Impacts of power sector reforms on rural electrification in the Philippines : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Development Studies at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

Inspired by neo-liberal principles, waves of electricity industry reforms have swept the world over the last two decades. To a great extent, the traditional government-extended electrification service was transferred to the hands of private actors and market forces. While these reforms are expected to bring about efficiency gains as a result of market liberalization and private competition, the provision of electrification service to relatively poorer rural areas is less certain. In this light, it is of great interest in development studies to therefore understand the impacts of these reforms on the delivery of public service goals in cash-strapped developing countries like the Philippines. Through assessments of relevant Philippine government data and case study findings, this thesis outlines how the restructured Philippine electricity industry has impacted on the accessibility, service quality and affordability of electrification, especially in rural areas. In a nutshell, electricity industry restructuring in the Philippines resulted in better delivery of public service goals to the rural beneficiaries, but not necessarily resulting from privatization, competition and deregulation that is fostered by a free market regime

Philippine Elections 2022: The Dictator\u27s Son and the Discoure around Disinformation

Social media was central to Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s electoral success, but not in the sense that his campaign had somehow unlocked their hidden features for technological brainwashing. Unfortunately, some pundits looking for quick rationalizations for his landslide victory in the May 2022 polls repeated much of the same explanatory devices from 2016. Many pundits had then attributed the wave of “surprise” populist victories of Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines, Brexit in the United Kingdom and Donald Trump in the United States to what were hyped to be election-determining factors of social media-fuelled disinformation, troll and bot armies, and Russian influence operations

Queer Cosmopolitanism in the Disaster Zone: My Grindr Became the United Nations

This article reflects on the significance of cosmopolitan socialities and intimacies following disasters, and the opportunities and risks they offer for restorative and reparative action for survivors and their communities. Reporting in particular on the experiences of LGBTQ Filipinos in post-Haiyan Tacloban, I discuss how the presence of foreign aid workers in everyday social spaces provided opportunities for queer identity expression and social attachments. I argue that cosmopolitan socialities, including new connections initiated via mobile dating platforms, were embraced by LGBTQs for their potential to share and repurpose wounds after rupture, especially in a conservative small-town context where LGBTQ identities have been historically repressed. This article attends to the opportunities and risks of queer cosmopolitanism as an uneven experience between middle-class and low-income LGBTQs

If this heart had a mouth: A forbidden romance narrated through mimesis: Poems

If This Heart Had a Mouth consists of forty-two poems where love is the catalyst for a multitude of emotions, ranging from falling in love, to hopelessness, to a begrudging kind of acceptance at losing the beloved to somebody else. To create all forty-two poems, 23 written in Spanish, and 19 poems written in English, I employed the literary device called Mimesis which entails deriving an original poem from someone else\u27s work. To create each poem, I followed another poet’s original work, line by line. I imitated that poet’s rhythm through their use of meter. I counted the number of syllables in each line so that I could then accommodate my own lines. Throughout this creative process, however, the most important decision dealt with choosing the appropriate poet, and the appropriate poem for the sentiment I was trying to convey. This poetry collection is written from two different female perspectives involved in a love triangle. One of the voices in the poems belongs to the mistress, and the other voice emerges from the disloyal man’s wife. Throughout the poems, each woman speaks in her own native language, Spanish for the mistress, and English for the wife. This choice led me on a wild hunt for their voices in various poetry anthologies and websites. To clarify, though, the mistress dominates both languages. I decided that her voice should open and close this poetry collection with “If This Heart had a Mouth”, and “I Have Been Conversant with This Heart”, respectively

Building Comprehensive Approaches to Combating Disinformation in Illiberal Settings: Insights from the Philippines

Citizens and civil society organizations in illiberal or, more perilously, authoritarian settings face distinct and particularly serious challenges in addressing disinformation and online harassment. Research on civil society groups in the Philippines under Rodrigo Duterte suggests that assistance in these contexts should address local challenges faced by activists under threat of repression, build resilience, and facilitate crosssector collaboration in civil society

Out of sight, out of mind: Exploring the mental health of Asian American lesbians

Lesbians of color exemplify persons with multiple, marginalized identities. Scholars theorize that they are susceptible to racist, heterosexist, and sexist discrimination. Given the multiple pathways of discrimination, scholars postulate that lesbians of color are susceptible to adverse mental health outcomes, such as depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorders, and decreased life satisfaction (Williams and Williams-Morris, 2000). However, most literature on lesbians of color and mental health is primarily theoretical or conceptual while empirical evidence is limited. Further, the scant literature on lesbians of color that exists primarily explore Black and/or Latina lesbians, while very little is known about the mental health of Asian American and Native American lesbians. The purpose of my research study was to explore how Asian American lesbians' mental health is affected by the convergence of multiple societal oppressions such as racism, heterosexism, and sexism (N=167). Additionally, I explored how both enculturation and unsupportive social interactions among Asian American lesbians moderates the relationship between mental health and perceived experiences with racism, heterosexism, sexism. Perceived experiences with racist, heterosexist, and sexist events were each measured by Asian American Racism-Related Stress Inventory (AARRSI; Liang, Li, and Kim, 2004), Heterosexist Harassment, Rejection, and Discrimination Scale (HHRD; Szymanski, 2006), and Schedule of Sexist Events (SSE; Klonoff and Landrine, 1995), respectively. To measure each moderator, level of enculturation and unsupportive social interactions, the study utilized Asian Values Scale (AVS; Kim et al., 1999) and Unsupportive Social Interactions Inventory (USII; Ingram, Betz, et al., 2001), respectively. Lastly, mental health outcomes were measured by Mental Health Inventory (MHI; Veit and Ware, 1983). Correlation analysis and multiple regression analyses evaluated the relationship among these variables. Results indicated that heterosexist events uniquely predicted mental health, unsupportive social interactions were predictive of mental health, and unsupportive social interactions significantly moderated the relationship between perceived experiences with racism and mental health. Limitations and implications future research and clinical practice are discussed

Toward an ordinary ethics of mediated humanitarianism: An agenda for ethnography

This article takes stock of the insights and approaches advanced by the last 15 years of critical research in humanitarian communication and distant suffering while arguing for a new agenda for ethnography. Ethnography lays bare the messy and fertile terrains of human experience and disrupts idealized figures of witness and sufferer, aid worker and aid recipient, event and the everyday. Bringing into dialogue the anthropology of aid literature and media and cultural studies, this article proposes three important shifts for future research: (1) a focus on processes rather than principles in production studies of humanitarian communication, (2) a focus on ethics arising from everyday life rather than from events of distant suffering, and (3) and a focus on the lifeworlds of the poor and vulnerable rather than those of witnesses

Dance in the Diaspora: Kristin Jackson’s Life of Dance and the Migrant Body

This article is an account of Filipina-American choreographer Kristin Jackson’s dance history and selected repertoire. Jackson is one of the few Filipina dance artists based in the US who articulates her bi-cultural identity, and has created and performed a sustained body of works in both America and the Philippines, but whose aesthetics and history have yet to receive attention in dance studies and scholarship. I bring to the fore Jackson’s history and dance education in the light of being a migrant body from the Philippine postcolony, framing her dance career as migratory in nature, therefore embodying the liminal, ambulant diasporic experience, articulated in light of cultural research by Marie Alonzo-Snyder, Martin Manalansan and Fenella Cannel. I then locate Jackson in the general context of women’s autobiography in dance which coincided with a general trend in this thematic mode in American dance of that time, using Ann Cooper Albright’s research. I cull important snippets from various reviews of her choreography to give a general overview of the quality of her movement and choreographic aesthetic and impact. This essay further articulates aspects of her dance and cultural history together with her movement quality characterized by their multicultural roots. I argue that the diasporic Filipino self emerges and distinctly finds its mark in her body of work

Anamarija Horvat. Screening Queer Memory: LGBTQ Pasts in Contemporary Film and Television

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