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BY JED JALECO DEL ROSARIO
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February 4, 2018
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MOST of us probably remember the Maori and Korean performers from last week’s Dinagyang celebration. It was certainly a pleasant surprise for most onlookers, including some of the Korean tourists who were probably pleased at seeing some of their countrymen perform in Iloilo.
However, the performing Maoris and Koreans were more than just performers and entertainers when they visited our city. They were also representatives of their respective countries, and in some ways, symbols of recognition for Iloilo City.
Foreign performers are nothing new, of course. They have been around for a long time, but even so, they play a nice and pleasant role in international relations. They symbolize rapprochement.
Rapprochement is a fancy little word that foreign policy junkies like to use to sound smart, but what it really means is establishing, reinforcing or restoring good relations through various means. What happened last week was a good example of rapprochement.
What was particularly nice about the Maori and Korean performances was that they were more than just the usual foreign policy smiles and handshakes. It was more populist, for lack of a better term. When I first heard that this year’s celebrations involved foreign performers, I had expected that they would perform their dances at the Iloilo Convention Center where only a few people would be able to see. To my surprise, that wasn’t the case at all, and there’s a lesson here.
Diplomats, consuls and ambassador may negotiate world-changing deals and policies but most people will not pay attention to such deals except in special or dramatic situations. The opposite is true for symbolic, cultural and artistic gestures; gestures like those performed by the Koreans and the Maoris last week.
Those performances may not have a significant impact on the Philippines’ (and Iloilo’s) ties with New Zealand and South Korea but for the ordinary Ilonggos watching the event last week, it engendered a sense of friendship, or rapprochement.
Most of the people who saw the performances have probably put the whole thing to the back of their minds by now, but that event will always pop up whenever someone mentions New Zealand or Koreans. “Ay oo. Mga (Maori/Koreans). Dumduman ko sang nag-perform na sila sang Dinagyang. Nami gid.” This sort of diplomatic PR is not only good for relations, it is also good on a much deeper level because it makes ordinary people care about foreign relations.
Aside from fostering friendship with foreign countries, rapprochement (symbolic or otherwise) also leads to increasing recognition. When Koreans and Maoris performed in our city, it was essentially an implicit gesture from South Korea and New Zealand that they recognize Iloilo to the point that they want to participate in our events, and share a taste of their own cultural traditions with our own people.
Again, such recognition may not lead to policy changes, but it may motivate Kiwi and Korean investors, tourists and business organizations to pay more attention to Iloilo as an investment destination, and that is always a good thing. So as we consign 2018’s exciting Dinagyang celebrations to memory, let us hope that future celebrations (not just Dinagyang) will feature more foreign performers, and rapprochement. (jdr456@gmail.com/PN)
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