THIRD WORLD PHILIPPINES

Our country is purported to belong to the Third World sphere -- those countries which are sources of raw materials for the First World. But there are many other qualities of a third world country that can be gleaned here in our surroundings.

For one, you see garbage trucks running around at any time of the day with all its polluting smell filling up the road. No you don't see such scenes in the First world.

Two,  the markets are always dirty, seem never to have been cleaned at all. I once lived in London near a market and it was always cleaned with a large hose so that you would not be able to smell fish or meat at all.

3.  Many jeepney drivers still think that their vehicle is a private service and so drivers smoke in great abandon, or drive and swerve without thinking of their passengers' safety.

4. Tricycle fares may have been standardized, but in our barangay, the drivers charge so much. While in other barangays drivers wait to fill up their vehicles with two to five passengers, those in our barangay, only want one so that they can charge more. How about that?

5. Water bills go up and down. A jeepney driver complained to me how their bill went up to P6,000 but when he complained, it reverted to the usual fee of P300 per month. But the next month, it was P7,000 again and so he had had to go back to the water utilities office to complain.

6. My facebook account has been hacked. No matter how I complain, and try to reset my passwords, some one or a group are hacking it, so that it reverts to "try again." Why is our country run this way? The freedom to communicate has gone haywire. No this does not look like what the Jeffersonians envisioned a society should be, nor what Cory had said, we would be after the People Power movement.

I could mention more. But truly this business of being in a TW country can be very stressful. Folks, aren't you glad you are in some other country? If I get a chance to live again, I would like to try another country to be in.

peace an elusive commodity

Several times I have tried accessing my article on this title but then it always goes berserk. It turns out a  very bad alphabet all letters y. But last night when I reported it to the Fil-Am Forum group, I was able to retrieve it in my laptop and copied in usb. Unfortunately it is now going haywire again. I wonder why it has become so.

Folks a lot of people are watching everything I write. They are afraid of being talked about for their silly moves to run the world.

Surveillance has no room in a decent society. To descend to that level to retrogress.

TAMPERING WITH (ANGELINA'S) THE HUMAN BODY

by Wilhelmina S. Orozco

A great number of writings have been produced regarding the use of alternative methods of dealing with cancer. In the Philippines, a group has come up with one that combines allopathic and alternative approaches. One of its officers said that the results are positive, about 80% overcome their illness. However, one very important component of that is the development of a positive attitude towards healing. If a patient thinks that her illness will progress and that there is no more hope for her, then she will surely go and meet our Maker. But if she refuses to be bothered by the illness and instead focuses on what she can still do in this life, realizing her own dreams and always fixing her mind to that day when she would be free of the disease, then success is really on the way.

Now I feel sad that Angelina Jolie decided to have her breasts removed because of the "tendency" for her to acquire the disease as her relatives who had died of it. That was just a "tendency" and yet she jumped into the fire rightaway, as if competing with the disease so as not to take her life away. True to the movie roles she has given life to, Angelina becomes a superheroine of her ownself, not seeing her moves as highly destructive of her feminine body. Now she is even going to have her ovaries removed.

No, this is not the way we should deal with our bodies, we women. We need to see ourselves as whole always, our bodies as God-given, and therefore designed to be beneficial to our pursuits in life. Angelina must divest herself of all the advice of her doctors who I believe are knife-happy just so they could share the light she gives off in the world.

And that light, consists not only of the inspiring female roles that she has essayed on screen, but in real life, her charitable acts to the needy especially in Africa. Moreover, she has pulled Brad Pitt even to her advocacies.  Her life, which she has spent even adopting children from other races, is so unique for a highly-celebrated movie individual, that destroying all her breasts and next her ovaries is somewhat like smirching her political activist role in life.

No I don't believe that Angelina should allow herself to be cut up here and there when there is not even an ounce of illness in her organs. It is mind-boggling what she is trying to do with her body. Could it be a case  a kind of grief or guilt that takes on a different manifestation, and that is through self-immolation, a destruction of one's physical body?

Maybe, Angelina needs a counsellor not those doctors who have a weird view of dealing with cancer.

ON CREATING HUMANE SPACES

by Wilhelmina S. Orozco 

Who are the worst victims of urban traffic? The drivers? The motorcyclists? The bicycle riders? Not at all. They are the commuters, the hoi polloi who are saving on transportation fare, who go through crowded areas just to jostle to get a seat on a bus or a jeepney. 

I have been observing people as I move from one place to another, from my home to Makati to present project proposals, or to a printer in Quezon City to have our magazine Regalo printed, to UP to have cheap xeroxing and internet that is only P10 per hour. Yes, this is the cheapest I can get in Metromanila but it has limitations -- no printing and connections are slow. You can count from one to twenty seconds. But nonetheless, puede pasar. 

Why more do I say that commuters are the worst victims? We walk through very narrow pedestrian lanes that are occupied by construction companies, or used as parking spaces, or by vendors selling cigarettes, mineral water and candies, 

And when we walk up to the MRT overground train station, we have to contend with 20 to 30 steps as the elevator is not working and there is no escalator. Can you imagine a paraplegic using the MRT? It will take him or her a half hour to climb, I guess. pregnant women with children will also have a hard time negotiating the stairs. Some girls with short shorts and boys appear to show off their skills at climbing up, rushing to reach the top for a date or just to compete with the slower ones.Then the senior citizens are truly the most pitiful lot. Not only do they slowly climb up the staircase; they also have to keep up with the crowd or else get pushed around, although the Filipino commuters is general are very respectful of the elderly. (I would like to say that when I am inside the trains and every seat is occupied, I manage to wangle a seat by telling a male or female passenger, "Excuse me, senior citizen. May I sit down? i can't stand too long on my feet." Readily they give up the seat which has almost always a sign at the back "Please give up the seat to the elderly. Also an announcement is always made by the driver to remind the passengers their duty to the senior citizens.

Then more and more high rise buildings are going up here. What I don't like in them, apart from the dizzying heights is their proximity to the roads. They are too close so that when you walk past them, it is as if they could fall down on you at anytime. At Sta. Mesa, there are towering buildings but they are about 20 meters away from Aurora Boulevard. However, the next residential tower is too close to the streets giving that eerie feeling that once the earthquake strikes, we could all be lying underneath its rubbles at any time. Is there no law governing the boundaries of high rise buildings? Why are building permit officers too timid to say no to owner-proponents of such edifices when these are supposed to last for years and years.

And so I would like to present a bill to aid the following needy sectors: the senior citizens, pregnant women and the disabled who live in urban areas and are experiencing those horrific circumstances . It shall contain the following:

1. All train stations shall have an escalator going up and going down. (Las Pinas city has a lot of them.)

2. Pedestrian sidewalks should be two meters wide. Vehicles parked along sidewalks shall be towed right away. 

3. Senior citizen payment counters should be respected at all times. Supermarkets that do not follow this shall be fined P5,000 pesos per violation. 

4. All streetlamps should be properly maintained. Local units should have citizen alert watchdogs that will inform officials if they are still working or not. 

5. Local units should spend 30 per cent of their annual budget for the maintenance of facilities that are used by senior citizens in public places. 

6. Supermarkets and malls should have toilets, at 1 is to 30 at every floor  and covering 200 square meters. 

 7. Every barangay should have a telephone or cellphone line and designated officials that will specially attend to the needs of the these sectors. Cases of violence, verbal or physical have to be dealt with right away.The need for transport should also be addressed by the barangay by these sectors.

8. The barangay has to inform the public how much the budget is allotted per year and the allotment for these sectors at a prominent place. 

9. All educational institutions should provide free tuition for those needy sectors who wish to enrol in their courses. The CHED, the DEP ED, TESDA and private educational institutions may designate the schools offering courses for free.

10 School bus or jeepney services should be provided to accommodate them at schools, especially if they are night schools. 

11. Public and barangay libraries should contain latest books, pamphlets and brochures on how these needy sectors could avail of services without appearing mendicant. 

12. Social work officers at every barangay should visit the homes of these needy sectors and inquire with respect and sympathy about their condition; provide moral and physical support if necessary.The DSWD should announce the name of the officer to all the homes in the neighborhood, his or her phone number and hours of work. The service should be on a 24-hour basis. 

In London, senior citizens enjoy meals on wheels -- breakfast, lunch and dinner served them through bus service. Hot! A social worker also visits them daily if not every other day. Each home of the citizen has a phone line. The government provides allowance to them.

Many ideas could crop up among our Kababayan abroad as they can compare the facilities and services provided these sectors with ours. I would be happy to receive them as we are now in the process of creating humane spaces, not just running after economic gains.

* Painting by Claude Monet Le Pont Japonais a Giverny

MAKING WAR A THING OF THE PAST

by Wilhelmina S. Orozco 

Peace is very elusive nowadays  in this world. Wherever anyone goes or flies, I am sure they will encounter war. In the south, we have the AFP versus the Abu Sayyaf. In Southeast Asia, the Taliban versus the Pakistani government and the world; the Middle East – within Syria, the rebels the Syrian National Coalition versus the dictator President Bashar al-Assad.

                                    (Picasso's Guernica,reaction to the bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War )

A  report states that”  The authorities are accused of arresting democracy and human rights activists, censoring websites, detaining bloggers, and imposing travel bans. Arbitrary detention, torture, and disappearances are widespread.^[78] Although Syria's constitution guarantees gender equality, critics say that personal statutes laws and the penal code discriminate against women and girls. Moreover, it also grants leniency for so-called 'Honour killing'.^[78] As of 9 November 2011 during the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, the United Nations reported that of the over 3500 total deaths, over 250 deaths were children as young as 2 years old, and that boys as young as 11 years old have been gang raped by security services officers.^”

^{Would we say that evil is engulfing the world, that we cannot view any goodness op\verpowering the devil in the near future? To take a religious approach seems} 

too conservative and that we should make a sociological and historical assessment of what is going on before labeling people and events. But when we are faced with deaths everyday, surely there is someone there who wants to play God, and who thinks he can terminate the life of anyone, destroy the surroundings without permission from anyone. That kind of situation makes a mockery of the history of the United Nations in trying to create a peaceful world through the unity of all nations.

Yet, we can only sigh and wish that things would change overnight. But when we hear superpower countries siding with the Syrian president and not guaranteeing a democratic rule in Syria, our view of democracy becomes hazy and hopes are dashed easily. Why because those superpowers are economically entrenched and have the necessary and a wealth of  defenses to strengthen not only their own but even dictatorial regimes.

We remember very well after the 1986 election and Marcos, the dictator declared himself the winner, the USSR readily sent congratulatory statements without regard for the feelings of the people who suffered 14 years of dictatorial rule and who wanted him out of the picture.

So when we are faced with international politics, we in the Philippines seem to be just a dot in the atmosphere as “big brothers” are lording it over us. We are merely pawns and not queens nor even horses that could challenge the king’s position as in chess. And yet, our country could be the broadest exporter of labor power as even in Russia, our compatriots can be found working.

I think that the presence of the Filipino people in many parts of the world could help a lot in bringing about peace, if only our people were not so self-effacing. If only they could be proud of our country, of where they come from, of our own historical background whence we belong to the first country in Asia to say goodbye to a colonial power; then maybe, they could assert the need to preserve life. Is that not what our religions tell us? Life is valuable, should not be extinguished and everyone should have space in this world and survive for so long as they can and want.

In fact, the role of the Syrian rebels in wanting to overthrow Assad who has held power since 1971 is akin to our own struggle against the dictatorship in 1986. Marcos held power from 1971 and was booted out in 1986. In this era, Assad is holding onto power and has managed to get the nods of Russia and China which then brings me to this point. Latest reports say:

“Russians had recently delivered the advanced S-300 surface to air missile systems, weapons that could help his forces fend off western efforts to establish a no-fly zone over the Middle Eastern nation engulfed in a civil war that has claimed as many as 90,000 lives. Russia and Iran have been supplying arms to Assad, including Kalashnikov rifles and anti-ship cruise missiles. But a shipment of S-300s would raise the stakes in the area, and Israel has threatened to take military action if those shipments are made.” (Fox-news report)

Why are these two communist countries so eager to support a dictatorship? Why do they insist on making the world a nervous wreck, teetering between life and death: “are we going to live till tomorrow or not? How long will that war be? When will it end? Will it spread to our grounds?”

Those questions are legitimate especially when asked by children, those vulnerable beings who are victims of adults playing with guns and arms like toys.

I think that any war in any country should be the legitimate concern of everyone. Just because a country is several thousand miles awayis no reason for us to turn a blind eye to its consequences. Everyone should be afraid, should experience terror, should raise hell should any individual or country for that matter starts to use guns or even drones to annihilate a person or a people. Shouldn’t we?

I was asked once, what we should do with drug pushers in a jeepney. I said they deserve to die only because it is very difficult to arrest them without sacrificing the lives of our police officers, and because they have destroyed the lives of their victims already. But come to think of it, I think that their  presence should make us think of more humane ways of netting them and making them truly reformed individuals in humane societies. A province in our country has even elected a drug-connected leader, one would say. But that is a very great exception. Maybe fears of how far the powers of that leader could go have been sown to make the people there vote for her.

But going back to Syria, I think that we should really pray for the civil war to end there soon. I pray that the presidents would soften their hearts and let not only reason but sympathy and empathy towards children and women be activated so that war would be a thing of the past in this millennium and beyond.