One Planet

July 2010 marks the historic announcement of the finalists for the selection of an American teacher who will fly on board the Soviet space station Mir that happened sometime in 1993. Sponsored by the US-based Aerospace Ambassadors that has obtained exclusive rights to bring delegations to formerly secret Soviet space facilities, we now see for the first time a synergy between two formerly competing giants in the field of aerospace: the US and the USSR.

The Mir or “Peace” station has been in orbit since 1986 and has its location about 200 miles from earth, with Soviet cosmonauts maintaining the space station for 6 years now. Aside from making repairs on board and observing far-away constellations, the cosmonauts have been doing scientific experiments in zero-gravity condition. Some experiments have already paid off, such as the successful growing of marketable protein crystals for the medical and drug industry.

Each piece of crystal is worth one million dollars, and in addition to protein crystals, the electric furnace on board the Mir space station produces gallium arsenide crystals that can be used to replace silicon microchips. The heat lamp furnace can grow near-perfect silicon crystals, cooking them at temperatures approaching 2000 degrees.

On earth, a crystal can be produced but at the equivalent of one year output of one factory. Such crystal-producing capability of the Mir station has placed the Soviet government in an enviable position prompting western governments to seek special arrangements for the use of the Mir facilities. In the face of a painful political transition, and a growing national hardship, the Mir may well be the major ace card of the Russians in its negotiations with the G-7+ countries.

The Mir could also symbolize the unity of East and West, the concrete instrument to achieve global cooperation. What better way than to begin from a literal vantage point where one can see the planet Earth from a distance. And to an extent, this global synergy between East and West has already been achieved.

In 1989, a US company, Payload Systems became the first company first company to send experiments to Mir in a total of 56 days of weightlessness.

Then last December 1990, a media man, Toyohiro Akiyama of the Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) became the first journalist to fly in space. TBS paid Moscow a reported $12 million for this space trip on board Mir. And according to Lon Rains, senior editor at Space News, “The visit was less than a triumph, with Akiyama spending much of his time grumbling about the accommodations and openly pining for a beer and a smoke.”

Someday, all the successful experiments on board Mir not to mention the variety of vegetables being grown under conditions of weightlessness shall be revealed; and East and West, North and South shall become one planet.

The Global Artist in a Divided World

In a work of art, whether it be a visual form (a painting, photograph, a film); a literary work (a novel, a prose, a script for a drama or film); a musical piece (a composition, arrangement or interpretation); a dance performance; or a drama performance, the artist reflects something of this Earth. This reflection could be an object, a personal event, an historical event or process, a political event, even a scientific event, or one that science considers a part of its domain. Whatever it is, it is the artist’s own creation usually called “a work of art.”

The artist is in a sense a realist because he takes the Earth and its inhabitants as one of his sources. But the artist also goes into “another world” and comes back into “this world” bringing “a creation.” People call an artist’s world his own subjectivity. Yet the real world from which the artist takes his inspirations and livelihood is actually one (or global), with its diverse forms and functions.

Artists also experience a feeling of global oneness at times. It is both an awareness and a feeling, as sure as breathing, that the person is one with everything seen or unseen—unexplainable, yet certain—that there are no boundaries, no nationalities, no limitations except what one holds in one’s mind. Some call it “a mystical experience,” while others see it as an altered state of consciousness. Sometimes this feeling could turn into an intense personal but spiritual experience for the artist. And this golden moment could be translated into a momentous work of art and can become a great work. Artists are therefore in the best position to unify the world to create an atmosphere of global oneness, of going beyond one’s parochialism and nationalism to an expression of world-vision, world-compassion and world-concern.

The World is Everybody’s Business

The division into ‘First World,’ ‘Second World,’ and ‘Third World’ countries has created much confusion and prejudice among peoples because the fact is, the Earth moves around the sun as a spaceship or travels in space like other planets as a whole earth, not in fragments. The so-called first world or developed countries do not move in space separately from the third world or less-developed countries. The division that we have created is in the belief that the world is divided, when in fact it is not. Everybody travels in the same spaceship earth.

Even the problems of nations are not unique, nor are they isolated. Economic problems are worldwide, and so are scientific and military problems. We now talk of a global thermonuclear war, or we talk of the depletion of the ozone layer which has global effects. Moreover, the problem of industrial pollution and environmental degradation has become so widespread that global efforts like “green technology” are necessary to solve it.

There is a marked involvement of people all over the world—not only among artists—in issues that affect the survival of our planet. Such issues like the hazards of the use of nuclear energy, increasing worldwide militarization, the effects of certain consumer items on the health of the population, the global economic policies that are imposed by developed countries on less developed ones, and so on, point to the necessity of training people to become comprehensivists more than specialists. And this applies to the global artist who must develop the skill to be able to perceive interrelationships in relation to the whole.

When an artist supports a human rights movement in the Philippines, he also supports the same movement in South America or Africa. When an artist fights against drug abuse (through his art), he also supports similar fights elsewhere in the world. When he plants trees or votes for the logging ban, he also assists in preserving the fragile ecological environment somewhere in the world.

The new artist has genuine concern for people, the community, society, the whole earth. Because of his sensitivity and developed sensibilities, the artist is in the best position to link up people with the Earth—its beauty and grandeur, its mystery, its indelible spirituality, including its growing ugliness that people have carved out of greed, ignorance and fear.

Art and Science

There is a close affinity between art and science. Every artist has the intimations of a scientist. The artist, like the scientist measures objects, movement of physical objects, and intensities (such as sound, color and light). The artist, like the scientist creates experimental conditions and develops new combinations (such as the combination of forms). The major difference is that the artist does not translate his experience or “findings” into a strictly logical or mathematical structure; nor does he report his findings to his colleagues in a scientific venue or conference. The artist adds more to his version of science, which is his own personal touch or art. And this art creates the wondrous difference between the apparently ‘dry’ science and the ‘exciting’ art.

One thing sure is that artists in different parts of the globe will discover common principles of physical stimulus, physical response, physical movements and intensities and will use the results of their discoveries to further develop their art by combining these results with the indelible psychic creativity and spirituality of the artist.

Someday there will emerge a global art movement—not just a worldwide network of artists but a conscious development of a content-and-form in art based on an integration of scientific principles and global concerns combined with the artist’s own creative perception, imagination and reality.

Art and Spirituality

Art is the antidote to the debilitating effects of industrialization and technological growth. This is probably one reason why developed industrialized countries place so much importance to art and reward artists generously for their work, aside from the innate creative, esthetic, and spiritual values that the artwork carries. Art and its effects somehow harmonize or try to balance modern man’s over-exposure to the structured culture of the industrialized world.

The genuine artist is probably the only person in the world who is naturally spiritual yet not necessarily religious. He takes his own risk by consciously experiencing times of spiritual abundance and times of spiritual aridity that could even peak to a tremendous spiritual void. Without inner strength to muster a creative response, he may experience spiritual death. He can only be redeemed by his art, or by a direct response from a Divine source.

When the artist becomes “born again” by his art (with his art and through his art), and including his inner creative spiritual impulses, he brings life unto himself. He can then radiate this life to others. This radiation is done through his work which the community, the society, and ultimately the whole world will appreciate. Some artists experience this cycle of “birth-death-rebirth” and were able to develop a production that the whole world later acknowledged, admired and benefited.

The artist may not take refuge in religion because organized religion today tends to be divisive; nor could the artist rely solely on the reality of technological scientific industrialization. But the global artist can choose to examine some teachings from both religion and science, and take inspiration from both, and use this inspiration to create a better world and grow new spiritual roots for himself or herself and the whole of humanity.

The global artist is now faced with the awesome task of developing an inner strength to match the strain imposed by the problems and dangers of a changing and increasingly violent world that is intimidated by a global abuse of people and resources. The global artist must find his way and then lead others to strengthen themselves through his art.

The Turtle Islands’ Biodiversity

The whales, dolphins and turtles are guardians of the lower depths, and they help in keeping the diverse fish species alive by exploring new depths that are far less polluted by human activity, so that the lesser sea creatures may safely inhabit such waters. Intelligent creatures, the dolphins are better equipped than man to explore the vast seas.

Their knowledge of the oceans and its rich plant and animal life may someday be transmitted to man, as a breakthrough in the communication between man and dolphin has occurred and is in progress.

I had the opportunity to visit the Turtle Islands located south of Mindanao. The group of seven islands is still part of the Philippines. There is a vast expanse of ocean that separates the Turtle Islands from the main islands of Tawi-Tawi. As the boat called kumpit traverses this lonely ocean expanse, groups of dolphins suddenly emerge from the sea and shoot forth their bodies into the air.

It is estimated that the seven island sanctuaries are inhabited by a population of 20,000 giant turtles. These sea creatures take turns in laying their eggs at night on the white sand beaches covered by mangrove trees.

The turtle eggs, about the size of a ping-pong ball, is a delicacy in these parts, as well as in the nearby island of Borneo, about 45 minutes away by speedboat from the main turtle island of Baguan. The Philippine government policy at the time was to let the residents harvest about 20 percent of the eggs and sell them to Borneo and Malaysia.

While the sea around the Turtle Islands is so crystal clear, the emerald green deep sea somewhere halfway between the island of Sitangkay and Cagayan de Tawi-Tawi is threatened by an imposing metallic, dark structure protruding from the sea—an oil rig station used in the exploration of oil.

How much biodiversity can a developing country afford? This is like asking the question, how much industrialization should a less developed country pursue without obliterating the numerous harmless plant and animal species that add life and color to a world of man-machine-technology systems.

In the face of an increasing population—of hunger, malnutrition and poverty; in the mad rush towards industrialization, and in the international pressure to keep up with the country’s balance of payments, any developing country will have to exact a great toll on its natural resources at the expense of biodiversity.

The Cost of Biodiversity

In a country like the Philippines, the people can hardly be thrilled much less talk about biodiversity, or how prolific our plant and animal species are. How original are the country’s flora and fauna? Are these living species still intact to the point that we can enjoy their presence? That’s the idea about biological diversity.

Yet biodiversity influences our lives too, directly, as a source of oxygen, for instance, and a source of happiness looking at the country’s living treasures. To what extent such diversity exists indicates how much we have exploited our environment.

The thick and prolific Amazon rainforest of South America, while currently noted as one of the most endangered natural areas of the world due to its alarming rate of reduction in its size, provides clean air to millions of people who live even beyond the borders of the two Americas.

The Amazon forest helps to purify the air around us, just as our dwindling forest enables us to inhale oxygen that is critical to our health and survival. But underneath the canopy of an original rainforest, on the ground may be found rare, diverse plant species and animal life.

While doing a research for the University of the Philippines in 1973, the hinterlands of Agusan in Eastern Mindanao was one of the thickly forested areas of the country. As my guide Duko and I combed the rainforest far from the logging camps, as we carefully trekked the mountain slopes, there appeared plant species so rich, delicate, diverse and beautiful on the ground that were barely touched by sunlight.

Duko belongs to the Higa-onon tribe, an indigenous mountain people with a wide geographic reach and who practice slash-and-burn agriculture.

As the tree-cutting companies expanded their operations, more and more of the primary forests were cut to the ground. It’s like cutting nature’s umbilical cord. The dislocation of the Higa-onons may be traced partly to the advance of civilization, symbolized by the logging camp with its heavy equipment machinery and the terrifying sound of the chainsaws and bulldozers. To what extent can biodiversity be preserved would depend on how much would industrialization and urbanization be willing to sacrifice on the altar of progress.

Vision Quest: The ecological imperative

There are a trillion and one stories in the entire universe, and one of these is the story of a blue planet somewhere on the edge of an evolving universe, a far-flung sphere of earth matter formed out of a swirling nebula countless eons of time ago.

It was the saline solution gradually formed hundreds of millions of years ago, combining with two parts of hydrogen and one part of oxygen, constituting the present seas and oceans that provided for the favorable condition for the evolution of life species.

An indelible mark of present-day humans is that human blood has the same general chemistry as that of the oceans, a mark that took a long time to imprint on the human species, and an indisputable evidence that man was born out of the waters of the earth, and not from clay.

We are now in the Ecological Age.  It is an age where man re-establishes his relationship with the Earth, with Nature, despite the widespread degradation we see today in terms of forest denudation, forest fires, and oil spills, including the human wastes and garbage dumped into the sea.

No longer can we afford to inhale the sweet air of the mountains, nor see the sharp orange sun set as it glows with delight over the green horizon; yet we seem to have reached by our mistakes and abuse of the earth an age of conservation, of preservation and of an increasing awareness of the precariousness of man’s synthetic existence, an attempt at reestablishing a deep communication with the seas, the mountains, the forest the air and the fiery elements of life.

It is an age of an increasing departure from conventional technology, towards the discovery of new technologies, and a movement towards spiritual communion with the natural universe.  It is a movement from despair to hope, from wanton destruction to preservation, from separateness to wholeness.

A part of this new age is the introduction of highly effective educational systems, including computer games, films and simulation systems that could mimic nature and make people realize the spirituality and the energy of the natural environment.

The Great Planet Earth is in danger and reacting to man’s synthetic way of life.  No political ideology can save us from tectonic earthquakes, from the deadly tidal waves and torrential rains; the acid rain from the carbon fumes in the city, the heatwaves, winter storms, tornadoes.  No religion can mitigate the increasing number of disasters as a result of global warming.

Only by a conscious, concerted effort to restore the balance in ourselves, in our lives, leading to a balance in the external environment; and a comprehensive plan—implemented—to secure environmental safeguards in any industrialization program, combined with an intensive educational campaign to make our children ecologically aware, and with an understanding of the spiritual processes going on in the universe can we change the ecological, environmental imbalance our age is now experiencing.