Filling the gap

I was in T’boli, South Cotabato when news of the death of Steve Jobs first filtered through. It was difficult to feel the impact of the passing of this billionaire visionary in a barangay called Aflek, where a bus painted in bright colors and retrofitted like a clinic causes such a sensation that schoolchildren line the narrow roadways, waving paper pennants, to welcome it.

Indeed, in a place where the impact of information technology, not to mention modernity, is hardly felt, it was difficult to appreciate Jobs’ death. It was hard to feel “iSad.”

It was only back in General Santos City, in the comfort of an air-conditioned hotel room, watching global TV news shows, communing with an iPad, that one began to sense the impact of the world’s loss, and of how much he had indeed changed our world.

For sure it is a world that needs to be wired into the Internet, to be techno-savvy, to have available phone lines or bandwidth, afford pricey PCs, laptops, netbooks or tablets, or at least enjoy electricity. So it was that in mourning the passing of one man who symbolized the computer revolution – and indeed helped initiate it – one also came to realize how wide the gulf has become between our many worlds co-existing on this planet and even in this country.

About 30 million Filipinos, it has been estimated, are sufficiently wired to own Facebook accounts, post messages on Twitter, hold regular “face-to-face” interaction via Skype, or at the very least play games and send/receive e-mail and use computers for a wide variety of functions. What about the remaining 60 million? Discounting those too young or too old for computers, they are probably like the folks living in barangay Aflek and others similarly situated. When electric supply is spotty, and even clean water can be a problem, access to computers and to the Internet can be and is a luxury.

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Speaking during the “Lakbay Buhay Kalusugan” health caravan stopover in Barangay Aflek, Gov. Arthur Pingoy spoke proudly about the distribution of more than 20,000 PhilHealth cards to the residents of T’boli town. The cards, he said, symbolized his own administration’s priority given to health and education concerns. Pingoy, after all, is a medical doctor and headed the House committee on health when he was congressman. (Former Gov. Daisy Avance Fuentes is now the province’s representative.)

When her turn came to speak, barangay chairwoman Elsa Kayawan, a T’boli herself, brought up the problems her constituents face in availing themselves of the PhilHealth cards. “How can they get their hands on those cards when they do not have marriage certificates and even birth certificates?” she asked. Regulations say that before a couple can avail of a PhilHealth card, they must present a marriage certificate, noted Kayawan. Their children must have birth certificates before they can avail of PhilHealth benefits. “But they are so poor they cannot even afford to go to the town proper to register,” she added.

Thus she urged Mayor Ernesto Manuel and Governor Pingoy to “get to the roots of the problem” and address more basic concerns, such as the tribal folks’ poverty, before seeking to address related problems like health, education and employment.

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So while we count the many ways Jobs affected our life,  the many gadgets he helped develop and launch that have expanded our world, let’s not forget, too, that for many Filipinos, access to the world that existed before the computer revolution is even now still a remote dream.

I recall children so “wired” that even as toddlers they already know to slide the arrow in an iPad to access games, and the children of Barangay Aflek, peering bright-eyed by the doors of the clinic-bus, astounded at the air-conditioning.

Or what about the story shared by some of the staff of the Probe Team Foundation, which organizes the “Lakbay Buhay Kalusugan (Trip for Healthy Living),” that while in Tarlac among members of the Aeta community, the residents marveled at the portable faucet meant to teach children how to wash their hands properly. “Ang sarap pala mag-hugas ng kamay (How nice it is to wash your hands)!” the adults exclaimed, for apparently hand-washing is not a custom among the tribe members.

How do we bridge this gap? Is there a need to? Would bringing the benefits of the Internet to communities like Aflek necessarily mean bringing their lives up to speed? Or would it not instead emphasize all the more the yawning distances between the classes?

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Months before, I remarked to my husband that Steve Jobs and I were of the same age. “Imagine how much he has done, and how wealthy he has become!” I said, thinking how puny my own achievements, if they could be called that, were in comparison.

But then, I reflected, “he has cancer…” And so the truth dawned on me: that one can be all-powerful, immensely wealthy, internationally recognized and loved, and yet none of that, not your genius, your wealth or the respect you have earned, can prevent one’s death.

Jobs himself told his Stanford audience that “death is the greatest invention of man,” since it forces you to focus laser-like on accomplishing the work you love and the goals you set for yourself.

For sure, Steve Jobs will not be forgotten anytime soon. And each time someone turns on a computer (it doesn’t even have to be an Apple), touches the screen of an iPhone, or plugs the ear buds of an iPod into one’s ears – they will be remembering Jobs, or paying tribute to his life and dedication the only way he wished – by plugging into the marvelous web of connectivity and knowledge that he helped create.