Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Zealots

a couple of months back i spent a considerable time contributing to the UST fund. Its nice to know that that money has provided such huge grin on their bottom line, aside from having a staff that did its best to do their job, I couldn't say it was entirely money well spent. kudos anyway!

now all this hoopla about test questions being leaked and such. we seriously need to look deep into ourselves and try to figure this one out. has the cancer that is gripping our nation today dug so deep a trench that we would stop at nothing to achieve our goals? or is there an even bigger, deeper underlying fact: money? money simply because a school that doesn't place well in exams don't get as many enrolled students or maybe they couldn't charge as much anymore? perhaps these assumptions are simply wrong. this should give us pause.

the cha-cha train is picking up steam once more. it never did stop, though most of our attention has been elsewhere. this is indeed a clear and present danger. charter change per se isn't evil, it is how we are doing it. this cha-cha train wants to circumvent the law and the law says clearly that we have no law for a people's initiative. this "people's initiative" wants a single chamber--- it is simply your House of Representatives writ large. given the current House's track record, would you hand them the reigns of power?

charter change--- by making a federal republic, by structuring our government to truly empower the countryside is a good thing. there are other arguments why we must have charter change. take for example the long worded lines of our basic government which hardly anyone of us can ever read much more hope to understand. the most fundamental document of our national life, and we need lawyers and politicians to explain it to us. isn't that a foolish and very middle ages? and yet, rewriting of this most fundamental instrument of our nation to be handled in such a railroad fashion must give us pause.

we need not expediency in this matter. what we need is a steady hand, a slow measured pace. if it takes twenty years to rewrite this document, then so be it. it means not the end of world if tomorrow this isn't done. for it is not the miracle cure, not a silver bullet that answers all our problems and on the day we ratify it, make this country prosperous. that line of salesmanship by the proponents of this so called people's initiative must give us greater pause.

there is much to do today. we can begin the transformation of our society to a more federal republic, if only the local government code can be fully implemented that in itself is practice for the day, we can truly move these regions into a more independent arena. today, we can initiate myriad of social reforms. we can bring to local governments the functions of the department of public works, of education, of healthcare, of security and many other reforms that deal not with the fundamental document but prepares our people for greater freedom.

what stops us is simply human nature. he who controls the purse, controls this nation's destiny. how many times have we heard why our politicians jump to the bandwagon of those in the palace? it may be simply fiction, but if one is not close to the palace, one's projects, those infrastructure and/or social projects that get people elected will simply not be funded. what is most important to a politician, is it not to be elected or reelected as the case may be? let us drop this pretense of being noble and true to public service.

we can build social justice today. we can make it happen, if the powers that be will it to happen. we can build true reforms. we can strengthen our educational system. we can ensure healthcare for all. we can be fair and we can give equal opportunity for all. while in the background, institute structural reforms for our nation's future.

this came out of Good Morning Silicon Valley, which I am subscribed to and an avid reader of. A man was sitting in his car in downtown Washington D.C., and he was playing with his Playstation Portable. It was rather unfortunate that he was parked outside a federal building and police suddenly were questioning him, especially given the potential power of his plaything. He was exhibiting unusual behavior.

Playing a game is unusual behavior now? well the PSP is such a powerful device that literally someone with malicious intent who could be doing the exact same thing, at that exact same moment and running some password decrypter and breaking into the "Secrets" of the federal building.

On another story, someone accidentally flushed an ipod down an Airplane lavatory. the man admitted it to the flight crew. Good Morning Silicon Valley quoted the captain saying, "ultimately triggering this announcement from the captain: "Folks, this is the captain. I don't want to alarm you, but we've found a suspicious device in the front lavatory. Now, we think it's probably nothing, but in this day and age ... you can never be too careful. We'll be landing at Ottawa, where we will await further instructions."

i don't know whether or not to stop laughing, or maybe we should just give Bin Laden a call say, he's won the war on terror.

in our home turf a couple weeks back there was a news article that the NTC was going to publish guidelines to make mandatory cellphone registrations. According to the article from Abs-Cbn News: "Cell phone theft and murders continue because of the incompetence of the Philippine National Police in running after, prosecuting and convicting thieves and syndicates before the courts. This impunity cannot be solved by President Arroyo’s proposed plan to require mandatory registration".

So is this the Government of Arroyo finally admitting that Crime is so prevalent in our streets that we should register our things? would this ensure we can walk down the road, talking on our cellphones and not get mugged? may be next thing we know we got to register our iPods for the very same thing? why do ordinary citizens have to fearful, have to be restrained in their freedom in the name of law and order? or is this some deep desire by the government to know where a call comes from, which is really futile because i could simply just buy a new sim card, plug it into a mobile phone and communicate.
is it any wonder why this nation is in a rut?

may be zealots come in many piece of clothing. they don't always wear a turban, kidnap soldiers, or bomb streets. there are fools sitting on a stage that can do much good and still be stupid enough to believe that the path to peace is not disarming two warring factions and that the Lebanese would be left in charge of disarming Hezbollah. Likewise, zealots may also believe in the righteousness of their cause for Charter Change, after all they become more powerful by it and with power comes great wealth at our expense. Of course we have to be Fighting back, less we want Zealots to win. Because, when democracy dies, it is not we failed to stop it, democracy dies with thunderous applause. We need to have One Voice, speak up and be heard and in the next election, it is such a cliche I know, but use your wisdom when you vote, it is the loudest shot we can fire against Zealots.

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