regularly devote their summer festivals to a single composer are Wurz­ burg, with its Mozart Festi­ val, and Stuttgart, with “Bee­ thoven Days”. Hitzacker, a small town situated on the western bank of the Elbe River, directly on the de­ marcation line that separates West Germany from the So­ viet Zone, initiated its “Sum­ mer Days of Music” shortly after the end of the war; they are devoted chiefly to chamber music, and have be­ come increasingly popular year by year. Only the most significant theatrical summer events have been mentioned here. The visitor to Germany at this season will, however, find many another place throughout the country where artists and audiences are making the most of the long twilights and mild wea­ ther of the Central European summer. Many of the less famous events have the same ele­ ments of charm that charac­ terize the outdoor festivals for which people make reser­ vations weeks—or months— in advance. For example, the visitor to Bonn during the warm time of the year might do well to learn if a chamber­ music concert happens to be scheduled in the circular court, open to the sky, of the Poppelsdorf Schlob, which is on the outskirts of the Fe­ deral Republic’s capital. Whether world-known, or merely “local” and casual, these outdoor events in the German cultural calendar all have pleasing elements in common. They blend the mu­ sic of instruments or the hu­ man voice with the forms of time-mellowed architecture, under a ceiling of summer skies. October 1961 87 THE I.L.O. STORY Created in 1919, under the Treaty of Versailles which put an end to the first world war, the International Labour Organization (I.L.O.) is devo­ ted to the principle of impro­ ving living and working con­ ditions throughout the world since the poverty of certain peoples is a threat and an im­ pediment to the common pros­ perity * . Originally an associa­ ted body of the League of Nations, the I.L.O. became a United Nations agency after the end of the second world war; it is, indeed, the only world organization created in the aftermath of the first world war that survived the second conflict and its objec­ tives are still based on social progress. The sphere of action assign­ ed the I.L.O. under its Sta­ tute (Part XIII of the Versail­ les Treaty) includes control of working periods, the 8hour day and 48-hour week, recruiting of labour, reduction of unemployment, adequate wages, protection of workers against organic and occupa­ tional diseases, safeguarding of workers against accidents, abolition of child labour and special protection of young persons and women, old age. and disability pensions, equi­ table treatment of foreign workers, equal pay for equal work, free trade union asso­ ciation, organization of voca­ tional training and technical instruction for workers. These objectives were reaffirmed in the ‘Philadelphia Declaration’ of 1944. and included in the Statute. Upon this, the I.L.O. devoted itself to carrying out a vast programme that cover­ ed full employment and a bet­ ter standard of living for workers, employment of a worker in that type of job which enables him to produce the best results, possibilities for everyone to receive wa­ ges that ensure the minimum necessary, the widespread use of safety measures, adequate protection against risk, medi­ cal assistance, special mea­ sures for expectant and nur­ sing mothers in industry, ade­ quate and comfortable homes 88 Panorama and possibilities of improving and furthering technical skill. To reach such objectives, the I.L.O. follows a threefold path: drafting of internation­ al laws on labour and assis­ tance and consultation on so­ cial questions, documentation and publication of regulations concerning the principal la­ bour problems. Under the or­ ganization, workers, employ­ ers and government expo­ nents contribute towards de­ ciding a common policy to be adopted and, at the same time, they supervise activities. It is the participation of emplo­ yers and workers that distin­ guishes this organization from any other intergovern­ mental body. The organs of the I.L.O. are as follows: the «International Labour Conference * , chief authority of the organi­ zation, whose main task is to establish international labour laws. Each member of the I.L.O. (1) is represented at the annual meetings of the conference by two Govern­ ment delegates, a representa­ tive of the workers and a rep­ resentative of employers; the •Executive * , composed o f twenty Government repre­ sentatives, ten representatives of the workers and ten rep­ resentatives of employers; the «International Labour Of­ fice * (better known as the B.I.T. (Bureau International du Travail), the permanent secretariat. The B.I.T., with its head offices in Geneva, consists of 800 officials re­ cruited from more than six­ ty nations. Since 1948, it has been headed by David A. Morse, former U.S. Undersec­ retary for Labour. The B.I.T. prepares the annual report to the conference and other meetings arranged by the I.L.O. In this way, it guides and coordinates the work of experts from the various member states, provides in­ formation on the results achieved and gives particu­ lars of the decisions approv­ ed, often using its many pub­ lications as a medium. In order to study and pos­ sibly solve many specific problems, the I.L.O. has crea­ ted a certain number of •commissions * and •commit­ tees * , some permanent, others of a temporary character. Since 1945, ten industrial committees have been ap­ pointed to examine questions relative to mining, internal transport, iron and steel, me­ chanical industry, textiles, building, civil engineering and public works, oil and che­ mical industries, etc. Meet­ ings of these committees are attended by two representa­ tives of the workers, two rep­ resentatives of employers and October 1961 89 two' representatives of the .go­ vernments of those countries in which the industry under discussion is considered to be at an advanced stage. Labour questions peculiar to one country are examined during regional conferences held by the I.L.O. while various other commissions and committees have been created to examine special aspects of the field of labour (Maritime Commis­ sion, the Consultative Com­ mittee on Africa, the Consul­ tative Committee on Asia, the Permanent Agricultural Com­ mittee, the Committee of Ex­ perts for Social Security). International laws adopted by the conference in relation to labour (conventions and recommendations) are inclu­ ded in an «International La­ bour Code * . Up to the begin­ ning of 1960, the International Labour conference had adop­ ted 114 conventions and 112 recommendations. The regu­ lations in some of these have been modified so that they meet the changed require­ ments of the labour world. These conventions may, in a certain sense, be compared to treaties, for the countries that ratify them are pledged to execute the norms they con­ tain; recommendations, on the other hand, act as a useful guide to the social policy followed by the various member countries. A great deal of time is required for their drafting and represen­ tatives of all the eighty mem­ ber nations of the I.L.O. par­ ticipate in this important ope­ ration, for it is essential that such regulations or suggest­ ions express the general opin­ ion. Since its foundation, the I.L.O. has given a great deal of active assistance to the execution of policy. The or­ ganization’s operations in this particular field have increas­ ed considerably since the in­ troduction of the-United Na­ tions assistance programme, and they are held to be among the most important of the agency’s undertakings at the present time. Since 1959, the I.L.O. has been a member of the United Nations’ Spe­ cial Fund for Economic De­ velopment; the organization has chiefly limited its inter­ vention to those countries that are considered to be un­ der-developed, so that these may reach a stage of being able to benefit from the tech­ nical and structural expe­ rience of highly industrial nations. During the last ten years, on the request of in­ dividual governments, the or­ ganization has sent more than 2,000 experts on various missions and awarded over 300 scholarships. In 1959, six­ 90 Panorama ty two nations and territories received I.L.O. aid under the technical assistance program­ me (in the form of vocation­ al training, rehabilitation of persons disabled through la­ bour accidents, rational em­ ployment of manpower). On a regional scale, aid has been coordinated with special agencies in Bangalore (India) for Asia, at Istambul for the Middle and Near East, at Li­ ma for South America, Me­ xico City for Mexico, the An­ tilles and Central America and at Lagos for Africa. Generally speaking, the real value of such programmes lies in their appeal to any coun­ try desiring to make use of the experience and know­ ledge of nations with differ­ ent economic and social de­ velopment stages .arid of the assistance of civil and cultu­ ral associations. The I.L.O. has recently un­ dertaken an educational prog­ ramme for workers (courses, conferences, furnishing of au­ diovisual apparatus) and vo­ cational training schemes (training of technical person­ nel, management, etc.), prin­ cipally addressed to those countries .that are now un­ dergoing strong economic and industrial expansion and, in 1960, decided upon the foun­ dation of an «International Institute of Social Studies * in Geneva, for the purpose of furthering a better understan­ ding of labour problems in all nations and finding the most suitable solutions. ♦ * AN AMPHIBIAN CAR FOR EVERYBODY The Industriewerke Company of Karlsruhe is just starting an assembly line for an amphibian car in its Lubeck factory. This amphibian automo­ bile for civilian, private use will be known as the amphicar. The first 25,000 amphicars are bound for the American market. The amphicar looks like an ordinary car with four wheels and four seats. It is powered by a 1200 ccm four-stroke en­ gine with four cylinders. On the road it does 75 miles per hour. You can drive it straight into any river or lake, switching the engine over to a cou­ ple of plastic propellers in the rear. This converts the car into a boat, though in water it does only six to seven miles per hour. Still, here is a car which can be used as a motor-boat, and no longer depends on bridges. October 1961 91 BEER AND THE... (Continued from page 2) Nine out of ten adult Ger­ mans occasionally drink beer. Many drink it regularly, oth­ ers use it only to quench their thirst. Every region enjoys its type of local brew. For exam­ ple, in North Germany a light­ coloured, strong beer, rich in alcohol is preferred. Usually pure and strong hard liquors are taken with the beer. This habit will even make the somewhat reserved and surly inhabitants of the Northern provinces pleasant, amusing and sociable fellow-citizens, the Soiitheners say. It is a fallacy to think that in the Rhineland, where the famous German wine is grown, less beer is drunk. For a few rural areas this may be true, but in the large cities, like Duesseldorf and Cologne, people like to crowd around the bar in pubs, and to talk over a glass of dark “old beer.” In South Germany, how­ ever, people order their beer in mugs, known also as steins, taking as much as one litre. F^eiou tourists apparently like Bavarian beer; for many of them are regularly seen en­ joying it, in old pubs. This beer is a little sweeter, and has a little less alcohol than the northern brews. Experts say that there are no less than 800 different brews of beer in Germany. The figures, how­ ever, show that although beer is popular here, the German nation does not drink more than other people. On the con­ trary, several other countries are known to consume more per capita, but proverbially the Germans are held to be a beer-drinking nation. * * * AN ELECTRIC BAROMETER A household barometer indicating by a green or red lamp whether air-pressure is 'increasing or decreasing is made by the Moco Barometer Company of Hamburg-Stellingen. The barome­ ter is plugged to the electric line like any other electric device, and needs only 0.2 watts. It is automatic, and requires no service. 92 Panorama Republic of the Philippines Department of Public Works and Communication! BUREAU OF POSTS Manila SWORN STATEMENT (Required by Act 2580) The undersigned, C. A. MARAMAG, business manager of PANORAMA, published monthly in English at Inverness corner De las Alas Streets, Sta. Ana, Manila, after having been duly sworn in accordance with law, hereby submits the following state­ ment of ownership, management, circulation, etc., which is required by Act .2580, as amended by Commonwealth Act No. 201: Name Editor: Armando J. Malay Business Manager: C. A. Maramag Owner: Community Publishers, Inc. Publisher: Community Publishers, Inc. Printer: Community Publishers, Inc. Office of Publication: C. P. I. Address Inverness cor. De las Alas Sts., Manila Inverness cor. De las Alas Sts., Manila Inverness cor. De las Alas Sts.. Manila Inverness cor. De las Alas Sts.. Manila Inverness cor. De las Alas Sts., Manila Inverness cor. De las Alas Sts.. Manila If publication is owned by a corporation, stockholders owning one per cent or more of the total amount of stocks: SOFIA S. SINCO Inverness cor. De las Alas Sts.. Manila ARTURO G. SINCO Inverness cor. De las Alas Sts., Manila . LEANDRO G. SINCO Inverness cor. De las Alas Sts., Manila Bondholders, mortgages, or other security holders owning one per cent or more of total amount of security: NONE In case of publication other than daily, total number of copies printed and circulated of the last issue dated July 1960. 1. Sent to paid subscribers ........................................................................... 7,200 2. Sent to others than paid subscribers ........................................................ 150 Total ................................................................................................ 7.350 (Sgd.'l CONSTANCIA A. MARAMAG Business Manager Subscribed and sworn to before me this 4th day of October, 1961 at Manila, the affiant exhibiting his Residence Certificate No. A-248454 issued at Manila, on 2-10-61. ISgd.) AMBROSIO SAN PEDRO Postal Inspector NOTE: This form is exempt from the payment of documentary stamp tax. ACT 2580 REQUIRES THAT THIS SWORN STATEMENT BE FILED WITH THE BUREAU OF POSTS ON APRIL 1 AND OCTOBER 1 OF EACH YEAR. "The heart of the Philippines is in the country, and the heart of the country is in the land"
ty two nations and territories received I.L.O. aid under the technical assistance program­ me (in the form of vocation­ al training, rehabilitation of persons disabled through la­ bour accidents, rational em­ ployment of manpower). On a regional scale, aid has been coordinated with special agencies in Bangalore (India) for Asia, at Istambul for the Middle and Near East, at Li­ ma for South America, Me­ xico City for Mexico, the An­ tilles and Central America and at Lagos for Africa. Generally speaking, the real value of such programmes lies in their appeal to any coun­ try desiring to make use of the experience and know­ ledge of nations with differ­ ent economic and social de­ velopment stages .arid of the assistance of civil and cultu­ ral associations. The I.L.O. has recently un­ dertaken an educational prog­ ramme for workers (courses, conferences, furnishing of au­ diovisual apparatus) and vo­ cational training schemes (training of technical person­ nel, management, etc.), prin­ cipally addressed to those countries .that are now un­ dergoing strong economic and industrial expansion and, in 1960, decided upon the foun­ dation of an «International Institute of Social Studies * in Geneva, for the purpose of furthering a better understan­ ding of labour problems in all nations and finding the most suitable solutions. ♦ * AN AMPHIBIAN CAR FOR EVERYBODY The Industriewerke Company of Karlsruhe is just starting an assembly line for an amphibian car in its Lubeck factory. This amphibian automo­ bile for civilian, private use will be known as the amphicar. The first 25,000 amphicars are bound for the American market. The amphicar looks like an ordinary car with four wheels and four seats. It is powered by a 1200 ccm four-stroke en­ gine with four cylinders. On the road it does 75 miles per hour. You can drive it straight into any river or lake, switching the engine over to a cou­ ple of plastic propellers in the rear. This converts the car into a boat, though in water it does only six to seven miles per hour. Still, here is a car which can be used as a motor-boat, and no longer depends on bridges. October 1961 91
Meer and the Germans Marl is Post The popular notion that beer is the “national bever­ age” of the German nation ap­ pears to be justified in a way by figures, for statisticians have found out that last year every citizen in the Federal Republic of Germany con­ sumed 95 litres of beer on an average. Beer brewers can be satisfied with their annual sale of 53.7 million hectolitres. And yet: it would be wrong to call the Germans a nation of beer drinkers. They con­ sume and love many other types of beverages, and there are regions with a very small beer consumption. Beer, how­ ever, nourishes and has also been called “liquid bread” by many people. Beer definitely is popular, and always has been: an old German law of 1564 says that this beverage must be made only from four basic compo­ nents—barley, hops, yeast and water. This law in essence is still valid today, and strictly adhered to. German beer grows ever more popular ab­ road, as the. export figures show. In 1960 no less than 915,000 hectolitres of beer were exported, which is nine per cent more than in the prev­ ious year. Germany, however, is not the country were beer origin­ ated. The old people of Baby­ lon and of Egypt, five thou­ sand years ago, did already number this beverage amongst the basic elements of their diet. Greek and Roman historians later on reported that the original inhabitants of Germany, the Germanic tribes, were beer brewers. But the Germanic nations in those days loved another beverage much more dearly: mead, a beverage made of water and fermented honey. The oldest German brewe­ ries were established in the 12th century in Southern Ger­ many, where, by the way, more beer is consumed than elsewhere. Soon the art of beer brewing was known all over the country. World-fame came to German beer, how­ ever, only in the middle of the nineteenth, century, when due to a far-reaching modern­ ization of brewery operations, Germany became Number One amongst the beer brew­ ers in the world. (Continued on page 92) 2 Panorama BEER AND THE... (Continued from page 2) Nine out of ten adult Ger­ mans occasionally drink beer. Many drink it regularly, oth­ ers use it only to quench their thirst. Every region enjoys its type of local brew. For exam­ ple, in North Germany a light­ coloured, strong beer, rich in alcohol is preferred. Usually pure and strong hard liquors are taken with the beer. This habit will even make the somewhat reserved and surly inhabitants of the Northern provinces pleasant, amusing and sociable fellow-citizens, the Soiitheners say. It is a fallacy to think that in the Rhineland, where the famous German wine is grown, less beer is drunk. For a few rural areas this may be true, but in the large cities, like Duesseldorf and Cologne, people like to crowd around the bar in pubs, and to talk over a glass of dark “old beer.” In South Germany, how­ ever, people order their beer in mugs, known also as steins, taking as much as one litre. F^eiou tourists apparently like Bavarian beer; for many of them are regularly seen en­ joying it, in old pubs. This beer is a little sweeter, and has a little less alcohol than the northern brews. Experts say that there are no less than 800 different brews of beer in Germany. The figures, how­ ever, show that although beer is popular here, the German nation does not drink more than other people. On the con­ trary, several other countries are known to consume more per capita, but proverbially the Germans are held to be a beer-drinking nation. * * * AN ELECTRIC BAROMETER A household barometer indicating by a green or red lamp whether air-pressure is 'increasing or decreasing is made by the Moco Barometer Company of Hamburg-Stellingen. The barome­ ter is plugged to the electric line like any other electric device, and needs only 0.2 watts. It is automatic, and requires no service. 92 Panorama
CARDIAC INFARCT Walter Theimer Cardiac infarct is a fre­ quent cause of death. This ex­ plains the interest taken by life insurance companies in this particular disease. The Association of Life Insurance Companies at Karlsruhe has ma-de a study of heart in­ farct, frequently regarded as a “managers’ disease”, with the collaboration of many cli­ nics. Life insurance compa­ nies give financial support to research on cardiac infarct, Since they would obviously benefit from a decrease in infarct mortality. A High-Class Disease The analysis of 18,000 cases showed clearly that cardiac infarct is by no means a dis­ ease peculiar to “managers.” One-half of all cases are found in the upper classes, among manufacturers, office workers, government offi­ cials and in the professions with a university back­ ground. Manual workers par­ ticipate only to the extent of 20 per cent. The group known as managers has only the average mortality. Why the upper classes are more involved than others, is a problem still waiting for elu­ cidation. It is often said that psychological tension due to the race for customers and careers is responsible for the increase of infarct, and even automobile-driving is some­ times accused on account of the nervous tension it im­ plies. Yet these hypotheses are not proved. Members of the civil service have a safe career, but they get cardiac infarct much on the same scale as “managers” do. The fact that managerial people are not under greater danger from cardiac infarct than other upperclass people is cer­ tainly of interest to medical science and life insurance di­ rectors. Possibly nutrition and the general mode of liv­ ing have greater influence than people used to think. 58 Panorama The word “infarct” derives from Latin infarcire, to obs­ truct. A coronary artery is obstructed by a bolus, a small clot of coagulated blood. The bolus is produced at some place in the system and is carried into the coronary ar­ teries by the circulation. Why and where a bolus is produc­ ed, is another unsolved rid­ dle. Now in the region of the heart muscle supplied by the obstructed vessel the tissue dies because of lack of oxy­ gen and malnutrition. It be­ comes necrotic. Usually a white wedge is formed, its thin end pointing toward the bolus. About eight hours af­ ter the fixation of the bolus the well-known symptoms of breakdown appear. An infarct can end in death, but the pa­ tient may recover after two months. Infarcts can occur repeatedly. One prerequisite is a narrowing of the coro­ nary arteries, which may be due to sclerosis or perhaps even nervous tension. A deg­ ree of coronary sclerosis is practically normal in men of sixty and over. 76 per cent of the cases studied were men. Females have only a proportion of 24 per cent. Cardiac infarct is definitely a disease of men. One-fifth of the male cases occurred between the 55th and 59th years of life. Below 40 the proportion was less than 2‘per cent. The danger zone begins after 40. The in­ farct peak of women is be­ tween 65 and 58, a decade la­ ter than in males. The Preliminaries of Cardiac Infarct A high proportion of the patients had suffered from cardiac and circulatory trouble previous to * the infarct. An infarct often seems to come as a bolt from the blue, but in fact it is preceded by fairly long-term changes such as high pressure or an­ gina pectoris. The prelimina­ ry changes may pass un­ noticed. About 17 per cent of the cases had suffered from infarct before. The season is important. In­ farct is more numerous in winter and in the months of transition than in the sum­ mer months. January is the month most dangerous; Sun­ day is the day of an infarct minimum, while Monday is the peak. This may be due to ample and fat feeding on Sundays, combined. with smoking and drinking. Par­ ticularly the elderly are .in danger on Mondays. 85 per cent of the cases were smoker?. Still the pro­ blem of the connection beOCTOBEE 1961 ■59 MANY DIFFERENT KINDS OF GLASS NOW MADE Research is continually revealing new facts about the nature of glass and its potential uses, and is enabling glass manufacturing companies to make special types for different applications, according to a survey made by the National Geo­ graphic Society. As a result, glass is no longer a fragile mate­ rial of limited utility. In recent years scientists have created a number of tough and versatile “wonder glasses.” Some heat-resistant glasses, for example, can be baked until they are red hot and then plunged into ice water without breaking. A lead oxide glass cast in slabs 10 inches (25.4 centimeters) thick is almost as heavy as steel. It remains clear even when subjected to heavy atomic radiation. Tempered glass, made by heating glass until it begins to soften and then quickly cooling the surface, has the strength of cast iron. ♦ ♦ * tween smoking and heart in­ farct remains open. Despite the belief that fat food is responsible the recent study showed that light people are more endangered than hea­ vy ones. Tall men have more frequently infarct than smal­ ler men have. Yet on the whole it would seem that the influence of weight and size has been overrated. Thera­ peutically the narrowing of the coronary arteries is the point to be attacked? There are drugs widening those ves­ sels. In the case of sclerotic alteration this is possible on­ ly to a limited extent. Older men usually have a measure of sclerosis of the coronaries, and the trouble is part of the difficult problem of arte­ riosclerosis, refractory to ul­ timate explanation in spite of an enormous amount of research. Scientists are in­ clined to think that the ris­ ing consumption of fat plays some part. Yet this assump­ tion is far from proved, even if there are some impressive pointers. 60 Pamoxama
Criteria for the giving Standard in Development Countries If the ruler of an oil-rich sheikdom of the Persian Gulf receives high royalties and profit percentages from a foreign oil concern, statistics on the per-capita-income in this small country—small, when going by the population figure—jump. But the slum-huts housing the fishermen, the primitive camps of the camel shep­ herds, the clay “houses” of the oasis peasants still tell as little about a high standard of living as do the corrugated sheet-iron barracks of the workers in the oil fields. If the per-capita-income is measured within political frontiers of a state instead of within economically linked regions, there is at once a source of mis-apprehensions (though, of course, not of er­ rors because the mathema­ tics are correct). If the spread of incomes can not be shown statistically, the pic­ ture may be so distorted as are the reflections in a con­ cave mirror. There-surely are statistical methods for the true balanc­ ing-out of the spread-factors, but there are no reliable data for the factual spread: no bazar-merchant, high ranking civil servant or policeman will readily disclose his real income, and any evaluation in terms of money of the “ra­ tions” of the lowest clases is extremely difficult. The Quality-Quantity Problems It may be immensely dif­ ficult to express values es­ tablished in the local curren­ cy in terms of a realistic rate of exchange related to the ac­ tual purchasing power of a local currency and thus al­ lowing for international com­ parisons—but, this is nonethe­ less possible. The real difficulty is in the nature of the “comparison problem” between quality and quantity, sociological and economic evidence. We know these difficulties from attempts to calculate the economic values of “cul­ tural demand” or “training investments”, the “prestige value” or “status”, from our own experience. Particularly the advertising industry faces 80 Panorama time and again the problem that economic figure-standdards and “imponderables” are not comparable. This has indeed been the cause of a number of bankcruptcies as a result of unforeseen trends in the public’s taste. In evaluating the standard of living it is perhaps not necessary at all to side-step into a third and only alleged­ ly common level of the mo­ ney value. Perhaps there are objective standards. Search for an Objective Standard The search for them is go­ ing on all the time, anyway. One has constructed “con­ sumer baskets”, one has com­ pared, calories’ quantities, one has also tried to include mini m u m requirements for clothes or houses. There are obvious objec­ tions against these endeav­ ours: Allegedly, one quarter of a litre of wine belongs to the daily minimum for “the” Frenchman, whereas he will willingly abstain from con­ suming the Russian oatmeal. The minimum demand for spices is probably higher in Africa or Asia than it is in the case of the prosperous people in Europe. An Eskimo certainly needs more clothes than an inhabitant of a Paci­ fic island, and the housing problem is quite different in Southern Europe than in Central Europe, Canada or Cuba. On the strength of these ob­ jections the attempts to ar­ rive at an objective standard should, however, not be aban­ doned. But they call for mo­ desty on behalf of all con­ cerned, because neither the economist, the sociologist, doctor of medicine or the technical expert, can alone solve the problem without all-round liaison and coopera­ tion. It will not be possible quickly to arrive at actual figures, rather will it be ne­ cessary initially to agree on quantitative standards. Climatically Comparable Areas It is no longer the case that groups belonging to different levels of culture or prosperity live exclusively within cer­ tain latitudes. There are peo­ ple of all cultural groups in all climatic zones: there are Negroes in Alaska as well as North-Europeans in the equa­ torial belt. There even are closed-in areas with a recog­ nized high standard of re­ quirements in zones previous­ ly reserved for other groups of the society—such exam­ ples are Hawaii or NorthEastern Australia. October 1961 81 One should in the beginning not set universal patterns but, instead, compare only climatically comparable areas with each other. It is, for ins­ tance, possible that air-con­ ditioned installations in the hot zone contribute towards indolence or comfort; it is equally possible that air-con­ ditioning has favourable psy­ chological influences on health, appetite, working per­ formance and mental capa­ bilities. Once these aspects have been clearly varified—but not before—it will be .possible to try and establish their econo­ mic value. It is also necessary to find out whether air-condi­ tioning has been installed in only one room of each dwel­ ling house, public building (such as Government of­ fices), hospital, school and large shopping centres or whether there is air-condi­ tioning throughout the floor space. Perhaps the value of an air-conditioning system is after all only limited when compared with the tradition­ al building style in climati­ cally hot ountries? Between the extreme of a modem house with electric air-conditioning and the hot and sticky mud-hut there are, however, many ^radiations; other factors—sucn as the building density, water sup­ ply, sanitary facilities, the cleanliness or the neighbour­ ing vegetation — are often more important for comfort and psychological effect than all technical building details together. It is equally possi­ ble to think in terms of a value-scale taking into ac­ count such things as protec­ tion against the heat of the sun. wind, rain, inquisity, theft, dangerous animals or insects, as well as other as­ pects: supply with fresh air, lighting, cleaning, durability, earthquake-proof. For in­ stance. on the Indian-Pakis­ tani sub-continent it is quite possible to evaluate the fenc­ ing of open verandas, which is as expensive as it adds to comfort and health. Tangible characteristics of this kind can be established also in the field of clothing, food, learning and training or health, preservation. It is for instance controversial whether whisky really contri­ butes towards a high living standard in development countries. It has also not been established whether tinned pork represents a necessity in hot climates. It is, however, not open to doubt that not merely calories are required for the preservation of the full working capacity, but a2 Panorama proteins and animal fats. Whether a woman wears a sari, a loin cloth or a cotton dress can be left out of the considerations—not so, how­ ever, the necessities of min­ imum protection from weath­ er and insects, as well as from others’ view, in colour­ ful and tasteful tissues not irritating for the skin and which are available in suffi­ cient variety and quantities Standards Arising from the Practice In other words: in finding standards from day-to-day practical experience and ob­ servations we must abstain from basing our evaluations on questionable original sta­ tistic^ and, should, instead, endeavour to develop — from inter-disciplinary spade-work — concrete standards arising from the practice... stand­ ards which are of importance for the economic-social eva­ luation and commercial mar­ ket prospects. * * Romantic or interest-condi­ tioned gossip that this group or the other is said not to want this or the other im­ provement may well be left out. It may of course be that some families did not like to go over from potatoes and in­ ferior fats to a more differ­ entiated diet. It has all the same been established that this change-over was good for them. Many people on our earth may not have a de­ sire for electric current or healthier drinking water be­ cause their power of imagi­ nation has up to now been limited. Nevertheless, the transformation from the light-less night to the lamp or the waterpool via the well to the water-tap should, and can, be evaluated. Science has a chance to prove, on the example of the working-out of standard mea­ sures, whether in the age of development aid it will and can face the mastering of tasks of this nature. CONSTANCY His companion bent over the dying man, to catch the last faintly whispered words. The ut­ terance came with pitiful feebleness, yet with sufficient clearness: “I am dying—yes. Go to Fannie. Tell her— I died—with her name—on my lips, that L—loved her—her alone always ... And Jennie—tell Jen­ nie—the same thing.” October 1961
economic ^dvanceme Pio Pedrosa CThe strongest motivation * that animated President Quezon’s public life was Fili­ pino national self-assertion. It can hardly be said that there was an instance in his pub­ lic career that was not ins­ pired by the wish to advance the country and our people on the road to dignified, res­ pected and self-respecting nationhood. No one in our generation is unfamiliar with the antecedents of our poli­ tical emancipation. I believe he did not consider indepen­ dence his ultimate aim. On a par with winning the free­ dom and civil liberties of the people was his deep pre­ occupation for their preser­ vation through upliftment of their social and economic status. The two objectives were to him interacting. In­ dependence was the environ­ ment in which social pro­ gress could best be promo­ ted. In an atmosphere of free­ dom alone he thought could the people’s genius for self­ realization be nurtured. On the other hand, internal peace and the integrity of the national sovereignty would have been unstable, political independence could have been but a sham, if the country did not rest on firm foundations of the economic well-being of the people. ‘‘There are countries,” he said once, “that are nominally indepen­ dent but which in effect are under foreign rule. There are still others which have in theory and in fact national independence but whose peo­ ples know no freedom ex­ cept the freedom to starve, the freedom to be silent, the freedom to be jailed, or the freedom to be shot.” The task of improving the economic position of the peo­ ple is always one of great magnitude. The need in our case for its dedicated pur­ suit, President Quezon fore­ saw, would be a long, con­ tinuous endeavor. To insure that the promotion of gene22 Panorama ut and Social justice ral well-being and economic security should be a perma­ nent duty and obligation of government in the future, he made social justice a declara­ tion of paramount principle of the Constitution. The wis­ dom of this mandate is today as of unquestioned validity as it was in his time. In our rural areas, in our barrios and country-sides, the main problem still revolves around the crushing havoc of pover­ ty: the destruction of morale and the frustrations of mil-' lions that find nothing to do, the inroads on vitality by the pangs of permanent hunger, the hopelessness of meagerly rewarding perfunctory toil, the inevitably high and tra­ gic incidence of early death. These seemed to be the char­ acteristic earmarks of our rural community way of life. President Quezon was res­ tive for economic growth. De­ generation should not have been the attribute of the peo­ ple he was leading into free­ dom, into membership in the circle of the progressive peo­ ples of the world. He plan­ ned and carried out an ac­ celerated program of that growth. The first requisites were fiscal and monetary stability. These he achieved. At the same time he caused measures to be taken that would enable the people to share in their life-times the. opportunities for obtaining more nutritious food, better shelter, healthier surround­ ings, more dependable secu­ rity for their future. He as­ pired for them the necessi­ ties and amenities of culture, of decent civilized living. These were the material in­ gredients of human self-res­ pect and national dignity. To­ day, we could ask how far forward the mandate of so­ cial justice he inscribed so indelibly in the Constitution has been carried into effect, to what extent the promo­ tion of the well-being of the people as a prime obligation of government has been ad­ vanced. It would manifestly be un­ realistic, unjustifiably dero­ gatory, to deny or belittle the material advance achiev­ ed in the county’s economic pursuits of the last fifteen OCTGBBR 1961 23 years. Substantial progress has been made in agricultu­ ral production, in industrial expansion and diversification, in domestic and internation­ al trade, in capital formation, in technical and entrepreneural progress, in the utili­ zation of technological and scientific processes. All econo­ mic indicators attest to the peceptively even if slowly and haltingly improving standard of living of our people. We know that our masses in the rural areas are still eking out the barest subsist­ ence, beggars are scavenging the night garbage dumps of the cities. Criminality against property is rampant, doors and windows of dwellings have to be grilled in iron and steel. Men begging for bread, or scrounging dirty rice sweepings, or forced by hun­ ger to steal bananas are shot dead. Public services may not be availed of in many places except upon bribery. Tax ad­ ministration is often an ins­ trument of blackmail and inti­ midation. Business enterprise must purchase influence or pay tong for obtaining license to operate. Lives and proper­ ty may not be saved in con­ flagrations except upon sub­ mittal to extortion. Usury is rampant, oppressive interest rates are legalized, credit fa­ cilities to increase production in the rural areas have been proselytized to political ends. It is perhaps beyond possi­ bility that criminality will be entirely suppressed. There will always be a certain am­ ount of human perverseness, of sub-normal psychosis, of moral and spiritual delin­ quency below heaven. On the other hand, we can not ex­ tenuate blame for ourselves when we permit the perpe­ tuation of conditions which make us all callous to the pervasive degeneracy into which our institutions have fallen. We are not without responsibility for a society that denies to fellow citizens the opportunities to earn a livelihood other than to beg and scrounge and steal. Economists talk about per capita income as the measure by which the state of well­ being can be gauged. Per ca­ pita income is the total na­ tional income divided by the number of the popula­ tion. The national income, as you know, is the aggregate earnings of labor, manage­ ment, property, and capital in current production. This average is supposed to re­ ject the economic status of the people. It is not an abso­ lutely correct index, how­ 24 Panorama ever. It takes no account of little islands of luxury and wealth happy unto them­ selves on a vast ocean of rest­ lessness and misery. Be that as it may, ours in the Philip­ pines is not a very impres­ sive national or per capita income. The per capita in­ comes in Malaya, Hongkong, North Borneo, Japan, and Singapore, — to mention a few in our immediate neigh­ borhood, are higher than in ours, which is less than P400.00. Parenthetically, if we would wish to regale our­ selves with what we can call consuelo de bobo, our per ca­ pita income is higher than that in many countries of Asia, Europe, Africa and South America. The larger among these, China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, and seve­ ral of the Soviet republics and satellites, with popula­ tions aggregating almost onehalf of the human race, have their tremendous masses wal­ lowing in more dreadful po­ verty and misery. In spite of misconceptions per capita income figures can create as yardsticks of eco­ nomic development, they are useful as an index for regis­ tering the results of planned measures carried out to in­ crease the national produc­ tion. The success or failure of any program to combat poverty can be determined in a general manner by the re­ sulting comparative per ca­ pita incomes registered year after year. Disregarding dis­ tribution distortions, an in­ creasing per capita income is a sign of growth. It is an indication of increased na­ tional production. It reflects a diminution of the ravages of poverty and disease. It points to an improvement of the standard of living of the people. Therefore the only formu­ la there is for eradicating poverty, for advancing the standard of living, — if we might restate it, — is produc­ tion. And it must be produc­ tion that should outstrip the growth as well as the grow­ ing needs of the population. Planning for production ex­ pansion and growth could, consequently, take as a spe­ cific goal a predetermined per capita income at a pre­ specified future. If our per capita income now is P400.00, the tempo of productive ac­ tivity could conceivably be quickened to increase that fi­ gure to, say P800.00 five or ten years from now. That could be the target of the new production effort. Then the next step would be to harness the requisite tools October 1961 25 and factors of production and gear their use in that direc­ tion. The instrumentality that coordinates these tools, these factors, and lines them up together into a driving force that pushes the pro­ ductive power forward is bu­ siness enterprise. Without business enterprises produc­ tion is an impossibility. Busi­ ness enterprise, however, inevitably must operate un­ der systems of governmental, monetary, fiscal and other statutory rules or regulations. These rules and regulations can help the productive pro­ cesses to move ahead. They can also hold them back. Rules and regulations ob­ struct business enterprise by curtailing the full and bene­ ficial utilization of the re­ sources contituting the tools and factors of production. When they do, they obstruct not business enterprise alone, they obstruct production it­ self. To the extent that such obstruction exists, the effort to eradicate poverty, to push forward the promotion of so­ cial justice, to improve the well-being of the people is correspondingly halted and stalled. These rules and re­ gulations are thus the deter­ minants of the climate and the environment in which business enterprise will eith­ er fail or succeed in the rea­ lization of the national ob­ jectives of expanding pro­ duction, improving consump­ tion, lessening the ravages of poverty, raising the standard of living of the masses of our people. The aims of the constitutional mandate to promote social justice and economic amelioration are subserved depending upon whether these rules are regu­ lations are constructive or obstructive. We can not go into a de­ tailed analysis of many of the various roadblocks to production business enter­ prise must reckon with to­ day. Offhand, we must give credit to the general effort exerted towards loosening the reins that have held back the productive processes. There has been such effort. But we could have been more consistent, less contra­ dictory and less self-defeat­ ing. We expand the money supply, we ease production financing, we expand govern­ mental deposits in the bank­ ing system. Yet we syphon off the same money supply and tighten credit with the continued imposition of prem­ ium fees in the sales of for­ eign exchange and with the immobilization of large vol­ umes of the monetary cir­ culation stashed by govern­ ment banks in inactive gov­ 26 Panorama ernment securities. We adopt ostensible measures to ban the importation of luxuries, but we refuse to curtail the unbridled activities of favor­ ed individuals by the contin­ uance of the barter system on a non-selective industry basis. We are encouraging domestic production for selfsufficiency of consumption staples, foodstuffs and com­ modities, yet we are bringing ruin to local industrial in­ vestments by indiscriminate and unnecessary licensing of imports of competing com­ modities of foreign produc­ tion. We subsidize the im­ portation of rice at the rate of one peso per dollar, which goes to the foreign rice farm­ er and importer, in order, it is said, that imported rice might be sold at P0.85. If we did little more than pay lip­ promises of encouragement to domestic rice production, we could have paid that peso to the Filipino rice farmer and he could also have produced rice to sell at P0.85. We are loud in our protestations of welcome to foreign invest­ ments, but we harass even those who have made signal contributions with their past investments to the develop­ ment of our economy. We try to attract visitors to visit our shores, but we mulct them when they come, we discourage provision for their safety and comfort by sub­ mitting attraction policies to the veto power of vested in­ terests. We want the foreign exchange income augmented to achieve a healthy balance of payments position, but we promulgate rules and regula­ tions on exports, on foreign loans and investments, on earnings remittances, on ca­ pital repatriations, and on others that scare the entry of foreign exchange or faci­ litate the stashing of the pro­ ceeds of overshipments and of excess valuations of im­ ports in foreign depositories. We adopt patriotic shibboleths that would emphasize coun­ try first, forgetting President Quezon’s admonition that we can not isolate ourselves from the rest of mankind, because such slogans become conven­ ient for serving self first, self second and self all the time. We announce economic development programs but af­ ter their promulgation we forget them and go back to compromise and accommoda­ tion. We pass laws to shield policy-making bodies so they could function in the gen­ eral interest of the nation, but we break down the de­ fenses against political inter­ vention and allow politics to guide policy implementation. We make a great show havOCTOBER 1961 27 -ing adopted plans to return to free enterprise but the results have been to favor groups with windfalls from our debased currency. We all know, however, that the situation is not without hope. The spirit of dedica­ tion to social justice and the mandate bequeathed to us to labor incessantly for the eco­ nomic upliftment of our po­ verty-stricken people can not be lost when vigilant organ­ izations like Rotary, dedicat* ♦ ed to service to fellow-men, with identical inspirations as those that animated Pres­ ident Quezon, take a day like this to remember his memo­ ry. In paying tribute to him, we can not but remember also the people in whose be­ half he spent himself. In spite of all our present frus­ trations and difficulties, his labors and self-sacrifices have not been wasted on them; they have not, in the words of the Apostle, been sterile in them. * NEW PAINT MEETS DEMANDS OF NUCLEAR SUBMARINE U.S. technicians have developed the first in­ terior paint to meet the demands of the nuclear submarine. The new coating, an acrylic latex, is practically free of air pollutants that would ser­ iously restrict submergence time of the vessel, according to Donald E. Field, a chemist of the US Naval Research Laboratory. The paint loses 95 per cent of its fumes within 24 hours after appli­ cation and releases the rest in harmless amounts. Extended drying periods that can keep sub­ marines out of action in an emergency are eli­ minated by the new formulation which dries in 20 minutes. It can be used 'for both bulkhead and deck applications and “does not constitute a health hazard to the crew if used during sea ope­ ration,” Field revealed. In a 26-day test on the USS Triton, the paint compared favorably with enamel in gloss and dirt resistance, and it was superior in ease of application and freedom from odor and toxicity. Panorama 28
LET'S TAKE A SECOND LOOK Felino- Neri Old habits, they say, die hard. Unlike old soldiers, they do not easily fade away. This is the reason perhaps why I still continue to in­ dulge in the old habit of closely following the conduct of our foreign relations and developments in the interna­ tional scene at large long after I had ceased to have any participation in this vi­ tal government function. It has been more than three years since I left the diplo­ matic services but I have found it difficult to get rid of my abiding interest in this all-engrossing field. My present detachment from the making and exec­ ution of our foreign policy has its advantages. It has en­ abled me to view the think­ ing behind some of its basic premises in sharper focus and wider perspective. And they have given rise in my mind to certain doubts concerning their continued validity. Our So-Called Asian Policy Let us start with what may be conveniently called our Asian policy. It had its be­ ginning at a time when the countries around us, coun­ tries which we are bound by geographic, ethnic and cul­ tural ties as well as common colonial experience, were en­ gaged in throwing off the shackles of foreign rule. It was therefore logical that we, who had just then re­ acquired our sovereignty should express that policy by pledging our support for the aspirations of subject peoples for self-government and independence. After they, too, and others farther away from our common area, became sovereign and inde­ pendent, after sensing that despite our professions of sympathy and protestations of identity with these na­ tions we were somehow not counted as one of them, we gave voice to a desire to re­ OCTOBER 1961 65 establish that identity, to res­ tore our Asian moorings, so to speak. We went about this task by such traditionally ac­ cepted methods as extendng diplomatic recognition to these countries in their new status, exchanging diploma­ tic representatives, conclud­ ing amity and cultural trea­ ties, sending goodwill mis­ sions and occasionally voting with their delegates in the councils of the United Na­ tions and other international organizations and gatherings, in keeping with our own in­ terests. But all these have apparent­ ly not been enough to bring about acceptance of the Phil­ ippines as part of the group and of the fact that we Fi­ lipinos share the same Asian roots. We still do not belong. Let us accept the fact that we continue to be suspect in most Asian eyes. Our long Western association, the in­ fluence of this association on our thinking, outlook, ways, likes and dislikes, our align­ ment with the West in the current struggle for world power have kept us apart. I believe the time has come for us to stop deluding our­ selves in this respect and to adopt another approach. Let us stop begging for accept­ ance at our neighbors’ doors and outgrow the attitude of self-deprecation in pleading for admission to the “Asian club.” Instead, let us first prove to them that we are worth accepting. We can only do otherwise at the ex­ pense of our dignity and selfrespect. We believe in re­ gional exchange and coope­ ration but not in paying for them at so high a price. It cannot be denied that compared with most of the newly-independent countries in Asia, we were better pre­ pared to take on the respon­ sibilities of independent na­ tionhood and have since made appreciable material progress. We are ahead of some of them in political and even economic development although we could have gone farther with more efficient management without official corruption and given a dedi­ cated, strong and responsive leadership. We are learning how to develop our natural wealth and how to use that wealth in improving the lot of our people. We have been able to forge ahead partly with the help of other friend­ ly countries, particularly the United States. Let us take, to cite a few examples, the strides we have made in modern farming methods, co­ operatives, community dev­ elopment, distribution and 66 Panorama marketing, soil conservation and irrigation, health and sa­ nitation, anti-Communist sub­ version, hydroelectric power development, light industries, education and other fields. We have taken these gains for granted and have even spoken depreciatingly of them at times in the heat of partisan political strife. But measured in terms of what some of our neighbors in Asia have achieved, we have, I believe, accomplished more. Our job is to turn their eyes to these accomplish­ ments, modest as they are./ These are the commodities we should also export. They are the arguments that should “sell” us to our Asian neighbors. Several of these countries have begun to take notice. Sometime ago, an In­ dian delegation made it a point to pass through Mani­ la to learn more about com­ munity development before proceeding to Geneva to at­ tend a world conference on the subject. Malayans have come to find out the reasons for our success in defeating the Huk movement. Once we have shown that we have employed the West­ ern ingredients of our nation­ al upbringing for our own be­ nefit without giving up what is ours, once we have some­ thing useful for other Asian countries to emulate or adopt, acceptance may not be difficult. Japan is a case in point. It has never been any­ thing to other Asian coun­ tries but Asian and * of Asia regardless of how much the Japanese have learned from and imbibed of the West. Nationalism of Rising Peoples With us Filipinos, the spi­ rit of nationalism rose'to its zenith at the time of our li­ bertarian fight against Span­ ish rule. It continued up to the American regime and spurred us in our subsequent struggle for independence. During all this time, most of our fellow Asian countries were still parts of colonial empires although they alrea­ dy felt the same stirrings of freedom and made repeated attempts at achieving self­ emancipation. To us and to them, in that difficult but glorious period, nationalism and patriotism carried the same meaning. This is not meant to imply that these virtues die after the aims which they have in­ spired have been achieved. But it is a fact that nation­ alism subsequently acquires some degrees of tempering, breadth and maturity, a kind of seasoning that goes with the sober realization of the October 1961 67 magnitude and complexity of the challenge of nation-build­ ing. Every young nation goes through this process sooner or later. The Philippines passed through such a transi­ tion ahead of most of her Asian neighbors. We were al­ ready hard at work in mak­ ing our country stand on its feet and our young democ­ racy succeed while some countries around us were still trying to free themselves from their bondage as subject peoples. We have reached a point of maturity well be­ yond their reaction to this change which in most cases took on xenophobic under­ tones. But caught in the tide of nationalistic fever that con­ sumed these countries, con­ scious of our isolation from them as a result of our West­ ern associations, we lately be­ gan tracing a course for our foreign policy based on the nationalism that we knew and practiced during the re­ volutionary stage of our history. Thus, our abortive attempt to put a label to this trend by borrowing Japan’s wartime expansionist slogan of “Asia for the Asians” and the advent of what our pre­ sent policymakers refer to as “respectable independence” and the “Filipino First” poli­ cyAlbert Camus, that great and late-lamented French philosopher and resistance leader, once said that he “loved his country too much to be a nationalist.” What he meant perhaps was that there is a kind of nationalism which is not synonymous with patriotism because it is harmful to a country’s inter­ est. If Manuel Luis Quezon were alive today, he would have expressed this thought by saying that his national­ ism ends where the good of his country begins. The Philippines has been a free and sovereign nations member of the community of these last fifteen years. In her present status she has ac­ quired responsibilities and obligations that have made it impossible for her to live in a world by and unto her­ self.. From considerations of national security and econo­ mic advancement alone, she must accept the concept of a world, one and interdepen­ dent, as well as its practical realities. There no longer are such things as complete and absolute independence, poli­ tical or economic. Other As­ ian countries have since gra­ duated from this attitude. Hence we find the policies of 68 Panorama India, Burma and Pakistan on foreign investments, for example, more attuned to these realities. We in the Philippines, on the other hand, have failed to adjust ourselves to these facts. On the matter of the participation of foreign capi­ tal in our economic develop­ ment, we have only sown con­ fusion among our own peo­ ple and the outside world by our inconsistencies and con­ tradictions. While we ex­ tend a welcoming hand to foreign investors and solemn­ ly assure them of our need, for their assistance to en­ able us to make full use of our natural resources and ad­ vance the pace of our econo­ mic growth, we blithely adopt policies that are antagonistic if not outright hostile. During all this time we have also shown a naive and compla­ cent attitude on the use which international Communism, through its homegrown ad­ herents and hirelings, have made of nationalism to serve its destructive ends. In asserting our national­ ism, we must guard against confusing substance with form, the important with the inconsequential. We have been wont to strike nation­ alistic poses, for example, on such graver issues as our na­ tional defense, overlooking their far-reaching and vital implications. We forget that, as in the case of foreign mili­ tary bases in our country, for instance, we had temporarily waived the full exercise oi our sovereignty over these areas in order to more ef­ fectively insure our security and that this act of voluntary and temporary relinquish­ ment in the interest of a lar­ ger common good is of itself an expression of sovereign prerogative. A people devoid of nation­ alistic spirit is dead. But there is great cause of fear for a nation heading towards nationalism in its narrow and myopic form, especially a nationalism that consents to exploitation and prostitu­ tion by the ruling powers for their own selfish ends. This may be the moment, there­ fore, to restore order and im­ part coherence to our under­ standing and practice of na­ tionalism and extend our thinking beyond its present parochial bounds. The Case Against The United Nations We have declared, as one of the basic tenets of our for­ eign policy, adherence to and support for the aims and principles enunciated in October 1961 69 the Charter of the United Nations. This declaration is an expression of faith in the effectiveness of that world or­ ganization in keeping world peace. In practical terms it means that as part of that body we look up to it to fur­ ther safeguard our national security. Through our mem­ bership, it is true, we have taken our rightful place among other sovereign states and have benefitted from its assistance in the economic, social and cultural fields. But the principal considera­ tions behind our participation in the UN is related to the problem of our security. The weight of the moral force that the UN is supposed to exert against aggression and other breaches of world peace, the promise of collec­ tive assistance from fellow members in the regional se­ curity alliance which we have joined and the more categorical pledge of similar help under our mutual de­ fense pact with the United States, are the three legs on which the structure of our national security rests. But events have tended to de­ monstrate how weak the first two supports of this structure are. One has only to recall, with unhappy me­ mories, the futility that were Korea, Vietnam, Hungary, Suez, Tibet, the Congo, An­ gola and now Laos, Cuba, Biserte and Berlin. Laos is said to have brought about the recently-formed Association of Southeast Asian States (ASAS) because of the fai­ lure of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) which came in the wake of the disaster of Dien Bien Phu, to live up to our ex­ pectations. The organization­ al structure of the UN itself is under Communist siege with the Soviet demand for a drastic and far-reaching change in the office of the Secretary-General. The record of that world body, in other words, has not served to strengthen our faith in it. That record has given us reason to think twice about the assumptions we have earlier and more hopefully held. That faith has been shaken instead. The late John Foster Dulles, one of the principal architects of the Charter, voiced this hope once by saying that much can be done under the UN that cannot be done by it.” By this he must have anticipated the difficulties which now. beset that organ­ ization. Time has since proved him right in the sec­ ond part of this statement. There is not much to show, 70 Panorama however, that he was also right in the first. Writing in the July issue of Fortune magazine, Max Ways advanced the thesis that our hopes and expectations “would be valid only if the UN were capable of recog­ nizing, promulgating and en­ forcing rules of international order.” “Some Americans,” he added, “speak of the Unit­ ed Nations as “above’ the na­ tions. This is true only in the sense that an attic is at the top of a house; it is where the nations put their interna­ tional problems. The UN de­ bates. The UN sometimes de­ cides, as when it instructs its Secretary-General to isolate the Congo from big-power politics. But the UN never seriously attempts to estab­ lish the rules that would li­ mit its member govern­ ments.” Mr. Ways further advanced the opinion that “no reword­ ing of the Charter is going to work unless it clearly re­ cognizes an objective source of international law outside the nations themselves.” Quoting the same author still further, “more and more, the Communists show they they re^gnize the UN as a mag­ nificent arena for propagan­ da.” Harry A. Kissinger concise­ ly described the way in which the new nations use the UN in the following lan­ guage : “Many of the leaders of the new states want the best of two worlds: of neutrality and of judging all disputes... Playing a role ,on the inter­ national scene seems more dramatic and simpler than the complex job of domestic construction... Domestical­ ly, each action has a price. But on the international scene, it is possible to be the center of attention simply by striking a pose. Here ambi­ tious men can play the dra­ matic role so often denied to them at home and so con­ sistent with their image of the role of a national lead­ er.” It has been said that “a workable foreign policy can never be static. To build a policy on a status quo is an illusion that can lead only to disappointment. For na­ tions, like human beings are, born, live through a period of adolescence, become ma­ ture, and die. Stand-still acts as a cancerous disease on a nation’s body.” Let us take heed that the march of world events does not leave us with October 1961 71 NEW DRUG APPEARS EFFECTIVE AGAINST HAY EVER A new drug that has given good results to some 500 patients in combating hay fever created considerable interest among doctors who attended a recent meeting of the American Academy of Al­ lergy. The drug is called allpyral, a short term for “alum.precipitated pyridine-ragweed complex” In practice, allpyral is used to desensitize pa­ tients who get hay fever from ragweed pollen be­ fore the hay fever season arrives. It differs from standard aqueous pollen extracts in that it con­ tains the pollen oils as well as the proteins. Allpyral is absorbed slowly by the body, and physicians can therefore give much larger doses of it at one time. This means that the number of infections can be reduced. From present indica­ tions it appears that one injection of allpyral every four to six weeks is sufficient. With the aqueous solutions, one injection a week is usually needed. In the 500 or more patients already studied in the United States, 89 to 93 per cent have shownimprovement. With standard aqueous solutions, about 80 to 85 per cent improve. * * * a foreign policy that is out­ dated and no longer work­ able. These then are some of the thoughts that a former diplomat, turned business­ man and armchair diploma­ tic analyst, offers to those who are presently in charge of charting and steering our country’s course in the tur­ bulent sea of world affairs. These views may not find ready concurrence, especially among the uninitiated and uninformed. But in the diffi­ cult business of providing one’s country with the best possible of such courses and of trying to keep to it, we opn only ignore these realities at great risk. 72 Panorama
MANY DIFFERENT KINDS OF GLASS NOW MADE Research is continually revealing new facts about the nature of glass and its potential uses, and is enabling glass manufacturing companies to make special types for different applications, according to a survey made by the National Geo­ graphic Society. As a result, glass is no longer a fragile mate­ rial of limited utility. In recent years scientists have created a number of tough and versatile “wonder glasses.” Some heat-resistant glasses, for example, can be baked until they are red hot and then plunged into ice water without breaking. A lead oxide glass cast in slabs 10 inches (25.4 centimeters) thick is almost as heavy as steel. It remains clear even when subjected to heavy atomic radiation. Tempered glass, made by heating glass until it begins to soften and then quickly cooling the surface, has the strength of cast iron. ♦ ♦ * tween smoking and heart in­ farct remains open. Despite the belief that fat food is responsible the recent study showed that light people are more endangered than hea­ vy ones. Tall men have more frequently infarct than smal­ ler men have. Yet on the whole it would seem that the influence of weight and size has been overrated. Thera­ peutically the narrowing of the coronary arteries is the point to be attacked? There are drugs widening those ves­ sels. In the case of sclerotic alteration this is possible on­ ly to a limited extent. Older men usually have a measure of sclerosis of the coronaries, and the trouble is part of the difficult problem of arte­ riosclerosis, refractory to ul­ timate explanation in spite of an enormous amount of research. Scientists are in­ clined to think that the ris­ ing consumption of fat plays some part. Yet this assump­ tion is far from proved, even if there are some impressive pointers. 60 Pamoxama
MASONRY AND THE REVOLUTION Teodoro A. Agoncillo asonry played a signifi*** cant role in the Revolu­ tion. It was through Mason­ ry that the propaganda activ­ ities against the injustices, immorality and brutality of the authorities were directed. Realizing the need for con­ certed action in the parlia­ mentary struggle, the fiery Graciano Lopez Jaena found­ ed lodge Revolution in Barlona, on April 1, 1889. It was exclusively for and by Fili­ pinos. But it was, however, short-lived. The following year; lodge La Solidaridad was founded and the affi­ liates of . the defunct Revolu­ tion transferred to the new lodge. The Filipino Masons, among them Jose Rizal, Mar­ celo H. del Pilar, Graciano Lopez Jaena, Antonio Luna, Pedro Serrano Laktaw and others were responsible for introducing to the Cortes pieces of legislation that would benefit the Philip­ pines. Up to 1890, the Maso­ nic activities that were tied up with the Philippine pro­ blem were restricted within the Peninsula. A year later, however, An­ tonio Luna and Serrano Lak­ taw returned to the Philip­ pines to. establish masonic October 1961 17 lodges. Conferring with Moi­ ses A. Salvador and Jose Ra­ mos, Serrano Laktaw decid­ ed that it was propitious to introduce lodges as the arm for political action. Lodge Nilad was consequently founded on January 6, 1891. The Gran Oriente Espahol officially recognized it on March 10, 1892. Like all the intellectuals of the period, the Masons cla­ mored for reforms in the ad­ ministration of the govern­ ment. There was not even a hint of revolt in their actions or speeches. Everybody want­ ed the Philippines to be a province of Spain under which the Filipinos, as Spa­ nish citizens, would enjoy the rights and privileges of Spa­ niards. What may be termed “revolutionary”, in the eyes of the Spanish authorities, was the unexpected call for reforms. Thus, the Masons prepared their platform on the issue of peaceful reforms: It is the eight million people who have been, for the duration of three centuries, under tyranni­ cal oppression. The social life they lead is destitute of freedom; the natives have no right of associa­ tion; they have no tri­ bune where they could express their needs ... And with respect to their individual life, the Filipi­ nos have not, as in other countries, the security against the abuses of the authorities, and for this reason, the ... secret de­ portation of reputable persons has been repeat­ edly perpetrated upon the notorious instigation of the friars, x x x We want a regime of democracy, a genuine and effective autonomy of the individual as against the enslaving pre­ tensions of an ambition that nourishes its life by absorbing the rights of the people and waters its happiness with the tears of the needy. We want a good gov­ ernment and a good ad­ ministration. We want our country to have the right to be represented in the Cor­ tes: not a single Repre­ sentative or Senator is defending its interests in the Spanish Parliament. Its government is depen­ dent upon the Overseas Minister .who, by and for himself, legislates and governs the Philippines through Royal Orders, while in Manila the Gov­ ernor-General executes 18 Panorama and annuls the order of the Ministers. We want our country declared a province of Spain, with all the rights and obligations. In a word, we want reforms, reforms, reforms. Considering the time and temper of the period, the Ma­ sonic platform was bold. But precisely because of its bold­ ness, the secret movement reached the masses and. even­ tually, the Spanish authori­ ties. Thinking men and wo­ men, isolated by the intoler­ ance of the authorities and the friars, found consolation in Masonry. Up to May 1893, the Masonic lodges number­ ed thirty-five, nine of which were in Manila. But Masonry in the Philip­ pines was not intended to be a political arm. It was prima­ rily a propaganda machine designed to work for re­ forms and to denounce ab­ uses, corruption, brutalities, and injustices committed by the Spanish authorities on the hapless people. This func­ tion of Masonry was clearly expressed by Marcelo H. del Pilar in his letter to Juan Zulueta : The Peninsular Mason­ ry is a means of propa­ ganda for us. If the Ma­ sons there [in the Philip­ pines] intend to make Masonry an organ of ac­ tion for our ideals, they make a serious mistake. What is needed is a spe­ cial organization devoted especially to the Filipino cause; and although its members, or some of them, may be Masons, they must not depend upon Masonry. It was the timidity of the intellectuals, most of whom were Masons, that led An­ dres Bonifacio, also a Mason belonging to lodge Taliba, to found the revolutionary Kapunan. Some Masons join­ ed Bonifacio in his new un­ dertaking, among them Jose Dizon, Jose Turiano Santiago, and Emilio Aguinaldo. It must be emphasized that the Katipunan was not a Maso­ nic society, although some of its members were Masons. This is important in view of the fact that the Spanish au­ thorities accused Masonry of having been the “brains” of the Katipunan and the ini­ tiator of the Revolution and, therefore, of the separatist movement. Thus, the Over­ seas Minister, writing to the Governor-General of the Philippines on April 4, 1895, said that “an alarm exists here about the separatist work in That Archipelago October 1961 19 through Masonic propaganda that excludes all Spaniards and is directed exclusively by natives. I request Your Ex­ cellency to inform me hourly of this, and, if true, to re­ double the vigilance and to issue necessary orders to the [provincial] governors.” It cannot be doubted, how­ ever, that Masonry left its imprint on the Katipunan. For the initiation rites of this secret society were based on those of Masonry. Its struc­ ture, however, was based on that of La Liga Filipina, most of whose members were Ma­ sons, namely, Jose Rizal, Timoteo Paez, Jose Ramos, Moises Salvador, Apolinario Mabini, Bonifacio Arevalo, Numeriano Adriano, and oth­ ers. It is perhaps for this rea­ son — namely, that many Masons were affiliated with the Liga and the Katipunan — that the Spanish author­ ities thought of linking Ma­ sonry with the separatist movement. Masonry was in fact condemned as “infernal” and the “workshop where hatred for Spain and the Spaniards was cast.” The charge was, of course, as sil­ ly and preposterous as the contemporary charges of “communistic” or “commu­ nist-inspired” directed by paid stooges at those who disagree with them or those whose opinions do not square with their wild specula­ tions and parochial views. For Masonry in the Philip­ pines, as I have pointed out earlier, stood for reforms and never for independence. ID ut why did Masonry flourish, ramify and make converts throughout the Philippines during the last decade of the Spanish regime? The answer lies in the condition of the time and place. There was no freedom to speak of. Its meaning had been negative during the three centuries of Spanish rule: freedom to be exploited ruthlessly, freedom to remain ignorant and superstitious, freedom to be confused, and freedom to be brutalized. Wherever and whenever courageous men are found, there they seek release from this negative freedom —if there is such a thing — and join hands to forge a potent weapon in their struggle for self-expression. The early Christians suffered heroical­ ly all the indignities and in­ justices of the Roman em: perors and their underlings. But, searching for freedom, they went underground, join­ ed forces with other victims of oppression, and fought 20 Panorama their battles with results that are today common know­ ledge. And so with the Filipinos of the last decade of the nine­ teenth century. Led by Ma­ sons, they closed ranks, went underground, and fought, first, a war of propaganda, and then, a war of emanci­ pation. With the “Cry” that reverberated through the hills of Pugadlawin and Pasong Tamo, the dawn of a new era streaked in the Phil­ ippine sky and showered light where there was dark­ ness. With a bit of pardonable exaggeration, one may safely say that Philippine Masonry and the Revolution were re­ lated to each other. For the men who shouldered the res­ ponsibilities of the Republic at Malolos, both in the ad­ ministration and in the field, were Masons — from Presi­ dent Emilio Aguinaldo down to his Cabinet Ministers and field commanders: Apolinario Mabini, Gracio Gonzaga, Baldomero Aguinaldo, Am­ brosio Flores, Vicente Lukban, Mariano Llanera, Boni­ facio Arevalo, and Timoteo Paez. Viewing the revolution from this perspective, it may be said to have been the child of Philippine Masonry — an unwanted child per­ haps, but a legitimate child nonetheless. The men who carried on the burden of the propaganda—which was in­ tended to bring about re­ forms but which, contrary to their expections, resulted in a national blood bath — were Masons, men who were steeped in the lore of demo­ cratic ways, men who were sensitive to the pulse of changing mores. And Andres Bonifacio, the founder and the guiding spirit of the Ka­ tipunan, carried over the symbols of Masonry to the Society and breathed into it Masonry’s climate of free­ dom. October 1961 21 * * * TABLETS FOR WASHING YOUR HANDS '‘Pulia” is the tracle-mark of tablets for wash­ ing your hands, manufactured by Messrs. Puhi & Co. of Berlin. You take one tablet into your hand, add a little water, and squeeze the tablet. The resulting pulp is used for washing your hands, as if it were soap. The tablets remove even coarse dirt. Pocket-size packages are available.
the American leaders, as I stated previously, would not have been so apprehensive about improving them. It is high time that we should es­ tablish a system of educa­ tion suitable to us as a dis­ tinct people, with limited financial resources, with problems peculiar to our own conditions. We should not forget, however, that in many * * ways education is universal in character. Therefore, we need to discover and to learn whatever is good in the edu­ cational ideas of other coun­ tries; then we should import them, if necessary, not, how­ ever, through a system of adoption but through a pro­ cess of adaptation. Thus we may be able to enrich and develop our own. * NEW BLOOD TEST FOR BODY DISEASES A simple blood test for diseases of the heart, liver and other body organs based on the iden­ tification of enzyme “fingerprints” was described at a recent meeting of the American Chemical So­ ciety. The test depends on LDH (lactic dehydro­ genase), an enzyme that regulates several im­ portant chemical processes in the body, accord­ ing to medical authorities. LDH occurs in five distinct forms caled isoenzymes, which appear in different proportions in different organs. Clinical tests indicate that when an organ is damaged it releases enzymes into the blood stream. “impress­ ing its LDH isoenzyme pattern on the blood, like an identifiable fingerprint,” the authorities ex­ plained. Blood tests can. therefore, serve to identify an injured organ, and they are especially suitable for the detection of heart and liver damaae be­ cause these LDH patterns differ markedly in their resistance to heat. A larae amount of LDH destroyed by heatinq a sample of the blood se­ rum at a relatively low temperature indicates li­ ver disease while a large proportion of lactic de­ hydrogenase stable at a relatively high tempera­ ture indicates heart damage. 16 Panorama
possessed of the higest spirit­ ual values common to all mankind. Being a young na­ tion we cannot expect fullest maturity and ripest judgment in our conduct as a people. It is enough that we have the dynamism of youth and a new outlook. By the new outlook I mean that we must as a people, individually and * collectively, be possessed first of the highest intellectual and moral values before we can be possessor of our lands. To do otherwise is to repeat our history. Let us see if the youth can be better than the old in the possession of the new outlook and the new vi­ sion of a greater and happier Philippines. ♦ * NEW COMPOUND FOUND TO INHIBIT ONE TYPE OF TUMOR IN ANIMALS A new compound which in animal experi­ ments inhibits one type of tumor by 90 to 100 per cent has been fashioned from a potential cancer drug now undergoing clinical tests in the United States. The chemical, a piperazine derivative la­ belled A-20968, is effective against Carcinoma 755, a transplantable mouse tumor, and also shows activity against two common types of can­ cer, Sarcoma 180 and Leukemia 1210, according to Dr. John A. Carbon, a research chemist at Ab­ bott Laboratories, North Chicago, Illinois. The new compound has not yet been tried on human beings. The model for the compound was called A-8103, and it represents an entirely new type of. chemical structure to show activity against tumors, Dr. Carbon said, adding: “Although it is probably a member of the class of anti-tumor agents known as ‘alkylating agents,’ it possesses a chemical structure of an entirely different type from the known com­ pounds of this class. It thus offers an opportunity or ‘lead’ for the organic chemist to synthesize many closely related compounds as possible tu­ mor growth inhibitors.” October 1961 53
NEW DISTILLATION PROCESS FEASIBLE The recently announced thin film water dis­ tillation process, developed by the General Elec­ tric Company of the United States, has now been proved feasible for use by cities and industrial concerns. With General Electric’s distillation process, salt or brackish water is literally ‘wiped” in a very thin film by wiper blades over the inside surface of a heat transfer tube. Heat from steam passing over the outside fluted surface of this tube causes the inside film of feed water to eva­ porate. The' vapor produced is then condensed to pure, fresh water. Previous experiments by General Electric with a full-scale engineering model of the thin film unit also demonstrated the value of the con­ cept for marine applications where restrictions of size and weight are critical. * ♦ ♦ tion of public servants we shall look to the youth of new vision, cherishing better and higher values. Our fu­ ture government must be in the hands of the young whose highest standards of public performance are the virtues of justice and learning. The goals of human society are easily set. It is the realiz­ ing of them that is difficult. Among these goals may be social justice, peace, and hap­ piness of the people. But peace, as the Schoolman said, is the fruit of justice, and peace is a precondition of happiness. No justice can be realized if the government is not just, and the govern­ ment cannot be just if every official is not just; and ulti­ mately the justice of every single official may be traced back to the just or corrupt life in which he privately lives. The future officials of our government must be men of the highest probity in their private lives. They shall be men who are more concern­ ed how they would appear to their conscience than to the public. These are the men who will value honor more than money and wisdom and love of justice above all things. This is seed-time for the Filipino nation; and the har­ vest of human good can be ours in the modest compass of our country if we are first 52 Panorama
NEW DRUG APPEARS EFFECTIVE AGAINST HAY EVER A new drug that has given good results to some 500 patients in combating hay fever created considerable interest among doctors who attended a recent meeting of the American Academy of Al­ lergy. The drug is called allpyral, a short term for “alum.precipitated pyridine-ragweed complex” In practice, allpyral is used to desensitize pa­ tients who get hay fever from ragweed pollen be­ fore the hay fever season arrives. It differs from standard aqueous pollen extracts in that it con­ tains the pollen oils as well as the proteins. Allpyral is absorbed slowly by the body, and physicians can therefore give much larger doses of it at one time. This means that the number of infections can be reduced. From present indica­ tions it appears that one injection of allpyral every four to six weeks is sufficient. With the aqueous solutions, one injection a week is usually needed. In the 500 or more patients already studied in the United States, 89 to 93 per cent have shownimprovement. With standard aqueous solutions, about 80 to 85 per cent improve. * * * a foreign policy that is out­ dated and no longer work­ able. These then are some of the thoughts that a former diplomat, turned business­ man and armchair diploma­ tic analyst, offers to those who are presently in charge of charting and steering our country’s course in the tur­ bulent sea of world affairs. These views may not find ready concurrence, especially among the uninitiated and uninformed. But in the diffi­ cult business of providing one’s country with the best possible of such courses and of trying to keep to it, we opn only ignore these realities at great risk. 72 Panorama
OCTOBER 19 6 1 Xnterwd m weond el*M mail matter at the Manila Poet Office on Dec. 7, 1955* VOL. XIII MANILA, PHILIPPINES No. 10 OUR PROBLEMS IN EDUCATION Dr. Vicente G. Sinco We need to remind our­ selves that nothing could be more vital and more critical to a democracy than education. A dictator­ ship or an oligarchy can af ford to be unmindful of the intellectual condition of the people within its orbit. But the reality of a genuine de­ mocratic system of govern­ ment and society, the system we have decided to adopt, is not possible without educa­ tion. And when we speak of education for a democracy, we mean intellectual upbring­ ing designed not merely for an elite or a chosen few, not even for a larger group such as a privileged political par­ ty, but all citizens. The va­ lidity of this statement may be easily confirmed by the cases we see at present in the countries which have lately become independent states in Asia and in Africa where the spirit of national­ ism fomented by a mere handful of individuals has precipitated their political se­ paration from the colonial powers without adequate ad­ ministrative training and educational preparation. Much as we sympathize with them in their desire for inde­ pendence, in moments of ser­ ious reflection we cannot help but view with deep ap­ prehension the undesirable conditions, the state of dis­ order, perplexity, confusion, and even suffering they find themselves in. We can only hope that having been thrown into the sea of polit i c a 1 manumission all by themselves they might man­ age to learn how to swim before they sink and get drowned. In expressing these thoughts of apprehension, it is not our purpose to assume an attitude and position of superiority. For while in some respects we have in­ deed attained a certain level of education and a sufficient­ ly widespread literacy, often­ times we are assailed by doubts whether or not the educational competence of our^ people as a whole has reached the degree necessary to create an atmosphere, a cli­ mate, that could invigorate the processes of democracy in our country and could thus insure the enjoyment of the rights and blessing that go with it. We do not need to be profound observers to de­ tect a considerable amount of weak spots in our present system, not so much in its formal framework as it is in the implementation of the es­ sential methods and practices which are the real determi­ nants of a democracy. The education that is need­ ed to strengthen democratic institutions is not merely quantitative but also qualita­ tive. It is not necessarily ac­ quired by the establishment and operation of a multitude of schools and colleges. If the instruction in these institu­ tions is inadequate and in­ ferior in quality, mere num­ bers do not have much signi­ ficance. On the contrary, it may only deceive us and give us a false sense of satisfac­ tion. We are well acquainted with the rapid multiplication of the number of graduates from educational institutions awarding diplomas and deg­ rees in different professions and occupations — from tea­ chers. stenographers, secreta­ ries, and lawyers, to engine­ ers, doctors of medicine, ar­ 4 Panorama chitects, pharmacists, etc. In many cases, these diplomas are not much better than mere certificates of attend­ ance over a certain number of years in the colleges issu­ ing them. They are far from being reliable evidence of quality education their hold­ ers received. Let there be no mistake about this: that the problem of education in our country cannot be solved by merely increasing the number of schools, colleges, and univer­ sities, and by making it pos­ sible for them to increase the number of pupils, students, and teachers. The problem cannot be considered solved until there is a definite im­ provement in the quality of in­ struction and in the educa­ tional competence resulting from it. It is safe to say that the percentage of persons going to our schools and colleges has been increasing rapidly every year since the end of the last War. But it is also safe to say that the quality of instruction and education that these persons have been receiving during the same period ’ of time has been de­ teriorating almost as fast as the increase of their number No wonder that in the report of a group of American and Filipino educators that made a survey of our educational system a little over a year ago under the chairmanship of Prof. J. Chester Swanson of the University of Califor­ nia, we find these words: “Much of the education of the Philippines is simply not good enough to justify the great faith of the people. What will happen to this un­ questioning faith in educa­ tion when the people learn that it is not solving their problems? Will they lose faith in education or in those who are responsible for their edu­ cational services?” Those of us who are neith­ er too proud nor too self-cen­ tered to accept honest and objective criticisms have to admit the validity of this un­ complimentary statement. We have to admit that the qual­ ity of the education that the large majority of our child­ ren have been receiving has not been good enough. It has deteriorated, I repeat, since the second World War; and the deterioration has been ra­ pid and alarming. We have not taken so far any deter­ mined step to arrest it. No wonder that the report of this mixed group of educa­ tors has this suggestion to make: “Educators must-Wbrk to provide a public school October 1961 5 program good enough to prove that faith in education is justified. This will require not only providing good schools, but also creating in the public an understanding of the difference between good and poor schools.” There are several causes of this state of educational de­ terioration in our country to­ day. One of them may be the insufficiency of filnds made available for our educational program. Undoubtedly, much can be done to raise educa­ tional standards if appropria­ tions for educational devel­ opment be set aside in lar­ ger amounts. But like invest­ ments in business or in in­ dustry, their size does not al­ ways guarantee success if funds are mishandled, mis­ used, and misdirected. It is, therefore, absolutely necessa­ ry that a study of the system, the personnel, and the mate­ rials involved be seriously and intelligently undertaken in order to avoid as much as possible not only financial losses but also unnecessary wastage in time, attention, and effort; and what is more, in order to prevent disillu­ sionment and frustration in our faith in education as the firm foundation of individual and social development. Public opinion is extreme­ ly important for any success­ ful implementation of any program of educational im­ provement. It must be arti­ culate, insistent, intelligently directed, and courageous. It should aim at creating public appreciation ' of efforts 'to raise the quality or standards of our schools and colleges. Such appreciation should be expressed frankly, openly, and sincerely, not in mere words but in deeds, in action, and in decisions. The coopera­ tion of all parents, business­ men, industrialists, and all other elements of the com­ munity has to be actively gi­ ven if we are sincere in our belief that our social, poli­ tical, economic, and moral betterment depends largely upon education. There has been no well-di­ rected and strong public opinion on the problem of good and desirable education in our country. This is shown by the fact that what is al­ most invariably considered by the press as a crisis in education is the usual delay in accommodating the 800 thousand or more children in the public schools in June. When the Department of Education gives the usual as­ surance that additional clas­ ses would be open, the so6 Panorama called crisis in education is considered solved and ended. To call such condition as a crisis in education is a gross exaggeration. The real crisis in the education of this country consists in the steady decline of the effectiveness of our schools and colleges in maintaining reasonably good standards of teaching and learning. Unless the basic causes of this state of educational im­ poverishment are correctly recognized and arrested, no amount of financial assist­ ance will be of much help in improving our educational work. One of these causes has reference to the character and content of the curricu­ lum. Another cause concerns the qualifications of our tea­ chers. The third has rela­ tion to the attitude, and in­ terest of our youth in work and study. * * Any intelligent and objec­ tive analysis of our educa­ tional problem is bound to discover these three factors as among the most basic causes of the weakness of our educational program and of the inferior academic record of the great majority of our students. There are, however, a few schools that have been turning out fine products in spite of handicaps arising from the excessive centrali­ zation of our educational sys­ tem. They have been able to remedy to a certain extent these basic defects. Their re­ cord shows that with a well qualified teaching staff and with the proper motivation, discipline, and determination on the part, of the school au­ thorities, there can be no question that the youth of the nation will acquire a super: ior type of education. The young Filipino has the capa* * BREVITY The ' best illustration of the value, of brief speech reckoned in dollars was given by Mark. Twain.His story was that when he. had listened for five minutes to the preacher telling of the heathen, he Wept, and was. going to^contribute fifty dollars; after ten minutes more, of the ser-. moil, he reduced the amount-of. his-prospective contribution to twenty-five dollars; .after half ah hour more of. eloquence, he cut the sum. to five dollars. At the. end. of an hour of oratory -when the plate -waspassed, he stole two dollars.October 1961 city for acquiring it. What he needs is proper stimulation to awaken that potentaility in him for better performance. But before discussing these basic causes of the weakness of our school system and its educational efforts, I should like to bring to your atten­ tion the significance of the problem of education today. Time and again we have told ourselves that the most val­ uable resources of our coun­ try are our human resources — our >people; just like our abundant natural resources, they have to be correctly cultivated in order to draw out from them the best qual­ ities in their possession. To­ day we live in an age of intensive development in science and technology which are causing tremendous changes not only in our con­ ditions of living but also in our ideas and in our atti­ tudes in life and work. The nation that cannot keep up with the rapid strides of ad­ vanced countries will have to face more numerous and more complicated problems affecting its economic, social, and political conditions. Such problems as unemployment, standard of living, economic and social stability, popula­ tion explosion, food supply, public sanitation and health, and peace and order may well become threats to the security and even to the very existence itself of a na­ tion as an independent poli­ tical unit. They have to be solved not in the distant fu­ ture but at the present time or during this generation. These considerations ren­ der the problem of educa­ tional improvement for our people a matter of transcen­ dent importance. Any post­ ponement in the adoption of practicable solutions to this problem will make it more and more difficult and will increase our inertia to impe­ rative changes. Let us bear in mind that educational stagnation neutralizes and even defeats in the long run movements of improvement in practically all the other phases of the nation’s life and work. We are about to reach what modern economists call the take-off stage of econo­ mic development. We have reached a point when our in­ dustrial development is quite well started. But that en­ couraging growth of our in­ dustrial and economic life is bound to be slowed down if not aborted and arrested un­ less we pay much attention Panokama to the problem of the educa­ tional improvement of our people. It is not enough that we talk about education. That is the easiest thing to do. As a matter of fact when it comes to the subject of education in conversation or speech-mak­ ing almost every one seems to talk as an expert and feels qualified to express critical opinions on college methods, university programs, and aca­ demic activities without hav­ ing seen actual academic per­ formance nor understood edu­ cational objectives nor read and studied books and publi­ cations on current educational practices and theories pro­ duced by learned scholars and experienced educators. To pass judgment on the work of our educational ins­ titutions, we need to be deep­ ly involved in the study of educational problems. We need to participate actively in tasks or activities of indiv­ iduals or groups regularly en­ gaged in serious educational work. Otherwise, judgments and criticisms based on halfbaked ideas or obsolete prac­ tices are likely to produce more harm than good. It does not seem to be widely known among our people today that a great deal of interest and deep concern in the problem of education­ al improvement are being ta­ ken in all progressive coun­ tries today. Let us take for example the United States. In spite of its leadership in the field of industry and eco­ nomic activities and of the excellent work of its colleges and universities, its leaders, not only in educationa itself but also in politics, in busi­ ness, and in civic and reli­ gious affairs, are nevertheless very much concerned with the quality of the education that the young Americans have been receiving over the years. They realize that edu­ cation cannot stand still with­ out affecting the welfare and improvement of the nation. Beginning with President Truman, clear through Pres­ ident Eisenhower, and down to President Kennedy com­ missions and committees have been formed for the purpose of analysing the con­ ditions of American schools, their teachers, their acade­ mic and technical courses, their methods of instruction, and their policies. They are determined to discover what­ ever weakness exists in the products of their educational practices. National as well as local surveys have been un­ dertaken and reports of the results of such surveys have 9 been published so the peo­ ple could be fully informed. The reports are live subjects of private and public discus­ sions in large and small con­ ferences, in newspapers, and in radio and TV programs. All these activities indicate the intense interest of the people of the most powerful country in the world today in the value and the urgent need of being constantly aware of the swift changes of educa­ tional ideas and methods. There is more than mere fear and apprehension of the Russian advances in science and technology shown by. leaders of the United States in their intense concern with the quality of the education of the American youth. There is a deep realization on their part that in this age of revo­ lutionary changes the country that is satisfied with what it has today will be left far be­ hind tomorrow. Its economic, social, political, and other problems assume new. aspects and it is only through the improvement of education that these could find satis­ factory solutions. We in our country; on the other hand, do not seem to be keenly apprehensive of the condition of our educational institutions. Our leaders have not been deeply disturbed by the poor educational perform­ ance of our youth in general. We do not seem to be wor­ ried over the large number of young men and women who finish the high school and even the college course without knowing enough of the subjects they are sup­ posed to have taken. We do not seem to mind that many of these graduates do not even know how to read with comprehension or to do mul­ tiplication and division. Our attention is absorbed in poli­ tics and elections. Even these reflect the low educational level of most of our electo­ rate. Issues are absent. The struggle for public offices is carried out on the basis of personal attacks, exposure of private faults, and accusa­ tions of alleged moral delin­ quencies and puerile compari­ sons of individual school achievements. While we should elect only the able and the honest to public posts, it is sheer childishness and po­ litical immaturity to have oneself elected by an appeal to personal prejudice and hatred of one candidate against another. Democracy is not intended for the illite­ rate, the moron, and the fee­ ble minded. Neither is it in­ tended, for the sage and the philosopher alone. It is in­ 10 Panorama tended for the man who is sufficiently educated so that he can with understanding, appreciate whatever is excel­ lent in life, and is able and willing to use his mind and do his own choosing. To keep and maintain it, the people should worry about educa­ tion, superior education. Coming now to the causes that have retarded our educ a t i o n a 1 development as pointed out by competent ob­ servers, we should mention first of all the defective cur­ riculum of our schools in gen­ eral. It is defective not in its quantitative aspect but in its superabundance of subjects and activities, some good, others indifferent, and still others useless. Too many sub­ jects clog and confuse the mind of the student, produc­ ing what might amount to something like mental suffo­ cation. Without going into the de­ tails of the solution of this problem, all I can say at this moment is that the improve­ ment of the curriculum calls for a reduction of the num­ ber of subjects it contains to those that are most essential in developing the power to understand and to think ac­ cording to the different stages of a ‘person’s intellec­ tual maturity. As all men and women of experience know, no more effective way of learning is the process of taking one. thing at a time. Concentration is needed in every task and activity that requires mental or physical effort. For this reason the British scholar and mathe­ matician, Alfred North Whitehead, made this signifi­ cant statement: “In all mo­ dern educational reforms the watchword must be concen­ tration” The improvement of the curriculum therefore is best achieved by limiting its content to the basic sub­ jects needed for the cultiva­ tion of the intellectual com­ petence of the student. For we should all understand that education does not con­ sist in the accumulation of more information in one’s memory, but rather in learn­ ing how to think and how to arrive at pertinent conclu­ sions. While we need mate­ rials which are necessary in the process of thinking, and while it is necessary that such materials be of high quality, their acquisition may be easily left to the mind that has learned how to learn. Superior education is not possible without superior teachers. Our educational problem has reached a criti­ OCTOBER 1961 11 cal stage simply because the great majority of our schools and colleges have not had a sufficient number of wellqualified teachers. A large proportion of the teachers now employed in our schools are not competent enough to produce good students. They are graduates of schools of education that emphasize me­ thods of teaching and pay scant attention to learning subject matter. It is quite ob­ vious that one cannot give what he does not have, no matter how much he knows the method of giving. The good teacher should not only have the know-how but also the know-what and the knowwhy. It goes without saying that to improve the education of our youth good teachers are indispensable. To produce them there is need for change and modification in the sys­ tem of education for our tea­ chers. Consequently, some time and much effort are needed before we could hope to transform our educational institutions today into cen­ ters adequately equipped to improve the quality of the instruction for our youth. The improvement of the cur­ riculum is not as difficult as raising the quality of instructon. The curriculum does not work automatically. Without well qualified teachers, the curriculum is of very little use. The third cause of the de­ terioration of the educational performance of our students proceeds from the character, the habits, and the attitudes of a large portion of our youth. The general complaint of our teachers and profes­ sors in our university is that a large number of our stu­ dents do not study; they do not spend enough time to pre­ pare their lessons before com­ ing to class. Study is work, mental work. There are times when I feel that this aversion on the part of our students to men­ tal work might be attributa­ ble to the idea propagated by some educationists that work experience is gained only through manual work and physical exertion. There are moments when I suspect that this aversion to mental effort on the part of many students. especially those coming from the public schools, might be the effect of the so-called activity me­ thod which stresses the prag­ matic principle of learning by doing and even by play­ ing. Professor Brand Blanshard of Yale University commenting on this princi12 Panorama pie stated: “We are all prag­ matists from five to ten. But I am inclined to think that a person who is still a prag­ matist at forty is suffering from arrested development. A person who limits the fruits of the spirit to those that that can be tested in action is not so much freeing himself from older dogmaticism as fettering himself by a new one.” And I should add that education is a fruit of the spirit. The development of the mind is not something that can take place by the mere presence of a good teacher, by the mere possession oi proper books and other nistructional materials, by the mere attendance of the stu­ dents in the classroom, and to wait for the teacher to pour the precious liquid of knowledge into his empty brain, after which he could go out and be ready to pour the needed amount of learn­ ing into the job he has se­ lected for himself or into the problem he meets in life. Education is more like a pro­ cess of developing the mus­ cles or of building up the skill of a prospective athlete so that he could win a prize or at least make a good showing in a contest. To repeat, many of our students today come to their classes without spending even an hour in preparing their lessons. And there are many among us parents who complain when their sons and daughters have to observe class schedules that demand even only a modicum amount of preparation or else flunk in their subjects. This is a problem that serious-minded educators and responsible ci­ tizens of our country should frankly face; and they should welcome gladly every re­ quirement prescribed for its solution. For it involves more than the mere fulfillment of academic duties. It involves the fundamental need of dev­ eloping the habit of work, di­ ligence, persistence, and the quality of moral stamina and even physical endurance. It is this dicipline of work, purposeful wor-k? that quality education requires and en­ courages. That is why quality education inevitably pro­ duces men of character, not weaklings, persons of integ­ rity, not drones, parasites, or grafters. These problems have faced our Board of National Edu­ cation in its work of plan­ ning a program of educa­ tional improvement suitable to the needs of our nation. OCTOBBK 1961 is After the completion of the survey of our public schools undertaken by the mixed group of American and Fi­ lipino educators I refered to a while ago, the Board creat­ ed a committee in May, I9­ 60, to study the possibility of reorganizing the entire Philippine educational sys­ tem. That committee met practically every week from July, 1960 until April, 1961, when it rendered its final report to the Board. The membership of the commit­ tee consisted of ranking of­ ficials from the Department of Education, the University of the Philippines, and out­ standing citizens in business. It was assisted by members of the staff of the Bureau of Public Schools and of the Colleges of Education, Arts and Sciences, and Engineer­ ing of the University of the Philippines. Its report has been widely published in the different newspapers of this city. The suggestions and re­ commendations embodied in it have been appreciated by persons interested in the im­ provement of our education­ al system and by the press in general. We do not have the time to discuss them in detail at this moment. I shall therefore mention but very briefly the general objectives and the overall organization of the educational system proposed. The present organizational setup of the elementary school consisting of a four-year pri­ mary and a two-year inter­ mediate curriculum is pre­ served. The reason is that it is an urgent obligation under our Constitution for the gov­ ernment to provide at least free primary instruction and that the actual government budget for the support of our public schools is so li­ mited that to comply with this constitutional mandate it is imperative that unneces­ sary prolongation of the ele­ mentary curriculum should be avoided. The objective of elementary education is to produce functional literacy. The goal of secondary edu­ cation is intelligent citizen­ ship. A basic secondary school of three years is pro­ posed, offering a rounded cur­ riculum of general education which covers only the essen­ tial subjects needed by the in­ telligent citizen. The basic secondary school serves two purposes: One is to provide a terminal course for all those who may not wish to continue their studies. The other is to serve as a foun­ dation for two distinct cours­ es, namely, the collegiate sec­ 14 Panorama ondary course and the voca­ tional secondary course. The collegiate secondary course, as well as the voca­ tional secondary course, ex­ tends over a period of two years. The collegiate second­ ary course serves as a prepa­ ration for college work. The vocational secondary course is intended for the training of moderately skilled work­ ers and craftsmen. For those who desire to improve them­ selves further, an additional two years of vocational courses are offered, leading to the training of technicians or more highly skilled crafts­ men. Then for those who de­ sire to become teachers in vo­ cational schools or to develop themselves into technologists, an additional course of two years in higher technical training is suggested. The courses for colleges embody two important fea­ tures. One is the reduction of the number of required subjects to the essentials in mathematics, the natural sciences, humanities, and so­ cial sciences. The aim is to develop the power to think, to improve the ability to make relevant judgments, as well as to enhance a person’s liberal education. The second feature of the suggested col­ lege curriculum is flexibility; The purpose of this is to give the authorities of a college a greater degree of freedom in adopting additional ' courses that they might consider val­ uable. To raise standards of uni­ versity education, the com­ mittee suggests that for an institution to be recognized as a university, it must have post graduate courses in na­ tural science, social science, and the humanities; and that it should have at least two thirds of the members of its faculty serving as full-time professors exclusively for the university. Dr. James B. Conant, for­ mer President of Harvard University, not very long ago declared that educational practices are not exportable commodities. Hence, every country should adopt its sys­ tem and its methods of edu­ cation that are best suited to its social conditions, its his­ torical traditions, and its va­ ried needs. The validity of these ideas is beyond doubt. But we have, unfortunately in our country, ignored them by adopting a system of edu­ cation which is a mere imi­ tation or image of the Am­ erican educational system. That system has its good points but it must have some very poor points otherwise, October 1961 15 the American leaders, as I stated previously, would not have been so apprehensive about improving them. It is high time that we should es­ tablish a system of educa­ tion suitable to us as a dis­ tinct people, with limited financial resources, with problems peculiar to our own conditions. We should not forget, however, that in many * * ways education is universal in character. Therefore, we need to discover and to learn whatever is good in the edu­ cational ideas of other coun­ tries; then we should import them, if necessary, not, how­ ever, through a system of adoption but through a pro­ cess of adaptation. Thus we may be able to enrich and develop our own. * NEW BLOOD TEST FOR BODY DISEASES A simple blood test for diseases of the heart, liver and other body organs based on the iden­ tification of enzyme “fingerprints” was described at a recent meeting of the American Chemical So­ ciety. The test depends on LDH (lactic dehydro­ genase), an enzyme that regulates several im­ portant chemical processes in the body, accord­ ing to medical authorities. LDH occurs in five distinct forms caled isoenzymes, which appear in different proportions in different organs. Clinical tests indicate that when an organ is damaged it releases enzymes into the blood stream. “impress­ ing its LDH isoenzyme pattern on the blood, like an identifiable fingerprint,” the authorities ex­ plained. Blood tests can. therefore, serve to identify an injured organ, and they are especially suitable for the detection of heart and liver damaae be­ cause these LDH patterns differ markedly in their resistance to heat. A larae amount of LDH destroyed by heatinq a sample of the blood se­ rum at a relatively low temperature indicates li­ ver disease while a large proportion of lactic de­ hydrogenase stable at a relatively high tempera­ ture indicates heart damage. 16 Panorama
PROGRESS, LEARN! Dr. Pascual Capiz Tt is clear to any one who 4 wishes to divine the fu­ ture of the Philippines that the present conditions do not provide much room for op­ timism. This pessimism is not the result of a realization that this country is poor, for it is rich in natural resources; nor that this nation has reached a certain dead level of national and material development, for it is young; nor that its geographical location is a cause for concern, for one can count only Great Britain, Japan, Indonesia, and the continent of Australia as more fortunately free from any border invasion; nor even that its population is small, for there are nations of les­ ser people which count bet­ ter in the counsel of nations. Not these, but the human re­ sources or rather the lack of them is the reason for gen­ uine pessimism. Because of our colonial past we have a distorted sense of value. We do not yet have a sense of the na­ tional interest. We believe that patronizing the language and customs of the Spaniards and the Americans is the high road to national and so­ cial improvement. We forget the saying, Charity begins at home. Our indifference and even cynical attitude to­ wards the poverty of the masses does not reveal in us something that makes for a better social order. A nation that is ambitious in the way of self-improvement must first be a united people. But no nation is ever united five per cent of whose population is very rich and ninety-five 46 Panorama NG and the YOUTH per cent is very poor. Such a cleavage based on econo­ mic interest is a barrier to the attainment of a social or­ der and a permanent seed of revolution. We are proud of our so-call­ ed freedom of the press, our social and political freedom. Most of these freedom are more apparent than real. 'Tt is true we freely publish many things, but we also freely do not publish many things that should come to the knowledge of the public in the interest of good gov­ ernment and society. Furth­ ermore, how can there be press freedom when about eighty per cent of the peo­ ple cannot read the metropo­ litan papers because they are published in English? It is the discussion of the people in the organs of publication that makes the freedom of the press real rather than the opinion of some patronizing political salesman from ab­ road. Can there be, indeed, real social freedom when the highest public and education­ al institutions of the land are not our own? Can there be freedom when much of our military bases, our banking and economic institutions, and the organs of publica­ tion and dissemination of in­ formation are largely in the hands of foreigners? We like to think we are free. But if we want to change the struc­ ture of our economic and litical institutions to suitHaie circumstances of our history and the real' interest of pur people, can we reallyicd-sift without . cPyeorfecprLefcfln interventions fromf; the intf-r truments of foreign d$>min?B tion? Finally, it is hard tokfop^ lieve, as we would like oto believe, that we are a people, politically free if you: will, when the governing class, supposedly the best' and highest of the land, with few exceptions, are graft-rid­ den and corrupt. These facts are passed in review not to castigate anew old beaten horses, but to un­ derscore the point that we have to go a long way, in fact we have to do almost the very opposite of what we do now, if we want to attain national progress. Our atti­ OCTOBER 1961 47 tudes and the present out­ look of the people are in the way to national development Therefore, there must be a social revolution; there must be a transvaluation of values to prepare the youth who will take the helm of the state in the next generations. Since moral and intellectual progress must precede all oth­ er kinds of progress, the young people now who will be rulers of tomorrow must be conditioned to be lovers of wisdom and moral virtues before they are lovers of wealth. It is ever thus in the his­ tory of civilization, the his­ tory of Egypt, Greece, India, China, and Japan, that a por­ tion of their population is the custodian of learning. And it is from this class that the ruling group was drawn The case in point is the priestly class of ancient Egypt or the aristocrats of the Greek city-states from which Plato had painted the guard­ ian class of his Republic, or the Brahman and Kshastriya classes of India, or the Man­ darin of China, or the Sa­ murai of Japan. The success of the Chinese civilization and the amazing continuity of the kind of government and social order that had been established by the Chi­ nese people for more than twenty-five hundred years are to be attributed in a large measure to the system of what is universally known as the Civil Service Examina­ tion system. By this system the officials of the Chinese government have always been the men of learning. But the Chinese system of govern­ ment is only the practical ex­ emplification of Plato’s theo­ ry in the Republic that the guardian or ruling class must be possessed of the highest knowledge, in addition to the possession of justice, temper­ ance, and courage. To be doubly sure that the guc ian class would work for the the happiness of the whole society rather than its own happiness, Plato advocated that the ruling class, though not the artisan or the lowest class, should have their wives and property in common. If there is a lesson to be learn­ ed from this great book of Plato’s it is this: the confi­ dent assertion that know­ ledge is the highest require­ ment in the conduct of gov­ ernment. Just as in the indi­ vidual reason must prevail over passion, so in politics the wise men must rule over the others. The history of civilization, therefore, points to this inescapable conclusion that there is no progress, which men call civilization, 48 Panorama without wise and good gov­ ernment, and there is no wise and good government with­ out wise and good men. With­ out learning there is no pro­ gress. One of the most illustrious passages in the whole of Chinese literature and politi­ cal philosophy, which shows the relation between learn­ ing and government, is this one from “The Great Learn­ ing” of the Confucian School: The ancients who wish­ ed to illustrate illust­ rious virtue throughout the kingdom, first order­ ed well their own states. Wishing to order well their states, they first re­ gulated their families. Wishing to regulate their families, they first culti­ vated their persons, they first rectified their hearts. Wishing to rectify hearts, they first sought to be sincere in their thoughts. Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts, they first extended to the utmost their knowledge. Such extension of know­ ledge lay in the investi­ gation of things. Things being investigat­ ed, knowledge became complete. Their know­ ledge being complete, their thoughts were sin­ cere. Their thoughts be­ ing sincere, their hearts were then rectified. Their hearts being rectified, their persons were culti­ vated. Their persons be­ ing cultivated, their fami­ lies were regulated. Their families being regulated, their states were rightly governed. Their states being rightly governed, the whole kingdom was made tranquil and happySo, it is on the investiga­ tion of things and on the knowledge that results from the investigation that the foundation of government and a tranquil society must be laid. Confucius and Pla­ to are agreed on the belief that knowledge is the foun­ dation of a good society. If it is the experience of mankind that learning is es­ sential to progress, material, political, and cultural, it is hard to see how we can make ourselves, this nation, the exception to the rule. At pre­ sent, it seems that wealth is the highest value of our so­ ciety, judging from the fact that the best, the most ho­ norable, the ruling group of our people are in pursuit of it. We cannot continue to ig­ nore the experience of man­ kind, or else we shall suffer, October 1961 49 as it is ever the fate of stu­ pid men, enslavement under wiser nations, wiser because they put .their trust in their good and wise men. Indeed, the cultivation of learning in our nation may very well de­ cide our destiny. It can be confidently stated that as long as learning is not the primary qualification of our officials in the government, the Fili­ pino nation is doomed to failure. We must first be one peo­ ple with a definite goal, not for Americans nor for Span­ iards but for ourselves, show­ ing some appreciation and d'eyotfou to the higher goals of rJifce.vTfce Inqham-epic. MahafaawifL, lief-four, goals oflife;- which rStf-epd^ty- (dhar-> ma), ►wealth; ment (kawa)^^pdgIteration. (moksa).- rIf,.^ems. that,.as a nation' our JyisioriTias jreaphed only as^iar '^s JWaftft and enjoymefit'^h^^g ^bals of life. Our public! officials, than whom we. cannot find a more representative group among our ’ people, consider their public trust as only an op­ portunity for making money. In their capacity as public servants the times are many when they have to choose between money and duty. Usually the choice is money; thus every time this happens the public official has be­ trayed his country and humi­ liated the Filipinos as a race. One recalls the case of tenyear-old little Fortunato in Prosper Merimee’s story, Ma­ teo Falcone. For a dangling silver watch he betrayed his solemn promise to hide an outlaw, from whom, previous­ ly, he had received five francs. Mateo Falcone, the father, shot his son to satis­ fy the demands of justice. Our public official deserves no less, his crime is greater. But our people condone the erring officer because their ideal is the same as his. I hold no brief against the politicians as a group.. I agree with Cicero when he said that the state is divine, as it embraces -within it almost everything of human good. Therefore the men who con­ duct the affairs of the state have.an honorable, if not a divine, calling. But our politi­ cal officials fail far short of their highest opportunities, either because they are not aware of the dignity of their office or they are weak and succumb easily to the temp­ tation of wealth. They may profess devotion to duty, but there are only a handful of them who are sincerely dedi­ cated to their work, certain­ ly not enough to tip the bal­ ance between what is a good government and what is a 50 162PAM0MM9 corrupt government. I agree with Leif Nylen, a Norwe­ gian rehabilitation expert who spent two years in the Philippines as International Labor Organization observer. He is reported (The Manila Chronicle, December 28, 1960) as stating his private opinion as follows: I have faith in the young, the old are cor­ rupt. The Filipinos lack guts, lack the fighting spirit to pull themselves out of the rut of poverty where they spend their lives. The average Filipino is poor and will remain poor as long as the re­ gime is so corrupt that every aid from other countries disappears and does not reach the com­ mon people. Certainly there is no future for our country under a nor­ malized system of corruption. Even if we can fully indus­ trialize, the problem of po­ verty and the good society will not be solved. We must first order our hearts before we can order our material well-being. If we cannot or­ der our hearts, to have more wealth is only to increase hu­ man misery for the nation. What then is the hope of the future? We stand on the threshold of our history when, not by any other means but by in­ telligence and willingness to sacrifice, we must change and direct the development of our country. We shall not be content with riding on the initial push of the past for that has been mixed with much evil. Let us remember that we have been puppets in the hands of the Spaniards, and the Americans, and even the Japanese in thir short stay; and we have been made to look at ourselves after their own image. In this sense we have learned to dis­ trust ourselves. They have succeeded and are even now succeeding, as witnessed by our continued patronage of their language and their cus­ toms and their ways of life, which are contrary to ours. We must change all these if we intend to take a creative hand in the making of our history. Surely the meaning of progress in history is not that things will get better as time goes on. Rather, the human good may be realized according to a predetermined end. This is the only mean­ ing of progress I know. For nature and human nature begrudge the good to him who will not work for it. Since, therefore, we cannot rely on the present genera51 NEW DISTILLATION PROCESS FEASIBLE The recently announced thin film water dis­ tillation process, developed by the General Elec­ tric Company of the United States, has now been proved feasible for use by cities and industrial concerns. With General Electric’s distillation process, salt or brackish water is literally ‘wiped” in a very thin film by wiper blades over the inside surface of a heat transfer tube. Heat from steam passing over the outside fluted surface of this tube causes the inside film of feed water to eva­ porate. The' vapor produced is then condensed to pure, fresh water. Previous experiments by General Electric with a full-scale engineering model of the thin film unit also demonstrated the value of the con­ cept for marine applications where restrictions of size and weight are critical. * ♦ ♦ tion of public servants we shall look to the youth of new vision, cherishing better and higher values. Our fu­ ture government must be in the hands of the young whose highest standards of public performance are the virtues of justice and learning. The goals of human society are easily set. It is the realiz­ ing of them that is difficult. Among these goals may be social justice, peace, and hap­ piness of the people. But peace, as the Schoolman said, is the fruit of justice, and peace is a precondition of happiness. No justice can be realized if the government is not just, and the govern­ ment cannot be just if every official is not just; and ulti­ mately the justice of every single official may be traced back to the just or corrupt life in which he privately lives. The future officials of our government must be men of the highest probity in their private lives. They shall be men who are more concern­ ed how they would appear to their conscience than to the public. These are the men who will value honor more than money and wisdom and love of justice above all things. This is seed-time for the Filipino nation; and the har­ vest of human good can be ours in the modest compass of our country if we are first 52 Panorama possessed of the higest spirit­ ual values common to all mankind. Being a young na­ tion we cannot expect fullest maturity and ripest judgment in our conduct as a people. It is enough that we have the dynamism of youth and a new outlook. By the new outlook I mean that we must as a people, individually and * collectively, be possessed first of the highest intellectual and moral values before we can be possessor of our lands. To do otherwise is to repeat our history. Let us see if the youth can be better than the old in the possession of the new outlook and the new vi­ sion of a greater and happier Philippines. ♦ * NEW COMPOUND FOUND TO INHIBIT ONE TYPE OF TUMOR IN ANIMALS A new compound which in animal experi­ ments inhibits one type of tumor by 90 to 100 per cent has been fashioned from a potential cancer drug now undergoing clinical tests in the United States. The chemical, a piperazine derivative la­ belled A-20968, is effective against Carcinoma 755, a transplantable mouse tumor, and also shows activity against two common types of can­ cer, Sarcoma 180 and Leukemia 1210, according to Dr. John A. Carbon, a research chemist at Ab­ bott Laboratories, North Chicago, Illinois. The new compound has not yet been tried on human beings. The model for the compound was called A-8103, and it represents an entirely new type of. chemical structure to show activity against tumors, Dr. Carbon said, adding: “Although it is probably a member of the class of anti-tumor agents known as ‘alkylating agents,’ it possesses a chemical structure of an entirely different type from the known com­ pounds of this class. It thus offers an opportunity or ‘lead’ for the organic chemist to synthesize many closely related compounds as possible tu­ mor growth inhibitors.” October 1961 53
THE CHALLENGE OF FIDELISMO Hernando Abaya Tt is now about six months A since the CIA-trained Cu­ ban “freedom fighters” land­ ed on the Bay of Pigs. In the agonizing post-mortem on what is now known as the Cuban fiasco, all the bones have been dug up with pain­ staking thoroughness by the American and the rest of the world press. Yet the confu­ sion and ignorance over Cu­ ba has continued to hound us, and the implications of jidelismo on the vast under­ developed areas of Asia, Af­ rica and Latin America have remained vague and incom­ prehensible to most of us. It is little surprising that a Ma­ nila newspaper of vast pre­ tensions can still refer to the 26th of July Movement as “the biggest hoax and crud­ est betrayal yet perpetrated on the Cuban people” without so much as drawing a line of perceptive comment from any of its readers. Yet this “hoax” of the Cu­ ban social revolution is such a reality that President Ken­ nedy has been compelled to launch in mid-August his $20 billion “Alliance for Pro­ gress” program of aid to La­ tin America, precisely to wean away the perenially poor and largely illiterate Latin American campesinos from the enticing winds of fidelismo blowing from the Carribean. For Mr. Kennedy sees radical social reform as the best hope of economic progress and political stabili­ ty, not only in Latin Amer­ OCTOBEB 1961 33 ica, but in the other under­ developed areas of Asia and Africa, where the United States must face the relent­ less Soviet challenge to ride the crest of a surging social revolution. Speh political solutions, however, are anathema to the privileged landed gentry and. their foreign backers who have exploited the underdev­ eloped areas of the world. And, as in the case of Latin America, in the apt words of a New Statesman editorial, “a skin of capitalism has been grafted onto a feudal framework, and this ugly and inefficient hybrid — kept alive indeed only by constant injections of dollars and arms — has cannibalised democ­ racy in order to live. The peasants have got neither bread nor votes.” Land reform must come if there is to be any social pro­ gress. There is the immediate challenge that faces the Ken­ nedy Administration. In ef­ fect, how to counter the lure of fidelismo. “It is an image with many faces,” writes The Economist in a special issue on the Latin American Fu­ ture. “At its simplest, it means to millions of Latin Americans that in a remoter but still a sister, country, a man as glamorous as any film star has given land to the poor, rooked the rich, and put gringos in their place. It is a concept that pleases them. The young President and his ebullient corps of Harvard dons now realize only too well that so many Latin Americans are irresisti­ bly drawn towards the lights of fidelismo. And they must offer the Latin Americans a third option which is, in the words of Walter Lippmann, “economic development and social improvement without the totalitarian discipline of Communism”. It is a picture of fidelismo in action that the eminent sociologist, C. Wright Mills, etches in his book Listen, Yankee in an earnest pl§a to his fellow Americans to wake up and listen to the “angry voice” of Castro’s Cuba so that they may not commit “disastrous mistakes of ig­ norance.” This plea, it would seem, was unheeded. About a year later came the Cuban blunder. There were similar pleas from no less eminent sources. Besides Lippmann: Herbert Matthews, Ray Brennen, Jules Dubois, Fred J. Cook, and the liberal weeklies, among others. And there were also the consistently ob­ jective and penetrating stu­ dies in British journals and 34 PANORAMA newspapers like The Econo­ mist, The Manchester Guard­ ian, The Observer, The New Statesman, and the staid Lon­ don Times. By and large, however, the American press simply reneged on its jobs. “In my 30 years on the New York Times,” Matthews told the American Society of Newspaper Editors on April 21, 1960, “I have never seen a big story so misunderstood, so badly handled, and so mis­ interpreted as the Cuban re­ volution.” Mills tries to capture the collective voice of Cuban re­ volutionaries and to express something of their reasons for the revolution and how they feel. about it. He pens his chapters in the form of letters from the Cubans to the Yanqui and spells out the Cuban mood as gleaned from his discussions and in­ terviews with Cubans, from Castro and the intellectuals to the rebel soldier and the lowly peasant, during his month’s stay in Cuba in Au­ gust, 1960. A sociologist, he applies the same searching analysis and uncanny insight that he uses in his now clas­ sic The Power Elite to the story of the Cuban social re­ volution. He delves into the long his­ tory of the colonial exploita­ tion of Cuba, its place in the American dream as a slaver’s haven, the repeated inter­ vention by American Marines on behalf- of the “‘Yankee bankers,” the old order that went out with the “butcher” Batista — “an order of po­ lice terror and grief and po­ verty and disease and illite­ racy and the corrupted poli­ tics of the thief and the ca­ pitalism of the robber.” He tells of the revolution, its be­ ginnings, its leaders, its trials and problems, its ends, its meaning. And he recounts its gains in terms of social reform and political stability — higher literacy, more em­ ployment, rising production, new schools, better homes, lower rents, better food, low­ er prices, and other benefits of an agrarian revolution. The Cubans admit, says Mills, they are influenced by the Soviet Union, just like other peoples in under-developed areas, but they deny they are “under Communist orders.” Their economic deals with the Sino-Soviet block are bu­ siness deals. “We are going to take the help we need from whoever will give it to us.” It is pure McCarthyism, as­ serts Mills, to call Castro and his revolutionaries Khrush­ chev’s stooges. He stresses the fact that the Cubans’ “on­ ly real fear,” their “only real worry,” is the “menace” of October 1961 35 the United States to all their efforts. (The Cuban invasion merely confirms this fear.) He sums up what Cubans want from the United States: “Just let us alone.” Or, sim­ ply: “Nothing.” He under­ scores the problem of Latin America vis-a-vis the United States: So long as U.S. cor­ porations own Latin Amer­ ica’s riches they will control its politics. The beneficiaries of U.S. aid have all been the feudal oligarchies. “Inside Latin America, the U.S. Gov­ ernment has supported reac­ tionary circles and do-noth­ ing ruling strata,” writes Mills. “Its role has generally been and continues to be that of stabilizing their dominion and so the continued sloth. Its aid has been largely to give them arms and other military support, in the name of ‘Hemispheric Defense,’ which has meant defense against their own people.” Harper's Magazine in a re­ view of Listen, Yankee says the message Mills put in the mouth of the Cuban is, in effect, “a piece of propagan­ da — uncritical, emotional, oblivious of the faults of the Castro regime.” This is per­ haps true. Yet it is not so easy to dismiss his document­ ed testimony. For his conclu­ sions are reflected in the main by other competent writers and observers, Amer­ ican and British, in many ar­ ticles and studies written be­ fore and since the Cuban fiasco. Moreover, there is lit­ tle about Castro’s Cuba that has reached us through the American press and other news media that has not turned out to be- propaganda. This explains the failure of intelligence all around on the Cuban fiasco — of the press, of the ICA and other intelligence services, of the diplomatic corps. All these men, to quote The Nation, “seemed to have been fet­ tered by ideological blinkers of the kind that obscure so­ cial, economic and political realities.” The Cuban fiasco was the aftermath of the Big Decep­ tion. Even Mr. Kennedy and his intellectual coterie were taken in. Castro had ranted as early as last December that the United States was preparing an invasion, and he kept at it right up to the eve of the landings, the while beefing up his defenses. The U.S. press ridiculed this claim as a figment of the La­ tin imagination. Yet, from scattered sources had come reports of feverish prepara­ tions in Guatemala and Flo­ rida under the CIA. (These preparations clearly had “the knowledge and consent of 36 Panorama the American government.”) A few other sources may be mentioned. The Hispanic Am­ erican Report described in detail such preparations by Cuban exiles under the CIA in its issue of October, 1960. On information supplied by its editor, The Nation report­ ed on November 19, 1960 the existence in Guatemala of a training base for anti-Castro guerrillas. British journals with competent observers ab­ road similarly sounded the alert. In February, two months before the invasion, The Observer reported: “It is now officially and widely believed by the Cubans that the United States intends to destroy their revolution. They believe that the Central In­ telligence Agency (CIA) in Washington is financing a counter-revolution based on Miami to repeat their Gautemala success of 1954.” The Economist and The New Statesman carried similar re­ ports on the eve of the inva­ sion. For the first time, writes The Economist, in a percep­ tive comment two days be­ fore the invasion, there seem to be grounds for Castro’s re­ peated assertions that Cuba is about to be invaded by counter-revolutionary forces supported by the United States. It notes the publica­ tion of the State Depart­ ment’s White Paper of April 3, 1961 denouncing Cuba “bell, book and candle,” fol­ lowed by the Cuban exiles’ call to arms in New York, and then Mr. Kennedy’s warning a week before the invasion that Castro “would grow more dangerous unless action were taken against him.” So­ lemnly, The Economist says: “If Mr. Kennedy has decided to encourage an attack by the exiles, the United States is entering an extremely dan­ gerous period in its relations with Latin America.” And it adds: “If the invasion (still) fails, it will be a major disaster for the reputation of the United States.” And so it came to pass. The debacle was swift. Without an air umbrella, the invaders did not have a chance. The simultaneous “popular rising” the CIA was sure the land­ ings would touch off simply did not materialize. The Am­ erican failure, and ignominy, was no more sharply drawn than by the unhappy figure of the respected Adlai Ste­ venson denying categorically before the United Nations, in reply to the Cuban delegate’s charges of U.S. intervention, that the United States had had any hand — any hand at all — in the attempt to overthrow Castro! Such October 1961 37 charges, he said, were a tis­ sue of lies delivered “in the jargon of Communism.” Ap­ parently, even he had not been told the truth! The disenchantment among thinking Americans that fol­ lowed in the wake of this de­ bacle is perhaps best express­ ed in what the American stu­ dents at Oxford, including 14 Rhodes scholars, wrote in a letter to the White House: “We had hoped that under the new Adminis­ tration the United States foreign policy would reach a new level of ho­ nesty and good will. We did not expect that our Ambassador to the Unit­ ed Nations would have to resort to deception and evasion; and that our ac­ tions would have to be justified by balancing them against Soviet sup­ pression in Budapest; and that consequently world opinion would turn against them.” A group of Harvard profes­ sors bought a half-page ad in the New York Times to pour out their anger and dis­ appointment over the Amer­ ican involvement in the Cu­ ban affair. Manila’s newspapers for the most part felt let down, after the first day’s flurry of screaming headlines of new landings, new beach­ heads, thousands of freed prisoners joining invaders, a reign of terror in Havana, and all the wildest claims of the anti-Castro forces. Taking the cake was a scary one: REBS MISS FIDEL, BAG RAUL. Correspondents burn­ ed the wires of the Associat­ ed Press and the United Press International, and the Agence France Presse. Fact and propaganda were never so happily, so recklessly blended. An American writer who was in Havana at the time of the invasion, said an AP story of street fighting in Havana and a UPI story that the Hotel Havana Libre had been “totally destroyed” af­ ter an air attack on Havana were only typical of 25 “com­ pletely false dispatches” by the two major U. S. news agencies he had seen. “I rode and walked through the streets of Havana from the evening of April 14 when I arrived, until the afternoon of April 26 I left,” he said. “There was no fighting any­ where, any time. I lived in the Havana Libre that entire period — quite a trick, isn’t it, to eat and sleep in a hotel that has been ‘totally des­ troyed.’ ” But when the big story of the CIA’s complicity in the 38 Panorama invasion was carried on the AP wire, only one Manila newspaper printed it. The rest of the morning dailies, which had played up every anti-Castro claim no matter how fantastic, were silent. They gingerly picked up the story only after Washington had made grudging admis­ sions. Yet, this was the one big story about Cuba: who plotted the invasion and why it failed. Only a week later, when the whole story of the CIA’s ignominious role had been exposed, did one paper feel it necessary to ex­ press “the people’s sympathy” to the United States for its patience and forebearance in the face of Castro’s provoca­ tions. “Such sympathy, how­ ever, is tinged with regret (sic!) that the U.S. has fum­ bled in its chosen task,” it said. The American intervention in Cuba raised questions and issues that found the United States and its Western allies, notably Britain, in sharp dis­ agreement. One big issue was the Monroe Doctrine. Was the United States justified in intervening in Cuba in the interest of hemispheric secu­ rity? Even if Castro were a Communist? / The London Times: raps Mr. KennedijI d)rrrtl;erknubkles.,fOy &riitchiBg Orths'J McwMFoe Thwt trine to mean that in the last resort the United States “uni­ laterally reserves the right to use force” to reverse a re­ gime in a neighboring coun­ try where the regime might be considered to rely on or encourage “outside Commu­ nist penetration.” Who could “unerringly draw the line between indigenous Commu­ nism and outside influences”' asks the journal. Even.mqre open to question, it says, wag Mr. Kennedy’s point- that; were the United States to intervene in a neighboring country, it would have,.after, the suppression of the 'Hun­ garian revolt, no lessons to receive from Moscow. “If the leader among the free na­ tions of the West is going to justify its conduct by the ex­ ample of its opponents, then there will be nothing left but naked self- interest as the mainspring for action.” Even more pointedly writes The Manchester Guardian, “No one outside the United States sees anything sacro­ sanct in the Monroe Doctrine. Even if Dr. Castro has be­ come a Communist stooge, that is no justification for trying to remove him by force. Rhetoric about an ideo­ logy ‘alien to the Western hemisphere’ will cut no ice iw Africa or’. Asia, or even ini ,’iM li r ,‘(3OTaBKRcJ1961 “To the peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America,” comments The Observer, “the United States is not a revo­ lutionary power, but — al­ though Americans can never believe this — the greatest and most powerful fulfill­ ment of Western imperialism. To them. Castro is not a communist dictator, but the heroic champion of an op­ pressed people or (at worst) a rather muddled man who has been forced to rely on Russian aid because of Am­ erican hostility. In their eyes Cuba may be a Russian ally but is certainly not a Russian satellite, or a mili­ tary danger to the United States.” (At the height of the de­ bate on Cuba in the U.S. Congress, Congressman Frank Kowalski (D-Conn) said: “Castro may be an unpleas­ ant irritant, a thorn in our side, but I certainly hope no one believes Cuba is a serious challenge to the United States.” This was what Lipp­ mann referred to when he said: “They need to cool off. They might ponder the wisest remark which was uttered during the debates about Cuba—that Castro is a thorn in our flesh, but he is not a dagger in our hearts.” But adds The Observer, even if Mr. Kennedy’s pic­ ture of the situation were true and were seen to be true, “it would still be doubt­ ful if his tactics were right.” These “dangerous tactics” ig­ nore the long-term diploma­ tic interests of the West, which are to build up the international order. “The aim should not be to play Mr. Khurshchev’s game,” it stres­ ses, “but to press him to ac­ cept new rules.” American power “cannot be used to im­ pose an American anti-Communist ideology on other na­ tions.” A week later, The Observ­ er castigated the Americans even more sharply. Com­ menting on Mr. Kennedy’s speeches and actions since the fiasco, and the reactions of the American press, The Observer says the Cuban ad­ venture appears to be “not an isolated blunder,” but the result of an “anti-Communist blindness,” which seems al­ most universal in the United States. “To a far greater ex­ tent than they would like to admit our American friends are the prisoners of an ideo­ logy almost as narrow as that of the Communists and just as fervently believed.” The American ideology “equates capialism not only with free­ dom but very nearly with virtue.” Saying that Mr. Ken­ nedy seems to believe that 40 Panorama destiny has chosen him to lead the forces of freedom in a desperate attempt to stop the rot by using the same, (i.e., Communist) methods, The Observer soberly con­ cludes: “It would be a gro­ tesque and disabling conse­ quence of an emotional anti­ Communism if the West, which ought to be the pio­ neer of tolerance, came to ap­ pear almost as intolerant and blinkered as those it opposes.” John Douglas Pringle, the brilliant deputy editor of The Observer, analyzed this “anti-Communist blindness” can­ didly in a series of on-thespot studies of the basis of Mr. Kennedy’s foreign policy. “Except in a lunatic fringe,” he writes, “ this anti-Communism cannot be called hys­ teria; it is a dogma deeply held and sincerely believed.” The great majority of the Americans could not see that there was anything wrong with the invasion. The fail­ ure was humiliating, but the fact that Mr. Kennedy had tried at all “proved that he was sound of heart.” Mr. Kennedy “exploited” this feeling with “consum­ mate skill to turn the crisis from a Suez into a Dunkirk.” The response was overwhelm­ ing. A Gallup poll showed that Mr. Kennedy, elected last autumn by the barest majority, now had the sup­ port of 84 per cent of the na­ tion. The President (remarks Pringle) must have reflected ironically that “nothing suc­ ceeds like failure.” Therein lies the danger. The United States is now in “a dangerous mood of frus­ tration which would not easi­ ly accept another defeat.” Says The Economist: “Frus­ trated by their failure to get the first man into space, and Dr. Castro out of Cuba, they (some Americans) are temp­ ted to conclude that the time for negotiation is over and the moment for blunter measures is at hand.” It notes that Time magazine has expressed this mood. Say­ ing that Mr. Kennedy had come into office with some naive notions about the pos­ sibilities of easing cold war tensions by negotiations, Time magazine declared that the events in Cuba had brought his three- month pursuit of this “will o’the wisp” to an end. More bluntly, the colum­ nist Stewart Alsop wrote that one lesson Cuba taught the Americans is summed up in the old adage: “If you strike a king you must strike to kill.” The implica­ tion is plain. “Some day, one way or another,” says Alsop, “the American commitment October 1961 41 to bring Castro down will have to be honored. The commitment can only be ho­ nored if the American gov­ ernment is willing, if neces­ sary, to strike to kill, even if that risks the shedding of American blood” (Under­ scoring supplied) Those who hold this view, The Economist points out, misunderstand both the na­ ture of the cold war and the causes of its recent frosting over. The only thing the Cu­ ban fiasco proved, says the financial journal, is that “there will be a sharp heigh­ tening of tension in the world (and a sharp drop in respect for the United States) if the Americans cofnbine an attempt to or­ ganize the overthrow of a foreign government with an incapacity to do the job pro­ perly.” And it reminds the Americans that they “can never be in a position of exact equality” in the com­ petition with Communism. In this situation, there is the danger, as John Pringle points out in his study of cold war issues, mentioned in an earlier paragraph, that, if Mr. Khrushchev proves un­ willing to discuss cold war solutions, Mr. Kennedy “may decide too quickly that the tough school is right” and that the only practical poli­ cy to meet Communism is to “fight fire with fire”—which means the use of subversion, guerilla warfare and even, if necessary, direct intervention. “The Administration does not seem to have considered,” re­ marks Pringle, “whether it can reconcile such a policy, which must in some cases mean breaking international law (as it did in the. Cuban invasion), with the support of the United Nations against Communist transgression, which is at present one of the great strengths of the West.” This was why the revela­ tion of the CIA’s role as the chief instigator of the Cuban invasion wsa so shocking to America’s allies. The histo­ rian Arnold Toynbee termed the CIA actions in the inva­ sion attempt “another ex­ ample of governmental gang­ sterism.” If intelligence agen­ cies are made responsible for policy as well, as the CIA was in the Cuban interven­ tion, “the information they get will be coloured to fit their policies.” The Observer therefore suggests: “Govern­ ments should reflect that if their under-cover activities are not compatible with a democratic open society, it is not the open society which is at fault but their activities. The first duty of a free press 4*2 RAKORAl^A everywhere is to stop its gov­ ernment doing silly and sha­ dy things by reporting all the news that’s fit to print.” Clearly a dig at the Amer­ ican press for its sins of omis­ sion in the Cuban fiasco. More succinctly, Walter Lippmann comments: “In a free society like America’s, a policy is bound to fail which deliberately violates her pledges and her principles, her treaties and her laws. It is not possible for a free and open society to organize suc­ cessfully a spectacular cons­ piracy ... In the great strug­ gle with Communism, Am­ erica must find her strength by developing and applying her own principles, not in abandoning them, x x x The only real alternative to Com­ munism is a liberal and pro­ gressive society.” On a similar vein, The Na­ tion writes: “If we believe in democracy and support its adherents everywhere, if we abhor dictatorship and op­ pose it everywhere, we may not triumph, but no one will despise us. All that is certain is that our present course of expediency will convict us of hypocrisy and, as Cuba shows, will not even prevail militarily.” The change must come. In the final analysis, the Am­ erican attitude towards Cuba remains a decisive factor. In Latin America, the battle is now joined. For Mr. Kenne­ dy must realize that in Latin America, as it is in Asia and Africa, the race is, as John Pringle has noted in The Observer, between a social democratic revolution, help­ ed by the United States, and a Communist revolution, helped by Russia. But there is again the question: How will the United States con­ gress, whose support he must have, react to the change he envisages in his “Alliance for Progress” for Latin America? Will it in­ terpret land reform as “sub­ sidising socialism”? A socialdemocratic policy is a policy of the Left, “but the United States is a country of the Right. Americans are conser­ vative because they are wealthy and see no reason for change.” Can such a country, asks Pringle, “real­ ly conduct a policy of social revolution abroad with any hope of success.”? The Economist poses the problem more concretely: To what extent is America wil­ ling to let capitalism be blended with socialism in La­ tin America? Decisions must be made in three fields: land reform, capital formation, and trade expansion. How far will the United States October 1961 44support land reform? The raising of capital for rapid economic growth is a “harsh business” for backward coun­ tries. If the processes of ca­ pitalism strike them as slug­ gish, “they will experiment with Marxism.” How will Mr. Kennedy react? Trade should flow where the price and the service are best rath­ er than along channels mark­ ed out by ideologies. This means more trade with the Communist countries. How far will the United States agree to let the Latin Am­ ericans expand their trade with the Communist world? There is as yet no evidence that the Kennedy Adminis­ tration has thought its way through these three questions. Until it does, the Latin Am­ ericans are in a difficult po­ sition. “They are tempted,” says The Economist, “to imi­ tate many of the measures of the Cuban revolution.” But here again they are up against the stubborn Amer­ ican attitude towards fidelis­ mo. What has been attacked in Cuba (according to The Economist) is not Russian in­ fluence but an “indigenous revolutionary movement.” But Americans do not believe that fidelismo, with its vir­ tues and its vices, is a native Cuban product. They there­ fore insist on applying the Monroe Doctrine to Commu­ nism in Latin America. And indications are that they will not back down on this issue. For one thing, it has become clear in the wake of the Cuban fiasco that Mr. Kennedy is even more vigor­ ously hostile to Castro than Eisenhower was. The Amer­ icans are still interventionist at heart because they cannot see that intervention is “im­ perialism.” In so doing, they justify to some extent Rus­ sian policy in Eastern Eu­ rope. Pringle makes this point in his discussion of U. S. foreign policy. “If Mr. Kennedy can say that Com­ munism is ‘not negotiable’ in Cuba,” he says, “why should not Mr. Khruschev continue to say that democracy is ‘not negotiable’ in Hungary or Po­ land or East Germany?” Clearly Mr. Kennedy labors under a big handicap. “With all its fearful faults Mr. Khruschev's Communism is a reality which all can recog­ nise. President Kennedy’s social democracy is still but words.” How will this race end? The sombre words of The Ob­ server commend themselves to our conscience: “One will begin to believe in the possi­ bility of ending the cold war by negotiation only when the two leaders tell their peoples 44 Panorama WORLD'S LARGEST SUN TELESCOPE Construction work is now under way on a new astronomical observatory which, when com­ pleted early in 1963, will house the largest solar telescope in the world. The observatory is on a mountain in Arizona, a state in the southwestern part of the United States. It will be known as the Kitt Peak National Observatory. The telescope will be housed in a ten-story high tower near a sheer mountain cliff. Its top­ most part will be a two-ton flat mirror, 80 inches (203 centimeters) in diameter, known as a he­ liostat. Moving automatically, the heliostat will fol­ low the sun as it travels across the sky. The sun­ light that strikes it will be reflected to a 60-inch (152-centimeter) parabolic mirror located 480 feet (144 meters) away, at the bottom of a shaft drill­ ed into the mountain. From this mirror, the sun­ light again will be reflected to a 48-inch (122centimeter) mirror. This mirror, in turn, will re­ flect the sunlight to an underground observing room. There a 34-inch (86-centimeter) image of the sun, several times larger and more brilliantly il­ luminated than images obtained with any other existing telescope, will' appear on a sheet of white-painted metal mounted on a table top. Scientists will be able to study the image through dark glasses, and will be able to photograph it, and direct its light to spectroscopes. ♦ ♦ ♦ that the cold war is not go-, ing to be won by anybody, that it is much too danger­ ous to go on fighting it at all and that the only sane object for human beings in the twentieth century is to cooperate in building up an international order under which Cuba can choose Com­ munism or Hungary democ­ racy, or India some system of her own, without upsetting the balance of power and endangering the lives of eve­ ryone else in the world.” October 1961 45
THE I.L.O. STORY Created in 1919, under the Treaty of Versailles which put an end to the first world war, the International Labour Organization (I.L.O.) is devo­ ted to the principle of impro­ ving living and working con­ ditions throughout the world since the poverty of certain peoples is a threat and an im­ pediment to the common pros­ perity * . Originally an associa­ ted body of the League of Nations, the I.L.O. became a United Nations agency after the end of the second world war; it is, indeed, the only world organization created in the aftermath of the first world war that survived the second conflict and its objec­ tives are still based on social progress. The sphere of action assign­ ed the I.L.O. under its Sta­ tute (Part XIII of the Versail­ les Treaty) includes control of working periods, the 8hour day and 48-hour week, recruiting of labour, reduction of unemployment, adequate wages, protection of workers against organic and occupa­ tional diseases, safeguarding of workers against accidents, abolition of child labour and special protection of young persons and women, old age. and disability pensions, equi­ table treatment of foreign workers, equal pay for equal work, free trade union asso­ ciation, organization of voca­ tional training and technical instruction for workers. These objectives were reaffirmed in the ‘Philadelphia Declaration’ of 1944. and included in the Statute. Upon this, the I.L.O. devoted itself to carrying out a vast programme that cover­ ed full employment and a bet­ ter standard of living for workers, employment of a worker in that type of job which enables him to produce the best results, possibilities for everyone to receive wa­ ges that ensure the minimum necessary, the widespread use of safety measures, adequate protection against risk, medi­ cal assistance, special mea­ sures for expectant and nur­ sing mothers in industry, ade­ quate and comfortable homes 88 Panorama and possibilities of improving and furthering technical skill. To reach such objectives, the I.L.O. follows a threefold path: drafting of internation­ al laws on labour and assis­ tance and consultation on so­ cial questions, documentation and publication of regulations concerning the principal la­ bour problems. Under the or­ ganization, workers, employ­ ers and government expo­ nents contribute towards de­ ciding a common policy to be adopted and, at the same time, they supervise activities. It is the participation of emplo­ yers and workers that distin­ guishes this organization from any other intergovern­ mental body. The organs of the I.L.O. are as follows: the «International Labour Conference * , chief authority of the organi­ zation, whose main task is to establish international labour laws. Each member of the I.L.O. (1) is represented at the annual meetings of the conference by two Govern­ ment delegates, a representa­ tive of the workers and a rep­ resentative of employers; the •Executive * , composed o f twenty Government repre­ sentatives, ten representatives of the workers and ten rep­ resentatives of employers; the «International Labour Of­ fice * (better known as the B.I.T. (Bureau International du Travail), the permanent secretariat. The B.I.T., with its head offices in Geneva, consists of 800 officials re­ cruited from more than six­ ty nations. Since 1948, it has been headed by David A. Morse, former U.S. Undersec­ retary for Labour. The B.I.T. prepares the annual report to the conference and other meetings arranged by the I.L.O. In this way, it guides and coordinates the work of experts from the various member states, provides in­ formation on the results achieved and gives particu­ lars of the decisions approv­ ed, often using its many pub­ lications as a medium. In order to study and pos­ sibly solve many specific problems, the I.L.O. has crea­ ted a certain number of •commissions * and •commit­ tees * , some permanent, others of a temporary character. Since 1945, ten industrial committees have been ap­ pointed to examine questions relative to mining, internal transport, iron and steel, me­ chanical industry, textiles, building, civil engineering and public works, oil and che­ mical industries, etc. Meet­ ings of these committees are attended by two representa­ tives of the workers, two rep­ resentatives of employers and October 1961 89 two' representatives of the .go­ vernments of those countries in which the industry under discussion is considered to be at an advanced stage. Labour questions peculiar to one country are examined during regional conferences held by the I.L.O. while various other commissions and committees have been created to examine special aspects of the field of labour (Maritime Commis­ sion, the Consultative Com­ mittee on Africa, the Consul­ tative Committee on Asia, the Permanent Agricultural Com­ mittee, the Committee of Ex­ perts for Social Security). International laws adopted by the conference in relation to labour (conventions and recommendations) are inclu­ ded in an «International La­ bour Code * . Up to the begin­ ning of 1960, the International Labour conference had adop­ ted 114 conventions and 112 recommendations. The regu­ lations in some of these have been modified so that they meet the changed require­ ments of the labour world. These conventions may, in a certain sense, be compared to treaties, for the countries that ratify them are pledged to execute the norms they con­ tain; recommendations, on the other hand, act as a useful guide to the social policy followed by the various member countries. A great deal of time is required for their drafting and represen­ tatives of all the eighty mem­ ber nations of the I.L.O. par­ ticipate in this important ope­ ration, for it is essential that such regulations or suggest­ ions express the general opin­ ion. Since its foundation, the I.L.O. has given a great deal of active assistance to the execution of policy. The or­ ganization’s operations in this particular field have increas­ ed considerably since the in­ troduction of the-United Na­ tions assistance programme, and they are held to be among the most important of the agency’s undertakings at the present time. Since 1959, the I.L.O. has been a member of the United Nations’ Spe­ cial Fund for Economic De­ velopment; the organization has chiefly limited its inter­ vention to those countries that are considered to be un­ der-developed, so that these may reach a stage of being able to benefit from the tech­ nical and structural expe­ rience of highly industrial nations. During the last ten years, on the request of in­ dividual governments, the or­ ganization has sent more than 2,000 experts on various missions and awarded over 300 scholarships. In 1959, six­ 90 Panorama ty two nations and territories received I.L.O. aid under the technical assistance program­ me (in the form of vocation­ al training, rehabilitation of persons disabled through la­ bour accidents, rational em­ ployment of manpower). On a regional scale, aid has been coordinated with special agencies in Bangalore (India) for Asia, at Istambul for the Middle and Near East, at Li­ ma for South America, Me­ xico City for Mexico, the An­ tilles and Central America and at Lagos for Africa. Generally speaking, the real value of such programmes lies in their appeal to any coun­ try desiring to make use of the experience and know­ ledge of nations with differ­ ent economic and social de­ velopment stages .arid of the assistance of civil and cultu­ ral associations. The I.L.O. has recently un­ dertaken an educational prog­ ramme for workers (courses, conferences, furnishing of au­ diovisual apparatus) and vo­ cational training schemes (training of technical person­ nel, management, etc.), prin­ cipally addressed to those countries .that are now un­ dergoing strong economic and industrial expansion and, in 1960, decided upon the foun­ dation of an «International Institute of Social Studies * in Geneva, for the purpose of furthering a better understan­ ding of labour problems in all nations and finding the most suitable solutions. ♦ * AN AMPHIBIAN CAR FOR EVERYBODY The Industriewerke Company of Karlsruhe is just starting an assembly line for an amphibian car in its Lubeck factory. This amphibian automo­ bile for civilian, private use will be known as the amphicar. The first 25,000 amphicars are bound for the American market. The amphicar looks like an ordinary car with four wheels and four seats. It is powered by a 1200 ccm four-stroke en­ gine with four cylinders. On the road it does 75 miles per hour. You can drive it straight into any river or lake, switching the engine over to a cou­ ple of plastic propellers in the rear. This converts the car into a boat, though in water it does only six to seven miles per hour. Still, here is a car which can be used as a motor-boat, and no longer depends on bridges. October 1961 91
THE LITERATURE OF THE FILIPINOS Leopoldo Y. Yabes Part II IV. American Colonial A number of interesting works depict the Filipino so­ ciety in transition from the late Spanish colonial to'the early and middle American colonial regime. Among them are Claro Recto's “Solo Entre las Sombras”, Nick Joaquin’s “La Vidal”, Paz Marquez’s “Dead Stars”, Wilfrido Guer­ rero’s “The Old Teacher”, and Kalaw’s The Filipino Rebel. As would be expected the authors are inclined to be more sympathetic to the pre­ vious than to the existing re­ gime. Joaquiq is more hostile to the existing regime than any of the more competent writers. “La Vidal” is the sto­ ry of the degeneration- of a well-born, conventbred wo­ man who originally married a poet of the Revolution and who ended up marrying the unscrupulous physician, a product of the American re­ gime, who had practised abor­ tion on her as a result of her love affair with a man after the death of her first hus­ band. The portrait of La Vi­ dal, the woman, is quite un­ flattering. “Solo Entre las Sombras” is also the story of two sisters, the older belong­ ing to the Spanish-educated generation, who find them­ selves in love with the same man, who is married to the older sister. The more aggres­ OCTOBER 1961 73 sive and unscrupulous of the two, the younger sister bears a child of the brother-in-law. The revelation is too much for the older girl and she dies from shock, leaving her hus­ band and her sister to suf­ fer the consequences of their crime, which is considered as very grievous. “Dead Stars” is a quiet picture of the quiet but relentless change in the cultural milieu taking place in the early third decade of the century. “The Old Tea­ cher” is the story of an old classroom science teacher at the University of Sto. Tomas who uses both Spanish and English as languages of ins­ truction. Educated in Spanish he is not quite at home in English, but he has to use the language once in a while be­ cause the young generation in the colleges and universities had been brought up in Eng­ lish. The Filipino Rebel, a longer work, gives a more de­ tailed picture of the conflict between the passing and the up-and-coming generations. One cannot escape noticing, however, that the American democratic tradition was slowly permeating Philippine society as reflected in the writings of the younger art­ ists during the third decade. The tradition-bound society at the turn of the century has been transformed into the freer society found in many of the stories of Casiano T. Calalang, Arturo B. Rotor, A.E. Litiatco, Fernando Leano, Lo­ reto Paras, Paz Latorena/Jose Garcia Villa, and Salvador P. Lopez, and in some of the dramas written by Carlos P. Romulo, Jorge Bocobo, Bue­ naventura Rodriguez, and Vi­ dal A. Tan before the 'close of the third decade. This note of freedom became more evi­ dent during the later years of the American colonial re­ gime and during the early years of the Commonwealth. The impact of American de­ mocracy and technology was felt in all segments of socie­ ty but particularly those that had gone to school under the American-b u i 11 Philippine educational system. As might be expected, most of the lea­ dership of this movement came from the University of the Philippines, the capstone of that educational system. V. Late American Colonial and Commonwealth This covers the last years of the American colonial re­ gime, the establishment of the Commonwealth, and the out­ break of the war, when there was a resurgence of nation­ alism. This period may be traced to the beginning of the American business depression and the passage, largely be74 Panorama . cause of pressure from eco­ nomic groups adversely affec­ ted by Philippine products entering the American mar­ ket free of duty, of the law by the American Congress granting independence to the Philippines after a ten-year transition period. Of course it should end around the year of Philippine independence. This was an era that be­ gan with hopes for the new independent nation that was a-building, despite the worldw i d e business depression which ushered in the Hitler regime, and wound up in the maelstrom of war. It was a great era for the Filipinos both as individual members of the national community and as the national communi­ ty themselves. Two representative works in the earlier part of this period were Salvador P. Lo­ pez’s Literature and Society (1940) and R. Zulueta da Cos­ ta’s Like the Molave (1940). Although critical of the faults and shortcomings of their own people, both young men expressed faith in their people’s ability to build a strong independent nation. One of them dreamed of “gods walking on brown legs”. The other did not believe merely in aestheticism but in full-blooded proletarian lite­ rature. Both of these works won major prizes in the Common­ wealth literary contests which were established in 1939 by President Manuel L. Quezon upon the strong recommend­ ation of the Philippine Wri­ ters’ League, to promote the development of literature in English, Tagalog, and Spanish, which derives its importance from its treatment of socially significant problems. There was heated controversy over this avowed objective of the Writers’ League. This quarrel raged for more than two years, and was put to a stop only after the awarding of the prizes in the second year of the contests, when the Ja­ panese attacked the Philip­ pines in December 1941. That attack was the most cogent argument for the stand of the League. Carlos B u 1 o s a n’s The Laughter of My Father (1944) is a burlesque on Philippine small-town and country life during the early years of the period. But his America is in the Heart (1946), although it begins as a picture of poverty and social degradation in both the Philippines and the Ame­ rican west coast, ends on a note of faith in-American de­ mocracy as a result of the heroic performance of the Fi­ lipino and American soldiers in the Battle of Bataan. Juan October 196| 75 C. Laya’s His Native Soil (1941) is the story of a Fili­ pino repatriate from America who, after being told his fur­ ther stay in America was no longer welcome, could not ad­ just himself in the society to which he had returned. It is not an inspiring picture of pre-war Philippine society in a small provincial town. His next novel, This Barangay (1950), however, which is •about life in wartime Philip­ pines, is a reaffirmation of fatih in a better future for the country because of the war and enemy occupation. Three other novels about the war strike the same note of faith in freedom and de­ mocracy as a way of life for the Philippines. Javellana’s Without Seeing the Dawn (1947), as the title indicates, is an eloquent affirmation of that faith. It shows most ele­ ments of the population as contributing their little bit for the liberation of the coun­ try from the invaders, inclu­ ding even the prostitute who did service to the Japanese soldiers in -the hope that her disease -would be contracted by the enemy soldiers. E.K. Tiempo’s Watch in the Night (1953) and More Than Conquerors (1959), especially the latter, echo the same note as Javellana’s novel. The spirit shown by the. conquered in the latter novel was more in­ domitable than that of the conquerors. The leading wo­ man in the story, who is the mistress of a Japanese offi­ cer, makes possible the free­ dom of a Filipino prisoner who had been condemned to death, at the cost of her own life. Although not written in the same vein, Nick Joaquin’s Portrait of the Artist as Fili­ pino (1952) is nevertheless a glorification of the Old City of Manila, and all that it stood for, which had been destroyed by the war. It is a picture of the pre-war Wall­ ed City — especially of a Ca­ tholic family and its head, the artist, who refused to compromise his own integri­ ty as a Filipino and as an ar­ tist for greater affluence. VI. National and Contem­ porary The national scene since 1946 has not been very clear; in certain areas it Is quite confused. The development of the Filipino nation-state since its establishment has not. been very steady;, in. fact it has been, reflected in: much of the. literature produced. Only a few. of . the representa­ tive works of this period can be discussed here. Rigodon .(1958), a fulllength play by A. O. B.ayot, 76 Panorama gives a picture of the rich land-owning and globe-trott­ ing class of our society. The main woman-character, how­ ever, is given a social cons­ cience and rebels against her own class. Although dealing with an aspect of PhilippineAmerican relations during the war years and a little after, You Lovely People (1955), by B. N. Santos, will hold more significance during the pre­ sent period because of the as yet unremoved irritants in Philippine-American r e 1 ations. In La Via: A Spiritual Journey (1958), Ricaredo Demetillo points out the way to spiritual bliss from the spiri­ tual morass of the present, not through asceticism or mortification of the flesh but through the proper exercise of the psychosomatic func­ tions of the body. “We have begun to see authoritatively,” the poet says in his preface, “that nature herself has set up sex as the amative bath to invigorate the human psy­ cho, a reservoir which can last almost indefinitely unless its sources are dammed up by fears and guilts.” It ends with a beautiful because po­ sitive and harmonious song to the “Lady,” a goddess of beauty arid begetter of gods and poetry. “Fairy Tale, for a City” by Estrella Alton seems to have a theme simi­ lar to that of La Via, but the voyager fails to attain bliss at the end of the voyage and dis­ covers, to his dismay, spirit­ ual hypocrisy instead. The Women Who Had Two Navels (1951), another of Nick Joaquin’s pieces indicting Fi­ lipino society of the present, describes the sub-rosa activi­ ties of two Filipino women commuting between Manila and Hongkong in the post­ war years. A story depicting sordid life, it leaves one with a feeling of puzzlement that there could be such a Manila as pictured by Joaquin, a city of dirt and slime — a veri­ table human wasteland. N. V. M. Gonzalez’s latest novel, The Bamboo Dancers (1959), also pictures Filipinos in rela­ tion to other peoples, a broa­ der subject matter than that dealt in his previous novels The action involves America. Japan, and the Philippines, and the characters include Filipinos, Japanese, and Ame­ ricans. As the title itself in­ dicates, the novel seems to be symbolic of the opportunism of present-day Filipino socie­ ty. Like the skillful bamboo dancers, the Filipino’s main ambition seems to be to get along cleverly and well in life and his chief concern is not to get caught in the toils of the law. October 1961 77 VII. The Past Few Years Notwithstanding the ob­ vious lack of a sense of direc­ tion in creative work during recent years, there has been much productive activity ne­ vertheless, especially during 1960. And that is what seems important — to be produc­ tive. Sooner or later the wri­ ters will find their own bear­ ings and feel a new sense of direction. A self-respecting in­ dependent people will redis­ cover their own integrity as a people and this discovery will inspire the birth of a new literature, which will be a faithful expression of a rein­ vigorated national soul. There has been a perceptible trend toward such a direction. The Republic Cultural Heritage Awards could be a sign of such a reawakening to the possibilities of the future on the basis of the national he­ ritage. The promotional aspect of this literary movement has been reenforced during the past year. In addition to the Palanca memorial, Free Press, and Zobel awards in litera­ ture and the Standard Vac­ uum Awards in journalism, there is now the Stonehill fellowship award for the no­ vel in English, sponsored by the Philippines Center .of PEN International. The University of the Philippines for its own part held literary contests in the novel, drama, poetry, and short story in connection with its golden jubilee. And of course there was the first post-war National Writers’ Conference held in Baguio late in 1958 under the auspi­ ces of the Philippine Center of PEN International. Modes­ tly, it can be claimed that that conference had a catalyzing effect on the writers, not ne­ cessarily towards a more in­ tense nationalist direction, but certainly towards more intense creative activity. Al­ so, the visit of such great in­ ternational figures like the philosophers Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Sidney Hook and of such lesser lights as Edmundo Blunden, James Sa­ xon Childers and Hortense Calisher could not but have stimulated more intellectual and creative activity. Therefore there is hope of more and better literary pro­ duction in the hear future. VIII. Some Observations As an expression of the ex­ perience of the Filipino peo­ ple through the centuries, Philippine 1 i t e r a ture, as roughly outlined in this short study, constitutes a rich source of material for the stu­ dy of a variegated culture with great potentials for de­ 78 Panorama velopment. As a result of ac­ culturation to more advanced cultures of both East and West, the culture of the Phil­ ippines today represents a unique product of the blend­ ing of basic Oriental traits and assimilated Western ele­ ments. Although still retain­ ing many of the characteris­ tics of the Oriental “status” society, the Filipino people are slowly emerging into the essentially “contractual” so­ ciety of the modern Occident. The society described in Bantugan and Maragtas is different from the society pic­ tured in Noli Me Tangere and Urbana at Felisa, while the society pictured in the later works is quite different from the society that constitutes the matrix of Without Seeing the Dawn and Rigodon. There is definitely more freedom in the later than in the earlier Philippine societies, even if the basic factors are not changed. With the cultural influen­ ces now at work, which are reflected in contemporary Philippine writing, it should not be difficult to evolve in the Philippines a new and vi­ gorous cultural system that will embody in itself the choicest elements of both the Western and Eastern cultural traditions. A cultural system of this kind should be in a good position to contribute to peace, understanding, and goodwill among the peoples of the world. LAUNDRY-DRYING IN THE ROOM The washing needs no longer to be hanged out on the line. An electric dryer will dry it conven­ iently inside the room. The Francksche Eisenwerke Company of Adolf shutte-Dilleriburg in Hesse makes an “Oranier” Laundry Dryer, a small white box with six bars over which the laundry is hanged. Drying requires from 30 to 90 minutes according to the type and wetness of the wash­ ing. An electric blower drives warm air of 60 deg­ ree centigrade from top to bottom. The dryer is mobile with wheels, and it can be used for heat­ ing the room also. It takes a charge of 10 lbs., in­ cluding nylon and perlon. OCTOBER 1961
THE MUSES GO OUT IN SUMMER Although in June or July of every year the generouslysubsidized German theatres and opera-houses close for the summertime, theatrical and musical events are likely as not to be offered. The stages that are chosen for the sum­ mertime theatrical and musi­ cal events are likely as not to be the courtyards and gardens of castles and palaces. These often provide settings more spendid and enchanting than any indoor stage’s painted canvas can offer. Authentic Settings for Historical Dramas What is more, on some of these outdoor stages an un­ surpassable authenticity of setting can be achieved— namely, when a play is enact­ ed at the very place where the events that it portrays took place. An excellent example of this is picturesque Castle Jag­ sthausen, in the south-west­ ern part of Wurttemberg. This castle was once the seat of the famous knight Gotz von Berlichingen; now, every year in July and August, Goethe‘s drama Gotz von Berlichingen is performed in its courtyard. A similarly appropriate event takes place at Rothen­ burg, on the Tauber, which, with its well-preserved me­ dieval houses, is a great tour­ ist attraction at any time of year. There, a play entitled Der Meistertrunk (The Mas­ ter-Draught), recalling an event of the Thirty Year’s War (1618-1648), is perform­ ed. History has it that Rothen­ burg’s burgomaster saved his town from being ravaged by accepting a challenge. He managed to drink at one draught a beaker of wine so 84 Panorama large as to confound his chal­ lenger Field Marshal Tilly. The Flemish strategist had stipulated the successful downing of the “master draught” as the condition on which the town might be saved—and, in expecting the burgomaster to fail, un­ derestimated a Rothenbur­ ger’s capacities under stress of patriotism. Every summer, too, the courtyard of Nuremberg Cas­ tle serves as a stage for folk plays by Hans Sachs. This 16th-century shoemaker and poet of Nuremberg was later immortalised by Richard Wagner in his Meistersinger. Cloisters and Town Walls as Backdrops Besides courtyards, a great number of other venerable settings are used as stages for summertime theatre fes­ tivals, whether or not they happen to have any historic links with the subject-mat­ ter of the plays performed. One of the most striking examples of such setting is the thousand year old cathe­ dral church in Bad Hersfeld, which has been a singularly picturesque, roofless ruin ever since it was war-damaged in 1761. It is the scene of an annual theatre festival that is under the patronage of the Federal President. Not long ago, the producer Wil­ liam Dieterle—of Hollywood fame —was put in charge of the Hersfeld festivals. This year, the plays he staged there included works by Aes­ chylus, Shakespeare and the contemporary American play-wright Archibald MacI.eish. And Hugo von Hof­ mannsthal’s Das grosse Welt­ theater—ideally suited as it is for outdoor presentation—is performed every year at Bad Hersfeld. Another place where this Austrian author’s works are a familiar part of every sum­ mer is the small Wurttemberg town of SchwabischHall. There, on the broad steps of St. Michael’s church, one or another of his plays is performed year after year. Among the more notable outdoor festivals, one with an entirely “classical” reper­ toire. is a summertime event at Luisenburg (Franconia). In the same “classical” cate­ gory are the performances in the cloister of the monastry at Feuchtwangen (Franco­ nia). So are those at Augs­ burg (Swabia), which take place in front of a particular­ ly beautiful gate in the old town wall. Along Rhine and Ruhr Even places as world-fam­ ed as the Rhine and its Lo­ Octobe* 1961 8S relei are recruited as theatre settings in summer. On the waters of the Rhine at Koblenz there is a floating, anchored stage where comic­ opera performances are of­ fered. In an open-air theatre on -the Lorelei Rock, high above those same waters, well-known actors and actres­ ses interpret the classics of German dramatic art: the plays of Goethe and Schil­ ler. An especially lively even­ ing is promised by a visit to the open-air theatre of Bad Segeberg, in the northern province of Holstein. This theatre is devoted to drama­ tic versions of the works of Karl May, whose . romantic adventure stories about Am­ erican Indians have fired the imaginations of several gen­ erations of German boys and girls—and their parents. Special mention is due the Ruhr Festival at Recklingha­ usen. It stands out not only for its scope and quality but also for the. fact that it is organised in particular for miners and steel workers of West Germany’s chief.indus­ trial area. Music in Baroque Castle Gardens Not only dramatic art, however, comes into •'its suirimertime splendour in out­ door settings replete with his­ torical reminiscences. Music goes outdoors, too. Favourite settings for summer concerts are Germany’s Baroque pa­ laces, with their spacious parks and terraces. Concerts and operas are presented at the Hanoverian Schloss Herrenhausen (which has one of the loveliest gardens of its kind‘in all of Europe), Sch­ loss Pommersfelden (Franco­ nia); Schloss Nymphenburg (Munich); Schloss Bruhl (be­ tween Cologne and Bonn); Schloss Schwetzingen (near Mannheim); Schloss Eutin (Holstein) and Schloss Ans­ bach (Franconia). Nor does the Heidelberg Schloss, dear­ est of all to the hearts of countless tourists, fait to pro­ vide music in its courtyard on summer nights. But for music, as for works of the theatre, other types of outdoor settings are also chosen; Then concerts that take place in the Gothic cloister of the former Monestry Alprisbach (Black Forest) are particularly po­ pular events of the German summer. The International Level Another category of sum­ mer festivals devoted1 to the arts , is that nf the big, inter­ national; often world-famous Panorama. events. Some of these take place not in borrowed set­ tings but in their own thea­ tre buildings. First among them, no doubt, is the Ri­ chard Wagner Festival in the theatre that has been special­ ly built for it at Bayreuth. This year, as every year, well-known Wagner operas will be performed there — Tannhauser, Der fliegende Hollander, Parsifal, Die Meis­ tersinger von Nurnberg, Ring der Nibelungen. Summer festivals are also sponsored by the opera house of Munich in the old Residenztheater and the Prinzregententheater, both of which look back on a long stage tradition. This year, the pro­ gramme includes a contem­ porary opera—by Hans Wer­ ner Henze — and Wagner, Strauss and Mozart operas. Towns that regularly devote their summer festivals to a single composer are Wurz­ burg, with its Mozart Festi­ val, and Stuttgart, with “Bee­ thoven Days”. Hitzacker, a small town situated on the western bank of the Elbe River, directly on the de­ marcation line that separates West Germany from the So­ viet Zone, initiated its “Sum­ mer Days of Music” shortly after the end of the war; they are devoted chiefly to chamber music, and have be­ come increasingly popular year by year. Only the most significant theatrical summer events have been mentioned here. The visitor to Germany at this season will, however, find many another place throughout the country where artists and audiences are making the most of the long twilights and mild wea­ ther of the Central European summer. Many of the less famous events have the same ele­ ments of charm that charac­ terize the outdoor festivals for which people make reser­ vations weeks—or months— in advance. For example, the visitor to Bonn during the warm time of the year might do well to learn if a chamber­ music concert happens to be scheduled in the circular court, open to the sky, of the Poppelsdorf Schlob, which is on the outskirts of the Fe­ deral Republic’s capital. Whether world-known, or merely “local” and casual, these outdoor events in the German cultural calendar all have pleasing elements in common. They blend the mu­ sic of instruments or the hu­ man voice with the forms of time-mellowed architecture, under a ceiling of summer skies. October 1961 87
THE NEW JAPANESE WOMAN Kathleen Costello A new Unesco paperback, “The Changing Social Posi­ tion of Women in Japan”, by Takashi Koyama, brings to­ gether studies by Japanese specialists — mostly women — in the fields of labour, the family, the rural community, education, civic activities and public opinion. Japan’s New Constitution revolutionized the legal basis of Japanese new institutions. In this study, JVIr. Koyama and his collaborators describe the sweeping reforms that gave women equal rights be­ fore the law and investigate the present relationship bet­ ween legal and actual status. On paper, the rights of Ja­ panese women now compare favorably with those of any women in the world. At one bound the legal family unit 63 passed from the patriarchial to the conjugal type, skipping entirely the intermediate ma­ rital structure sanctified in the West by the Code Napo­ leon. The study makes plain that it will take many years for Japan to absorb the psy­ chological shock of this par­ ticular reform. In contrast, the new rights of women to vote and to be elected to public office seem to have been taken in stride. In the 1958 elections to the House of Representatives, men and women exercised the right to vote in almost the same proportions, with 75.8 percent of eligible males and 74.4 percent of eligible females going to the polls. After the first ’pust-war electio'ns for?the Diet,'in 1946 and ' 1947’,? 8.4 ■ -percent ■ of members IdQfPANOBXMX of the House of Representa­ tives and 4 percent of. mem­ bers of the House of Council­ lors were women. As for lo­ cal bodies like Domestic Courts, prefectoral, municipal and village Boards of Educat i o n, Eugenics Protection Committees and Civic Liber­ ties Commissions, the number of women represented on them increases each year. In 1957, they held 21.5 percent of Public and Child Welfare Commission posts. The gap between principle and practice is much wider with regard to the Constitu­ tional right to equal pay for equal work — guaranteed al­ so by the Labour Standards Law of 1947. However, if wo­ men’s wages are still discri­ minatory, they are slowly growing less so. The present ratio of men’s wages to wo­ men’s — 6 to 4 — compares favourably with the pre-war 6 to 3, or 6 to 2. Among gov­ ernment workers there is al­ most no discriminatory treat­ ment. But millions of women, particularly on farms, are still unpaid family workers. As might be expected, it is inside the family that the con­ flict between old and new ideas is sharpest. Here men women have to work out their own personal terms of ad­ justment — here they reject, October 1961 accept or compromise with the new status, of women as defined by law. Changing Patterns in Family Life In the past, every detail of traditional Japanese family life was ritually prescribed. As a result, Mr. Koyama is able to analyze changing pat­ terns in very specific terms. The Japanese wife always spoke of her husband as shujin (master). And legally, he was in fact the master of the patriarchal household. Stu­ dies show that the word is still used 50 percent of the time; but many women now intentionally say, . “my hus­ band”. When the husband ad­ dressed his wife he would call Oi, oi (Hey, Hey). This usage is rapidly vanishing, and the use of first names is spreading. In the elaborate ritual go­ verning meals, any choice food was offered first to the spirits of the ancestors, then to the patriarch and eldest son. Wife, daughters and other sons had to be content * with poorer meals, which they ate after the patriarchal table had dined and wined. Only 14 per­ cent of adult Japanese grew up in families where food was shared equally. But now, 38 percent of all families share5& alike. (Fifty percent of farm families adhere to the old custom). Bed - and - bath - times had their fixed etiquette, too. If the wife went to bed before the husband, she was called an “idle wife”. In the morn­ ing, she had to get up first so that he would not see her looking dishevelled. The first bath was always for the hus­ band. Although these priori­ ties are still observed in rural areas, they are becoming obs o 1 e t e in urban families, which now pay more atten­ tion to convenience than to custom. The change in attitudes is also illustrated by an innova­ tion in sharing domestic res­ ponsibility. Before the war, it was unheard of — or, ff heard of, was shameful — for a man to help his wife with the housework. But only a few years after the war, a survey showed less than half of all Japanese still uncondi­ tionally disapproving. Choosing a Marriage Partner All these are improvements in woman’s position after marriage. But what is the si­ tuation with regard to the method of choosing a mar­ riage partner? Article 24 of the new Constitution says: “Marriage shall be based on­ ly on the mutual consent of both sexes..” But 1955 Minis­ try of Labour figures show that while 63 out of 100 Jap­ anese thought that, “one’s own choice of a spouse” is better than the “parents’ choice”, only 27 percent of women replied that they, themselves, would dare to op­ pose their parents’ wishes. And a 1957 table indicates that 73 percent of marriages in large cities were still miai (arranged) marriages. Mr. Koyama, however, com­ ments : “Among young people the old procedure is rapidly succumbing to the new no­ tion of marriage which re­ gards a man and a woman as constituting the basis of mar­ riage. In conjunction with the change in legal and moral norms, reform of actual mar­ riage practices is expected to take place in the near future.” On the whole, the statistics assembled in “The Changing Social Position of Women in Japan” describe a trend, not a landslide. It cannot be said, and Mr. Koyama makes no effort to do so, that the last 15 years have effected a ra­ dical transformation of the Japanese woman’s life. The impression given by this stu­ dy is of creeping rather than dramatic change. 56 Panorama Education: The Keynote of Progress But there is one exception. Equal education for children of both sexes became not on­ ly a legally recognized right, but a fact. Article 5 of the 1946 Fundamental Law of Education states: “Man and woman shall respect and co­ operate with each other. Co­ education shall be recog­ nized.” The provisions of this law were put into effect with incredible speed. Compulsory education was extended from six to nine years for all children; and in a country where boys and girls had been separated af­ ter the third grade, co-educa­ tion was also made compul­ sory for the whole period. Before passage of this law, girls’ secondary schools exis­ ted only to make “good wives and mothers” for middle and upper-class families. After the sixth grade, no effort was made to provide either a cur­ riculum or level of teaching in any way comparable to what was offered to boys. Girl graduates of this system were equally unqualified for higher education and gainful employment. Acceptance of women’s right to equal education shows up strikingly in figures for enrolment after the compul­ sory nine years. Taking 1950 as a base year, the index of high school enrollment for girls had climbed to 173.9 in 1957 (as compared to 134.7 for boys) and to 284.7 for wo­ men in colleges (as compared to 144.3 for man). * In the same year, of the 51.2 percent of female college graduates who were employed, 63.6 per­ cent were professional and 27.9 percent clerical workers. * Actual enrolment for senior high schools: 1,203,749 boys, 733,766 girls; for colleges and universities: 364,642 boys, 40,668 girls. This movement of women into positions that command social respect is a post-war phenomenon almost entirely attributable to the introduc­ tion of equal education. The author feels that this deve­ lopment, “will be likely to modify considerably the past tendency to belittle women and will contribute towards the enhancement of women’s position.” The graduates of the new co-educational system of edu­ cation still constitute a mino­ rity of the population of Ja­ pan. But there a^e already enough to make them an im­ portant leaven in Japanese at­ titudes. In this basic minori­ ty lies the promise of a hap­ pier, fuller life for the gene­ ration of women now grow­ ing up. (UNESCO) October 1961 57
TWO NEW MUSCLE RELAXING COMPOUNDS REVEALED Two new muscle relaxing compounds, said to be five times as potent in animal tests as mephenesin, a presently used relaxant, have been developed in the United States. The new chemi­ cals, based on the compound pyrimidine, block muscle activity by 80 to 100 per cent, according to Dr. Donald E. Heitmeier, a senior organic che­ mist at Irwin, Neisler and Company in Decatur, Illinois. Besides their muscle relaxing ability, they are sedatives comparable to the barbiturate drugs and also have hypnotic properties, he said. They have not yet been clinically tested. Muscle relaxants are used to depress body reflexes during surgery and to treat spasms asso­ ciated with certain forms of paralysis. The new drugs, resulting from chemical changes in phenyramidol, whicli, is both an analgesic and a mus­ cle relaxant, showed “marked enhancement of centrally induced muscle relaxant properties, a sharp reduction in analaesic activity and the ap­ pearance of strong, sedative-hypnotic properties,” Dr. Heitmeier told a recent meeting of the Am­ erican Chemical Society. * * is, by the accident of his trade as a collector and dis­ seminator, the prototype of what should exist in acade­ mic and public life, the com­ municator of information on which judgements can be made. In his own working life, his function is to con­ vey to the mass of people the facts about science, but also to convey an interpreta­ tion of the social implica* tions of new developments. I know that many of my colleagues think that they should confine themselves to description and explanations and leave the value judge­ ments to others. I disagree profoundly. Our access to in­ formation. our point of van­ tage on the scientific scene, give us responsibilities which, in the present situation, we must not shirk. — (tjnesco) 32 Panorama
"JU "SifMptk ScwM" Ritchie Calder The Kalinga Prize for the popularization o f science has been awarded to Ritche Calder, wellknown British science­ writer. He is the ninth winner of the Prize, whose purpose, as stated by its donor, the Indian industrialist Mr. B. Patnaik, is to offer recogni­ tion to leading interpret­ ers of science and also to strengthen links between India and scientists of all nations. Mr. Calder, who is 54, has been science editor off the News Chronicle and of the New Statesman and Nation. He is Profes­ sor of International Rela­ tions at Edinburgh Uni­ versity. His fifteen books on scientific subjects ranging from medicine to the struggle for life in the Arctic have been transla­ ted into a dozen lang­ uages. ------- 0O0-------The tools of my trade as a science-writer have been — apart from a typewriter — three questions: “What are you doing?” “How are you doing it?” and “Why are you doing it?” With patience on the part of the scientist and patience on the part of the inquisitor, there are few things in science, however apparently abstruse or novel or difficult, which cannot be explained in comprehensible terms. One of the major difficul­ ties is the terminology—the jargon of science. The scient­ ists in the various branches and disciplines of science October 1961 29 have invented their own language of convenience. Where once the terms were descriptive they are now cryptic—sometimes one feels that like the code-names for military operations, they have been deliberately in­ vented to mislead and, like the sign-language of the me­ dieval crafts, designed to pre­ serve the inner mysteries for the few. ... What the scien­ tist, who in the restricted company of his colleagues uses them as common-place terms, does not always rea­ lize is that such words are like index cards; to him they convey a whole filing-cabinet full of meaning, but he for­ gets that others do not have access to that filing-cabinet. This is, also, inevitable. With the proliferation of science, the scientist is entitled to his “language of convenience” but he must, when necessary, define those terms. A cen­ tury ago, any man of science was intelligible to any edu­ cated man; terms had a com­ mon-root etymological mean­ ing and in that sense were descriptive. Today, I repeat, they are cryptic. I have sometimes described myself as a “babelologist”, a student of that babel of tongues which is science. I also boast that I am an ex­ pert on experts — one who knows to whom to turn for the information one has not got. In that I personify the science-reporter, who is the trustee for the common man for whom he seeks enlighten­ ment in the common tongue; who never relies on what he knows but turns to the ex­ pert sources for current guid­ ance; and who does not make ihe mistake which many aca­ demics do of confusing ig­ norance with lack of intelli­ gence. I have, after thirty years of trying to explain science, a reinforced confi­ dence in the capacity of or­ dinary people to grasp what is made intelligible, provided that their interest has been enlisted and their imagina­ tions illumined. But that af­ ter all is surely the essence of all good teaching. The crisis of our times is the breakdown of communi­ cations — not just in the sense of political barriers, but in this all-important area of science. Our lives, our hopes, and our survival de­ pend upon the uses which are made of science. To pro­ gress, we have to use scien­ tific knowledge and discove­ ry to its utmost advantage. Science, in the advanced countries, is developing so fast that it is almost impos30 Panorama sible to keep pace with the knowledge—and the gadgets —which are aggregating. I believe that some 3,000,000 original scientific papers a year are published. No one can compass so much infor­ mation. .. One set of scien­ tists does not know what an­ other set is doing, and yet there may be an important affinity which may be of ma­ terial value to mankind. There are too few commu­ nicators within science and the bridges are broken be­ tween the humanities and science. Those who have to make the social judgements about science have usually no scientific training—worse, their own education makes them feel that anything which involves such inten­ sive training is beyond their comprehension and that they must “rely on the expert”. But there is little in the train­ ing of the scientist, preoccu­ pied with all that has to be learned in his own subject, which gives him the capacity for social judgements. We are in danger of being sub­ jected to the tyranny of the experts — faceless men at the elbows of the uninstruct­ ed. They are not tyrants by disposition but by our de­ fault. How are we to teach peo­ ple enough about science to allow them to make judge­ ments, to decide priorities, and to see that science, with all its potential for good or evil, is directed to the ad­ vantage of mankind. How much more resources and at­ tention should we be giving to the problems of this pla­ net on which 4,000,000,000 people will have to contrive to live 20 years from now? Is space adventure more im­ portant than the food and po­ pulation problem, for in­ stance? And how, with all the spectacular advances of today, can we close the wi­ dening gap between the prosperity of the scientifical­ ly-advanced countries and the impoverished ones? Without arrogating to the science-writer all the wisdom of the world, it is true that he has the opportunity for better undestanding. He is a “synoptic scientist”; he tra­ vels across the advancing fronts of all branches of science and can see, at first hand and in survey, what preoccupied scientists cannot see for themselves and what men-of-affairs can never see panoramically. His job is to pass that knowledge on — either along the line of science or to the public. He OCTOMR 1961 31 TWO NEW MUSCLE RELAXING COMPOUNDS REVEALED Two new muscle relaxing compounds, said to be five times as potent in animal tests as mephenesin, a presently used relaxant, have been developed in the United States. The new chemi­ cals, based on the compound pyrimidine, block muscle activity by 80 to 100 per cent, according to Dr. Donald E. Heitmeier, a senior organic che­ mist at Irwin, Neisler and Company in Decatur, Illinois. Besides their muscle relaxing ability, they are sedatives comparable to the barbiturate drugs and also have hypnotic properties, he said. They have not yet been clinically tested. Muscle relaxants are used to depress body reflexes during surgery and to treat spasms asso­ ciated with certain forms of paralysis. The new drugs, resulting from chemical changes in phenyramidol, whicli, is both an analgesic and a mus­ cle relaxant, showed “marked enhancement of centrally induced muscle relaxant properties, a sharp reduction in analaesic activity and the ap­ pearance of strong, sedative-hypnotic properties,” Dr. Heitmeier told a recent meeting of the Am­ erican Chemical Society. * * is, by the accident of his trade as a collector and dis­ seminator, the prototype of what should exist in acade­ mic and public life, the com­ municator of information on which judgements can be made. In his own working life, his function is to con­ vey to the mass of people the facts about science, but also to convey an interpreta­ tion of the social implica* tions of new developments. I know that many of my colleagues think that they should confine themselves to description and explanations and leave the value judge­ ments to others. I disagree profoundly. Our access to in­ formation. our point of van­ tage on the scientific scene, give us responsibilities which, in the present situation, we must not shirk. — (tjnesco) 32 Panorama
The Years That Counted Evelyn T. Miranda “If I were to live my past again, I would follow the same course I took. I have no regrets. I have no com­ plaints.” His voice rang with earnestness as he leaned back in his swivel chair. Leaning there, 58-year-old Professor Saturnino Cabanatan was a picture of years and exper­ ience. On the other hand, sitting informally on one of the steps of the spiralling stair below the azotea of the Lit­ tle Theatre of the Universtiy of the Philippines, friendly and always-smiling Professor Alfonso Santos confessed: “Whatever I am now, I owe to .those hard days when I was a young man.” Both mentors in the Uni­ versity of the Philippines, Ca­ banatan and Santos paused from their hectic schedules and took time out to sit back and muse over those days gone by, days which to them made the years count. Those “younger days” were about forty years ago in the 1920’s when both were still at their prime. They were ambitious young men but without the means to im­ prove their lot. However. America made all the differ­ ence in their lives. Filled with the spirit of adventure as characteristic of youth, they sailed for the United States with one common aim — to get a better and higher education by all means! “It was easier to go to the United States then than to­ day,” Cabanatan explained. “No visa or anything of that sort was necessary. A cedula could bring you to any point of the country. Don’t you think we were luckier?” he chuckled. It was in May 1926 when the 23-year-old Cabanatan sailed for the new land. He had only a few hard-earned pesos tucked in his pocket when he went down the steer­ OCTOBER 1961 age, the cellar section of the boat that would carry him to America. His adventure brought him to Washington where he be­ came a dishwasher in restaur­ ants for about a year. That was the best thing that he could do in the meantime, considering that he was com­ pletely a stranger in the country and that his resources were fast thinning out. For another two years Cabanatan wandered around the United States doing all kinds of me­ nial jobs that came his way. “I spent a couple of weeks in Seattle picking strawber­ ries. It was a back-breaking job, but besides your pay you could eat as much strawber­ ries as you want until your teeth ached. Another time I went to California to pick asparagus,” Cabanatan re­ counted. “I also went to Alas­ ka and worked in a salmon­ canning factory. Just for ex­ perience, I tried stevedoring there, too.” After saving enough dol­ lars to enter school, Cabana­ tan enrolled in the Univer­ sity of Michigan. “I was both a university student and a waiter in the university un­ ion,” he said. “The job that really kept me in school until I finished my Master of Arts in English was dishwashing. It was a great meal-saver.” One of Cabanatan’s ‘firstrate” jobs was as assistant of Mr. Freize, a professor in the University of Michigan. Ca­ banatan helped him in the revision of the Oxford Dic­ tionary by reading all kinds of newspapers and listing down certain words showing how they are used by news­ paper writers. Cabanatan said he got about a thousand dol­ lars during his entire stay with Professor Freize. Another job that helped him greatly in solving many of his financial problems was as machine-tender in the Pac­ kard Motor Company. He was paid $80 to $90 every fifteenth day of the month. But soon hard times came. “I experienced real pover­ ty in 1933,” Cabanatan smil­ ed as if to dismiss the whole incident as a bad dream. “The United States was in an eco­ nomic crisis, and so was the whole world. I found myself out of school. I was then in my first year working for a doctorate. I looked for work — any kind of work — just to keep both body and soul together but jobs were so few. I later landed in Califor­ nia picking fruits and getting the measly sum of twenty cents an hour! That w^s ter­ rible. Before the crisis, fruit­ pickers were paid fifty cents an hour.” Panorama Famine reigned all over the country, and there was no immediate sign that the cris­ is would end sooner. Caba­ natan, after saving enough money to pay for his fare, packed and came home to the Philippines. Looking back at those dif­ ficult years, Professor Caba­ natan, now U.P. assistant dean of student affairs, could only sigh and say: “I enjoyed those years. Hard work was nothing to me. I have been working as far as I can re­ member.” Professor Cabanatan got married after his arrival from the United States. He is the proud father of three practicing son-lawyers and a daughter who is studying in the U. P. Professor Alfonso P. Santos of the English Department, like Cabanatan, was a poor man’s son. He left San Anto­ nio, Zambales for the United States at the tender age of 16. “I persuaded my parents to mortgage our only piece of rice land so that I might be able to go to the United States. With P250 which was the mortgage cost, I boarded a boat for America. I stayed in steerage and I had the cows for company,” he recall­ ed with amusement. He stayed in Palo Alto, Ca­ lifornia for a year and start­ ed his first year studies there. He transferred to Glendale and stayed there until he finished high school. All the time, he was working his way through school. “I was a jack-of-all-trades. I practically handled all the lowest jobs there were. I be­ came a dishwaster, janitor, waiter, cook, bellboy, tele­ phone operator, ice-cream can washer, ice-cream and candy maker and many oth­ ers.” Santos gave a good laugh while enumerating his string of achievements. After he graduated from the high school, he enrolled in the University of Southern Cali­ fornia as an A.B. student. Studious and hard-working, he graduated cum laude. Santos was a popular fig­ ure in the campus. For three consecutive years he was the “poet laureate” of their uni­ versity. He was also the reci­ pient of many scholarships. Asked how he managed to excel in so many fields, San­ tos revealed his assets: “It was all a matter of mental concentration and discipline. My poverty was my discip­ linarian. I believe,” he addgd, “that poverty should be res­ pected.” After getting his Bachelor of Arts, Santos continued stu­ OCTOBER 1961 63 dying until he got the mas­ ter’s degrees in education and English. He was about to get his doctorate’s when the Sec­ ond World War broke out. After undergoing military training in the United States army in New Guinea and Australia, he became the per­ sonal aide of General MacArthur, with the rank of staff sergeant. “Indeed, it was quite a pri­ vilege for me to be so close to so great a man as General MacArthur,” he said. Santos came home in 1945 after the Liberation with one intention — to marry a Filipina girl. Asked why he did not pick an American for a wife, Santos simply replied: “Sandwich and bagoong just cannot go together.” As a scholar and poet, San­ tos appears in Who’s Who in American Education and in the Directory of American Scholars, 1957. He is also an elected member of the Aca­ demy of Political Science. Professor Santos has pub­ lished three volumes of poems. They are the Santang Buds, Etude in Blue and Di­ liman Echoes. Presently he is working on another volume called Yellow Bells. Even as poor, struggling students during their college days, Cabanatan and Santos were not devoid of youthful joys. Now and then they went out with American girls to movies, ball games, par­ tiesx and other social activ­ ities. “Of course there was a slight racial discrimination,” Santos explained, “and for that matter, Filipinos and other colored students were not welcome to fraternity or sorority organizations. Any­ how, we still had fun.” Those were the years, the years that did count in the lives of these two humble scholars. They did count be­ cause they were spent care­ fully and wisely. Today, as Professors Cabanatan and Santos recall the past, no trace of regret or disappoint­ ment could be noted in their voices. There is only warmth and enthusiasm as they nar­ rate their stories because they know they have quite a story to tell. ♦ ♦ ♦ 64 Panorama
WORLD'S LARGEST SUN TELESCOPE Construction work is now under way on a new astronomical observatory which, when com­ pleted early in 1963, will house the largest solar telescope in the world. The observatory is on a mountain in Arizona, a state in the southwestern part of the United States. It will be known as the Kitt Peak National Observatory. The telescope will be housed in a ten-story high tower near a sheer mountain cliff. Its top­ most part will be a two-ton flat mirror, 80 inches (203 centimeters) in diameter, known as a he­ liostat. Moving automatically, the heliostat will fol­ low the sun as it travels across the sky. The sun­ light that strikes it will be reflected to a 60-inch (152-centimeter) parabolic mirror located 480 feet (144 meters) away, at the bottom of a shaft drill­ ed into the mountain. From this mirror, the sun­ light again will be reflected to a 48-inch (122centimeter) mirror. This mirror, in turn, will re­ flect the sunlight to an underground observing room. There a 34-inch (86-centimeter) image of the sun, several times larger and more brilliantly il­ luminated than images obtained with any other existing telescope, will' appear on a sheet of white-painted metal mounted on a table top. Scientists will be able to study the image through dark glasses, and will be able to photograph it, and direct its light to spectroscopes. ♦ ♦ ♦ that the cold war is not go-, ing to be won by anybody, that it is much too danger­ ous to go on fighting it at all and that the only sane object for human beings in the twentieth century is to cooperate in building up an international order under which Cuba can choose Com­ munism or Hungary democ­ racy, or India some system of her own, without upsetting the balance of power and endangering the lives of eve­ ryone else in the world.” October 1961 45

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