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Image Source: https://leons.cspc.edu.ph/course/index.php?categoryid=35 (2022, January 29)

 Republic of the Philippines
AURORA STATE COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY
Zabali, Baler, Aurora

MIDTERM REQUIREMENT: GROUP ACTIVITY

CHAPTER 4 – Global Divides: The North and South

Case Analysis: From Global to Local; a View from the Philippines

Elias Ibarra gently sipped his cup of espresso amidst a chilly Sunday morning in Vancouver, Canada.
Several police escorts and uniformed personnel suddenly emerged out of the quiet scene and formed a long
queue of entourage that will see a send-off for the Canadian Prime Minister to the G8 Meeting in Germany. For
several days, news about this meeting has sent various cause-oriented groups to speculate on how this gathering
of the world economic powers may affect the plight of the poorer countries. Elias paused for a while and opened
his Huawei smart phone, his Messenger beamed with photos of his two kids and wife as they strolled along the
Hispanic village of Vigan, Ilocos Sur for a vacation. He was happy that his kids finally get to experience what
they previously just see in their History books. It was at this point; he felt a sense of longing for his family but
he shrugged it off immediately.

He thought of his life before in the Philippines. Being born in a family of nine, his father who works as a
taxi driver can barely provide for their needs. There were even instances where they just sleep in order to escape
the hunger from their aching, empty stomachs. After he finished high school, he decided to have himself
employed as a dishwasher in an upscale restaurant in Greenbelt, Makati. From there, he can't help but to realize
the big disparities in living conditions especially whenever he arrives tired and extremely exhausted from work
and traffic in his shanty home in a crowded Baseco Compound settlement in Tondo, Manila. He said to himself
that this cannot go on forever as he desired to also move up from the doldrums of his impoverished condition.

Armed with enough grit, patience and perseverance, he enrolled in TESDA and finished a Skilled Jobs
course as a welder. This became his stepping stone to a better life in Canada for him and his family. His
thoughts flew quickly as he tried to arrange his things and prepare to leave. Suddenly, a notification popped on
his mobile phone and appeared on his FB wall. It showed two dead men in a Drug Buy Bust operation in
Tondo, Manila. He can only say a prayer for his fallen friends, Andres and Jose.
Inquiry Based Learning (IBL) Guide Questions:

1. How is the Global North-South divide depicted in the narrative?

2. Enumerate the economic, political, cultural and even technological realities indicative of the Global
North and South divide as depicted in the case.

3. What reflections can you make of the case and its apparent connection to the Philippines as a part of
the Global South?

4. In what way can you make a parallelism between the Philippines and Elias Ibarra with regard the non-
static nature of the Global North-South divide?

CHAPTER 5 – Asian Regionalism

Direction/s: Essay. Answer the following and briefly discuss your stand.

1. Do you think the *ASEAN can still be used as an effective framework/blueprint towards the process
of regional integration?
 2. Why might the “ASEAN Way” be seen as counterproductive to the concept of cooperation within
the context of regional integration?

3. Do you think regionalization is an effective response towards the emergence of globalization?

4. Why is sovereignty a big key word under the concept of regionalization?

* Changed from the original source.

CHAPTER 6 – Global Media Cultures

Visit the YouTube website and search for Pepe Diokno's (2013) TEDxADMU talk entitled "Who Killed
Philippine Cinema?". After watching the clip, answer the following questions.

(Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plNNkf90jUU)

1. Who killed Philippine Cinema? What would explain the poor state of the country's movie industry?
 2. Why is the South Korean film industry so rich, abundant and successful as compared to the
Philippines'?

3. How is the film industry related to other industries in the market?

4. How can we revive the Filipino film industry?

5. How important are films in the preservation and the enrichment of the Filipino culture?

CHAPTER 7 – The Globalization of Religion

Case in Point: Muslim Attitudes towards Terrorism

After the recent terrorist attacks in Paris, Beirut, and Baghdad in 2015, the Pew Research Center
conducted a survey on Muslim attitude towards terrorism collected in 11 countries with significant Muslim
populations (Poushter, 2015). The nationally representative surveys were part of the center's annual global poll
in 2015. The data visualizations in this section present the findings of Pew Research Center's survey.
(Source: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/11/17/in-nations-with-significant-muslim-populations-much-disdain-for-isis/)

Case questions:

1. Based on the survey data presented above, how do people from Muslim populations view ISIS?
Which countries showed favorable and negative attitudes toward the Islamic State?

2. What were the attitudes of populations which have been targets of terrorist attacks? How about in
countries with diverse religious and ethnic populations?

3. Are there significant differences in the attitudes based on religious affiliation?

 4. Based on your observations from the data, what generalizations have been reinforced, challenged, or
debunked?

CHAPTER 8 – The Global City

Case in Point: Can we do a "Singapore"? by Froilan C. Calilung

It's Sunday and I am in bed at exactly 9 P.M. prepping myself for tomorrow. Having a 7 am class in the
Philippine's Royal, Catholic and Pontifical University is something I really welcome. Well for one, I am indeed
a morning person and secondly leaving my residence at 4:30 am allows me to breeze through traffic a lot easier.
Coming from (Farview) Fairview, Q. C., the roads leading to Espana Blvd. is a lot friendlier at that time. I
always tell myself it's better to be in school as early as 6 am rather than arrive at exactly the same time my first-
class finishes. In a city where the concept of "rush hour" exists almost all the time, sometimes even way past 10
PM. (except during the holidays of course); battling traffic and defeating it has been a way of life for many
workers and residents of Metro Manila.
 Pondering and thinking about Metro Manila traffic is a very good mental exercise. It makes you think of
the so many reasons why traffic is just terrible in the city to the possible solutions that can be done to possibly
mitigate it. Well, for one, transportation is a source of livelihood in the Philippines. One simply has to look at
the number of jeepneys and buses plying their daily route stopping anytime they see a potential passenger and
stopping again to unload passengers anywhere (even the middle of the road) as soon as somebody says the
magic word "Para po". Lack of Discipline is another problem. Some drivers change lanes like they are in some
kind of a video racing game while some just don't have the notion of traffic rules and regulations as if they just
picked their driver's license from some kind of a "mythical tree". I remember my former professor say, "driving
in the Philippines is really hard, that is why if you could drive in Manila, you could drive anywhere. and believe
me, anywhere, even in the Moon". Then, there are the pedestrians, countless times have I seen people crossing
the dreaded Commonwealth Avenue amidst the speeding buses and cars and despite the presence of footbridges.
As if crossing this "Killer Highway" is a kind of an adrenalin rush that pumps them as they reached the opposite
side of the road (still alive of course). True, this people wantonly ignore the sign that reads: "Bawal Tumawid
Dito, May Namatay na Dito".

Several years ago, I visited Singapore for a vacation with my family. It was an amazing thing to see the
traffic at 7: 29 in the morning on a Monday workday as I looked out the window from the hotel where we were
staying. And I just blurted out to myself, "this is exactly how a Sunday morning in Metro Manila looks like". I
reckoned and say maybe it's just a fluke, so the following day I decided to look again and true enough, it's
exactly the same condition as it was the previous day. True, Singapore is a global city, a first class,
cosmopolitan locale yet the government and the people, (and I want to include the people because traffic is not
just a burden that we put on the government to solve) have found the right solution to it.

The contrast is glaring. In the Philippines, reduced inflation, low interest and easy access to credit
enabled the domestic automotive industry to increase sales by more than 24 percent in 2016, with total sales of
359,572 units. For 2018, the industry is expected to sell as many as 500,000 units. The figures do not include
motorcycles, the sales of which reached 1 million in 2016. In 2016 a total of 11.2 million motor vehicles were
registered with the Land Transportation Office (LTO), of which 2.5 million (28.7 percent) were in the National
Capital Region (NCR) and 8.7 million (71.27 percent) were in other parts of the country. The number of motor
vehicles plying Metro Manila's roads continues to increase, but the road network in the metropolis has hardly
increased. According to some estimates, the NCR's road network of 4,755 kilometers should be doubled to
accommodate the vehicle population.

Also, we are a flood-prone country because of the 20 or so typhoons that hit us every year. Metro
Manila is particularly prone to flooding because of its low altitude. Everybody knows that even a light
downpour floods many streets in the metropolis, resulting in stalled traffic. Add to this the narrowing of streets
caused by illegal settlements or vendors. Another problem is the development of vacant public lands, which the
previous administration pursued as a revenue-generating measure. It seemed the government had declared a
policy against making these vacant spaces into green public parks. Selling vacant spaces to developers means
transforming the vacant spaces into malls, office buildings and other commercial structures, which further
aggravate the shortage in road infrastructure.

Singapore, on the other hand recently announced that no more extra vehicles would be allowed
beginning February 2018. The measure complements the government's efforts to further improve the public
transport system. When the zero-growth policy takes effect, aspiring car buyers will have to wait for other
drivers to surrender their certificates to apply for permission to buy cars. The city-state is already one of the
world's most expensive places to own a car. At present, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) limits the annual
increase in cars and motorcycles to 0.25 percent. Under the current system, people who want to own a car in
Singapore must buy a special certificate from the government, which are sold through auctions and can cost as
much as $37,000. The cost of the 10-year special certificate is in addition to various taxes and import duties,
which can jack up the price of a small vehicle up to $74,000. (Villar, 2017).

The Philippines is a lot bigger than Singapore yet the traffic is a lot worse. Singapore has already
attained one of the best traffic management in the South East Asia, yet their government still continues to
execute policies that will further decrease it. While in the Philippines, the exact contrast is happening. The ease
of purchasing a new vehicle has tremendously increased and lured people to purchase new vehicles with almost
no down payments. And these new cars does not only clog our streets while mobile, they also do the same when
parked since many people who acquired these cars do not have parking lots of their own, the streets and the
sidewalks serves that purpose. While it may be true that traffic is a developmental problem, but good policies
can be done to mitigate it. For as the JICA study revealed, we are losing 3.5 billion pesos of opportunities per
day because of traffic. Does this sit well with our developmental goals? Certainly not. I am one with those who
still hope that this can be changed for the better. I still dream of seeing Manila on a Monday morning rush hour
looking a lot more like Singapore....that is if we aspire to be a truly Global city someday.

Inquiry Based Learning (IBL) Guide Questions:

1. What do you think are the other contributory factors to the burgeoning problem of traffic especially in
Metro Manila?
 2. Could you provide solutions that are being used in other progressive cities in the other parts of the
world that may be applicable to the case of Metro Manila?

Reference Book / Internet Links:

Coronacion, D. & Calilung, F. (2018). Convergence: A College Textbook in Contemporary World. 707
Tiaga cor. Kasipagan St., Barangka Drive, Mandaluyong City. Books Atbp. Publishing Corp.

Diokno, P. (2013). (YouTube). TEDxADMU talk entitled "Who Killed Philippine Cinema?" [Lecture;
Recorded video]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= plNNkf90jUU. Date retrieved: 1 May
2022.

Harmon, P. (2017). (slideplayer.com). [Slides and presentation shared through a platform]. Retrieved
from: https://slideplayer.com/slide/12483582/. Date retrieved: 1 May 2022.