By Jessica Jalandoni-Robillos
Philippine Daily Inquirer
MANILA, Philippines – An international project seeks to build friendship parks in countries bordering the Pacific Rim, an area that used to be the playground of “imperial politics.” The latest park to be put up is in Palawan, a showcase of the glories of nature.
In his “La Revolucion Filipina in the Age of Empire” (published in the Japanese Journal of American Studies, No. 18, 2007), Filipino postcolonial scholar Oscar V. Campomanes defines the geopolitical—and imperial—construct that is the Pacific Rim:
“‘Pacific Rim’ or ‘trans-Pacific’ discourse and the notion of an American ‘Pacific Century,’ as late-20th-century expressions of the American transnational, are not recent inventions, at least not in the ways 1990s critical works seem to have adverted to. US Treaty of Paris Commission negotiator Whitelaw Reid, to cite just one example among many, strenuously advocated for Philippine annexation after the 1898 Spanish-American War for American Energy to build up such a commercial marine on the Pacific Coast as should ultimately convert the Pacific Ocean into an American lake, making it far more our own than the Atlantic Ocean is now Great Britain’s. This kind of geostrategic American politics and discourse that posited the Asia-Pacific as its object of desire quickly began to operate and proliferate...”
A vision that dispels the notion of the “Imperial Pacific Rim” moved American sculptor Jim Hubbell to begin the Pacific Rim Parks Project in 1994. Its aim is to construct parks in all of the countries that border the ocean.
Coincidentally, it is through the same nations that the Ring of Fire cuts, and rather than focusing on the volcanic and seismic tumult, the parks shall be likened to “a string of pearls encircling the Pacific”—a gift from nature.
On the homepage of the project, one is welcomed to an “inspirational gateway to the Pacific rim, dedicated to all people who share this ocean, for their mutual enjoyment and education, artistically designed and developed through a spirit of cooperation, honoring the cultural richness and shared future of all.”
The project has so far completed four sites: Vladivostok in Russia; San Diego in the US; Yantai in China, and Tijuana in Mexico.
When time came to decide on the fifth location, a professor at the University of California in San Diego referred the PacRim group (as they have been fondly nicknamed) to his former student in the Philippines, Gigo Alampay, who heads the Center for Art, New Ventures, and Sustainable Development (Canvas).
Coincidentally, Canvas was organizing “Looking for Juan,” an exhibit in which artists tried to articulate in colors, lines and various media the search for Filipino identity. Salient to that search is the international project’s mission of “helping define what it means to be a member of the emergent Pacific Rim community.”
Canvas and the PacRim group then forged ties with Mayor Edward Hagedorn of Puerto Princesa, Palawan, who presented four sites to choose from, allotted P2 million, and provided board and lodging for the participants. Several groups raised funds or offered services for free to help see the park to fruition.
Canvas, with the help of Pagibig Fund, came up with a painting-to-printed banner exhibit, and construction companies in Palawan provided some materials and services for free.
After lengthy deliberation, the Palawan site was finally named the Pacific Rim Salinlahi Park and was completed in 30 days, the time table for each construction project. Overall, it actually took only one year and six months (December 1, 2007 to May 30, 2009) for the park to be realized—from the planning to its inauguration.
Regionalistic Filipinos
Kyle Bergman, architect and president of the PacRim board of directors, explained how the 30 days were usually spent. The first 10 days, he said, were used for the design process in which local culture largely figures; then the following two weeks were for building.
In the case of Palawan, he said the design took only nine days, which started with individual conceptualizations by the 27 students from Russia, China, Korea and the US and from the University of the Philippines and the Palawan State University.
Eventually, all their ideas were blended together with the guidance of Bergman, Hubbell and his son Brennan, also an artist. Ultimately, though, the final word was octogenarian Hubbell’s, for he was admirably present from inception to completion, and he was the revered pioneer.
The “fifth pearl” now lies by the shores where tourists usually go dolphin-watching, just 20 minutes away from Iwahig River where firefly-sighting may be enjoyed on rainless nights.
When asked how different Salinlahi was from the four previous parks, Bergman said that the particular challenge was Hagedorn’s request that they build and design the park to serve as an “entrance to the future Environmental Tropical Science Center,” a school to be opened at the same site.
During the opening rites, in fact, the park was “given as a gift to the citizens of the Pacific and to the sponsoring organization in the host city.”
Bergman expressed surprise at the regionalism of Filipinos. As Filipino communities in the US were asked to donate or raise funds for the project, only Palaweños responded when the location was revealed.
He explained that Italians, too, were prone to regionalism, but outside of their home country, they usually presented a united front.
Whether unique to the Filipinos or not, regionalism is a common archipelagic bane, precisely what the Pacific Rim Project wants to address in their mission “to build parks and community spaces that bridge political, cultural, environmental and spiritual boundaries.”
When in Cebu City, please visit gregmelep.com for your real estate and retirement needs.
Philippine Daily Inquirer
MANILA, Philippines – An international project seeks to build friendship parks in countries bordering the Pacific Rim, an area that used to be the playground of “imperial politics.” The latest park to be put up is in Palawan, a showcase of the glories of nature.
In his “La Revolucion Filipina in the Age of Empire” (published in the Japanese Journal of American Studies, No. 18, 2007), Filipino postcolonial scholar Oscar V. Campomanes defines the geopolitical—and imperial—construct that is the Pacific Rim:
“‘Pacific Rim’ or ‘trans-Pacific’ discourse and the notion of an American ‘Pacific Century,’ as late-20th-century expressions of the American transnational, are not recent inventions, at least not in the ways 1990s critical works seem to have adverted to. US Treaty of Paris Commission negotiator Whitelaw Reid, to cite just one example among many, strenuously advocated for Philippine annexation after the 1898 Spanish-American War for American Energy to build up such a commercial marine on the Pacific Coast as should ultimately convert the Pacific Ocean into an American lake, making it far more our own than the Atlantic Ocean is now Great Britain’s. This kind of geostrategic American politics and discourse that posited the Asia-Pacific as its object of desire quickly began to operate and proliferate...”
A vision that dispels the notion of the “Imperial Pacific Rim” moved American sculptor Jim Hubbell to begin the Pacific Rim Parks Project in 1994. Its aim is to construct parks in all of the countries that border the ocean.
Coincidentally, it is through the same nations that the Ring of Fire cuts, and rather than focusing on the volcanic and seismic tumult, the parks shall be likened to “a string of pearls encircling the Pacific”—a gift from nature.
On the homepage of the project, one is welcomed to an “inspirational gateway to the Pacific rim, dedicated to all people who share this ocean, for their mutual enjoyment and education, artistically designed and developed through a spirit of cooperation, honoring the cultural richness and shared future of all.”
The project has so far completed four sites: Vladivostok in Russia; San Diego in the US; Yantai in China, and Tijuana in Mexico.
When time came to decide on the fifth location, a professor at the University of California in San Diego referred the PacRim group (as they have been fondly nicknamed) to his former student in the Philippines, Gigo Alampay, who heads the Center for Art, New Ventures, and Sustainable Development (Canvas).
Coincidentally, Canvas was organizing “Looking for Juan,” an exhibit in which artists tried to articulate in colors, lines and various media the search for Filipino identity. Salient to that search is the international project’s mission of “helping define what it means to be a member of the emergent Pacific Rim community.”
Canvas and the PacRim group then forged ties with Mayor Edward Hagedorn of Puerto Princesa, Palawan, who presented four sites to choose from, allotted P2 million, and provided board and lodging for the participants. Several groups raised funds or offered services for free to help see the park to fruition.
Canvas, with the help of Pagibig Fund, came up with a painting-to-printed banner exhibit, and construction companies in Palawan provided some materials and services for free.
After lengthy deliberation, the Palawan site was finally named the Pacific Rim Salinlahi Park and was completed in 30 days, the time table for each construction project. Overall, it actually took only one year and six months (December 1, 2007 to May 30, 2009) for the park to be realized—from the planning to its inauguration.
Regionalistic Filipinos
Kyle Bergman, architect and president of the PacRim board of directors, explained how the 30 days were usually spent. The first 10 days, he said, were used for the design process in which local culture largely figures; then the following two weeks were for building.
In the case of Palawan, he said the design took only nine days, which started with individual conceptualizations by the 27 students from Russia, China, Korea and the US and from the University of the Philippines and the Palawan State University.
Eventually, all their ideas were blended together with the guidance of Bergman, Hubbell and his son Brennan, also an artist. Ultimately, though, the final word was octogenarian Hubbell’s, for he was admirably present from inception to completion, and he was the revered pioneer.
The “fifth pearl” now lies by the shores where tourists usually go dolphin-watching, just 20 minutes away from Iwahig River where firefly-sighting may be enjoyed on rainless nights.
When asked how different Salinlahi was from the four previous parks, Bergman said that the particular challenge was Hagedorn’s request that they build and design the park to serve as an “entrance to the future Environmental Tropical Science Center,” a school to be opened at the same site.
During the opening rites, in fact, the park was “given as a gift to the citizens of the Pacific and to the sponsoring organization in the host city.”
Bergman expressed surprise at the regionalism of Filipinos. As Filipino communities in the US were asked to donate or raise funds for the project, only Palaweños responded when the location was revealed.
He explained that Italians, too, were prone to regionalism, but outside of their home country, they usually presented a united front.
Whether unique to the Filipinos or not, regionalism is a common archipelagic bane, precisely what the Pacific Rim Project wants to address in their mission “to build parks and community spaces that bridge political, cultural, environmental and spiritual boundaries.”
When in Cebu City, please visit gregmelep.com for your real estate and retirement needs.
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