Sociology of Culture Commons^™

From The Wealth Of Nations To The Common Well-Being Of The Planet : Toward An Ecologically-Embedded Economy = 从国家财富到地球的共同福祉 : 朝向内在于生态体系的经济体, Tak Hing, Erebus Wong

South South Forum 南南論壇

地球上生命体的共同进化是复杂性增加的过程。新的信息不断被加进现有的复杂系统里。共同进化应该被理解为生命体与生态系统作为一个复杂整体的过程。达尔文式“物竞天择”与资本主义讴歌的竞争已是陈腐的范型，它们与其他有害的社会-经济以及科学教条，内涵灾难的种子，导致今天的生态灾难，把人类推向当前社会-经济的死胡同。

要超越当前这种毁灭性及自杀式的文明模式，我们需要从基本上反思在资本主义扩张时期所塑造出来的种种社会经济及科学范型。长期以来，它们一直实际上服务于资本的利益。

生命过程不能被化约为简单的能量与物质的转换。这种观念是以等价交换的市场法则为模型。在生物体的能量与物质，与散布在环境中的质能，在本质上是不同的。生命不仅仅是由混沌中演化出秩序。迭排的秩序，与无序一样缺乏生命。生命的现象是复杂性，是迭排秩序(可预测)与无序(不可预测)之外的第三种存在模态。相对于熵(随机性)，生命创造逆熵(negentropy)或信息负熵(intropy)，即是蕴藏信息的丰富性。蕴藏在有机体及生态系统里、以信息负熵形态存在的潜能量，赋予生命无穷无尽的创造性。

可是，资本主义的生产及消费方式，却误以有效率地转化能量和物理为创造性(被视为创造财富)，结果导致资源耗尽，毫无节制地把能量及废物耗散进环境里。由于砍伐森林及碳排放而导致的全球暖化困境，正是这种方式导致的其中一个恶果。资本主义把社会圈(以及生态圈)变成一个充斥商品(消费品)的荒漠，干扰了环境的热平衡调节(thermal homeostasis)，增加环境中的熵，减弱生态体系的信息负熵(生物多样性衰竭)，把地球推向热死亡(thermal death)。

从这个角度来看，很多当前被讴歌推崇的市场教条，实质上危害生物圈的健全。这个历史进程的顶点是全球化。它试图以等价交换的普遍法则来组织一个单一的全球市场。这项教条的最近其中一个表现是碳交易机制的设计。它的前题是在某地所造成的干扰，可以通过在另一处作出相应的补偿来补救。这种思考模式跟犹太-基督教(西方中心主义)的普世-超验主义(universal-transcendentalism)不无关系。它不理解生态系统作为一种复杂适应系统(complex adaptive system)，是本土化于某特定的生物区域里(bio-regionally localized)。某个复杂适应系统遭受干扰时的恢复力，取决于它是否能在它的界限上保持一定的“非通信”区域( “non-communication” zone)，尽管地球上所有生态体系最后都是紧密地连结在一起。本土化的民生体系，也是如此。

为了抗衡这种错误的科学范式及经济教条，我们需要想象展望人类与自然以及人类之间共存的新方式。

经济体(Ekonomy): 从金钱术回归至照顾我们的家园

我们别忘记：生态(ecology)与经济(economy)在字源上，都是源自古希腊字根 oikos，家园。经济一词由oikos和nemein (照顾)。由此看来，生态学和经济，都是关乎睿智地照看我们的家园，我们的栖息地。很不幸，经济的发展方向，恰恰朝向阿里土多德二千多年前早已警告我们的金钱术(krematistike)，并且达到出神入化、自毁家园的境地。为了睿智地栖息于地球之上，与其他生命体分享生物圈，我们需要寻回筑建经济体(economy)的古老智慧。我们要学习去除长期灌输给我们、根深柢固的经济价值观，把快乐幸福与物质追求适当地分开。我们应该寻回人类交换时所蕴含的丰富文化内涵，唾弃经济学(economic)所虚构的以物易物(barter trade)神话。我们要有勇气和创造力去想象和展望新的经济体(ekonomic)生产及财富分享方式。现行那种以最终制成品进行自由竞争的方式，必须被扬弃。我们必须正视所谓的自由选择(free to choose)所隐含的巨大生态及社会代价。其中一项急切的任务，是要重新创造新的货币形式，限制现在赋予金钱的无限权力。简言之，我们要寻求与同伴分享资源的新艺术。

新的社群伦理：公有共享与存在的脆弱

听起来有点奇怪，可是，作为群居动物，我们需要寻找新的群居方式。建基于排他性的身分认同来凝聚群体的方式，需要被扬弃。同样，以公民社会(civil society)和民族国家(nation-state)来代表普遍性身分认同的历史形式，也最终需要被超越。也许对于各种普遍性身分认同，我们都要持怀疑的态度。别忘记，身分认同总是内嵌于特殊的条件里(embeddedness of identity)。有别于建基于相似性来建构身分认同，另一条可行的途径是通过有意识地分享我们公有共享的事物来培养群体凝聚性。我们明白各自不可泯灭的差异性，却愿意通过分享和合作投身于不同层次的命运共同体。说到最后，地球上全部生物区域、所有生态体系，包括我们所有人的命运，都是密切连系交织成一个整体。生态系统，与人类存在一样，紧密相连，却又脆弱，把我们连结成一个命运共同体。人类所面临的最巨大历史任务，正是想象展望超越民族国家的新社会群体(sociality)形式。

简言之，我们需要发掘新的、却是悠久的社群伦理，与同伴，包括所有生命体，一起分享这个星球。

人类新的栖居模式：适当规模的城乡整合

最后，却可能是最迫切的问题，是逆转超级都市的发展趋势。超级都市的出现，可能是文明史上最具灾难的进程。这些超级都市像癌肿瘤般吸噬所有资源；它们像污水渠般不断向环境排放污染物，像热板般灼烫大气层。超级都市的整个根本基建设计都错得具灾难性。人类要继续生存在地球上，必须想象及展望新的城乡整合。适当规模的城镇要有机地和乡村融合。当然，这同时需要发展新的农业耕作模式。

简言之，我们需要寻找在地球上栖息的新模式。

How Is Collectivism Possible In Rural China?, Kin Chi Lau

South South Forum 南南論壇

With the reform policy of 1979, the household responsibility system effectively and largely dismantled the people’s commune system that had been in place for over a decade during the Cultural Revolution. Partly as an imperative policy from above, and partly as an aspiration of peasant households to claim right of usage over a piece of land, over 90% of rural assets that were collectively owned and managed by the village community have been de-collectivized. Nevertheless, fragments of collectivity have remained in diverse forms, with variations in terms of ownership or management.

Two cases have drawn much media attention: the Huaxi …

Our Food Sovereignty And Well Living In The Peruvian High Plains, Eliana Apaza

South South Forum 南南論壇

We the aymara people in the region of Puno in Peru, consider that everyone’s life is important, that is why our life is based in living as a community with everything that surrounds us. One of the main activities of our people is the growth of agricultural diversity, focused mainly in the potato, the broad beans, the quinoa, the barley and other crops, each one is planted and cultivated in an specific way and it is consumed in a different way. The families cultivate with a loving raise, before, they used to do a ritual to ask for permission to …

Land Grabbing In Africa, Khadija Sharife

South South Forum 南南論壇

At least 80 million hectares of land have been recently purchased in what are being termed ‘land grabs,’ around three quarter of which are in Africa. The deals, displacingAfrica’s small farmers, primarily women, are often facilitated by the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation, acting as a one-stop-lease-shop via Investment and Export Promotion Agency. These agencies remove obstacles allegedly blocking Foreign Direct Investment by constructing sovereign-backed toolkits, streamlining for investors issues ranging from land ownership, availability, titling, to legal obligations, taxes and duties. While the architecture of land grabbing is an extension of the neoliberal system, a new set of land-grabbers …

Contestation, Cooperation And The Transborder Commons, Carl Middleton

South South Forum 南南論壇

The Mekong River traces its 4,900 kilometer path southwards through the heart of mainland Southeast Asia from its source in the Himalayan Tibetan plateau through Yunnan Province of China, Myanmar/ Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Host to the world’s largest inland fishery and vital to agriculture, the Mekong River is a transboundary commons that is central to the livelihoods, local economies and culture of millions of people living within the basin.

Mainland Southeast Asia is rapidly industrializing, urbanizing, and undergoing a process of regional economic integration shaped predominantly by neoliberal economic policies. Economic growth is uneven, however, and large …

Mapping The Global Land Grab, Neide Vargas

South South Forum 南南論壇

2008年以后，在美联储、英格兰银行、欧洲央行宽松的货币政策的刺激下，国际金融资本在世界范围内的圈地运动愈演愈烈。目前，一些中心国家及边缘国家的农业公司、资本集团之间展开了圈地竞赛，目标主要集中在拉丁美洲、非洲，以及澳大利亚。在这一形势下，考虑到农产品的生产与需求的现状，农地，或者有潜力开发为农地的土地在未来会变得愈加稀缺。我们试图帮助理解这一趋势。

这一场圈地运动是由国际投资基金、主权财富基金、各国国有产业集团、农业企业等资本集团掀起的。各国政府在其中扮演了推动和刺激企业圈地的角色，为全球范围的圈地活动提供了平台。很多政府和多边机构为此提供了有利的政策。这里面的各种关联错综复杂，难以理清，投机交易与套利活动涉及很多国家和组织，编织成了一张全球性网络，并呈持续扩张态势。目前的土地交易，都是资本在追逐短期利润的投机动机下进行的，这将给上述相关地区带来很大的风险和不确定性，我们将用GRAIN的数据揭示当下这一圈地运动的特点。

转基因话语、利益结构与基因竞赛 = Transgenicdiscourse, Interest Structure And Gene Competition, Li Zhou

South South Forum 南南論壇

由于近些年生物技术的突飞猛进，世界各国已经展开了一场类似于核竞赛，又远比核竞赛更为隐秘和严重的基因竞赛，我们需要认识转基因竞赛甚至战争的性质，走出技术化的缺乏主体性的转基因话语讨论。转基因研发推广过程中，有七股力量已经联合，形成一个利益共同体，使得转基因大潮势不可挡：跨国粮商得利润、外国政府得战略、地方政府得政绩、中资公司得好处、科研院所得经费、国家部门得租金、种粮农民得闲暇。我们需要认识让生存逻辑和生命逻辑，服从于商业逻辑和政治逻辑的转基因利益结构，认识其可能导致人类生存危机等系统性风险，旗帜鲜明地反对转基因育种和产业化推广；退一步讲，即使进行转基因技术的研发，也要采用国家集中体制，以防止类似核扩散的基因技术不可控行为的发生，阻止一场在种子领域的殖民掠夺；同时重点发展和推广常规育种，强化农田水利建设，采用更为安全可行的措施，以阻止人类在转基因领域的自杀式竞争。

Since the rapid development of the biotechnology in recent years, the countries in the world have already started a new kind of competition—genetic competition, which is similar to nuclear arms race but far more secret and serious. We need to recognize the nature of the transgenic contest and genetic war, getting out from the subjectivity-absent technical discussion on transgenic technology. In the process of transgenic research and development(R&D), seven forces have already jointed and formed a “community of interests”, pushing the transgenic trends overwhelming: the international food dealers gain profits, foreign government wins strategy, local government achieves performance, Chinese-funded …

Structural Crisis, Speculative Attacks And Food Sovereignty, Pedro Paez

South South Forum 南南論壇

The present crisis is not only a financial one. It is a crisis of civilization. The convergence of long term contradictory processes in several levels (economic, demographic, ecological, etc.) has reduced capital’s margin of maneuvering with historical progressive projection, opening the room for very painful situations for large segments of Earth’s population.

The anti-fascist forces victory in the Second Word War triggered the constitution of a series of regimes of accumulation with significant endogenous dynamics of growth based upon re-distributive patterns at the domestic and the international levels that expressed the new balance of power. The pervasive destruction of local …

Feeding World’S Hungry-Food Security Or Food Sovereignty, Vinod Raina

South South Forum 南南論壇

The increased wealth creation by nations stands in contrast with the extent of hunger around the World. By hunger we simply mean the want or scarcity of food in a country. The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) estimates that 925 million people in the World are hungry. Against a total World population of 6.8 billion, this means 1 out of every 7 in the World goes hungry. Most of them live in developing countries, and sixty-five percent of them live in only seven countries: China,India,Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic of Congo,Indonesia,PakistanandEthiopia(FAO, 2011). Furthermore, each year more people die due to hunger …

Economic Resilience : Including A Case Study Of The Global Transition Network, Julie Richardson

South South Forum 南南論壇

This paper explores the dynamic properties of organisms and ecosystems that make them so resilient and capable of adapting to changing circumstances, allowing them to maintain an overall condition of coherence, wholeness and health while living in balance within the resources of the planet. Key principles of resilient ecological systems are explored including: self-regulation; positive and negative feedback; diversity; scale and context; cooperation; emergence and novelty; and ecological tipping points. In contrast, market based economic systems can produce unstable growth with unintended destruction of cultural and species diversity and homogenisation of global life-styles. The paper re-examines fundamental economic principles using …

Alternatives In Times Of The Reinvention Of Capitalism, Pablo Solon

South South Forum 南南論壇

Crisis & reconfiguration

1. A new attack to the labor force
2. Privatization of public services and knowledge (the commons)
3. The expansion of financialisation
4. A new assault to Mother Earth: Natural capital
5. Intervention, criminalization and war

The Implosion Of The Contemporary Global Capitalist System = 当代资本主义体系的内爆, Samir Amin

South South Forum 南南論壇

Contemporary capitalism is a capitalism of generalized monopolies. By this I mean that monopolies are now no longer islands (albeit important) in a sea of other still relatively autonomous companies, but are an integrated system. Therefore, these monopolies now tightly control all the systems of production. Small and medium enterprises, and even the large corporations that are not strictly speaking oligopolies are locked in a network of control put in place by the monopolies. Their degree of autonomy has shrunk to the point that they are nothing more than subcontractors of the monopolies. This system of generalized monopolies is the …

主权外部性与币缘战略 : 关于发展陷阱的案例研究 = Sovereignty Externalities And Currency-Strategy Development Trap Case Studies, Tiejun Wen

South South Forum 南南論壇

本报告以全球化危机向发展中国家转嫁为据，提出两个论点。其一，大多数发展中国家因“成本转嫁”而沉落于发展主义陷阱的根本教训，在于其在向殖民主义宗主国争取国家“合法”独立的交易中，已经形成了失去资源和经济主权的负外部性。其二，当前金融资本时代强权政治控制的币缘战略不同于传统的产业资本时代的地缘战略，并且在以国家为单位的全球竞争框架中，客观地形成了金融主导国家币权为核心的“币权三角”；由此衍生出国家竞争的微笑曲线，乃是制造业国家承担金融化制度成本的内在机制。

这些理论创新，可以解释包括中国在内的一般发展中国家的困境成因。

本文把通过非暴力形式的政治谈判这种“交易”来形成发展中国家独立主权进程中与生俱来的制度性缺陷，称为“主权外部性”；把金融资本阶段凭借政治强权维护世界储备货币地位、并据此向能源和食物市场释放过剩流动性，借以把巨额债务转化为他国通胀危机的“巧实力”运作，称为“币缘战略”。

这两者都是发展中国家难以改出发展陷阱的主要原因，也是金融全球化阶段内在形成国家竞争的微笑曲线的前提条件。

Based on an understanding that the crises of core nations are being transferred to developing countries and thus globalized, two perspectives are highlighted here: first, the development trap most developing countries are caught in due to “cost transfer” by advanced countries can be attributed to the negative externalities of having lost part of their resources and economic sovereignty in the transaction with their former suzerains for gaining “legitimate” independence; second, the currency-strategy of political dominance by the super power in contemporary financial capitalism is different from traditional geo-strategy in the age of industrial capitalism. In the …

American Ways: A Course In Contemporary U.S. Culture For International Students, Christopher D. Fitch

Capstone Collection

International student populations are increasing in large proportions at universities across the United States. The onset of culture shock and difficulty communicating and relating with their new peers compounds an already difficult situation. Universities and colleges need a method to accommodate these students and help facilitate their transitions into a completely new academic and social environment.

“American Ways: A course on Contemporary American Culture for International Students” is a semester-long university level course designed to give knowledge and understanding of “American” culture to international students attending U.S. higher education institutions. It will cover topics surrounding U.S. culture that …

Setting The Agenda: Asia And Latin America In The 21st Century, Ariel C. Armony

Center for Latin American Studies Publications

Latin America and Asia are among the world’s fastest growing regions. Trade between Asia and Latin American and Caribbean countries has risen dramatically in recent years. It is undeniable that Asia now plays a formidable role in the economic development of the region. This publication emerges out of the University of Miami’s 2012 “Asia and Latin America in the 21^st Century” conference, where leaders from academic, policy, business, and media communities from around the world convened to address the macroeconomic trends, trade relations, and sociopolitical trends that have emerged as the links between Asia and Latin America strengthen. Organized …

La Cosmovisión Andina En La Comunidad De Amaru: Una Investigación Sobre La Condición De La Filosofía Andina A Partir De La Presencia De Sectas Religiosas Y El Turismo., Renzo F. Moyano Condía

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

El siglo XXI puede ser definido por dos grandes procesos; la globalización acelerada y la pérdida de la diversidad biológica y cultural. Usando métodos antropológicos para describir transformaciones dentro la cosmovisión (filosofía o religión) de una comunidad, me enfoco en los grandes cambios dentro de la manera de vivir en la comunidad indígena de Amaru en el distrito de P’isaq, que de una manera u otra ha forzado transformaciones en los valores centrales de su cosmovisión. El propósito es de dos partes. Uno es describir los valores de la cosmovisión andina y los de la cosmovisión judeo-cristiana para poder claramente …

Ambitions Of A Global City: Arts, Culture And Creative Economy In 'Post-Crisis' Singapore, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper chronicles some of the key policies pertaining to the arts and culture in post-independent Singapore. A brief summary is first provided of the early (1960s and 1970s) cultural policy focusing on the harnessing of arts and culture for nation-building purposes, followed by the subsequent (1980s) recognition that the arts and culture had tourist dollar potential. The paper then expands on the cultural/creative economy policy of the 2000s, in which arts, heritage, media and design are recognized for their economic value (beyond their role in tourism to include their export value and their importance in attracting global workers). The …

Delayed Marriage And Ultra Low Fertility - The Confounding Challenges To Social Stability, Paulin Tay Straughan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Much of Singapore’s recent problems with social acceptance and integration of foreigners is attributed to the city-state's sustained ultra-low fertility. To augment labour shortage, state policies on immigrant were eased to facilitate an inflow of guest workers. The backlash on rapid globalisation of the workforce was felt acutely when the non-resident segment rose to account for over 20% of the almost 5.2 million population. To ease social tension between locals and foreigners, the city-state has to curb reliance on foreign labour through ensuring a steady growth of the local population. This paper discusses the social, cultural and structural barriers to …

Whose Gay Town Is Cape Town? An Examination Of Cape Town’S Gay Village And The Production Of A Queer White Patriarchy., Mollie Beebe

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

My ISP works to illuminate the diversity of LGBTQI experiences and lives in Cape Town. I do this through discussing the privilege necessary to "come out" in Cape Town and, subsequently, have access to The Pink Village, Cape Town's gay district. By Bringing in theory on "coming out" as a white experience and the queer movement as re-centering white normativity, I work to openly discuss how a history of exclusion has lived on in Cape Town's gay district and pushed the more marginalized gay communities out of the city center. Through academic research, participant observation in both the gay village …

Improbable Art: The Creative Economy And Sustainable Cluster Development In A Hong Kong Industrial District, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

A noted Singapore-based cultural geographer and specialist on Asia analyzes the emergence and functioning of a unique artistic cluster in Hong Kong's Fotan light industrial district. The objective of the research is to understand how artistic work in the cluster, despite some challenges, has thus far proven sustainable in cultural, social, and economic terms. The findings of this case study permit further clarification of several dimensions of an emerging theory of cultural/creative clusters, which should be considered as distinct from business and industrial clusters. Selective comparisons between the Fotan cluster and the Moganshan Lu cluster in Shanghai demonstrate that cultural/creative …

Mark D. Anderson. Disaster Writing: The Cultural Politics Of Catastrophe In Latin America. Charlottesville And London: U Of Virginia P, 2011. Print. 241 Pages, Martín Camps

College of the Pacific Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

Christianity, John C. Hawley

English

According to tradition and to the early church historian Eusebius, Christianity was preached in Ethiopia by the apostle Matthew before it reached Europe; Mark the evangelist is said to have established the church in Alexandria in 43 C.E. What is clear is that some of the most important early Christian theologians were from northern Africa: Augustine, from present-day Algeria, and Clement and Origen, from present-day Egypt. The monastic movement in the early church drew its inspiration from these writers. By the 4th century, Christianity was well established in what are today Ethiopia and Eritrea, and was centered in a city …

Choice, Coercion, Capabilities And Conflict: Multilingualism, Human Development And Peacekeeping In A Globalized World, Megan R. Thompson

Honors Projects

The development of English into an international lingua franca is not an inevitable result of globalizing forces. Instead, the “triumph” of the English language and the consequent decline of the world’s linguistic diversity cannot be viewed in isolation of its parallel history of conquest, violence, power and exploitation. Today, the languages privileged by the powerful—not only English, but also other dominant languages or standard varieties of those languages—determine access to social, economic and political mobility. This fact renders any discussion of language “choice” irrelevant—when a choice yields the sacrifice of basic human capabilities on one hand and the denial of …

African Development And China-African Relations, Anshan Li

South South Forum 南南論壇

No abstract provided.

Militarism, Conflict And Women's Activism : Challenges And Prospects For Women In Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone = 軍國主義, 衝突及婦女的行動 : 利比里亞, 尼日利亞, 塞拉利昂婦女的挑戰與前景, Margo Okazawa-Rey

South South Forum 南南論壇

No abstract provided.

Art Of Resistance = 抗爭之藝術, Ana Amorim

South South Forum 南南論壇

In 1988 I made a radical decision to start a 10 year Performance Project. The main premise for this project was that my life was art and I was going to collect one evidence of my living, at the end of the day for 10 years. I decided that this evidence was going to be a mental map (Figure 2) of my walks during the day. I also decided that I would never exhibit in commercial galleries, or in spaces where fees where charged. This project has been extended since the year 2000 and it will only stop at the …

Livelihood And Living For The Youth In Latin America = 拉丁美洲青年人的人生與生活, Alicia Ojeda Santana

South South Forum 南南論壇

I am part of the despairing middle class in Mexico, a generation of young people who went to private schools, who went to college, who speak English, live on their own and have a job. I am part of a minority, and even that seems exaggerating, only around of 17% of the total population actually gets in to a college in Mexico. And I say despairing because the crisis is fast finishing with this middle class social stratus

There has been awareness about the crisis for some years now, but poverty has always been a part of Mexico’s reality. I …

Double Challenges To Japanese Farmers : Nuclear Accident And Transpactfic Regional Partnership = 日本農民的雙重挑戰 : 核危機及太平洋區域的合作關係, Takemasa Ando

South South Forum 南南論壇

For a while after Japan was struck by a major earthquake and tsunami on 11 March this year, gloomy and depressing atmosphere was dominant in Japanese people. As soon as the disaster occurred, corporations refrained from distributing their commercial messages (CMs) on TV. Japanese people are usually exposed by the enormous amount of CMs, but could not but repeatedly watch CMs produced by AC (Advertising Council Japan), a private non-profit agency, during the few weeks. Most of the agency’s CMs are more public than those of other private companies, such as a CM to enhance women’s awareness of breast cancer …

The Chernobyl Disaster : Reflection After 25 Years = 切爾諾貝爾核災難25年後的反思, Valentin Yakushik

South South Forum 南南論壇

The adverse technogenic impact of industrial accidents that have gripped the world in recent decades definitely testifies to the problem-ridden character of contemporary economic and technological development. This is especially evident on the example of nuclear industry, which proved to be a source of dangerous pollution in case of potential (and real) catastrophes, as recently borne out by the Fukushima disaster. In this regard, the issues of Chernobyl disaster once again become the part of the discourse centered on the analysis of global nuclear industry problems. Likewise, current situation in Ukraine demands deeper investigation of the problems of technological development, …

60 Years Of Rural Reconstruction Movement In The Philippines (Prrm) = 回顧菲律賓鄉村建設運動60年, Isagani R. Serrano

South South Forum 南南論壇

PRRM did not go to the countryside to disperse buffalos though that’s not necessarily a bad thing. PRRM did disperse buffalos and other farm animals but it went to the countryside for nobler reason---the liberation of the peasant from poverty and oppression. It sought to do this through mass education and mass movement.

By 2012 PRRM will have spanned a period running in parallel to the postwar development history of the Philippines. It was founded in 1952 during the administration of President Magsaysay, called “Man of the Masses”. PRRM peaked in the 1960s, declined in the late 1970s through to …