If I had the Chance Artwork from the Streets of Asia and the Pacific

Abstract

Children, Youth and Environments Vol. 14 No. 2 (2004) ISSN: 1546-2250 If I had the Chance… Artwork from the Streets of Asia and the Pacific Asian Development Bank, (2003). Manila, Philippines: Asian Development Bank; 111 pages. $30.00. ISBN 9715615074. The Second Asian Development Bank (ADB) Street Children’s Art Competition in 2002 captured this rich array of artwork and commentary by children aged 5 to 16 years living and working on the streets of seven Asian cities. The open-ended theme of “If I had the chance….” encouraged children to present their real and imagined worlds. The content is roughly divided according to themes reflected in the drawings, and brief biosketches and photographs of 100 of the children who took part appear at the end of the book. This is not a mere coffee-table book despite the lack of theoretical text. It is a wonderful repository of data that can be fruitfully explored by laypersons, fieldworkers and academics. The reach of children’s iconic language is extensive. The drawings chosen for publication reflect aesthetic sensitivity while also pointing to an emotional and cognitive depth on the part of the young artists, and to their complex social worlds. This book’s major achievement is its effectiveness in challenging popular conceptions of children from the streets as morally, mentally or emotionally deficient. Despite their disadvantage, these children demonstrate a keen awareness of environmental and social issues and a concern to address them. Their drawings comment on violence, war, poverty, alcohol and drug use; they also reflect a longing for education, justice, peace, family and simple comfort. This book places the key concerns of children from the streets of Dhaka, Jakarta, Kathmandu, Manila, Phnom Penh, Port Moresby and Ulaanbaatar in vivid proximity to our otherwise distant lives. Their drawings make sense of the world as they 328 see it and their place withinit. This moving catalogue of artwork is evidence that the children’s presence on the streets is a survival mechanism due to circumstances largely beyond their control. If I Had a Chance… reflects a poignant longing for a rural, rather than an urban, way of life. Injustice, violence, lack of moral behavior and aggression– whether direct or implied in the drawings and associated words– are presented as products of urban landscapes where the children seek survival, while comfort and harmony prevail in rural landscapes. Nature is strongly portrayed– not only as fundamentally pure and beautiful, but as in need of protection. In addition, nature has the power to be transformative: “… when it rains it would make our city beautiful” (74). The importance to these children of secure tenure as a primary component of quality of life is reinforced in a number of drawings (cf. Chawla 2002, ch.10). For example, in some drawings we find family members scattered due to poor housing and the loss of homes through fire. Ramon’s drawing depicts people building decent homes (30). We learn from his bio-sketch that his siblings were split up across different homes and he longs to reunite everyone. A lack of fathering is common to children from the streets. Bilguun (20) represents an intense, Hollywood-style reunification of father and son on an airport runway. It is heartbreaking since we know this to be the unattainable technicolor dream of so many children from the streets. Similarly, family life is idealized in certain drawings by girls from Manila. These and other reflections by the children starkly expose the material and social stressors which affect their lives daily and for which adults so often fail to find solutions. The children’s wishes for the long term are grounded in practicality. They do not wish to become millionaires, but rather, to be doctors, nurses, teachers and artists. They seek acknowledgement in so-called respectable realms: “I don’t want to sing on top of a car forever. I want to sing on a stage” (33). 329 But they also reveal flights of whimsy and of humor: If I had a chance… I would blow a flute while sitting on the back of a buffalo (69). Over 1,000 children took part in this art competition, but researchers will be disappointed...