Losing urbanity

“Urbanidad,” or urbanity, is the term used to refer to not just “good manners and right conduct” but to overall respect for others and the maintenance of pleasant social interactions.

Most people, I know, think urbanity has mainly to do with smooth interpersonal interactions, especially toward older people. But an “urbane” person is not just polite or considerate of the feelings of others, but also aware of the need to respect others’ “space.”

As a young activist in the 1970s, I used to think of “urbanity” as a form of hypocrisy, even a value that perpetuated inequality and timidity. The more “honest” approach was to speak out bluntly and loudly, do away with euphemisms, and practice cussing at the top of one’s voice.

That still seems to be the primary value cherished by today’s activists. When professors and the student council of the University of the Philippines School of Economics decried the mob behavior that greeted Budget Secretary Butch Abad as he exited a symposium on the Disbursement Acceleration Program—to which he had been invited—the protest organizers and their supporters replied that this was all part of “democracy” and was a legitimate expression of protest.

But what did they want from Abad? Were they interested in a dialogue or were they simply hell-bent on exacting punishment, to frighten and alarm him and make him feel the “anger of the people”?

No matter your position on the DAP—an unmitigated evil or a legitimate if ill-conceived program—you do not invite someone to talk with you then assault him as he exits the premises.

No way to treat a guest.

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So it was with P-Noy and Fil-Am community leaders who decried the President’s failure to dialog with them (he earlier held dialogs in Europe and other parts of the United States) while on a visit to the West Coast.

But what did they expect? Just a day or two before, we all saw TV footage of P-Noy frozen, like a deer caught in the headlights, during a meeting in Boston when a Fil-Am student stood up and began haranguing him for his alleged intentions to extend his term. Do you think the President would still be gung-ho about Fil-Am community dialogues after that?

And speaking of urbanity, certainly reprehensible are two developments played out mainly in social media. One is the sale of a T-shirt (in the boys’ section!) that made light of rape by SM, a major retail network that, as a critic pointed out, holds a daily Angelus and does the censors better by banning films the management deems inappropriate.

Then there’s Bench, which is being excoriated for a portion of its annual flesh fest that showed a male actor leading around a female on a leash. I have many words for this, but since the clothing brand seems to deliberately court controversy, I’m keeping my thoughts to myself!

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When he was 17, Dr. Tun Lwin, former head of the weather bureau of Myanmar (Burma) and now an independent authority on climate change, joined the bureau because, he explains simply, “I needed to work.”

At first assigned to do menial chores, the young Tun Lwin soon impressed his superiors enough for them to decide to send him to college, and then to the Florida State University in the United States for his master’s degree. He earned his PhD in Myanmar.

“It was not an attractive occupation,” he explains when he is asked why they were few “takers” for jobs at the weather forecasting office. Even he was at first not enthusiastic, but he soon learned to love the work. Today, he is immersed in studies on climate change and planning for the proper responses. “You may love it or hate it,” he says of climate change, “but you cannot ignore it.”

Dr. Tun was in town a few days ago for the launch (and an international video conference) of the policy brief “Weathering Extremes: The need for a stronger Asean response” sponsored by A-Fab, a regional coalition of NGOs calling for a “fair, ambitious and binding” agreement on climate change.

The prospects for such an agreement seem promising, especially since member-countries are on the verge of establishing the Asean Economic Community. Among Dr. Tun’s recommendations is that the community members adopt a policy supporting “renewable energy and policy reforms to de-subsidize coal and oil.”

The countries of Southeast Asia, he says, are especially vulnerable to the deleterious effects of climate change, especially with temperatures rising in the surrounding seas, a development that would have tremendous impact on the region’s food security as well as sea levels and weather disturbances.

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It is vital, says Dr. Tun, for Asean member-countries to “speak as one voice” on the issue, since they are responsible for a very small portion of the production of greenhouse gases that factor in climate change but bear the brunt of the damage and suffering.

He says Asean should take a united stand on plans by China, which is a source of a major proportion of greenhouse gas emissions, to export its pollution production. “China is cutting down on its air pollution levels by establishing coal and gas factories in neighboring countries, including Myanmar,” he says with alarm.

One recommendation he makes in “Weathering Extremes” is for Asean to “move as a regional bloc towards developing a framework and plan of action on adaptation in agriculture, emphasizing sustainability, food security, climate resilience, and gendered perspectives.”

But first, the different departments and branches of government must begin talking and cooperating among themselves, hammering out a united national policy, the better to start and complete regional dialogues and adopt cross-border policies and actions not just within Asean but with the rest of the world as well.