Time as past, present and future

Time may be relative but for us ordinary humans we still measure time into past, present and future. So here I am measuring time from 2018 to 2019. As I look into the “new year” I also look into “the old year.” Among notable events I note I chose a few – the main news in yesterday’s paper was the trash in Rizal Park (named after our national hero and his martyrdom) after Christmas, the 100th anniversary of Burke Building which is known more to us as the Berg Department Store and Austin Ong’s football team of Christians and Muslims.

On the trash in Rizal Park the cry was for a law banning single use plastics nationwide but I think this is only an aspect of the problem. It is a contributing factor but the problem that give rise to the shameful throwing of trash speaks of other things. The picture taken of the “revellers” showed a shoulder to shoulder crowd.

Frankly, I don’t know how they could have celebrated with such a crowd on so little space. We need more parks. Just next to it is the Mini Golf Club which could be put to better use. Intramuros should be revived as a premier piece of history and open only to pedestrians. Another solution is the development of other cities with their own parks, housing and commercial centers. I wonder how many waste cans were available for that crowd.

From a family friend of long ago, W. A. Mialhe wrote that their building on the Escolta has celebrated its 100th year anniversary which is a rarity in a city which was bombed to the ground in World War II. They were among the first French immigrants to the Philippines.

I have not heard from him or his family for years so I was surprised to receive a letter about a building owned by them – Burke Building. I knew Berg’s Department on the Escolta. The narrow street was once the center of shopping in Manila. It was the downtown and the most important businessmen, politicians and media met for coffee at the Botica Boie, another landmark.

This was also where Imelda had her first job as a salesgirl for pianos at the P.E. Domingo. It is not only about shopping or Berg’s Department Store.

But it was more than shopping and where powerful people met. The Burke building’s origin began on April 7, 1915, The Winifred Masterson Burke Relief Foundation first opened its doors in White Plains, thanks to the generosity and foresight of our benefactor, New York philanthropist John Masterson Burke. Upon his death in 1909, he bequeathed $4.5 million to begin the Burke story. In today’s money, that gift would be worth approximately $100 million – a fortune in any era.

The Mialhes commemorated the 100thanniversary with an exhibit which includes a 1595 manuscript of Diego de Veloso’s embassy to Cambodia for Governor Paez Dasmarinas, a family,1628 Manila letter and sime 25 invoices of Escolta stores in the 1880s including an invoice of General Aguinaldo. The exhibit will remain until Jan. 8, 2019. Definitely an occasion from the past.

From Austin Ong in Facebook he writes of how he was impressed by Christian and Muslim boys playing soccer under pouring rain. Indeed this is a good way to develop peace and friendship between two cultures.

“Whatever economic background they come from, they meet every week at the UP Sunken Garden under volunteer coach Jeff John Vacaro! Parents chipped-in to provide snacks for the boys.

One can see how much the boys cherish the camaraderie when they braved the pouring rain to enjoy each other’s company. They also had a simple Christmas party before the game  to mark the end of the year.  Thanks to Kenneth Duncan and Wl Foods for supplying the food for the party. This is a useful present mirroring the past of the two cultures and how soccer can overcome those differences.

There is also the issue of different practices of Islam that has been a source of friction. I thought I should include this cautionary lesson.  In a short history of Islam Karen Armstrong writes  “Even though they all claimed to be devout, committed Muslims, the esoterics had all changed the religion of the Prophet. Muhammad would have been startled by the doctrines of the Faylasufs, and Ali would almost certainly declare themselves to be his partisans.

But, despite the convictions of many of the faithful in any tradition, who are convinced that their religion never changes and that their beliefs and practices are identical with those of the founders of their faith, religion must change in order to survive. Muslim reformers would find the esoteric forms of Islam inauthentic, and would try to get back to the purity of the first ummah, before it was corrupted by these later accretions.

But it is never possible to go back in time.

Any ‘reformation,’ however conservative its intention, is always a new departure, and an adaptation of the faith to the particular challenges of the reformer’s own time. Unless a tradition has within it the flexibility to develop and grow, it will die. Islam proved that it had this creative capacity. It could appeal at a profound level to men and women who lived in conditions that were quite different from the desperate, brutal era of the Prophet.

They could see meaning in the Quran that went far beyond the literal sense of the words. And which transcended the circumstances of the original revelations. The Quran became a force in their lives that gave them intimations of the sacred, and which enabled them to build fresh spiritualities of great of power and insight.”

It is both of the past and the present.

A happier future is possible with Muslims of (whatever denomination) and Christians playing football under pouring rain.