Better than Miss Universe; Roots of Paete sculptors

I know many will differ with me when I say that the national jubilation for winning the Miss Universe contest is misplaced. Killjoy. But I will persist in advocating a more rational approach to beauty contests.

We may like beauty contests but it should not be the foundation of Filipino culture. While in the UK, the Filipino community had contests for Miss Philippines, Mrs. Philippines and little Miss Philippines. It was the center of activity in the community,  pitting candidates from their own provinces in the competition. There are many other ways that Filipinos here and abroad could raise the standard of education of Filipinos and help them acquire values needed for nation-building than beauty contests.

With this introduction I lament that the winner of Miss Universe contest was front page headlines.

On the other hand, little space was given to the Filipina engineer as department head at Kennedy Space Center. The comparison is a sign of the weakness of our capacity for nation-building.

How many would know care that a Filipina, Josephine Santiago-Bond is the head of the Advanced Engineering Development Branch at NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Should we not be more proud that a Filipina is among the prestigious group of women who work at America’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and be given the publicity she deserves.

Moreover Engr. Josephine Santiago-Bond, who was born in the United States moved back to the Philippines when she was only two months old, so her roots has less to do with “studying abroad.” In the article on her from Asia Time she said at first she  didn’t have an interest in astronomy when she was young.

But she grew up in a family of scientists and soon made up her mind to follow the prompting of her roots.

She attended the Philippine Science High School where she discovered her true calling – to the study of science and mathematics subjects. Santiago-Bond was advised by an old schoolmate to study for an Electronics and Communications degree at the University of the Philippines.

“I had to crawl my way through some of the courses, but I wasn’t going to give up because of a few bad grades,” Santiago-Bond said.

After graduating, she moved to the US and took a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering at South Dakota State University, where in 2003, she was offered a summer internship at the John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, which is one of 10 NASA sites nationwide.

By the time she completed her master’s degree in 2005, Santiago-Bond already had a full time job at NASA. She first worked as a systems engineer tackling the technical problems of space missions and worked on a lunar mission in 2017.

At present, she is the head of the Advanced Engineering Development Branch at KSC and is responsible for supplying engineering support to research and technology development projects. Wow.

Of her job in NASA she says that it ultimately benefits the whole of mankind. She could do much for the nation-building of the Philippines with her values and the efforts she made to get where she is. I think that will go further than winning a beauty contest.

Of late, I have been going more often to my roots, the little town of Paete hemmed in between mountain and sea. Wood carvers from Paete recently won ice-carving contests in two countries, one  in Canada and another in France. I used not to think highly of ice-carving since these were usually mere centerpieces for dinner tables.

But I have changed my mind. It isn’t about the medium that is used but the skill of the carver with any medium. Filipino woodcarvers from Paete have found the medium of ice.

Can you imagine what skill it takes to carve “the legendary battle of Filipino warrior Lapu-Lapu and Spanish voyager Magellan”? The historic event was carved in ice and won gold in an international competition in Canada last week.

They called the ice sculpture Tunggalian (Encounter), a partly immortalized creation of Canada-based master chef, Armando Baisas and his nephew, Ross Baisas, both renowned ice carvers, also competed in the 21st International Ice-Carving competition.

Their impressive ice sculpture placed first in the Pairs category and earned the People’s Choice award, besting 37 other participants in a grueling 30-hour challenge where they carved, chiseled and sawed blocks of ice into masterpieces completely frozen in time.

Ross hails from the woodcarving town of Paete in Laguna, also brought home gold in the One Block Challenge, a two-hour competition where he transformed one block of ice into an icy sculpture to the theme of Arctic Art.

In an interview with the Carleton University in Ottawa it was revealed that Armando began his art in hotels around Manila before landing a job at the Hilton hotel chains in Africa in 1981. After carving a name in Ethiopia, Cairo, and Madagascar, Armando went to Cyprus, Athens, London, and the United States. When his working visa expired, he transferred to Canada and worked at a hotel in Montreal. Two years ago, he received the Pamana ng Pilipino Award from President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, in honor of his achievements.

Armando is currently the chef instructor and sculptor instructor of Le Cordon Bleu, Ottawa’s premier culinary institute. In a 1998 interview for Asia Cuisine, Ross admitted having been deeply influenced by his family in Laguna.

“I was exposed to the craft of wood carving at an early age. My great-grandfather down to my brother are all wood carvers, so naturally I learned the art from them. At the age of 18, I began to realize my talent in wood carving,” he said. Ross then used his knowledge with sculpting into chocolate carvings that are as impressive as those in wood.