MERGED: Do You Want U.S. Statehood For the Philippines?

[josephdc]

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i was not talking of a "communistic revolution" actually. violence must be the last resort in any noble aim for social justice. the power of violence is a double-edged sword.

a peaceful transformation of the government is most necessary. a thorough reformation, not like the EDSA chronicles wherein only the mere figureheads of the government were overthrown and not the corrupt system entirely. what i am calling for, is an overhaul of the feudalistic relationship that is prevalent (although not necessarily overt) in the philippine setting as well as what is exhibited by its relationship with the imperialist US.

But when you said "radical", and that there must be an "overhaul" of things in society, doesn't it mean armed revolution? How can a radical change, an overhaul of things in society happen without violence? Or how can an act be radical and at the same time non-violent?

we have seen the pitfalls of various revolutions. we must learn from them. but we must never ignore the current state of the people of the country. we need a radical change. 50% of the population is just well above the poverty line, while 33.3% is below that line. a supposedly just society cannot afford to ignore this.

we know for a fact that hungry and suffering people will do anything just to get their stomachs filled. let us not wait that these people act as one and resort to drastic and aimless violence. the threshold is almost met. we must be aware of this.

democracy is the only manifestation of any just society. democracy that is not just exhibited by the amount of votes one gets during elections. true democracy is reflected by the voice of the many, the voice of the poverty-stricken, the voice of the have-not's, the voice of the majority plebians. true democracy is measured by the state of the majority of the people. this measure is even more important than that of the number of votes one gets.

as a democratic country, the philippines is suppose to be a nation that embodies social justice. sadly this is not so. the power of the state does NOT reside in the majority of its people but on a very few tight-knitted, inter-breeding. yes, we elect our officials, but can a silent nobody with a good track record win any major position in the government? have the elected officials of the past and the present (yet hopefully NOT in the future) fullfill the promise of genuine democracy and social justice?

I see what you're trying to say. You are hopeful that change can come without violence, but think that we may have to resort to it if the present downward spiral of the country continues...?

they call this the "desensitization of the filipino psyche". how popular these diversions are reflects the current status of the majority "masa"; in congruence to the rising alcoholism, criminality and other forms of the "sub-culture of poverty".people are receptive to these diversions as these offer them an outlet, a reason to smile, a break from the almost hopeless battles for that meager sense of economic security if not prosperity.

the analysis of these rising fads (F4, sexbomb dancers, etc.) is that the reactions to these are similar to that of fiestas (sinulog and other parochial celebrations, etc.).

it is not that the barrio fiestas and such religious celebrations are wrong, but the current fads are. philippine "masa" society ignores the reprecussions of the sexist attitude that the sexbomb girls exhibit. instead of the local (however tasteless) talents, we would rather settle for foreign.

all of these fads are being encouraged so that the blunt of the pressure will not be directed towards the ruling establishment but be partly cooled and partly sublimated into these "diversionary tactics".
and of course, how saturated we are of this culture of callousness and hands-off attitude (almost approaching that of masochism) that these diversions breed, is most exhibited by our open-armed welcome of the idea of a statehood of teh philippines. our economic justifications, however unfounded and baseless, even approaching the idea of hilarity, masks our devotion to that which is defeats the purpose of our independence.

Marx said more than a century ago that religion is the opium of the people. It seems that nowadays the media has surpassed religion to become an even stronger drug. Yes, makatabang man gud siya ug hatag nimu ug means to escape reality. Pero I'm not saying ha nga religion is wholly bad. People have used it exactly as a drug, while others have used it to effect positive changes in society. For example, the Couple's For Christ's Gawad Kalinga project. Are you familiar with it? It's a nationwide project which aims to restore in poor people a sense of dignity they need to stand up on their own two feet. So Gawad Kalinga builds houses, whole communities, provides people with sources of livelihood, give them schools, etc., all these to give the poor back the dignity they've lost with poverty. It's really a wonderful project. Daghan na ug Gawad Kalinga diri sa Cebu. Usa pa ka community ang nahuman while the others are still being built. It's interesting how it's not just about merely building houses and communities, but about building *beautiful* houses and communities. Because it has a psychological effect to people. If they see that they have a beautiful house, if they see that their surroundings are pretty, ma-inspire sila to dream again, to hope for better things in life and to work hard to get them.

Yes, the mass media really diverts people's attention from the more important issues in society. Instead of worrying about the rising budget deficit or the worsening economic situation, people are more engrossed over Kris Aquino's venereal disease. And the thing that really pisses me off is how the media exploited this obsession of the public to the maximum, how ABS-CBN and GMA-7 devoted so much air-time covering the Kris and Joey affair. It's also obvious how the media is feeding people all the wrong kinds of values. Mothers find delight in encouraging their 8-year old daughters to dance the *** Bomb Dancers' "Spaghetting pababa" song in front of friends and relatives. I mean, there's something seriously wrong with that, don't you think? And only in the Philippines can you encounter such mindless songs as "Spaghetting pababa". I'm not saying television is bad altogether -- like I said, there are good programs on TV, too -- only that too much of it is bad.

[jomark]

I am for statehood. It doesn?t undermine my being Filipino and because I have to go away with so much ideology that does not make any sense or give favorable result at all. Hey, what?s patriotism or independence for in an empty stomach?

[EZRA]

FK... Given that we're under the U.S. Statehood.... if the same people would be in power and these people still do what they do best (corruption), I'm pretty sure that these people will be in the State-Pen in no time...
We have to abide the U.S. constitution... and here, no one is above the law.. not even the President. Remember Clinton and his affair with Lewinski? That was just a small matter, and he got dogged down with that one.... now, how many mistresses does ERAP has? How about the Senators and Congressmen we have? At least a quarter of them have a girl on the side. Pero gamay ranang butanga
Nya bonus pa gyud kay most likely ma sulbad nang problema bahin sa NPA ug ABU SAYYAF ug uban pang mga samok.

[FK]

jomark: that's why we are in deep shit... kay most people mo ingon nga "onsaon man nato ang patriotism or nationalism kong gutom" mao ipa palit na lang nila ang vote. Mao kong naay mo offer nila og dakong kwarta... kalimtan na lang nila ang ilang obligation.

<O.T.> by the way... y do you choose America?

[LytSlpr]

jomark: that's why we are in deep s**t... kay most people mo ingon nga "onsaon man nato ang patriotism or nationalism kong gutom" mao ipa palit na lang nila ang vote. Mao kong naay mo offer nila og dakong kwarta... kalimtan na lang nila ang ilang obligation.

This analogy is not synonymous to jomark's. It maybe quite similar but not totally the same. EZRA's point is also good. Since time immemorial, our country has been retogressing & not progressing. You have a light of hope which is good but we have already given hope time but what happened? After, EDSA I, there's EDSA II. My point is, people here never learn and are not worth fighting for. In all aspects of life, there is nothing wrong with surrendering when you already tried your best.

Here's an example, in layman's term our law states that a foreign company can only own a certain percent of a company. But these foreign companies don't want that because it's all or nothing. Why do these foreigners don't welcome that idea? Because the businessmen here that are to be their partners are corrupt & have ties with a corrupt government. Most businessmen here are shrewd, etc. etc.

Big businessmen who owns big companyies here lobby to the Senate or Congress for this. To protect their businesses. Let us be reminded that we used to practice monopoly in commerce which is never good.

Do you know that if they allow wholly owned foreign firms here do for us poor citizens? Everything will be much, much cheaper, electricity, water, communication, internet, etc. The government should allow foreign players to compete in the basic utitlities business because, anyway these won't affect the Small to Medium businesses and if one is to be considered as a big businessman he should compete globally and not hide under the skirts of legislative protection.

If this happens, Filipinos will have big smiles on their faces. Till then, curse those pigs like Cojuangco, Gatchalian, Tan etc. If you think about it, these people aren't even true blooded Filipinos. It is not that they are any better, they just got hella rich because of circumstance, political friends (which they bought.) and our being submissive.

[FK]

<O.T.> i know this is way off topic, but are we being offered to become a state of U.S.?

But I think being under U.S. is not necessary... we need to change from the masa to the politiko. I help from them might help. Do we need to be under another country to change?

[LytSlpr]

We don't need to be under a country, but experience has taught us that we are next to being hopeless and we already have given enough time to change. It needs a miracle to change the our culture of corruption and laziness. Proof? How could our fellowmen still consider, Lacson, FPJ & Cojuangco for President and they are even coming out in the ratings, most specially, FPJ?! Gheez!!!

[karamazov]

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




need i say more

[EZRA]

Karamasov... of course you do.. back it up with reasons.

[josephdc]

I am for statehood. It doesn?t undermine my being Filipino and because I have to go away with so much ideology that does not make any sense or give favorable result at all. Hey, what?s patriotism or independence for in an empty stomach?

See, that's exactly the reason why the country is in the state it's in in the first place. Concepts, or you can call them ideologies, like patriotism and nationalism are alien to us. What do they basically mean, anyway? Love of country, right? So those concepts are alien to us, or they're absent in us. That's why we pollute our environment, for example, because we don't care about our surroundings. We don't feel our surroundings as part of ourselves, so we carelessly throw garbage anywhere. That's why we have corruption in government; first, because most politicians love only themselves and their families and don't care about the country. They don't give a hoot that their districts don't have good hospitals or good schools or good roads. All they care about is enriching themselves. And second, because we let these people continue their thievery. We are not outraged at their unexplained wealth and lavish lifestyles (to the point that we actually do something about it, and not only talk about it), because we don't care about the country. We only care about ourselves, our own welfare, and/or that of our immediate family's, and not the country's.

That's why some of us can so easily say, "Let's make the Philippines a state of the US," because we don't care about the country, we don't feel we have anything to lose by surrendering it to another country. Perhaps we have forgotten our own unique culture, history, traditions, or perhaps we've never known them.

It's our lack of patriotism and nationalism that is the problem here. Our lack of love for our country is the main cause of all our problems. We should do something about that. We shouldn't look for far-fetched "solutions" like "statehood". We must look for them in ourselves. Look at Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore. They've prosepered because their people love their country. Patriotism, Nationalism, and the principle of Independence make a lot of sense to them, that's why they're moving forward.

We complain that we can't eat patriotism and independence, or that patriotism and independence don't mean anything to empty stomachs. Well, we will surely have empty stomachs until we've learned patriotism and independence's true significance.