Red Before Maroon: My Reminiscences of UP

Published on February 21, 2009

7.I remember Iloilo City campus of UP as Arcadia of my student days. I remember Lourdes V. de Castro as a lovely wise woman, above and beyond her administrative position. I remember Teddy B. Ledesma as awesome mentor and good friend. I cannot forget his warning: not stupidity, but mediocrity is the true enemy of Reason. Memories as sources of my grief and quiet elation. It pains me now “that the University is no longer a place of honest labor and easy repose. It seems the honorable ones have left and their empty chairs are occupied by small in mind but monstrous in ambition”.

8.From the Philippine Daily Inquirer, 24 September 2000, page A13, I remember reading: “Protests have broken out in the University of the Philippines in the Visayas (UPV) over the reappointment of Chancellor Ida Siason by the UP Board of Regents (BOR). Streamers questioning her appointment have appeared in the UPV’s main campus in Miag-ao, Iloilo and also in Iloilo City campus side by side with those announcing her appointment. Last Friday around 200 students, teachers and non-teaching personnel wore black shirts as they held a rally inside the UPV’s Iloilo City campus, questioning the decision of the 13-member BOR, the university’s highest policy-making body.”

9.The demonic obsession to dominate others often culminates in self-destruction. Such obsession drains life force and destroys what is beautiful. Such obsession, like a hungry black hole, brings about the collapse of the entire architecture of human purpose. Chaos results from such obsession: the destruction of the destroyer. The heroic task is to halt destruction and to facilitate the renewal of the death-and-rebirth cycle. Hence the act of giving up, of giving in, is not hopelessness but silent courage. Letting go of power and authority is letting be, selflessness is the true companion of wisdom. I learned these in dear old UP but paradoxically.

10.I often heard from the pragmatic and the practical what a UP graduate is. To them a UP graduate is he/she who has impeccable curriculum vitae and with a clear career track. Later, with stable family life and high income, yet with strong old-school ties, this graduate is potentially generous alumnus donor. After laughing, I was moved to write Apologies to Tolkien (excerpts):

Where now is the courage of Gimli the Dwarf
long abandoned by floppy men

The magical wisdom of Gandalf the White
long traded for easy cunning

The loveliness of Prince Legolas Greenleaf
unrecognized by uncouth ones —

Have they all finally sailed to the West
leaving us in this miserable Middle earth?

With Queen Arwen, will we eternally grieve
the passing of a beautiful Age?

(Posted by (Bulatlat.com))

*Tomas T. Talledo is a faculty member at the Social Science Division, UP Iloilo. He is also a member of the Congress of Teachers and Educators for Nationalism and Democracy (Contend).

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