I am proud that my country’s culture is rich! Being Filipino is like eating a halo halo, you don’t just go eating the ice or the beans, but you should enjoy all of what’s inside it, and that is the best metaphor of Filipino Culture.
This morning (June 27, 2009) at the Cultural Center of the Philippines at the Harbor Area, Kaya ng Pinoy officially launches the start of Balangay Expedition which begins on 2010 at the Southeast Asia region, on 2011 it it goes to Mirconesia and Madagascar, and on 2012 it will navigate accros the Pacific and Atlantic and around the world and returns to the Philippines on 2013.
BACKGROUND
June 27, 2009, formally inilunsad ng Kaya ng Pinoy ang Balangay Voyage na kung saan ang pangunahing layunin ng project na ito ay ibahagi at buhayin ang kulturang Pinoy na kung saan nag ugat ang sistema ng gobyerno sa pamamagitan ng balangay o mas kilala na sa tawag na barangay, bukod dito ipinapakita rin ng project na ito kung gaano kayaman ang kultura ng Pilipinas at sa pamamaraang ito ay nais nilang ipaalala at ipakita ito sa mga makabagong Juan dela Cruz ng generation na ito. Sa Cultural center of the Philippines Harbor Area ginawa ang voyage o send off ng Balangay kasama ang mga supporters ng project na ito at mga members ng media. Ayon kay Valdez ay nawa’y matulungan sila ng media at mga supporters ng project na ito para ibahagi ang importansya ng pag alala ng kultura at kasaysayan sa mga kabataan.

Art Valdez head of Kaya ng Pinoy Foundation along with the Mt. Everest Team: Leo Oracion, Erwin Emata, Noelle Wenceslao, Carina Dayondon, Janet Belarmino-Sardena, Dr. Ted Esguerra, Fred Jamilli, at Dr. Voltaire Velasco along with master sailors, academicians and scientists comprises the Balangay Expedition team. The Balangay was named as Diwata ng Lahi or Guardian of Race, as it was in the tradition that it will be a woman’s name to be use in naming a shipping vessel. Aside from educating the Filipinos with our culture, the expedition includes medical support, and others that is needed on the areas that the expedition team reaches.
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yes, kaya ng pinoy!
i have attnded the pre-launch symposium of the balangay project.
i am glad it finally pushed through.
this is a start to revive our maritime consciousness.t team
i am glad the everest team are the ones doing it.
Diyan tayo magaling.
Sa mga slogan.
Yes Kaya ng Pinoy, Boto Mo Boto Ko, Ako Mismo ad nauseam.
Nakakasawa na.
talagang puno ka na nga, punona.
salamat sa paalala mo.
pero ito ay grupo na hindi ningas cogon, tinatapos nilka ang nasimulan nila.
pinapatunayan ito ng pag akyat nila sa mt everest, sila ang unang south east asians na gumawa nito.
sa totoong buhay halos lahat tayo ay may kanya kanyang sinusuportahan.
pero tama ka din.
sa dinadami nila na grupo na lahat nagaanyaya lahat may magandang “hangarin” o “good intentions”
lalong walang patutunguhan.
kaya bawat bagong grupo na lalabas sabihin natin, walang pinagkaiba yan.
siguro talaga tayong mga pinoy ay sadyang kanya kanya,iba iba at kung ano pa.
kung ikaw puno na,ako ang gusto ko lang na lahat sila (lahat ng binanggit mo)simulan nila ang tinapos nila at patunayan nila na di sila puro slogan.(at syempre dapat wala din silang hidden agenda)
We are people of the sea. Our country is surrounded by ocean. We
travel by boats from island to island.
I wonder if none of them will be tempted to bring a GPS unit aboard. LOL.
But they should have a GPS transponder that could send an SOS if they get into trouble.
I wish the Balangay team — the same team that brought Pinoys to Mt. Everest — all the good fortune that they need.
Make us proud.
They will circumnavigate? That’s better than the balangay-sailing forefathers whoonly came only from as far as Madagascar and the Micronesias.
J, actually they would only do what our forefathers did(madagascar to micronesia).
so, hindi sila mag around the world? ok. also, it doesnt have a sail?
First things first.
The group should have first sought clearance from the Philippine Navy as well as the Philippine Coast Guard whether indeed the vessel itself can be permitted to sail and use piers or harbors if more importantly navigate along certain prescribed sea lanes.
The group who will serve as seaman or sailors of captains should likewise be cleared if they have the required ‘competencies’ since navigation is a highly technical field and is in fact a line of profession that not just anybody can practice professionally.
There can always be scientific doubts whether indeed the members mentioned have really climbed Mt. Everest more than mere claims. I have yet to read any authoritative book that accounts for their succeess in having conquerred the peak of Mt. Everest. Again, there are purely scientific theories telling us how good indeed one can climb that mountain with no risk to life.
Lastly, this is all palabas. You know them by the people that constitute them.
prime,
siguro naman they have sought clearance from all the necessary agencies before proceeding.
About Everest:
I have a book written by their team leader,but I guess if experience is not authority enough for you then no book would suffice.
Di ka talga naniniwala na naakyat at nakababa sila ng everest ha?
about the composition of the team, there are competent people(master sailors) aboard, ano sila hilo kung wala?
malaya:may 21,2009
About the “palabas”, I hope you are wrong.
why climb a mountain? because it is there.
why sail the ocean? because it is there.
getting “cleared ” by the Philippine Navy and Coast Guard is a joke – remember the Doña Paz
Who can forget?
http://karl-garcia.blogspot.com/2009/06/coast-guarding.html
Sorry for the deadlink, I deleted it because I copy pasted what my dad wrote for the manila times.
He asked me to blog my own so I did.
http://karl-garcia.blogspot.com/2009/07/our-coast-guard.html
As an American, I find that halo halo is too over the top with flavors, and I can’t handle the sweetness. But the richness of the Philippine seas and shores and mountains and islands and landscape panoramas – unmatched anywhere. Those, I can dig into . . . and never get enough of . . .
As for worldly conquests . . . GO PHILIPPINES!!!
Joe
Who,if any, was the naval architect, who built the boat?
Prime,
the idea was to replicated the fossilized balangay found in butuan.(carbon dated 4th century ad)
the boat was built by the badjaos from tawi-tawi.
old school ang paggawa nila.
wala na akong magagawa kung sa tingin mo palabas lang lahat ng ito.
Your idol:popper, is mr. falsifiability himself.
By your leave,Sir.(see you in another page)
No, karl, you can now count me in the same boat after you supplied the more important information.
You know blogs are sometimes as good as their bloggers and sometimes discussions fill all the vacuum. No offense intended to the author.
ok then!
I’m very pleased to see a project like this. I really think that Philippine history books should be revised to go back as the Austronesians. It was one group of Austronesians from Taiwain, and one language branch that migrated to the Philippines. Austronesians in the Philippines developed further their maritime culture. The islands were the jumping point (the stepping stones as some call it) all the way to Madagascar, Melanesia, Polynesia and Micronesia. There was another voyage (Voyage of the Lapita) that started in Panglao, Bohol last year, with boats built there in traditional design, to the Solomon islands. It was retracing a possible route of Polynesian ancestors from the Philippines. All the best to the Balanghay project.
Omigosh! An expedition to navigate the oceans of the world with crews of mountain climbers! Only in da Philippines, heheh.
Who would stop the ‘mass walk back to antiquity’ to rewrite history and culture, kuno?