blackshama's commentary on Philippine issues

If we want to keep the EDSA spirit alive, we have to ensure she is victorious everywhere. Perhaps the President of the Philippines will consent to putting up a copy of this statue on EDSA. She is the real icon of People Power. If the President has enough moral courage, then once the statue is up, the Republic of the Philippines will no longer boycott a Nobel peace prize conferment. Also we will have to stop kowtowing to the political party that destroyed this statue's original.

None of the Marcoses have seen the view through the window of a jail cell but can look at the view from the Batasan and Senate office windows! The Cojuangcos still own a hacienda! There are still VALID reasons for Joma Sison to pontificate even after Communism has been thrown into the trash bin everywhere! Media, power and industry oligarchies are back. And they dupe their workers. Workers not getting their due. They also bleed the people in power rates! The 1987 Constitution Gloria Macapagal Arroyo takes the Presidency from Erap at the EDSA Shrine. The 1987 Constitution is thus stabbed fatally. Corrupt generals having "pabaon" while the AFP doesn't have decent air, naval and land forces assets. Congress Vietnam outpacing us economically. Remember they got pounded by the US of A.  Noynoy Aquino was elected on mom and dad's platform. And the government becomes like a badly run student council! BUT WAIT, WE STILL HAVE HOPE.

After 18 days, President for 30 years, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt was forced to quit by massive demonstrations of Egyptians fed up with autocratic rule. Mubarak who is a general in Egypt's armed forces is considered as a hero in Egypt's war against Israel. Egypt and Israel have since signed a peace treaty. The protests occurred in all major Egyptian cities. Mubarak tried to give concessions but eventually this was a little too late. Nonetheless, the regime tried to shut off Egypt from the rest of the cyberuniverse. But that failed, Egyptians found a way to tweet! Shutting off Egypt also resulted in massive economic losses in a nation with high unemployment. This popular uprising is most significant (even more significant than EDSA in 1986) for it proves that no regime can effectively shut the flow of social networking. Thus dictatorships and unelected rulers in the world and in the Forbidden City are now shell shocked. They know that they cannot hold on for long and give in to ...

The title of this post is exactly what the tooktook driver told me when I returned from a meeting in Central Bangkok to my well appointed but still super budget hotel near Bangkok’s version of Banawe Street, Quezon City. I couldn’t take a cab and getting to the MRT was out of the question as Red Shirt protesters and Thaksin fans were marching on the streets. I will not dwell on the usual CNN and BBC commentaries that the Thai political crisis will affect Thailand’s economy. That is patently obvious. The Thais have made the whole biz of people power more savvy. The main aim to shut down not the TV stations (it was the government who did that) or the stock market, but the biggest shopping malls. If we had that kind of people power now, then the government will have a struggle to be in power. I have had an interest in Thailand since I have many scientist colleagues from that country. Also my parents have so many close friends from the Kingdom and they have become like fami...

Various blogs and op-ed columnists have analyzed why people it seems don't want to take to the streets in droves to dethrone our Glorious Pampangic Queen. Manolo Quezon does a good job listing the who's who of analysis. But then again the political analysts and "dentists" (who opt for treatments from extraction to radical surgery!) seem to be overanalyzing. People Power "fatigue"has crept in the body politic and there is a need to know why. This is a legit form of academic exercise. But according to the latest surveys, people still believe in the principles they have fought for in the last two people powers. But they won't heed this new attempt to launch another one. The Orthodox have an aphorism. Two Romes have fallen, One still stands (the Russian Empire) and a fourth shall never be. To which I paraphrase. Three EDSAs have fallen, One has been corrupted (By Her Imperial Majesty Gloriana, who else?) and a Fourth shall never be! The Orthodox have seen t...

The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines yesterday issued a pastoral letter on the current political crisis we have in the Philippines. The Archdiocese of Nueva Segovia Chancery blog posted a copy. The six points made by the bishops have been said in other venues. It is not surprising that the bishops want EO 464 scrapped for this prevents the Queen's subalterns to appear before the Senate if they are to be questioned. They have to get her consent first. But what most op ed writers missed is this "For the long term we reiterate our call for “circles of discernment” at the grassroots level, in our parishes, Basic Ecclesial Communities, recognized lay organizations and movements, religious institutions, schools, seminaries and universities. It is through internal conversion into the maturity of Christ through communal and prayerful discernment and action that the roots of corruption are discovered and destroyed. We believe that such communal action will perpetuate at t...

Students of Darwinian evolution learn early on that evolutionary novelties are nothing really new. They are but variations on an earlier theme. The variations arise because of natural selection. At first glance the variations are so unapparent and may lead some to think that some Grand Designer was at work with a new idea. But on closer scrutiny, one notices that the novelty is really based on an earlier "novelty". So we have the Tiktaalik wrist is the ancestor of our wrist. Today Darwinian theory has been extended to account for events in human history, revolutions and people power not excepted, the analysis of which were once the exclusive domain of political scientists and historians. So much has been written by our own political pundits in the op ed pages of the major Pinoy blurbs about people power "fatigue" and lack of outrage in the la affaire Lozada. In fact the Macapagal-Arroyo subalterns in the Palace have taken this observation and now have a smug attit...