The Book Blockade is Over!
Posted by Robin Hemley on May 24, 2009 11:59 PM
Well, it's over! The Book Blockade. I found out this afternoon from an unlikely source, my editor at the Far Eastern Economic Review for whom I was working on a follow up article on the book blockade. He happened to do a search on the book blockade and found the breaking news that President Arroyo directed Customs to stop collecting duty on imported books, effective immediately. I thought everyone in the Philippines must already know, so I sent a congratulatory note to some of the people involved at about 6 a.m. Manila time. Apparently, my email was the first they heard of it.
I'm so glad I didn't turn in my article yesterday.
I've been writing this follow up piece on the Book blockade for days now, but every time I think I've finished, there's a new development. And now this!
I'm a little exhausted at the moment, but I've been sort of jumping around my house for the past eight hours or so, and corresponding with my various friends in the Philippines who all played important roles in fighting the blockade. Perhaps that's why I'm exhausted. It's so rare in my experience to have an outcome like this. We were all prepared for a long siege but I was worried that people might grow bored or resigned to the book tax and that would be that.
The whole thing only started on May 1st when McSweeney's put up my dispatch, "The Great Book Blockade of 2009." A little over three weeks, but on the internet that's equal to a decade almost. Following tweets on the subject, I could tell that people were already getting tired of the subject -- social media can be great, but Twitter doesn't exactly reinforce a long attention span in its users. And some people were saying, "I don't mind the tax so much." That worried me because it seemed like a capitulation, a resignation to injustice. And it was unjust because it was a violation of the word of the Philippine nation when it ratified the Florence Agreement. As I told people, the Philippines could leave the Florence Agreement, but until it did, it needed to abide by it. Otherwise, the word of the nation means nothing.
And some people somehow thought that the importation of foreign books hurts local publishers. I don't think so. In any case, the people who can afford to buy books will buy a foreign book if they want it, whether there are cheaper local books available or not. It's not so much a matter of cost as it is a matter of reading taste. It's people who can barely afford books that would have been most severely affected by the duties.
And some people started suggesting that duties should be collected and given to local publishers and authors. Right. I doubt local publishers and authors would have seen a peso . . . But that's not the way to support local publishers (even if such a scheme could work). Such protectionist schemes rarely work and often wind up backfiring -- even if such a scheme could be carried out, it might have helped a few publishers or authors (and a lot of Customs officials), but it would have hurt bookstores.
Anyway, that's all moot now, thankfully.
My post mortem on the Book Blockade will be published soon online at the Far Eastern Economic Review website.
And my next McSweeney's "Dispatch from Manila" should be up soon as well. Thankfully, I don't think there's anything controversial about it. I'd love to take a little break from controversy.
I'd also like to concentrate on my book Do-Over! for a little while, too. It's a funny book, something even a Customs official might enjoy . . .
Congrats!
May's definitely been an interesting month.