Books fight guns

With a sister and brother-in-law who are professional librarians and with a personal interest in what unites and divides Muslims and Christians the following article caught my attention in The Philippine Star on Thursday. Mindanao is one of the southernmost islands of the Philippines where there is still areas where “rebel” activity is frequent against the population and particularly the army, much is based around the desire for an autonomous Muslim state.

The following is a shortened and slightly modified version of the article.

Teen cited for fighting gun culture in South with books

Amid the fighting in Mindanao, the National Commission for the Culture and Arts (NCCA) and the National Library of the Philippines (NLP) has awarded a 17-year old freshman at the University of the Philippines and Oblation scholar for building libraries and countering the culture of guns with books and education in southern Philippines.

In a ceremony marking the 21^st Library and Information Services Month, the NCAA’s National Committee on Library and Information Services (NCLIS) awarded Arizza Ann Sahi Nocum, administrator of the Kristiyano-Islam (Kris) Peace Library, “for her exemplary and invaluable contributions in the field of library and information services by building libraries, distributing books and promoting reading to under-served children.”

The Philippine Librarians Association Inc (PLAI) joined the NCAA-NCLIS and the NLP in giving the certificate of recognition to Nocum for playing a key role in her Christian-Muslim parents’ advocacy to distribute books, grant scholarships, provide free use of computers and build libraries in conflict areas of Mindanao since 2001.

In presenting the award, NLP director Antonio Santos noted how three of the five Kris Peace libraries are built in conflict areas in Moro Islamic Liberation Front strongholds in Zamboanga Sibugay. “Young Arizza is not a professional librarian, but she is a role-model for all librarians,” Santos said, recalling a picture he saw at the Kris Library website www.krislibrary.com where Nocum was shown giving a speech to kids during a book-donation program when she was seven years old.

In her acceptance speech Nocum said, “This event has been an eye-opener. What the youth needs today is to hear something like this. To hear that libraries are important, that books are important; that reading, that learning is essential to progress.”