ON NURTURING FOREIGN RELATIONS

If the Philippine officials are mulling to reject the aid from the European Union, we must consider how the lives of our compatriots there will be affected. Every European will ask them, why is your president rejecting aid? Is your country rich enough to do so?
                                         Some countries could start restricting the travels of the Filipino people to their countries, by imposing requirements that are difficult to comply with like having a high amount of money upon entrance. 

Still another backlash could be restriction of scholarships to their academic institutions of deserving Filipino and Filipina students. 

The list is endless and we, the citizens here in our country , should exert all effort to persuade the officials not to be too touchy when it comes to criticisms of political acts  which do not jibe with the democratic processes. 

I think that the drug war will be a continuing program of the government; however, it should focus on the sources not the addicts and the pushers. 

The addicts need rehabilitation. The pushers need alternative livelihood. Those are situations that do not need militaristic action. We must focus our sights on the real cause of the problem. 

Going back to the issue of the European aid, should we travel to Europe, we will have great difficulty explaining our side to the citizens over there. 

On the other hand, relying on aid only from the socialist countries does not sound very good either. Those countries have a questionable record of human rights, critics would say. Why should we label ourselves as pro-socialist? 

Rather, we should be non-aligned, free to choose our friends and accepting of gifts from them without strings attached. 

What is a healthy foreign relationship? It starts by knowing that no country is an island by itself, meaning, it cannot exist by itself. Secondly, it means that the world may have boundaries but they are redrawn by finding nurturing relationships among the different countries, not in the matter of dominant-subordinate ties. 

I think this is why our participation in the Asean is very important. We should balance our foreign relationships according to how our neighbors also deal with the European Union and the other countries. 

The Asian countries belong to a region that has a lot of commonalities, and one important bond there is that we fall under one religion or another.  Islam,Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Jainism, Sikhism, Zoroastranism, can be found here. 

In other words, we look at life beyond death which then cautions us about how we relate with God, people and the environment. We seek peace with all.