Open AccessCarceral and Colonial Memory During Pandemic Times in the Philippines
Author(s) -
Dada Docot
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
commoning ethnography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2537-9879
DOI - 10.26686/ce.v4i1.7089
Subject(s) - dissent , colonialism , harm , slogan , pandemic , government (linguistics) , punitive damages , mythology , political science , media studies , criminology , sociology , political economy , gender studies , history , law , covid-19 , medicine , linguistics , philosophy , disease , pathology , politics , infectious disease (medical specialty) , classics
#CommunityPantryPH is a mutual aid movement that began in the Philippines in April 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic. The movement is founded on the slogan ‘give what you can afford, take what you need.’ Instead of the movement receiving an overwhelming welcome, especially within conditions of food scarcity and health insecurity during the long-lasting pandemic, the Duterte government attacked volunteers with ‘red-tagging’ tactics—the malicious calling out of individuals as communists, which may result in harm both online and in real life to those red-tagged. The public response also circulated myths about the supposed indolence of Filipinos receiving aid and how the volunteers are fanning a culture of dependence among the poor. In this article, I introduce the concepts of ‘carceral memory’ and ‘colonial memory’ in understanding colonially inherited punitive, civilising, and self-deprecatory logics that have become embedded in postcolonial disciplinary regimes, and which suppress dissent and shape popular attitude and consciousness in the Global South.