Read this in The Manila Times digital edition.
TODAY, Feb. 12, 2022, this humble history teacher will be speaking with one of the country's most distinguished public historians, Ambeth Ocampo, and one of our leading curators, Marian Pastor Roces, in the "Bangkóta Talks: The Filipino as Austronesian" at the Mangrove Café of the Philippines Pavilion at the Universal Exposition in Dubai UAE (Expo 2020 Dubai). Our country's pavilion, where we show our viability to do business alongside many other countries in the world was designed by architect Royal Pineda of Budji+Royal Architecture+Design, with the help of Roces (who curated three other previous exposition pavilions for the Department of Trade and Industry). They did a great job in combining beauty and meaning.
Bangkóta, the name of the Philippine pavilion, comes from an old Tagalog word for coral reef. It celebrates our ecosystem, biodiversity and maritime roots with our Austronesian ancestors, and how this shaped the way we should deal with the world as, in the words of José Rizal, "lovers of peace, gay, lively, smiling, hospitable and fearless."
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