Autism, civil society and La Fiesta

April is autism month for many parts of the world and I was going to write about it this week since, save for a couple of events that gathered parents, there did not seem to be any attempt to enhance public awareness of this disability. Congress during the Clinton administration raised the alarm on this widespread condition, suspected of being caused by a heightened intrusion of chemicals into human metabolism. I have two children ages 10 and 13 years old whose condition contributed greatly in the demise of a marriage.

Also, the STaR parent organization’s Center at Chalan Kanoa, which was organized and led primarily by volunteer parents of children with autism, had been vandalized by what neighbors characterize as “6 young kids” from Susupe who broke in and boldly made themselves at home. Juvenile defacing of walls and other surfaces, and carting off stored properties was not a heart-warming event to those whose sweat equity and volunteered private equipment ran and supplied the place.

With the environmental awareness focus of this month, culminating in the Earth Day commemorations last week, reflections on the human habitat ranked high on my mind. Private and public sectors tend to be short-sighted when dealing with ecology, the first, procedurally locked in on the quarterly bottom line, and the latter, concerned more with political expediency abiding in two-year election cycles. The voluntary sector–NGOs, PVOs, faith-based groups, philanthropic organizations, etc.–are more often than not parochial in their special interests and staked out domains. There is not much effort to be systemic in approach to the comprehensive demand of human development and the creation of a dynamic civil society. One tires easily with the annual cycle of palliative programs, short-term fund-raising and endless board of directors and committee meetings. Burnt out is a state that quickly replaces initial inspired and spirited motivation.

The mother of my two autistic children is a program officer for USAID in Washington, D.C. where I was Mr. Mom to our children for five years in the first half of the ‘90s. Having been previously active in local community development work the previous two decades in four continents, I was aware of the trend to shift aid policy from geo-political and security considerations to legitimate promotion of local economic self-sufficiency, political self-reliance, and cultural self-confidence.

Programs to shore up civil society, the new term for the voluntary sector, finally became policy to many economic aid agencies. Empowerment became a fashionable code word, and public agency programs began to incorporate stakeholders’ participation into their operational and management processes.

This year, concerned individuals in the private, public and civil sectors, in their inevitable networking while dealing with common concerns on the environment, are building an alliance of individuals and organizations. Expanding beyond the concerns of existing nature conservancy groups, the group fundamentally affirms the value of the islands’ natural capital and intends to deal with the conservation, preservation and judicious utilization of the biosphere (defined as the distance between the ocean floor and the stratosphere). I had earlier volunteered to be part of the organizing board of directors but demands on a 6th grade public school teacher, particularly on the tail end of a school year, regrettably made me beg off to back out of lead roles and functions.

An acronym-word combination had been brooded over for the group’s brand name. MINA for Marianas Islands Nature Association is also the Spanish word for a mineral mine, or the extraction of wealth from the ground, or slang for treasure. MINature would stand for nature as wealth to be protected, preserved and conserved. Carried into Spanglish, it means, “my natural environment,” which personalizes the sense of individual responsibility. It was while musing over this that I dug out my old copy of Tadashi Yamamoto’s Emerging Civil Society in the Asia Pacific Community, published under the auspices of the Japan Center for International Exchange in 1995. After the Asian bug smote the Bhat in 1997 and the rest of Asia thereafter, I had wondered what happened to the promotion of an Asia Pacific community that was more than just a mirror image of NAFTA for the Americas, and EU for the lands west of the Urals and north of Hellespont Strait.

Further, I thought how strategically located the Marianas is to organize the intellectual wealth of the region and be a “retreat” center for all kinds of deliberations and conferences towards the creation of civil society in the region. The image of the Gateway to Learning promoted by NMC before it got corrupted into the image of a milking cow got my juices flowing, more so with the acquisition of the La Fiesta facilities. I had images of McPhetres-led civil conversations on varied economic, political and cultural subjects in the Mall’s salon-eateries, night concerts under the open skies, day year-round-ala-Flame Tree-art-festival exhibits galore, two-week English language camps for Asian students, etc., only to be shut down by a vision handicapped by weak underpinnings and logistical support.

Come now Ruth Tighe with her inspired La Fiesta as Art/Historical Center! I add, Humanities/Civil Society’s hang out. I say, let’s do it! For comments on this one, hack me at JVSaipanTribune@aol.com.