The Continued Relevance of the “Third World” Concept
An Analysis of a 21st Century Philippine Literature entitled
THIRD WORLD GEOGRAPHY
by Cirilo F. Bautista
INTRODUCTION
Third world countries can be defined as the nations that are economically, socially and politically unstable, and therefore, depend on other more developed countries. On the other hand, poverty can be simply defined as inability to sustain basic needs which are food, shelter, and clothes. In addition to this, poverty is also referred to as a lifestyle that denies and deprives one from opportunities and, to some extent, is characterized as a violation of human dignity. In other words, this is a challenge faced by people living in harsh conditions due to lack of money. Thus, it is clearly evident that poverty deprives poor people of decent lifestyle, proper medical care, and quality education system. Apart from this, poverty is a life full of challenging experiences, inconsistency, and unreliable sources of sustaining ones livelihood.
BACKGROUND
Cirilo F. Bautista was born in Manila on July 9, 1941 and spent his childhood in Balic-Balic, Sampaloc. He received his basic education from Legarda Elementary School (1st Honorable Mention, 1954) and Victorino Mapa High School (Valedictorian, 1959). He received his degrees in AB Literature from the University of Santo Tomas (magna cum laude, 1963), MA Literature from St. Louis University, Baguio (magna cum laude, 1968), and Doctor of Arts in Language and Literature from De La Salle University-Manila (1990). He received a fellowship to attend the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa (1968–1969). Cirilo Bautista was married to Rosemarie Bautista and had three children.
List Of Awards
First Prize in Epic Writing English Category, of the National Centennial Commission's Literary Contests, 1998, sponsored by the Philippine Government. The judges in this prestigious contest, held to commemorate the Centennial of our freedom, gave the prize to Bautista's Sunlight on Broken Stones, the last volume in his The Trilogy of Saint Lazarus. This epic of 3,050 lines concludes his monumental work on Philippine history.
In 1999, Sunlight on Broken Stones, published by De La Salle University-Manila Press, garnered the National Book Award given by the Manila Critics Circle and the Gintong Aklat Award given by the Book Development Association of the Philippines
Hall of Fame of the Palanca Awards Foundation for achievements in the field of literature, 1995. This is given to Filipino writers who have distinguished themselves by winning at least five First Prizes in the Palanca Literary Contests.
Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature nine (9) times for poetry, fiction and essay. His prize-winning works include: Philippine Poetics: The Past Eight Years (essay), 1981; Crossworks (collected poems), 1979; Charts (collected poems), 1973; The Archipelago (epic poem), 1970; Telex Moon (epic poem), 1975; The Cave and Other Poems (collected poems), 1968; and the short stories Ritual and The Man Who Made a Covenant with the Wind.
National Book Award given by the Manila Critics Circle five (5) times, for The Archipelago, Sugat ng Salita, Sunlight on Broken Stones, The Trilogy of Saint Lazarus and Tinik sa Dila.
Diwa ng Lahi, Gawad Antonio Villegas at Patnubay ng Sining at Kalinangan in the field of literature by the City of Manila. This award is given to outstanding Manila artists who have contributed to the advancement of arts and culture. 430th Araw ng Maynila, June 22, 2001, Bulwagang Villegas, Manila City Hall.
Gawad Balagtas in 1997 by the Unyon ng mga Manunulat ng Pilipinas for Bautista's achievements as a poet, fictionist, and critic.
Included in Who’s Who in the World, 1996, New Providence, New Jersey, U.S.
Makata ng Taon 1993, sponsored by the Komisyon ng mga Wikang Pilipinas with the poem Ulat Buhat Sa Bulkan. With this and his Palanca award for Tagalog poetry and his winning the First Prize in the Poetry contest sponsored by the Dyaryo Filipino with his poem, Ilang Aeta Mula Sa Botolan, Bautista affirmed his importance as a bilingual writer.
Included in The Oxford Companion to the English Language, edited by Tom MacArthur, Oxford University Press, 1992.
Included in The Traveller’s Guide to Asian Literature, 1993.
Knight Commander of Rizal by the Order of the Knights of Rizal, December 1998, in recognition of Bautista's literary works that helped propagate the ideas and achievements of the national hero. His The Trilogy of Saint Lazarus has the national hero as the main character and focal point in the author's poetic recreation of the development of the Filipino soul from the beginning of our history to the present.
Adopted Son of Iligan City, 1997, by virtue of Executive Order #98 signed by Mayor Alejo Yanes, for his contribution “in the development of creative writing in Mindanao, for serving as a role model among young writers, as well as his tireless promotion of Iligan City as a center for literary arts in the Philippines.” Bautista was instrumental in the founding of the Iligan Writers Workshop and was its primary mover in attracting young writers to congregate in Mindanao and learn the craft of writing.
Gawad Manuel L. Quezon in 1996 by the Quezon City Government in connection with the Quezon Day Celebrations for Bautista's outstanding achievement as writer, editor and teacher.
Certificate of appreciation from the Benigno Aquino, Jr., Foundation for his literary works that helped perpetuate the memory of the late senator
St. Miguel Febres Cordero Research Award, SY 2002-03 given by De La Salle University-Manila, 2002. This award was given to Bautista in recognition of his achievements in research and creative writing.
First Annual Dove Award by the College of Liberal Arts, De La Salle University-Manila, February 14, 2001. An alumnus of the Graduate School of the University, Bautista was honored for the contributions he had in energizing the writing life on campus through his co-founding of the creative writing programs in the University and activities as Writer-in-Residence for fifteen years.
Most Outstanding Achievement Award in Literature by the Philets-Artlets Centennial Alumni Association of the University of Santo Tomas, 1996.
Most Outstanding Alumnus Award for Literature, Mapa High School Alumni Association, 1983.
Pablo Roman Prize for his Novel-in-Progress entitled Reconstruction, 1982.
Most Outstanding Alumnus Award for Literature from the Alumni Association of the College of Arts and Letters, University of Santo Tomas, 1982.
Fernando Maria Guerrero Award for Literature, University of Santo Tomas Alumni Association, 1980.
Most Outstanding Alumnus Award for Literature, Graduate School, Saint Louis University, 1975.
British Council Fellowship as Visiting Writer, Trinity College, Cambridge, England, 1987. Bautista was the first Filipino writer to be invited to attend the Cambridge Seminar on Contemporary Literature.
Honorary Fellow in Creative Writing, University of Iowa, U.S., 1969
Visiting Professor at Waseda University, Japan and Ohio University, U.S.
List of Works and Year Published
Poetry
Summer suns (with Albert Casuga, 1963)
The Cave and Other Poems (1968)
The Archipelago (1970)
Charts (1973)
Telex Moon (1981)
Sugat ng Salita (1985)
Kirot Ng Kataga (1995),
Sunlight On Broken Stones (2000)
Tinik Sa Dila: Isang Katipunan Ng Mga Tula (2003)
The Trilogy Of Saint Lazarus (2001)
Believe and Betray: New and Collected Poems (2007)
Third World Geography
Pedagogic (2008)
Fiction
Stories (1990)
Galaw ng Asoge (2004)
Literary Theory and Cultural Studies
Breaking Signs (1990)
Words And Battlefields: A Theoria On The Poem (1998)
The Estrella D. Alfon Anthology Vol. I – Short Stories (2000)
Bullets And Roses: The Poetry Of Amado V. Hernandez / A Bilingual Edition (translated Into English And With A Critical Introduction) (2002)
Bautista said “I grew up in a basically ‘linguistic’ environment, in the sense that my environment was filled with literature—starting with cheap local magazines like Liwayway, or the newspapers I found lying around,” Bautista recalled so this means he believes that he is really connected to words where he can be a successful writer. In his elementary days, instead of playing with friends like most kids do, he chose to spend his time feeding his curious fascination with words. It was upon entering elementary school that he discovered his true affection for literature and the message it brings.Being a voracious reader, Bautista turned out to be an excellent student as he graduated First Honorable Mention in elementary and Valedictorian in high school. Unsurprisingly he completed a degree in English as Magna Cum Laude, and again when he finished his Master’s in Literature.
Textual information
Third World geography has no exact year when it was published.Third World country is an outdated and offensive term for a developing nation characterized by a population with low and middle incomes, and other socio-economic indicators.
This poem is written in a simple form but an interesting and powerful message it gave to the readers.This poem depicts different kinds of life aspects such as poverty, hope, government and hunger.
THIRD WORLD GEOGRAPHY
A country without miracles
sits heavy on the map,
thinking of banana trees rotting
in the sunlight.
The man who watches over it
has commandeered all hopes,
placed them in a sack,
and tied its loose end.
He goes around carrying it
on his back.
When asked what is inside,
he says, “Just a handful of feathers,
just a handful of feathers.”
That’s how light the burden
of government is in peace time–
any tyrant can turn it into a metaphor.
You kneel on the parched earth
and pray for rice. Only the wind
hears your useless words.
The country without miracles
tries to get up from the page,
but the bold ink and sharp colors
hold it down.
ANALYSIS
Literary Genre
The literary genre that was used in this poem is dramatic poetry, dramatic poetry encompasses a highly emotional story that is written in verse and meant to be recited. It usually tells a story or refers to a specific situation. The Third World Geography is indeed a dramatic poem because there are many dramatic situations that can be seen in this poem. One example is oppression, oppression is a familiar word in the filipino vocabulary, this term can describe the oppression of the less privileged by the elite. Oppression also has been seen in many instances in our history, and it is natural that our literature reflects our engagement with this reality.
Analysis Guides
Third World Geography depicts different life aspects in our life first one is poverty and then hope, government and lastly is hunger. This analysis will help you to truly understand the meaning of the poem.
Reader Response
As a reader, this poem becomes an eye opener to us because it shows how the government shows no concern to the rants of the society. Third World Geography discerns the era of Martial Law where it shows how the society suffered from poverty in the hand of Marcos, this poem depicts the selfishness of the government and also describes how abusive the government is.
Tone
The author's attitude towards the poem is that he is just describing how the people suffered from the oppression of the government. The writer shows how the government treats people, people who suffered and begged to have food and to have a proper treatment for humans but the government shows no concern to the rants of those people. The government wouldn't care and shows no interest in the complaints.
Point of View
Third person point of view is used in this poem, which a narrator relates all the action of their work using third-person pronouns such as "he," "she," and "they." It's the most common perspective in works of fiction. It is clearly seen in the poem because the writer uses “he” in the poem, it differs from the first person, which uses pronouns such as I and me, and from the second person, which uses pronouns such as you and yours.
Diction and Style
The writing style of the writer is he wrote this poem in a style of descriptive poem, descriptive means the poem has a lot of description about. There are more deep meanings we can see in this poem if we analyze it very well. For example, in the lines where there is a repetition of "Just a handful of feathers, Just a handful of feathers" this repetition emphasizes the lies and light treatment of the government.The poem literally builds up an imaginary visualization of a man carrying a sack of bag. In a reader's perspective, the persona is discreetly lying about the content of the sack insisting that it just contains a handful of feathers, which can be seen in the lines of;
He goes around carrying it
on his back.
When asked what is inside,
he says, “Just a handful of feathers,
Figuratively, the poem denotes how one man snatched away all the people's hope on turning down their country's problems and replaced it with a false fantasy. This airy hope chase away the heavy burden felt by the government who considered everything insignificantly and lightly.
The second stanza used repetition to emphasize the lies and light treatment of the government. However, this supposed emphasis turned out different in our perspective. Whenever a person is lying, they tend to repeat the words or phrases over and over again
Images and Symbols
The poem literally builds up an imaginary visualization of a man carrying a sack of bags. As a reader, we can see that a man who is carrying a sack of bags is discreetly lying about the content of the sack insisting that it just contains a handful of feathers. This shows how the government will keep deaf ears about your crying but they will not care but only for themselves."A country without miracles sits heavy on the map", means that a country where there is no hope and caused nothing but trouble, is just good for nothing. "banana trees rotting in the sunlight", it means that there is no hope and improvement or chance that make something better or more value. "You kneel on the parched earth and pray for rice." that is the person who prays for blessing to come his way. "Only the wind hears your useless words." because the man in power they once thought of as a leader and guiding light.
Theme
A major theme in The Third World Geography is about how the government ignores all the rants of the society. We can see this in the experience of our ancestors when they are in the hands of Marcos. This poem teaches us to be resilient and selfless, don't give up even though they are pushing you down but eventually it will make us realize that whatever the problem is we can overcome it and be free from the burden that holds us to become better.
Contextual Analysis
Sociocultural Context
In Cirilo F. Bautista's poem entitled Third World Geography, the term “third world country” refers to countries with high mortality rates, especially infant mortality rates. They also have an unstable and inconsistent economy. These are countries that contain massive amounts of poverty and in some cases have fewer natural resources than other nations throughout the world. These countries often have to rely on more industrialized countries to aid them and help stabilize their economy.Our country which is Philippines is included in a third world country, there are a lot of reasons why the Philippines remains in a third world country such as; the Philippines was once a colony of Spain, the Philippines lacks in advanced infrastructure, the Philippines is developing economy, the Philippines has low quality of life, the Philippines suffers from political instability such as insurgency, the Philippines has high rates of poverty incidence, the Philippines has overpopulation, the Philippines suffers from low level of sanitation, the Philippines generally doesn’t have access to quality health care, the Philippines is still a low income country.SUMMARY
Third World Geography described a country losing its freedom due to its leader but never losing a hope. This poem shows how the third world countries suffered in the hands of a tyrant. Just imagined how these poor people begged to have food to eat or just have a proper treatment as a human because even though they are poor they are still human and need to be respected. Even if they begged for it, the government wouldn't care and shows no interest in the complaints, they didn't even worry for the people in their country.
REFERENCES
Here are the references that we used in creating this analysis paper:
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