Not the Mindanao that I Know

I 

Philippine National Police Special Action Force versus Moro Islamic Liberation Front at Maguindanao. I have been following the story not as a rubbernecker but as someone who had connections of Mindanao and Muslims in the past. This is about the encounter between Philippine government forces and MILF Abu Sayyaf group in Mamasapano, Maguindanao on January 25, 2015,  a week after the Pope visited the country. It was a video of Filipinos being pitted against each other, brothers killing each other.

"Duul mga kaigsuunan ug paminaw kamo

Duna ko'y dala nga mga balita gikan sa banwa ko, gusto ko nga ipahibalo ang mga istorya nga nagahitabu sa banwang gisaad nato."

Mindanao to me is not the Mindanao that Manila based media have always portrayed. There always seemed to be some feeling of discomfort among the population when the media portrays the whole of Mindanao as a war zone. The war zone image is more  about the age old conflict between Christians and Muslims in Mindanao. As a new graduate working in the Northern Mindanao region, the image of a pious population who didn't miss Sunday celebrations of the holy eucharist and people taking  part in  basic Christian or ecclesiastical communities was the profile image of Christian Mindanao. 

I had the chance to know more about Mindanao Muslims while working with the Ministry of Health  of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the Assir Region. The principle for non-judgmental attitude I learned while earning my BS on Social Work somehow helped me to be less factional while sharing a hostel room with fellow OFWs from Mindanao. The belief by Filipino Muslims in what is now known as the Automous Region of Muslim Mindanao that Filipinos were originally of the Islamic faith until Spanish conquerors Christianized  most of the colony's population was something that made sense to me. It's probably a fact but no reasonable historian would easily claim it for fear of ridicule by the ass kissing supreme leaders in Manila.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Decent Work Agenda and my 3D job

The International Labour Organization (ILO) and Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) sum up my relationship with Ayeddis Vahkkendjaab who I will be leaving soon. To me, 3D means dirty, difficult and dumb. 3D is 3K in Japan, the birthplace of 5S. Kitanai means dirty, kiken means dangerous and kitsui means difficult. Instead of kitsui, Ayeddis Vahkkendjaab is more of a kusottare. And instead of dangerous, Ayeddis Vahkkendjaab is more of dumb. The closest translation of kusottare to the English language is crappy.

As where the headquarters of international organizations like ILO and OECD are located, 3D jobs in the US go by different names, just like Ayeddis Vahkkendjaab and Aywilbe Fayed. 

5S

The poster was among the several posters at guard house wall at Occupational Safety and Health Center in Diliman, Quezon City. It sums up the 5S methdology.

I thought about 5S after almost 10 years as I cringed while my someone say my cluttered computer-on-wheels desk is "very unprofessional". JCAHO is coming any day and the concern was to get an outstanding rating. I am reminded of how Chris Cruz used to put it: simplistic!

I have the impression that 5S is taken more seriously than Japanese cars in workplaces in the Philippines. Marieta Javier, who was a colleague at the Bureau of Women and Young Workers, used to say "I will 5S my desk" instead of saying "I will clean my desk". When she goes home from work, she also 5S her house. 

5S, as the Japanese initially conceptualized, is more than cleaning and tidying up. It's the "professional" way  of cleaning and tidying up. You need not say "seiri" because you don't know what seiri means. "Seiri" is a Japanese word for Sort, the first of the 5S. The idea is to sort out unnecessary items in the workplace and discard them. You don't need the framed pictures of your children on your desk top. 

"Seiton" is another Japanese word that means Systematize in easy to understand terms. To systematize in the 5S methodology means arranging necessary items in good order so they can easily be selected or reached for use.