By Ryoko Tsuboi

Time passes so fast. Since I started this training program, a year and some months have passed and now I am looking back my stay here in AsiaDHRRA. Honestly, I don’t think I could get enough things that I need to run JaDHRRA as a secretariat staff. But still there were many things that I felt, thought and learned through this precious opportunity of living in a country out side of Japan. Among these was the meaning of being developed.

I was born in the biggest economic power in Asia. I have never had experience worrying about today’s dinner or money for going to school. I have been living with sufficient amount of money that allowed me to buy what I want to buy, wear what I want to wear and to go where I want to go. And then, the Philippines. It is a country that is called “developing country” in which there are many people who have to worry about today’s dinner, there are many children who can’t go to school even if they really want to go, and there are many people who can’t do what they want to do or to buy what they want to buy because they have no money and that’s because they have no job.

When I went back to Japan, I kept being asked why I chose to live in such a dangerous developing country like …………

When I went back to Japan, I kept being asked why I chose to live in such a dangerous developing country like the Philippines. It seems the formulas are “developed country like Japan = safe and easy to live in” and “developing country like the Philippines = poor, dangerous and hard to live in”. Sad to say, these are already firmly in their brains and it is appear automatically without having any second thoughts.

The Philippines is economically poor. But from my observation, it seems people here are enjoying their lives more than the Japanese are doing. They laugh a lot, always relaxed, broad minded and very kind. For me, I feel more comfortable and have fun living in this country than in Japan. And it’s stress-less too.

The biggest change that happened to me after a year of staying here was that I became kind to myself and don’t mind much about small things. There are plenty of unpredictable and unexpected things that can happen. After facing them one after another, I learned to accept them and just say, “It’s not a big matter.” Filipinos are kind to themselves and so they also can be kind to others. The ranges of “OK” towards things are also wider.

Brought up in Japan, I had been thinking of life as very hard and tough. I believed that I have to be strict with myself. Life is accompanied by a lot of efforts and patience and without these, there is no growth as a person. Also I believed that achievements, exciting challenges and modest happiness all mixed up together make up life. I understood “living” this way.

But in the Philippines things are not like that at all. Always life is happy as much as possible. If I can accept it, there is nothing more than comfortable than this. I felt guilt at first, but this is not a matter of good or bad, but just a shape of a culture that was born and grown in this country that is blessed with warm weather and abundant nature. If a society that accepts this easy happy culture can exist, there is nothing more than good with it. Now I think that way without hesitation.

Perhaps, this cultural characteristic of the Filipino society would be a hindrance to “development” that has been achieved by Japan or western countries. But what on earth was the “development” that we have achieved? We became economically rich, but probably we left a lot of important things along the way. The society where people are watching each other, competing with each other and demanding 200% perfection from each other might have contributed to Japanese economic development, but it is at the expense of “me” as an individual. And now we are in very sick society. More than 30,000 people kill themselves every year, not able to find the meaning of life and the value of their existence. If this shape of development is futile, even if this country can’t follow our steps, it is nothing bad. Then isn’t it possible to build a new shape of developed country, maintaining the happy warm culture without having starving people inside? What we are aiming at is “happiness of the people” but not “the development itself”. In that context, development is just one of the means to an end. If it is so, the shape can be more diverse. What we need to start is to try to seek different shapes of development in each place that can retain their diversity and can suit to each culture.

Relaxed, warm and kind Filipino culture, slow Filipino time, if all these things that I like are also bulldozed by globalization, it is such a regret. But it seems like no one can stop this crazy bulldozer. The system is so firmly built up that it might be impossible to break it down.

I remember the words that were said by a Japanese journalist living in the Philippines. He said, “There is a need for deconstructing already built up structure one by one from the ground rather building up something new.” After going back to Japan, I want to keep seeking what I can do for it inside Japan as JaDHRRA, this network of people and groups that is given as my task. My training program from now on is by “learning by doing” even I am physically away from AsiaDHRRA.

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Ryoko Tsuboi, a JaDHRRA volunteer, took further studies at the International People’s College at Denmark after finishing a course in sociology at the Otemon University. Before joining AsiaDHRRA’s OJT program in October 2003, she was a volunteer in Asian Rural Institute (ARI) for a year. She also worked in Otemon University as research assistant under the tutelage of Dr.Yatani Yoshikuni, JaDHRRA president. Ryoko is currently working with Ainou-Kai.

She maintains a blog at http://ryokojp.blogspot.com/

Zenkoku ainou-kai was established 1945 with 2 prayers for never to commit again the error of waging war, but to establish a world in which peace prevails, and to establish with the spirit of autonomy and independence the shining agricultural communities bonded with love and cooperation. Based on the Ainou spirit of Love for God, Love for Men, Love for Soil, Ainou-kai has been working for the conservation and sound development of agriculture which they believe in turn is good for attaining world peace. Since 1980’s from the realization that conventional agriculture had killed soil and undermined people’s health, Ainou-kai converted into organic agriculture. Since then they have been promoting organic farming in Japan.

Currently Ainou-kai develops programs and courses geared towards organic farmers, holding workshop for technical and administrative side of farming, having exchange program with Korean organic farming organization Seinoukai, and providing certification services to organic products in Japan.