Contemporary World Lecture November 14, 2019

The Global City

The modernization of the term cosmopolitan.  Our textbook was good in pointing out to us the good things on what the Global City is about.  For this lesson, our focus is on the process of becoming a Global City.  And an important theme in this process is the concept of movement.

Historically, cities began beside rivers.  These allowed the flow of many things.  Flow of goods, flow of people, flow of information, and even flow of waste.  As the world grew, centers of power, of trade, and even of knowledge shift.  Cities are eventually built in locations away from rivers.  And roads are created, and even airports to allow the flow to go on.

Dr. Florentino Hornedo once destroyed my thesis in class with his philosophical argument.  My thesis argued that the Philippines is a divided geography being an archipelago, with waters separating the islands.  Good thing that I also argued that mountains and forests also divide what’s within the island.  Not knowing my thesis.  In a class discussion, the great philosopher said that the Philippine islands are not separated as we would usually assume.  You have one island, and another island.  Water separates them.  All that people need are boats.  But if you have one huge landmass, you don’t just need vehicles, you also need to built roads.

Cities thrive because of these linkages.

A different expert, one on sociology and environmental planning, Dr. Lysander Padilla, studied the progress of cities as metropolitanization.  Taking for example the Philippines.  We have Manila as a city.  It is also the capital.  The phenomenon of its expansion is linked to it not just being the capital of the republic, but also to it being “imperial Manila,” viewed as center of power and of progress.  So much so that people flock to Manila city and it’s neighboring local governments.  Around this neighborhood of cities is Metro Manila, or the Metropolis of Manila.

This metro is the local version of being transmobile.  A concept more prominent and used in migration studies.  However, metros are composed of transient humans.  Several of you, being college students are transients, being residents from one city other than Manila, some even come from provinces, and study in Manila.  Some even stay in Manila during the course of the study and go home frequently or infrequently during free days or weekends.  In doing so, you become transmobiles.

The transmobility of of people within the metro grow to extend to neighboring cities outside the Metro.  Even outside NCR.  People as far North as Pampanga and as far south as Batangas go to the Metro to work and go back home to be with their respective families within the week or the month,   From this come the Mega City.  A city composed of local transmobiles.

The mobility of people allows the blessings in the center (Manila) to flow to the places of origin of these people.  A similar phenomenon happens globally when the city gets hooked up with international transmobiles.  These range from tourists, students, educators, businessmen and women, and even public officials and civil servants.  Staying in one city at a particular state for a time, such as during a tour, an exchange program, or a conference.  Then they go back home.  In that interval and after, they create a link between their place of origin and place of destination, their sending state/country and receiving state/country.

A contrary phenomenon to mobility is the bottleneck.  A point of a flow where such flow can be blocked.  Going through EDSA, or any thoroughfare, one can notice particular intersections as chokepoints, places where blockages tend to accumulate.  When I was a student, travel time from Caloocan to Makati was one hour.  Now EDSA become one huge bottleneck at partcular periods of ti

Migration

The phenomenon of human movement across borders.  This movement can be linear or circular.  It is also defined in terms of generation.  There are 1st generation migrants, those who actually migrated.  And 2nd generation, those who are born of migrants in the host/receiving state.  Most 1st generation migrants, specially if they are diasporic migrants, are usually linear in their movement.  They move out of their home state  and eventually stay for good at the host state.  There are a few of course who go back.  These people who go back trace a path that scholars call circular migration since they partake in return or return migration.  A movement back from host to home.  For diasporas, it is usually the 2nd generation who eventually partake in the return.  And usually a temporary return.

Diasporas are a variation of migration.  They are characterized by dispersion and by a mass of people migrating to a new location.  The very first instance of the word word diaspora came from the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible.  The Jews have experienced dispersion in several instances.  But ithe earliest diaspora was experienced in the book by 2 people.  Adam and Eve, who were banished from paradise and thus brought about the eventual dispersion of the human race.

There are many enclaves of diasporas across the world.  So much so that host states have China Town, Filipino Town, Italy Town and other similar areas.  Diasporas are rich in contributions to the creation of the globalized contemporary world.

Migrations scholars Robin Cohen, Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari and Édouard Glissant used gardening tropes as phenomenological tools to describe diasporic experience in terms of cross-border movement.  These gardening teopes are: Seeds, Roots, Rhizomes, and Epiphytes.

Seeds

Photo source: https://www.ucg.org/good-news/lessons-from-the-parables-the-parable-of-the-sower-and-seed-part-1

Planting seeds may sound like a good thing.  But the essence of seeds have a sad meaning in terms of migrant experience.  To a diasporic person, being in a diaspora is the experience of sperein, Greek word for “to scatter.”  And like the seeds in Christ’s parable, they may end up in rich soil, on harsh ground, get preyed or pecked by birds, some even end up in excrement. One nice angle though is that some who end up in excrement, like seeds, eventually grow.

Roots

Photo source: http://jeffbormasterconsulting.com/guide-to-strategic-planning/understanding-the-roots-of-challenging-childrens-behavior/

Roots can mean two things.  One is sinking roots, and the other is finding roots.  Cohen argues that the second is the one linked to diasporas.  Emphasizing the imporatnce of tracing one’s origin.  A concept linked directly to return migration and transnationalization.  In this experience, migrants glocalize culture.  They intermingle the cultures of their home and their host state.

I argue that roots represent both perspectives.  I add insights from the writings of Tarrius (2002) and Dahinden (2010) that migrants, particularly diasporas need localization.  The process of being rooted in the home country to become mobile within the borders of that place.  Rootedness is not just residence, it is about socializing and becoming made welcome at the host state.

Rhizomes

Photo source: http://www.bamboobotanicals.ca/html/about-bamboo/bamboo-growth-habits.html

Looking at a rhizome, it is a part of a root.  Thos most common rhizome you encounter are ginger.  It is a connected to roots, and it is from which new versions of the same plant sprout from.  Another example are bamboo.

Rhizomes represent the sprouting of new versions of the same idea.  The proliferation of migrant towns create fusion cuisine.  And there are variations of the same cuisine around the world.  It also influences other aspects of life other than food, from modes of education, to modes of production.  Rhizomes are the main contribution of migrants to the globalizing contemporary world.

Epiphytes

Photo source: https://international-pest-control.com/tropical-epiphytes-and-collateral-control-with-copper-fungicide/

Epiphytes are comensal plants.  They are not biological parasites.  But they are space parasites.  They compete withe the space that the actual plant is supposed to occupy.  Similar to migrants, and are treated as such.   Most migrants are not welcomed with open arms because they will be just like epiphytes who will not only take up space but will also conpete for livelihood.