FORESIGHT AND GOVERNMENT

FORESIGHT AND GOVERNMENT 

One of the things that we used to be taught in our educational institutions is how to manage and control the environment—how to explore and exploit it so that we could benefit from it greatly. In fact, those who were able to do so –those classmates able to do so were admired for their acumen in profiting from such – like  Henry, not his real name, who was able to make a killing from selling sugar, and Ambo who profited a lot from putting up a fishpond in Laguna Lake.

However, nowadays, making business out of the environment has become a cautious about such endeavors. It is no longer profitable to plant just one crop like sugar over and over again over a piece of land because the nutrients of the soil are not replenished, thus making it barren after some time. Building fishponds in the lake has also been overdone. Fishes run out of oxygen and die; and are prone to be victims of flooding.

So what is happening now in Compostela Valley where mining is the main industry and hundreds have lost their lives due to landslides caused by too much rainwater poured by typhoon Pablo is a similar case of so-called “managing and controlling the environment.” The number of victims is increasing and the incident is sending us an alarming signal: we have failed to listen to Mother Nature. Extraction of minerals was done without foresight except that they would bring income and huge profits. The way hundreds of people had flocked to the Valley although there were already signs of  unsafe grounds shows the desperation of our lowly-educated people for any income that could tide over their families’ needs no matter the danger.

Although we could claim that mining per se is not bad but when profiteers rule the industry rather than those conscientious buyers of minerals, then we can say that we have truly mismanaged the environment. I think that running a mining business is not a matter of drawing income from the land but also having a holistic perspective – who will profit, what will happen to the land after extraction; how will the natural elements react to the change in the contour of the land; how will the people’s living conditions be affected by the extraction.

In other words, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Department of Trade and Industry have a lot of rethinking to do regarding the use (misuse and abuse) of natural resources in order to generate livelihood. What is problematic here is that most of our bureaucrats are ensconced in their offices and generally do not have a hands-on experience of how the people live in those areas. Only when there are issues occurring like a typhoon sweeping the country are there conscious efforts to look into the people’s living conditions.

The Department of Social Work and Development also has to consider the cash transfer program for impoverished communities by industry. Should the staff who go around find unwieldy situations, then their discoveries have to be given greater weight. Social workers generally have a close-up view of the lives of our people and hence their testimonies are more reliable when the people’s conditions are evaluated.

Foresight is a very rare and expensive commodity in our society. Those who give warning signals are either ignored or labeled too idealistic, or worse off their rockers. Usually media critics are lumped together in the latter due to the over-sensitive reactions of certain government officials to the former’s write-ups.

It is high time to raise “foresight” as an important and valid criterion for placing people to their places in government. Candidates and current occupants of appointed and elective positions have to be subjected to this criterion to find out if they have the people’s lives in their hearts and minds. “Lives” means lifetimes, not just temporary or present ones.

In other words, we are looking for officials who know how to think, feel, critique and act on our past, present and future.

DANZA MAGNIFICO

By Wilhelmina S. Orozco

The image of a grandmother in a Spanish play is that of a strong maternal and matriarchal character who makes all the major decisions in the home. The man or men usually bow down to them. Even serve them without question. In the Philippines, our grandmothers are no different. We love them even more than our own mothers sometimes because they dote on us, their grandchildren, lovingly while our mothers are busy with housework and eking out a living.

So when I watched Eduardo Guerrero dance the flamenco with the title, De Dolores,  last night, November 27, 2012 at the RCBC Plaza), I could see why he was so inspired to move, to flick his hands, to sway his hips, to clickety-clack his two-inch high boots, and to strut, fly and sweep the floor, as if it were natural for him to be like a butterfly, a praying mantis, and even a bull. He was highly inspired by that image of Dolores, (the title of his dance is De Dolores) his grandmother.

El recuerdo del ayer nos hace vivir hoy para triunfar en el manana…(The memories of yesterday make us live today to succeed tomorrow,) – Eduardo Guerrero, his  statements in the program.

What makes Guerrero’s piece remarkable is that he was accompanied by the singer Emilio Florido, and guitarist Javier Ibanez. Did he move according to the meaning of the lyrics of the songs, or the rhythm and melody coming from the guitar? The night was truly a great combination of many arts – music – song and guitar- dance, and theatre, a novel form that exploits the many talents and shall we say geniuses of the artists.

In the beginning, Guerrero was bare from the waist up and seated on a wooden chair without arms. Around him were two other chairs. Then he laid down on one his head reaching the floor, and his legs stretched out on the opposite side. It was as if, he was part of the furniture and he could not care less. It was like a moment of recall, of remembering the past; then slowly he moved, carrying the chairs one by one to their proper positions. On the right side of the stage stood a clothes rack. He approached it very slowly and then removed his pants, then put on one by one the pieces from the rack.

“…son recuerdos y en estos mas que el argumento es elsentimiento el que nos traslada hasta ellos. (a show without storyline because they are memories and in them, rather than the store, lies the feeling that moves us to them.) –E. Guerrero.

Guerrero has that sense of suspense in him as he made the audience draw their attention with bated breath as to what he would do next. After a few minutes, he was dressed up an ordinary man – in dark blue shirt with long sleeves, tight pants and a sash. Then, as the guitarist and the singer had sat on the two chairs, he began to move, his dance rising to a crescendo and after that it was like watching a bullfight with him as the bull, as the torero all rolled into one. The passion and intensity with which he moved to shape the characters on stage through flamenco were truly magnificent – he was a proud toreador, a romantic lover, a  shy young man, a tease, a virile man out to conquer a bull? A woman? The world? All rolled into one man were the various passions anyone can feel through this setting, as if the whole of Cadiz, of Espana was coming down to that stage to give us, not a glimpse but a panorama of how a man, a dancer can feel.

“Y mas inevitable es aun, recorder a la personal que me crio, que me introdujo n el arte, que me regalo mis primeras botas para bailar, que me acompano alla donde actue y que confio en mi.La suma de todos estos recuerdos es el recuerdo de mi abuela, es el recuerdo…De Dolores.  (And even more inevitable is to remember the person who raised me, who introduced me to this art, who gave me my first boots to dance, who came with me wherever I performed, the person who trusted in me…All these memories are the remembrance of my grandmother, the memory of…Dolores.) – E. Guerrero

Javier’s music and Emilio’s songs were truly penetrating of the heart, not just the ears. The amplifier gave just the right volume with a bit of echo sounding hrough the auditorium as Javier caressed and plucked  the guitar strings, while Emilio sang lilting tunes sometimes clapping as Guerrero clicked his heels, and at times, seemingly pining for something or someone lost?  Ay, if only we could understand Spanish pero nuestro 12 unidades en colegio no esta bastante para comprender los cantos total.

By the way, after our singing (many in the crowd sang) Lupang Hinirang, the music of Spain’s national anthem followed. I did not hear the lyrics at all from my seatmates whom I had heard talking in Spanish antes de programa. Maybe next time, the organizers could play the anthem with lyrics and make the expats sing with it.

Yet, twice already, after the playing of the Spanish anthem, last November 20, when Teresa Nieto’s company danced flamenco (where virility was championed over 4 women onstage), and last night, suddenly, the images of Rizal, the Luna brothers, and other heroes who went to Europe flashed in my mind. Why, they listened to that tune throughout their lifetime while in Europe and in the country. They must have hankered for our own anthem to be played as well.

Come to think of it, our anthem is a marching song borne during the times when our heroes and heroines were amid a period to assert the national sovereignty. On the other hand, the Spanish anthem is much slower sounding like an obeisance to some royalty, which could be the case as their society is aristocratic. 

Also, the program, started a bit late and the Instituto Cervantes director apologized for it before the start. While queueing though, he told us that they performers were still rehearsing. I responded, “Sir, no one is perfect. We are all human, please tell them. We have been standing here for quite a while.”

But the performance was truly perfect from beginning to end. The audience could sense the effort, the perseverance that had gone into making it truly memorable not only visually but emotionally as well.

We could probably empathize deeply with the performers onstage because of that common historical strain, of our having gone through the authorities of their forebears. Jane Orendain, a Filipina New Yorker, who was seated next to me, said that she has traces of Spanish blood in her – Catalan and many others. I, myself, an Orozco, is rooted to the Mexicans (remember Orozco the painter?) as Mexico was one of the colonies like the Philippines of Spain in the centuries past.

Danza is the title of the performance of Guerrero, Emilio and Javier, a truly impressive program which moved us strongly. The stage was minimally set – only the chairs on the left, the clothes rack on the right. Lighting consisted of spotlights coming from the ceiling and the sides. So there was a lot of shadows and darkness around, making us experience the sounds – the song and the clicking heels more intensely.  The synergy among the three of them was very strong and reverberated throughout sending the audience to give them a standing ovation in the end.

Jane asked me if this is the first time I had seen flamenco. I said I had seen it in the movies, and had watched a performance of students of flamenco but I did not experience that passion in their dance. This time I did – I felt the passion of the people of Cadiz, Seville and Andalucia. Perhaps even of the gypsies

Pride of their roots and their artistry were etched in every movement, every moment of song and guitar strumming.

We had to clap for so long because they deserved it. A lady brought in three garlands for each of them, and someone said, “Kiss!” but she had exited.  Cries of appreciation came one after the other and simultaneously too from different sections of the audience. In return, Emilio and Javier bowed while Guerrero, ah, Guerrero, he blew kisses to his right, to his left and to us, center.

We returned his kisses with “Bravo!”

“Magnifico!”

 

POLITICS IS NOT SO GENTLE

POLITICS IS NOT SO GENTLE

By Wilhelmina S. Orozco

Politics cannot wait for the weak, the helpless, the vulnerable who cannot fathom nor understand what is going on. Coupled with military might or war, it dismisses all kinds of ethical rules, religious beliefs, and cultural standards.

There are silent and loud wars. Those in politics are well-versed in this. Those who choose the first are biding their time, waiting for that opportune moment when they can express what they really think and feel should happen. Those who engage in the latter are not so gentle. They know how to manipulate situations to their interest, and most of the time, they cannot be so gentle.

One early morning last week, I heard over the radio that one country had bombed the territory of another and that military officials had been killed. The latter retaliated and so there is now an ongoing war in the Middle East. One man lost his sister-in-law and two other relatives after a bomb hit their house.

How could anyone live in a place, in a house where just a while ago, you have been speaking to the living and now they are dead? For the most irrational reasons?

I wrote in October 1991:

War makes widows of women It also leaves  many of them and children abandoned. (Didn’t one of the leaders of a democratic movement in an Asian country lose her husband while she was under house arrest? She refused to leave her country despite the dying moments of her husband at that time because she could not have been allowed to return again as she was under house arrest. On hindsight, wasn’t the image of her political father stronger in her than her husband’s? Actually, there are many ways of returning to a country through underground means. Alas, if one chooses that option, then he or she must be ready for the worst, and one of them is not being able to enjoy the accoutrements of modern living that a fugitive would always have a hard time acquiring.)

War thrives because some men cannot articulate their views well. They use those phallic symbols of power – guns, long arms to bring their message across.

War ( in the long term is aimed at decimation of the enemy). It kills lives. Women are against war because we know how difficult it is to bear life in our wombs for 9 months and then to rear them through adulthood.

(Until now) many war movies glorify machismo, thus making men feel and act superior towards men, (towards weak men).

Most violent movies are anti-women, anti-life.

There is a certain kind of pathological tendency among the machos engaged in violence which is played up in those movies. Violent movies present them as desensitized individuals whose preoccupation is to maim, to strangle, and to kill….

(I watched a Filipino TV drama program inside a bus sometime this year, unreeling how a mother and her daughter were conniving to kill another youthful woman. It was the end of the serial and the drama had made me cringe – why they now equate equality with men with that capacity to kill as well, with bold intentions and no sense of pity at all. Is it any wonder that we now have women involved in killing another woman? That incident in a downtown university where a group of female youths stabbed a girl from another university who had been visiting there and that other incident where a friend of a girl, a model, had allowed her boyfriend to reek havoc on her life, in the end killing her? Allegedly the victim had been gossiping about her as having children out of wedlock which could ruin her career in the media, especially the movies.

A foreign movie I partially viewed again inside a bus showed two women, one had a gun fighting the men. My traditional notion of women was touched aggressively. )

War has killed many articulate people who spoke well and could convince people to their side. They were killed because some men, unable to face them and argue with them verbally, wanted to win all the time, no matter how high-handedly.

….

I wrote that piece at that time a war was going on in the Middle East and the United States had joined the fray.

I remember while typing my column at the office of the Manila Times newspaper I watched a TV news report where Iraq was being invaded by US President George Bush warplanes. A UN official, on the throes of death, told the people around him, “Tell them not to abandon Iraq.” Not only were innocent lives destroyed then but that cultural artifacts which could never be restored and dating back before the time of Christ were bombed out. Thus today the people of Iraq could only have a memory of their past. And what happens when we don’t have any memory of our history? Our identity is lost forever.  We become robots. We become desensitized and selfish. Our idea of living is to accumulate whatever can be accumulated. 

Today, under the Obama second term administration, what could be its world policy towards the use of military might? Abangan.

But you see Folks, no matter how human a person can be, Obama would still be seen as weak-willed if he should show any sign of soft-heartedness when war issues and policies are discussed.

Thus, some diplomats have learned to use double talk when dealing with war hotheads. They use diplomatic language all the time, forgetting that every minute, every second counts for those caught in the crossfires. 

Sometime in the early years of this millennium, I met a rabbi who showed a friend and me a scroll which had come from the Dead Sea. As I was petite and dark while my friend was very tall and of Caucasian background, the rabbi looked at us rather lasciviously, perhaps imagining things and acts in a bedroom. Then he committed a very grievous act which I need not mention here anymore. Without having any pang of guilt and smiling mischievously all the time, he continued showing and explaining to us the importance of the scroll. Perhaps to him, all women are the same – toys to be manipulated in all aspects.

Since then, I have lost all feelings of being respectful toward him. And worse, he made me feel inhospitable towards his countryfolks here. But then the image of Mr. Meyouhas, that gentle soul who worked as an educator-consultant for the UN thrives in me. Mr. Meyouhas was my counterpart at the National Manpower and Youth Council where I had worked as an audio-visual specialist in the 70’s. By the way, the chairman of the UP Philosophy Department, Mr. Bonifacio, recommended me to be appointed by his friend heading the office, Mr. Rony Diaz. I was already a master’s student in communication at the Ateneo de Manila University then.  (Mr. Bonifacio thank you very much.) My husband then had just been incarcerated for ‘subversive” activities and I needed a job to tide over the needs of our family.

Mr. Meyouhas shared with me a lot of things on how to deal with the youth especially how to attract them to get education. Unfortunately, he suffered a stroke due to the heat as it was summertime then. Coming from the outside, he entered the office which was very cold due to the high airconditioning. He lost consciousness and then regained it while lying down on the sofa. I held his hand and he smiled at me. Then some people had thought of bringing him right away to the hospital, where on the way, he succumbed to death. I watched the ambulance roll away down that FTI road thinking that I should have gone with him, at least to give him moral strength to hold on.

When his wife got his body for transport with her on the airplane, a UN official, an Israeli also, told her: “You have two baggages, one your luggage and the other the casket.” Mr. Meyouhas had lost his respectable position in the world and had become a mere object to be brought home.

Folks, war is not only gentle, but it corrupts AND DEHUMANIZES even the so-called religious and highly-placed political officials.

NOW THIS IS MY PLEA TO ALL OFFICIALS ESPECIALLY THE HEAD OF THE UNITED NATIONS: Sirs and Mesdames, kindly stop the war in the Middle East between Israel and Palestine for a moment. And then, evacuate with all your might all women and children from those areas because they are the most vulnerable victims. If we cannot stop the warhawks, at least we could still save innocent lives.

We can only have one lifetime. Christians think we either go to heaven or hell. The Buddhists think we could be reborn, depending on our actions in this lifetime. We could be reborn a snake, an insect, or any other animal, if we did not earn merits in this lifetime. Those who die innocently in wars are reborn again to continue their lives. Now how do we earn merits? Folks ask Buddhist Shi Fu. The list is very long.  

Anyway, I won’t argue as to which religion is worthwhile having. That is an individual decision. But I would argue to death, that no one should tamper with one’s life, and with other people’s lives. Let everyone enjoy the bounty of the earth, breathing and breathing life into all of Mother Nature’s and God’s creations.  

RUNNING AFTER THE MUSES

RUNNING AFTER THE MUSES
by Wilhelmina S. Orozco 

Folks, I am the chair of the Ethics Committee of the UP Cooperative and it is such a very enlightening experience having to study the cooperative movement its principles and values, and its historical background. I maintain now that the saving grace of the Philippines would be a strong cooperative movement. 

In the first place, a cooperative is collectively formed and run by a group of people with like-minded objectives -- that is to uplift                  themselves from poverty -- whether of resources, or access to resources. Its earnings are supposed to redound to the betterment of the members and not of a few. The members can run as officers of the cooperative, unlike in a capitalist enterprise, where the owners, or those who own the bigger stocks are the only ones who can. 

Many more differences there are between a coop and a corporation. With the proliferation of non-government organizations here in our country, we could readily introduce the idea of cooperativism, educate the people on why it is a viable vehicle for answering economic problems, foremost of which having one that will insure that we get cheap fuel and oil. 

I think that we are in the doldrums economically, although Moody's has raised the investment capability of the country, is because the government is only fixing its sights on traditional areas of exploration. It does not look into the human resource assets -- the people -- who have such great creativity, resiliency, and strong family connections, among other things. 

Let me cite here that our cultural institutions are not working as much to lift the people from a traditional and feudal culture at all. The granting of project proposals still rests on who you know, and not what you know. For examples: 1. I submitted a puppet theatrical project to create productions for Noli and Fili for high school and elementary schools. It was rejected by the National Commission on Culture and the Arts under the Theater committee headed by Lutgardo Labad. 2. I  submitted an animation storyboard, script on how an agricultural land has been transformed into a golf course. The NCCA again rejected it. The film committee evaluator said that it is more like "a film." I really do not understand that kind of assessment and until now, Mr. Felipe de Leon Jr, a good friend has not answered my queries why my film proposal has been rejected. Jun has the terrible tendency to throw to his staff replies to queries. And so we get toothless replies -- bureaucratic responses leading nowhere but flat rejection. 3. I submitted a film project to Cinemalaya about Tondo women who worked in Japan and got exploited sexually. It was rejected without reason by the staff, under Laurice Guillen and Mr. Robbie Tan. 
4. I submitted a cultural project, Celebrating Our Asianness , a musical-drama concert held at Paco Park. It was rejected for funding by the NCCA, because according to Frances, it was submitted late, although I had informed her earlier about it. Gusto niya, one month in advance. 

I can only cite one time when I got funding from NCCA, when Malou Jacob was still Executive Director. Now she has resigned over the pressures for her to kowtow to the powers that be. 


By the way, I also get published in the Ani Journal almost yearly. That is print medium, Folks. Audio-visual, theatre and film heads marginalize me. 

So how do we make out how we will work under this set -up? 

Thus, i would like very much to have the Freedom of Information Act because I want to know who gets the cultural funds, for what projects, and for how many times have they have been recipients. Let us bring out the facts and find out, who are the elite artists who can corner the funds for themselves all the time. 

It really seems that the powers-that-be do not want culture to get enlightened, and so they are using the funds only for a coterie of individuals who can bow down to them all the time. 

Come on now, it is 2012 and the tactics for managing cultural funds is still very backward. 

In UK, cooperatives of artists exist and all funding agencies give them equal chances to the kitty. They have film coops that showcase independent films, artists coops, film production cooperatives, textile coops that make their own designs on cloth, and many more. The UK cultural sector is well taken care of and run very democratically. 

How many millenia do we need in order to rise up from the murky waters of palakasan and bulung-bulungan style of management in the cultural scene? 

 (Minerva among the muses, painting http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hendrik_van_Balen_der_%C3%84ltere)

BEST THINGS IN LIFE ARE NOT FREE

In the Philippines, the best things in life are not free and very expensive: electricity that could power your laptop, put lights in the house, help you vacuum or iron your clothes, run your washing machine, etcetera. Moreover, electricity is used as a power tool to make you bow to the powers that be. Sick, very sick indeed.

The best product for our feet, the bakya has been obliterated. Now the most sought after are those havaianas slippers, birkenstock, and the Japanese-designed slippers. 

Instead of developing the product, we have copped out. 

Our best sunset at Manila Bay has been covered by that huge Ocean Park. Now the people just make do with a very small view of the sunset, and cannot even afford to enter that Park as the ticket is very expensive. 

Our calesa is a nice ride around Luneta. But the trip is expensive, only foreign tourists can afford it. I cannot blame the caretela or calesa drivers. Food is expensive in MetroManila, for horses and humans alike. 

The padyak bicycle with passenger seat is being pushed to the sides by tricycles. Yet it so much nicer to ride -- no noise, no pollution. The driver just pushes the pedal to move it. We should do something about that. 

Our veggies are truly nutritious, but they are not being given proper and broader distribution channels. It is a good thing, our market vendors take the trouble of carrying them -- like camote tops and yellow ginger or luyang dilaw. These are really very nutritious. 

More to come... 

CONSUMER ENERGY COMPLAINT

THE SECRETARY
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES
and

THE SECRETARY
THE DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES

SIRS:

THIS IS AN S.O.S. For more than a month now, we have not had any electricity. The typhoon brought down the electric post and we had had to make it stand again. Also because of the typhoon, the meter got busted which made Meralco charge us by estimating the mean from the last three months of bills that we have been paying for.

As it is, the technical details that Meralco is making us comply with are miniscule compared to the sufferings that we undergo due to lack of electricity. Why can't they be available to coach someone thoroughly as to what is to be done? Their technicians come and go, except for Mr. Abel Lobo who is a truly great employee who has given us a lot of leeways so that the meter could be connected right away, leaving us day by day to attend to the horrendous requirements they make.

In the face of inadequate service from Meralco, can't the Department of Energy have an alternative electric service that will help us go through the difficulties, especially at night?

This burden is too much already, coupled with the noise and havoc that the Maynilad workers are wreaking on our nerves day in and day out. For the past month we have been subjected to the NOISE coming from jackhammer, backhoes, etcetera. We have gotten agitated so much that sleeping peacefully has become a luxury. Added to that the noise of the next door neighbor who has a tarpaulin business conducting carpentry work fropm 9pm to 7 am the following day.

This is already too much. How much noise can a people tolerate in an hour, a day, or even a week and a month? I hope that the DENR can come up with an action program to stop this assault on our nerves right away instead of turning down our requests for help and bouncing them to the barangay which hardly makes any act to curb the excesses of noise-producing companies.

HELP! S.O.S.!!!!!

WILHELMINA S. OROZCO

SYRIA AND ARAB SPRING

SYRIA AND ARAB SPRING
by Wilhelmina S. Orozco


Why is it always so difficult to shift from an authoritarian to a democratic regime? Why is there so much bloodshed nowadays? Way back in the 80's, when we started our pro-democracy movement, it was a breeze going from one rally to another, bringing flowers, leaflets and food. We never bothered if we would be killed by Marcos' forces or not. We just went to those venues in search of a more meaningful existence, that we may be able to regain our human rights. 

I remember one Communist diplomat who made a mistake of congratulating Marcos after declaring himself the winner of the fraudulent elections of 86. We were so appalled by his statement and so we asked, where was he all this time?

 And  now reading what is happening to Syria, we are made to see how the hardline dictator

President Bashar al-Assad could really be digging his heels on Syrian pavement just so he could remain in power, and with two communist countries, Russia and China, backing him up. 

Come to think of it, why are the leaders of these two countries so desensitized to the massacres in Syria? Are they afraid that the same thing could happen to them, that the people would opt for a democratic atmosphere and then kick them out? If they are respectful of the rights of their people, then why should they be afraid at all? 

Isn't it a very normal occurrence for people to want to be able to speak, act, write and feel freely on their own, while not stepping on other people's toes? What kinds of parents reared the leaders of these two countries that they have turned rigid and unmindful of the rising numbers of widows, orphans and dead? What kinds of methods were used to train their minds and hearts to be desensitized?

One time I met a teacher of Chinese children in physical education. At a very young age, they are town away from their parents so that their bodies and minds would be turned to physical objectives. I asked, don't children need caress and touch as they are still very young, and barely out of their mothers' wombs? The teacher answered that the trainors provide themselves as surrogate mothers. But I think there is really nothing much better than your own real parents around you as you grow up. 

When my children were young, I had my parents and the yayas to take care of the children while I had to write and join rallies. At times I brought them, but because of the danger of being hurt, I refrained from doing so. But then, I was always around to see them at any time, unlike in those countries whereby the children were brought to a home away from home to train.

Anyway, given the situation in Syria, I think that the UN has to develop standard operating procedures already on how to deal with dictatorial regimes. The UN cannot possible have country-members with repressive regimes. This is highly anti-UN in character and should not prevail at all. 

I suggest that the countries come up with procedures on how to allow people to assert their human rights on a gradual basis, and for the heads of states to allow these steps to be followed stage by stage. 

Or are we being cock-eyed optimists?

ON FEMINIST WRITING

On Feminist Writing
by Wilhelmina S. Orozco

Some people have a mistaken notion that when a feminist writes, she or he invariably becomes biased. Folks a man can be feminist too as he believes in equality of the sexes.

                                                                          

I heard a writer say that she is not a feminist, and I was very surprised because she has been around since the 80's. So I am now writing down what could be called feminist writing. I invite the readers to send me their own opinions at my email: miravera2010@gmail.com

1. Feminist writing means that the writer takes particular care of pointing out the status and condition of women on the issue. If the issue is politics, then women's roles have to be highlighted, their number, their achievements, the obstacles to their full participation. If it is economy, then women's businesses, livelihood, and all means of eking out a living also have to be mention, including their population. You could do comparison, contrast or just plain description. The point is that things, issues about women and their views too have to be read. This is putting women as subjects not objects of media;

2. Feminist writing does not use the pronouns, he, his for describing professions, as these will masculinize them, meaning only men are considered appropriate for handling them;

3. Feminist writing is recognizing women's contributions in society, whether at home or in society;

4. Promoting equality in society is not abolishing men, but rather making society recognize everyone is valuable in the development and  advancement of societies; and

5. Mentioning the history of why women are pushing for equality will deepen the public understanding and make them look kindly at every girl, female teenager, woman, mother, and grandmother.

Writing is more historically accurate and meaningful if people advance the role of women in society.

Picture from from Shifting the Gaze: Painting and Feminism September 12, 2010, to January 30, 2011, the Jewish Museum

FAKE HEROES AND HEROINES

Wilhelmina S. Orozco

When I think of airports being the channel through which pass criminal elements -- going in and going out of the country, the first thing that comes to my mind is, how do the gatekeepers regard the Filipino people? I have a nasty feeling that we, residents of the country are being discriminated against, that we are being treated as low-class citizens meant to hobnob with these supposedly outcasts of a decent society. We are made to feel comfortable with their presence despite their notorious backgrounds.

And to allow them to go out of the country, without regard for the laws of the land, is tantamount to treason. Those so-called gatekeepers who allowed criminals to go scot-free are guilty of scoffing at the law, of not only disregarding it but also creating a law unto and among themselves. They have become the powers behind the throne, judging and administering moves as to who should go in and out of the country.

As far as integrity of our government is concerned therefore, those employees of the Bureau of Immigration who allowed the killers of Ortega the broadcast journalist from Palawan to leave the country are no longer true but rather fake employees. They ought to be removed from the service because they connived with the criminal elements and set them free despite the warrants of arrest for them.

I think it is time for the government to put its foot down against such erring employees. They are no longer serving the Filipino people but themselves. Worse yet, they are bringing in criminal elements who could wreak havoc on the peace, stability and integrity of the nation. What for should these employees be allowed to continue in office when they have misused and abused their positions to line their pockets with money?

I don't think those employees would even believe in the Christian faith. They are no longer part of that Christian society where we need to be good to those who have less in life, and not those who oppress them. 

Furthermore, wouldn't it be good for each government employee entering the service and thereafter, on a yearly basis, to undergo a test of their patriotism? The Civil Service Commission should conduct tests to determine if we have governing people who love our country, who love the people and who will defend our laws though death should face them.

We need heroes and heroines in government, real angels, not fake ones;

POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS

POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS

By Wilhelmina S. Orozco

Every November used to be our election time patterned after Americans’. But now we have ours every May. Yet November is still politically interesting because we get to watch how the American people conduct their elections, who they vote for, for what (now there is the why they vote for this and that candiate) among so other hosts of reasons.

American presidential elections are especially interesting for me because we suffer from a deluge of things American, from Starbucks to American Idol on TV, up to Walt Disney in comics, and Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts, question are they or aren’t they married yet? I mean all the gossips, rumors, and news altogether are right here on our soil. And everyday we get a dose of them, over print, radio, tv, and the movies. And who is the Filipino woman or man who does not have a glimpse or dose of these?

My particular interest in the elections hinges on how we could also strengthen our own love for our cultural products as the proliferation the above products reflects pride of Americans in them.  

Today we know that there are only two contenders for the American presidency, unlike ours when we had four aspirants in the past. They are the Republican aspirants, Mitt Romney with Paul Ryan as VP candidate, versus incumbents, Pres. Barack Obama and VP Joe Biden. On Thursday evening, the Dems, Democrat for short, will be officially announcing their candidates. The Republicans did their national convention Thursday last week greatly criticized by some journalists. (But if you watch NBC, you would think Romney is winning already. The station devote 3/4 of its news images on the elections on the Reps. so better watch out for propaganda and its hidden messages.  I had to surf the internet for other views in order to get a balanced picture.)

What is interesting in the American campaigns is that the candidates focus on substantial matters – what occurred during four years of the Obama administration – his policies and programs, and to the Republicans, what new things they can offer. Both also use name-recall media personalities who give the campaigns great hurrah.

If you listen or read the write-ups, they are in English, we can see the high level of debates that are occurring with subtle innuendoes on who the writers are for. But when you read their short bios, you would find out that they belong to either the Dems or the Reps, or they have had direct dealings with the candidate/s, like this professor who said that he knew a candidate personally in the university years back. In other words, they speak from experience.

How do they tackle the issues? The writers have a good grounding on facts based on history. They know when Ryan is obfuscating the issue of Medicare; when Romney is not clear, meaning specific,  on what his economic goals and when he is promoting his past economic achievements, but fails to present how many jobs were lost during his heading that company. 

I think we need to read up on the American elections now because as we have said, America is printed in our cultural psyche through its businesses here. We need to see how the American people vote and listen to the candidates. Now, the people no longer look at personalities but what they have to offer. I think that when Obama won, he already turned the election color upside down. Voters look beyond skin color (or majority do), but rather try to find ways of seeing something more from the individual. Is the candidate articulate, honest, truthful, empathic?

Yes, empathy is very important for a country that has suffered from the bombings of its iconic World Trade Center and the Pentagon, from the hurricanes, and are trying to be more savvy economically as they are deluged with Chinese and Japanese goods that upset the dominance of American products, especially cars and electronic gadgets, 

Obama seems to offer an empathy which is very difficult to cultivate actually in a country steeped in rationalistic atmosphere and material pursuits. He comes out as more approachable than Mitt Romney. I don’t know if all the Americans would value that totally but for sure, the immigrants, like our own Filipino Americans, would find that appealing. Having had to immigrate to America in search of greener pastures, certainly they would search for an official who would give them a listening ear to their woes, and who would move to make their lives better. Reports show that Obama is winning the preferences of this particular sector. But what is their percentage in the voting population?

The Filipino-Americans have an edge over the other immigrants. We know the American psyche as our country lived through 50 years of American rule and who gave us the education (highly skewed to American ideals) and governing patterns. Thus if there is any sector that can help Obama win, it is this sector, which by the way helped him in 2008 as the National Fil-American Association headed by the departed ex-priest Ernesto Ramos, brother of Luis Ramos who is now giving many jobs to the Tondo poor through his magnetite business in Zambales. Brod Ernesto was able to swing the Fil-Am votes to Obama’s favor so much so that upon his urging,  the latter signed the Filipino veterans act right away upon his assumption into Oval Office.

It might interest  you to know how US presidents fared in handling the American economy by their reining or not reining in their national debt. A graph of US debts can be found at  http://www.groupnewsblog.net/2010/02/since-1950-republican-presidents.html

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In our case, our economic problems stem from lack of export destinations, and possibly lack of products too that could compete with other countries’. You see we have rich soils that could possible be a good source of food crops; but our business people, instead of turning them into profitable export products, they build subdivisions which stop the fertility of the soil. It is really depressing when I see candies made from vegetables which can be found here, yet they are manufactured in Thailand, Malaysia or Indonesia. It is more depressing when we see our relatives, friends and workers in general migrating to other countries just to have jobs, like Singapore and Canada.

Hence, we look at American elections and try to see if we can reverse what is happening to us economically, too, aside from being just a consumer of every product they turn out. We need the winning party to give us more liberal access to American markets.

For that, we need to study as backgrounder, the record of each party in helping us rise economically. As we say, when the Americans sneeze, the Filipino people catch the colds, and we could even suffer from pneumonia. Luckily, we have not really gone into that state, especially when recession hit the American economy. Our OFWs served as buffers to that huge problem, but come to think of it at what costs to family ties and social stability?

Changing institutions and societies can be done through the ascension of sincere, trustworthy (pro-people), and knowledgeable political officials. Let the American elections serve as one of our reference points for judging our own.

(picture from canstock 1476 376)