Julius Aaron P.

Mejia 2012-08043 Spirituality and Social Action (A Reaction Paper)

February 4, 2014 HIST 2 T-2R

Probably most people of today pursue an academic experience not just to know how everything works and function but also to make money. Several grave calamities have been brought about to many parts of the country and I think it is the reason why the field of ecology or environmental science is of a trending practice. These sciences seek to know how nature functions and how human intervention affects it. Spirituality: what does it exactly mean? Most people would probably discuss on religion. The film Cross Currents by Nick Deocampo takes on a different view. It takes us to five areas around Asia which suffers or has suffered disasters and how the locals respond to these adversities. It first took us to the isolated islands of Batanes in the Philippines where the main problem is the geographical hazards inhibiting the locals to effectively exploit the available resources. It is in no doubt that shamanism is being practiced. A shaman performed liverreading using a boar and concluded that harvest would be bountiful. They prayed to the guardians to attract the elusive dorados and at the same time to keep the coast safe. The director personally told us that they performed an empirical method of graphing the catch rate and unbelievably, the result matched the forecast of the shaman. It somehow made them believe that there really are spirits in the area controlling everything. I dont know other ways to react to it but be somehow surprised. I cant figure out how he figured out what will happen by using a boar liver. Spirituality also runs in orang aslis inhabiting the Tasik Chini in Malaysia. The Tasik Chini is dying caused by pollution. It can be clearly seen that productivity is at its lowest. The problem is also caused by a dam construction that isolates the lake from river systems inhibiting its flow. I personally didnt understand how the practice of ethno-medicine connects to the healing of the area but I think that the idea of the practice means that spirituality runs in them

as well. Another area is forests of Biwako in Japan. The main problem is mono-cropping or the monotonicity of the areas biosphere due to the government implementation of removing the biodiversity and plant seeder trees for they believe it would promise them high profit then later discovered that it actually will not. The forest steward practices spirituality in such sense that the area must not be disturbed and they pay respect to the guardians of the forest. He takes action through establishing a cooperative movement to promote diversity in the forests of Japan. The last two areas, Kali Code in Indonesia and Khiriwong Valley in Thailand, are vulnerable to frequent flooding. And again, spirituality runs. Rituals are conducted and social action takes place. The rivers are cleaned in the case of the former and a mixed-fruit orchard is maintained for the latter. Something that I have observed is that after these people pay respect to their perceived gods, they immediately pursue social action. This is unlikely to most Filipinos, I believe. They just pray and wait for something to happen. In the end, it is up to them to make the first step to protect themselves. What ever happened to the regional traditions that we know of? The director pointed out that colonization may have caused its decrease in frequency in terms of practice. In the middle of discussion at the end of the film, a student stood up and raised her ideals. I was honestly moved by her idea of considering the traditional beliefs because it doesnt necessarily contradict science; in fact they are complementary, she says. I would like to quote her non verbatim, Maybe its time to look back to the time of our ancestors and wonder how were they able to preserve the environment we are enjoying today and maybe we can use it. Basically the film shows the prevalence of spirituality along Asian regions and how the academes we are so proud of do not necessarily teach ideas from the locals and merely soaks us with rationality. It is something I still have to think about, and maybe all people should.