[Philippines] Rockin’ the free world free

from The Manila Times

By Rome Jorge

The sound of riot and protest is in the air. At a time when people are calling attention to the silent erosion of our right of dissent, peaceable assembly and press freedom, there is a more sinister machination that seeks to keep us in the developing world in our place.

It’s the attack of those giant garlic cloves and genetically modified freak chickens flooding the market from abroad that’s driving our own farmers out of business. It’s the spread of all those apples and jasmine rice that are cheaper than our own mangoes and milagrosa that are making us a banana republic. It’s the invasion of all those nifty electronics, camping gear, etc., that’s making sure we’ll never get off the ground producing our very own electronics, camping gear, etc. We’re talking about poverty and we’re talking about lives. And local rockers are singing their guts about it and touring the globe about it too.

Rock Against the Round: Musicians against the WTO [World Trade Organization] is a compilation album with songs from Radioactive Sago Project, Pedicab, Noel Cabangon, Agaw Agimat, Bridge, Wuds, Datu’s Tribe, Village Idiots and many more kick-ass cutting-edge bands. Already, some of the artists such as Pedicab, Village Idiots and Noel Cabangon have dared to illegally perform concerts at WTO ministerial conference in Hong Kong.

For musicality alone, the album is a winner. The album brings together a wide array of music, from the Hare-Krishna punk of The Wuds to the gutsy blues rock of Noel Cabangon; from the disco-punk of Pedicab to the acoustic jazz rock of the Bridge; from the catchy folk protest music of Village Idiots to the old-school punk of Strap on Seven Inch—It’s all good. Many of these songs can stand on their own artistic merit. But as you tap your feet to groove, you may find yourself raising a clenched left fist.

These songs are specially created for this album. It’s teach-in that rocks. As effective as veteran musical advocates such as Noel Cabangon and the Wuds who have appeared in numerous cause-oriented compilation albums are the highly popular indie bands as Pedicab, Radioactive Sago Project and Bridge in bringing the message home.

Bawang na China [Garlic from China]
Pechay na Malaysia [Cabbage from Malaysia]
At saka meron pa: [And one more thing]
Presidenteng tanga [An idiot for a President]
Itim na tanim, dugo sa salamin, [Black produce, blood on the mirror]
Dugo sa sandok, mas mura [Blood on the ladle, it’s cheaper]
Ang banyagang manok [Foreign poultry]
May libreng sakit [Comes free with disease]
May dugo sa iyong kape [There’s blood in your coffee]
Paano ka nakakatulog sa gabi? [How can you sleep at night?]

— “Foodtrip” by Radioactive Sago Project

Lourd de Veyra, highly respected poet and vocalist for the Radioactive Sago Project tells it like it is: “I’m not an activist. Neither am I a leftist. The song is not an indictment of capitalism and trade per se because, God knows, we all reap and wallow in the benefits of a free market.

“What the song is protesting against is excessive globalization, which is fundamentally wrong in every moral sense. The WTO encourages free trade to stimulate multilateral economic growth. But in truth, the WTO merely uses this glittery promise to promote the interests of multinational corporations. Recent WTO treatises have shown tremendous bias toward the commercial interests of first-world nations. (And it is interesting to note that WTO head honcho Pascal Lamy has creepy ears. Metaphor alert.)

“On the other hand, developing countries like ours wield very little influence. We become dumping grounds for cheaper imports. Cheaper because they are subsidized by their own governments in billions of dollars, especially agricultural products. The unfair trade dynamics is systematically hurting poor, small industries.

“The scary part is that all these seem abstract concepts to the majority of the people, who, for reasons obvious, cannot be blamed for buying that cheaper pack of garlic from Taiwan than the ones from Ilocos, or Thailand/Indonesian rice instead of local. The thing is, every time we make such choices, some farmer and his family gets hungrier by the day.

“This food-agri element is just one of the many aspects of the WTO. There are other issues involving health, environment, labor, among many others.”