Lights Out for One Hour Tonight

Tonight, from 8:00 to 9:00, lights will go out in many places in the Philippines. It is our participation in Earth Hour, a global event that seeks to create awareness on climate change.

I copied this backgrounder from the WWF Earth Hour site:

“On March 31 2007, for one hour, Sydney made a powerful statement about the greatest contributor to global warming – coal-fired electricity – by turning off its lights. Over 2.2 million Sydney residents and over 2,100 businesses switched off, leading to a 10.2% energy reduction across the city. What began as one city taking a stand against global warming caught the attention of the world.

In 2008, 24 global cities will participate in Earth Hour at 8 pm on March 29. Earth Hour is the highlight of a major campaign to encourage businesses, communities and individuals to take the simple steps needed to cut their emissions on an ongoing basis. It is about simple changes that will collectively make a difference – from businesses turning off their lights when their offices are empty, to households turning off appliances rather than leaving them on standby.”

The symbolic “switch off” in Metro Manila will be at the front lawn of the Cultural Center of the Philippines and the organizers promise that lights will go out on the whole stretch of Roxas Boulevard which spans three cities.

Earth Hour was on March 31 last year. The switch to March 29 this year is probably due to the need to do this on a Saturday. But since March 29 is also the founding anniversary of the New People’s Army in the Philippines, it makes me ask again why we in the revolutionary movement didn’t include rural electrification among our concerns. I recall with a wry smile the good-natured ribbing from General Dumol, the first head of the rural electrification program: “Have you forgotten Lenin’s description of socialism as worker power plus electric power?”

The e-mail I received about Earth Hour had these lines: “Time to join the revolution! Global warming is now the greatest threat we have ever faced. But we can make a difference if we act together.”

The tone is reminiscent of the evangelistic fervor of the young activists agitating those whom they were trying to recruit into the revolutionary movement. When overdone, it is a turn-off. But during my years in the underground, when we were on the run, when detention or even death could be just around the corner, I understood that kind of intense fervor. The sense of urgency and the uncertainty made us want “every conversation to end in a conversion.”

Girlie and Ayen will not be with me tonight, since they are still in Lucena. We won’t be able to do a group Earth Hour activity. I guess I will just sit in the dark for an hour and think about the campaign we are planning with NEA for electric coop members to switch from incandescent to compact flourescent lamps.

But I will also light three candles in honor of three persons who have died this week.

Harry dela Luna, my first cousin on my mother’s side, died suddenly in Canada, probably of aneurism. He was 61, and the first of 35 first cousins to die. I am the oldest first cousin, so his death gives me pause.

Danilo Gache, an agrarian reform activist and advocate, died of heart attack at 44. At his wake last night, I learned that he had been mobilizing farmers in Central Luzon for a summit on the food crisis. Just before he died, he complained about the extraordinarily hot weather that sapped his energies.

Doc Nemesio Prudente died at 81, from complications after an operation. He is a nationalist and educational visionary, and I drew wisdom from the conversations we had, in the underground and in prison, about forging a coalition of the different revolutionary organizations fighting the dictatorship.

I give thanks for the light they brought to my life and to others, in the hours they spent on this earth.

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