HISTORICALLY STATIC COIN IMAGES

I have been analyzing the artistry of the coins from other countries and I am amazed at the variety and historical content in them. Espana or Spain has a 5 centavo coin with a bas relief of a Gothic cathedral on one side. Nederland has a 25 cent piece with a bas relief of a tulip on one side Republic of Trinidad and Tobago has one with a coat of arms on one face and then the number 25 25 cents half-framed by a bending rice stalk. Hong Kong has a 20 cents with the image of Elizabeth II but I bet this has been demonetized already. The coin is nice to look at because it has scalloped edges. Britain has coins with the picture of Elizabeth II. Canada, a commonwealth country has a coin with Regina Elizabeth II in her younger years. I don't know why they are fond of putting in her face on the coins. They all look of one mind, unity? But at the same time, looks autocratic and and slavish.

United Arab Emirates has a stately deer on one side; the number ten is written in their Arabic alphabet.

We had a ten centavo coin of Francisco Baltazar way back in 1964 and 1980. I think we were still nationalistic at the time.

Along the same vein, Espana has a 10 centavo coin with the image of Miguel de Cervantes, the novelist of Don Quixote de la Mancha on one side. On the other side, the number 10 is placed on the right hand side with some carvings on the left hand. If you will look at our coins, every design on either side is always symmetrical, as if the artist is afraid of designing the image to the left or the right.

Melchora Aquino appeared in our 5-centavo coin with scalloped edges before and then she disappeared altogether. In place now is a 5-centavo coin with a hole in the middle. Why a hole? Ang babae may butas? What a sex maniacal idea.

Famous heroes in our coins are Rizal, Marcelo H. del Pilar, and as mentioned before, Baltazar. That's it. Nothing more. How boring our coins. I think we should have a contest for designing our coins. We have a lot of artistic young people nowadays who could also be imbued with natioalistic feelings as they could have watched the inspiring film Luna about Antonio Luna, the general who was educated in Europe and led the revolution against Spain and America at the turn of the 19^th century. Not only should we have heroes, but we must have an equal representation of heroines.

By the way, we could have the pictures of SAF 44 on coins. I am sure that would be a hit. Many enthusiasts would get all the 44 for their collection. We could also have the National Artists like musicians Tita King Kasilag, Lucio San Pedro, theatre actress Atang de la Rama with husband Amado V. Hernandez, Severino Reyes, the novelist who wrote Banaag at Sikat about the inquitous labor conditions in the 30's  as well as departed inventors with their inventions that are now globally or locally knownOf course, we could have Gregoria de Jesus of the Spanish era, Salud Algabre and Miguel Malvar, our martyrs during the American colonial period.

That Visayan child,  Rosa, who saved her siblings from fire should also be immortalized in our coinage.

By the way, Folks, did you know that the name of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas is incscribed in our coins? Is that not redundant, as it is the government agency that issues the coins? I really cannot fathom for what purpose it puts its name unless the current officials want to immortalize their names as administrators should there be meticulous reasearchers who would want to know such info. 

Nevertheless, we are not wanting in heroism. In fact, we should always be reminded of it – that idea of fighting for our ideals instead of wallowing in materialistic pursuits wherein our police force harass critics to save inept officials from being dislodged.

I told an officer of a national agency, I am being harassed in our community. She: What is the name of the harasser?
Me: Ma'am is that possible to know?
She: Why not? Wasn't he in uniform?
Me: You mean to say a harasser would be in uniform and tell me, with his identity intact, that he is going to harass me?
She: Why not?

Actually, she was putting the blame on me for not knowing the identities of the harassers, mind you, not one but a troop, riding motorcycles, on foor, holding a celfone, ordering a tricycle driver not to load me up, etc. 

I was so amazed at the seeming pretense of innocence. 

Me: Ma'am I have been in the non-government movement since 1981, and I know how to act clandestinely, secretly and how (to whizz my way through bureaucratic messes). 

(This is a paraphrase of what I had told her, Folks.)

Your only turf is this agency and until now you don't seem to know how it functions. You seem to act like a babe in the woods. Why so?

And she did not respond anymore. For apparently she was already covering up the misdemeanors of the people that I was referring to. 

How sad! Especially for a woman who has risen to one of the top of the agency. 

WISHYWASHY COMELEC

Wishy-washy is what I would call the standards of Comelec for judging if a person is worthy of being a candidate. First, it requires money from candidates to run for national positions. However, it does not ask where the candidate has gotten the money. For example, why are some people who are part of the dark past of our history able to run without explaining why they have such oodles of money to spend? 

Is it not incumbent on the Comelec if the person running has clean money and not sourced from narcopolitics or some kleptocratic regime?

It is high time that Comelec pursue those who want to gain power again in our country despite their checkered past instead of pressuring honest and clean-hearted people to desist from running. It has become a tool for perpetuation of a system that allows the corrupt moneyed elite to continue ransacking the coffers of our country. 

KEEP ANALYSING

I was taken in by the family name when I chose my presidential candidate in 2010. I did not look inside the heart and mind. But the first year  cracks appeared already. So now, let us forget family names and truly examine the backgrounds of people running for office, especially for the highest post of the land.

WHEN INTEGRITY BURSTS LIKE THE BALLOON

Integrity " is the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness. It is generally a personal choice to uphold oneself to consistent moral and ethical standards.^[1]

In ethics, integrity is regarded by many people as the honesty and truthfulness or accuracy of one's actions. Integrity can stand in opposition tohypocrisy,^[2] in that judging with the standards of integrity involves regarding internal consistency as a virtue, and suggests that parties holding within themselves apparently conflicting values should account for the discrepancy or alter their beliefs."

I wonder if integrity counts as a principle when conducting business in our country. At present, I would compare it to a baloon bursting everytime someone shoots a critical arrow against a callous administration. A renter at Bahay Caridad incurred one thousand plus Meralco bills. Then transferred to the unit directly in front of the previous one. Instead of collecting from this individual, Meralco is collecting and threatens to cut off the services of the next renter to the original place. Is that right?

The reason of the consumer welfare supervisor is that it is their policy that the owner of the unit shall be the one to shoulder the burden of running after the delinquent renter. But is that still right, if that renter couldbe tracked down anyway? This renter is notorious for blackmailing the unit owner to pay her P6,000 so she could transfer to another place, while claiming that she is a battered woman, that she does not have a job, etc. The judge was taken fully by her sob story but now she has transferred to a unit that is even expense in terms of rent. 

Now, the Meralco which is the number one business company in the Philippines chooses to burder the unit owner with running after the user of the electricity which lives just across. Is that being a Christian?

AT Barangay Dona Imelda, the PNP intelligence group has chosen to harass a writer, to the extent of tampering with the sewage system, jamming the celfone lines, pilfering important private documents, and teaching her relatives not to give her due share in the rental business of the family. Where lies the integrity of the PNP here, as protector of the state? It is protecting the interests of the powers-that-be whose only claim to power is that their president has the same family name as the sacrificial lamb who was killed at the tarmac yet, does not possess his heart and mind. 

Let us instill integrity in our society. Let those who earn so much reshape their hearts beating for the poor not their pockets. 

GRATITUDE FROM REFUGEES

It seems that the wandering of the Syrian and other nationalities to Europe is not bringing in a response of gratitude expected by women. The latest news I heard from Deutsche Welle is that women in Koln have experienced sexual violations of the highest order. Hence, accepting migrants is now being questioned if it should still be continued. 

I have been thinking that accepting thousands of strangers to one's country could really bring about a kind of culture shock, not only to the recipients but the entrants themselves. It is very easy to discern differences in clothing, but not in mental make-up. And so, I have been thinking that accepting migrants should have been calculated well so that they could integrate peacefully into the country. 

For example, they should not have been allowed to roam freely. Rather, they should have undergone training on the country's history, culture and laws first before being allowed to wander about. 

So now, Europe could be experiencing a direct assault on their cultural set-up with the kinds of refugees coming into their country. It is pathetic that their goodness should be responded to negatively by some men out to have a "heyday" encountering a new race. 

I think that sheltering refuge should be allowed but with grave restrictions especially if the people come from a war-torn country. Many years back, we accepted the Vietnamese refugees who came by boat from their country which was  undergoing liberation war against the Americans then. The authorities allowed them to settle in Palawan, an island off the Visayas and Luzon which must have approximated their original settlements. And so, the refugees were able to settle peacefully and even set up businesses which made them feel like human beings with dignity. Until now, I have read many stories of their gratefulness to the Filipino people. 

Way back in the 80's, from 1981 to 82 to be exact, I was also a refugee in Europe, based in London, for two years. After attending the First International conference of women in film and video in Amsterdam, under the sponsorship of the Cinemien (Annette Forster had facilitated my invitation)  I wanted to stay longer in order to savor life in Europe. But I did not hanker to have a good job with a good salary. Instead, I roamed around and got in touch with many cultural groups -- women's organizations, migrants group, Latin American groups, filmmakers' groups, women and spirituality circles, and many, many more. I wanted to read and read as much as possible because I told my friends, in my country we are prohibited from reading books that would raise our consciousness about economics. What books were they? Communist, socialist, etcetera. But these were not the only books available in Europe at that time. A lot more were about psychology, history, and mass movements. I was reading and getting new experiences which otherwise I would never have had again as the country was under Marcosian military rule at that time. My bases then were the Ujamaa Center, somewhere in South London, London Filmmakers Coop, and Archway Development Center, among others. I also got to meet Latin American refugees who provided me shelter in Paris, France on my way to Rome. Until today, I am very thankful to my many friends that I had met there -- Patricia Thomas, Marie (an Italian), Sindhamani Bridglal, Vanda (Yugoslavian), Strinda Davis, Ms. Oppe, Gilly Lacey (animator), and many many more whose names I cannot remember anymore. 

My stint in Europe all in all was exhilarating. My friends there were welcoming of my desire to learn. In fact, I kinda liked the bourgeois way of life already -- except during winter. Yes, there were more middle classes, very few poor people that I saw in Europe at that time.  But maybe when I write my memoirs I could explain that better. 

Anyway, what happened in Germany is totally shocking to me. I passed by Koln or Cologne way back in 1982, on my way to London and it is a very beautiful city. I was expecting a rather drab-looking (formerly bombed) place but instead I saw very modern buildings and the people -- the children especially -- were well-dressed, chubby and all healthy. Now reading that piece about the assaults on women makes me really feel very sad. 

Hence, I would further suggest that those arrested who had violated the women should be incarcerated for one year before being deported. In prison, they should be barraged with beautiful historical films about Germany and other European countries, classic films of Murnau (Nosferatu), Weiner's Cabinet of Caligari, Fassbinder, and Herzog among others; literary readings in their language of the poems and plays of Bertolt Brecht, Heinrich Heine, and others. Many other cultural workshops could be done with these people. 

In other words, we should not allow anti-social individuals to propagate their ideas again to other people but instead re-educate them before releasing them. So that when they get out, they would be good human beings on this planet. 

I think that violent individuals have that inclination to do evil to other people because of frustration over their lot. However, a hard-fist policy on them could boomerang and instead drive them more to depths of degradation. 

Since Europe is a very affluent continent, now is the time for all of them to reach out and do humanizing work among the refugees. Seeking refuge is not only for economic but also cultural reasons after all. 

Also, desire for cultural  upliftment is always an incipient force which could appear or lie hidden unless  conscious individuals and societies recognize its existence. 

AUTHENTIC WORSHIP?

Our country purportedly has 80% Catholic and therefore, a great many are true devotees of Jesus Christ who is worshipped in the form of the Black Nazarene in January 9th. Millions join the procession in order to be able to strengthen their faith, to get concessions like good health, the strong ability to overcome vices and many others which after deeper analysis would border more on economic and material needs. 

Over-all the reasons for the procession center on Worship. Pagsamba. 

Since time immemorial, people have been worshipping -- the earlier people prayed to the living things around them and we called them pagans. Our indigenous groups have their own rituals about worshipping God/s. They dance, sing, and pray for good harvests, for healing of the sick among them, for safety from their enemies who could wreak havoc on their lands. 

In other words, to worship is to communicate with God our innermost desires as we live on this earth. Now how do we communicate? We do that by quiet conversation with God, how we want him/her to respond to our wishes, or simply to thank them for the good life that we have had. 

However, when millions of people are worshipping the Nazarene, and they experience pain as when someone elbows them to get nearer the icon, or they lose consciousness from the extreme heat of the sun as the Nazarene is led from street to street, or they just simply lose their bearing and cannot proceed anymore due to exhaustion, are we no longer to ask what the purpose is of the Nazarene procession?

What kind of praying does the procession demand amid the noise, the pollution, and the heat of many bodies crowding against each other?

What are the other negative effects of the procession?

Today it was mentioned in media that two people have died already and over a thousand were injured. How did these people worship God and why did those negative things happened to them?

Is it really possible for anyone to be transformed by the sight of an icon? I think we are being too drawn to vicarious experiences so much so that even the kind of worship we have is too artificial. The people are no longer content about seeing, feeling and touching the real thing. Instead, gadgets take over their lives and allow them a hollow kind of pleasure. 

It is the same thing with worship. Instead of communcating quietly with God, and allowing him/her to speak and say what is to be said about their lives, people just go through the motions of praying in public and hope against hope that God would listen. 

Is this authentic worshipping? What is an authentic one? A quiet place, a candle, or flowers, such as when we visit the tomb of a relative, make us ponder on immortality and how God could be persuaded to insure us a peaceful and prosperous life with our loved ones as well. 

All priest leaders should experience the trials and travails of our people to find solace even in an inauthentic type of worshipping just so to have our transcendent beings listen to us and give us hope to still continue to exist in this world. By doing so, that could give them a big knock on their consciences how they are parties to the deaths of those who continue to be mesmerized by this type of deadly worshipping.

A law should be passed disallowing such massing up of people in very small streets and avenues where the possibilities of pain and death are real, no matter how certain religious leaders call it. After all, not only are the processioners being affected but everybody else -- the businesses in the different areas where the Nazarene would pass, the ordinary folks who have to make a decent living, and all the rest whose way of life should not be disrupted by the penchant of those leaders to show that they are more powerful spiritually in this country.

Even the Bible shows the prohibition of idolatry -- (Definition of idolatry: the worship of a picture or object as a god -  "You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below." Ex 20:3-4 (NIV)

TAKING CARE OF THE VOICE

Kung wala tayong tinig, paano tayong makikipag-usap sa iba?

We will be using sign language. Can you imagine being speechless? We would be sensitizing our fingers and make them touch people when we want to call their attention. We would be using our eyes more often and be alert to things going on around us. We would use our sense of smell and smile when we are in front of food to show our gratitude to the giver; and most difficult of all, we would be waving our hands more vigorously to stop a jeepney or a bus or a taxi as we can no longer shout to call its attention. 

Yes, our voice is so important, not only for speaking but most importantly for singing. But did you know that last New Year's day I had to call the Barangay Tanod of Dona Imelda, and the Central Investigation Division of QC just so to stop a neighbor from blaring the loudspeakers of their karaoke? Yes, Folks, the men and women in that group were singing walang paki if they were disturbing the sleep and rest of people who retired late after celebrating the changing of the years. 

After that group near our house was stopped, immediately another group in a farther street started its blaring of songs again. There is no end to violation of our right to peaceful living, And why should we not complain about that, when what we want to hear are our own type of songs and not theirs. 

I happen to have been composing at that time and the aural intrusion was just too much. I had to call the authorities. It took four hours before a solution was done. 

Anyway, how do we lose our voice easily? Not by shouting on top of our voice. In the above situation, I was tempted to but the occasion stopped me and so I just called up the authorities. 

We could lose our voice through the pollution that we smell on the streets when commuting. One time, I sat on the terrace of a building doing my blog, and a few meters away was the street where diesel-fed jeepneys and all kinds of vehicles were passing by. After two hours, I lost my voice. Hoarse. My voice was hoarse and I was so scared that I could no longer sing. 

This made me search the internet as to how to protect my voice and I saw a lot of articles. Prominent among them was this one which advised the readers not to eat acidic foods, avoid milk, nuts (all the foods that I like really) and to concentrate on having fruits and vegetables only. ALSO, ALSO huwag magpupuyat. So that was why one time, I woke up also without my voice and that was because I had slept late. 

The Filipino people love to sing and the officials should glorify that by insuring that our environment is stress-free, pollution-free and has clean air. The department of environment and natural resources is at the center of this solution and by 2016 it has to stand stronger to 
deliver to us the best atmosphere and surroundings ever. 

Or else, they could be besieged with suits for dereliction of duty by advocates who just want a healthy planet after all.