FLOWER, FLOWERS AND DOVES

What are the principles that make socialism palatable in society? Free education, free health services, low housing costs, no profiteering companies although state companies could be, low if not free transportaiton costs, and many more. 


But the way the socialist countries in this planet are acting, they are making socialism a tasteless fare. China is ramming its ships on the shores of what is owned by the Philippines while Russia is strengthening its forces on the boundary between her and Ukraine, making the Ukrainians afraid of their future. 

Is war really the only way that a society could be made humane and caring, if being socialist a country could attain such?

The times when Russia became socialist was in 1917, while China in the 40's. Russia underwent a bloody revolution, up until Stalin who killed his enemies just so socialism would be strengthened in that country. China, too underwent a bloody revolution with Mao Tse Tung completing the twin party declarations of Marx that change is inevitable and that the workers can only free themselves through revolution, while Lenin posited the idea that  the change should be led by a workers' party, and Mao Tse Tung forwarded the two with the policy that armed struggle is the key to completing that revolution. 

Yet despite the very many studies that have been conducted on using revolutionary power, the ideas of Marx, Lenin and MTT have been made unnecessary as their moves have only brought untold sufferings to the people. Just look at the CPP in the Philippines which continues to hold on to armed struggle. So many young people have died, their intellect so previous that have they been used for peaceful means could have brought about a more progressive Phiippines. 

In fact, the People Power revolution that brought about the death knell to martial law and Marcos rule was carried out not by the CPP which boycotted the presidential elections but by the yellow movement of Cory Aquino. This People Power has been copied in many countries already -- like Germany which has seen the unity of the East and West, the scrapping of the USSR and in its stead, a series of independent nations that are now recognized by the United Nations. 

In other words, the use of arms to attain one's political objectives is no longer a viable move as it can only bring about negative consequences that in the long run do not advance the planet as a humanitarian place to reside in. 

Yes, that is it, we want a humanitarian Earth not in the way it is conceived now -- full of wars and bloody struggles for power. 

So the United Nations is now tasked more than ever to oversee how diplomatic instead of using war could be used to settle country differences, and how to make the socialist countries see its role in this planet, not as a militarily powerful force for domination but rather for settling differences peacefully. 

Adherents to socio-political ideologies in this new millenium would increase more if those who are coming from the socialist camps would open their doors to greater and more sincere diplomatic moves rather than trying to show their muscle all the time. 

it takes 9 months to bring about a life into this world. It takes 20 years to rear that life into adulthood complete with education -- given the right support from the state. And soldiers who face wars all the time are not apt to develop into good citizens should they finish their turn of duty, as can be gleaned from reports that ex-soldiers tend to develop mental illnesses and have a hard time recovering from their traumas. Moreover, sending soldiers to wars that can only result in death or survival is no longer a humane way to live. 

We need to find more humane styles of living, not always being on edge if we would live until tomorrow, but rather knowing that tomorrow we could still  give a warm embrace to our loved ones; we could still smell flowers and appreciate flowers; and meditate peacefully on how humans can live to realize our potentials to the fullest. 

Socialists need not feel wary that their ideologies are not being appreciated at all but that their style of educating us on the advantages of socialism may be inadequate, and their militaristic postures do not help them at all. Flowers, flowers and doves please. 

CHUGGAA-CHUGGAA-CHUG! LET NGO's RUN THE TRAINS!

The cost of living in the country is getting to be unbearable for majority of our Kababayan. We are reeling from the skyrocketing electric and sinking from the overflowing water bills. On top of these, I have just received a legal threat from the lawyers of a telecom company asking me to pay for the monthly fees of the subscription when everytime I was late from paying up, they would cut off the service. From August 2013 until November 2013, I was paying for the subscription with only a half-month use; and by December and January 2014, their service was really kaput. 

So then, this morning, I woke up to an interview of a man over the radio about the public retaining ownership of the MRT overground trains; that it is all right for the government to pay for new coaches so that the riding public would have more seats inside trains rather than lining up for hour after hour just to get to ride and reach their destinations.

So that discussion set me to thinking: why not make non-government organizations run these utilities companies? Why did the government sell their operations to other companies instead of managing them ourselves?

Everytime I rode the MRT I knew that the company handling it was making a lot of money. I would see cashiers getting the cash almost everytime I would ride and then, while secured by guards with high-powered arms would go down the stairs. But it seems the company did not bother to modernize the facilities, nor to add coaches so that the ease of transport could be reached. 

This brings me now to the mission of NGOs. NGOs exist to serve the public, in principle and in practice. The Constitution recognizes their role so greatly that the framers had included as a provision the recognition of the NGO and the government to cooperate in terms of serving the public. 

I think we should start realizing this fully now especially when the problems are piling up with regard to 
utilities and transport facilities. We should not have a difficult time doing that. Britain has had anationalized train and bus transport systems for far too long. 

According to a website," The London Underground (also known as the Tube or simply the Underground) is a public metro system serving a large part ofGreater London and parts of the counties of Buckinghamshire,Hertfordshire and Essex. The system serves 270 stations and has of track, 55 per cent of which is above ground. The network incorporates the world's first underground railway, the Metropolitan Railway, which opened in 1863..." It is a highly efficient transport system and works up to midnight. 

Even the New York train subway is owned by the City of New York and runs efficiently. 

Now why can we not duplicate the? I would suggest that a not-for-profit company be set up to be the operators of our train systems, and from there we could finally breathe freely and have a great day riding the trains thinking that the profits from its operations will redound to the government and will then be used to serve the needs of our people. 


What do you think, Folks?

JURY SYSTEM -- RIPE FOR THE PEOPLE'S PICKING

I wrote letters to various groups and then all of them were sent back to me -- undeliverable. So I am now rewriting them:

I think the discussions on the relevance or irrelevance of the jury system is in itself irrelevant. The jury system has not been tried yet in our country, but there is something that approximates it very well in our midst -- the bodong of the Igorot peoples where the council of elders decide on political and other issues that affect their communites. The decision of the elders constitute the law of the communities. 

Mainly the bodong is now used to maintain peace in the areas. Macliing was one of those elders who held the bodong for the people to decide whether to accept or reject the Chico river hydroelectric project which had sought to bring electricity to the provinces of Ilocos (Marcos origins) and Cagayan Valley (Enrile roots) during the time of Martial Law. Macliing had challenged the powers that be and later on was gunned down by the military, as the bodong had been an effective way, not only to be used as a native form of justice system, but also a vehicle for international attention on pressing issues of the day. 

The real score is not whether it had been unsuccessful or cruelly used in other countries but rather -- are our people ready to render judicial decisions in a democratic way?

Given the many historical events that have passed our way, I think that our people, the ordinary ones have an innate sense of justice. They know what is right and wrong -- given our Christian background showing how Christ was cruelly nailed to the cross by the Jews; they know who is a villain and who is a hero -- given our deep sense of history as well as immersion in heroic films of FPJ (don't minimize the effects of cultural products in raising the consciousness of the people); as well as our experiencing liberating events in our country -- the freedom from Spanish colonization brought about by the Katipunan heroes and heroines as well as Rizal; the freedom from the American colonizers -- the various rebellions against their rule; the refusal to kowtow to the Japanese imperialists who conquered our country. In other words, Folks, our people have a high sense of justice that collectively can render wise and chaste decisions in a jury system. 

Let us not underestimate our people.  Allow me to include the People Power we had against the dictatorship of Marcos and so all the above mentioned events and the latter make our people ripe for being justices on injustice. 

By the way, our people are so keen on achieving justice which is reflected in the great number of cases that the Department of Justice receives. This shows that our people want, are hankering for justice, but our system is simply too slow, too corrupt, too easy to be manipulated which then points to a need for a different more democratic, more powerful system -- the jury system. 

I gave the following blueprint to Ms. Daisy on how to conduct the jury movement which include the following organizational structure:

1. promotional section -- to educate the public on what the jury system is all about using tri-media -- radio, print and tv. So far, DZXL through its afternoon program hosted by Justice Bakal and Chairman Mau ( these are their screen names so called) has been the most receptive. 

Daisy produced the English version of the primer on the jury system; and Dr. Annie Ortinero translated it into Pilipino. 

The other stations are still being tapped. 

2. linkages section -- connecting with NGOs and other organizations which can disseminate the information to their members; and the 

3. signature-gathering section -- this will be composed of people who will initiate gathering of signatures to support the jury system. 7 Million is the target. After this, the signatures will be submitted to the Comelec which will verity the truthfulness of the signatures and later on will call for a referendum. 

By the way, a bigoted radio host refused to have the jury system be discussed at all, showing his ignorance of democratic procedures. How sad. 

So should anyone ask you Folks to please sign, kindly do it with a smile despite the pain of minimising the corruptible powers of certain judicial personalities.