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Document Type

Poem

DOI

10.25779/7dny-ay77

Abstract

In the Doha International Airport, a forest calls is a poem about a culture of deep ecology in a context of coloniality, brain drain, and my own part in it. Despite over 300 years of colonization in the Philippines and the colonization of our own education system, a certain deep ecology continues to thrive in the belief of spirits in nature. Among Filipinos, even in the thick of the Anthropocene, a sense of respect and fear for nature continues to exist. It is common, for example, for Filipinos to ask these spirits for permission to pass through forested areas. However, many Filipinos leave the country to find work abroad because of the difficult conditions in the country. For most, it is a means to provide their families with a better life – even if it means leaving them. Many Filipino overseas workers work in blue collar jobs such as domestic helpers, carpenters, servers, and sea men. As a student abroad, I simultaneously feel a pervasive sense of guilt and relief. I feel alienated – as if I am grieving, leaving the nature I know at home and the people who live in it but at the same time, anxious to return to the Philippines where life is difficult and opportunities are scarce. I wrote this poem to help myself process these feelings and to remind myself I am my home and I carry home. The choices that Filipinos in the diaspora have had to make have roots in a history much deeper than our current milieu. Sometimes, leaving is the option in which the forest survives.

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