Virtual Ethnography 101: A Salute to My Father on Labor Day

I would always ask my college and graduate students in Anthropology, aside from learning anthropological concepts and theories inside the classroom, to explore places, experience cultural or social happenings, and write ethnographic accounts using the participation-observation method.
I am posting in my blog with the writer's consent selected ethnography penned creatively by my students to contribute to the emerging sub-discipline of anthropology called 'Virtual Ethnography'.

Basically, virtual ethnography is also referred to as Webnography. We cannot deny the fact that with increasing use of technology and the Internet, there is now a demand for online spaces on various ethnographic accounts.

By Ma Jezia P Talavera

My father worked as a chemical technician for 35 years at the La Mesa Dam Water Systems, and whenever he came home with his cut-off salary, he and mom would talk in the dining area to “slice the pie” and struggle to fit the money with our financial needs—grocery, food, bills and tuition. I would see them groan and make disgusted faces and I would hear mom complain that while the commodity and gas prices continue to soar high in the market my dad’s wages never seem to catch up. Now that he’s retired and his pension has not yet arrived, our race to financial survival just took a turn for the worse.

This is a timeless dilemma shared by laborers, by those who work 12 hours a day to bring home a measly three-course meal to their malnourished children and to give them enough allowance to go to school. This is the dilemma shared by the people gathered in Mendiola and Liwasang Bonifacio last May 1; the dilemma which demands a petition to raise wages, to relieve high taxes, and to improve working conditions. This is not just a common problem of the Pinoy worker, but also that of other laborers across the globe—in Greece, Indonesia, Spain, Istanbul, Germany and France among others.

The usual scenario can be observed: people would march, give a speech, wave their placards, while the police would guard the gates, follow orders and care less. If things would go out of hand, tear gas and water hose would do the trick to wipe the noisy crowd. Unfortunately, the results would also be usually inevitable: government officials played deaf, the protesters went home with hardly any food for dinner, and the street sweepers are left with the extra work to clean the mess from the rally.

Either a lethal punch to the face or the assassination of those corrupt government officials may be the only solution for the work force to finally achieve equal rights to employment, but this may not still solve the problem, for this reflects a timeless aspect of our culture: social inequality. True enough, it has played a critical role in the emergence of chiefdoms and modern civilizations. This highlights the sociopolitical hierarchy necessary to establish stable economies and political systems. It is important to have a leader, subordinates and workers. However such hierarchy should not entail that the lowest level of labor be deprived of equal human rights. I have learned that these workers have proved to be the foundation and pillar of support of various old and modern civilizations. If not for these workers, there would be no Ziggurat, no Pyramid of Giza or Taj Mahal or Great Wall of China that became the trademarks of powerful civilizations.

It is no different in our era today: local laborers and OFWs alike keep our economic status stable and the government should not overlook their needs for a better working environment and fair wages.