Development Studies Program

No copyright infringement intended. Solely done for the partial fulfillment of our ELECLIT Contemporary Short Fiction course under Ms. Erika Carreon in De La Salle University. The original work of Paz Marquez Benitez entitled Dead Stars can be found here: http://www.sushidog.com/bpss/stories/stars.htm

The research presents an analysis of the process of attaining minimum credible defense through the assessment of the progress of the country’s naval modernization. The aim of the study is to assess the Philippine Navy (PN) Sail Plan 2030 under the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Modernization program, which in turn will be used as a component in analyzing the attainment of the minimum credible defense of the country. The assessment of naval military capability of the Philippines pertains to the actions and decisions taken by the government in naval force enhancement. Another agenda of the study is to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the strategies undertaken by the government in attaining minimum credible defense. Vital to the study was the analysis of government agency structures, actions and decisions in enhancing the navy and the problems encountered along the process and the consequences due to the implemented decisions. The primary question which the research aims to answer is ‘how has the Philippines attempted to attain a minimum credible defense through the modernization of the Navy?’ The term enhancement was operationalized by the process of modernization of navy in attaining minimum credible defense. The other term explicated is minimum credible defense through the definitions argued by different scholars. The process by which the questions were answered was through the assessment of the PN Sail Plan 2030 which included the examination of military enhancement policies, national budgeting, government transactions, navy enhancement policies and foreign policies. Qualities of naval equipment and vehicles were studied in relation to the budgets allocated which determined any accomplishment by the Philippine government in attaining minimum credible defense. Findings show that through undertaking the PN Sail Plan 2030, the Philippines aimed at refocusing its empowerment of the Army into reorganizing the entire military forces, balancing the priority for the Army, Navy and Airforce. However, agencies faced organizational, hierarchical, political and material acquisition complications. The success of the government in modernizing its navy has merely substandard results of a recent policy of the current administration wherein problems regarding strict implementation of rules and regulations, hierarchy, bureaucratic effectiveness and efficiency, government strength and consistency of policies from one administration to the next. This led for the researchers to conclude that the attainment of a minimum credible defense has been hampered by the influence of the inefficient implementation of the AFP Modernization.

Anthropologists often have fieldwork experiences that are not explicitly analysed in their writings, though they nevertheless contribute to and shape their ethnographic understandings, and can resonate throughout their work for many years. The task of this volume is precisely to uncover these layers of anthropological knowledge-making.

Contributors take on the challenge of reconstructing the ways in which they originally entered the worlds of research subjects - their anthropological Others - by focusing on pre-textual and deeply phenomenological processes of perceiving, noting, listening and sensing. Drawing on a wide range of research experiences - with the Dogon in Mali, immigrant football players in Spain, the Inuit of the Far North, Filipino transnational families, miners in Poland and students in Scotland - this book goes beyond an exploration of the development of increased ethnographic sensitivity towards words or actions. It also commences the foundational project of developing a new language for building anthropological works, one stemming from recurring acts of participation, and rooted primarily in the pre-textual worlds of the tacit, often non-visible, and intense experiences that exceed the limitations of conventional textual accounts.

This article explores caring through feeding as an important aspect of transnational
family life, and analyzes the practices connected to sending food products home,
supervising what the family eats, and changing consumption patterns. It focuses on Filipino migrants to the United States who maintain transnational ties with their families. With a history of colonial encounter, the United States has been a popular migration destination, and has also strongly infl uenced food consumption.

The study shows the ways in which packages from abroad (balikbayan boxes) express
love and care, and how they allow migrants to control food consumption of the family
in the country of origin. By looking at the goods the immigrants put in the packages,
and the way these are received, it is possible to uncover the dynamics of love, care, and intimacy in transnational families, which often translate into power, tensions, and control among family-members. The article analyses how food products sent in the packages work, bringing with them new ideas and practices, creating imaginaries of migration, and building the social prestige of the immigrant. Using the concept of “social remittances”, the article also shows the changing patterns of food consumption in the Philippines.

Keywords: migration, food parcels, care, consumption patterns, Philippines

This article explores caring through feeding as an important aspect of transnational family life, and analyzes the practices connected to sending food products home, supervising what the family eats, and changing consumption patterns. It focuses on Filipino migrants to the United States who maintain transnational ties with their families. With a history of colonial encounter, the United States has been a popular migration destination, and has also strongly infl uenced food consumption. The study shows the ways in which packages from abroad (balikbayan boxes) express love and care, and how they allow migrants to control food consumption of the family in the country of origin. By looking at the goods the immigrants put in the packages, and the way these are received, it is possible to uncover the dynamics of love, care, and intimacy in transnational families, which often translate into power, tensions, and control among family-members. The article analyses how food products sent in th...

Artykuł prezentuje mapy etnograficzne, które zostały stworzone w ramach dwóch projektów Stowarzyszenia „Pracownia Etnograficzna”, realizowanych w społecznościach lokalnych na Podlasiu i na Krajnie. W artykule pokazujemy, jak przebiegał proces powstawania map w badanych miejscowościach. Pomimo różnic łączy je fakt, że powstały dzięki współpracy etnografek z mieszkańcami miejscowości, a przedstawione na nich treści wyłoniły się dzięki wspólnemu przyglądaniu się lokalnemu dziedzictwu. Celem artykułu jest refleksja nad mapami etnograficznymi jako narzędziem pracy ze społecznościami lokalnymi i jako sposobem na oddanie głosu mieszkankom i mieszkańcom. Zastanawiamy się, jakie zalety ma wykorzystanie tego narzędzia oraz z jakimi wiąże się wyzwaniami. Skłania nas to też do refleksji nad charakterem wiedzy zdobytej i przedstawionej w ten sposób, a także nad wpływem naszych działań na badane społeczności.