There is something about the hoo-ha around pine trees being uprooted from SM property in Baguio City that kinda just bores me. Last I heard there were some “flash mobs” organised by some “activists” in one or the other SM mall in Metro Manila to protest this latest atrocity. Perhaps these “cause-oriented” groups derived some inspiration for these stunts from their counterparts elsewhere. “Flash mobs” after all are creations of the West and, from what I read in one news report or another, most of the participants were typical latte-sipping iPad-tapping mallrats. Quite ironic, if you ask me.
A flash mob (or flashmob) is a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and seemingly pointless act for a brief time, then disperse, often for the purposes of entertainment, satire, and artistic expression. Flash mobs are organized via telecommunications, social media, or viral emails.
The term, coined in 2003, is generally not applied to events and performances organized for the purposes of politics (such as protests), commercial advertisement, publicity stunts that involve public relation firms, or paid professionals. In these cases of a planned purpose for the social activity in question, the term smart mobs is often applied instead.
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The first flash mobs were created in Manhattan in 2003, by Bill Wasik, senior editor of Harper’s Magazine. The first attempt was unsuccessful after the targeted retail store was tipped off about the plan for people to gather. Wasik avoided such problems during the first successful flash mob, which occurred on June 3, 2003, at Macy’s department store, by sending participants to preliminary staging areas—in four prearranged Manhattan bars—where they received further instructions about the ultimate event and location just before the event began.
In a previous article, I expressed how pointless the whole protest over these trees really is. Baguio City, after all, had been in the process of a slow succumbing to the ravages of Filipino habitation and management for the last several decades. Despite the city being the summer pilgrimage site of Filipinos from all over — but mostly from Manila — not a single effort to highlight (much less halt) the irreparable damage the city had been sustaining all through those years had made a significant mark on the national awareness.
The flash mobs over the SM uprooting of Baguio trees, however, apart from being showy and shallow, are a frivolous form of protest action. That such stunts would gain so much media and “social media” attention while initiatives around deeper, more serious, and more systemic issues that have a broader impact across society languish in obscurity highlights the glib nature of Philippine activism today.
“Don’t cut the trees, cut the greed” was one of the slogans bandied by the anti-SM activists. A clever slogan, perhaps, until one considers that this “greed” is fuelled by Filipinos’ pathological obsession with the acquisition of Chinese-made branded clothing and trinkets made “affordable” by the awesome purchasing muscle of the biggest retail chain in the land and its fat umbilical cord to its owners’ ethnic motherland. Ultimately the power to bring SM to its “senses” (if refraining from building a parking lot to support the size of its facility in Baguio doesn’t make business sense) rests on the Filipino consumer. SM expanded to its present size today on the back of the oodles of OFW dollars that Filipinos quite easily part ways with when dulled by the airconditioned atmosphere and eye candy they feast their senses upon when they pass through the doors of their local SM mall.
A concern for the hundred-odd Baguio pine trees being uprooted to make way of the SM expansion is nice — much the same way as activism in the West over where fur coats come from and how seal cubs are being treated in the arctic is nice. The difference, however, is that prosperous societies in the West have earned the right to wage such frivolous activist campaigns — because much of the deeper and bigger challenges there have already been relatively solved. In contrast, there are much bigger more obvious issues and challenges that beset the Philippines that warrant far more attention than trees being balled in Baguio City. In fact, it is these very problems that are also at the ultimate root of the SM Baguio issue itself.
I forgot where I read this metaphor — could’ve been from a friend or a commentor in one of our blogs — and it kinda goes like this:
Protesting SM’s uprooting of trees in Baguio is like noisily lamenting the falling off of the final hairs in what has for so long been a bald scalp.
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[NB: Parts of this article were lifted off Wikipedia.org and used in accordance with that site’s Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License consistent with the same license applied by Get Real Post to its content.]
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
The roots of the trees, conserve water and is like a reinforced steel in a concrete structure…it holds the land from Landslides…It converts the Carbon Dioxide in the air into Oxygen…We have degraded very much the environment…we have polluted the Earth. Greed of the SM Corporation, which is a business partner of the powerful goes unabated…
What do you suppose the people should do? Clearly, the flash mob was organized to raise awareness. It was not there to just gain social media attention, it was done to ask for support. It may seem frivolous, like you said, but is there any formal way of protesting? If anything, it was a non-violent gripe.
Also, by frivolous, did you mean that it lacked substance? Because I can assure you that the protest was all about substance — it had a cause behind it.
Now if you have anything better in mind, please do suggest. We hope to hear from you before the trees are cut
Hello, end stop. There may be no formal way of protesting, but there are LEGAL ways to do such, as explained in your beloved 1987 Constitution. You need a PERMIT to air your grievances, especially if you plan to do it as a tangible collective. However, you don’t “raise awareness” by screaming antagonistic quips while within someone else’s private property.
If a stranger suddenly entered your house in the middle of the afternoon, demanding in absolute tones that you shouldn’t pull out the camote plants which you planted because they could feed your neighbors, I’m pretty sure you as a homeowner would arm up to defend yourself as well due to this intrusion, regardless of what the intruder said.
And if the majority of the Baguio protesters were polite enough to secure permits for their protests, why couldn’t these so-called “flash mobs”?
In the end, they were indeed a flash mob. Emphasis on “mob.”
Bakit hindi mo kayang tignan na ang isyu ng SM ay kaugnay ng pagkadami-daming isyu ng lipunan?
Ang mga sinasabi niyong mga deeply-rooted na pang-kulturang mga isyung nagpapabulok sa mga Pilipino ay tama. Pero ano ba ang nagbunsod nito? Ito ba ay likas na nandoon sa mga Pilipino?
‘Diba ito rin ang mga kinakalaban ngayon? Sinasabi mo, panatiko ang mga mang-mang (susundan ko na ang linya ng pagsasalita niyo) at uto-uto na Pilipino ng mga produktong mula Tsina na siyang murang-mura. Bakit? Naniniwala ka pa rin sa ‘demokrasya’ at ‘malayang pagpili’ kung nilamon na ng sistema ang media, ang paaralan, ang pamilya at simbahan ang mamamayang mang-mang?
Pero pa’no mo napa-boykot ang tao? Pa’no mo pupukawin ang mga mamamayang nakakulong na sa ganoong gawi?
Sa gawain sa Megamall: taktika, kapatid. Mukha ng earthballing ang sitwasyon ng Baguio; at buong Pilipinas. Maraming datos at numero para ipakita ang kawasakang nangyayari sa bansa. Pero bigyan natin ito ng mukha.
Ang hirap sa inyo, basta hindi niyo kilala, akala niyo, kay kikitid ng utak. ‘Yang ganyang kaisipan mismo ang nilalabanan niyo na siya niyo ring ginagawa.
Napaka-saradong pag-iisip kung isang taktika lang ang gagawin para gapiin ang mapang-aping sistema. Ang pagmumulat ng Get Real online, isa siya sa mga paraan upang magmulat, ngunit ang totoong pagkilos ay nasa labas. Nasa pagsasanib ng iba’t ibang taktika at gawi ang magtatawid.
Wag mong hayaang dumating ang panahong wala ka na ring pinagkaiba sa mga aktibistang walang hinahatid na konkreto at malinaw na pamalit sa sistemang bulok.
Get real, kamo?
common, benigno. drink a glass of mother’s milk and get some taurine. cheers!
Flashmob, where (Flash = streak)+(mob = mindless).
In other words, a verbal schlongfest.
It might be a good idea (despite it being more of a flash in the pan), but those nutters forgot that Metro Manila loves its malls due to the tropic heat. And if they were any circumspect, the activists’ preference for squatters, shitty vehicles, and slums is a direct cause for less trees and filthy air in the urban areas.
Raze the slums, impound smoke-belcher jeeps, tricycles and buses, plant more trees, take a walk outside. SM just got free marketing thanks to those turdsnappers.
Have you seen this video yet? http://youtu.be/7EFMgBFxqbY In fairness all was explained well regarding why there’s a need to do the expansion. Medyo text heavy yung nasa website so good thing they released a video. The intention seems to be nice, I just think that we need to be vigilant to follow up everything that SM promised.
Why is no one protesting the squatting going all around baguio that actually killed more trees than SM? Oh, yeah, it’s only a crime if you can’t justify the act by saying you are poor and forced to do it.
^
That’s what I’m also saying…there are many trees being cut down in Baguio, no one’s protesting because they are not as BIG as SM Corporation. They’re just individuals, illegal settlers or small companies. I don’t want to be mean but the shanties in the mountains of Baguio, especially the one you can see when you are in Session Road, are BIG EYE SORES…sobrang kalat na run sa Baguio ngyon unlike before. Sana aside sa issue na to, may magawa run ang slang environmentalist, Baguio people at LGU para ma preserve and kagandahan ng Baguio like the early ’90s. =)
The shanties that you are referring to are being kept by people who I presume would have nowhere to go. People who have choices would not go and live in these shanties, precisely because THEY HAVE A CHOICE. Don’t tell me that SM didn’t have any choice in what they were doing…
I agree that what the “mob” did was inherently useless. I guess the best thing to have here is a serious boycott of SM. If people are really serious in protesting in sending SM a message, then the most potent thing to do is to vote with our peso. Stop going to SM, stop buying from their stores, stop going to their cinemas…
Now that would be a more concrete way of showing dissent. Because if all they listen to is money, then we vote with our money. I wonder if that could happen here…
The shanties that you are referring to are being kept by people who I presume would have nowhere to go. People who have choices would not go and live in these shanties, precisely because THEY HAVE A CHOICE. Don’t tell me that SM didn’t have any choice in what they were doing…
I agree that what the “mob” did was inherently useless. I guess the best thing to have here is a serious boycott of SM. If people are really serious in protesting in sending SM a message, then the most potent thing to do is to vote with our peso. Stop going to SM, stop buying from their stores, stop going to their cinemas…
Now that would be a more concrete way of showing dissent. Because if all they listen to is money, then we vote with our money. If the only language they understand is their bottom line earnings,then we tell them so in those terms. I wonder if that could happen here…