blackshama's commentary on Philippine issues

Hong Kong residents plan to have a huge indignation rally today on the bungled rescue of a tourist bus in Manila's Luneta park which resulted in the deaths of 8 hostages. This according to my good friend and UP Viasyas history professor Bruce Hall, is not really a cry for justice but to express sorrow cum outrage. Staging rallies like these are one of the few real liberties that HK citizens have. The China-UK treaty that ceded the territory back to Beijing in 1997 guaranteed that the capitalist system be maintained for 50 years. Take note of the word CAPITALIST. Capitalism in order to survive does not need DEMOCRACY. However DEMOCRACY in order to flourish requires CAPITALISM. Hong Kong citizens still cannot elect their Chief Executive (CE) directly. An election committee whose members come from HK's functional constituencies elect the CE who in the end is still a Beijing appointee. Limited direct democracy elects legislators but majority have to be vetted by Beijing. Althou...

In the wake of the hostage taking incident in Manila last August 23 which ended in tragedy, we have noticed things that Filipinos may pass on as humor and others as plain insanity. First of all are the jokes on what SWAT means. It supposed to mean Sorry wala akong training Sugod, wait, atras, takbo among other meanings Nonetheless while we Pinoys may use these as a coping mechanism, other cultures may think it's offensive. None was as offensive as a group of college students taking photos and smiling in front of ill fated bus. And worse the police officers posing for a group shot in front of the same bus! In both instances, they were smiling! These photos are all over the social media sites. The Philippines is now on the map for hostage tourism! It is good that there are still sane voices, almost all (or practically all!) of them came from the Chinese side. Take for example HK gigastar Jackie Chan's remarks which came out as the headline in the print edition of t...

Then Russian President (now Prime Minister) Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian Special Forces to use a top secret nerve gas to resolve the Moscow October 2002 Nord Ost theatre hostage crisis. Thrity-nine Chechen Islamist separatists (some of them women with strapped on bombs on their bodies) took hostage more than 700 theatre goers and performers during act 2 of the hit musical "Nord Ost". The separatists demanded that Russia withdraw its armed forces from Chechnya, if not the separatists would start killing hostages. The Russian government sent in negotiators and even allowed the media to interview the chief hostage taker so that his demands will be known. However the media was not allowed to spin the story. The Russians jammed broadcast signals near the theatre. As the demands were unacceptable to the Russians and the separatists refused concessions as being allowed to fly to a third country, President Putin ordered the storming of the theatre at dawn of October 26. The ...