Panorama

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Part of Panorama

Title: Panorama
Issue Date: Volume XVIII (Issue No.12) December 1966
Year: 1966
Language: English
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extracted text: jjtsrrv THE PHILIPPINE MAGAZINE OF GOOD READING DECEMBER 1966 "3wm!a Mi fallow ^iiif 'uun: PANORAMA needs intelligent readers of: 1. Informative materials, 2. Interesting ideas 3. Enlightening opinions 4. Broadening views 5. Controversial thoughts 6. Critical comments 7. Idealistic suggestions 8. Humorous remarks 9. Serious statements 10. Meditations on life and work. All these are either original productions or selective adap tions and condensations from Philippine and foreign publica tions. Usually brief and compact, lasting from two to ten minutes to read, each article offers a rewarding experience in one’s moments of leisure. Relax with Panorama. We say this to the busy student and the teacher, the lawyer and the physician, the dentist and the engineer, the executive and the farmer, the politician apd the preacher, the employer and met employee. PANORAMA is specially designed for Filipinos — young, middle-aged, and old, male and female, housekeeper and houselizard. Special rates on November 1, for new and renewal 1966: subscriptions to begin 1 copy ..................................... 1 year ..................................... 2 years .................................... Foreign rate: .......................... 50 centavos P5.00 P9.00 $3.00 (U. S.) For one year’s subscription of 5 pesos, a person receives the equivalent of 12 compact pocketbooks of lasting value and and varied interest. COMMUNITY PUBLISHERS, INC. Inverness, (M. Carreon) St., Sta. Ana, Manila, Philippines Vol. XVIII THE PHILIPPINE MAGAZINE OF GOOD READING Entered as second class mail matter at the Manila Post Office on Dec. 7, 1955 MANILA, PHILIPPINES No. 12 NATURE'S REFRESHING POWER When a crisis overtakes you and nerves become taut, climb a mountain, walk through the woods or at least hoe in the garden. Get close to earth, for it is full of healing and restorative power. Nature is our home — a return to nature puts us in time with the elemental forces ... as we tramp over the fields ... we become like the trees, rooted in things perma nent and we take a new hold on fundamentals. Nature invites us to discover our own inner powers. She calls to something profound in us on the deeper level of human experience and bids us be ourselves. — Clarence R. Skinner in C L F News. ■ To improve the private colleges and universities in the Philippines, the only effective way is to release them from rules that have standardized their methods and offerings and prevented them from adopting a diversify of educational ideas and practices. THE CASE AGAINST EDUCATIONAL STANDARDIZATION In his celebrated book en titled Excellence, John W. Gardner, the present Secret ary of Health, Education, and Welfare of the United States, emphasizes the need for di versity in education in order that schools and colleges may be able to meet the enormous differences of human capaci ties and levels of prepared ness and attitudes of young people. From the depth of his knowledge and expe rience, he strongly urges eve ry educational institution to play a distinctive role in the pursuit of its own program and to win for itself honor and recognition. He says: “We do not want all institu tions to be alike. We want institutions to develop their individualities and to keep those individualities. None must be ashamed of its dis tinctive features so long as it is doing something that con tributes importantly. to the total pattern, and so long as it is striving for excellence in performance.” In our attempt at reaching educational excellence, the success of our efforts depends upon the degree of diversity with which our schools are encouraged to achieve. The suggestion of Secretary Gard ner deserves attention and adoption when he states: “Such diversity is the only possible answer to the fact of individual differences in abi lity and aspirations. And fur thermore, it is the only means of achieving quality within a framework of quantity. For we must not forget the pri macy of our concern for ex cellence. We must have di versity, but we must also ex pect that every institution which makes up diversity will 2 Panorama be striving, in its own way, for excellence.” Unfortunately, the present statutes do not tolerate diver sity of private educational in stitutions nor encourage ini tiative in the adoption of subjects and methods that do not closely follow fixed and bureaucratic practices. The proposed statutory changes promise no improvement. On the contrary, it affirms and even enlarges bureaucratic di rection forgetting the impli cations of our existing demo cratic way of life and over looking the warning so dis tinctly pronounced by that distinguished philosopher and and scientist, Julian Huxley, the first head of the UNES CO, which runs as follows: “We must accept the hard saying that out of diversity alone comes advance.” It was President Kennedy in a speech touching on the conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States who declared the high value of diversity as follows: “If we cannot end now our dif ferences, at least we can help make the world safe for di versity.” How much great men and believers in demo cracy value diversity — diver sity of views, diversity of ideas, diversity of knowledge — is magnificently expressed in these memorable words of that great American leader. In a strongly centralized and regimented educational sys tem, it is not easy to expect the development of these va lues. This same thought was also expressed in the Monroe Survey Report as far back as 40 years ago when a commis sion of leading American edu cators who made a survey of the Philippine school system found the public schools to be lacking in those features needed for the development of freedom and diversity in educational work. The claim for educational diversity in the Philippines has been ignored and halted by those who insist that the regulation and supervision of educational institutions, as provided in our Constitution, could not be carried out if our private colleges and uni versities would be permitted to adopt their own distinctive features of education and ad ministration. Hence, it has been concluded that all of them should be placed in a .uniform mold with as little variation from each other as December 1966 3 possible. That attitude, which has been officially fol lowed and observed for the last 50 years, has not improv ed the quality of the educa tion nor raised the standards of the different schools of the country to a marked degree. The widespread criticism against private schools, often expressed by irresponsible persons or by those who are not sufficiently acquainted with actual conditions of our private schools, has obviously encouraged government offi cials to tighten the rules and regulations affecting these in stitutions to the extent of practically converting them into a scheme of complete control. Setting aside the question of the legal validity of the law .and the regulations over the private schools of the country, in all frankness and sincerity, one might well ask whether a bureau can be in a position to exercise the po wer of supervising, regulating, and controlling the courses, the curricula, the methods of teaching and learning, the practices of approving the different academic activities of 27 private universities and hundreds of colleges, and the approval of the appointments of teachers, their salaries, their teaching load, and the graduation of thousands of students. Of course, there can be only one answer, and that is: that it is impossible for a bureau to succeed in this tremendous work, no matter how large its person nel and how competent and diligent they are. In April, 1945, when this writer was appointed Director of Private Education, he made an examination of the work the Bureau was expect ed to perform for the private schools, colleges, and univer sities of the country. At that time the number of private colleges and universities was very much smaller than it is •’t present. But even then, the work was so vast and so varied that he felt it was far, far beyond the prac tical competence of the Bureau to do it with any hope of really helping the private institutions under the Bu re a u ’ s jurisdiction. The thought that hits his mind then and which hits him with far more telling force now, was this: That the functions of the Bureau and its entire personnel under the law and 4 Panorama under its rules and regula tions far exceed in number and difficulty the functions and responsibilities of the Board of Regents, the Univer sity Council, and the different faculties of the University of the Philippines. To perform them properly and satisfactor ily, we need to have a huge and talented agency equal to some 50 or more times what the University qf the Philip pines possesses. For one Bu reau to do this work satisfac torily is ridiculously impos sible. What the Bureau of Private Schools has been do ing is no more than a feeble attempt at convincing people that it is improving private education. In the 1964 Annual Report of the Director of the Bureau of Private Schools, he lists the number and kinds of services and functions per formed by his office as fol lows: (1) the enforcement of all laws and regulations as well as the implementation of all policies and programs of the National Government — in cluding the Five-Year SocioEconomic Program — involv ing private education; (2) the government accre ditation of all private edu cational institutions in the Philippines; (3) the examination, veri fication and evaluation of private school records and documents; (4) the preparation and publication of minimum standards required of all courses and levels operated in private schools; (5) the undertaking of va rious duties related to inter nal office management and to operation of private schools; (6) the active participation in various educational, cultu ral and social activities and drives in cooperation with private agencies and other government entities; and (7) the exercise of educa tional leadership functions calculated to upgrade the competencies, the skills and the attitudes of those involved in private education and to mobilize the energies and re sources of the same towards the general improvement of private education in the Phil ippines. A close examination of these items is certain to re veal the enormous effort, ta lent, and both mental and December 1966 5 moral energy they require. They give us a picture of the complexity and extreme difficulty of the work the Bureau has been made to undertake. To repeat a bro mide, it is veritably a her culean task. If honestly and correctly performed, the pa per work alone would re quire a huge multitude of well-qualified and academi cally experienced workers and experts. It stands to reason that the only way by which the Bu reau of Private Schools as presently constituted could start doing these multifarious activities would be to perform them superficially and poorly. The act of supervising and regtdating educational insti tutions would be no better than a pretentious formality. And if it should be insisted, as it has always been, that the work be done in this use less manner, it could only be carried out through a system of rigid standardization and practical regimentation of the colleges and universities con cerned. This is what has ac tually been the case; and the consequences are worse than what any responsible educa tor can imagine and tolerate. It is most likely that the heads of the Bureau them selves are fully aware of the deficiencies of the system; but whatever improvement is needed it cannot be accom plished under the present statutory set-up and system of regulation. To face the problem intel ligently and courageously, the government has to adopt a very different system of re gulation and supervision of colleges and universities in this country. It should realize after some 50 years of trial and failure that the present system is not only wrong but useless. It should provide a scheme that treats administra tors and teachers of private colleges and universities as responsible and trustworthy men and women by leaving them alone to do their work after they have given evidence of their qualifications and character. Rules should be as few as possible and should deal only with questions af fecting the honesty, the mo rals, and the conduct and re putation of the schools and their personnel. If this is done, the standardization of courses, academic activities, and administrative programs 6 Panorama of private colleges and uni versities may be completely abandoned. Then it would be time to encourage diver sity which alone can guaran tee advancement in educa tion. On this subject, the words of the famous scien tist and teacher, Albert Ein stein, are worth repeating when he said: “For a com munity of standardized indi viduals without personal ori ginality and personal aims would be a poor community without possibilities for dev elopment. On the contrary, the aim must be the training of independently acting and thinking individuals, who however, see in the service of the community their highest life problem.” Diversity, however, can be so pointless, uninformed, and capricious that it may not produce the expected im provement. But diversity for excellence, for the unfolding of individual growth, as hap pens in the United States, is bound to take place when a flexible and sound system of accreditation of colleges and universities is adopted. In an official statement is sued by the National Council of Independent Schools in the United States, a compre hensive discussion of the role of independent schools in American society is presented. While they are, as a group, distinct and separate from the public schools, these inclependent schools do not fol low a uniform and rigid edu cational pattern among them selves. Each of them adopts its own program and methods of study. After describing their stand for diversity and freedom to follow their sepa rate paths to knowledge, they make this significant conclusion: “The progress of mankind has been in di rect proportion to the free, dom of education, the trust in free inquiry, and the vir tue of the individual. The. first sure warning of tyranny, whether by an individual or by a majority, is the attempt to seize control of education; the certain consequence of established tyranny is the fall of the universities, colleges, and schools, which it inva riably recognizes as its most dangerous enemies.” — V. G. Sinco. December 1966 7 ■ This thought-pcovoking article in the Manila Times of December 21, 1966, could be a warning against a possible return of clerical power and monastic sovereignty in the Philippines which may approximate what happened here during the Spa nish rule. The author is known as a courageous writer and perceptive observer of the current scenes. CURSILLO and politics Anyone who has observed the development and growth of the Cursillo movement cannot possibly be oblivious to its political potential. This may explain why poli ticians of all hues — particu larly, it seems, those plan ning to face the electorate next year — have been beat ing a path to the Cursillo houses. The latest big-name politician to have completed the course is Speaker Cornelio T. 'Villareal (although he is not running for any office next year). Senate reelectionists and senatorial hopefuls, governors and gu bernatorial aspirants, mayors and mayoral hopefuls, and lesser politicians have alrea dy done their stint. None of this is to say, of course, that politicians who take up the Cursillo have not been originally motivated by the purely religious benefits to be gained from it. It must be assumed that this was what impelled them in the first place. On the other hand, if one’s personal sanc tification can be achieved hand in hand with the gain ing of some political advan tage, which politician can possibly object to such a for tuitous confluence of noble and desirable objectives? One becomes doubly blessed thereby. It cannot be denied that, while this may have been the farthest thing in the minds of those who had brought the Cursillo move ment to this country, these exercises have in fact created a tightly-knit and well-orga nized fraternity (and sorori ty, since the women have now also taken up the cur sillo) that could be — if the 8 Panorama Catholic Church ever sets its mind to making it so — the church’s own answer and counterforce to the political power of the Iglesia Ni Cristo. The cursillo appears to in fuse a deep sense of brother hood and sisterhood — at the very least of togetherness — among those who have un dergone the experience. And the most impressive uniform trait of the cursillistas is, as everyone knows, their mili tancy. Thus it is not necessary to draw pictures for anyone with some sense of political realism to appreciate what a force the Cursillo movement could become in politics. One possible barrier, to be sure, could be the refusal or reluctance of the cursillistas thertiselves to allow their movement to be “dragged” into politics. They may be lieve that this would corrupt and debase it, and lead it too far astray from its reli gious moorings. On the other hand, it is an open secret that the Ca tholic church has long been chafing under the relentless growth of the political po wer of the Iglesia, while it has had to put up impotently with the disarray among its own flock. One need on ly recall the confusion to wards the end of last year’s presidential campaign when an attempt was made to place the Catholic hierarchy direct ly in political confrontation with the INC. It should be interesting, to find out how the INC it self is reacting to the poli tical potential represented by the Cursillo movement. Would it be too farfetched to speculate that the INC would some day decide to withhold its support from all candidates who have taken the course? If this should ever happen, it would be a shattering blow for those cal lous, opportunistic politicians who are forever scheming to enjoy the best of all worlds. They would then have to make a choice, and clear-cut, bjack-or-white choices are what this type of politicians live in mortal fear of. Would it serve the public interest if the cursillo move ment muscled its way into the world of politics? The answer has to be that this is not going to be any more December 1966 9 desirable than the conspi cuous participation of the INC in politics has been de sirable. Religion and poli tics make not merely strange but adulterous bedfellows. The fitness of candidates to occupy public office would then be reduced to the ir relevancy of finding out whe ther or not they have taken the course. This would amount to imposing a reli gious test for public office, which is, of course, unthink able and terrible, whichever may be the religious deno mination applying it. But what should happen, as everyone knows, is not al ways what actually happens, and it is not impossible that the temptation may prove too great for the Catholic church — or for .some unauthorized sectors in it — to push the cursillo movement into the political arena. Individual politicians who are also cur sillistas, as a matter of fact, sooner than later may begin appealing for votes from their fellow-cursillistas. on the basis of their common expe riences and religious affini ties, altogether shunting aside issues and qualifications. This may be somewhat un scrupulous and may repre sent a gross distortion of the cursillo’s values, but it would also be easily understandable. It seems undeniable, in any case, that what could be a significant political force is in the process of crystalliza tion, and it should be inte resting to watch how this po tential develops in the fu ture. Next year’s elections — the first since the Cursillo has become the "in” thing that it is today — may pro vide the first answers. — By J. V. Cruz. 10 Panorama ■ To improve tho general ocndition of your body, mind, and spirit, meditation is a great help. Try it. HOLD ON - AND MEDITATE Living constantly at high tension is detrimental to phy sical and mental health. Yet most of us can think of only two ways to use the leisure time we all have: we either work or play — and in either case, do it hard. But there is another valuable use for the pauses in everyday life: namely, meditation. What would most of us think if we saw a man sit ting quietly in a hotel lobby or in the living room of his house — neither reading, nor writing, nor working, nor playing — just sitting, appa rently doing nothing? Our first thought would be that he was waiting for someone, and probably we would feel a bit sorry for the boredom he must be suffering. It would never enter our minds that in spite of the appear ance of doing nothing he was actually doing something both important and delight ful — allowing his mind to wander and to wonder, to disconnect itself entirely from the immediate surroundings and spread its wings in me ditation. Meditation conserves ener gy for future needs and through it we often arrive at a revision of values which helps inward development. It requires no special tech nique. It is simply a mat ter of freeing one’s mind and allowing it to wander in peace beyond the objec tives and so-called "prac tical” things of the present. It is no more than delibe rately bidding one’s thoughts to take a holiday and leave the lesser realities of every day life, and thus purposely producing the same state of mind which one automatical ly falls into when listening to beautiful music or looking into a sunset or gazing at great mountains. The atti tude is one of wonder with out expectancy, of contem plation without planning or striving. No physical aids are re quired save a reasonably com fortable place to sit. Neither are surroundings important, December 1966 11 for once the habit is acquir ed one becomes unconscious of them. Quiet and" beauti ful surroundings do help, however, and sometimes of themselves induce the proper state of mind. The great psychologist, William James, recommended frequent attendance of cha pel to his philosophy stu dents. He told us that the practice of going to a quiet place which was suggestive of contemplative thought aided in keeping one’s point of view right side up. He said that going to chapel was much like the experience of a person who, being jostled about in a crowd, climbs up on nearby doorstep, looks over the heads of the people, sees what the crowd as a whoje is doing, and is then able to descend again into the jam and push in the right direction. He might have used the same simile in speaking of meditation. Me ditation raises us above petty considerations so that we may distinguish the important from the unimportant, and the spiritual significance of experience becomes apparent. To start the process of meditation one needs only to “shove the mind off’ on the right track. This prelimi nary direction should aim the mind upward and outward in the direction of the uni versal and impersonal, ra ther than downward and in ward toward the specific ego centric. Tired of practical plan ning and fed up on specific thinking, the mind leaves all such narrow thoughts with surprising ease. The best way to initiate the process is through short periods of con centration on some general and abstract idea, such as the nature of beauty, the mean ing of truth, the spirit of courage, the destiny of the human race, the quality of immortality, or any of the eternal verities of religion. 'Or take some inspiring quo tation and let the actual quotation or the idea deriv ed from it rest in your mind. Perhaps a new interpretation may occur to you, for it has been said that every mystic saying has seven and seventy meanings. Once having given the stream of thought its di rection, go with the current and let it take you whereso ever it wills. Simply become a spectator. In time of trouble, when one is harried by anxiety or 12 Panorama under some other emotional stress, there is no more re liable method of attaining comparative calm. Nor do I know of any which is so economical of time and energy in helping one regain control of reason and judg ment. Meditation as a way of using leisure moments is available to every one regard less of age or experience, and it is an important part of living wisely. — By Austen Fox Riggs, M.D., Condensed from the book ‘‘Play". TEACHING WRITING THROUGH HISTORY English is not a subject, like physics or geo graphy or Latin. It is a universal skill, and every teacher of academic subjects should be in some de gree a teacher of English. One of the English teacher’s strongest allies is the history teacher. There are all sorts of ways in which the history teacher can and should give train ing in writing. He may assign research papers, book reports, precis of documents, and formal arguments in matters of controvery,. And his every test should require written answers. Yet in hundreds of high schools the classes in history, civics, problems of democracy, and so forth, do very little writing, and in some, none at all . . . Objective tests have little place in a properly run history course for academically competent stu dents. They simply that knowing history is simply a matter of guessing the right answer, and they sug gest that there are simple right and wrong answers to complex problems. Above all, they encourage teachers to evade their obligation to share with English teachers the duty of teaching effective writ ing. — By Henry JV. Bragdon in The Atlantic. December 1966 13 ■ He started the Filipino rebellion against Spain which had to be leic to others Co finish. BONIFACIO-THE FILIPINO REVOLUTIONIST Born on Nov. 30, 1863, to the humble family of San tiago Bonifacio, a tailor, and Catalina de Castro, a diligent housekeeper, Andres Boni facio was orphaned at the age of 14, with three brothers and two sisters. Unable to go to college, he learned the alphabet from his aunt and had to improve his educa tion by self-study and read ing books on biographies and revolutions in Europe. He also read the La Solidaridad, and the two books of Rizal — Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo — which were smuggled into the country. His favorite book, The History of the French Revo lution, gave him the inspira tion and the firm belief that it was only through an armed revolution that the Filipinos could obtain their indepen dence from Spanish servi tude. His association with such brilliant minds as Emi lio Jacinto, the “brains of the Katipunan,” Dr. Pio Valen zuela and other Filipino lea ders, together with his ac cepted leadership, courage, intelligence, and determina tion to liberate the Filipinos, made him organize the secret and revolutionary society — Kataastaasan Kagalanggalang Katipunan Ng Mga Anak Ng Bayan (Highest and Most Venerable Society of the Sons of the People). This society was founded on July 7, 1892, at the house of Deodato Arellano in Tondo on the old Azcarraga Street (now Recto Avenue). Its organization was pattern ed after that of the Liga Filipina of the less revolutionary Dr. Jose Rizal who was ar rested a few hours before the organization of the K.K.K., as the Katipunan was called. The Great Ple beian was a member of the defunct Liga Filipina. Have you ever thought what would have happened had Rizal not been arrested 14 Panorama by the Spaniards and was al lowed to continue his civic organization? Would Boni facio separate from the Liga to form his own revolution ary society? In organizing the Liga Filipina, Rizal was spear heading a peaceful drive for reforms; hence, his aims were to unite the Filipinos and to promote their social, econo mic, and educational welfare. Bonifacio, through the Kati punan, would have the Fili pinos close ranks and gain their independence through a revolution. To the poli tical scientist, there were two parties at that time — the Radicals under Bonifacio and later under Aguinaldo, and the Conservatives or Re formists under the leader ship of the intelligentsia. Whereas ,the former wanted not mere freedom but inde pendence, the latter wanted freedom but would continue as a colony under Spain. In the First Supreme Coun cil organized a month after the society was founded in 1892, Deodato Arellano was president and Bonifacio was comptroller; in the Second Supreme council organized in February, 1893, he was the fiscal. It was only in the Third Supreme council form in January, 1895, that Boni facio became the President. With the title of,Supremo, he was elected again as Pres ident for the Fourth Supreme council. He was still Pres ident when the Revolution broke out after the discovery of the Katipunan through the confession of the Patino sister. In the little town of Kawit, Cavite, lived an obscure ma yor or Capitan Municipal by the name of Emilio Aguinal do. When the Tejeros con vention was held at Tejeros, San Francisco de Malabon, on March 22, 1897, the Sup remo was present; but Agui naldo, whose leadership in the fields of battle was now recognized, was spending his 28th birthday quietly while awaiting the enemy attack against the barrao of Salitran, Dasmarinas. The Supremo’s leadership was repudiated at the Teje ros convention; Aguinaldo was catapulted to the highest post in the revolutionary gov ernment which superseded the Katipunan — he was elected President while Boni facio was chosen director of interior. December 1966 15 While patiently bearing the personal setback, the im prudence of Daniel Tirona in questioning Bonifacio’s fitness as director of the in terior aggravated the ill-feel ings between the two leaders. On the next day, in the same house where the Te jeros convention was held, Bonifacio with his men drew up the Ada de Tejeros wherein they denounced the convention decision and void ed it. He wanted to organize another government with another army, which action would divide the revolution aries. His act was consider ed seditions by the revolu tionary government. The Tejeros convention was the first democratic elec tion in chasing the president. Aguinaldo was not even there for electioneering purposes. He did not even know that he was elected. When in formed, he felt that he was not worthy of the office and might not measure up to the expectation of the people. He was that humble. When he was presented the death sentence pronounced against Bonifacio and his brothers, Aguinaldo commuted it to banishment. But the com mutation was never served or shown to Bonifacio by Aguinaldo’s men. “Under pressure of his men, Aguinaldo commissioned Col. Agapito Banzon, Jose Ignacio Pawa, and Felipe Topacio to arrest Bonifacio.” In the trial, the Supremo ^yas not allowed to confront his accu sers or witnesses. Even his own defense counsel denoun ced him, according to Prof. Agoncillo, and “pleaded only for pardon for the man who had 'done the evil deeds.’ ” There was nothing in the declarations of the witnesses that could condemn Bonifa cio and his brother Procopio to death. The latter “had nothing to do with counter revolutionary movement and with the alleged attempt to usurp the powers of the es tablished government,” yet he was also condemned to death. After the trial, the Bonifa cio brothers were shot at the foot of Mount Buntis, which was “recently identified as Mt. Nagpatong.” (So ended the life of a Filipino whose dauntless courage and simple love of country helped create a new order for a nation.) — By Serafin S. Flores in Manila Bulletin, Nov. 30, 1966. 16 Panorama ■ Rich in material resources but suffering and dis turbed for it lacks freedom and a democratic way of life and government. ARGENTINE RETURNS TO AUTOCRACY On June 29, 1966, General Juan Carlos Ongania was made President of Argentina by the military leaders who had deposed President Ar turo Illia twenty-four hours before. Ongania assumed of fice with more power than any of his predecessors. Not only where the armed forces for once united and dis ciplined, solidly behind him, but public opinion was over whelmingly in his favor. He immediately used his power to make a clean sweep. Par liament apd state and muni cipal governments were dis solved; political parties were abolished; even the justices of the Supreme Court were fired. No constitutional gov ernment has ever been laid to rest wiith so little fuss; there was hardly a murmur of protest even from those most intimately concerned. The military intervention was born, according to On gania himself, of “the an guish of chronic frustration.” Argentines are taught from childhood that theirs is one of the richest countries in the world, yet their average per sonal income has risen a meager twelve per cent since the War. Many of them be lieve that this is due to an international and particular ly a U.S. conspiracy to keep Argentina a pastoral country in a subordinate position. Yet through agricultural pro ductivity has risen far less in Argentina than elsewhere, agricultural exports are ex pected to pay for uncompe titive Argentine industries that prosper behind one of the highest customs barriers in the western world — 150 per cent and upward on most items. Other deep divisions rend the country: between labor and management, each caught in an inflationary spi ral; between inefficient state enterprise and the heavily tax ed private sector, both depen December 1966 17 dent on disguised forms of monopoly; above all, between the solid third of the country still loyal to the exiled dic tator Peron and the rest di vided again into a dozen factions ranging from oldfashioned Socialists to newfashioned nationalists who admire Nasser and Franco. Onganiia promised to set all this right, to “modernize” the economy, moralize so ciety, reorganize the state, and bring about the union of all Argentines in a “ver tical” political structure, di vided into well-defiined zones of responsibility, with a clear chain of command descend ing from himself. That this was the pattern of autocracy did not seem to bother the Argentines; they have enjoy ed few (democratic govern ments in this century, and most of those ended in chaos. To avoid the appearance of a military dictatorship — “This is a civilian govern ment with military backing” — it was essential to find civilians at least for the mi nisterial posts. It soon be came apparent, however, that Ongania, a gruff professional soldier of unquestioned piety and rectitude, did not enjoy wide civilian acquaintance. His main contacts beyond the barracks were within Catho lic Church circles. Thus the majority of his executive ap pointments — and it is said in Buenos Aires that they were often second or third choices, since civilians were wary, too — went to militant right-wiing Catholics. These people offered, if nothing else, the certificate of honor ability he felt was essential: the alleged corruption of former President Illia’s ad ministration was one of the main reasons for its down fall. However, in Buenos Aires they are beginning to ask, “Why do seven children and daily attendance at Mass prove a man honest?” And since large families seem to lead to nepotism, a current joke is that the proper an swer when being sworn in to a government job is “Yes, Uncle.” Argentine universities, like others in South America, have long been hotbeds of political ferment, with the Left often calling the shots. Students here are proud that it was in Cordoba in 1919 that South America’s univer sity “reform” movement was born. It transformed the 18 Panorama rigid scholastic training, in herited from Spain and based on theology and law, into a more open, inquiring system. To enforce it, the students insiisted that the universities be governed by professors, alumni, and students with out interference from the states that supported them. When the governing body of the University of Buenos Aires protested the overthrow of constitutional government — the only important organi zation to do so — Dr. Mar tinez Paz, on the pretext that the Communists, were behind the protest dissolved the governing bodies of eight state universities and fired the rectors. Police sent in to clear the premises per formed their task with un accustomed brutality. The reaction was swift. Students of all persuasions rallied to defend the princi ple of self-government; pro fessors reigned en masse; streets on university neigh borhoods became battlegrounds; and one student was shot to death “while resisting arrest.’’ Public opinion, generally in favor of curbing student excesses, turned overwhelming, ly against the government. Worst of all, the Argen tine “brain drain” became a flood. Professors who had put up with low salaries and low research budgets out of patriotism accepted offers to move abroad, complete with their research teams and work in progress. (Chile, Venezuela, and the United States have been the chief beneficiaries.) Although the official attitude seemed at first to be “good riddance”, there are now signs that this has shifted. The armed forces’ scientific and tech nical branch has been ap proaching the professors who had resigned with offers of an equivalent salary for just waiting around during a cooling-off period of three months. When the students took to the streets, however, the younger clergy, the, Catholic University of Buenos Aires — which, as a private insti tution, was unaffected by the ministerial decision — the Catholic students’ league, and even some of the hierar chy openly supported them. The cardinal declared he would no longer appear at any function that is purely political. — Gladys Delmas, Abstract, from The Reporter. December 1966 19 ■ The famous dancing school formerly known as Sadler’s Wells School is now called ths Rcyal Bal let. BRITAIN'S BALLET He admitted — and most people would agree with him — that other companies can outshine the Royal Ballet in one or other of the many elements that go to make up a ballet company (the Rus sians for sheer excitement of dance execution, the New York City Ballet for adven turous use of modern music, the Danish Ballet for mime) but asserted that no other one maintains such a consis tently good standard through out. When founded in 1931 by Ninette de Valois, the com pany consisted of six girls who provided the dance element in the opera pro ductions at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London, when ever one was revised. De Valois, with the oppor tunity to establish this tiny nucleus, had the wisdom to install her own ballet school in the theatre. This became the Sadler’s Wells School of Ballet and grew into the Ro yal Ballet School, just as the Sadler’s Wells Ballet grew eventually into the Royal Ballet. The importance of the school which feeds it can never be overstressed when discussing the achievements of any national ballet com pany. It is in the school that the dancers are trained and un less they have about eight years’ good training behind them — starting at the age of 10 — they will never achieve very much in the theatre. De Valois’s school, modest and unsubsidised, be gan by offering ballet tuition only, but gradually she added first academic education and then residential premises for the junior school so that the children could get their edu cation and ballet training under one roof. Today the Royal Ballet Junior School is at White Lodge in Richmond Park, Surrey, and the Senior School, whose studios are used also 20 Panorama by the ballet company, is at Baron’s Court, London. In the junior school are some 132 pupils who include children from all over the world. The boys have a se parate wing of the building, presided over by a housemas ter, and their training in cludes gymnastics and athle tics. Music, art and folk dances of the British Isles are given due attention in addi tion to classical ballet, char acter dancing and the general school curriculum. The senior school has about 185 students and by the time they reach the gra duate class most of them have opportunities to "walk on” or play small parts in ballet performances at the Royal Opera House, Covent Gar den., On graduation from the school the students go to one or other of the Royal Ballet’s two companies — one of which is based on the Ro yal Opera House, Covent Garden, while the other spends most of its time tour ing Britain and overseas countries. Today the company is re nowned throughout the world its male dancers can vie with the best, and local education authorities throughout Bri tain frequently give grants to boys and girls to enable them to go to the Royal Bal let School. It was de Valois who had the faith and the determina tion to carry through this great enterprise but she was immeasurably assisted by the late Constant Lambert who guided the company’s musical policy for some 20 years; by Frederick Ashton, a choreographer of genius who has created ballets for the company since 1933, and is now its Director; and by Margot Fonteyn, who inhe rited the ballerina roles from Alicia Markova in the 1930’s and has given the Royal Bal let most of her dancing life. The younger men, John Cranko and Kenneth Mac Millan among them, are given many opportunities to experiment and create. The Royal Ballet, being young, has learned much from other great national schools and companies, and is now spreading its ballet knowledge throughout the world, in Canada, Australia, and Norway. — By Mary Clarke in Britain Today. December 1966 21 ■ The moral significance of this phenomenon, the dropout formerly known as the quitter. DON'T BE A DROPOUT1 Perhaps you are thinking, ‘That does not apply to me. Dropouts are teenagers who fail to complete their secon dary or high school educa tion.’ True, but only partly so, for, according to Websters latest unabridged dic tionary, a dropout is “one who drops out before achiev ing his goal (as from school or a training program).” So the counsel, “Don’t be a dropout!”, applies to all who have set a certain goal for themselves and who may be tempted or pressured to drop out to turn aside and so not achieve it. Being a dropout is an ad mission of defeat. It results in loss to the one dropping out as well as disappointment to others. That is why there has been considerable agita tion in the United States in the past few years over the dropout problem. Edu cators point out that drop outs are less likely to find work, more likely to have to content themselves with un skilled work. And according to reports, each year some million youth drop out of school. The temptation to embark on a life of crime is also greater to the youthful dropout, for which reason the United States Secretary of Labor, Willard Wirtz, stated that the high school dropout problem “could easi ly develop into one of the most explosive problems in the nation’s history.” And as if student dropouts were not enough to plague Uni ted States educators, we are told by a leading educational journal that “Teacher Drop outs [Are] Still a Diilemma.” The dropout is not some thing new; only the name is. Years ago he was called a “quitter.” More than nine teen hundred years ago Jesus Christ gave an illustration stressing the undesirability of becoming a dropout: “For example, who of you that wants to build a tower does not first sit down and calcu 22 Panorama late expense, to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, he might lay its foundation but not be able to finish it, and all the on lookers might start to ridi cule him, saying, 'This man started to build but was not able to finish.’ ” (Luke 14,28-30). It should be ob served that such a builder not only invites the ridicule of others but loses self-respect and suffers a monetary loss because labor and materials are used without lasting re sults. It might be said that to day the temptation to drop out is greater than ever be fore. There has been a gen eral letdown in morals and idealism since the beginning of World War I and it is get ting ever worse. Materialism and extreme selfishness are rampant. So it is not surpris ing to find dropouts becom ing ever more numerous, not only as regards schooling but in all walks of life. If you do not want to be a dropout, consider first the cost of what you set as your goal or of the obligation you assume. Many persons today are dropouts as to complet ing their time payments on something they brought on the installment plan. More likely than not, they did not consider carefully enough the burden of keeping up the payments or else they chang ed their minds about the desirability of keeping them up. Then again, they may have failed to take into con sideration such unforeseen things as sickness or unem ployment. But whatever the reason, they are the losers, as also is the merchant who is obliged to repossess the item, whatever it may be. A much more serious kind of dropout, also largely caused by failing to consider the expense, is the one who dishonestly takes advantage of personal bankruptcy laws to drop out of the obliga tion to pay all his debts. While there are always some cases of genuine need caused by unusual circumstances over which the victims had little control, the ever-in creasing resorting to this pro vision of the law — 110percent increase in five years in the United States — indi cates that much of it is due to selfishness or at least a very imprudent handling of one’s affairs. And here again, the one dropping out suffers loss, both in self-respect and December 1966 23 in material things, as well as causing much loss to his cre ditors. So, in setting a goal for yourself, whether it be the accumulating of certain pos sessions, the acquiring of certain knowledge or skills or pursuing a way of life, first calculate the expense. Once having settled it in your mind that the goal is a worthy one, pursue it with determination, with stick-toitiveness. Even with a hobby, do not let yourself be dis couraged or turned aside too easily; don’t be a dropout! Remember, almost as soon as you start doing anything worth while you will be fac ed with temptatiihs or pres sures to turn you aside from your desired goal. But if you have counted the cost, show wisdom, show fortitude, keep your self-respect by pursuing your goal. It may cost you more than antici pated; it may mean prac ticing self-denial, perhaps undergoing hardship at times; but don’t be a drop out. — Abstract from Awake. ACADEMIC FREEDOM In a debate in the House of Commons, Glad stone reviewed the history of Oxford and spoke of •the lamentable condition of that institution during the reign of Queen Mary. Quoting a historian of that period he continued: “The cause of the failure is easy to discover. The Universities had everything, except the most necessary element of all — Freedom: which by the immutable laws of nature is always an indispensable condition of real and permanent prosperity in the higher intellectual cultivation and its organs.” With this conclusion all who cherish our heritage must agree: without freedom the pros perity most important for this country cannot be achieved — the prosperity of our cultural life. — James Bryant Conant, President of Harvard, at the Harvard Tercentenary Celebration, Sept. 18, 1936. 24 Panorama THE ECONOMICS OF PHILIPPINE FOREIGN POLICY Foreign policy since the granting of independence to the Philippines in 1946 has been geared politically to the maintenance of peace and unity throughout the world, through its unswerving alle giance to freedom and equal ity of nations; socially to the promotion of closer ties with other countries, through so cio-cultural relations; and economically to the promo tion of economic growth and development in co-operation with other countries. Immediately after World War II the new Republic had to contend not merely with an alipost breakdown in the economic machinery, but with political and social in stability as well. The gigan tic task of rehabilitation in the context of demoralization that itfas the aftermath of w^r, «ns aggravated by wide spread dissident activities that posed an actual thre; to the seat of government in Manila. On the economic front, inflationary tendencies were set off with the low produc tion level being coupled with increased money supply gen erated primarily by the in flux of U.S. dollars through huge U.S. Government mili tary expenditures. Owing to the peak post war importation of goods tor consumption, producer goods needed to help rebuild war-destroyed factories, and luxury items, the interna tional reserve position hit a critically low level. Import controls were imposed in 1949 to check the dollar out flow. Foreign trade during the immediate post-war period was substantially confined to the U.S. Almost 90 per cent of the Philippine im ports came from there and about an equal percentage December 1966 25 of exports went to that coun try. In the light of this situa tion, a free-trade agreement giving preferential rates to dutiable goods traded be tween the two countries was deemed imperative. The consensus of opinion then was that such a trade agree ment would help speed up the economic development of the Philippines if only by increasing the export of raw materials to the U.S., as a ready market, and the rest of the world. Being mainly an agrarian economy, the Philippines could readily supply coconut, oil, abaca, tobacco, sugar, and other export products. The Bell Trade Agreement was amended in 1955 by the Laurel-Langley Agreement. This included among its provisions: (a) general tariff pre ferences; (b) decelerated rates on absolute quotas and duties on specific pro ducts; (c) special import tax ap plied to merchandise imports; (d) reciprocal entry of na tionals; (e) parity rights or equal privileges granted to U.S. citizens and busi ness enterprises with respect to the disposi tion, exploitation, dev elopment, and utiliza tion of Philippine na tural resources (this led to the amendment of Section 1, Article XIII, of the Philip pine Constitution). After 10 years in operation, the Laurel-Langley Agree ment is today a source of public controversy and irri tation in U.S.-Philippane re lations. There is a clamour for re examination or renegotia tion of the L.-L. Agreement. In some sectors, outright abrogation of the treaty is proposed. The situation re cently prompted the Pres ident to create a body to study these matters. Pampering of foreign ca pital, according to those ad vocating abrogation, will not create a proper investment climate, but instead promote further demands or conces sions from the U.S. They propose creation of a healthy foreign-investment climate through a well-con26 Panorama coived foreign-investment law, rather than through special agreements like parity. In this way the Philippines can broaden its market and avert the long-range set-backs that can be expected if it continues to depend prima rily on the U.S. market. On the other hand, there is fear that the foreign-ex change position will be im paired by abrogation. An other argument presented against abrogation is that major export products such as sugar and copra may be adversely affected. It is pointed out that an estimated total tariff on U.S. imports of $120.7 m. (about £43m.) will be paid by both industries after 1974. The possible problem of competing in the world free market with Indonesia, Ma laysia, nd Ceylon, which are members of GATT and therefore enjoy preferential tariff rates, has also been brought up. In any case, it is believed that should abrogation be come inevitable it would not in any way manifest an anti-American policy. Phil ippine officials have frankly stated that Philippine foreign policy is still ‘anchored’ where it is now — in close partnership with Washing ton. Abrogation of the pact would primarily reflect the desire of Filipinos to assert what they consider their rights dn order to gain the respect of other countries. After the passage of almost two decades, enough trust and mutual respect has been res tored to allow the negotia tion of a Philippine-Japan treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation to facilitate trade and commerce between the two countries. Ampng other matters, the treaty pro vides for: (1) Reciprocity or the same treatment ac corded third countries on payments, remit tances, and transfers of funds; (2) No restrictions or pro hibitions on import and export; (3) Equal treatment with respect to laws, regu lations, and require ments affecting inter nal sales as that af forded to third parties; and December 1966 27 (4) Equal terms on treat ment of vessels. The Philippine Senate has not ratified the PJ. — Japan Treaty. It is believed that ratification will have no ef fect on Philippine exports to Japan, consisting of raw ma terials. Moreover, it is feared that Japanese capital might sup plant rather than supple ment Filipino investments. Instead of direct investments, therefore, portfolio invest ment is preferred. Full uti lization of the $250m. repara tions is also advocated. Other defects of the treaty have been pointed out. Con cerning the 'most-favoured nation' clause, this might limit the Philippines’ flexi bility in dealing with other countries, particularly those in South-East Asia, to which the Philippines may be in a position to grant concessions that would automatically be come concessions also to Japan. No escape clause is pro vided against dumping and other prejudicial practices. Granting reciprocal treat ment to Japanese cargo ves sels may prejudice Philippine bottoms when the country’s international shipping in dustry is better developed. There is an opinion that but not between a less-devereciprocity may be workable, loped country and a highly industrialized one, where eco nomic strength could in some way be used to advantage. There used to be two hardand-fast policies adopted by the Philippines with regard to foreign relations with Communist countries: (1) prohibiting Filipinos from entering Commu nist countries and ter ritories; and (2) prohibiting persons with Communist learn ings from entering the Philippines. Lately, however, these res trictions were relaxed. This softening of policy has resulted in calls for a thorough re-examination of the Philippines’ position in relation to Communist coun tries. The Philippines has been thinking in terms of its own economic development of the South-East Asian region in co-operation with other countries. — From The In dustrial Philippines, Cham ber of Industry Journal, 1966. 28 Panorama ■ This description of British universities gives the reader in the Philippines an idea of the kind of work those institutions are doing for ths individual and community. THE NEW BRITISH UNIVERSITIES It has been part of the English tradition in univer sity education to restrict the actual amount of such educa tion compared with that of many other countries. Thus, after the last war, the total number of students in uni versities was only some 3 or 4 per cent of the relevant age group. In the post-war years, how ever, several factors were at work to make some expan sion necessary and inevitable. There was moving through the schools a very consider able1 “bulge” in the number of young people which it was known would reach the uni versities in 1965 and the suc ceeding years. The generous and almost unique system of grants was developing by which today any student obtaining a uni versity place receives a. grant, if the parents’ means justify it, sufficient not only for fees but for board and lodging and other expenses as well. This system clearly led to an increasing pressure on uni versity entrance from many who without it could never have contemplated such an education on economic grounds. Further, it became ever more clear that in the mo dern world the need, not only for scientists and tech nologists, but for other high ly educated people, made ah expansion of university edu cation desirable on grounds of national policy. Conse quently in the 15 years after the war the university popu lation was almost doubled. This expansion, however, took place almost entirely in existing universities, a number of which had pre viously been institutions be low 1,500 in size. In those years only one new univer sity, Keele, was founded, and this itself was only small. In 1958, however, it be came clear that new univer sities were essential. December 1966 29 The University Grants Committee with government support, agreed therefore to the creation of seven totally new institutions. Of these Sussex was the first (founded in 1958, opened in 1961), East Anglia and York follow ing two years later, and soon afterwards, Essex, Kent, War wick and Lancaster. All these institutions have certain elements in common. If they are to make any sig nificant impact on the need for university places over the next few years it is realised that they must grow more rapidly than English univer sities have done in the past. All of them have set them selves the aim of having about 3,000 students in their first eight or ten years, and the figure of 3,000 although large by .the standards of a number of pre-war universi ties is recognised by most of them as being only an initial target beyond which has the further growth to 6,000 or more. Secondly, they have been created from the start as full, autonomous universities, giv ing their own degrees, in cluding research degrees. Thirdly, they have in va rying ways consciously broken new ground, in such matters as curriculum, machinery of government and teaching methods. It is, perhaps, too easy to over-estimate their degree of innovation. Never theless it remains true that a completely new institution has more chance to experi ment than one where there are tried and established pro. cedures and vested interests. As regards methods of teaching, whereas the older civic universities (although not Oxford and Gambridge) have always attached first importance to the formal lec ture, the new ones are using in some cases tutorials (work ing in very small groups of two or three), or seminars (groups of 12 to 20) as well as lectures, or in some cases combinations of all of these. New universities have also had an opportunity for bold architectural planning that has been denied to older uni versities. Just as the rapid expansion of school buildings after the war created much of the most imaginative mo dern English architecture, so now the building of the new universities is giving an op portunity for architectural ideas of variety and distinc tion. 30 Panorama The new universities are also experimenting with new curricula, and many would say that it was here that they were making their most sig nificant contribution. Most of them realise that not every university can, or should, attempt to teach everything, on grounds of economy of staff and of national need. Some of them are putting their main effort behind com paratively few subjects, so that really large schools, both undergraduate and p o s tgraduate, can be built up. Some of them are developing new departments not repre sented at all, or only very occasionally so, in existing universities. For instance, Operational Research at Lan caster, Language at Essex and York. Finally,, most of the new universities attach impor tance to student residence. A synthesis is being attempt ed between a student’s do mestic life, his work and his social activities, that some of us believe has very great va lue. What are the particular difficulties facing new uni versities? In some ways these are far less than was antici pated. There is certainly no lack of well-qualified stu dents; nor so far are there any undue difficulties in re cruiting staff. Perhaps their greatest pro blem lies simply in the un certainty as to whether suf ficient money will be forth coming to enable them to accomplish their initial plans. But in spite of the uncer tainties, the difficulties and the frustrations, there is no doubt that the new universi ties of Britain are places full of vitality, of experiment and even of optimism. — Lord James, Vice Chancellor of University of York, in The Listener. December 1966 31 fl Biographies, speeches, newspaper columns are often written not by their authors but by ghost writers. This is getting to be a common practice among Filipinos holding high positions today. GHOSTING Literary ghosts, like psy chic phenomena, usually keep out of sight. But unlike restless spirits there is no doubt about their existence: in the newspaper world in particular they are very thick on the ground. Scratch a sports writer, a crime re porter, or an entertainments page gossip and you are more than likely to uncover a ghost. For the vast majority of the autobiographies of contemporary ‘personalities’ are not written by their no minal authors. No one should exjpect literary ability of a. footballer, an actress or a successful policeman, and since public interest in their activities tends to be fleeting, commissioning an experien ced writer, working in the same field, to produce quick ly an autobiography of them is the accepted practice. There is also the time factor: any public figure interesting enough to merit a biography is likely to be too busy to write it. With the growing public demand in recent years for autobiographies, the status of the ghost writer has risen. The traditional picture of a hack taking a small lump sum, perhaps only £50, from a publisher, and then dash ing off 60,000 prosy words, is stone dead. Today the top ghosts often precipitate the books, competing with one another to approach and sign up a subject who has hit the headlines by some achievement, be it climbing mountains or sailing across the Atlantic. The ghost will then prepare specimen chap ters and hawk them around publishers and newspapers. Only with guarantees for publication and serialisation rights, and preferably for overseas editions, too, will the ghost persevere with the book. In one recent case, an author was offered £3,000 32 Panorama as an advance on the basis of the first two chapters of the first autobiography he had ever ghosted. The money is, of course, in the serialisa tion rights (in the United States it is in the film rights too, but this is rare in Bri tain). A national newspaper would be quite prepared to pay at least £1,000 a week for a popular autobiography. Alongside ghosting auto biographies it is very profit able to ghost a few regular newspaper columns: one leading ghost 'writes’ five syndicated columns each week. The really big money is limited to a few full-time ghosts, but many writers will ghost an occasional book to pay off income tax demands or school fees. In such cases a £$00 advance from a pub lisher may be usual, which, along with any subsequent royalties, is split 50/50 with the subject; unless the sub ject is a top personality in which case he will take 60 per cent. After all it is his name that is selling the book. Part-time ghosts in particu lar have been helped- by the more sophisticated techniques which have come with the widespread use of the tape recorder. This has taken much of the drudgery out of ghosting, and has also speed ed the process considerably. A really professional ghost might gather enough infor mation for the book in a dozen afternoons with a tape recorder, and most prefer to work a few hours each day over a short period, with the subject reminiscing into the recorder. This method of writing has fortunately coin cided with a demand for greater realism in autobio graphies. A bland uniform style is out, and the good ghost attempts to push the personality of the subject through, even if it means careless grammar: by free use of the tape recorder a high proportion of the text can now be in the autobio grapher’s authentic voice, with a boxer sounding like a boxer and a field marshall like an army officer. An easy working relation ship between subject and ghost is, of course, essential for success. Some potential ly interesting celebrities have never produced an auto biography because they just cannot work with a ghost. However, it is usually the December 1966 33 ghost that has to carry the strain. In particular, he must be prepared to watch his subject become convinced that he is in fact writing the story by himself. A ghost must be diploma tic and adaptable, though one of the most experienced and successful in the country, Ted Hart, has developed a formula which he considers fits almost all autobiogra phies. He seeks five things from his subject: 'expertise, opinions, anecdotes, quota tions from contemporaries and revelations. It is, per haps, in the last that most of the money has been made from autobiographies. How ever much it may pain serious writers, the public appetite for gossip seems to be insa tiable, though sometimes this can have unfortunate results for the autobiographies in their careers. If the spectacular rewards in ghosting lie with the lighter books. Much of the attraction lies in the casual nature of the work — a ghost can either dash off an auto biography for a quick wind fall, or work on it at odd hours while pushing on with his other literary projects. At this level book doctoring is often undertaken: the ori ginal manuscript of a book is sent to an experienced writer for tidying up — dull work but profitable. This, however, is frowned upon by the best ghosts, who have successfully raised the prestige of their profession so that the name of the ghost usually now appears tucked away in the introduc tion. Where really top people are concerned a team of ghosts is usually employed, Oiten disguised as secretaries. Sir Winston Churchill had help of this kind as early as his books on Marlborough, but he always carefully scru tinised the work of his aides and made extensive amend ments, even though his high ly distinguished band of ghosts soon found themselves writing naturally in a very Churchillian manner. With less powerful personalities the influence of the ghost as greater, though politicians are more likely to write their own autobiographies than most national figures: ob viously their papers have to be carefully sifted to avoid 34 Panorama embarrassments for theiir col leagues and Party. In an age of ‘instant’ per sonalities the popular de mand for autobiographies is likely to continue to increase, and the syndicated column, ghosted by a writer after per haps the briefest conversation with the subject, will also find its way into more and more newspapers. Fortunate ly, along with the growth in output there has been a rise in standards — ghosting has become as respectable as it is profitable. The days are past when a publisher bought a ‘name’, commissioned a writer quickly to ghost an autobiography for a small fee, and then showed the book to the subject for his approval after it had been written. Most personalities; in fact now want to make a contribution to the writing, and occasionally ghosts find to their dismay that after a few weeks the subject has as much flair in the telling of his story as the experienced writer. So ghosting is now a se rious business: there is even an agency that has only ghosts on its books, and if it is often a world of contacts and tight monopolies, there has been such an expansion in demand that most journa lists and many writers have the opportunity to undertake some ghosting. But, how ever widespread the practice and smooth the links between agents, writers and publish ers, ghosts are still discreet. Their clients insist on it. Once exposed to the spot light, ghosts tend to retreat behind a fog of reticence and generalisation. It is a very private business. — By An tony Thorncroft as condens ed from British Book News, October, 1966. December 1966 35 ■ There ere advantages which well prepared comics may give to children. COMMON SENSE ABOUT COMICS At our house we don’t worry about comics. We allow our four children to read them, and occasionally read them ourselves because we want to be able to dis cuss them with the children, just as we discuss Treasure Island and Wind in the Wil lows. And we are amazed to find that many anti-comic partisans have never read a comic; they are merely echo ing things they’ve been told by others. There are comics and comics, just as there are books and books. Some comics are trash. So are some of the day’s best sellers. But we don’t advocate abolishing books. By the same token it’s unfair to classify all co mics as unfit. Some pub lishers are making a sincere effort to provide comics which children can read without causing their parents gray hairs. I hold no brief for lurid sex and crime-ridden comics, but I heartily approve those which treat of historical events, which poke fun at human foibles, which offer good adventure and enter tainment, or which subtly infuse an exciting story with arguments for racial tole rance and other worthy aims. A child cannot be damaged by reading material which makes history seem real and exciting, or which furnishes a flesh-and-blood hero to drain off the hero-worship inherent in children. I can’t help wondering if comics, along with radio, haven’t become the latest “whipping boy” for a failure of our whole society. Wouldn’t children who are led astray by comics and ra dio be led astray by some other influence if these were lacking? Juvenile delin quency existed before the printing press. My own children draw pictures of men shooting other men, using lots of red crayon. I can’t blame the comics. My children and their friends drew such pictures before they ever saw a comic. 36 Panorama Another common com plaint is that comics make a child lose interest in books. Shortly after our eldest son learned to read, I myself com plained that he never read anything but comics. He an swered that there was nothing else in the house for him to read. I was indignant. What about all those books we’d bought for him? “Yes,” he said bitterly, “the ones you read to us are full of big words, and the others are all about baby animals and lit tle trains that ran away.” He had outgrown the libra ry we’d so carefully selected for him, of course. Now we keep plenty of books of his own age level, and while he still reads comics he is often more eager to continue one of the books. Like it or not, comics are as much a part of growing up as baseball, muddy shoes and arithmetic. There’s a sensible program for elimi nating the evils widely dis cussed: Encourage the good comics, improve the poor ones. As long as our child ren won’t give up their co mics — and they won’t — we might as well concentrate on providing them with the best. — By Katherine Clif ford, Condensed from Pa rents’ Magazine. December 1966 37 ■ Dale Carnegie won fame in his lifetime for his book and courses in public speaking. LEARN SPEAKING IN PUBLIC Does it scare you to death to talk on your feet? Does your tongue get thick, your voice get thin, your throat dry up? Dale Carnegie says that this is natural, but that you can cure yourself of the fear of speaking — by speak ing. According to Carnegie: "Yoi^ are not afraid to talk. You fear that you will fail. So you fail — and the next time you fail because you failed before, so you build the habit of failure.” Car negie should know. He has listened -to and criticized 150,000 speeches in 25 years. Carnegie likes to quote Emerson’s advice to “Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain.” He didn’t know when he started to teach public speaking that this would- be the secret of h i s fabulously successful method. “I had been taught in college by lectures,’\’ he says, "so I expected to teach the same way. Fortunately, after lecturing to my first class for 30 minutes I ran out of anything to say. To fill the time I asked the students to stand up and talk about their troubles. Without knowing what I was doing, I stumbled on the best method for conquering fear.” Carnegie emphasizes that teachers must use encourage ment rather than criticism. They must find something to praise in every student. “A student’s performance can’t be entirely hopeless,” Carnegie tells his teachers. He quotes the example of the student who could blurt out only a few short sen tences before fear choked him off. The instructor com plimented him: “Some of the world’s most famous speakers have not had the judgment you have just shown. You made your point and sat down immediately. You know when to stop.” Carnegie says almost any one can make a fair talk if he will follow these five rules: 38 Panorama 1. Get excited about what you have to say. If you are enthusiastic about your sub ject, your delivery will pro bably be natural, sincere and moving, and you won’t bo ther about how you stand, gesture, breathe, or use your voice. You will forget your self into good speaking. If you stumble or stutter or make mistakes, ignore them — nobody cares but yourself. 2. Talk about something that you know through expe rience. Don’t get your sub jects out of newspapers or magazines. Dig them out of your own life, such subjects as "My biggest regret,” "The most important lesson I ever learned,” etc. 3. Make a few notes of what you intend to say, but don’t memorize your talk word by word, ever. You will sound cold and mechanical. 4. Fill your talk with illus tration and rehearse it by conversing with your friends. A talk should be merely an enlarged conversation. Talk to your audience as you would to a dozen people in a room, with the same na tural gestures. 5. Your attitude is conta gious. Unless you have a good time talking, your au dience won’t have a good time listening. A Columbia University psychologist who took Carne gie’s course told him: "We humans are very largely what we conceive ourselves to be. You take your students by simple, easy stages to a point where they no longer think of themselves as being afraid. They are changed human beings because their concep tion of themselves is changed.” Carnegie beileves that you and your friends can get to gether informally and over come your fear of talking — simply by talking to your own group. Little by little you will gain confidence from your own success and from the success of your friends. — By J. P. McEvoy Condensed from Your Life, 1948. December 1966 39 ■ Here is another author who won the Nobel Prize for literature writing not in English or any major language but in his own tongue, Serbo-Croatian, which is not even widely understood in many coun tries in Europe. THE WOMAN FROM SARAJEVO The “Woman from Sara jevo” was written in SerboCroatian in 1945 by Ivo Andric, who won the Nobel Prize in 1961, and it is so fascinating and distinguished that one feels dismayed — and ashamed — to think of the writers in lesser-known languages whose work we have never read. It is rather awkwardly translated by Jo seph Hitrec — current Am ericanisms, such as ‘ethnic group’ and ‘nubile’ stick out — but the hovel has the great advantage of being the lite rary. art-form which is least affected by translation, be cause it’s the one in which what it’s about matters most. In 1935 a. solitary middleaged woman is found dead in a small house in Belgrade, surrounded by the squalor, although she was rich, that goes with excessive parsimo ny. She died of a heart-at tack, but her life has been consumed by miserliness, born when her father, a rich Sarajevo merchant, died, bankrupt, when she was fif teen. Mr. Andric recalls the life of the girl, pale, dark eyed and intelligent, pas sionately devoted to her fa ther, from the moment when he exhorts her on his death bed to avoid his fate. Sur rounded by attractive, wellto-do relations, only too will ing to help, she single-mindedly, with her father’s image always before her, gives up everything in life to the prac tice of thrift and usury — to ■the joy of “breeding money’”. She lapses only once, in mid dle age, when she tends to a handsome spendthrift: her heart-attack is caused by fear of robbery. The theme is sombre and penetrating, as are many themes in the diverse life we all experience. Mr. Andric shows the people of Sarajevo, ‘already burdened with the Turkish legacy of habitual 40 Panorama indolence and with the Sla vic hankering for excesses, having lately adopted the formal Austrian notions of society and social obligations, according to which one’s per sonal prestige and the dig nity of one’s class were mea sured by a. rising scale of senseless and non-productive spending’. Then the war; and, afterwards, the turbulently political life of Bel grade. In Mr. A n d r i c’s grasp, all of it is marvellous ly held and brought to life. — Reviewed by William Coo per in The Listener, August 11, 1966 Issue. NATURE'S REFRESHING POWER Since lawyers can be disbarred and priests un frocked, why shouldn’t people in other professions be similarly fired? Electricians, for example, could be delighted; musicians, denoted; cowboys, deranged; models, deposed. Any why shouldn’t a medium be dispirited or a Far Eastern diplomat disoriented? Think further how power plant operators could be degenerated; song writers decomposed; doormen unhinged; tailors unstitched; captains de capitated; politicians devoted; and hog callers dis gruntled. Worst of all, perhaps, would be to hear of teacher outclassed and reporters depressed. — CLF News Bulletin. December 1966 41 ■ A volcano in eruption is a source of danger and destruction, but its after effects could be beneficial to man. VOLCANOES - FRIENDS OR FOES? For two weeks earthquakes had been shaking the area around Paricutin, a small village about 200 miles west of Mexico City. Then, on the afternoon of February 20, 1943, when Dionisio Pu lido was out in the fields working his farm, he noticed a fissure in the ground. Sud denly there was an earthshaking thunder, and smoke and flames leaped from the ground setting afire pine trees nearly 100 feet away. More smoke followed along with a loud continuous hiss ing noise and a smell of sul phur. At this Dionisio and his three companions hastily retreated from the scene. The next morning when Dionisio returned, a cone had risen over thirty feet in to the air and was emitting smoke and rocks with great violence. By noon the cone had grown to nearly 150 feet! After a week it was 450 feet high. By this time it was an awesome blast furnace, send ing prodigious amounts of incandescent materials over 3,000 feet into the air. What a beautiful fireworks display this created, especially when these glowing fragments cas caded down the sides of the cone, causing interlacing fiery trails! For nine years this new born volcano remained ac tive, during which time it emitted an estimated 3,596 million metric tons of solid material and grew to a ma ximum height of 2,120 feet! Its lava flows covered more than fifteen square miles, and reached a thickness near the cone of over 700 feet. Some 16 000 tons of steam and other gases were expelled daily at the height of activity. In recent years numerous volcanic eruptions have erect ed mountains, raised up islands from the bottom of the ocean and have covered hundreds of square miles with earth’s heated contents. Many welcome this activity. 42 Panorama In Hawaii the spectacular spouting fountains of golden lava are an attraction to which people from all over the islands flock. Late in 1959, after an eruption of Kilauea volcano, a report from Honolulu lamented: “The fire goddess Pele has come and gone, and all Ha waii is saddened that she could not stay longer.” The frequent eruptions of massive Mt. Etna on the island of Sicily, which occur on the average of every six ro nine years, stir mixed emotions. On occasions lava flows require that villagers evacuate their homes and fertile fields, and, of course, this can be a tragedy. But even though homes and crops may be destroyed by creep ing Java, farmers return to their land', for they know that minerals brought up from the depths of the earth will enrich the soil. Yes, some of the most productive lands in the world are those that have been enriched by vol canic eruptions. But perhaps the majority of persons see only the tre mendous destructive power of volcanoes, and so view them as vicious, fire-spitting monsters. Their power is indeed stupendous. The most violent historic eruption in the Western He misphere was perhaps that of the Coseguina volcano in Nicaragua in 1935. The ex plosions were so loud in Guatemala City over 200 miles away that the army, thinking it was cannon fire, prepared to defend the city. And in Belize, British Hon duras, at a distance of near ly 400 miles, troops were called out to repel what was believed to be a naval at tack. It is reported that for hundreds of miles the sea “was covered by floating masses of pumice, resembling the floe-ice of the Northern Atlantic.” However, the greatest eruption in man’s history is generally believed to be that of the Krakatoa volcano on a small, uninhabited island in the strait between Java and Sumatra. This tre mendous explosion in Aug ust of 1883 blew most of the island sky-high, sending such volumes of ash into the up per atmosphere that brilliant sunsets were created around the earth. In fact, on Octo ber 30 the sky had such a glow that fire engines were December 1966 43 reportedly summoned in ci ties in the eastern United States “to quench the burning skies.” There have been two erup tions in the present century that rivaled the power of these blasts. The first oc curred in June of 1912 in a remote section of the Alaskan Peninsula. Volcanic ash blot ted out the midday sun 100 miles away in Kodiak, where drifts of ash piled up to a depth of twelve feet! The other took place in March of 1956, when Mt. Bezymiany on the Kamchatka Peninsula, north of Japan, blew its top. It was only because of the remote location of these eruptions that no lives were lost. Those who view volcanoes as bleaching killers lying in wait' to claim victims fail to realize that there have been relatively few major death dealing eruptions, and that even these were preceded by plenty of warning. Probably the most famous was the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 C.E., which buried Pompeii under fifteen to twenty feet of volcanic ash. Although this was believed to be quite sudden, repeated warnings by a series of earthquakes signaled the impending disas ter. Prudent Pompeians fled the vicinity and lived. The classic volcanic trage dy of modern times occurred May 8, 1902, on the Carib bean isle of Martinique, when all but one of the 30,000 in habitants of the seaport of St. Pierre perished in one, fiery blast from Mt. Pelee, located five or six miles away. But it need not have happened. For weeks prior to the fatal eruption the long-inactive volcano had been seething and boiling. "The city is covered with ashes,” wrote one woman to her sister days before the disaster. "The smell of sul phur is so strong that horses on the street stop and snort. Many of the people are obliged to wear wet handker chiefs to protect them from the strong fumes." The two most recent ca tastrophes were also preceded by days of rumblings and roarings by long-inactive vol canoes that were giving ad vance warning to those in the vicinity. Finally, on January 21, 1951, Mt. Lamington on New Guinea exploded, wip ing out about 6,000 persons who did not heed the advice to get out of the way. The 44 Panorama situation was similar in March of 1963, when 1,500 persons perished in the erup tion of Gunung Agung on the island of Bali. It is evident that the vast majority of the estimated 190,000 victims of volcanic eruptions during the past 400 years need not have died had they heeded advance warnings. But even this needlessly large casualty list appears small when one con siders that every two years some 200,000 lives are snuffed out in traffic accidents throughout the world. A closer examination of volcanoes reveals that they serve a beneficial role that far outweighs any destruction and inconvenience they may cause. They have created tens of thousands of square miles of paradise-like land where tropical fruits and flowers of every kind flourish in abundance. The Canary Islands, the Azores, the West Indies and the Ha waiian Islands are only a few of the beautiful islands that were raised from the bottom of the sea by volcanic erup tions. Why, just seven years ago a new island ascended out of the Atlantic, and in time grew until it attached itself to one of the islands of the Azores. Another popped out of the sea near Iceland about a year ago. The average person pro bably does not realize the maj.'or role volcanic activity played in preparing the earth for human habitation. Con sider some of the most beau tiful towering mountains — Fujiyama, Kilimanjaro and 19,550-foot-high Cotopaxi in Ecuador, to name a few. Not only are volcanic mountain peaks such as these breathtakingly beautiful, but many have done much to moderate climates and to increase what would otherwise have been a scanty rainfall. Huge areas of the conti nents are covered with vol canic deposits. For example, 200 000 square miles of the northwestern United States was inundated by successive lava flows. During the past, volcanic activity produced tremendous mineral resources, including rich deposits of sulphur, lead and zinc, not to mention beautiful gems such as diamonds. The fa mous diamond mines of South Africa extend into ex tinct craters, where long ago in the superheated bowels of December 1966 45 the earth the sparkling gems were formed. In addition to the huge quantities of volcanic ash, pumice and lava expelled in an eruption, underground gases are believed to be emit ted in perhaps even larger amounts. The volume is stu pendous. The emission of steam from one of Mt. Etna’s minor vents during a twoweek period when lava did not even flow was calculated to equal 450 million gallons of water! In summarizing certain be nefits of volcanoes, an article in the Scientific American concluded: “It is not merely that volcanic eruptions have provided some of the world’s richest soils — and some of our most magnificent scene ry. , Throughout geologic time volcanoes and their at tendant hot springs and gas vents have been supplying the oceans with water and the atmosphere with carbon dioxide. But for these ema nations there would be no plant life on earth, and therefore no animal life. In very truth, but for them we would not be here!’’ Cer tainly there is good reason for us to become more fa miliar with these wonders of God’s creation! Today there are an esti mated 500 active volcanoes on earth, with thousands of others either dormant or ex tinct. The locations of scorers of undersea craters are also known, and undoubt edly there are hundreds more. The Stromboli vol cano in the Lipari Islands off the coast of Sicily is in a state of almost constant erup tion; others erupt at rather regular intervals, as do Vesu vius, Etna and the Hawaiian volcanoes Kilauea and Mau na Loa, while craters such as Krakatoa,, Bezymiany and Lamington may lie dormant for centuries and then blast out with tremendous vio lence. What exactly are vol canoes, and what accounts for their different behavior? A volcano is a vent or chimney through which mol ten material called “magma” rises some tens of miles to the earth’s surface, where it spills out and is called “la va.” Scientists have evidence that the source of this mol ten material, which differs essentially from molten rock iin that it is charged with varying amounts of ga ses, may be in the upper 46 Panorama mantle about sixty miles be neath the earth’s surface. Shifting of underground rock masses or pressure from en trapped gases evidently forces the magma upward, where it often seeps into deep re servoirs twenty to thirty miles beneath the volcanoes. Most of the explosive force of an eruption is supplied by pent-up gases within viscous magma. In violent explo sions the throat of the vol cano usually has been stop ped up for many years and, when enough pressure is built up, the whole top of the mountain is blown into the air. In such eruptions the magma is expelled as pumice or ash, much like gas-charged champagne froths out of an uncorked bottle. It was this type of explosion of longdormant 'Vesuvius that pul verized the magma and bu ried Pompeii under twenty feet of ash. No lava flowed at that time. On the other extreme, there are volcanoes such as Kilauea and Mauna Loa that emit magma as nearly 100percent lava, with seldom any ash or pumice being expelled. In these volcanoes the magma is quite fluid, allowing the gases to escape with ease. Such eruptions are compara tively mild, and the only dan ger is in the path of the flow ing lava. Most eruptions, however, are a combination of the two extremes, with ash and pumice being expel led first, followed by flows of lava. Today some volcanoes are under careful surveillance, and, according to volcano ex pert Haroun Tazieff, “scien tists can already forecast vol canic eruptions and will pro bably soon be able to predict their violence and hence the danger they present.” This, of course, appplies to only the handful of volcanoes that have well-equipped volcanological observatories. How ever, such investigations in dicate that with proper know ledge protection from vol canic disasters is possible. Not only that, but in time man may harness under ground energy to provide much of his power. Already in Italy, New Zealand, Ice land, the United States and Kamchatka the heat produced by underground magma, known as geothermal energy, is being turned to useful purposes. In fact, in 1952 about 6 percent of the total December 1966 47 electric energy output of Italy was produced from volcanic heat. Kamchatka also reports success in harnessing geo thermal energy. “In a few years’ time,” they boast, “Kamchatka will be the only place in the world with all electricity and hot water free for everybody.” While it is true that vol canoes are still a threat to the welfare of some humans, it is apparent that they are, at the same time, man’s friends. — From Awake!, Mar. 1965. ENVIRONMENT The same thing may be seen later in life. Take a man who has raised himself from the ranks of com mon labor, and just as he is brought into contact with men of culture and men of affairs, will he be come more intelligent and polished. Take two bro thers, the sons of poor parents, brought up in the same home and in the same way. One is put to a rude trade, and never gets beyond the necesity of making a living by hard daily labor; the other, com mencing as an errand tpy, gets a start in another direction, and becomes finally a successful lawyer, merchant, or politician. At forty or fifty the con trast between them will be striking, and the un reflecting will credit it to the greater natural ability vyhich has enabled the one to push himself ahead. But just as striking a difference in manners and intelligence will be manifested between two sisters, one of whom, married to a man who has remained poor, has her life fretted with petty cares and de void of opportunities, and the other of whom has married a man whose subsequent position brings her into cultured society and opens to her oppor tunities which refine taste and expand intelligence. And so deteriorations may be seen. That “evil communications corrupt good manners” is but an expression of the general law that human character is profoundly modified by its conditions and sur roundings. — From Progress and Poverty by Henry George, p. 491. 48 Panorama ■ Laws and administrative regulations adopted in the Philippines to control the programs and policies of private educational institutions tend to under mine individual liberty, democratic principles, and educational advancement attainable through diver sity. THE CASE FOR AUTONOMY FOR PRIVATE HIGHER EDUCATION There should be two systems of educational insti tutions in the Philippines if its Constitution, historical precedents, and democratic ideas were to be strictly respected. One is the system of government schools and the other that of private schools. But as will be explained later these are merely two groups of institutions, not two distinct systems for the difference between them is only in their formal organization and ownership, not in educational content and aca demic procedure and practice. This conclusion, how ever, admits of one exception in respect to institu tions of higher education. In this field those directly established and operated by the government are auto nomous and independent while those which are pri vately organized and administered are more or less regimented or bureaucratically controlled. This se cond group form the majority of the colleges and universities of the country and are, therefore, the principal sources of the leadership and the higher manpower of the nation. The great majority of primary or elementary schools are established and maintained by the gov ernment. On the other hand, most of the secondary schools and institutions of higher education are pri vately owned and operated, some of them by secta rian institutions and others by secular organizations. Among the latter, there are institutions organized as December 1966 49 stock or profit-distributing corporations and a very few established as non-stock and non-profit corpora tions. Both receive no aid or assistance in any form from the government or from private foundations, the latter seemingly preferring to extend their generous aid to government financed universities. Each one of these two groups, the public and the private schools,, has definite constitutional provisions for its basis. The public schools find their basis on that part of the Constitution which make it the duty of the Government to establish and maintain a com plete and adequate system of public education or at least free public primary instruction and citizenship training to adult citizens. From its inception the American government in the Philippines had zealously promoted public elementary education on a national scale. To make sure that the people continue en joying the blessings of at least primary education the Constitution for the Philippine Commonwealth and the Republic has thus imposed this obligation upon the government. For this reason practically one-third of the total annual budget of the national government is regularly devoted to the support of public elementary schools. The quantitative results appear impressive, the large majority of Filipino child ren being enrolled in the government elementary schools in increasing numbers every year. But qua litatively, the education or instruction they receive still leaves much room for improvement. The organization and maintenance of private edu cational institutions, on the other hand, find their basic support in various constitutional provisions. One of them may be found in the Bill of Rights which says: “The right to form associations or so cieties for purposes not contrary to law shall not be abridged.” Among such associations or societies are, of course, churches, civic and cultural clubs, and so Panorama schools or educational centers. Consequently, the right of a person, alone or in association with others, to establish and maintain a school is a constitutional right and may not be abridged. It naturally presup poses a teaching profession which obviously can exist only with the recognition of the right to teach. The right to teach naturally carries with it the right to establish a school. These rights are further protected by another provision of our Constitution which says: “No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, and property without due process of law.” (Art. Ill, Section 1, paragraph 1.) This provision is identified by judges, lawyers, and law scholars as the due process clause. The scope of its protection ex tends over procedural and substantive rights. Then there are the five basic pillars of our poli tical and social structure embodied in that part of our Constitution entitled Declaration of Principles, one of which expressly recognizes the natural right and duty of parents to educate their children for civic efficien cy. It says: “The natural right and duty of parents in the rearing of the youth for civic efficiency should receive the aid and support of the Government.” (Art. II, Section 4.) This is a principle directly adopted from American judicial pronouncements. The application of the constitutional provisions indicated in the foregoing statements has been ex plained in several authoritative decisions by the Su preme Court of the United States and state courts. In a very important case, for instance, entitled Pierce v. Society of Sisters of the Holy Name of Jesus and Mary (268 U. S. 510), a statute of the State of Ore gon required every parent, guardian, or other person having charge of children between eight and sixteen years of age to send them to the public schools. Its validity was contested by owners of private schools who claimed, among other things, that the statute de 51 prived parents of their right to choose the schools where their children could receive what they deemed necessary and appropriate training, the right of the child to influence the parents’ choice of a school, the right of schools and teachers to engage in a useful business or profession; and the concluding claim was that, unless its enforcement be enjoined, the business and property of the owners of the school would suf fer irreparable injury. The Court upheld this conten tion, saying that the enforcement of the law would deprive the school owners of their’ property without due process of law and would be an unlawful inter ference by the government with the *free choice of patrons, present and prospective, of the school they want. The decision stated that “the right to conduct schools was property, and that parents and guardians, as a part of their liberty, might direct the education by selecting reputable teachers and places.” According to the Supreme Court, the enforcement of the chal lenged statute that compels all children to study in the public schools alone, would unlawfully deprive private schools of patronage and thereby destroy the school owners’ business and property. In the words of the Court: “.The fundamental theory of liberty upon which all governments in this Union repose excludes any general power of the State to standardize its children by forcing them to accept instruction from public teachers only. The child is not the mere creature of the State; those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right coupled with the high duty, to recognize and prepare him for additional obligations.” It is precisely this principle declared in that de cision which has been incorporated in the Constitution of the Philippines as one of its fundamental princi ples which states: “The natural right and duty of 52 Panorama parents in the rearing of the youth for civic efficiency should receive the aid and support of the government.” In other words, the function of education is not a monopoly of the State. In a democracy the govern ment should provide the opportunity and means of acquiring it but not to the exclusion of private initia tive and free enterprise. To do so would be to standardize the children of the nation in at least two ways, namely: (1) by forcing all children to enroll in public schools only and (2) by controlling the aca demic policies and activities of private schools. It should be noted from the terms of the provi sion here quoted that the Constitution does not grant the right and duty referred to and involved in it; it rather expressly recognizes and acknowledges this at tribute, power, and responsibility as a natural right and duty of parents. As such, it is, therefore, an inherent and inalienable right and so it may not be disregarded, limited, curtailed, trampled upon by any act of the legislative department, much less by any administrative regulation of an executive official. An executive or administrative official, such as the Secretary of Education, who categorically pres cribes, directly or indirectly, under a statutory provi sion, what school children should study, how they should study, when they should study, and how the program of schools should be conducted obviously curtails this natural right of parents recognized by the Constitution; and the law authorizing the official to do so contravenes the Constitution. Ihe authority so vested merely usurps the parent’s natural right to decide the kind of education and the kind of school he wants for his child. Between such a law that controls the curriculum, study hours, policies, and practices of private schools and a law that compels all children to go exclusively to public schools, the distinction between a public and private school may December 1966 53 be virtually abolished and the democratic concept of individual initiative and diversity in ideas faces the danger of extinction. At any rate, the parent, in ef fect, loses his liberty and right of choice; and the child, hardly receiving the kind of education he and his parents prefer, becomes the creature of the state. The Philippine Government’s power to prescribe regulations over private schools falls under the spe cific provision of the Constitution which says: “All educational institutions, shall be under the supervision of and subject to regulation by the State.” This authority is an inherent attribute of government known as the police power. It is to be used as a brake on all lawful acts and occupations to check excesses and abuses harmful to others but not to take the initiative and to perform the functions which by their nature belong to the individual or the occupation he practices. Thus the acts of fixing a curriculum, determining class schedules, the class hours, the textbooks, and the like are by their nature and purpose parts of the occupation of teaching and of private school adminis tration. If in the guise of supervision and regulation, the government assumes these acts, as it has ac tually been doing, it in effect deprives parents, pri vate schools, and their teachers of their property and liberty in violation of the Constitution. One cannot be a teacher unless he has something to teach; and if he should teach only what another tells him, he ceases to be a teacher and becomes only an auto maton. The provision quoted above comes under Article XIV of the Constitution entitled General Provisions, immediately before the last article of the permanent parts of that document. As may be implied from its title, this Article covers a conglomeration of different subjects briefly mentioned in it, such as the national flag, the official and national languages, organization 54 Panorama and aims of schools, protection for labor, franchises for public service corporations, the national police force, and the language to control the interpretation of the Constitution. In other words, these are sup plementary rules intended for the guidance of the government in the exercise of certain peripheral func tions serving primarily as some sort of infrastructural support or activity of the political and social system. They are not designed as limitations of the substan tive provisions of the Constitution. For their proper application they have to depend on the context rele vant to their respective subjects provided in other parts of the Charter. Their meaning and validity are relative to be ascertained in terms of their at tachment to the context. Thus the State’s power of supervision and regulation of schools has to take into account the natural right of parents to decide, on the kind of education for their children, the liberty of the individual to pursue the education he desires, his right to follow the calling he prefers, his right to establish an educational association, and the like. It may not be validly used as means for the government to direct and control teaching and educational institutions. If used for this purpose, it simply disregards the con text,’ dep'arts from its legitimate connection, and be comes an instrument of arbitrary and dictatorial au thority. To summarize, a legislative act authorizing an official to issue rules and regulations which determine strictly the educational program and the educational policies of private educational institutions suppresses the liberty and impairs the property rights of these institutions. It also abridges a person’s right to form associations for educational purposes. And to top them all, it nullifies the natural right of parents to educate their children in the way they deem best for them and substitutes it with the judgment of December 1966 55 Congress or the decision of an administrative officer. It is no valid justification to say that the govern ment authorities are simply protecting the parents and children when they tell private schools what, how, where, and when to teach; for to assert this is merely to claim authoritarian power and to deny to parents their expressed constitutional right. That would be countenancing not only a patriarchal system but a dic tatorial regime, which is the essence of Russian and Chinese communism. Unfortunately the conditions affecting private edu cation in the Philippines under the present law and the rules and regulations issued by the Secretary of Education suffer greatly from these defects. The ac tual preference of government and political authorities for educational standardization has practically trans formed the present private schools in the Philippines into no better than a duplicate set of the public schools. What appears to be the difference between public and private schools js merely a matter of form than of substance. This is evident from an examina tion of the curricula of both schools. It is evident from a comparison of the requirements laid down by the government authorities regarding qualifications and degrees of teachers in public and private schools. It is evident from a comparison of the number of days of the school year, the length of class sessions, the vacation and the holidays for the public and private schools, as ordered by the Secretary of Education, and from the requirement that textbooks to be used in private and public schools must alike have the previous approval of the government textbook board. In most cases, the same textbooks are prescribed for both schools. Incidentally, this power on textbooks could make a laughing stock of the freedom of speech and press and the much-publicized freedom of thought and be 56 Panorama lief. Among writers and publishers it could mean that a newspaper and magazine would have to secure gov ernment approval before a teacher could assign cer tain articles in such publications for his students to read, report, and discuss in class. This is fiot only unconstitutional but also 'dense and ill-informed for the fact is, as enlightened or progressive scholars and educators today only know too well, that the most upto-date and informative instructional materials for stu dents in many disciplines are largely to be found in contemporary or current publications. The absur dity of -the rule is compounded by the order that text books should not be changed until after six years from their date of approval. A premium on obsolescence! The significant and serious consequence of this state of things is worth repeating with great empha sis: That this condition which obliterates the dis tinction between private and public schools plainly violates the concept of free and democratic enterprise and the basic principle enunciated by the court that. “the fundamental theory of liberty excludes any general power of the State to standardize its children by forcing them to accept instruction from the public teachers only.” It practically compels all children to attend public schools for in effect it reduces private schools into mere copies or reproductions of the public schools. It is a recognized principle of constitutional law, which needs no citation of authorities to support, that what may not be legally, done directly may not also be legally done indirectly. Regardless of the good motives behind the de cision of Congress and the authors, standardization and uniformity of the content, the methods, and the processes of education spell stagnation of ideas, deaden ing equalization of thought, and stifling of private ini tiative and creativity in educational work, all of which December 1966 57 resulting in the arrest of the enlightenment and pro gress of our society. But more than that, it is a plain violation of the constitutional right of a person to make a choice in the kind of instruction he desires. It is an affront against the constitutional recognition of the natural right of parents to rear the youth for civic efficiency. It has no place in a country that professes to adhere and maintain the practices and institutions of a constitutional democracy. These conclusions find support in other court de cisions. Thus in another major case, Meyer v. Nebraska (262 U. S. 390), the United States Supreme Court in validated an act of legislature of Nebraska which pro vided that the teaching of any subject may not be conducted in any language other than English in any school, public or private, within the State, and that no language other than English may be taught as a sub ject in any class below the eighth grade. The State defended this law as a means to promote civic development by prohibiting the training of the youth in foreign languages and ideals before they had learned English and acquired American ideals. The Supreme Court of the United States, however, refused to ajccept this excuse and declared the statute unconsti tutional and void, holding once again that the educa tion of the young is part of the natural right of pa rents to control their children and that the profession of teaching is a useful and an honorable profession essential to the public welfare. The Court solemnly declared: “That the State may do much, go very far, indeed, in order to improve the quality of its citizens, physically, mentally, and morally, is clear; but the individual has certain fundamental rights which must be respected. The protection of the Constitution extends to all, to those who speak Panorama other languages as well as to those bom with Eng lish on the tongue. Perhaps it would be highly advantageous if all had ready understanding of our ordinary speech, but this cannot be coerced by methods which conflict with the Constitution — a desirable end cannot be promoted by prohi bited means.” It is obvious that, within the scope of this deci sion, the government may not legally exercise its po wer of regulation to compel a private school to adopt its curriculum, to teach only certain subjects, and not to teach other subjects, and in general to control its academic policies and programs. The decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States deserve our respect as they refer to legal and constitutional principles and theories which we have adopted in our own Constitution, in our body of laws, and in our system of political institutions directly from the American system of law and government. They form the basic structure of our concept of free dom and democracy. (To be continued). December 1966 59 ■ How 400 banks in Switzerland k^ep the deposits of their clients and customers and how safely and secretly they can keep them is described in this article. BANKING IN SWITZERLAND We think that we think a lot about money, but we are really thinking about what we can use it for. The Swiss are not so much interested in possessions: they are in terested in the money itself. Children in Switzerland are taught to save money before they know what money is, and Swiss toyshops are full of little Matterhorns and bears and Mickey Mouses with slits in: piggy-banks for Swiss children to learn the lesson of thrift. The average Swiss saves four times as much as we do; and in pro portion to the population there is three times as much gold in Swiss banks as there is in Fort Knox. These were the sort of fi gures that I heard from the manager of a formidable bank, one of the five Big Banks as they are called. There are over 400 banks in Switzerland but these five do about half the business, and are among the most powerful banks in the world. Indeed in Switzerland they are for most purposes rather more powerful than the state itself. This manager explained why Swiss banks are so powerful. It is partly because Switzer land is not really a country at all in the sense that other western European countries are. It is a Federation of twenty-five cantons with three languages between them, and two main religions, and a thousand reasons, real and imagined, for distrusting one another. Distrustful also of neighboring countries, the Swiss have had to look for some function to play in Eu rope, and this history has found for them. For a long time nothing was easy for the Swiss. They had few advan tages. Only 7 percent of beautiful Switzerland can be farmed, and the country has no minerals at all. so for hun dreds of years the Swiss were forced to earn their living as soldiers, hiring themselves 60 Panorama out as mrcenaries to the high est bidder, and the Sweitzers (as they were called) were famous for hundreds of years for their courage and crafti ness. Then came the persecution of the Protestants in France, and later the French revolu tion, and these two events were the making of Switzer land. Switzerland was poor, France was rich, and the per secuted of France had to find somewhere to hide away their money. Thus were the Swiss banks created, and ever since the French revolution Swit zerland has profited from eve ry upheaval in Europe, and, more recently, elsewhere in the world, because of Swit zerland is secure. ‘In a topsy turvy world’, said my friend, the Zurich bank manager, ‘if Switzerland did not exist, someone would have to in vent us’. As a result, this country with nothing has the fourth highest standard of living in the world, and a lot of enemies. After taling to dozens of people in Zurich and Bern (the captial) and Geneva, I am convinced that most unkind feelings towards Switzerland are not justified. Money is what keeps Swit zerland alive, and what the Swiss have is a respect for money. This is as obvious as it sounds. As we sat there drinking (of all things at eleven in the morning) hot chocolate in the sombre of fice above the Bahnhofstrasse, my bank manager friend made a remark which would sound like a joke spoken by a British banker, but he did not smile at all. ‘‘The bank er, you see,” he said, ‘‘is like a lawyer, or a doctor or may be the priestly calling, and perhaps that is why we are misunderstood by many. Peo. pie speak of the secrecy of the Swiss Banks. We keep our secrets in Zurich, yes, but only as a prist keeps the secrets of the confessional.” He was describing quite honestly the motives behind the famous secrecy of Swiss banks. That secrecy is strong er even that he said, in fact. Not only should a Swiss banker not reveal anything about his clients, he is in fact forbidden to do so by a law of the Swiss government, and forbidden by that law to re veal anything even to the Swiss government. If the Swiss authorities want to find out how much money either December 1966 61 a Swiss or a foreigner has in his Swiss bank account, they have no chance; still less has a foreign government, how ever powerful. Swiss banks are audited by an overriding National Bank, but the Na tional Bank does not tell the government anything: if any thing is wrong, it is a private matter between the National Bank and the bank concern ed. Indeed there are a large number of private banks, as they are called — anyone can start a bank in Switzerland — that do not have to pub lish any accounts at all. I am sure you can see the advantages of all this, suppose you are a South American dictator on the make, or sim ply a firm star trying to get Out of paying so much tax in Britain pr America: and of course you have plenty of banks to choose from if you are thinking of a Swiss bank; there are more banks than dentists in Switzerland, and a Swiss bank will do every thing for you: not just keep your money, but act as your stockholder, and your tax ac countant and start up com panies for you, and insure you, and the rest. One difficulty is that you had better be a South Amer ican dictator or a film star, or they will not be very ex cited to hear from you. You have to be big stuff. If you are thinking of getting away from taxing austerities by settling in Switzerland and starting a little business, you will not get much encourage ment from the Swiss. Too many people have tried to do that already. Even the tax evasion side of things is be ginning to worry the Swiss, As my Zuricher bank manager said over the cooling choco late, “Of course we have to presume a large portion of our foreign customers are here for tax evasions,’’ and he shrugged his shoulders. When I asked him if he could help me evade my tax, he smiled sadly and said, ‘No, no, we do not deal with in substantial people,” and I made my way to Berne and Geneva a little wiser about the mysteries of Swiss bank ing. But I was still intrigued by a system that, little bene fit as it was to my sort of person, had undoubtedly fea thered some very comfortable nests. The secrecy of Swiss banks was no doubt admir62 Panorama able, and the banker as dis creet as a priest and all that, but surely there were specta cular opportunities here for every sort or skullduggery. The place to find out more about this would be one of the private banks, and Gene va is the place for these. They are in the old town that climbs above the lake on the left bank of the Rhone. My host was waiting for me in a small reception room, and we never went into his office at all. He had been prepared by a friend for my visit, or I should never have got into the house, let alone been allowed to ask questions about the shady side of Swiss banking. Yes, it was banks like his that handled the hot money that comes to Switzer land, he -said, though never actually his own bank. They had turned down Trujillo of the Dominican Republic some years ago; they would always turn down any rascal like that. But — other bank ers did take such money, and why should they not? He repeated the credo of the Swiss banker, a nice Latin phrase which says: ''Pecun ia non olet” — “Money has no smell.” “After all, you see,” he said, rather turning on his tracts I thought, “people like Batista of Cuba, Peron in the Argentine, King Faisal in Iraq, certainly when they were in power they sent money here, to use in case one day they were not in power; but when they send the mo ney they are the government of their country, the money belongs to them;” but I asked to hear more about the dicta tors. “Well,” my informant said, “Batista 'was a disap pointment to us. He took his money away and put it in the United States, in Miami. Ve ry foolish. The Americans didn’t want him to make trouble, so they froze his mo ney in the bank. In Switzer land, that would be impossi ble, impossible for the gov ernment to discover even if he had any money in our bank.” I asked next about commu nist money in Switzerland. He was sure there was some, used for paying their agents and also for investing in American industry. 'That way you make the other side work for you”, he said with a smile, but pointed out that there was not much of this going on. I asked if he December 1966 63 thought there was any Rus sian communist investment in American armaments firms making weapons to use in Vietnam and possibly China. “Don’t ask me,” he said. I asked about the thorny old question of German Jew ish money sent to Switzerland before the war, and after the war claimed by Israel. He said this was much exaggerat ed, the Israelis had got some of the money, but I must re member that a Swiss bank never, never disclosed the names of its clients, dead or alive or the amounts they had deposited; “and remem ber,” he said, “in Switzerland after twenty years money de posited in the bank and not claimed becomes the property of the bank, so that matter you speak of is now of course closed.” I remarked that this sounded pretty ruthless. “No, we are not ruthless,” he said and then looked around the elegant reception room. "We provide the service,” he said. “Look at this house. Every thing is for our clients. The service is personal. Wje do not use machines. Here you receive your bank statement written out with pen and ink. It coms to you in a plain en velope. We assist*you in eve ry way. Of course, we charge you money for our services, but we make money for you. We do business as pleasantly as we can, but we do business. Switzerland is not a country, it is a business.” — By Peter Duval Smith in Switzerland T oday. 64 Panorama Panorama Reading Association PANORAMA invites the educated public to join its Association of Readers. PANORAMA READING ASSOCIATION is dedicated to men and women who appreciate the variety and quality of its articles as sources of liberal ideas. PANORAMA READING ASSOCIATION includes stu dents, businessmen, professionals, proprietors, employers, and employees. It is also open to clubs, schools, and other ac credited organizations. PANORAMA has been in existence for over Thirty Years. PANORAMA provides excellent material for classes in history^ government, economics, political and social studies, lite rature, and science. It may be adopted for. secondary and college use. PANORAMA is not a fly-by-night publication. It was bom in March, 1936. COMMUNITY PUBLISHERS, INC. Inverness, (M. Carreon) St., St?. Ana, Manila, Philippines Contents Nature's Refreshing Payer .............................................. 1 The Case Against Educational Standardisation ,............ 2 Cursillo and Politics ............................................. ........ 8 Hold on — And Meditate . - ............ ............................ 11 Bonifacio — The Filipine Revolutionist .............................. 14 Argentine Returns to Autocracy ............................................ 17 Britain's Ballet ........................ 20 Don't be a Dropout! .............................................. 22 The Economics of Philippine Foreign Policy ...................... 25 The New British Universities ................................................. 29 (shotting ...................................................................... 32 Common Sense About Comics ................................................. 36 Leant Specking in Public ........................................................ 38 The Woman From Sarajevo ...................... 40 Volcanoes —* Friends or FUbffr............................................ 42 The Case for Autonomy for Private Higher Education . 49 Banking in Switzerland ............................................................. 60