The artist as an environmental advocate

Q&A with Jim Paredes
and Jon Santos

As members of GreenEarth and self-avowed environmentalists, singer/songwriter Jim Paredes (JP) and TV/movie personality/comedian Jon Santos (JS) are outspoken advocates for environmental conservation. Both divers, Paredes and Santos joined a "Celebrity Dive for a Cause" organized by the I Love the Ocean Movement (ILOM) Cebu Chapter at Moalboal, southwest of Cebu City on June 17, 2000. A staunch supporter of ILOM, Paredes has participated in at least three Celebrity Dives hosted by the Movement; the Moalboal dive was Santos's first participation in the Celebrity Dive.

Top photo: Jim Paredes (left) and Jon Santos taking a breather after a dive at Pescador Island off Moalboal, a well-known dive destination southwest of Cebu City, and, above, helping community members plant mangrove seedlings.

In an interview with www.oneocean.org, Paredes and Santos spoke at length about their environmental advocacy work and what it has come to mean to them as artists. Excerpts -

How did you get involved in the environmental movement?

JP - I got involved when I had my first child in 1979. It was at that moment that I realized that in some small way I had to make this world a better place - for the sake of the children, you know.

The realization just came. Is that how it happened?

JP - Yes. I told myself, I had to do something.

Of course you were already conscious about the issues.

JP - I'd say I was more politically conscious than environmentally conscious.

In what way did you actualize your intention to make a difference?

JP - I initiated the formation of GreenEarth Movement, an environmental organization of artists. I gave lectures in schools, attended conferences in different parts of the world. As much as I could, I tried to learn about the environment.

How about you, Jon?

JS - I'm from the eighties, the decade of greed, consumption and waste. I can't say I was environmentally or even politically conscious at that time. But then I met Jim and other members of GreenEarth, and they got me interested in the movement. I was among their most delinquent members. (Laughter)

JP - No, actually, he was among the most active.

JS - I am happy that I became a member of the Speakers' Bureau of GreenEarth. Like Jim, I go to schools to give lectures about environmental issues.

How did you change from being indifferent to being an active advocate? Peer pressure (laughter) or did you, like Jim, have your own moment of enlightenment?

JS - I think it was a combination of many influences. If there was peer pressure, I'm sure it was positive peer pressure. My realization came slowly. Over the years, I realized that even in our own homes, with a lifestyle change, we could really do a lot. And I realized that in educating others, we did not really have to start from zero knowledge. I come from a familia mambubulok (Laughter). We don't throw away anything. We reuse and recycle everything. Our neighbors have their own system of garbage management, and it is similar to the one I learned from GreenEarth. Of course, there's always frustration, the thought that you can never really do enough. One time, I and other members of GreenEarth went to the Senate - I just got frustrated. They were ranking NGOs as good and … we were called a pseudo-NGO.

Did they say why?

JS - Maybe because we were artists, they didn't take us seriously.

JP - I think they didn't want to take us seriously so we could not apply pressure on them. As artists, we do have considerable influence on public opinion.

JS - Or they might have been let down by groups that were really pseudo-NGOs.

Would you say not being taken seriously is your biggest frustration as advocates?

JP - No, not for me. The biggest frustration for me is that there's so much to do and there's only so little we can really do as individuals. But you just have to believe that you do make a difference, in whatever small way.

JS - You can always waste your time fretting that you're not doing enough, or you can take action. I always say, we're here, and we're ready to help. As artists, there are many ways by which we can help.

JP - In this country -- I don't know if this is good or bad; maybe it's good and bad at the same time - people would rather listen to us artists than to scientists. This is why, as an artist, I really try to learn as much as I can about the issues I am asked to speak about because I know people listen. I would not want to teach people the wrong things.

What are the high points of your work as advocates?

JP - That people do listen.

JS - Today, the thought that maybe, the two dozens of mangroves we planted could become part of a forest in the future. Oh, I'm sure the people who helped us plant knew what they were doing better than I did. I bet the seedlings they planted will grow better than the ones I planted. We only stayed a few minutes - I hope that meant something to them or at least enlivened their day because being there inspired me. After all, it's these people who are there all the time to take care of the mangroves.

JP - Sometimes, you think that all you do is speak, lend your name to a cause because you have name recall and enjoy a certain degree of popularity. That's not very difficult to do, and you wonder if it even makes any difference. Then, all of a sudden, without you even planning it, it draws public attention to the cause and begins to mean something big, or triggers significant positive changes.

Is this what being an artist and environmentalist mean to you?

JP - I guess, yes. But, more significantly, it means - or should mean - higher commitment. You should prepare yourself for that. It's easy for us artists to get involved in advocacy work like this. It's good for our public image. But it reaches a point where you must be prepared to accept the inconvenience - when you have to move schedules and so on - that comes with being a real advocate.

As advocates who come from a sector that is not as heavily resource-dependent as, say, the fishers who are the among the targets of our advocacy work, we often find ourselves saying"Don't do this", or "You can't do that" to people whose primary concern is simply to survive each day. Don't you sometimes feel that maybe we are asking too much?

JP - I have a tough answer and an easy answer. The easy answer is, yes, maybe we're asking too much. The tough answer is what my mother would say.

Which is?

JP - It takes character to change the world, and sometimes we just have to demand character. Sure, we can say, these are tough times, we need to eat, let's make all our children prostitutes. We can all say that and always find an economic reason for doing it. But is it right? Can you find a moral reason for doing it? I think not. The more difficult but in the end so much more rewarding way is to tough it out, so we can achieve what we all want - a better quality of life for all. That takes character, and for our own sake, for the sake of our planet, we must demand character.

JS - As advocates, we also have to contend with the cynicism of people in general. Our own friends would sometimes say, "Why do you bother?" There are many people who do not have a sense of the long term, people whose only concern is the next meal and who do not care to look at the reasons why they are poor. Maybe this is why we are here, to enlighten them.

JP - The question we should ask ourselves is, are we victims…

JS - Or change agents?

JP - Many Filipinos have this defeatist attitude, "I'm a victim." That's our biggest enemy. If we can change this mindset, we can change the world.

JS - I really believe it is possible to reach out to the environmentalist in every person. Rich, middle class, poor, rich turned poor - I think there's an environmentalist in every one of us.

Have you, over the years, seen signs that people are changing, people are listening, or people want change at least?

JP - In the early days of GreenEarth, there was hardly anyone who even knew what the ozone layer was. Environmental consciousness was almost zero. Now we have schoolchildren talking about global warming, acid rain, and such stuff. Newspapers like the Philippine Inquirer have opened an environment desk. These are good changes. I just don't know if the changes are happening fast enough to make a difference.

Have you found yourselves speaking very strongly for or against an issue to the point of antagonizing others?

JP - As painful as it is, you really have to speak up and make a stand.

Because people listen to you, you must also be very careful about what you say. I remember one case related to the logging ban issue. ABS-CBN went high profile to defeat a selective logging ban bill that would have replaced the existing total logging ban law and they succeeded. Now some experts are saying total logging ban is not good for the environment.

JP - Certainly, it's very important to educate yourself, but I also believe that you have to make a stand based on what you know, to the best of your abilities. As far as the logging ban is concerned, I can present as many experts who will say that total logging ban is the thing to do. Experts do not agree on many issues.

There are so many gray areas in the environment.

JP - Exactly. We're talking of billions and billions of years, and we're looking at a snapshot of this. We can only really analyze it as best as we can, based on the information that we have.

JS - I would have had more guilt if I didn't speak up.

How much time do you devote to the environmental cause? You do have your careers to think of. We all have our own…

JS - Personal quota.

Right, so we do only what's convenient…

JP - One good thing about being an artist is that, even if you're not doing actual environmental work, if you're identified with a cause, you only have to appear on TV and you are able to reinforce this public image that you're an environmentalist. Some people say that's passive involvement in the cause, others say it's active. I think we get thanked more than we deserve. Even so, as artists, as public figures, we can contribute in ways other people cannot. Wherever you go, whatever you do, you carry the cause, give it a human face and focus public attention on it.

JS - Sometimes, I get paranoid. I ask myself, should I bring a check? (Laughter) No, really. Should I bring money? Maybe, that's the easier way to help. Maybe it's more sincere. Then there is that concern that I may be used for the wrong cause. And the question, "Do I mislead more than I enlighten?"

JP - The best thing is to know that, at the moment you were doing what you were doing, that was the best thing you could do.

Any message for your fellow artists or other people who have yet to get involved?

JS - That you can get personal satisfaction from getting involved in a good cause. I do not know what my contribution means in the grand scheme of things, but I enjoy what I'm doing, and I get a high from the thought that somehow, in whatever small way, I am able to help.

JP - What we do today will decide whether, 20 years from now, we will be in heaven or in hell… while we're still living on Earth.

Do you feel your fellow artists can do more?

JP - Some of them just have to stay away from drugs and make better use of their time.

JP - The life of an artist is very much ego-centered. Sometimes we have to get out of that and get real. There are two ways to do this. One is to abandon your ego. The other is to expand your ego so big so that everything is included in it, the ocean becomes your ocean and you take dynamite fishing personally and want to do something about it.

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