We NEED a Country of Readers: NO TO THE PHILIPPINE BOOK BLOCKADE!

‘...novels and reading books are “not educational”.‘(1)

Add this to a long line of baffling statements people in our government has said.

I strongly reject the notion that a reading book or a novel serves no educational purpose. Just because we are entertained by a story, a book, or whatever reading material, this does not discount the fact that these are avenues for learning and growth. In a country that sorely needs education, they are making achieving this even more difficult. How can we, as a country, progress if we keep the people from accessing information?

While  Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight Saga and J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Series are not textbooks filled with facts and figures to inform us about historical events and similar data, these books encourage us to THINK and IMAGINE. These are crucial components of problem solving and logic reasoning. We don’t learn how to share and be self-aware with an almanac do we? But with books like Rainbow Fish, The Giving Tree and The Missing Piece we learn what it means to be human.

Let me back track a little bit: earlier this month reports surfaced about the Bureau of Custom’s new policy demanding taxes or duties to be imposed on the import of books. This came as the Twilight series became so hugely successful that it caught the attention of a customs examiner who then decided that duty must be paid on it. However, according to the Florence Agreement, a UN treaty in which the Philippines is a signatory, imported books should be duty-free. This is to guarantee the free flow of “educational, scientific, and cultural materials” between countries.

Now our officials say that reading books and novels are not educational?!? This simply does not make sense to me. As I’ve said time and again in this blog: LEARNING HAPPENS INSIDE AND OUTSIDE OF THE FOUR WALLS OF THE CLASSROOM.One of my most memorable teachers told me once that literacy goes beyond decoding words. It entails understanding what you read and having what you read make sense and be meaningful to you. How many of us can really say a text book changed our lives? But I’m sure a lot of us can name reading books or novels that taught us something so grand that it has changed our lives forever. I know I have.

I will admit that before the Book Blockade I was not aware of any agreement about the taxation of books. I always just took it for granted because I wasn’t thinking of the “behind the scenes” of bookstores. For me, I was just happy that I could walk into a bookstore and come out with the world in my hands in the form of a book. However, as these taxes are imposed, books will become less available and more expensive for us Filipinos. Do not get me wrong: I am not opposed to the idea of taxes. It is the idea that BOOKS are being taxed, first because of the violation in the agreement and second, because there are so many other things more worthy of being taxed than books. We keep complaining about the status of education in our country. This policy only worsens it. While yes, the government may make a few extra bucks along the way, at whose expense?

It’s bad enough that we have to compete with television and video games to get children to read as many kids prefer the former to the latter. Let us not raise a generation of non-readers. Let us all unite and tell our government officials that we need a country of readers. A country of readers can make a whole world of difference.

Get involved and sign the online petition against the Philippine Book Blockade.

(1)from the article of  Rainier Allan Ronda, May 10, 2009

For more information, check out the following links:

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/manila/1dispatch6.html

http://www.quezon.ph/2009/05/10/the-great-book-blockade-of-2009-timeline-and-readings/

http://www.awpwriter.org/magazine/news09summerpg2.htm

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