Mar Shifts Gears

"Fruits of a good tree," that's how Jovito Salonga, the best president this country never had, described Mar Roxas and Noynoy Aquino.

Mar Roxas is being lauded for the supreme sacrifice of withdrawing from the presidential race and giving way to Noynoy, the reluctant Noynoy, to become the Liberal party's standard-bearer. An act of statemanship, everybody seems to be in accord.

I truly believe there's no spin here, no gimmickry at all. It is but pragmatic to ride on the coattails of the Cory magic while it lasts. But to overstate Mar Roxas' supposed sacrifice is a bit off. I mean, sure it must be painful to give up something you have worked and spent millions for but one can also look at it in a different angle.

His numbers were not going up despite the barrage of infomercials. "Ramdam ko kayo," he assures but the case is "Di niya tayo nararamdaman." Not in very encouraging figures so we can also say, Mar is in fact cutting his losses this early. Early on, talks of an Escudero team-up was rife, Escudero being quite popular in some surveys but that seemed to fizzle out. Noynoy is a more viable tandem, let's see how this plays out after Noynoy's spiritual retreat.

Running on Empty

Run, baby, run" - Sheryl Crow

Do men sprint faster than women? Anatomically, they have 2 yoyos swinging loosely and a distended rod to boot, a heavier package to carry around, if you ask me, so why do women breaking speed records subjected to gender speculations? As if it were improbable for females to race in Flash Gordon quickness.

There was Nancy Navalta of recent years. And the latest woman on the stake is South African athlete Caster Semenya. Or is it her family name, evoking masculine visceral representation? Semen, indeed, is a male thing.

Here we go again, back in the first paragraph, being pulled by the inanity of medieval ideas as if Madonna did not make us dance to "I made it through the wildnerness." It's been more than 7 hours and 15 days and yet it feels we have not actually move forward. Kabudlay, oi.

Women are already in the literature on positive politics of peace and being evaluated as a workable ethical model for corrective citizenship and yet, road blocks continue to delay the journey. I remember being asked in either a class report or was it a forum, how the experience of motherhood as distinctively female experience dictate how women engage themselves as political beings.

First of all, I don't subscribe to the notion that as mothers, women care for the world and the future more passionately than men. I don't believe that women crave for peace more than men. Perhaps, there is in our socialization a different perspective being molded but as a whole, I don't see civic participation as a function of gender.

Citizenship, as a masculinized concept, is intimately linked with patriotism. Sadly, patriotism in most cultures, is measured in military defense terms - how one gallantly takes a bullet for one's tribe/community/country and in the enduring age of imperialism, being in the forefront of expansionist projects camouflaged as pursuits of national interest. In short, citizenship is defined along the lines of glorifying the male warrior.

While men are born to run down enemies of the state and run political affairs, women are considered unpatriotic because they burn their bras or run naked protesting against wars of aggression, inadvertently getting in the way of men's preoccupation.Where do women camp out? Mostly they are at the forefront of peace and environmental movements, microfinance, solidarity-building endeavors. Some explain than since women are less exposed to violence or are not instruments of violence, they tend to have a different worldview from men. I beg to differ. Women across socio-economic cleavages get slaps, lashes, and whips for breakfast, and mind you, this is not of the kinky variety. How people readily assume women are less exposed to violence should get married and experience for themselves how it is to cohabit with males and their sharp instruments.

It is false to assume that women are remotely located in the radius of violence simply because they are not in combat gear and raining down bombs on some strange land and annihilating culture. Come on, women are collateral damges in any form of militarization, whether as a source of comfort to soldiers or are the ones massacred and raped. Perhaps, because of these experiences of war and violence that women tend to develop aversion to them and yearn for peace or are more open to dialogues of peace.

But as I said earlier, gender can be a booby trap. To accept the idea that nurturing is a woman's turf is to fall prey to the same socially-constructed binary categories of males vs. females, animus-anima, yin-yang. The machines of war march forward not because boys will be boys. Gender is not in the equation, not by a far shot. That's silly, as if war were some esoteric idea that is hard to explain. It's that simple:war is real, not metaphorical; war is physical, not metaphysical. To some, war is a neccesity to survive as an economy. War has become both a means and an end.

Meanwhile, there's a continuous revolutionizing of the means of production, the pressure of profit, the development of the production forces amidst repressive relations of power - gelling up to fuel more wars.

Yes, we are running, racing, speeding.....towards destruction.

Polluting Politics

The medley of cover-ups that exposes more non-truths rather than conceal them, infuriates even more. It's not so much the callousness of the present leadership to munch and nibble to their gastronomic excesses but the deliberate manueverings to mislead. If this government cannot even be honest and transparent on its frivolous 'trivialities', what honesty can we expect from its other squanderings?


This administration slaps politics a bad name, a very bad name. Politics as conceived by Aristotle, is the "highest art," the "rarest of human activities". At the core of politics is the fundamental preoccupation as to what is the best way for people to live, both as an individual and as a collective. The "highest good," that is, the full potential of man for happiness and the best quality of life, can only be achieved outside the household. In effect, Aristotle paid homage to the polis as the vehicle and venue for the fruition of the highest good. Consequently, the marriage of politics and ethics is virtually solidified as the organization of society was paralleled with summoning what values, rules, and ideas must each person embody.

The Renaissance broke this bond with the ascendancy of Machiavelli's political realism of conquest and power and more importantly, the perpetuation of that power - 'the end justifies the means'. The Prince, to wield power, must be amoral, cunning, possessing astuteness to discern when to behave like a fox or a lion.

Today, several generations from Aristotle, politics is practiced in its crudest, most crass form, thanks to politicians like GMA.

The President's Choice

"The President's prerogative, " a haughty defense for the uproar and indignation caused by the latest list of persons to be conferred the prestigious title of National Artist. This chilled my frail bone and brought back hazy memories of "Dean's prerogative" everytime administrative decisions were met with outrage in UPTC where I was employed years ago.

This so-called prerogative of the highest authority, I can understand the how of it - how it's often used, in more brazen ways than one, and how gratifying it must be but the why of it, I should be enlightened. Is this part of the Social Contract where we entrust the "common good" to the sovereign? Is the sovereign capable of deciding for the common good, all the time? Is the Leviathan infallible and who is to police his thoughts and actions?

If the president chooses to use this power of having the prerogative, what is the point in installing a democratic exercise or a semblance of democratic process through a selection committee when in the end, the recommendations of the committee carry no substantive weight? It's a waste of resources. Might as well go by gut-feel.

The GMA administration is particularly notorious for bypassing the Committe on Apointments in some of its controversial appointees in the past so this is not particularly shocking - GMA soiling her hands, yet once again, in the area of culture and the arts. Naglilinamiri na gud la, nga kagwang.

I force myself to look at GMA on TV and not puke and I see a woman who is not only so at home with power but is so smug about it. She has flabbergasted me several times by her propensity to give tongue-lashings to government officials deemed inefficient with the cameras panning on her infuriated expression. Some landlords treat their slaves better. People with lesser virtue would curb their tongue and try to act properly even on pretense, but this woman who has been raised in wealth, had a president for a father, and a crook for a husband? shows no qualms parading to the world what her power provides and how she intends using it.

Some smartass texted GMA's fitting epitaph: Here lies.....and I find myself not disagreeing.

(photo courtesy of www.weheartit.com)

Farewell, President!

Somber - the national mood, a deluge of nostalgia for the gilded time in history when we felt as a people, we were more formidable than the sum of our parts; that with a clear vision, we could rise above ourselves. The aftermath - the tide swayed, giving room for man-made catastrophe to impose its way. But that’s not my story.

Tears found freedom to leak and flow as I watched the tributes for Pres. Aquino over the weekend. Most affecting was witnessing Teddy Boy Locsin’s uncontrollable display of grief. Used to have this huge crush on him and hearing him say that just by being in Pres. Cory’s presence made him feel noble made my heart constrict to a 30th degree.

Memory rush - my mother discussing national politics at the dinner table. Sophomore year, I wrote my first political manifesto supporting Cory’s call for civil disobedience which my mother typed in her office's rustic typewriter. If not for Cory, the political bug wouldn't have sucked my blood. Yes, she taught me the value of affirmative action. She opened my eyes to what extent political activism could achieve. Before I encountered Bell Hook, I already felt how to be changed by ideas was pure pleasure.

My bouts of crying I try to rationalize. Maybe I was crying for that highschool sophomore draped in youthful optimism and harboring romantic ideas of liberty. Where has she gone? Maybe, the crying was more a feeling of yearning for a generation that shed blood for freedom and stood proud, that era where political actions bore positive fruits. I remember feeling weary, drained, fatigued, following the national headlines but nevertheless hopeful and celebratory of the general tempo of those times. Now, national politics just make me nauseous. The leadership, plagued by questions of legitimacy and charges of corruption does not inspire pride.

For Pres. Cory, this poem by Goethe, one of my life-coaches:

SILENCE
Over all the hilltops
Silence,
Among all the treetops
You feel hardly
A breath moving.
The birds fall silent in the woods.
Simply wait! Soon
You too will be silent.

Tenure Fight

Politics within academic institutions is usually fierce, savage, and parochial. Tenure of a faculty is hotly contested, political lines are drawn. One has to contend with the so-called administrative mindset - authority figures of simple intelligence who think and behave operationally, self-bound by the parameters of their power, shackled by the fascism of tribal animosities.

Details of Prof. Raymundo's case versus UP's Thought Police can be accessed from http://www.bulatlat.com/, among other websites. It is insinuated that her left-leaning politics does not score rapturously with some of her colleagues. Why, the logic escapes me.

I don't know Prof. Raymundo personally but I have seen her interview on TV once. Her plight is not removed from my own experiental context. To be a woman. To stand up for something.

I remember being questioned "what does it mean to be a woman?" Well, Marxist-feminists would be quick to posit that to be a woman is to be oppressed. And in a globablized capitalist system, to be a woman is to be twice oppressed. Personally, I am of the fervent belief that gender, per se, cannot be relied on as a basic unit of analysis since it is embedded in a broader power relations.

Make no mistake about this:I am not stereotyping women as hapless victims. That's not what I am saying. Grrrlll Power, yeah! Commodified by the mainstream media, rightly or wrongly, this drumbeating to celebrate women power has made concrete headways. What I am actually saying is that women have a rich revolutionary heritage - in the struggles for national independence and anti-imperialism, their participation cannot be discounted.

Prof. Raymundo is a magnificent testament to that. Unfortunately, UP's Thought Police, basking in the archaic glory of being the center of intellectual ferment, decrees her ilk has no room. So unfortunate.

(photo taken from www.bulatlat.com)

Nukes in the News

Media is drudging up apprehensions of a nuclear arms race in Asia as an outcome of N. Korea’s nuclear drills. Are we back to 1982 once more?

Since the dissolution of the USSR, spin doctors have had a real challenge on their hands – how to maintain a propaganda war of polarization to justify US aggression-mode. For years, its propaganda machine deceived us into believing the USSR was a superpower posing danger to the world. When the Iron Curtain was unveiled, we discovered the magnitude of its poverty and the daunting task of reconstruction and rehabilitation those countries needed.

For the US as a lone superpower there ever was/is, it’s an imperative to manufacture enemies like playthings. It has to invent an adversary equally fearful and strong. Otherwise, it shall be completely exposed as a bully.

It’s peanuts to demonize NK. There’s no love lost here. NK is a police-state with a deplorable human rights record. Images of soldiers marching crisply reminiscent of Stalin’s Russia magnify the country’s diabolical representation to the world at large.

NK is at the cusp of economic death, very similar to Japan’s situation before it went to war in the 1940s. Japan was choked off from its access to oil, among other things, pushing it to a “tipping point,” to borrow the buzzword of Philippine civil society denizens.

The economic blockade and international isolation imposed on NK has reached a “tipping point” – it is in dire straits and only its fascistic practices are able to contain a civil unrest. Its nuclear drills are acts of desperation to seize the world’s attention. It’s not a display of might for what real might does it have?

In analogy, NK is a madman taking his own son hostage because he lost his job and could no longer feed his children. Will the SWAT shoot him or work for an amicable negotiation?

Honesty is Such a Lonely Word

“Denial, but hey, who’s on trial?” - Interpol, “Evil”

A blizzard of denials: The Palace has nothing to do with the frenzied move for Con-Ass. The Palace has nothing to do with questionable mining activities and the recent abduction of Bayan Muna activists. The Palace had nothing to do with the stealthy whisking away of Daniel Smith, smashing protocols and making the DOJ look stupid.

If the GMA administration distances itself from all of these, washing its hands off these, having nothing to do with any of these, then what the frigging hell can this administration admit to doing? As it claims, nothing.

In recent history, 6 buses are razed to the ground, a Globe cellsite is bombed, a cop is taken as POW (prisoner of war), an oppressive landlord is slain, and just several days ago, a certain Evelyn Pitao, sister of an NPA commander in Southern Mindanao was sentenced by the Merardo Arce Command for her “blood debts,” selling information to the military being one of the major crimes.

The New People’s Army (NPA), in principle and practice, issues an official statement owning these acts, risking alienation and censure from the public. That’s a lot of balls.

What a difference in posturing. Sure, this sounds biased coming from me but whether or not you have an iota of sympathy to the revolutionary cause is out of the question. The naked truth screams: denial is not their thing. My respect soars.

Up until college, summers were spent in Carmen, Bohol. My grandparents could not afford books but they made up for it by regaling us with their recollection of the Japanese occupation, several variations of “The Lion and the Monkey,” fables of the spirit-world, and modern tales of “Tawo nga walay mga Tsinelas” (folks without slippers), referring to the NPAs.

Oh, the tales about rebels were more ludicrous than the ghost-stories – that they had supernatural power, that their bodies were bullet-proof protected by amulets, that they could be at 3 places at the same time, that they were shape-shifters and could transform on caprice, to a dog or a pig. Intriguingly fascinating.

The old folks repeatedly assured that these rebels only hurt bad people. Hence, there was nothing to fear.

When I was 11-12, a politician in my mother’s home-barrio was gunned down in broad daylight and the locals were not outraged as I expected. Instead, they blamed the politician for not heeding to the 3 warnings issued by the rebels.

Strange but when someone was killed, even the local police anticipated for the NPA’s official statement before they launched into an investigation of their own. If the NPA owned up to a killing, the case was closed. That’s how its honesty and credibility were appreciated on the ground, even by the cops.

Now, can we dare GMA to show some tinge of honesty? Show some balls, nga di-puga.

Mad World

"This earth belongs to the mad" (Dr. Fischelson, a character in Isaac Bashevis Singer's "The Spinoza of Market St.")

There’s a disturbing article at www.anti-war.com quoting Israel’s Minister Yossi Peled vowing to take a more aggressive role to undermine the Democratic Party and force Pres. Obama to take a more pro-Israel stance. This came in the wake of Jon Voight’s, better-known as Angelina Jolie’s dad, public attack on Pres. Obama being a “false prophet.” This was followed by TV guestings at Murdoch’s loony lair assailing the US president’s “inexperience and naivety” and branding him a “weakling.”

What leaves me cold about these attacks is that they are personal, image-driven, race-toned jabs, departing from substantive issues. Of late, there’s a spate of wacko white supremacist adventures, you gotta seriously fear for Obama’s life.

A roll-call of usual suspects: First, the military-industrial complex – as long as Obama doesn’t pull out in any of the wars the US is engaged in, this sector is generally happy. Obama scored 2 major plus-points by not making public those controversial torture photos and just today, showing some fangs and claws on North Korea.

Second, the bureaucratic capitalists, the draconian money-politics clique – with the bailouts and the stimulus package, their butts are saved. They have every reason to be grateful.

This leaves us to the extreme right-wingers and their propensity for “isolated acts of violence.”

“Isolated acts of violence,” my sorry ass. Media language is biased. If it were suicide-bombers, it would be reported as “orchestrated, deliberate, acts of violence.” If the perpetrator is a pro-gun, anti-abortion WASP, it’s an “isolated act of violence.”

Two can play this bias-game. Sus, Ginoo.

Cuba Goodwill

"The flames you stirred...

Raise a glass, make a toast

A toast in your honor" Tori Amos, "Toast"

Despite US’ desperate efforts to block the move and some compromises surrendered to placate Pentagon, the Organization of American States (OAS) finally lifted the 4-decade isolation imposed on Cuba by the Washington consensus, consequently isolating the US as the only country left on earth belligerently refusing diplomatic ties with Havana. About time, I say with vehemence. Cuba has been penalized so much and for what?

The failed campaign of the US against Latin America opening its arms to a long-lost brother is not lost on Fidel Castro. The OAS resolution is not something Cubans were begging and fighting for. In fact, Fidel lambasted OAS time and again for being a puppet to American interests and downplayed this historical vindication of sorts, poetic justice, if I may say.

It’s fait accompli, a mere formality. Several years before, Cuba’s steadfast “medical diplomacy” caused wreckage to its grotesque image deliberately conjured by the US and steadily converted prejudice and suspicion to respect and admiration of its spirit-cousins in Latin America and elsewhere.

Through Operacion Milagro, around 1.6 million people have restored their vision. At present, 24,000 foreigners are studying medicine in Cuba for free and Cuba sends thousands of medical practitioners to respond to disasters and help in capability-building efforts in the sphere of healthcare.

Maybe my soul is Black and Cuban because in my previous incarnation, yo era un Cubano. This is what I shall scribble on my notebooks, this is the story I shall share to my phantom grandchildren: This is not about the US thawing its animosity towards Cuba. This is not about US getting soft on Cuba.

Let’s give credit where it’s due. This is a result of Cuba’s confidence-building measures finally bearing fruit. This is Cuba’s much-deserved reward for its magnanimity towards the world that slammed its doors because Big Brother threatened not to give lollipops to anyone making friends with Fidel. This is Fidel’s fulfilled prophecy of “history will absolve me” echoed by Honduras President Zelaya.

No lie will remain unexposed forever or as music’s legitimate 3rd World superstar Bob Marley reggaed, “you can’t fool all the people all the time.” The incurably romantic in me clings to the idea that it’s the US slipping down, decreasing its clout, losing face in Latin America.

Realpolitik however, stares me in the eye: this is still a victory of capital. Of course, everybody is set to rake in huge profits if they establish economic relations with Cuba. Capital has more to lose if Cuba continues to be frozen in isolation. This is not lost on the US as its economic nemesis China and Brazil have the upperhand at the moment, reaping benefits from their Cuban tryst.

Let’s not get shocked if the US, in the next months, wrestles that economic advantage. Been there, done that.

Gimme. Gimme some Lovin"

“That until that day, the dream of lasting peace, world citizenship, rule of international morality, will remain but a fleeting vision to be pursued but never attained. Now everywhere is war. …War in the east, war in the west, war up north, war down south. War, war, rumors of war” (Bob Marley, “War”)

It was not great-balls-of-fire, the Cairo speech of Pres. Obama but as I was reading the transcript, he gained a dash of sympathy for his desire to “remake this world” but at what expense, whose expense, it’s a gray area to me.

He had the audacity to warn Iran of its nuclear mischief and Palestine for its violent adventures but stood firm on “US unbreakable bond with Israel, bound by historical and cultural ties.” He identified anti-Semitism as the root of the Jews’ tragic history and appealed to both camps, Israel and Palestine, to respect each other’s aspiration of establishing a nation.

At this point, allow me to quote the Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano who wrote “Operation Unpunished Lead” as a tribute to his Jewish friends killed by Latin American dictatorship-regimes and who himself is in the deathlist because of his political activism:

“Hunting the Jews was always a European custom but since half a century, that historical debt is being paid for by the Palestinians who are also Semites but who never were, nor are, anti-Semites. They are paying, in blood money, the price of others.

In Gaza, 3 of every 10 collateral damages are children. Dangerous people in charge of enormous manipulative media invite us to think that each Israeli life is worth as much as a hundred Palestinian lives.

And as always, always the same: in Gaza, a hundred for one. For each hundred Palestinians killed, one Israeli.”

Hubris, this talk of “remaking the world,” after all, it’s US foreign policies that fucked this world, by and large. It’s tragic that the Arab quagmire cannot be solved by the Arabs but needs the meddling hands of the US. Oh, how disdainful are we of meddlesome old folks putting a wedge on star-crossed lovers whom we are heavily cheering for, not that Israel and Palestine are star-crossed lovers but a more concrete analogy eludes me at this point. Just a bit there, with a little deviation in visualization.

There is a strong belief that an Israel-Palestine settlement is a function of American political will. In realpolitik, that means an overhaul of US foreign policy. A halt to US acquiescence to Israel’s expansionist activities and its general bullishness is a big step. But Israel has expressed that it won’t yield to US demands, there goes your favorite brat.

Fiction has overtaken us on this. Fiction introduced us to Faust who sold his soul to the Devil, of Midas and his obsession with gold, of Dr. Frankenstein creating a vicious monster. Let’s go back to our libraries and revisit how these stories ended.

Spit it out

Americans who are not fond of Pres. Obama dubbed his Mideast visit as an “apology tour,” principally aimed at taking potshots at the Bush regime and putting the Republicans in a very unflattering light. Speculations are rife as to how the leader of the most powerful nation in the planet will articulate America’s commitment to repair its blemished reputation in the non-Western community.

I don’t want to jump the gun here but as far as speeches go, the Notre Dame speech which was far from gallant, for instance, Pres. Obama’s conceptual language is teeming with moral ambiguities or as we say in PolSci, it’s the malady of the legalese and the legal juggernaut – the employment of theory and play obfuscation. It’s a whimsical style of saying nothing by saying a lot, to the point of emptiness, mastered by high-calibre lawyers, the US president being one of them.

For example, in that Notre Dame speech, Pres. Obama opined: “The soldier and the lawyer may both love this country with equal passion, and yet reach very different conclusions on the specific steps needed to protect us from harm.” On surface, we may find this agreeable but it’s a dangerous statement after deep reflection.

A soldier will rambunctiously push for martial rule to supposedly protect national security while a lawyer will defend the Bill of Rights and rule out martial rule as unconstitutional or without raison d’ etre. In Obama’s unsolomonic wisdom, both are right.

At the height of the oust-Erap campaign, I was invited to a forum and one of the resource persons used the biblical ploy “no one can cast the first stone” because we are all sinners. On the surface, there’s nothing disagreeable to the statement but it’s very dangerous to subscribe to this trap.

At the end of the day, since no one is blameless, we all forfeit the right to blame. No one is guiltless, therefore no one can point a finger at the guilty party. That’s dangerous when your statements blanket and exonerate everyone.

It’s not even for the sake of journalistic objectivity, as if it exists, but as someone dealing and processing facts, it has to be clear to you – who is the victim? Who is the perpetrator? It’s not that simple, I must concede, but we can’t all be victims, for Christ’s sake. People must have the moral courage to evaluate that a particular deed is wrong and someone has to pay the price. How can you make things right if you don’t acknowledge that a wrong was committed? You cannot push for peace unless justice is served and you start the process by assessing without opaqueness and ambivalence what injustice was committed and who made it possible.

My expectations of the much-anticipated Egypt speech are realistic. Judging from Pres. Obama’s previous rhetoric, it will be lacking in backbone. It will be wordy and verbose but will keep us pondering if the White House employs the same speechwriters, regardless of regime-changes.

Will Pres. Obama crack a whip on Israel, its most favored nation? Let’s listen for some surprises. Otherwise, we shall continue congratulating the man for being great at language games.

Hey Mickey!

Who would (dis)grace my spirited morning as I checked my mail? The picture of presidential son Mikey Arroyo and Speaker Nograles during the Con-Ass deliberations last night at the Lower House splattered all over. I can take obscenity, I am no prude, but at 9 goddamn morning? What a jumpstart!

I remember an interview of Fatima Bhutto, writer-poet in http://www.guardian.co.uk/ 2-3 years ago about birthright politics, the core of dynasty-politics plaguing most “new nations.” No matter how tarnished, family names still pack a lot of weight in this country.

It must be agonizingly cumbersome to carry an illustrious lineage and poke out like a sore thumb – to be a Math-moron in a family of number-wizards; to be lowbrow in a clan of culturati; to be an honest wage-earner in a tribe of crooks. To go against the grain because destiny awaits. Can you hear this, Mikey?

Incidentally, FB (not fuck buddy, how many times shall I be repeating myself?) also sheds light on Pakistan, a war I hardly understand as so with other wars because Boy George keeps ringing in my ears “war, war is stupid and people are stupid and love means nothing…” Oh, that word again, love. It keeps hounding me.

Bhutto essays: Since 2001, Pakistan has been a country in decline. We suffer a suicide-bombing rate that surpasses Iraq's. The billions of dollars we have received have not made Pakistan safer, they haven't made our neighbors safer, and they've done nothing in the way of eradicating terror. The Taliban and their ilk, on the other hand, are able to seat themselves in towns and villages across Pakistan without much difficulty largely because they do not come empty-handed. In a country that has a literacy rate of around 30 percent, the Islamists set up madrassas and educate local children for free. In districts where government hospitals are not fit for animals, they set up medical camps—in fact, they’ve been doing medical relief work since the 2005 earthquake hit Northern Pakistan. Where there is no electricity, because the local government officials have placed their friends and relatives in charge of local electrical plants, the Islamists bring generators. In short, they fill a vacuum that the state, through political negligence and gross graft, has created.

Do you hear this, Mikey, if a government ignores the needs of its people, what happens?

Nothing happens, sad to say. This is the Philippines, dearie. Another groundhog day.

Children's Crusade (apologies to Sting)

The political ads are getting pointed criticisms from political pundits – early electioneering and fund-sources are some of the concerns being raised.

I’m not joining the fray. I’ve gotten to this age when I have a clear-eyed understanding of traditional politicians and decorum is not something I expect from them, not by a far shot.

As far as advertisements go, nothing could be as crass as Mike Defensor’s presscon several days ago. Surrounded by his very young children, he went on the offensive about Jun Lozada having kids with different women.

How dirty and cheap could Defensor go to gain the upperhand in this game of political chess? Who advised him that children were good props for this game? Worse, exploiting your own? That’s a big-time low.

Some celebrity-parents spend millions on security just to protect their children. They move heaven and earth to shield their children from the gawkish scrutiny of media.

And here’s this guy who thinks he is smart by pulling his own political stunt. Did we hear media questioning or criticizing what his children were doing at his presscon? And the things he was saying, it was not for children, his or others’, to be exposed to.

“Not in front of the children,” responsible parents caution themselves.

I remember an argument between my parents that I witnessed. The two were talking and my father mentioned “kabit.” To my mother’s consternation, I picked it up and asked what “kabit” meant.

“Mao na ni Dadoy kay dili ka careful,” I remember my mother admonishing my father. “Fix this up,” she couldn’t hide her censure.

My father being one heck of a frat-boy told me that a “kabit” is a “kiringking,” another new word for me but I liked the ring to it. “What’s a kiringking,” I asked. My father explained that a “kiringking” is a girl who likes boys.

“Oh,” I said, “I like boys. I am a kiringking.” Boy, the consternation on my mother’s face again. By then, my father was laughing hard and as my eyes volleyed from my father to my mother, I was befuddled what the hell did I say which my father found funny that my mother found a bit foul.

Parents, they can be a pain in the you-know-where.

Pride in the Name of Love

“I believe that truth has only one face: that of a violent contradiction” (George Bataille)

Forget about the swine flu, people can’t seem to shake off the Pacman-flu. Not only is he being hailed unanimously as the best fighter boxing has ever produced, some analysts are evaluating his worth beyond his boxing turf.

Muhammad Ali’s legend was not merely carved by his valor as a boxer. He became larger than life when he raised his fist against racial discrimination, championing the cause of the colored people. He lent his voice of sobriety and reason against the Vietnam War.

Manny Pacquiao’s value to his generation is tied up to the sense of national pride he inspires. Filipinos around the globe are inveigled to hold their heads up high. This is months after some of our countrymen took offense over a satirical comment typecasting us a “nation of servants”. If we cannot take a statistical fact with a pound of dignity, there is no way we can sustain a sense of national pride.

I give credit to the Pacman for waving the flag but there is danger in anchoring our sense of identity to one person making big bucks knocking the daylight out of his opponents. We need to caution ourselves that our sense of identity is not embodied in a person – it should evolve through our history of struggle against colonialism; our cultural revival on the road to independence; and our collective mission to build a nation. In the process of nation-building, it is hoped that we will also be able to define our identity as a people.

But we are a new nation. We have to be lenient with ourselves if we are still dazed and confused about who we are and what we want to become. It comes as no surprise – the misplaced anger at being labeled as “a nation of servants.” Why does the comment sting? It’s because we cannot look at ourselves in the mirror without disliking what we see.

Personally, I don’t mind being called a servant. I will wear it as a badge of honor. Besides, as Christians, are we not cajoled to lead a life of service? Do we want to be cast as bullies rather than underdogs? That’s the simplest I could put it.

Would we rather, like the US, want to be immortalized as mass murderers, greedy imperialists, evil exploiters of other people’s resources, and at the end of the day, ask farcically why we are so much hated? The hubris and the attendant guilt of being a universally recognized oppressor is a heavier burden, believe me.

Apparently, there’s so much pain to go through before developing national pride. It will take some time before we acquire a kick-ass attitude as a people. I mean, if we had the right sense of national pride, we would have not dignified that article written by that Hongkong columnist -so what is it to you? Bugger off! Being onion-skinned and worse, demanding an apology with the stubbornness of a mule made a pathetic caricature of us. You do not beg for respect, you claim it.

It is our tragedy to be a colony of the US at the turn of the 20th century. Before the Stockholm syndrome was discovered, we were already afflicted by it. We became smitten with our colonial masters, not wanting to break off ties, desiring to be adopted by them. We were rape victims too willing to spread our legs for our rapists.

There are Filipinos who think the world of America, who think America is the world. There are Filipinos who want to surrender our much-fought independence to become “little brown brothers” to Uncle Sam. I don’t exactly blame them. I blame our lack of national identity and pride.

Other colonized people recognize the truth of their colonial past better than us. They do not kowtow to their colonial masters or bow their heads in thanksgiving as we Filipinos love to do. The writer Jamaica Kincaid encapsulates it all for me: “Even if I really came from people who were living like monkeys in trees, it was better to be that than what happened to me, what I became after I met you”.

That is national pride, bebe.