Everyday our vision travels across time and space. We see images in the media about atrocities, disruptions, crises, famine, and wars. And in each case our sense of injustice is awakened. We feel outrage and indignation based upon our ideals and value systems which were formed through our traditions and religions. But in this age where the power of media and information is so powerful, what we see is often manufactured to appeal to our values. While these values circulate among (...) the images we see in cyberspace, these manipulations are rooted in certain realities: geography, natural resources, and power relationships. Our values are managed to serve the control of resources and territory. They serve the deeper reality of geography and geopolitics. How then are these ideals and values created, manipulated, and opposed across various pivots or boundaries, between East and West, between the individual and the collective? Through English geographer Sir Halford Mackinder’s concepts of “pivot” and “heartland”; German philosopher Carl Schmitt’s importance of “nomos”; and French writer Victor Segalen’s reflections on the loss of cultural diversity, we outline this priority of geography. By examining these writers, we can begin to ask if our ideals and values have any real moral or theological significance, or if they are merely effects of the competition between powers. Can ideals and values lead to real change and development, or are they merely leashes to guide us based on the aims of power? (shrink)

The article follows the theme of dealing with adversaries and conflict resolution. As an exercise in intercultural philosophy, the paper explores the philosophies of two different regions, the Amazon of South America (Jivaro and Yanesha/Amuesha people of Peru) and Western Province of Kenya, East Africa (with a focus on the Bukusu people). Exploring the insights of other researchers as well as drawing upon interviews by the author, the article explains each group’s philosophy of conflict resolution referencing myths, folktales, proverbs, and (...) interviews with sages. In the case of both communities, practitioners of peace must engage in bravery to reach out to others and address them with a message of peaceful relations. The Yanesha have a founding myth that emphasizes the role of a woman in establishing harmonious relations, whereas the Bukusu folktales emphasize men’s leadership. (shrink)

As Filipinos are in search for solutions to their nation's problems of corruption, poverty, inequality, and different forms of injustice, Kusaka's Moral Politics in the Philippines: Inequality, Democracy and the Urban Poor takes a step back from seeking remedies to these problems and reexamines how these issues are commonly articulated. The book investigates moral politics, a discursive framework, to come to terms with how citizens form their understanding of social problems through their notions of good and evil. Under moral politics' (...) frame, citizens view their nation's maladies as caused by morally wrong actions done by an individual (e.g. public leader) or a group of people (e.g. street vendors). By grasping how moral politics works, Kusaka's text shows how it prevents Filipinos from attaining significant social improvements. There are many notable themes in Kusaka's work, but this review highlights only two points: first, Kusaka's examination of how neoliberalism takes effect in the country, especially in view of the shaping of the subjects, and second, his examination of how moral politics contributes or deters the development of democracy in the Philippines by identifying how moral politics prevents Filipinos from grasping the real issues. By emphasizing both insights, Kusaka not only shows how moral politics is formed but also extends the argument by showing that this kind of politics has a profound effect on the community. (shrink)

This review essay of the book entitled "Learning by Refraction: A Practitioner's Guide to 21st Century Ignatian Pedagogy" by Fr. Johnny C. Go and Rita J. Atienza frames the book as a concrete response to the issue of relevance that educator Christopher Ryan Maboloc raises in teaching philosophy to 21st century Filipinos (see his opinion article entitled "The Burden of Philosophy" in the Philippine Daily Inquirer). By replacing a teacher-centered approach with a learner-centered approach, Go and Atienza enable and empower (...) today's students to relate to and engage with the VUCA world in keeping with the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm (IPP). The IPP prioritizes "the formation of students' attitudes, values, ideals according to which they would make decisions in a wide variety of situations about what actions were to be done." This is critical for today's students to "contribute intelligently and effectively to the welfare of society.". (shrink)