23 – Jed Lee / Global Poverty & Practice, Berkeley, Philippines, Practice Experience, Activism

Jed Lee is a Chinese-Filipino Taiwanese-American who’s studying at UC Berkeley. He’s currently majoring in Society & Environment while also minoring in Global Poverty & Practice, Food Systems, and City Planning. This summer of 2018, Jed traveled to the Philippines and worked with the IBON International for the Practice Experience component of his GPP minor. Jed shares his reflection of being in the Philippines, seeing the differences and inequalities, especially from a privileged first-world perspective, while also trying to find ways to advocate for both the environment and marginalized communities. He talks about his experience within the Global Poverty & Practice minor, in addition to some reflections regarding “sustainable development,” activism, and other complicated topics related to poverty alleviation.

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“It makes me happy to see Eithan playing in the fishing boats, but it’s bittersweet because I know that fishing is not a long term source of living. It’s so important that we provide my grandchildren and great grandchildren with an education because the ocean will not be able to provide for them in the future.” (Adapted response from Ricardo Mandac.) Mandac with his great grandson Eithan Laguinday.

A post shared by Jed Lee (@jedtlee) on Jul 11, 2018 at 8:57pm PDT

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Gigi Bautista of Barangay Coral no Lopez in Calaca, Batangas and other sugarcane farmers who have been actively organizing for the rights to their land and economic freedom for close to 40 years. They were able to win a court case against the large corporations and landlords and now receive full profits from their yield. Currently being antagonized by militarized forces whose presence is unwanted by the local farmers. We need to think about why governments send military forces or heavily armed police to deal with rural farmers and other nonviolent activists who are just trying to make a decent living.

A post shared by Jed Lee (@jedtlee) on Jun 27, 2018 at 12:21pm PDT

Shoutouts

IBON Foundation

Government is incapable of addressing the crisis squarely because the Duterte administration's econ managers stubbornly adhere to failed neoliberal policies https://t.co/Eecczs2xsc #IBON40 #UpholdPeopleEconomics
— IBON Foundation (@IbonFoundation) September 6, 2018

KuyaChris

Power Plants, Dirty Fish, and Children's Books - KuyaChris - Medium
Traffic is real. But the need for education is realer. People's Solidarity and Education Tours (PSET) was tasked to deliver a set of books donated by CANVAS, a non-profit aiming to deliver 1 million books to 1 million Filipino children over the next few years.