DMAPS/Sem1 2016-17/Datuin

Ecological Framework
Framing Disaster: Positions and Tropes

SOURCE: UVLe Discussion on Tagaytay

Martin, C. (Photographer). (1991). Corpses covered in debris and ash after Taal Volcano's
1911 eruption [digital image]. Retrieved from
http://www.natgeocreative.com/photography/565495

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Key Takeaways
UNISDR defines disaster as a serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a
society involving widespread human, material, economic or environmental losses and
impacts, which exceeds the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its
own resources,
If the picture above is any indication, disasters - in this case, the 1911 eruption of Taal
Volcano - destroy human life on a scale wide enough to excite public alarm, thus
disrupting normal patterns of behavior and impairing any of the services necessary to
the conduct of normal affairs or to the prevention of suffering and loss. (Powell 1954 in
Gerente thesis 2016).
The question is: Is the picture an accurate reflection or depiction of reality?
On one level, the answer is yes. Taal did erupt; many people have indeed died, and the
magnitude of loss and grief is indeed disruptive of normal patterns of behavior. On
another level, we could also say that the pictures depiction of reality is highly selective.
Occupying almost 90% of the pictorial plane is a wasteland strewn with burnt corpses
and trees. Barely discernible in the background is the idyllic image of two islands on a
placid lake, forming a stark contrast to the scene of destruction in the foreground. The
shot might have been taken from a low angle, dead center, and our sight line cannot help
but focus on the bodies looming before us. We could almost smell the stench of death,
with little relief in sight. The scene is claustrophobic; the feeling is one of horror and
shock.
In short, the shot was skillfully framed to elicit the kind of reaction I described. The
photographer was coming from a certain position or viewpoint and was telling a story

according to a trope - a widely shared narrative pattern or interpretation of a situation

or a story based on the simplest, most archetypal and most widely-held beliefs. A trope

can be considered a narrative stereotype, that is so commonplace and deeply ingrained it

has become natural, innocent and largely unconscious. The aim of this essay is to
surface those natural and unconscious positions and tropes, particularly those
concerned with how we view our relationship with the natural and physical elements that

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make up our ecosystem - our home. I argue that there is no innocent eye, only lenses
through which we interpret the so-called objective phenomena like disasters. To be
aware of these lenses is to develop a critical eye, one that will help us understand reflexively and critically - disasters in their multiple dimensions and enable us to take the
appropriate measures to mitigate disasters damages.
The key points of this essay revolve around the following pairs:
1. Anthropocentrism viz biocentrism
2. Mechanistic viz organismic
3. Shallow viz deep ecology
4. Art as representation viz art as process
5. The logical and literal viz the illogical and figurative
6. The stress on fixed outcome viz intermodality and poiesis

Anthropocentric, Mechanistic Frame

The Apocalyptic trope
The picture above, with its focus on death and destruction tells an apocalyptic story.
One possible result of this sensational depiction is the reaffirmation of the common

sense logic that perhaps these people were given fair warning about the dangers of living
so close to the volcano, and were given enough notice to evacuate but were overtaken
by the overwhelming forces of nature. The picture relies on the shock and fear tactics of a
visual language so stark we all have to take notice and learn our lessons.
On the other hand, the horrifying actuality of loss is contained within the confines of the
photograph and our computer screens. Unless we are directly affected, the time and
place are by now very remote (1911), such that while we can only imagine and empathize
with the grief and pain, we are detached and distanced from the actual event. After the
initial shock, one possible response could be fatalist: we could assume that the event is
extraordinary and it is just a matter of luck or chance for such occurrence to affect us in
our lifetime. Perhaps in the end preparedness would not matter. We either become
paralyzed with inaction or we can instead focus on coping, and finding our resilience
in the face of hardship. Media can choose to highlight smiling people receiving reliefs, or

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finding strength in bayanihan and volunteer work or in religiosity, as seen in a very

poignant photo by Philippe Lopez of Agence France Presse (AFP). Once documented, we
move on to the daily business of living.

Picture source: http://www.worldpressphoto.org/people/philippe-lopez (discussed in De La Paz, Festivals and

Disaster essay on UVLe board)

Eco-Marxist position
Disasters are therefore seen as isolated, destructive, uncontrollable episodes, even if we
know they are naturally recurring, especially in the Philippines where we are in a constant
state of habol hininga or gasping for breath amidst one disaster after another. In the
face of inconsolable grief, the paghahabol ng hininga (gasping for breath) oftentimes

leads to huling hininga (final breath). Prolonged effects of disaster leave us in a state of
paghihingalo - a word used to describe someone caught in the final death throes. The
framing of disaster as non-routine incidents renders it distinct from this everyday
struggle of a great number of the population, who are often out of breath (kapos sa
hininga). The poor are the most vulnerable and the most exposed to hazards and when
they are visited by disaster after disaster, the helplessness and hopelessness they

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encounter in their daily lives are reinforced. Given the unequal distribution of wealth
where the 20 richest Filipinos have a net worth equivalent to the combined income of the
poorest Filipinos, those who are deprived of the most basic needs are left to heave a sigh
of frustration or buntung-hininga, as Maria Lyra Versoza (in Ladrigo-Ignacio 2011) puts
it.
Disasters recur so frequently, that they have already become markers of time, according
to De La Paz in her essay on Disasters and Philippine Festivals. For instance, Bocaue
residents mark calendar years, not according to a linear periodization, but according to
the eruption of a volcano (1991), lahar flow (1992 onwards) and the sinking of the boat in
a pagoda festival in 1993 (Wong-Fernandez 1996 in De La Paz)

From an Eco-Marxist position, social conditions that affect human life are paramount.

Nature is harnessed as a primary resource for land use management, for production, and
so on. The degradation of these resources affects housing, education, availability of clean
water, health, among others. Unequal distribution of resources, alongside the growth of
human population, makes certain societies more vulnerable to disaster. Lack of proper
waste disposal, helter-skelter urban planning beset with clogged drainage for example,
could quickly turn the chance occurrence of continuous rainfall into a major disaster,

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such as what happened with Ondoy. The stress on the apocalyptic, non-routine
dimension of disasters overshadow these social realities and the endless cycle of
vulnerability of disadvantaged, overpopulated communities. The Eco-Marxist position
argues that daily life is not a separate sphere - the issues arising from it are of important
consequence to the onset and mitigation of disasters.

Cornucopia
Disasters hit us whenever and wherever we are. Framed by the apocalyptic and fatalist
trope, it is assumed that the future is so uncertain that planning and preparation are
bound to fail, so one must respond to a hazard event and hope for the best. On the other
hand, the more rational and logical approach depends on the ability of humans as the
determining center of reality in the era of modern capitalism. The focus is on knowing the
seemingly unknowable. It is possible to study hazards as natural phenomena with
characteristics that are measureable, concrete and observable. And that while we cannot
control the eruption of volcanoes and the natural cycles of weather and shifting of
tectonic plates, the disastrous effects of such hazards can be mitigated, prepared and
planned for. This - the appreciation of the nature of hazards or the science of hazards is a
key takeaway of DMAPS, particularly the first portion of our syllabus. The unknowns can
be known; the powerless can be empowered with that knowledge, and that knowledge
can form the basis for concrete and proactive solutions, instead of reaction, inaction and
resignation.
On the other hand, the faith in science and technology could come very close to what
Greg Garrard explains as the cornucopian position, which posits the assumption that

technological progress - the cornucopia of wealth, growth and commodity production within capitalism can manage or even solve our environmental problems largely brought
about by industries that are often environmentally damaging. Entrepreneurs and
consumers can produce and prefer to use green technology for example - such as
electric vehicles, recyclable eco bags, energy saving appliances, compost pits, among
others. In other words, capitalism can find the solutions to the damages it wroughts. The
magnitude of environmental impact is then minimized, if not altogether elided. At the
end of the day, the primary motivation is profit.

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The apocalyptic trope and and the cornucopian positions may at first glance appear as
opposite assumptions clustered around two extremes: one is grounded in a rational
approach; and the other a resigned, fatalist response. Both share an anthropocentric

view of the environment, which is considered of no inherent value and valued only in so
far as it is of interest to human wealth and welfare. Nature is separate from the human
realm; it exists out there in the external world. At times, it can be mindlessly and
randomly powerful, unpredictable and destructive; at other times, it can be managed,
known and controlled. Swinging between extremes, depending on the situation, humans
view the environment mechanistically - nature and the rest of the nonhuman world is an
inert, inanimate resource that can be exploited for human interest.
Pastoral and Wilderness Trope
The nonhuman world is not just a source of food, shelter, clothing and other basic needs;
it is also a source of emotional retreat, leisure and aesthetic pleasure. We go to beaches
and mountains and other places left relatively unspoiled, pristine, or untouched by
human interventions. At least that is the image. In concrete terms, in the age of
capitalism, virtually nothing is left untouched. Resorts are carved out of landscapes,
hotels are built for our comfort as we go snorkelling, trekking or birdwatching. We go to
Tagaytay or Baguio to picnic, enjoy the view, with some of us opting to live there on a
long term or periodic basis.
When we reach the peak of the mountain, we take a picture as proof of having been
there and conquering, not just the landscape but also ourselves and our weaknesses.
Nature and its beauty becomes a photo op, a painting, a film, and a romantic song or
dance in the pastoral or wilderness mode, where the former highlights the bucolic calm
of the countryside as captured in an Amorsolo painting or in housing projects like Hardin
ng Rosas. The wilderness trope, on the other hand, finds solace in the primeval - at times
terrifying and exotic beauty of the wild - a stable, unchanging Heart of Darkness which
lies at the core of human existence stripped of the veneer of civilization. We hear of
Western artists like Rimbaud or Gauguin who got so burned out in the civilized Western
world and left it in search of themselves in the wilds of Africa or Tahiti. Today we call
them expats who settle in the Philippines to retire, build resorts, and/or do
humanitarian work. They find self fulfillment in the Other world of underdevelopment
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and poverty. We wish to protect, preserve and save such images and instances of
wilderness, not for the environments own sake, but for our own so that at the end of the
day, we can seek refuge in that space and recharge.

Amosolo/Planting Rice presents an idealized version of the countryside effaces class conflict in agrarian
societies, as well as the dangers of
living too close to the beautiful volcano
in the background.

Birdwatchers View of Hardin ng Rosas

overshadows structural weaknesses of
the buildings

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No fire exits, soft

story of even

numbered buildings
might collapse in case
of an earthquake; stairs
are not properly braced
or attached to the
building, used both as a
means of ascending
floors and connecting
buildings; Descending
grade of the ground. If
an earthquake with S
and L seismic waves
occur, the ground and
soil adjacent to the
buildings might 'roll

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over (similar to a landslide effect)' and cause the columns to buckle. Cracks on the walls, particularly on the
upper floors imply that the buildings integrity is already compromised (Source: John Sicat,
#UPHousingEarthquake)

Mt. Pinatubos explosion turns into an iconic picture of the wilderness terrifying beauty

The anthropocentric and mechanistic view of the environment is anchored on a

hierarchical relationship between elements that make up an ecosystem. Ecology - a
branch of biology that studies the relations or organisms to one another and to their
physical surroundings - comes from the root word oikos, meaning home. In the
anthropocentric view of the world, home is a place where humans occupy the top tier of
the food chain. Other creatures exist for their survival.

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Eco-feminism
One might also notice from the above illustration that the figure of the woman is similarly
placed with other creatures, implying a patriarchal structure. The pastoral, apocalyptic
and wilderness tropes could also partake of this system of domination, this time along
gender lines. In the language of patriarchy, there are certain terms associated with being
female: nature, the earth and the land, which as we have earlier discussed are resources
that sustain mans survival. We can detect this meaning system in the use of terms:
Nature is always the nurturing Mother Nature, which according to the apocalyptic trope,
will be lost to us, if we do not do something about it. In various images, woman is

associated with the beautiful, pastoral landscape, and functions as a poster girl for the
bucolic, as seen for example Amorsolos comely barrio lass/dalagang Pilipina:

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As the Marxist critic John Berger famously and succinctly stated: Men Act, Women
Appear. The woman is the object of the gaze, they look at themselves as objects of sight.
Men are seen as active doers, exemplified in this commercial from Marlboro.
The male figure in the ad appears at rest, but it is
strongly implied that he may just be resting from
doing his job on the land, aided by the horse, both of
which - wild land and wild animal - he tames and
domesticates to his will. His pose indicates that he will
spring into action the moment he lights and smokes
his cigarette.
From the combined viewpoint of the Eco-Marxists and
Eco-feminists, the apocalyptic, pastoral and
wilderness tropes, along with the Cornucopian
position efface the importance of gender, class, and

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context in understanding the way we look at nature, and by extension, the way we look at
disasters. Eco-Marxists and Eco-feminists aim to focus, not just on the damage - to
human life, to property and way of life - but also on perceptions and practices in our
everyday life that may affect the way we understand and act before, during and after
disasters.

Biocentric, Organismic Frame

Deep Ecology
The mechanistic and anthropocentric positions and tropes discussed above can also be
described as instances of shallow ecology. Saving the earth is important for the sake of
saving our skins. The strategies are often short term, quick fixes. Recycle, reuse, create
substitutes. Use technology creatively and sustainably. There is no accompanying
overhaul in lifestyle, and consciousness. On the other hand, deep ecology posits a

change in paradigm. Home is not just a place where humans dwell, separate from the
non-human world; home includes that world, which is not an inert resource, but is alive,
with an agency or will of its own. Morris Berman describes that connectedness as one of
enchantment, where rocks, trees, rivers and clouds were all seen - millions of year ago
down to the eve of the scientific revolution - as wondrous, alive, and human beings felt
at home in this environment. The cosmos, in short, was a place of belonging. Today, at
least at the level of the mind, the story of the modern world is that of progressive
disenchantment. From the 16th century on, mind has been expunged from the natural
world. (Berman, Chapter 1 on UVLe Board)
For deep ecologists, the call is for a reenchantment of the world, for reconnection with
nature, which we will protect and save for its intrinsic value. The process of
reenchantment is wholistic, long term, rooted in magic, beyond logic, beyond surface
appearances. The relationship between humans and non-humans is egalitarian, not one
based on hierarchy and domination. The self is one with, instead of separate from the
rest of creation.
In the Philippines, this sense of interconnectedness beyond the self is concretely
manifested in the practice of Pakikipag-kapwa which roughly translates into treating
your kapwa (fellow beings) as equals (Kerkvliet, 1990: 273 in Datuin 2014). Kapwa cannot

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be framed or subsumed under the I/they, self/others, I/non-I binarist Western schema; as
kapwa, one is not separated from the others but rather the self, the One is inextricably
part of others. Pakikipag-kapwa translates into helping out, or providing tulong, not as a
matter of charity or simple volunteerism (as in giving back, for example) but should be
seen as addressing a need (kailangan), and that it is but the humane (makatao) and
proper or right thing to do (dapat, karapatdapat) for a person to retain and reclaim a
sense of dignity (karangalan, pagkatao, amor propio) and humanity (pagiging tao). Pantay
pantay na karapatan or equal rights are not just about addressing discrepancies in what
is delivered and what is promised in terms of material and basic needs, but rather they
are about not being scorned and treated as less than human just because one lives in
poverty or naghahabol-hininga. To be deprived of resources is equal to being deprived of
the means, not just to survive or address basic needs, but to live decently and to be
treated decently as equals.
In deep ecological terms, our kapwa can include not just humans, but other creatures in
an ecosystem where Man does not have dominion over others, as illustrated in these
diagrams:

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Deep ecology is exacting and requires a lot of time and effort; consciousness and lifestyle
overhauls do not happen overnight, especially since - as previously pointed out positions and tropes are deeply ingrained into the unconscious. But perhaps we can find
and learn from traces of deep ecological practices that have survived in traditional
societies through time. Among the Aytas of Pinatubo, land is life, not a commodity; it is a
legacy handed down to them by Apo Namalyari. To lose their land is to lose their lives
and their claim to dignity and humanity. The essay by Cynthia Zayas (UVLe board) may
prove instructive, at the very least, for understanding why the Aytas were resistant about
evacuating despite Pinatubos then impending eruption. (For further details, read the
essay by Cynthia Zayas on UVLe) My essay on the Pasig River and a ritual in Batanes,
where I conducted a short field work for a documentary is also an effort to understand
how a community can preserve a watershed from a deep ecology position. (on UVLe
board).
Deep ecology also intersects in significant ways with ecophenomenology, which draws
on some of the principles outlined by Heideggerian philosophy. In the next section, I
draw on the concepts of intermodality and poiesis to explain this position.
Ecophenomenology: Intermodality and poiesis
In your sound collection, you presented your notion of home as refuge, a comfort zone,
and for one group at least, a zone of tension. The repertoire was pretty narrow, perhaps
they were anchored on commonsense notions of home as family, home as journey to
and from the house, home as routine. Almost all submissions were arranged in a literal,
linear narrative structure: alarm clock ringing, rooster crowing, sounds of cooking,
snippets from mass media, conversations, vehicles.
The point of the exercise was to make you more attuned to your environment by
sharpening your senses, which we take for granted as we go about our daily routines.
The idea was to feel and experience (danas, dama) the world around us beyond the
literal and beyond our usual ideas of what home is and what music is. In the process, we
are reminded that home is contiguous with a larger world and that music, as the Robin
Williams character in August Rush tells us, is Gods little reminder that there is something

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else besides us in the universe and there is harmonic connection between all living
beings everywhere, even the stars.
When the work of art is put to work, we open up to the world and come alive, as a
sensitive advisee drawing on the concept of intermodality by Paolo Knill, puts it. She

writes: This sensory capacity grounds us in the moment and feeds us a whole spectrum
of information that forges the cogs that assemble our way of being. In so doing, it
expands our initial contexts, which becomes consequently molded by this constant
exchange between the body and the environment. As we attune ourselves to the living,
breathing world around us, we develop a heightened sense of being that makes us more
active participants to even the most subtle, mundane moments of our everyday life.
(Gerente 2016: 11). As the TED talk video on the link between art history and the real
world tells us, our sharpened senses can serve a practical function (see UVLe board). Our
powers of observation and perception occasioned by looking at and analyzing art lead us
to see events from different perspectives - a skill that does not begin and end in an
esoteric plane of the fine arts, but have applicability in dealing with real world
problems. For example,

VC Pacheco sharply observed that in

this photo by Kathleen Vinoya, the
roadside sign of (two) people

crossing the road (is) quite ironic

(even jarring?) with the boat in the
foreground, di ba?
Scientifically and literally, the irony
implies a breakdown of basic
services and normal affairs; on the
other hand, we can also focus on the
affective associations (dama), and
suggest that each person gathers

in her/his mind various associations

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with rain or with flood, some are more photographic memories than others. And the
longer those experiences were, perhaps in days or weeks, the stronger the memories. I
wonder what other pleasant experiences and memories may possibly "offset" a person's
unpleasant associations with rain or with flood? (VC Pacheco).
How about you? What are possibilities can you bring forth?
From these reflections, we come to realize that art and artmaking are thus more than
expressions, reflections or representations of emotions, events or ideas. Nor is it a
finished product or object a perspective that puts more emphasis on the outcome
(artwork) instead of the process (work of art). The art as object paradigm sees the arts as
a tool for producing an expected, often profitable, outcome, in this case a submission on
UVLe which will earn points. The notion of art as process is anchored on the idea of
poiesis - of bringing forth through creative revealing, responsiveness and

interconnectedness or pakikipagkapwa, thus opening up many other forms and

opportunities for thinking, acting and feeling outside the box.
The #Ulan #Baha #Hugot Exercise has a number of poietic examples. Let us take Abigail
Cutarans entry:
Set Fire to the Rain by Adele
But I set fire to the rain, (But I set fire to the flood,)
Watched it poured as I touched your face,
Well, it burned while I cried
'Cause I heard it screaming out your name, your name!

I set fire to the rain, (I set fire to the flood,)

And threw us into the flames,
When it fell, something died,
'Cause I knew that that was the last time, the last time!
This song is a metaphorical explanation of Adele's past love story of what a painful
heartbreak she'd gone thru. Scientifically you could not set fire to the rain, it is absurd,
rain does not catch fire. To someone who would not think deep enough, the song would

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completely not make sense at all. But to Adele the song is about tears and "burning the
pain away..."
Poiesis is about imaging and imagining other worlds - not to escape this one but by
making present and bursting open a broader range of experiences, interactions and
realizations. It does not mean we ignore the overwhelming feeling of grief and pain or
wish away the death and destruction resulting from disasters or pretend they did not
happen. We acknowledge the feeling and the event and put it in perspective and a larger
context - our bodies, other bodies, and the world around us. When we open ourselves to
the rhythm of the cosmos and the pulses of the larger life world, we are able to sync the
beats of our heart and of our breaths with that larger world. In effect we draw strength
from that process of fully sensing and interacting with the material, spatial and temporal
environment.

In Sum:
Disasters are totalizing events. They result in injury, death, suffering and loss. However,
they are not uni-dimensional and unified physical phenomena that can be understood by
one discipline alone. As a contribution from the arts, this paper highlighted the social
nature of disaster and the role of deeply ingrained and widely held beliefs about nature.
Several paradigm shifts have been forwarded but one of the most important is the shift
in the concept of art - from one of object (art work) to process (work of art) and from one
of fixed and prescriptive outcomes to one of openness to many possibilities within the
noise and routines of the everyday. From such transformative and processual
viewpoint, we may find a springboard for action, for change.

Bibliography
FROM UVLe for further reading
Berman, Morris, Chapter 1, Reenchantment of the World
De La Paz, Cecilia, Discourse on Disasters in Philippine Festivals
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Garrard, Greg. Ecocriticism

Zayas, Cynthia, Land is Life
References Cited
Datuin, Flaudette May, "Interrupting the 'Roll Call' of Suffering: Bearing Wit(h)ness
through Art." Trauma, Memory and Transformation: Southeast Asian Experience. Ed.
Sharon Bong. Strategic Information and Research Development Centre, Malaysia, 2014.
Gerente, Zoila. Resyncing Capacities: Exploring the Role of Art Practice in Post-Disaster
Recovery. Undergraduate Thesis, 2016.
Versoza, Maria Lyra, Disasters: The Philippines. Ginhawa: Well Being in the Aftermath
of Disasters. Ed. Lourdes Ladrido-Ignacio. Philippine Psychiatrists Association and World
Association for Psychosocial Rehabilitation, 2011.

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