07.12.07 kulturnatib

Cebu answering

Last Saturday, despite the deafening silence from government, local government particularly, about leading the people in the search for and implementation of solutions to solve global warming, the climate crisis and general environmental degradation, a small corner of the city was in tune with the global movement for just such solutions.

At the Outpost Restaurant, more than a thousand people showed up for an event that was highlighted by a concert with more than 25 local bands, audio-visual presentations on global warming and the simple things individuals can do to contribute to solutions, live feeds via the internet of similar concerts that were taking place in 7 major cities worldwide, performance art pieces and the launching of Greenpeace Philippines' Simple Lang campaign.

This event lasted from a little past 4pm of July 7 until a little past 4am of July 8.

That itself was quite remarkable. Especially since this being the rainy season, the event got rained on intermittently. Yet the people just crowded together under several large tents that had been pitched around the concert area for that eventuality and the music didn't skip a single beat.

More remarkable still was the spirit of voluntarism and civic mindedness that bound up the event starting with the organizers or the conveners group, who, many times, acted on their own initiative without much direction or decree from a central authority.

Also, behind the scenes, were many ordinary individuals who simply started from asking what they could do to help and then proceeded to deliver when they learned what there was to be done.

When an airline turned down the request for a sponsorship of a round-trip ticket for the Greenpeace representative to fly from and to Manila for the reason – quite valid, for sure – that the request was made at the last minute, several individuals stepped up and contributed for those tickets.

That airline would have been one of the biggest big corporate contributor to the event. Yet, the organizers, perhaps conscious that big endorsers tend to end up endorsing themselves, did not aggressively court such endorsements and contributions.
Instead, small local businesses donated goods, products and equipment. The Outpost Restaurant leads this short list. They not only made available the venue gratis but also donated a percentage of sales on drinks for the Bike4U Foundation.

This donation totaled some 18,000 pesos.

The Outpost will likely continue to be the focal point for continuing actions or campaigns to follow up on the initiatives launched during that event as many of those in the organizing group feel should be done.

In the U.S. the campaign for tackling the global warming crisis head-on is led by individual states – California, most prominently – and local governments, while the federal government only now is starting to move away from its denial state that this problem exists and is reaching crisis proportions.

That can be the case here as well. Though more likely to be led my individuals and the private sector as local executives are busy consolidating their power soon after the elections or simply busying themselves with business as usual.

The message of Saturday's event was that it is no longer business as usual. It can no longer be.