Compassion

The recent death of Michael Jackson shocked the world. Not a few reminded the world of his "sins" and branded as "hypocrites" those who now mourn his passing. That Michael Jackson was not a saint is without debate. In death, however, compassion and forgiveness is required and not judgment.

Garboso

Pagkagarboso niining bukid,
Nga sa panganud buut motupad,
Nagpangatipik ug nagpangatumpag
Nahasakot dayon sa yutang patag

May dakung kahoy nga mingturok kaniya
Ay nangabali ug nangapukan;
Giadto gisusi sa mga silingan,
Natumba diay kay gianayan.
"Sent via Bong's BlackBerry® device"

Road less traveled

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence
Two roads diverged in a wood
And I took the one less traveled by
And that has made all the difference.

We Never Learn Our Lesson

Reading through the torrent of blogs, tweets and articles on last night's circus at the House of Representatives, I remembered once again Saul Alinsky:

"In the midst of gassing and violence by the Chicago Police and National Guard during the 1968 Democratic Convention many students asked me, "Do you still believe we should try to work inside the system?"

"...Mr. Alinsky, we fought in primary after primary and the people voted no on Vietnam. Look at that convention. They are not paying attention to the vote. Look at your police and the army. You still want us to work in the system?"

"But the answer I gave the young radicals seemed to me the only realistic one: 'Do one of three things. One, go find a wailing wall and feel sorry for yourselves. Two, go psycho and start bombing..Three, learn a lesson. Go home, organize, build power and at the next convention, you be the delegates."

I guess the same thing is happening in the Philippines and it goes like this: "Sir, we have fought hard against ConAss, we have attended many fora and consultations against it. We have written a lot of position papers against it but still in the end, the congressmen voted the way they did. They passed HB 1109. They did not took heed of our arguments, our threats, our pleas. You still want us to work in the system?"

And I am sure Mr. Alinsky will give the same realistic answer: "Do one of three things. One, go find a wailing wall (or perhaps go to the modern wailing walls: Twitter, Facebook, Multiply, etc.), feel sorry for yourselves and the Filipino people and rave and rant against Congress' tyranny of the majority. Two, go psycho, start bombing or join the underground armed groups. Three, learn THE LESSON - Go home, organize, build power and in the next Congress, YOU be the congressman! YOU be the senator! YOU be the governor! YOU be the mayor!

You must fight for the good in this life. It will never be given to you. Nah. Never. If you want the rule of law, if you want transparency, if you want justice, if you want CARPER, fight for it. Win it. Start organizing people and stop whining. Just because you think you are on the side of what is right does not mean that you will win.

Peace in Southern Philippines

People have always asked me: Will there be peace in central and western Mindanao soon? My answer has been part in reference to history and a call to action. First, this conflict in Southern Philippines has been raging on for over 400 years and still we have generally failed to grasp the core message that such conflict is trying to call our attention to. The problem in Mindanao is caused by historical and present-day injustice and the only way to bring peace in Mindanao is by bringing back justice, by putting back to wholeness what has been broken. Peace in Mindanao will require new relations between peoples and communities and new structures and new cultures. There is something terribly frightening about change and this we must manage carefully. It should however not mislead us in seeing that change - in relations, laws, structures - is needed. Second, this peace in Mindanao will never happen until the people of Mindanao themselves will organize and act. The vested interests who profit from this "war economy" are so powerful, so entrenched and so determined to keep war going that it will require from us - peace advocates - something more than the usual namby-pamby "activities", i.e. roundtables, seminars and conferences - that we have been doing. Since we do not have goons, guns or gold, it is imperative (by sheer lack of choice) that we organize and harness our numbers to bring peace to Mindanao.

Will there be peace in Mindanao soon? The answer lies with us.