| Japanese youth visit Bendum community, establish new trust and intercultural understanding |
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| Tuesday, 20 July 2010 | ||
 Last June 2010, a strange thing happened with intercultural relations. A group of students visited Bendum as part of their study in environmental security and sustainable development.
When we told the community there were many Japanese youth in the group the community was uneasy. "We have not had Japanese visit us since the war," they said. "How do we make this right?" "How do we make sure whatever there was in the past all the right relations are present between us?"
When the group arrived after an early morning flight and several hours on a bumpy ride in the back of a van, they had to wait in the shade to listen to an explanation of what was to happen next.
On the path to the house, the leaders wanted to have a ritual that they must pass through. The community offered a month-old chick and buried this with a contribution from all. Then each one walked over the buried mound, symbolizing new and open relations. The ritual is called panliteb, intended to cleanse the conflict and the corresponding bad karma associated, in this case the Filipino-Japanese War.
This brought much comfort and assurance of welcome and in giving people something new to talk about. The ritual strengthened the value of taking time to recognize difference and how trust and openness can be simply established.
The second ritual at the big house, which is the usual welcome or pandawat , could now be performed.
There was much interest from the community to see particularly the Japanese people again, as they had only heard of them many years ago from the elders speaking of the horrors during the war.
The attitude in the community today is one of excitement. During the week-long stay, many new relations were built and there was much mutual appreciation. Many of the visitors recounted their experiences from their homes in Japan and other Asian countries, where traditionally people had lived close to the land and where there was a rich culture closely sustaining people and identity in the landscape.
 Background of the visit
On 30 May to 5 June 2010, Pedro Walpole SJ, with ESSC and APC staff, facilitated a field-based learning visit for Asian students of the UN-mandated University for Peace Asia Leaders Programme (ALP) in Bendum. The one-week learning and interaction with the community formed part of their three-week course on Environmental Security, Sustainable Development and Peace where Pedro was the lecturer. Their visit was one of the stories featured in the June 2010 newsletter of the University for Peace.
The learning visit in Bendum was designed to provide a venue for the students to engage with a marginal community facing environmental insecurity, negotiating their sense of development and striving for peace. The students were as they took stock of their previous courses and personal experiences. As a final activity not only for the course but the entire programme, the ALP coordinator found the fieldwork a fitting culmination of the ALP. The students engaged with the leaders, women and youth in Bendum, as well as with the teachers and scholars of APC who arrived for the school opening. You may also visit APC website for further info. |
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| Last Updated ( Friday, 12 August 2011 ) | ||