and you can't miss
http://www.inquirer.net/specialfeatures/ThePacquiaoFiles/.
or the banner for it .
As in no matter what other news of importance you may be looking for, it's there. Well as one editorial in the paper reminded me, there is a lot happening. Which makes an uneducated , anti role model Filipino beating up some Mexican in Las Vegas quite trivial in comparison. But yet it seems to be what everyone in this country will stop time for. I have nothing against the odd diversion or escapism. But when those things cease to be mere entertainment and become the very tools that allow stupidity to foster then we have to call a spade a spade. In the words of Randy Newman in Faust "let me inject a dose of reality to this festive occasion". We have a lot of problems here. Some of them of our own doing. Take the idiots who support our corrupt politicians. We have all that yet somehow Manny winning this fight and that fight is supposed to make all that better. Like it's not happening. I just hope he loses , though I don't think he will.
Ed
http://opinion.inquirer.net
| Glimpses By Jose Ma. Montelibano Other Most Read Stories xMANILA, Philippines—Typhoon "Frank" signaled the worst of a troubled period. It was not just about the rain, the death and destruction that it caused, it was its symbolism of all the bad that is happening to us. Before Frank, we were already being battered by a food crisis, a rice crisis, an oil crisis. Even the New People's Army rebels appeared to have awakened from a long slumber and reports of new activities are increasing. The kidnapping of television journalist Ces Drilon and her crew capped an avalanche of bad news, or so we thought. Who would have thought that a typhoon could hover so long over the Philippines and dump so much water on so many provinces before finally leaving? We are struggling today to comfort people who lost loved ones because of Typhoon "Frank," to assuage the shock and fear of people who lost their homes and material possessions, to offer hope to those who have to start from the beginning again. It will take so much from a people beset by economic and political woes, and it will pressure all the more a government besieged with a troubled country and an even troubled reputation. It is not only rainy season; it is dangerous season as well. The impact of higher rice prices will begin to be felt just as local stocks will start to dwindle. Harvest is September, barring more weather disturbances like Frank. Weather forecasts, though, point to a very wet year. Too much water is just as bad as too little water. Droughts and floods are two faces of the same coin: disaster. It is the curse of the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo presidency not to have any more than transient stability. No amount of public relations, no amount of propaganda, no amount of accomplishment has succeeded in creating credibility for government and its highest representatives. The minimum requirement for stability during troubled times is credibility of leadership. Without that, leadership itself is at risk when storms, political, economic or otherwise, upset an already insecure people. There have been many attempts to remove Gloria from the presidency. A few almost succeeded, but almost is never enough in political contests. At the same time, the kind of victories that Gloria eked out of difficult moments never allowed her long-term stability and the love of her people. In the end, the curse of the Arroyo presidency is also the curse of the Filipino people. We have a government people have no faith in, a president who has to lean on the military to stay in place, and an opposition who do not look squeaky clean either. There are at least three leading contenders for president in the May 2010 election who come from the great minority of Filipinos: the rich. We have a potential candidate from the ranks of the majority poor but he is saddled with the unpopularity of his president. In the background, though, is a threat: a woman so afraid of what will happen to her when she is not president anymore. Her fear can push her to become constitutionally adventurous. The sum total is that 2010 offers little for a suffering and fearful people. Although all popular, the rich wannabe-presidents have no one with a proven heart for the poor, no one with a priority program to eliminate poverty. The only possible candidate from the Juan de la Cruz class now heads the government's shelter program and can stage a campaign from there. He will have to convince his boss, though, to be more radically supportive of a social justice program where government can correct a historical anomaly called landlessness and homelessness. Government cannot hope to sell land and homes to informal settlers and think that it will earn the people's gratitude. Justice is not a business, not even an exchange. Victims of injustice must not be made to amortize solutions to their unmerited plight. A crunching poverty is all the more intensified by an unstable world of rising oil and food prices, by a government and political leaders seen as corrupt, and by business still unwilling to cross the line of charity to move towards generosity. Only a people's resiliency, a patterned submissiveness, a religion that does not espouse violence, has tempered a mood that, in many other countries, had found massive rebellious expression. Filipinos are caught in a serious bind. Perhaps, as more than 40 million have little or no chance to go abroad. These are the lowest 40 percent of the economic spectrum, from where most overseas Filipino workers do not come. These are the most vulnerable to revolutions or secessionist movements, where young teenagers can find motive to bear arms and become the most probable victims of violent conflict. Half are food poor when there was no food crisis; by now, most must be experiencing hunger every so often. Those who can go abroad because they are better prepared to do so are not spared their pain or frustrations. They have to leave family and community behind, and their exposure to other environments which are less poor and definitely less corrupt makes them angry at why their country, their government, cannot do what most of the world can do. Ah, yes, the rest of the world. The most recent studies of the World Bank pinpoint the Philippines as the most corrupt in our region and more corrupt than 80 percent of the world. It makes me wonder why a dominantly Christian nation can be so un-Christian, why its leaders can be so exploitative despite love and care as primordial Christian virtues. Are Filipinos so blinded by greed that they easily succumb to it when in power? Are our religious teachings so weak that our societal shepherds and stewards are the first to ransack the nation's warehouses? What are we citizens to do? If we do not like violence, is there no other way but cowardly submission? If we do not like rebellion, do we have to tolerate being perennial victims of corruption and injustice? If we do not like to fight our soldiers and policemen, is it too much to expect that they fight for us when we are abused, when we are exploited? Many civil society groups have been espousing many advocacies meant to better our quality of national life. Many local government executives are stepping up and actually providing a glimmer of hope in their respective areas because of their honesty, their dedication to service, and their sheer efficiency. But the many are not many enough, not against a monster, not against a cancer. I have answers to my questions, but my answers do not count enough because I do not count enough. Neither do you if you and I stay apart from each other, if you and I remain unconnected to the majority of Filipinos, if the majority of Filipinos do not find the courage to stand and speak up against evil, and extend a helping hand to brothers and sisters in need. * * * Responses may be sent to jlmglimpses@gmail.com. |
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