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Chapter 5
Chapter 5 Leading Minds: Managing Myths, Memories, and Meanings
When the leader arrives, people are full of panic, uncertain what to do and defeatist about the future. When the authentic leader has spoken, they have been given back their courage. --William Rees-Mogg
From beginning to end, the rituals of our lives shape each hour, day, and year. Everyone leads a ritualized life. Rituals are repeated patterns of meaningful acts. If you are mindful of your actions, you will see the ritual patterns. If you see the patterns, you may understand them. If you understand them, you may enrich them. In this way, the habits of a lifetime become sacred. -- Robert Fulghum
In the play Miss Saigon, Leah Salonga in her character Kim, sings a song entitled “Movie in My Mind”. Through this song, Kim imagines and describes the life she hopes to live out. At the start, she sings out as an innocent village lass singing about the love she hopes to have. It starts out as a hopeful, innocent song. As the plot of the play moves forward, the “movie” unfolds in Kim’s mind and in Kim’s reality. Kim falls in love with an American soldier, marries him, gets separated from him by the war, and then bears his child whom she has to raise alone. Kim’s reality takes a tragic turn, but in the song, and in the movie in Kim’s mind, even sadness has meaning. Kim continues to sing Movie in My Mind plaintively into the darkness, as if trying to conquer tragedy with hope, imagination, and song.
The movies in our mind create our inner tensions and conflicts, our secret triumphs and tears, our personal values and dreams. If our actions are not enough, we go further by influencing the other actors in the movie, the script, the setting, and the relationships so that the movie unfolds the story as our hearts desire. In interacting with others, we too, become part of their our movies. Our movies become intertwined. People also share their dreams with others. And when they do, these movies break free from private seclusion of the minds and bear themselves out publicly. These become public movies – the stories, experiences, motivations, and meanings that guide a people.
Collective Consciousness: I Need We to be Fully I
The Zulus of Africa have a word for it—ubuntu (short for unmunta ngumuntu, nagabuntu)1 which means “I need we to be fully I.” The natives of Sagada, Mountain Province, manifest collective consciousness in a different way. Every ten years, they celebrate the Dangtey, a community ritual of prayer, gratitude, and offering done to ensure a bountiful harvest. The revolts in EDSA are a long-playing 3-part public movie—the first was a collective dream to oust a dictator, the second to impeach an erring president, and the third to try to redeem the impeached. In each of the three parts, Filipinos marched to the streets acting out the movies in their individual minds, as they pushed forward the public movie. As actors in this collective movie, they co-authored Philippine history.
Collective Consciousness and Channels of Governance
Governance is a key element in these "public movies". Among the social sciences, “public movies” fall within the realms of organizational psychology, behavioral psychology, social anthropology, cultural anthropology, community organizing, institutional economics, political science, and political sociology – the realms of the individual and collective consciousness. As discussed in the previous chapter, the public script is often written by the leaders in government. Citizens, knowingly or unknowingly, become spectators or actors in the movie. The interesting thing about the cases in governance studied here is that the movies are seldom simple stories to be interpreted literally. Instead, they are complex movies, rich with metaphors and symbolisms, paradoxes and dilemmas. They are stories with multiple meanings, filled with characters selflessly pursuing their noble longings.
Governance, in these cases can be thought of as occurring in the minds of the governors and the governed, in multiple channels. As on TV, the multiple channels are there for people to tune in to. Not all the viewers tune in to all the channels though. Some channels are more popular and some channels are seldom tuned into or understood. Waiting sheds, basketball courts, and free clinics can be viewed in the governance Channel 1. This is the most popular channel and seemingly most mayors and citizens are tuned into this channel. In this channel, the LGU interacts with citizens who are treated as passive clients, beneficiaries, or constituents. The LGU manages resources and outputs in order to deliver goods and services to the citizens. Performance is measured in kilometers of roads constructed, doctor-patient ratios, number of trees planted, and per capita incomes.
The logic in Channel 1 is that if the mayor installs a lot of highly tangible, high visibility projects, the citizens will remember him and vote for him come election time. Channel 2 focuses on the citizens as partners and co-creators of the municipality. Marikina’s Disiplina Sa Banketa, with it’s new ordinances, self-policing mechanisms, and painted sidewalks focus on getting citizen’s to give up the culture of chaotic sidewalks in exchange for order. Surigao’s Federated Women’s Club and its strong participation in LGU affairs through the implementation of self-help projects can also be viewed through this channel. Themes in this channel include consensus-building, multi-sectoral participation, political empowerment, policy-making, and establishing order in society. Fewer viewers watch this channel but this channel seems to be popular among NGOs, sociologists, and political scientists. Growth and maturation of the individual, community, and organization are key themes in Channel 3.
The quest for self-fulfillment (or self-actualization as described by Maslow) is a central theme in this channel. There is a recognition that each citizen is a traveler, going about each day trying to make meaning in his or her life. Each citizen yearns for fullness of life, and this fullness of life is not measured through per capita income; but by challenges faced, lessons learned, and meanings made. This is often thought of as the realm of development psychologists and psychoanalysts. When projects last for years, or when they take on multiple dimensions, or when the programs take on a life of their own (as described in Quadrant 4 in the previous chapter), then it is possible that the individuals behind these programs find and are motivated by deeper meanings they see in participating in the programs.
The Federated Women’s Club of Surigao, with its beginnings way back in 1976, and with it’s current membership of 7,200 members and multiple projects, is likely to have a few hundred to a few thousand members who are so deeply involved in it’s programs that it has become a way of life for them. Poetry and song, as shown in below written by a Barangay Health Worker of Bustos, can also be thought of as an indicator that the writer is deeply moved by their involvement in the LGU programs. Then there are tears which can also be thought of as an indicator of deep emotional involvement. Aling Deling of the Alay Paglingap Program of the Provincial Government of Bulacan, wept as she recalled how she used to wear her duster all day and comb her hair only once in the morning when she was but a socially isolated housewife in her barrio.
When she became a Barangay health Worker (BHW), she was liberated from her social isolation and took on more responsibilities in the community, eventually getting elected as barangay kagawad. One particularly touching episode came during a cataract surgery project at the provincial capitol. She referred a neighbor who had been blind due to cataract for years. With Aling Deling's assistance, her neighbor went thought the free surgery and came home with her sight restored. With teary eyes, Aling deling shared how that neighbor would embrace her out of gratitude whenever they would meet in the streets.
Spiritual growth and well-being of the individuals and community are central in Channel 4. This is usually the realm of priests, pastors, and babailans. El Shaddai, Couples for Christ, and other spiritual programs operate and communicate in this channel. The forest-cemetery program of San Carlos clearly operates at this level (among other levels), creating a forest sanctuary so that the citizens can commune with nature as they remember their dead. The BHW song of Bustos mentions Bathala, showing that somehow, a higher being is woven into their consciousness as BHWs and as individuals. Besides poetry, song, and tears that are indicators in Channel 3, other indicators include rituals, symbols, and prayers. Filipinos being a religious people, it is possible that Channel 4 has more viewers than Channel 3.
Socio-Emotional Health and the Inner Lives of Citizens
Why manage meanings? In developmental psychology, the concept of socio-emotional health pertains to the sense of inner wellness that individuals experience. The cases showed over and over again that LGU programs, when properly conducted by reasponsible and committed leadership, can enrich the lives of its citizens not just economically but also socially, emotionally, and spiritually through the different channels of governance. When funds are scarce and capacities limited, then this is an excellent way of improving the qualities of the inner lives of the citizens. As Professor Noel Tichy of the University of Michigan puts it: “it is a leader’s task to bring people on a journey into an uncertain and chaotic future—everyday. The best way to get people to venture into unknown terrain is to make it desirable by taking them there in their imagination.”
Hanapbuhay and Multi-Channel Leadership
The LCE or the public health leader can address social, emotional, and spiritual want by creating venues for growth. They merely have to participate in the weaving of dreams, provoke discernment and reflection, and engage the citizenry in the acting out of their individual and shared movies. This way, a training of BHWs is not just a transfer of knowledge and skills in health. The training is also a way of bringing the women out of their social isolation, getting them to take on new roles in the community, allowing them to meet new friends and ideas. It enriches their lives by providing them with new challenges, allowing them to relate with neighbors as care-givers. In the story of their lives, their role as BHWs phase could be the venue for them to achieve growth and self-fulfillment. LCE’s have only three years per term within which they are supposed to touch their lives of their constituents (enough to get elected in the following elections). During that period, few programs can radically improve the incomes of the citizens. Most will not, at least in three years. Through multi-channel leadership, the LGUs programs can touch the lives of the citizens in other ways though. After all, Filipinos refer to making a living as hanapbuhay, not hanappera. Multi-channel governance helps the citizens find that fullness of lives. Instruments for Managing Meanings
How can leaders evoke common meanings? Or how can leaders manage an existing meaning so that it becomes a rallying point for action? A review of the cases as well as other cases from history yield the following mechanisms. They range from the evocative to the prescriptive.
Evoking Memories and Emotions. Leaders can refer to memories of common pasts--e.g. Katipunan, Jose Rizal, Flor Contemplacion—to collectivize people’s thoughts and actions. EDSA 1,2, and 3 could be thought of as driven by memories and emotions. Former Philippine Ramos dubbed the Overseas Contract Workers as “Bagong Bayani”, reminding the public of the heroic effort the OCWs exert as they earn dollars to support their families back home.
Normative rhetoric/speeches. After the Americans left the bases, then Olongapo Mayor Dick Gordon rallied volunteers to maintain Subic. He got them to maintain the cleanliness and security of the Subic Base facilities without pay. Through rhetoric and speeches, he exhorted them to action.
Rituals. Public rituals help the citizens become mindful of certain themes in their inner lives that are woven into the collective consciousness. Acting out the rituals help renew their belief in certain values and relationships. The monthly dancing sessions in Bustos can be thought of as rituals celebrating health, life and togetherness. The building of kiosks using only volunteer labor in Balilihan is also a ritual, a rite-of-passage of sorts, that allowed the citizens to discover and unleash the latent power of solidarity and cooperation that they had among them.
Stories and drama. Marikina citizens would never forget the drama behind Mayor Bayani Fernando sledge hammering an airconditioner before city officials. The aircon unit was confiscated from the office of a wealthy businessman in Marikina when it was protruding from the building’s wall into the city’s sidewalk in violation of the some city ordinances.
To send the message across to the citizenry that the city meant to enforce its ordinances, the airconditioner was smashed during a Monday morning flag ceremony in front of the City Hall employees.
Down south, Mayor Jess Robredo of Naga City was seen early in the morning as among the first on the city streets sweeping debris after a powerful typhoon.
Stories like these travel far and wide and stay long in the memories of the citizens. When certain stories stay in the minds of citizens, they serve as reference for behavior. Structures and Symbols. Physical structures symbolize meaning in a stronger and more permanent way. The Purok Kiosks of Balilihan (case __ below) not only served as a venue for purok meetings. The Kiosks were symbols of the capacity of the community for collective action, serving to remind them that they could achieve significant gains through cooperation. Like symbols, structures communicate meanings. The red colored sidewalks of Marikina City reminded the citizens of the new order that the City hoped to create.
Rules and Relationships. Rules and ordinances communicate the values, relationships, and behaviors that the municipality or city upholds. Ordinances complemented the red sidewalks in Marikina in communicating the desired behavior on the streets. Policemen enforced these behaviors.
Information, education, and communication. Leaders can create and manage meanings through comprehensive education, training, and information campaigns. The advertising industry is one big industry that focuses on getting the public to behave in a certain way (that is to buy the advertised product), through messages delivered via the different mass media.
The Meanings Axis The management of meanings can therefore be thought of as the LGU’s contributing to the cognitive, emotional, and spiritual experiences of individuals and communities. LGU interventions can be located on the Meanings Axis, with the temporal, Channel 1, waiting shed-type interventions on the right side; and the transcendent, Channel 4, forest-cemetery-type interventions on the left side. Of course, since a project can be perceived in multiple channels, various project components may be located on multiple points in the Meanings Axis.
Channel 4 3 2 1 Cognitive (forest-cemetery) Temporal (waiting-shed)
In municipalities we cited where leaders managed the meanings, we see that citizens themselves “enforce” the new value-driven behaviors among each other. If all citizens appreciate the meaning of a clean and healthy environment, or of harmony in the community, we could imagine how much this reduces enforcement costs. We would need less money for garbage trucks, pay garbage collectors; or fewer policemen to enforce laws, settle local disputes and even avert crime. The cases showed that effective public health leaders do not merely provide health services. Public Health Leaders create inroads into the consciousness of their constituents, awakening their imagination, and encouraging them to write and collectively act out the shared movies in their minds. As in the movie, a fine script will not come alive in film unless the actors internalize it. Our actors are now ready for a take. It’s time to spring into… Lights, Camera, Action!
Case 6 Awakening the Sleeping Giant: Citizens Mobilization and the Balilihan Countryside Action Program
Aling Maria smiled as she related the various undertakings of Purok Talong, her purok in the town of Balilihan, Bohol. A retired teacher, Aling Maria emerged as one of the more active members of her “purok,” a small group of around a dozen households living adjacent to each other. Like other puroks in Balilihan, Aling Maria’s purok named their group after a vegetable (eggplant).
She showed the ledger of their finances, reflecting P15,000 worth in purok funds earned from income generating projects such as rice-reselling within the purok, ornamental plant-growing, and regular contributions from purok members. Taking out another well-kept notebook, Aling Maria showed minutes of Purok Talong meetings held over the years. Agenda, discussions, motions, and decisions were all well-documented.
The present Balilihan was a far cry from the rebel-infested town it was in the 1980’s. In the past, armed communist rebels even raided the municipal hall in broad daylight. Balilihan then had the highest rate of insurgency-related deaths in the entire province.
But in the 1990s, a strong partnership between the local government and the communities resulted in a flourishing civil society through the purok system, and a major improvement in the peace and order situation. The citizenry became active partners in development, and took more control over their own lives.
A rural purok initiative for community-based Primary Health Care (PHC) program began in Balilihan in 1983. Dr. Jude O. Doblas, the municipal health officer, ,tried setting up purok organizations from 1983 up to 1988. When Mayor Edgardo Chatto assumed office in 1988, he learned that the program has made little progress apart from the construction of purok kiosks and training of barangay health workers. Dr. Doblas got little support from other government agencies because of the compartmentalized view that health programs were the sole concern of the health sector, ,and that there was no need for cooperation and coordination with other development efforts.
Seeing the purok approach as a viable vehicle for community mobilization, Mayor Chatto and Dr. Doblas expanded the purok concept to involve other sectors serving the municipality. This brought about the collaboration of the local government, the rural health unit (RHU), and the agencies (private and public) tasked to deliver the basic services to the community. This initiative was named the Balilihan Countryside Action Program (CAP).
Community Organization Phase
Armed with new skills and attitudes, the municipal and barangay machinery was ready to engage the community as partners in development. CAP was launched with its purok system giving spirit to empowerment through community organizing, mobilization, and human resource development.
Once the puroks experienced initial successes such as the construction of their kiosks and the maintenance of a small vegetable/herbal garden, many of them took on a life of their own. out of their own initiative, they started all sorts of projects, often with little or no support from the municipal government. As a result, there emerged 186 puroks with 1,302 sectoral volunteers, acting as semi-autonomous extensions of government.
The purok system has become a way of life. Residents frequently spend their free time in the purok kiosks. Prayer groups are organized around the purok organizations. Household kitchens are somehow linked together as they drew their rice supplies from the same of rice collectively brought and stored in the kiosk kitchen. During elections, a candidate’s performance in his or her respective purok became an important criterion for voters. Many new barangay leaders emerged from the ranks of the purok volunteers.
Case 7BHW Theme Song (Composed by and for Volunteer Barangay Health Workers of Bustos Bulacan)
BHW pangalan mo’y dakila / Nasa yo ang biyaya ng lupa / Lupa, langit tumawag kay Bathala Di ka lilimuting hanggang sa mamayapa.
Kami ang babae (ang babaeng sexing-sexy) (mga health workers Kami’y naririto upang tumulong sa inyo./ Maging sa paggawa, sa pagtulong sama sama / Kung kaya’t nabansagang, nabansagang BHW.
Ay-ay-ay-ay zero waste ugaliin Upang paligid ay luminis din Basura ay dapat sinupin. /
Mga basyong bote at lata ipunin upang maging pera / Upang makatulong sa mga batang namimili ng garapa.
Kinikilo papel at dyaryo, pambalot sa kahit ano. Tipunin natin ito, huwag ikalat saan mang dako.
Maga dumi ilagay sa lata, pagbukud-bukurin sa tuwina. / Pampataba sa lupa, upang halaman lumago at gumanda.
BHW your name is great you hold the blessing of the earth the earth and the sky called to God /will not forget you till you die. ) / we are the women (sexy, sexy women) (we are the health workers) we are here to help you. in deed we help each other together / that’s why we are called Barangay Health Workers
ay-ay-ay-ay practice zero waste management / to clean the environment, too don’t trash too much
put together empty bottles and can to make money, /and to help the kids who collect and buy them
/ scrap papers and old newspapers reach kilos, they can be used to wrap anything / let’s save them, and don’t scatter them anywhere.
place the wastes in cans, and every time segregate them they are good fertilizers for the soil, so our plants can grow and be beautiful.
/
When the leader arrives, people are full of panic, uncertain what to do and defeatist about the future. When the authentic leader has spoken, they have been given back their courage. --William Rees-Mogg
From beginning to end, the rituals of our lives shape each hour, day, and year. Everyone leads a ritualized life. Rituals are repeated patterns of meaningful acts. If you are mindful of your actions, you will see the ritual patterns. If you see the patterns, you may understand them. If you understand them, you may enrich them. In this way, the habits of a lifetime become sacred. -- Robert Fulghum
In the play Miss Saigon, Leah Salonga in her character Kim, sings a song entitled “Movie in My Mind”. Through this song, Kim imagines and describes the life she hopes to live out. At the start, she sings out as an innocent village lass singing about the love she hopes to have. It starts out as a hopeful, innocent song. As the plot of the play moves forward, the “movie” unfolds in Kim’s mind and in Kim’s reality. Kim falls in love with an American soldier, marries him, gets separated from him by the war, and then bears his child whom she has to raise alone. Kim’s reality takes a tragic turn, but in the song, and in the movie in Kim’s mind, even sadness has meaning. Kim continues to sing Movie in My Mind plaintively into the darkness, as if trying to conquer tragedy with hope, imagination, and song.
Movies in Our Minds
Everybody sees life as a movie that unfolds right before his or her eyes. A young girl plays a princess or a pilot or a nurse; a young boy plays a conqueror of some island unbeknownst to the rest of the world. A farmer dreams of the day his children finish school and work in the big city. The market vendor envisions her daughter working abroad and sending over dollars, chocolates, and tuition for the younger siblings. We play this movie in our minds over and over again. We try to influence the outcome of this movie through our actions. These are our private movies, and we put private meanings to it.The movies in our mind create our inner tensions and conflicts, our secret triumphs and tears, our personal values and dreams. If our actions are not enough, we go further by influencing the other actors in the movie, the script, the setting, and the relationships so that the movie unfolds the story as our hearts desire. In interacting with others, we too, become part of their our movies. Our movies become intertwined. People also share their dreams with others. And when they do, these movies break free from private seclusion of the minds and bear themselves out publicly. These become public movies – the stories, experiences, motivations, and meanings that guide a people.
Collective Consciousness: I Need We to be Fully I
The Zulus of Africa have a word for it—ubuntu (short for unmunta ngumuntu, nagabuntu)1 which means “I need we to be fully I.” The natives of Sagada, Mountain Province, manifest collective consciousness in a different way. Every ten years, they celebrate the Dangtey, a community ritual of prayer, gratitude, and offering done to ensure a bountiful harvest. The revolts in EDSA are a long-playing 3-part public movie—the first was a collective dream to oust a dictator, the second to impeach an erring president, and the third to try to redeem the impeached. In each of the three parts, Filipinos marched to the streets acting out the movies in their individual minds, as they pushed forward the public movie. As actors in this collective movie, they co-authored Philippine history. Collective Consciousness and Channels of Governance
Governance is a key element in these "public movies". Among the social sciences, “public movies” fall within the realms of organizational psychology, behavioral psychology, social anthropology, cultural anthropology, community organizing, institutional economics, political science, and political sociology – the realms of the individual and collective consciousness. As discussed in the previous chapter, the public script is often written by the leaders in government. Citizens, knowingly or unknowingly, become spectators or actors in the movie. The interesting thing about the cases in governance studied here is that the movies are seldom simple stories to be interpreted literally. Instead, they are complex movies, rich with metaphors and symbolisms, paradoxes and dilemmas. They are stories with multiple meanings, filled with characters selflessly pursuing their noble longings. Governance, in these cases can be thought of as occurring in the minds of the governors and the governed, in multiple channels. As on TV, the multiple channels are there for people to tune in to. Not all the viewers tune in to all the channels though. Some channels are more popular and some channels are seldom tuned into or understood. Waiting sheds, basketball courts, and free clinics can be viewed in the governance Channel 1. This is the most popular channel and seemingly most mayors and citizens are tuned into this channel. In this channel, the LGU interacts with citizens who are treated as passive clients, beneficiaries, or constituents. The LGU manages resources and outputs in order to deliver goods and services to the citizens. Performance is measured in kilometers of roads constructed, doctor-patient ratios, number of trees planted, and per capita incomes.
The logic in Channel 1 is that if the mayor installs a lot of highly tangible, high visibility projects, the citizens will remember him and vote for him come election time. Channel 2 focuses on the citizens as partners and co-creators of the municipality. Marikina’s Disiplina Sa Banketa, with it’s new ordinances, self-policing mechanisms, and painted sidewalks focus on getting citizen’s to give up the culture of chaotic sidewalks in exchange for order. Surigao’s Federated Women’s Club and its strong participation in LGU affairs through the implementation of self-help projects can also be viewed through this channel. Themes in this channel include consensus-building, multi-sectoral participation, political empowerment, policy-making, and establishing order in society. Fewer viewers watch this channel but this channel seems to be popular among NGOs, sociologists, and political scientists. Growth and maturation of the individual, community, and organization are key themes in Channel 3.
The quest for self-fulfillment (or self-actualization as described by Maslow) is a central theme in this channel. There is a recognition that each citizen is a traveler, going about each day trying to make meaning in his or her life. Each citizen yearns for fullness of life, and this fullness of life is not measured through per capita income; but by challenges faced, lessons learned, and meanings made. This is often thought of as the realm of development psychologists and psychoanalysts. When projects last for years, or when they take on multiple dimensions, or when the programs take on a life of their own (as described in Quadrant 4 in the previous chapter), then it is possible that the individuals behind these programs find and are motivated by deeper meanings they see in participating in the programs.
The Federated Women’s Club of Surigao, with its beginnings way back in 1976, and with it’s current membership of 7,200 members and multiple projects, is likely to have a few hundred to a few thousand members who are so deeply involved in it’s programs that it has become a way of life for them. Poetry and song, as shown in below written by a Barangay Health Worker of Bustos, can also be thought of as an indicator that the writer is deeply moved by their involvement in the LGU programs. Then there are tears which can also be thought of as an indicator of deep emotional involvement. Aling Deling of the Alay Paglingap Program of the Provincial Government of Bulacan, wept as she recalled how she used to wear her duster all day and comb her hair only once in the morning when she was but a socially isolated housewife in her barrio.
When she became a Barangay health Worker (BHW), she was liberated from her social isolation and took on more responsibilities in the community, eventually getting elected as barangay kagawad. One particularly touching episode came during a cataract surgery project at the provincial capitol. She referred a neighbor who had been blind due to cataract for years. With Aling Deling's assistance, her neighbor went thought the free surgery and came home with her sight restored. With teary eyes, Aling deling shared how that neighbor would embrace her out of gratitude whenever they would meet in the streets.
Spiritual growth and well-being of the individuals and community are central in Channel 4. This is usually the realm of priests, pastors, and babailans. El Shaddai, Couples for Christ, and other spiritual programs operate and communicate in this channel. The forest-cemetery program of San Carlos clearly operates at this level (among other levels), creating a forest sanctuary so that the citizens can commune with nature as they remember their dead. The BHW song of Bustos mentions Bathala, showing that somehow, a higher being is woven into their consciousness as BHWs and as individuals. Besides poetry, song, and tears that are indicators in Channel 3, other indicators include rituals, symbols, and prayers. Filipinos being a religious people, it is possible that Channel 4 has more viewers than Channel 3.
Socio-Emotional Health and the Inner Lives of Citizens
Why manage meanings? In developmental psychology, the concept of socio-emotional health pertains to the sense of inner wellness that individuals experience. The cases showed over and over again that LGU programs, when properly conducted by reasponsible and committed leadership, can enrich the lives of its citizens not just economically but also socially, emotionally, and spiritually through the different channels of governance. When funds are scarce and capacities limited, then this is an excellent way of improving the qualities of the inner lives of the citizens. As Professor Noel Tichy of the University of Michigan puts it: “it is a leader’s task to bring people on a journey into an uncertain and chaotic future—everyday. The best way to get people to venture into unknown terrain is to make it desirable by taking them there in their imagination.” Hanapbuhay and Multi-Channel Leadership
The LCE or the public health leader can address social, emotional, and spiritual want by creating venues for growth. They merely have to participate in the weaving of dreams, provoke discernment and reflection, and engage the citizenry in the acting out of their individual and shared movies. This way, a training of BHWs is not just a transfer of knowledge and skills in health. The training is also a way of bringing the women out of their social isolation, getting them to take on new roles in the community, allowing them to meet new friends and ideas. It enriches their lives by providing them with new challenges, allowing them to relate with neighbors as care-givers. In the story of their lives, their role as BHWs phase could be the venue for them to achieve growth and self-fulfillment. LCE’s have only three years per term within which they are supposed to touch their lives of their constituents (enough to get elected in the following elections). During that period, few programs can radically improve the incomes of the citizens. Most will not, at least in three years. Through multi-channel leadership, the LGUs programs can touch the lives of the citizens in other ways though. After all, Filipinos refer to making a living as hanapbuhay, not hanappera. Multi-channel governance helps the citizens find that fullness of lives. Instruments for Managing Meanings How can leaders evoke common meanings? Or how can leaders manage an existing meaning so that it becomes a rallying point for action? A review of the cases as well as other cases from history yield the following mechanisms. They range from the evocative to the prescriptive.
Evoking Memories and Emotions. Leaders can refer to memories of common pasts--e.g. Katipunan, Jose Rizal, Flor Contemplacion—to collectivize people’s thoughts and actions. EDSA 1,2, and 3 could be thought of as driven by memories and emotions. Former Philippine Ramos dubbed the Overseas Contract Workers as “Bagong Bayani”, reminding the public of the heroic effort the OCWs exert as they earn dollars to support their families back home.
Normative rhetoric/speeches. After the Americans left the bases, then Olongapo Mayor Dick Gordon rallied volunteers to maintain Subic. He got them to maintain the cleanliness and security of the Subic Base facilities without pay. Through rhetoric and speeches, he exhorted them to action.
Rituals. Public rituals help the citizens become mindful of certain themes in their inner lives that are woven into the collective consciousness. Acting out the rituals help renew their belief in certain values and relationships. The monthly dancing sessions in Bustos can be thought of as rituals celebrating health, life and togetherness. The building of kiosks using only volunteer labor in Balilihan is also a ritual, a rite-of-passage of sorts, that allowed the citizens to discover and unleash the latent power of solidarity and cooperation that they had among them.
Stories and drama. Marikina citizens would never forget the drama behind Mayor Bayani Fernando sledge hammering an airconditioner before city officials. The aircon unit was confiscated from the office of a wealthy businessman in Marikina when it was protruding from the building’s wall into the city’s sidewalk in violation of the some city ordinances.
To send the message across to the citizenry that the city meant to enforce its ordinances, the airconditioner was smashed during a Monday morning flag ceremony in front of the City Hall employees.
Down south, Mayor Jess Robredo of Naga City was seen early in the morning as among the first on the city streets sweeping debris after a powerful typhoon.
Stories like these travel far and wide and stay long in the memories of the citizens. When certain stories stay in the minds of citizens, they serve as reference for behavior. Structures and Symbols. Physical structures symbolize meaning in a stronger and more permanent way. The Purok Kiosks of Balilihan (case __ below) not only served as a venue for purok meetings. The Kiosks were symbols of the capacity of the community for collective action, serving to remind them that they could achieve significant gains through cooperation. Like symbols, structures communicate meanings. The red colored sidewalks of Marikina City reminded the citizens of the new order that the City hoped to create.
Rules and Relationships. Rules and ordinances communicate the values, relationships, and behaviors that the municipality or city upholds. Ordinances complemented the red sidewalks in Marikina in communicating the desired behavior on the streets. Policemen enforced these behaviors.
Information, education, and communication. Leaders can create and manage meanings through comprehensive education, training, and information campaigns. The advertising industry is one big industry that focuses on getting the public to behave in a certain way (that is to buy the advertised product), through messages delivered via the different mass media.
The Meanings Axis The management of meanings can therefore be thought of as the LGU’s contributing to the cognitive, emotional, and spiritual experiences of individuals and communities. LGU interventions can be located on the Meanings Axis, with the temporal, Channel 1, waiting shed-type interventions on the right side; and the transcendent, Channel 4, forest-cemetery-type interventions on the left side. Of course, since a project can be perceived in multiple channels, various project components may be located on multiple points in the Meanings Axis.
Channel 4 3 2 1 Cognitive (forest-cemetery) Temporal (waiting-shed)
In municipalities we cited where leaders managed the meanings, we see that citizens themselves “enforce” the new value-driven behaviors among each other. If all citizens appreciate the meaning of a clean and healthy environment, or of harmony in the community, we could imagine how much this reduces enforcement costs. We would need less money for garbage trucks, pay garbage collectors; or fewer policemen to enforce laws, settle local disputes and even avert crime. The cases showed that effective public health leaders do not merely provide health services. Public Health Leaders create inroads into the consciousness of their constituents, awakening their imagination, and encouraging them to write and collectively act out the shared movies in their minds. As in the movie, a fine script will not come alive in film unless the actors internalize it. Our actors are now ready for a take. It’s time to spring into… Lights, Camera, Action!
Case 6 Awakening the Sleeping Giant: Citizens Mobilization and the Balilihan Countryside Action Program
Aling Maria smiled as she related the various undertakings of Purok Talong, her purok in the town of Balilihan, Bohol. A retired teacher, Aling Maria emerged as one of the more active members of her “purok,” a small group of around a dozen households living adjacent to each other. Like other puroks in Balilihan, Aling Maria’s purok named their group after a vegetable (eggplant).
She showed the ledger of their finances, reflecting P15,000 worth in purok funds earned from income generating projects such as rice-reselling within the purok, ornamental plant-growing, and regular contributions from purok members. Taking out another well-kept notebook, Aling Maria showed minutes of Purok Talong meetings held over the years. Agenda, discussions, motions, and decisions were all well-documented.
The present Balilihan was a far cry from the rebel-infested town it was in the 1980’s. In the past, armed communist rebels even raided the municipal hall in broad daylight. Balilihan then had the highest rate of insurgency-related deaths in the entire province.
But in the 1990s, a strong partnership between the local government and the communities resulted in a flourishing civil society through the purok system, and a major improvement in the peace and order situation. The citizenry became active partners in development, and took more control over their own lives.
A rural purok initiative for community-based Primary Health Care (PHC) program began in Balilihan in 1983. Dr. Jude O. Doblas, the municipal health officer, ,tried setting up purok organizations from 1983 up to 1988. When Mayor Edgardo Chatto assumed office in 1988, he learned that the program has made little progress apart from the construction of purok kiosks and training of barangay health workers. Dr. Doblas got little support from other government agencies because of the compartmentalized view that health programs were the sole concern of the health sector, ,and that there was no need for cooperation and coordination with other development efforts.
Seeing the purok approach as a viable vehicle for community mobilization, Mayor Chatto and Dr. Doblas expanded the purok concept to involve other sectors serving the municipality. This brought about the collaboration of the local government, the rural health unit (RHU), and the agencies (private and public) tasked to deliver the basic services to the community. This initiative was named the Balilihan Countryside Action Program (CAP).
Community Organization Phase
Armed with new skills and attitudes, the municipal and barangay machinery was ready to engage the community as partners in development. CAP was launched with its purok system giving spirit to empowerment through community organizing, mobilization, and human resource development.
Once the puroks experienced initial successes such as the construction of their kiosks and the maintenance of a small vegetable/herbal garden, many of them took on a life of their own. out of their own initiative, they started all sorts of projects, often with little or no support from the municipal government. As a result, there emerged 186 puroks with 1,302 sectoral volunteers, acting as semi-autonomous extensions of government.
The purok system has become a way of life. Residents frequently spend their free time in the purok kiosks. Prayer groups are organized around the purok organizations. Household kitchens are somehow linked together as they drew their rice supplies from the same of rice collectively brought and stored in the kiosk kitchen. During elections, a candidate’s performance in his or her respective purok became an important criterion for voters. Many new barangay leaders emerged from the ranks of the purok volunteers.
Case 7BHW Theme Song (Composed by and for Volunteer Barangay Health Workers of Bustos Bulacan)
BHW pangalan mo’y dakila / Nasa yo ang biyaya ng lupa / Lupa, langit tumawag kay Bathala Di ka lilimuting hanggang sa mamayapa.
Kami ang babae (ang babaeng sexing-sexy) (mga health workers Kami’y naririto upang tumulong sa inyo./ Maging sa paggawa, sa pagtulong sama sama / Kung kaya’t nabansagang, nabansagang BHW.
Ay-ay-ay-ay zero waste ugaliin Upang paligid ay luminis din Basura ay dapat sinupin. /
Mga basyong bote at lata ipunin upang maging pera / Upang makatulong sa mga batang namimili ng garapa.
Kinikilo papel at dyaryo, pambalot sa kahit ano. Tipunin natin ito, huwag ikalat saan mang dako.
Maga dumi ilagay sa lata, pagbukud-bukurin sa tuwina. / Pampataba sa lupa, upang halaman lumago at gumanda.
BHW your name is great you hold the blessing of the earth the earth and the sky called to God /will not forget you till you die. ) / we are the women (sexy, sexy women) (we are the health workers) we are here to help you. in deed we help each other together / that’s why we are called Barangay Health Workers
ay-ay-ay-ay practice zero waste management / to clean the environment, too don’t trash too much
put together empty bottles and can to make money, /and to help the kids who collect and buy them
/ scrap papers and old newspapers reach kilos, they can be used to wrap anything / let’s save them, and don’t scatter them anywhere.
place the wastes in cans, and every time segregate them they are good fertilizers for the soil, so our plants can grow and be beautiful.
/
1 Translated by Carl G. Jung
not her real name
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