A study group teaches me how to make bibingka… economics & policy?

When I think “study group” I think back to college. Where 5 group members were scheduled to meet but only 3 of them show up, and one of them had to leave in an hour. Every group session felt like it was a vain attempt at actual studying.

But last night’s study group involved veteran researchers who all together have worked with dozens of communities both in the Philippines and overseas. And the best part of it was that in addition to the level of wisdom present, it maintained that good ‘ol fashioned, “run of the rice mill” Bohol-style get together that I had grown accustomed to. After growing up with Boholanos in the United States for 30 years, I felt like I was home. Which is odd for me to say since I am in fact in my “mother’s land”.

The requirements for such a casual gathering, gained from my limited knowledge growing up in the US, are as follows:

1. You must bring food. It is a potluck!
2. 20% of your guests will arrive late, giving you more food to eat if you’re early!
3. At least three lively conversations must occur and last until 12 or 1 in the morning.
4. At least one guest must arrive near the end, so that the gathering can be extended until she has eaten and has been updated. More food and more time to hang out!
5. Did I mention there was food involved?

Now of course there aren’t any rules or laws (which in bisaya, I also learned, is called “balaod”) that dictate these things. This is purely based on my observation. I’ll be conducting further research and eating though so stay tuned for fat, I mean, that.

It was my friend Liza (who heads a website called “Bohol Republic”, check it out!) who told me about this study session between her Bohol-based academic friends. There weren’t any suits, Filipiniana (traditional Filipino formal wear), podiums, or microphones though. It was a casual gathering of some of the most forward-thinking & experienced minds I have met so far during my stay here.

With that said here are some takeaways I was able to bring home with me. Kinda like the Boholano-American term for “food you bring home after a party,” which they call “bring-house”.

Here is some of that food for thought I brought home:

• Joy, who works with an NGO (non-governmental organization) called Rare Conservation* said, “When technical knowledge from scientists merge with indigenous knowledge from local people, you get a powerful ‘melting pot’ of knowledge unlike any other.”
• Regina, whose master’s thesis involved researching indigenous people in the province, made a presentation about a national law in the Philippines called IPRA or “Indigenous People’s Rights Act”. It claims to provide rights to the various number of Indigenous people in the country, but that’s the problem. One simple act, based largely on “land-based” indigenous peoples, has seemed to overlook one of the most marginalized people of them all: the Badjao or “sea gypsies”. A very communal and “share-based” indigenous people found in different coastal areas around the country.
• Doris, an accountant and policy reform advocate, mentioned bibingka, one of my favorite Filipino rice cakes. Now how could I forget that! She was presenting her study on how to best coordinate funds and governments to build roads effectively in the province. Visualizing how a bibingka is made was a great analogy for me on how policy-making (and also economic development) should work. To maximize the right softness and cooking time of a bibingka it must heated on both sides, from the top and bottom**. And it seems that this is the case when cooking up a nation’s policy.

It must be made not only from the national level AND the local level, but there must also be coordination between the two.

Now you’d think that last point should go without saying, that the communication and collaboration of both national and local government is crucial. But from what I gathered, getting two groups of people together from different parts of the country to target the same goal is harder than getting your bibingka just right.

Or is it?

There is so much more I have yet to “digest”, but if there was one thing that I won’t forget it’s that it isn’t hard for these brilliant people who have worked in different parts of the Philippines to get together, share ideas, and talk about how they’re actually implementing their research in the communities (and committees and so forth) they work with.

Then again, maybe the first policy change that should be done is to do away with the podiums and microphones, and replace them with potlucks and conversations. I’d second that!!

*If you or anyone you know in the United States would be interested in working as an intern with Joy’s conservation group in the Philippines, Rare Conservation, please visit: http://rareconservation.org/apply/philippines.

**Here’s a video of how bibingka is prepared by providing heat from coals above and below it at a restaurant a restaurant in Tagaytay (3:07 min):