The Zamboanga Bloggers Community officially announces the 4th edition of the Mindanao Bloggers Summit on October 29-31, 2010 in the Asia’s Latin City, Ciudad de Zamboanga.

After a number of meetings, the core group composed of  Ryann Z. Elumba, Yolynne Medina, Grace Sojor, Cedrick Zabala and Jerome Locson decided on the theme – THE MINDANAO PROJECT: Weaving Voices Online. This year’s summit aims to create a venue for  Mindanaoan bloggers to discuss issues affecting them and formulate strategies to help reach their common goal of creating a brighter Mindanao.

The summit will be kicked-off by a Blogging Seminar on October 29, 2010. It aims to give newbie bloggers and blogging enthusiasts tips on how to create successful blogs.

The summit proper will be held on October 30, 2010 at Zamboanga’s finest hotel – the Garden Orchid Hotel. Top blogging personalities and guests have already confirmed their participation as speakers during the summit. Registration fee for the summit proper is P500.

Blogs and bloggers from Mindanao will be awarded on the same day during the Philippine Blog Awards – Mindanao.

Zamboanga City has many sights and things to offer to its visitors. The organizers would like to invite you to visit historical and beautiful spots of the city on October 31, 2010.  Partnering for the city tour are the local tourism department and the Committees on Tourism and Science and Technology of the City Council.

In the coming days, updates on the speakers line-up and their topics will be posted in this site. Details on how to register and participate during the seminar and summit proper will also be released soon. In the meantime, the organizers would like to solicit your support by creating a buzz on MBS 4 through your blogs, twitter and social networking accounts.

El ciudad de Zamboanga ta espera con ustedes! Hasta lavista!

UPDATE (September 2) : Please follow this link for the schedule of activities.

VoM is hosting a Mindanao-wide activity aimed at the young men and women of Southern Philippines: a ‘contest’ where the prizes are fulfillment and renewed hope that the national leadership will listen more intently to the voices from the deep South. “Dear P-Noy” is a letter-writing contest open to all youngsters (for the purposes of this activity, 11 to 18 years old) who are living in Mindanao. The letter-writer must express to President Aquino what his/her thoughts or ideas are in terms of making their future a brighter prospect under his presidency.

Please read about the “Dear P-Noy” contest mechanics on the VoM blog.

Take note: the winning letter will be read by the President himself on the 20th of August 2010, during the celebration of Ninoy Aquino’s death anniversary.

I’d like to urge you, dear reader, to encourage your children, nephews / nieces, younger cousins, or any youngster under your care to participate in this worthy undertaking. The whole effort will not only give voice to Mindanao’s calls for peace, development and understanding, it will also teach a valuable lesson to young Mindanaoans. Being part of VoM’s laudable project will teach them about being an active member of society, and about the value of free expression and what it can bring about for their future.

Civil society in Southeast Asia hopes that this statement will reach the ears of the global IGF, the fifth of which will be held in September 2010 at Vilnius, Lithuania. We hope that issues that affect us will be given more weight in discussions during the 5th IGF. To learn more about the Internet Governance Forum, please click here.

ICT Davao Inc. (IDI), the umbrella organization of all information and communications technology associations in Davao City, is spearheading a truly worthy endeavor to help protect the environment. Recognizing that its particular industry is a huge contributor to e-waste, this organization has mounted this campaign to hopefully stave off environmental damage. Such damage, caused by irresponsible dumping of electronic waste (junked computers, mobile phones, etc.), is already a global concern.

The proponents of this advocacy are currently campaigning for 10 million signatures. In order for our political leaders to pay attention to the seriousness of environmental problems, it is imperative that an overwhelming number of advocates join the effort. If you believe in this campaign — it doesn’t matter whether you’re from Davao or not — please lend your support by signing the online petition. Please click here to view the petition (you will see a link for signing near the bottom of the page). Leave your mark and be heard!

There is also a community site that details the advocacy, as well as a Facebook page. It would certainly help if you could display the badge below on your own blogs / websites:

Visit 10 Million Movement

If you take a look at the Facebook page, you’ll learn about the upcoming event, Davao’s e-Tapok e-Waste Collection Event, on 24 & 25 April 2010. I hope to see a lot of bloggers there — the venue will be announced on the FB page.

It would be very fulfilling indeed if this initiative were replicated in other cities of Mindanao, as well as the rest of the Philippines!

It was a well-represented group of concerned parties: there were delegates from mainstream media, non-traditional media outfits such as Mindanao Film & Television Development Foundation, government agencies, the Armed Forces, and from church and civic organizations. The objectives centered around how various entities communicated “Mindanao” to the rest of the world, and what could be achieved to improve this. Much like what was accomplished — or tried to — at Media Nation a few years back. But this time, the initiative came from Mindanaoans.

Supported by the Action for Conflict Transformation (ACT) for Peace Programme, the forum is also seen as a knowledge-sharing venue expected to gather communication practitioners of the various development programs in Mindanao and partner organizations working for Mindanao peace and development, as well as representatives of alternative media, such as bloggers and filmmakers in Mindanao.
(Source: Medco)

I was able to present the purpose and goals of the Mindanao Bloggers Community, and to interface with other organizations, such as Click Mindanao and the Young Moro Professionals Network for possible sharing of ideas and cooperation in joint projects in the foreseeable future.

Although the forum had been in the pipeline for sometime, it came at the heels of the Maguindanao massacre. And it was timely in that it addressed a pressing need to educate the rest of the nation’s communicators in the way they reported on Mindanao issues. In my view, I saw a somewhat more responsible national media — although there were hiccups, such as when a popular broadsheet printed “the lawless Mindanao island” — in its reportage of the mass murders in Ampatuan, Maguindanao.

If the forum participants strive to forge on and see the goals through, the MINDPeace forum can be instrumental in influencing the way Mindanao is perceived from now on. There is a very big danger that the efforts of the MB Community and other like-minded groups in presenting a more holistic view of Mindanao, will go down the drain due to the senseless and deplorable crime committed in Maguindanao Province. But if we persevere, we’ll have a good chance of preventing another mass misconception of Mindanao’s image.

But more than that, the communicators’ forum was meant to be a significant contributing factor “to the ongoing formulation of the Mindanao 2020 Peace and Development Framework Plan, with emphasis on the role of media and communication, to setting the direction for Mindanao in the next decade.”

The MB Community, for its part, will certainly contribute actively to this effort towards peace and development in Mindanao.

The hideous event yesterday in Maguindanao Province has proven yet again how power corrupts the weak and the cowardly. It corrupts people to their core.

The Mindanao Bloggers Community condemns the perpetrators, those criminals, and their masters who allowed the massacre of innocent people. The bloodshed, we are all too aware, was meant as a ploy to spread fear. But we will not be trampled upon: our voices will be heard!

Here are a few blog posts that have come out to denounce the massacre and to call for justice for the families of those who have been viciously murdered:

http://www.gensantos.com/2009/11/24/in-memoriam-of-the-maguindanao-martyrs/
http://www.angdabawenyo.com/2009/11/24/be-vigilant-for-mindanao/
http://jodixa.blogspot.com/2009/11/maguindanao-massacre.html
http://tagadavao.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/manilenyo-in-davao-condemns-the-killings-in-maguindanao/
http://moncasiple.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/maguindanao-massacre/
http://newphilrevolution.blogspot.com/2009/11/datu-andal-ampatuan-suspect-in.html
http://www.uniffors.com/?p=3299
http://otsopya.multiply.com/journal/item/745/Maguindanao_Massacre
http://gandaeversomuch.com/2009/11/lungkot-ever/maguindanao-massacre/
http://www.thepoc.net/commentaries/3121-maguindanao-massacre-another-blow-to-mindanaos-image.html

There were delegates from all over Asia: Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, mainland China, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Vietnam, Myanmar. Conference participants were bloggers, new media watchers and influencers, even traditional media practitioners. A number of the participants became very interested in the Mindanao Bloggers experience, especially in the area of community building, after I delivered my Peace Initiatives through Blogging presentation (see below).

The gist of my talk was to showcase the fast-growing community of bloggers across Mindanao, and the objectives of the MBC. I related to the BlogFest.Asia audience that the point of our existence was not to help achieve peace, but to show the world that there is peace in Mindanao. That Mindanao is a vibrant place with a variety of cultures, traditions, histories and peoples. Interestingly, it was the process of community building that shone through for the BlogFest particpants.

In fact, community building became one of the birds-of-a-feather discussions on the second day. The Vietnamese delegates, in particular, were very interested in the Mindanao experience because, apparently, the idea of organized bloggers doesn’t seem to sit well with their government. Delegates from other countries also expressed varying degrees of difficulty in building bloggers’ communities due to government repression.

Another salient issue that seemed to be common to many was the problem of censorship, most outstanding of which is the ‘Great Firewall of China.’ Delegates from the People’s Republic related to us how challenging it was for bloggers and users of social networking services to attain freedom of speech in a repressive regime. And yet, China has, according to one of the speakers, millions of bloggers.

I was joined by Juned Sonido and Tonyo Cruz at BlogFest.Asia. Juned and I were recommended to the organizers by the Mozilla Foundation, Tonyo by GlobalVoices Online. Juned was supposed to have delivered an update on the Philippine blogosphere, but due to time constraints was not able to; he was, however, able to contribute during the ensuing discussions. Tonyo gave a very inspiring presentation on the contribution of bloggers to society when Typhoon Ondoy hit the Philippines.

During my stay in Hong Kong, I was able to touch base with a couple of non-profit organizations that could become partners of the Mindanao Bloggers Community in its endeavor to achieve its goals. Also, I was able to invite them, as well as the BlogFest delegates, to join us in Zamboanga City for the 4th Mindanao Bloggers Summit. It would really be a welcome and exciting development should our annual Summit become an international event in 2010!

MBC’s presence at BlogFest was, I believe, an opening salvo. There will certainly be more opportunities for us to become involved in more international events. Aside from the recognition that this brings to the Community, our participation in such events brings goodwill to Mindanao, and deeper appreciation of the beauty of our beloved island.

BlogFest.Asia was the first of its kind in the region. Kudos to the organizers and hosts for a wonderful and eye-opening experience! Hopefully there will be a second pan-Asian bloggers conference in another Asian city next year!

The highlight of this year’s Summit was the involvement of the Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy, Ms. Leslie Bassett, who delivered an eye-opening and inspiring presentation about the contributions her government has made to the progress of Mindanao. Ambassador Kristie Kenney, who is a blogger herself, graciously sent in a video greeting as well.

There were only about 80 Summiteers who attended MBS3 (not counting the members of the core group, organizers and speakers); however, it was good to see first-timers and bloggers from never-before-represented cities such as Ozamis and Dipolog. It is one of the objectives of Mindanao Bloggers to see more and more places in Mindanao become part of the Community.

Friends from Metro Manila graced the 3rd Summit, as resource speakers and as guests. We are ever grateful to Aileen Apolo and Janette Toral for the high-value content that they have been contributing to the Summit ever since its inception.

In behalf of the Community, we would like to express our grateful appreciation of the warm welcome extended to the bloggers of Mindanao by Mayor Tinnex Jaraula. The good mayor delivered a rousing speech about what bloggers could accomplish towards addressing issues affecting the Philippine South.

There were quite a few politicians who joined the bloggers at MBS3 — this was expected, owing to the upcoming elections early next year. It was good for the bloggers to hear directly from the candidates about their political platforms and advocacies. However, it should be reiterated that the Mindanao Bloggers Community is a non-partisan entity and does not endorse any candidate or political party.

PBA’09 – Mindanao

What made MBS3 unique was the hosting of the Philippine Blog Awards 2009 – Mindanao Region on the same day. This was the first time that the PBA has held a regional awards effort, and we would like to give honor to the Awardees:

• Uniquely Mindanao Blog: Hola Zamboanga!
• Mindanao Destination Blog: GenSan Online News Mag
• Mindanao Advocacy Blog: SOCSARGEN Peace Initiatives
• Mindanao Bloggers’ Choice Award: DavaoBase

Present during the Awards Night were PBA President Juned Sonido, and Coy Caballes, who directed all three Awards Nights (the main event in Quezon City, and the ones in Cebu and Cagayan de Oro). Also attending MBS3 and PBA’09-Mindanao was Jay De Jesus of TitikPilipino.com.

The next Summit

In order to apprise the assembled participants of the latest developments in established blogging communities across the island, four speakers presented the highlights of the past year’s activities in their localities. Dr. Jaime Haw Jr. did the presentation for Davao City; Avel Manansala for General Santos City; Ryann Elumba for the Zamboanga Peninsula; and Edu Ragpala for the host city.

At the conclusion of MBS 2009, the next host city for the 4th Mindanao Bloggers Summit was announced to a cheering audience. Zamboanga City will be the destination of the bloggers of Mindanao (and friends) in October 2010.

Kudos to the bloggers of Cagayan de Oro! And see you all in Zamboanga next year!

The Zambo bloggers started becoming active and participatory in the Mindanao Bloggers Community around last year. They even sent tentative feelers to the MB core group as to the possibility of their hosting MBS3. This is a clear indication that they could very well be prepared for the opportunity to host the 4th Summit next year…

Present during the meet-up at the Country Food & Tea House (excellent choices of loose-leaf tea, by the way) were Yolynne, Ryann, Jerome, Pics, Jet, James (aka “John Lazy”), Cedric, and others. Some of those who came had never before met their fellow Zamboangueño bloggers. And this is why I found the meet-up gratifiying: because there is an apparent willingness to strengthen the local bloggers’ group in Zamboanga.

I was also able to meet a couple of Tausug bloggers, and they told us that they have a very active group of about 50, and they blog about Moro and Muslim topics, among others. Getting to know them, especially Nur Danial, was an eye opener for me, and has made my resolve to broaden the scope of the Mindanao Bloggers Community even stronger.

We’ll hear more about what’s been going on with the bloggers of Zamboanga Peninsula from Ryann Elumba, who will deliver a report at MBS3. Ryann is the blogger behind Hola Zamboanga!, and the one who designed the creatives for MBS2.

Last 19 October, I also went to Isabela City, Basilan. Another first for me! I’d like to express my gratitude to Yolynne for introducing me to RJ Ian, who took the entire day off on a Monday to show me his beautiful city. Thanks to RJ, I was able to visit some schools in Isabela and encourage high school and college students to take up blogging. We certainly need more man-on-the-street accounts of what’s really happening on the much-maligned island of Basilan.

I’ll certainly make a trip to the Zamboanga Peninsula again soon and, God willing, for a much longer stay. I’d love to be able to visit Pagadian and Ipil, as well as other places in Basilan Province. I’ve visited Dapitan and Dipolog back in 1996, but going back to those places to get acquainted with the bloggers there is on my priority list.

Muchas gracias, amigos de Zamboanga!

Diagnosed with mild learning disability during childhood, Ben’s focus of attention has always been his art. Rightly so. In 2002, he won first place in the Asian Fellowship Painting Competition of the prestigious Vermont Studio Center launched from Vermont, USA. Last year, in New York City, where he based himself after his Vermont fellowship, he was the only Filipino among the more than seventy international, surreal visual artists featured in the grandest-ever birth anniversary celebration of John Milton and what is considered as the greatest English poem, his Paradise Lost (see photo).

666 Screaming by Ben Banez

Earlier, in 2004, the president and executive director of Williamsburg Art & Historical Center in Brooklyn, NYC, while viewing Ben’s painting, commented to a fashion photographer that Banez is the “greatest living surrealist from the Philippines.” This comment from contemporary Surrealism’s prime mover, Terrance Lindall, himself the organizer of Milton’s biggest birthday bash, may have been trivially said. But today it is qualified by another achievement in Banez’s career: his name, profile, and sample work recently are published in a German edition of “The International Encyclopedia of Fantastic, Surrealist, Symbolist, & Visionary Artists” or Lexikon Surreal for short. Thus, Bienvenido Bones Banez, again the only Filipino in the inventory, now appears along with Surrealism greats such as Salvador Dali, Ernst Fuchs, Keith Wigdor, and Jon Beinart to name a few, in the same book.

In page 35 of Lexikon Surreal, Banez’s work, “666 Screaming,” appears in full color (photo); while in page 44 his profile is printed in German. Translated into English, it reads:

BANEZ JR. BIENVENIDO BONES

(Davao City, Mindanao, Philippines, 1962- ) Filipino visionary, male, lives and works in the USA. Studied in the Ford Academy of the Arts in Davao City, Island of Mindanao; associate professor in the Philippine Women’s College-Davao. 2002 winner in the Asian Fellowship Painting Competition of the Vermont Studio Center, Vermont, USA., and has lived since in the USA.

If greatness also means winning an international art fellowship, the admiration of a globally-distinguished artist organizer, and being genus among a roster of historical figures and international achievers, then, this Mindanaoan artist has at least cut himself a slice of the surreal pie.

Banez’s art is expression of belief in Evil gaining dominion over the Earth. Injustice, inequity, conflicts, wars, environmental destruction, and human suffering—all these, manifestations of the rule of Evil—a perception old as Judaeo-Christian doomsday prophets and feasted upon by the human mind ancient to modern.

What makes Banez a paradox among surrealists is his depiction of hellish conditions not as murky depths, but psychedelic sceneries where spectra of colors enthrall viewers. Figures—human, geometric or biomorphic curiosities—lose tactility and become translucent images and luminosities swirling, shimmering, or disintegrating in a world bereft of gravity.

Marvelous colors, resembling jewelry and precious stones, at closer look turn out to be viral, cellular infections, acid-chemical concentrates, or spreading volcanic lava, eating up human figures, corrupting techno systems, and contaminating the cosmos—the artist’s vision of bio-chemical warfare, pandemics, and natural catastrophe combined to destroy the Establishment. Neonlike brushstrokes snake through his canvases—flowing traffic that entangle on physical perversions and gets jammed on a plexus of human agony nestled on infernal flame.

Esthetically mesmerizing the colors are in a Banez canvas, the portrayed perversion and misery of humankind are as morbid and offensive to good taste. Apparently, the artist captures the viewer with chromatic wonder; then, in succeeding moments, pounces on his cognitive faculties with horrors of the wages of sin. This visual irony fits well with Surrealism as originally defined by spokesperson Andre Breton: Beauty must be convulsive, or nothing! This context, Banez earned his ticket to the theater of the absurd where Hieronymus Bosch and company once sat and dreamed.

It is notable that Banez, despite his psychedelic colors, is no drug abuser. His recent works indicate he evolved from common representational surrealism into surreal abstraction, his figures and images losing physical and material volume, reduced to astral constituency, something only the very rare eye of contemplation could see.

Achieving surrealism by abstraction is not common turf of surrealists down history. This is what Banez should look forward to and discover the other half of man’s nature created not to languish in murky infernal depths. It does not set him apart from his fellow Filipinos but pulls them up as artists universal as any other race.

Lexikon Surreal is authored by Gerhard Habarta. Measuring 9 x 6.75 inches, it is printed hardcover, with ribbon. It contains 1,122 artist biographies from 69 countries in 464 pages, with 950 black and white and 458 color reproductions.
For more information visit www.lexikon-surreal.com.