In this session, we talked about the two types of social theory. I was fairly, okay I was really, familiar wth the theories as I took SA 101 just last semester and the course was all about social theories and I learned about Marx and Durkheim. These theories by Carroll try to explain why there is inequality in our society. In one hand, there is the consensus perspective where it says that inequality is a function of society and that it must persist because it is for the betterment of society. Here, it talks about the importance of our values and how the exercise of power is just in order to promote those values. I think that Carroll didn't study Durkheim very well because there are dysfunctions in society. Sometimes, something bad persists in order to push good things to happen. Inequality, for me, is a bad thing that pushes people to fight for justice. But when justice is finally achieved, then the dysfunction disappears. It talks about how society works in order to fix the discrepancy. If things are not meant to be there, then society tries to fix it.
When you think about it, inequality has been here for a very long time and it doesn't seem to be getting fixed. This leads me to rethink whether society really is trying to fix this dysfunction, or is it trying to perpetuate it. If If I think in favor of the latter, I would be thinking about the coersion theory. Marx and Weber talk about the cnflict theory and how everybody is driven by their personal interests and it usually comes at the expense of others. Society persists because there is conflict that is keeping it afloat. Carroll talks about how society is just a structure of power relationships and that people in power want to stay in power, and use the values to legitimize their power. Sounds very Marxist right? And I think in our society, this is more likely the case. People become more sneaky with their use of power by disguising it as a fight for justice.
Then Carroll proposes that in order for change to occur in the consensus theory, it needs to be incremental change. On the otehr hand, the coersion theory says that change must be radical. In the context of the Philippines, society has been sick for very long and we need to have radical change and the intersection must be to use the values as a way to motivate people to change and change fast. If you've noticed. society is still pretty sick and it becomes harder I think because the thought of having radical changes while still prioritizing the values we uphold don't really mix. They are from two opposite perspectives and they clash. This makes it hard for people to work together but then there are still some people who do it and I think this is where the negative experience of contrast by Schilenbeeckx comes in. He talks about the reflex reaction that people have when a situation should not be. That I think is the intersection. We are moved to action immediately when we experience something that should not be and this is based on the biases that we have. These biases come from the value system where we were brought up I think.
Going back to a time when I felt this, we were all talking about the RH Bill being passed right after they made ammendments. I read it and saw that the ammendments they made just made the law useless. It created so many loopholes in the law that it was practically saying there is no incentive for people to provide reproductive health services and you wont get penalized if you don't give it so why bother. It lost its teeth and what I thought could be revolutionary in the health sectors just became another useless piece of paper. I couldn't contain myself and I had to be heard. I had t let people know of the repercussions of this law being passed and so I blogged about it. You can see it here: http://lafilleaveclepain.blogspot.com/2014/04/washing-hands-on-rh-bill.html
Sunday, April 27, 2014
Preferential Option for the Poor (04242014)
For this, I was most interested in the point raised by Lib at the start of the class.
"People who need mercy are usually outside and when we exercise mercy, we bring them close to the center. Hence, mercy being the inclusion of the marginalized becomes an exercise of love."
The way I see it, the poor are the marginalized among us the most. Well, this is sort of one of the things I learned during DS this summer....so maybe I have to thank Amartya Sen for that idea. In our class, we talked about social exclusion and the speaker started with "everybody is in some way being excluded." In that framework, we were defining poverty as being socially excluded and that there are varying degrees of exclusions. People who get excluded the most become the most poor. I knew that was true because the world is a crucified world and everybody has their own cross. People don't really think about everybody else as having a cross. It is like there is an arbitrary line that we draw when we first meet people. They are either the excluded or the excluder, and we are always part of the excluded. And we think this arbitrary line is vey vertical in the sense that there are always people on top and then there's us at the bottom. If we're using that analogy, the poorest then, must be at the very bottom and they must be carrying a heavier cross than us.
I think this is where the preferential option for the poor comes in. It becomes an exercise of mercy towards those at the very bottom. Lib talked about how we should separate the words because they have different meanings. He said that preferential means to give priority to something. Option entails a choice and here, he talked about the different things that we can choose to do. The first one is to listen. We must choose to listen to people because more often than not, they already know what they need. The next one is to look. I didn't understand this at first but the way I got it was that people can sometimes not articulate what they want. Maybe it is because they already feel so defeated, or maybe they feel too humiliated to ask for things. That makes it important to look beyond what people are saying, or not saying. Sometimes there are things that need not be said, and you just have to look hard enough to see it. And lastly, we choose to share. Lib said that we can share anything but I think the important part about it is that when we share what we have, we will all have enough. Then lastly, he talked about the poor and how they should be the focus of this. To paint the whole picture, he says that we should choose to listen to, to look at, and to share with everybody but the poor must be given priority becaus ethey are the ones who need it the most.
Then I came to thinking, when have I ever given the preferential option for the poor? When have I ever tried to look at people and share what I have based on what they don't say? I mean, I even categorize the beggars in the streets. (Not kidding, I did a whole research paper on it for Sociology) I categorized them as "really deserve the help" and "abusing the help" in so little words. What does that say about me? Does that mean I am a bad person because I choose who to help? Maybe I am just prioritizing those that I feel couldn't do it on their own at all. In a way, in my trying to give help to the people who need it more, I ended up excluding others from my help. So now I realize that was a pretty shitty thing to do. Maybe those forward beggars were just using that as a way to hide that they are vulnerable and I just judged them right then and there. But then, that leads me to think of whether my help is really helping. Again, this goes back to the idea of what true generosity means. It is not the giving of what is excess but of what I have. If we share, there will be enough. Somebody has given me what I need and beyond that, it is all want.
I realize I must be an advocate of the preferential option for all of the poor. Some do not deserve help more than the others. And I think that is a fault that I must address as I move forward in this experience. For me to truly exercise love through mercy, I must listen with more than my ears. I must see with more than my eyes. And I must share more than what I feel like giving. I know that it is hard to do but it becomes easier when everybody does it and I think that is the message that the readings are trying to get across. We can't change the world by ourselves, so let's work together.
"People who need mercy are usually outside and when we exercise mercy, we bring them close to the center. Hence, mercy being the inclusion of the marginalized becomes an exercise of love."
The way I see it, the poor are the marginalized among us the most. Well, this is sort of one of the things I learned during DS this summer....so maybe I have to thank Amartya Sen for that idea. In our class, we talked about social exclusion and the speaker started with "everybody is in some way being excluded." In that framework, we were defining poverty as being socially excluded and that there are varying degrees of exclusions. People who get excluded the most become the most poor. I knew that was true because the world is a crucified world and everybody has their own cross. People don't really think about everybody else as having a cross. It is like there is an arbitrary line that we draw when we first meet people. They are either the excluded or the excluder, and we are always part of the excluded. And we think this arbitrary line is vey vertical in the sense that there are always people on top and then there's us at the bottom. If we're using that analogy, the poorest then, must be at the very bottom and they must be carrying a heavier cross than us.
I think this is where the preferential option for the poor comes in. It becomes an exercise of mercy towards those at the very bottom. Lib talked about how we should separate the words because they have different meanings. He said that preferential means to give priority to something. Option entails a choice and here, he talked about the different things that we can choose to do. The first one is to listen. We must choose to listen to people because more often than not, they already know what they need. The next one is to look. I didn't understand this at first but the way I got it was that people can sometimes not articulate what they want. Maybe it is because they already feel so defeated, or maybe they feel too humiliated to ask for things. That makes it important to look beyond what people are saying, or not saying. Sometimes there are things that need not be said, and you just have to look hard enough to see it. And lastly, we choose to share. Lib said that we can share anything but I think the important part about it is that when we share what we have, we will all have enough. Then lastly, he talked about the poor and how they should be the focus of this. To paint the whole picture, he says that we should choose to listen to, to look at, and to share with everybody but the poor must be given priority becaus ethey are the ones who need it the most.
Then I came to thinking, when have I ever given the preferential option for the poor? When have I ever tried to look at people and share what I have based on what they don't say? I mean, I even categorize the beggars in the streets. (Not kidding, I did a whole research paper on it for Sociology) I categorized them as "really deserve the help" and "abusing the help" in so little words. What does that say about me? Does that mean I am a bad person because I choose who to help? Maybe I am just prioritizing those that I feel couldn't do it on their own at all. In a way, in my trying to give help to the people who need it more, I ended up excluding others from my help. So now I realize that was a pretty shitty thing to do. Maybe those forward beggars were just using that as a way to hide that they are vulnerable and I just judged them right then and there. But then, that leads me to think of whether my help is really helping. Again, this goes back to the idea of what true generosity means. It is not the giving of what is excess but of what I have. If we share, there will be enough. Somebody has given me what I need and beyond that, it is all want.
I realize I must be an advocate of the preferential option for all of the poor. Some do not deserve help more than the others. And I think that is a fault that I must address as I move forward in this experience. For me to truly exercise love through mercy, I must listen with more than my ears. I must see with more than my eyes. And I must share more than what I feel like giving. I know that it is hard to do but it becomes easier when everybody does it and I think that is the message that the readings are trying to get across. We can't change the world by ourselves, so let's work together.
Awakening from the Sleep of Inhumanity (04162014)
So my partner and I chose the Awakening from the Sleep of Inhumanity by Jon Sabrino for our critical reflection article and I chose to reflect on it by myself through the journal before we integrate our thoughts. Maybe I'm just a little apprehensive because we need to look for a shared experience and my thoughts aren't exactly in the same wavelength as hers. I was thinking more about the slumbers that Sobrino mentions in his article and what exactly triggered my awakening, if I was ever awakened really. I'm wondering if I was ever asleep from dogmatic slumber because I don't really identify with what Sobrino was describing. My family isn't really a very consistent practitioner of the faith. We don't go to mass regularly - sometimes it's intentional, but most of the time, we just forget or get caught up in how busy everybody is. I wasn't really brought up by the book per se. I did go to a Catholic school but it didn't really have much impact on me. There are also a multitute of religious denominations within our family. My maternal grandparents are part of Ang Dating Daan, while my paternal grandmother is a Born Again. I've went with them to their sessions before and they paint different pictures of God and what we should do in order to have salvation. It was safe to say that I didn't take much to the heart. I did enjoy listening, don't get me wrong, but somehow I always knew that I'm a spiritual person but not a religious one. I always knew God presents Himself in many different names but he is still God. He still loves me. I guess I was just very aware of the reality of poverty, and how we can't save everybody....or maybe I was just a bit of a Negative Nancy when I was growing up.
Then I went to thinking about where I awakened from the sleep of inhumanity. Admittedly, it was a while since I entered college. For the most part, I have been going through the motions while in school. The things we learn don't really entail me to reflect on life. I don't suddenly go "hmm what is the relevance of polymerases in self-actualization?" It wasn't until I had to study Philosophy for a year that I got forced to actually think about my life and what I was doing with it. Add that to the emotional talks Doc Sio always gives (which is like all the time) so that really makes me question how compassionate I really am and how much I really know about the "real world." Apparently, I have very limited information about myself and about the realities of society...
Then I had Project LAAN. At first, I just joined because I found it interesting. I finally went to the community. That was my first real project in the organization. I went to enroll families in Galvaville, Laguna. We got to chat and talk about life. I found out they were Ondoy victims who were relocated there by the Canossa sisters. They were only working as kangkong farmers and that doesn't earn them much. Their children can only go to school because the Canossian sisters give them scholarships. They don't have to pay for electricity or water because they payed the sisters in labor. You'd think they had a fairly comfortable life right? But no, they had no money, and couldn't pay for their health care. The first year we enrolled them, they didn't even get to use their cards. That's how inefficient the government is. We wasted so much money to enroll families and they didn't give a shit. The second year we tried to make ammends and enroll them again. Until now, they still don;t have cards and can't use their health insurance. So as the months pass by, the more I feel like the money is being wasted. It really annoys me that the governmen would just let that be. Seriously, even if you say the money could go to another person's medical care, that doesn't legitimize the fact that the people we sponsored specifically would not even get the chance at the medical care that we intented for them. I guess, looking back, I realized that that was my awakening to the world of selfishness and injustice. I can see the persecuted people. I have talked with them. I know their names and heard their stories.
It just makes me feel all the more that they are asking me to fight for them because they cannot fight for themselves anymore. I think, by asserting the offices in charge of the membership cards, I have started fighting for them. I am making known their situation. Although it is not enough, because the young are always underestimated, at least I am doing something. I realize that somehow I have something to do with it because we were the ones who approached them in the first place and I am letting them down, giving them false hpe to some extent. I guess, aside from the yearning to act in the face of injustice, I also feel guilty and that makes me want to compensate for my mistake by trying to correct it. I'm just hoping that I am not alone in this fight.
Then I went to thinking about where I awakened from the sleep of inhumanity. Admittedly, it was a while since I entered college. For the most part, I have been going through the motions while in school. The things we learn don't really entail me to reflect on life. I don't suddenly go "hmm what is the relevance of polymerases in self-actualization?" It wasn't until I had to study Philosophy for a year that I got forced to actually think about my life and what I was doing with it. Add that to the emotional talks Doc Sio always gives (which is like all the time) so that really makes me question how compassionate I really am and how much I really know about the "real world." Apparently, I have very limited information about myself and about the realities of society...
Then I had Project LAAN. At first, I just joined because I found it interesting. I finally went to the community. That was my first real project in the organization. I went to enroll families in Galvaville, Laguna. We got to chat and talk about life. I found out they were Ondoy victims who were relocated there by the Canossa sisters. They were only working as kangkong farmers and that doesn't earn them much. Their children can only go to school because the Canossian sisters give them scholarships. They don't have to pay for electricity or water because they payed the sisters in labor. You'd think they had a fairly comfortable life right? But no, they had no money, and couldn't pay for their health care. The first year we enrolled them, they didn't even get to use their cards. That's how inefficient the government is. We wasted so much money to enroll families and they didn't give a shit. The second year we tried to make ammends and enroll them again. Until now, they still don;t have cards and can't use their health insurance. So as the months pass by, the more I feel like the money is being wasted. It really annoys me that the governmen would just let that be. Seriously, even if you say the money could go to another person's medical care, that doesn't legitimize the fact that the people we sponsored specifically would not even get the chance at the medical care that we intented for them. I guess, looking back, I realized that that was my awakening to the world of selfishness and injustice. I can see the persecuted people. I have talked with them. I know their names and heard their stories.
It just makes me feel all the more that they are asking me to fight for them because they cannot fight for themselves anymore. I think, by asserting the offices in charge of the membership cards, I have started fighting for them. I am making known their situation. Although it is not enough, because the young are always underestimated, at least I am doing something. I realize that somehow I have something to do with it because we were the ones who approached them in the first place and I am letting them down, giving them false hpe to some extent. I guess, aside from the yearning to act in the face of injustice, I also feel guilty and that makes me want to compensate for my mistake by trying to correct it. I'm just hoping that I am not alone in this fight.
Enchante
This blog would be the site where I would upload all thoughts and questions regarding theology over the course of my Theology 141 subject this summer semester. I won't be publicizing this for the sake of privacy but it is open to see.
Guidelines:
1. Something you found interesting or a question raised in the class discussion
2. Why did you fin dthat interesting?
3. How is it relevant to you and your life?
4. Are there experiences which relate?
Guidelines:
1. Something you found interesting or a question raised in the class discussion
2. Why did you fin dthat interesting?
3. How is it relevant to you and your life?
4. Are there experiences which relate?
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