Bones Politics

Yes, Virginia, There Are Christian Terrorists

2011-07-29T02:49:00.000-07:00

Even though Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden is already history, are Christian Terrorist Groups the new face of global and regional terror?

By: Ringo Bones

Back in July 22, 2011, an apparently lone white supremacist Christian Islamophobic neo-Nazi Jesus-Freak named Anders Behring Breivik had managed to terrorize the whole of Norway by undertaking two brazen attacks. The first one was an ammonium nitrate fuel oil bomb in the heart of Oslo followed by a Mumbai 2008 style attack on a youth resort on Utoeya Island. But still, the mainstream press are still very, very reluctant to call Breivik a "Christian Terrorist". But why?

For much of the 1990s, the mainstream press have always downplayed terror attacks by white supremacist Christian militias while resorting to rave-style coverage whenever the perpetrators happen to be a Muslim Islamist terror group. The now almost-forgotten Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building bombing of April 19, 1995 has always been squarely blamed on Timothy McVeigh but not on the white supremacist Christian terror group McVeigh is affiliated with. Is there a valid reason for this rather inexplicable mainstream press downplay on Christian Terrorist attacks? What about those Planned Parenthood doctors being gunned down across America during the 1990s - why no First-Graders today are taught that Christian Terrorists also exist?

Its not just the mainstream press downplay but also most of the world's major law enforcement agencies tend to downplay attacks perpetrated by right-wing Christian Terrorists which, unfortunately, made Christian Terrorists the global terror ticking time bomb du jour. Could the various global law enforcement's very own prejudices enabling Christian Terrorists to get away with their murderous acts? Since 9/11, law enforcement agencies have automatically associated terrorism with Islam, but could this oversight be their own undoing when another Anders Behring Breivik launches his own clandestine terror attack?

Death of Osama Bin Laden: End of Al Qaeda?

2011-05-02T01:41:00.000-07:00

After the successful US Navy SEAL team raid on Osama Bin Laden's "secret compound" near Islamabad, Pakistan, is this finally yhe beginning of the end of Al Qaeda?

By: Ringo Bones

With US President Barack Obama's obligatory "victory speech" announcing the death of Osama Bin Laden after the successful US Navy SEAL team raid on his highly fortified mansion near Islamabad, Pakistan, many had now wondered whether this event will mark the beginning of the end of Bin Laden's famed global terror network called Al Qaeda? Sadly, Al Qaeda can easily go on without a figure-head like Bin Laden.

Though it didn't stop the midnight jubilant celebration of Americans in the Pennsylvania Avenue and the death of Osama Bin Laden means that President Obama is now spared of making that somewhat awkward and uncomfortable speech explaining why Osama Bin Laden is still at large as America celebrates the 10th Anniversary of the tragic September 11, 2001 Terror Attacks. At least this will be one of those globally historic moments that I will be explaining to my descendants on where I was when President Obama made the now iconic "victory speech" announcing the death of Osama Bin Laden.

Revolution 2011: True Democracy for the Arab World?

2011-02-28T01:23:00.000-08:00

Even though US President George W. Bush failed miserably to bring one to the Arab World, will the one started in Tunisia earlier this year finally bring true democracy to the Arab World?

By: Ringo Bones

For a very long time, the Arab World has faced only two real choices for leadership: either a) a pro-Western despot or b) Anti-Western Islamism. Fortunately, since the martyrdom of a Tunisian activist named Mohamed Bouazizi, the Arab World now has a chance to experience true-blue democracy where everyone has a voice on how their government’s should be run instead of an autocratic rule by a single individual or a secretive cabal. The question now on everyone’s mind is: does the recent popular revolution that started in Tunisia that’s spreading throughout less-than-democratic Arab states will change the region for the better?

Fortunately, there are very hopeful signs that the recent wave of popular uprisings in the Arab World could change the region for the better. Egypt’s president-for-life Hosni Mubarak recently stepped down out of – we hope – concern for the escalating casualties of Egyptian demonstrators. Two Libyan fighter pilots defecting to Malta with their fighter planes back in February 22 after refusing orders from Muammar Gaddafi to strafe unarmed Libyan demonstrators.

Unknown to most of the Western public-at-large, lack of opportunities for young graduates, poverty and high food prices are only part of the gripes that drove Arab youths in a wave of popular revolts helped by internet-based social networking sites. These uprisings are – in truth - largely driven by denial of governmental decision making of the citizenry by their despotic powers-that-be. As of late, the King of Saudi Arabia had recently been handing out “dole money” to the young citizenry to pacify them, but if the Royal House of Saud wants to avoid a widespread revolt while they still can, it would be better if they provide their young, well-educated citizenry more participation in the day-to-day decision making of their government.

Will Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution Free the Arab World?

2011-01-31T00:59:00.000-08:00

With a popular uprising that eventually ousted Tunisia’s own president-for-life, will Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution eventually liberate the Arab world and the rest of Gulf state countries from their respective despots?

By: Ringo Bones

Named after Tunisia’s national flower the Jasmine Revolution – or similar popular uprisings - now on-going in Egypt and has just started, according to the BBC, in Jordan. Has been seen not just by Gulf State citizens but by everyone in the world as well as the pivotal moment that could eventually depose various despots and self-styled president-for-life type rulers in the Arab world. But will it really be successful in liberating the Arab world of long-ruling despots in a relatively peaceful manner?

With the Tunisian uprising still unfinished due to the personnel of the previous despotic regime are still in their posts and the tragic death toll from the clashes between soldiers and demonstrators calling for the ousting of President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt hovered around 30 by Saturday, January 29, 2011, the on-going revolution in the Arab world – dubbed as their Solidarity Movement of Gdansk Port / Fall of the Berlin Wall moment by political pundits – doesn’t seem to be resolving as peacefully as previously thought. And many top-level geopolitical analysts here in the West have fears that the Egyptian uprising might devolve into a Tiananmen Square style bloodbath.

The current Gulf State uprising is primarily aided by the clarion-call of existing Internet-based on-line social networks like Twitter and Facebook in organizing their rallies. Demonstrators in Egypt are rallying around Nobel laureate and former IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei and could catapult ElBaradei as the potential replacement of president-for-life Hosni Mubarak who had ruled Egypt under emergency rule since the assassination of President Anwar Sadat back in 1981. Only time will tell if the liberation of the Arab World from its despots will be a relatively peaceful one.

Philippine OFWs: Swing Vote of the 2010 Philippine Presidential Elections?

2010-04-23T07:08:00.000-07:00

With the bugs behind the electronic voting system sorted out, will absentee voters – like Philippine OCWs and OFWs – form the crucial swing vote of the 2010 Philippine Presidential Elections?

By: Ringo Bones

As a developing nation, the Philippines is probably one of the world’s top providers of Overseas Contract Workers and Overseas Foreign Workers – OCWs and OFWs. These workers range from personnel manning container ships to nannies who know CPR with small-arms proficiency qualifications working for millionaire families. In past Philippine Presidential Elections, the concept of absentee voters doesn’t even exist due to cheating concerns. But the recent sorting out of electronic voting schemes, will absentee voting status of OCWs and OFWs make them the ultimate swing vote this coming May elections?

Filipinos who chose to work abroad – at least those that I know personally – chose to do it because they are sick and tired of the inherent and institutionalized government corruption that exists in the Philippines. An overwhelming majority of them are even in the process of becoming a citizen of their host country. Citing that the Philippine government is already under head-to-ass control by the Catholic Church making the government policies on Planned Parenthood almost stillborn, not to mention the Islamophobia and lack of academic freedom inherent in a Catholic Hegemony. Or maybe they just can’t seem to get enough of those under-aged teen prostitutes frequenting near the Gdansk shipyards, who knows?

Are Filipino OCWs and OFWs be the long awaited swing vote this May 10, 2010? Who knows if they’ll even show up in their nearest Philippine embassy when election time comes? But there’s one thing for sure if they’ll chose to vote, it will spell the end for nuisance candidates that typically comes out of the woodwork every presidential election time. Because a typical Filipino OCWs and OFWs are way smarter than a typical poverty-stricken Filipino voter who are - more often than not - cannot even afford college-level education. And given some Philippine presidential candidates placing on-line campaign ads in international websites, these candidates are probably desperate to make this crucial swing vote swing in their favor.

2010 Philippine Presidential Elections: Ignoring the Other Important Issues?

2010-04-23T06:52:00.000-07:00

With yet another presidential election scheduled for May 10, 2010; are the main presidential candidates ignoring the other important issues?

By: Ringo Bones

Election time is again close at hand, and yet again some of the other less discussed but really important issues are yet again swept under the rug. The same rhetoric is spouted yet again about institutionalized government corruption, but no one has ever provided the concept of harm reduction when it comes to deeply entrenched corruption given that it is already a part of our Imperial-era Spain mandated culture for over 500 years.

Or what about the Catholic Church having enough clout to get away with everything? I mean have you ever heard a Catholic Church neutral discussion of Friedrich Nietzsche’s works in Catholic run colleges in the Philippines? Even the supposedly non-sectarian state universities can’t seem to pull this one off. Maybe those paedophile priests will find the Philippines a very inviting safe haven like Argentina was for NAZI war criminals at the end of World War II.

Maybe I should have devoted a whole blog about the Catholic Church as being the root of all evil that has bedeviled the Philippines. Like the way the Church bedevils homosexuality and Planned Parenthood – i.e. birth control that doesn’t involve molesting little altar boys. Or what about the Catholic Church in the Philippines undermining the Indigenous People’s Rights Act of 1997? If the Church can get away with it, would they get away with Church-sanctioned Islamophobia too?

Even some of the representative’s of the past evil regimes managed to run for high elective offices. Like the son of a former dictator who is famous for secretly assassinating his political opponents. Not to mention that former deposed corrupt leader who ruined my 300 US dollar a day business after he does a Zimbabwe strongman Robert Mugabe like reform to bedeviling ex pats and other foreign nationals - like tourists. A move that ruined my business into a 30 US cents a day lemonade stand.

Maybe there’s truth to the Church sanctioned Islamophobia given that the Philippines is a Catholic majority country when the Catholic Church scandal of paedophile priests seems to have been hardly discussed in the local press. There are probably two practicing Muslims running for an elective position – maybe I’ll vote for the two just to keep the election fair and balanced. Unless the Philippine Catholic Church managed to deliver the promise they’ve been telling me since Ronald Reagan ruled the free world. Like using their magical powers that they have earned through their piety to turn worthless rocks and dirt into some kind of food the starving majority of Filipinos seems to be craving for.

Fall of the Berlin Wall – 20 Years After

2009-11-10T04:36:00.000-08:00

Hailed as the iconic event of 1989 and as a supposedly history-ending one, did the fall of the Berlin Wall resulted in a better world 20 years later?

By: Ringo Bones

Imagine an American serviceman stationed close enough to witness the iconic event back in 1989, later reading Francis Fukuyama’s The End of History. Later participating in Operation Desert Storm and later returning to the sight of the former Berlin Wall around December 1991 with a copy of Fukuyama’s The End of History in hand. In this surreal setting, what would we be going through his head?

For those of us who had lived a significant portion of their lives during the Cold War, most of us had thought that the Berlin Wall would last well into the 21st Century. Who knew that it fell just a few years after when the former US President Ronald Reagan pleaded the then former Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall”. Not to mention the then US President George H. W. Bush castigating the Berlin Wall as the monument which stands as the failure of communism. To our generation, the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9 1989 meant the advancement of civil liberties for those people trapped behind the Iron Curtain. The "Minzhu" revolution that started in the People's Republic of China a few months before the one that fell the Berlin Wall in November 1989 resulted in a bloody crackdown in Tiananmen Square Massacre of June 4, 1989.

Sadly the euphoria behind Fukuyama’s End of History is only just that – mere euphoria. Even though thousands of former East Germans and other folks trapped on the Marxist-Leninist side of the Iron Curtain got a taste of what we in the Capitalist West had always taken for granted – i.e. a relatively high standard of civil liberties (up to a point?) and conspicuous consumption. Most of folks who used to live behind the proverbial Iron Curtain never really benefited the supposed prosperity they are supposedly entitled to 20 years later. Our “protracted” global mini recession that started in the latter half of July 2007 and supposedly ended in the summer of 2009 resulted in the reevaluation of the “theories” established by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Which caused most of us asking whether capitalism can really reform itself.

Unfortunately, Western Capitalism had managed to turn itself into the proverbial “Evil Empire” that we all had dread since the days when the Soviet Union was still a formidable superpower. Western Capitalism even resorted to using politics and Anglo-Saxon Protestantism to deny global warming. Thus denying the environmentally conscious among us our “End of History” moment when it comes to saving our environment. Even the global warming issue is now the prime mover of that Doomsday Clock in the headquarters of The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists when it used to be only nukes. If the upcoming UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen fails, the clock would be permanently stuck at two minutes to midnight – assuming if luck were still on our side.

As one of the folks responsible for formulating the “Reagan Doctrine” Francis Fukuyama really forgot to advise then President Reagan about very important aspects of American foreign policy that still matters today. Maybe it didn’t fell into Fukuyama’s purview, but he should have advised Reagan the folly of thinking that Islamic Fundamentalism is the moral parallel of the Anglo-Saxon Protestant Work Ethic that made America a superpower. Now, we can all safely blame Ronald Reagan for empowering the thugs that later became the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

The end of communism in Europe is a mixed blessing at most. Due to the Cold War “victors’” oversight, countless millions had died in the Balkans throughout the 1990s due to the rise of extreme nationalism / tribalism of the breakaway Yugoslavian territories. In other parts of the world, this had resulted in the rise of powers and despotic nation / states that simply can’t and won’t be reasoned with. And I often hear that our current state is “supposedly” better than the Empire of the Soviet Union lasting forever. Would this have resulted in most of us being cooped up in a 10 feet by 20 feet room150 meters underground with a 30 dollar Geiger Counter from the 1950s with only World War II era c-rations for breakfast, lunch and dinner for the next 35 years?

President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize: Too Premature?

2009-10-16T07:25:00.000-07:00

Even though the Nobel Committee has since stood by their decision to award President Obama the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, does it seem too premature or is the Nobel Committee trying to raise a political statement?

By: Ringo Bones

Whether you are an unabashed fan or a very staunch opponent, it seems that almost everyone around the world who is not a Nobel peace Prize Committee insider seems to have reached a consensus. Especially in questioning whether US President Barack Obama being awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize seem a tad premature. But noting that a number of recent Nobel Peace Prize laureates of the 21st Century are either former US presidents or vice presidents and are distinguished democrats, the Nobel committee and the world is probably trying to send an urgent message to post-Bush America.

After the very rabid high-profile and somewhat Aryan Nation-leaning opposition to President Obama’s policies and plea for bi-partisanship by Über-Aryans Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and the rest of the American chapter of the Waffen-SS who called themselves as the “Tea Party”. President Obama probably deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for just keeping his cool. I wonder if a sensible-minded opposition during the Bush Administration as loud as today’s Tea Party protesters would ever get away expressing their views without being sent to some clandestine CIA prison run by then Vice President Cheney.

According to the Nobel Peace Prize committee, President Obama just barely made it for this year’s nomination in February 1, 2009. Considering the new president is officially in office for just 11 days, gripes on whether he truly deserves it are thus inevitable. But does president Obama really deserve being this year’s Nobel Prize laureate? After all, giving Nobel Peace Prizes posthumously - if you believe in the crazy conspiracy du jour about an upcoming assassination - can be a very politically contentious issue. Mahatma Gandhi really missed out on the Nobel Peace Prize that he really deserved.

Back in May 2009, I checked out a Website called politifact.com after they did an evaluation on the feasibility of President Obama’s promise of phasing out nuclear weapons around the world. The site’s panel of experts stated that President Obama has yet to initiate the important steps to make his promise of a nuke-free world a reality. And considering the February 1 nomination, a renewed Israeli-Palestinian peace process was still a few months away. Further reinforcing the rumors of a prematurely awarded Peace Prize.

But if you ask me, I think President Obama really deserves this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. And probably the same reasons why the Norwegian-run Nobel Peace Prize Committee awarded it to him in the first place. Ever since the US Strategic Air Command disestablishment of 1992, no US president has ever initiated diplomatically for further nuclear weapons reductions around the world. Preventing an accidental all-out nuclear war is still a valid excuse by the way. And don’t forget that former President Clinton was probably the last one to initiate a significant and meaningful Israeli-Palestinian peace process. President Obama’s promise of doing both during the very early days of his administration is probably all the luck and the rationale that he needs in being the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Glenn Beck’s obsession with NAZI-related numerology – i.e. the 9-12 and the 88 mm shell – was probably too much for the Jewish members of the Nobel Peace Prize committee.

Remembering Corazon Aquino

2009-08-09T18:31:00.000-07:00

After losing her battle with cancer, does the rest of the world still care about Tita Cory’s contribution to the betterment of Philippine society?

By: Ringo Bones

To those Filipinos old enough to remember the hardships of the “Marcos Dictatorship”, the banning of the 1970s era anime called Voltes V was probably the last straw. Never mind the late, former dictator’s first lady Imelda Marcos’ tacit complicity (or was it really her idea) to assassinate Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino, Jr. (Corazon Aquino’s husband) back in August 21, 1983 after returning to his homeland to start a peaceful revolution against the Marcos dictatorship.

The assassination of his husband – which is still unsolved till this day by the way - is primarily what dragged a nondescript Filipino homemaker named Corazon “Cory” Aquino into the limelight of Philippine politics. After running against then Philippine “President for Life” Ferdinand E. Marcos and losing against him in a sham election. Corazon Aquino managed to pull of a miracle when the entire Philippine nation rallied with her – remember the yellow ribbons and confetti - in a bloodless coup that finally put an end to the Marcos dictatorship back in February 25, 1986. That became famously known as the EDSA Revolution, not to mention after being sworn in as the new President of the Philippines, Corazon Aquino was chosen as Time magazine’s Person of the Year in 1986. Not to mention her approval in allowing to display Imelda Marcos’ abandoned 3,000 pairs of shoes in an ad hoc “museum of infamy”. Corazon Aquino will forever be inexplicably linked to Imelda Marcos’ Filipino-poverty-funded “shoe fetish”.

During her presidency, Corazon Aquino’s term in office was probably the most coup-infested administration in the history of the Philippines. Even though her economic reforms made a majority of Filipino’s improve their economic status by a few notches the corruption culture that was set-up during the Marcos Dictatorship was still there. And this is still an on-going social justice issue that is driving the corruption and extra-judicial murder spree during the Estrada Administration. The Philippine labor force were “Going Galt” in droves so to speak (like in that famous Ayn Rand novel), by choosing cushy jobs overseas. Making patriotism still synonymous with poverty till this day.

Even though every Filipino old enough to remember the EDSA Revolution of 1986 will forever owe her a debt of gratitude after freeing us from the thrall of the Marcos dictatorship, an overwhelming of Corazon Aquino’s critics still question her overuse of her policy of reconciliation. Especially those in the small business community where they loss between 1.5 to 3 million pesos (about US$30,000 to 60,000) a year during the corruption plagued presidency of Joseph Estrada. Corazon Aquino’s “reconciliation” with the “ethically challenged” former president Estrada is probably one of her –if not – her greatest political mistakes. Add to that the increasingly “politically empowered” Catholic Church which many ethnic Muslims are now questioning the increasingly “Papist leaning” Philippine political system at a time where a thriving Islamic community from various parts of the world has been increasingly doing their part in strengthening the economic prosperity of the Philippines in recent years.

Even though her administration did create scores of politically unintended consequences that still haunts us to this day – i.e. an increasingly Papist leaning state – we “older” Filipinos still chose to remember the former Philippine President Corazon Aquino as our savior that delivered us from the clutches of the Marcos dictatorship. Especially at a time when the Reagan Administration became very busy propping up dictators around the world that loved the smell of American money. Tita Cory (Aunt Cory) will forever be remembered for her People Power revolution, a bloodless coup that ended a 20-year reign of terror.

Iranian Revolution Version 2.0

2009-07-28T17:30:00.000-07:00

Given the majority of Iranians are dissatisfied with the recent “dubious” June 12, 2009 presidential election, will the time for another Iranian Revolution with a scale like that of 1979 is nigh?

By: Ringo Bones

Like many people around the world, I too am envious with the Iranian people’s vigilance against tyranny – unlike the “majority” of Americans who stood idly by as George “Dubya” Bush stole the 2000 US Presidential Election from Al Gore. But the question in everybody’s mind is will the scores of on-going demonstrations in Iran eventually lead into a revolution that will rival in scale to the one that eventually ousted the Shah back in 1979?

The Twitter-fueled scores of protest against the disputed Iranian presidential election of June 12, 2009 probably gained legitimacy of becoming a larger revolution. When one of the protesters - Neda Agha Soltan - was shot by an "inexperienced" Basij Militia sniper while her gristly slow death was broadcasted around the world via You Tube. Given that she only wanted freedom and democracy in Iran in which the disputed presidential election had utterly undermined only shows how dedicated Iranian citizens are when it comes to patriotism.

The possibility of the repeat of that iconic 1979 Iranian Revolution that eventually ousted Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi could be more than likely now than ever. Because the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi had already shown her support for the opposition presidential candidate Mir Hossein Moussavi during the historic July 17,2009 protest rally. Given that Shirin Ebadi holds so much political clout to the “Iranian Diaspora” worldwide, Iran’s Guardian Council would now be working overtime convincing the Iranian people on why they should accept incumbent hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The International Community has been condemning the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s heavy-handed crackdown of demonstrations by opposition supporters who cited election irregularities. The condemnation over the heavy-handed crackdown of opposition supporters had now reached another level as Shirin Ebadi rallies the Iranian Diaspora around the world to never stop their peaceful resistance against the June 12 sham presidential election of Iran. If were lucky, today’s generation too young to remember the Iranian Islamic Revolution of 1979 could once again witness another – hopefully more peaceful – Iranian Revolution in the 21st Century.

The April 15, 2009 Tax Day Tea Party: Hypocrisy Par Excellence?

2009-04-21T18:36:00.000-07:00

Everyone has a right to express their anger, but does the affluent-yet-ungrateful Anglo-Saxon Protestant community of America really in a position to protest against the Obama Administration’s tax structure?

By: Vanessa Uy

After America’s reputation as the only superpower on the face of the Earth was reassured yet again by President Barack Obama’s decisive action that freed Captain Richard Phillips after being held captive by Somali pirates. Sadly, the jubilation was rather short-lived because the affluent-yet-ungrateful lunatic fringe of the Anglo-Saxon Protestant community surprisingly managed to sum up the courage to protest against the Obama Administration’s “taxation without representation”.

Though in my opinion, rich spoilt white folks protesting their government’s unfair tax structure by reenacting the 1770 Boston Tea Party really is a big improvement. After all, aren’t these the same people who used to truck bomb the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building and firebomb planned parenthood clinics during the Clinton Administration? An improvement in expressing one’s disdain against the government like this year’s Tax Day Tea Party really brings a whole new meaning to the phrase “Yes we can.”

Probably the only good thing that has come out of the April 15, 2009 Tax Day Tea Party demonstrations is that it has done the job that is supposedly should have been performed by every sixth-grade social studies teacher in America were paid to do. Which is teaching America’s young impressionable kids about the original Boston Tea Party of 1770. Though I often confuse this historic day with the Boston Massacre of March 5, 1770. I just hope that the teabags that they used in this year’s Tax Day Tea Party were bought at fair trade prices.

But still, the thought still haven’t left my mind if the Fox News Channel had given Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols their own shows back in 1995 – like the one currently done by Glenn Beck or Bill O’Reilly on Fox News Channel. Those Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building employees would have been happy living out their lives till this day, instead of dying needlessly back in April 20, 1995.

Is Nationalization Killing the Protestant Work Ethic?

2009-04-07T02:14:00.000-07:00

Critics called nationalization of the banking industry in America as nothing more than rewarding failure, but will it ultimately kill the Protestant work ethic in the long run?

By: Vanessa Uy

President Obama really did scored big during the London G20 summit back in April 2, 2009 for leading the way in allowing the attendant countries to reach a consensus in tackling our on-going global financial crisis. Even though France, Germany and the rest of the EU were very reluctant at first in “throwing money at the problem” via economic stimulus packages – given that this is the very thing that saved Japan from her economic “Lost Decade”.

But back in America, populist anger has been brewing since the start of 2009 over TARP-fund misappropriation through overly extravagant executive bonuses of the likes of AIG and their ilk. Many now see the nationalization of ailing banks and other financial institutions as nothing more than rewarding failure. The question now is will nationalization – which many economic pundits believe mark the death-knell of American capitalism – is now poised to kill off another cherished American value – namely the Protestant work ethic?

Even though the Protestant work ethic had become inexplicably linked to the Reagan-era “greed-driven” economic prosperity of the 1980s, even though the concept already reached full-bloom in 20th Century America where everyone – especially the “Turn of the Century” (1900s) immigrants – stating that anyone who works hard will be rewarded handsomely. But Capitol Hill’s current flirtation with nationalization, where failing financial institutions are unfairly rewarded through the TARP funds, does sound just like a repeat of the dubious concepts of the past. Like the Johnson Administration-era redistribution of wealth of the mid-1960s - a.k.a. “War on Poverty” which usually just resulted in a heavier tax burden and fewer crucial services for the working poor and the middle classes.

Hastily set-up ill conceived government programs like the outgoing Bush Administration’s TARP funds to bail out ailing banks and other financial and corporate institutions became the focus of populist anger. Especially during the first few months of 2009 were economic and financial issues are as politically polarizing as religious extremism – given the ever-increasing number of job losses and home foreclosures.

Poorly executed government programs of “social service” – especially the TARP funds which to me are nothing more than welfare of billionaires who are taking too many risky financial decisions for their own good – do more harm than good. Especially when the American taxpayer are now the underwriters of their ill-conceived high-risk financial adventurism. They tend to undermine the Protestant work ethic that made the post World War II American economy the gold standard of capitalism. Nationalism – especially when it is poorly executed – will ultimately lower productivity. Which only serves to bolster the idea harbored by socialist-leaning anti-capitalists who think that capitalism cannot reform itself. Looks like those Ché Guevara T-shirts will never go out of fashion.

Can Capitalism Really Reform Itself?

2009-03-31T18:24:00.000-07:00

It has lately become a target of populist anger due to the policymakers’ inability to rein in on financial executive excesses, but is it possible for capitalism to reform itself?

By: Vanessa Uy

Ever since that AIG executive bonus debacle received round the clock press attention, populist anger in America and across the world has now been directed at the excesses of capitalism. Not to mention the Bernard L. Madoff’s hedge-fund-as-a-pyramid-scheme financial scandal and Sir Allen Stanford’s equally dubious investment scheme. The state of the global economy – as of late – has now turned into an issue as politically polarizing as that of religious extremism. But given that every head-of-state around the world are now pledging to do their part to reform the excesses that plagued capitalism since back in the days when Ronald Reagan ruled the free world, is it really possible to reform capitalism – or create policies to make capitalism reform itself?

The G-20 Summit in London, England has been touted by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown of rising to the challenge to reform capitalism for the better. With the promise to reform the world’s financial system through international regulations and tighter controls of hedge funds and mortgaged backed securities, as it’s main goals. There is literally a lot of money riding on the G-20 Summit in London. Though the warm-up protests last Saturday March 28, 2009 only highlights the concern that now capitalism really is the target of global populist anger. But the question now is whether our “enlightened” world leaders choose quantitative easing at the expense of their citizen’s economic well-being – or will there be a repeat of 1999’s Battle in Seattle?

The problem with our existing capitalist framework of our global economy is that it is very dependent on the existence of financial disparity between populations – i.e. it only works if there are poor people working for the rich people. And this is the very reason why the world’s “significant” population of multi-millionaires and billionaires are extremely reluctant to commit to “Going Galt” – i.e. mimicking John Galt of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged where über-rich people formed their own commune in a secluded island. Imagine billionaires employing multi-millionaires as gardeners and landscapers. Or how about multi-millionaires peddling 5-dollar MSRP (manufacturer’s suggested retail price) devilled eggs and selling them to their billionaire customers at 30 thousand dollars for starters. Maybe Karl Marx and W.E.B. DuBois were right in stating that capitalism cannot reform itself. Or as I see it – capitalism is extremely reluctant in reforming itself. Even if it means it’s very survival is at stake.

Was Abraham Lincoln a Racist?

2009-02-24T17:37:00.000-08:00

As the only “White Guy” with enough clout to deserve mention during Black History Month, do most Americans harbor an overly rosy view of the 16th president of the United States?

By: Vanessa Uy

As the closest thing to America having her own Jesus, is the book written by Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. titled Lincoln on Race and Slavery serve as a polemic as damning as the Nag Hammadi Documents? Given that an overwhelming number of Americans have an overly rosy view of America’s 16th president, it might as well be.

As the Director of the W.E.B. DuBois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University Professor Gates has the unique position of having access to very important - and the not so pertinent – knowledge. On how then-President Lincoln’s policy on the emancipation and drafting of former African-American slaves to fight for the Union Army during the civil War. In his book, Professor Gates managed to use the not so flattering aspects of then-President Lincoln’s policies with great effect in his warts-and-all biography of Abraham Lincoln.

Compared to recent biographies about Abraham Lincoln, Professor Gates’ view on America’s 16th President is a stark contrast compared to the overly rosy view harbored by Adam Gopnik’s book titled Angels and Ages: A Short Book About Darwin, Lincoln, and Modern Life. While Adam Gopnik praises Lincoln’s “Liberty for All” idealism even to the black African slaves, Professor Gates paints a somewhat more somber view on Lincoln. Especially on his not so popular policies instituted during his presidency, not to mention Lincoln’s well-documented racism against black slaves.

While Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin is probably the “book-of-the-moment” when it comes to biographies about Abraham Lincoln. Not only because it influenced President Barack Obama about Lincoln’s “emotional temperament” of living through and resolving crises, but also because Goodwin’s book concentrates more on the aspects of Abraham Lincoln that most Americans hold dear.

In recent years, books and movies that portray the less flattering aspects of Abraham Lincoln – no matter how historically accurate – never seems to attain mainstream success. Even the relatively popular movie titled Cold Mountain. Which is about then President Lincoln’s questionable policies during the Civil War was remembered more for Renée Zellweger’s overuse of BOTOX – rather than the movie’s historical merits. Though the movie did inspire a few Americans to voice out that Abraham Lincoln should be tried posthumously for war crimes under the rules of the Nuremberg Convention.

Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is no less flattering when it comes to Abraham Lincoln’s “human frailties”. Historical documents did cite Lincoln’s racism. Not only on Lincoln’s vehement opposition of interracial marriage, but he also harbored grave doubts about the intellectual capacity of African Americans, publicly used the “N-word” until at least 1862, enjoyed “darky” jokes and black-faced minstrel shows. All of which a middle-school civics teacher in the United States would rather wish their students never learn about Abraham Lincoln.

Even though Lincoln finally freed the slaves and drafted them to fight for the Union Army. But whether this was all in the name of political expediency or a genuine concern for African American welfare at the time is anybody’s guess. Professor Gates was leaning towards the political expediency angle. Nevertheless, the Civil War redeemed then President Lincoln - which was nevertheless a miracle in itself.

George W. Bush: Worst US President Ever?

2009-01-28T17:23:00.000-08:00

From his ill-advised prosecution of America’s War on Terror to the Hurricane Katrina relief fiasco just to name a few of his major blunders. Is George W. Bush really the worst US president?

By: Vanessa Uy

When then US President George W. Bush managed to create his own link bomb on cyberspace back around 2005 – i.e. the “miserable failure” link bomb – via his own incompetence. Many around the world wondered if the “insightfully challenged” US president can claim the title as the worst elected US president of all time. And yet, actions proving his utter disregard to what makes an enlightened world leader continued unabated.

The shoe-throwing incident by concerned Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi back in December 2008 – a sign of expressing one’s contempt to another person in the Arab world – only serve to highlight the Islamic world’s disdain on the actions and policies underwritten by then US President George W. Bush. Worse still, President Bush then feigned ignorance when interviewed by reporters moments after the incident. But what does make George W. Bush the worst US president ever? Was it the lack of insight or just plain “sins of commission”?

Remember the few weeks after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks when the whole world was very sympathetic to America? Back then, most – if not all – of us would be ready to “conveniently overlook” every Human Rights, Civil Liberties and Geneva Convention violations committed by the Bush Administration in order to bring those responsible of the 9 / 11 attacks to justice.

But sadly, it all went downhill from there when the Western World’s waning and dying Islamophobic sentiments were enthusiastically revived by the Bush Administration Neo-Conservatives in order to be used as a “valuable tool” on the War on Terror. From the unlawful violation of Iraqi sovereignty back in March of 2003 in order to search for non-existent weapons of mass destruction to the Abu Ghraib prison scandal were only the minor players were ever brought to justice. The then US President George W. Bush was indeed on a fast track to infamy. Sadly, all of which were never hindrances for his reelection back in 2004. Which then made everyone wonder if then Vice President Dick Cheney ever performed a “Virgin Sacrifice” in order to delay Hurricane Katrina’s arrival for a year. All of which eventually became fodder for that Internet “miserable failure” link bomb of then US President George W. Bush back in 2005.

The newly elected US President Barack Obama may have inherited a monumental mess left over by the outgoing Bush Administration. Though in spite of this, the American people – and the rest of the world – can now wake up from the 8-year nightmare that is the Bush Administration. By promising to put science back to it’s rightful place, President Obama now makes it easier for scientists and policy-makers to start tackling the problem of global warming. Which during the Bush Administration was made very difficult by mobilizing resources to promote bad science – i.e. the NAZI-leaning science of Creationism and Intelligent Design. If President Obama manages to fix what former President George W. Bush did to the perception of science in America within the first 100 days of his presidency. Then President Barack Obama could easily earn my vote as one of the best – if not the best – elected US president of all time.

Dioxin Contaminated Irish Pork: An Al-Qaeda Attack?

2008-12-10T07:07:00.000-08:00

No terrorist organization had claimed responsibility yet, but pork products seem like a very inviting “soft” target for a terrorist attack. Will there be a “Happy Christmas” for this year?

By: Vanessa Uy

If – hypothetically speaking – I was an al-Qaeda operative, attacking one of the most “holy” symbols of Christendom and Christmas, like pork and pork products, could probably produce the most “psychologically paralyzing” damage to the West. Though the current dioxin-contaminated Irish pork is yet to be linked to an attack by an established terrorist group, the incident is by no means still “relegateable” to every major newspaper’s “page 23” spot. Especially when / if the “alleged” attack happens this time of year.

Back in the days when “Ike” was still the President of the United States, Santa Claus was often portrayed unabashedly feasting on a piece of ham intended for a dozen people by himself. Often with strips of bacon on the side, a symbol often hijacked by meat / pork producers portraying Santa’s “corpulence” as being healthy, often to usher in the Christmas / Holiday Season. So, other than the Nativity Scene, Santa Claus, and the Christmas Tree, ham and other pork products are not only post WWII symbols of the Christmas Season, but also – if you will – of post 9 / 11 Christendom.

Dioxin is a carcinogenic and a teratogenic (can affect developing human fetuses) chemical that can be created in our contemporary urban lifestyle via burning unsorted garbage, especially if those garbage / municipal waste is a heterogeneous mix of paper and an organic halide-based plastic like polyvinyl chloride. This method of “making” dioxin is the number one reason of how groundwater tables near major metropolitan areas are contaminated by dioxin via mismanaged municipal waste landfills.

The other one where dioxin can be “accidentally” produced is by faulty and hasty industrial processing of crude oil sourced products. Like the Agent Orange defoliants used in Operation Ranch Hand during the Vietnam War. Or in today’s Irish pork scare, the dioxin-contaminated lubricant used in the machinery that grinds up swine feed. Even some pork samples produced in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland test positive for PCB s.

The dioxin levels found on suspect Irish pork products contain on average 80 to 200 times above the minimum safe limit established by the US Environmental Protection Agency and its EU counterparts. Given that when it comes to the risk assessment of absolute minimum levels of dioxin in food products deemed fit for human consumption can readily become a “political” issue since there are still no binding limits set on “absolutely” save dioxin levels. But everyone of us alredy knows by now that threat assessment / risk assessment studies have already become a political issue in our post 9 / 11 world.

Given that the coming Holiday Season is very dependent on pork and pork products. The worldwide supermarket recall of Irish pork products manufactured during the month of September this year and onwards spells disaster. Not only for pork aficionados, but also for Irish pig farmers as well. Vegetarianism or being vegan might be good for one’s body and for planet Earth’s environment. But an overwhelmingly large number of us won’t be having a joyous Christmas Season without pork.

USS Barack Obama

2008-11-18T06:53:00.000-08:00

Though many believed that he’s destined for greatness by winning the US Presidency through his promise of hope. Would a US Navy aircraft carrier someday be named after President Barack Obama?

By: Vanessa Uy

Even though it is still quite presumptive given that the 20th of January 2009 inauguration day is still a couple of months away. The thought did came across our minds after receiving free brochures about how to reserve for guided tours on board one of the US Navy’s most advanced aircraft carriers, the Nimitz-class USS Ronald Reagan super-carrier. After all, if the former President Reagan’s doctrine of “Peace Through Strength” brought to us the glorification of the Military-Industrial complex by Hollywood. Remember the naval aviation movie Top Gun, it heavily draws inspiration from then President Reagan’s “Cowboy Diplomacy” and managed to make Hollywood action heroes like Sylvester Stallone, Chuck Norris, and Arnold Schwarzenegger gain an air of “sensibility”, then the Obama presidency could be comparable in greatness; Right?

It was just recently announced that a new Nimitz-class super-carrier named after the former president George H.W. Bush – outgoing President George W. Bush’s dad - or “President Bush, Senior” as he is more affectionately called has just been completed and ready for sea trials. Plus a new series of Ford-class aircraft carriers / supercarriers named after former US president Gerald R. Ford are already on the planning and pre-production stage. The “Howls of Protest” can now be heard of some Americans old enough to have lived through and remembered the Ford Administration. Given that President Ford was never elected and worst of all he pardoned then President Nixon over the Watergate debacle raised questions whether to name a series of the US Navy’s next generation of aircraft carriers after President Ford.

Given that someone like President Ford whose somewhat “marginal” – even controversial - influence of the history of the US Presidency gets an aircraft carrier – even a series of them - named after him, then surely the “expected” greatness of President Obama deserve some speculative prognostication. But since there won’t be an aircraft carrier named after President-elect Obama anytime soon, then it’s safe to assume that the vessel will be radically more advanced than existing ones.

Probably it’s safe to assume that the plane-launching system on the USS Barack Obama might use superconducting electromagnet or rail-gun technology as opposed to existing systems that uses a system of steam-driven piston and pulleys to accelerate high-performance jets to take-off speeds. The ship’s propulsion system might work using nuclear fusion, thus ending the problem of long-lasting radioactive wastes. Or it might employ a yet undiscovered technology that works on the principle of entropy-manipulation through a cyclical time-loop. This could give the term “ Groundhog Day” a whole new meaning if an unforeseen accident ever happens. Or what about a really exotic but might be feasible top-secret propulsion technology based on the workings of Sam Cohen’s “enhanced radiation weapons system”. Like the ballotechnic “red mercury” superfluid that mimics that of the “primordial superfluid” that originally permeates throughout the early Universe a few moments after the Big Bang. A newfangled “steam ship” if you will, only this time the working “steam” might be our exotic “ballotechnic superfluid” with a working temperature of trillions of degrees centigrade.

Also, if the now President-elect Obama’s kids choose to have naval careers, they might gain a command posting on a ship with their father’s namesake sometime in the future. Given that our hypothetical super-carrier USS Barack Obama won’t be underway any time soon. But still, given the proposed technology, this vessel might be a proof of concept that might be used as a basis for large volume space travel in the foreseeable future.

Republican Party Failures: Lack of African-American Appeal?

2008-11-17T07:24:00.000-08:00

As an American political party that grew out of the slavery question, is the Republican Party ignoring its African-American constituency at its own peril?

By: Vanessa Uy

Often referred to as the political party spearheaded by Abraham Lincoln that lead to the emancipation of the slaves who are of Black African descent and thought them the value of free enterprise. Though conceptually it viewed slavery and polygamy as morally reprehensible barbarism, the Republican Party has since then – and still is - played a major part in shaping the United States into the most powerful country in the world. Even though Honest Abe would find that in its current incarnation, the Republican Party is a wholly different animal from the one he founded over a hundred years ago.

The Republican Party does have African-Americans that had done their part in preparing the United States for the 21st Century. It would we inconceivable to imagine America’s victory in the first Gulf War without Colin Powell, or Condoleeza Rice keeping Bush Administration’s Neo-Conservative’s and their “excesses” in check. But the question now is, what the Republican Party must do to in order to distance itself from the women-as-God-fearing-male-subordinate ideologue of Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin during her ill-conceived vice presidential candidacy?

Well, not much if you think that the party is already very much corrupted – and co-opted - by extreme right-wing Christianity during the Reagan years. But I do believe that there’s still plenty of life left in the Republican Party. If only they’ll take the steps in reexamining the ideals exemplified by Abraham Lincoln. Which is kind of hard given that the news footage being aired of the recent McCain-Palin rallies consists mainly of the “older White demographic” who might be old enough to remember the days when gasoline was still being sold at 10 or 25 US cents per gallon.

Believe it or not, some political pundits even think that Barack Obama being elected into the US Presidency could be a good thing for the Republican Party. Is it maybe that because Abraham Lincoln’s vision of equality of all men is now one step closer, only at the cost of the victory of a rival party candidate? But hey, as it was noted throughout history, reforms aren’t always painless as their authors and planners might suggest.

Risqué Kid’s Halloween Costumes: Demagoguery over Reality?

2008-10-26T08:03:00.000-07:00

The issue is probably as old as the Bush Administration’s Neo-Conservatives’ tenure in power, but is this the issue of risqué Halloween kid’s costumes grounded in reality?

By: Vanessa Uy

This particular issue might move to the proverbial backseat this time due to the hotly contested 2008 US Presidential Election – especially with the sale of presidential candidate Halloween masks predicting the winners with bizarre accuracy. But together with the stories of folks who are now fast approaching 60 telling stories about how the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 27, 1962 had them making their own family's ad hoc fallout shelter back in the day. The issue of Halloween costumes that are too sexy seems to manage to stay forever relevant.

Probably it was the FOX News broadcast from last year that shone a light on this thorny subject. Especially that guest who looks like Eddie Munster who testified on how the Genie played by Barbara Eden on the 1967 TV series I Dream of Genie had made him “sexually traumatized”. Given that this particular costume derived from Scheherazade – i.e. the wife of the sultan of India and narrator of the tales in the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments - is one of the most aspirational Halloween costumes for girls aged 10 or below. Probably up there with Wonder Woman or the leotards worn by Degas’ “Tiny Dancer” sculpture. That guy would probably be appearing next on Chris Hansen’s “To Catch a Predator” on Dateline NBC.

Recently, the “arbiters of taste” on CBS Early Edition on their October 22, 2008 broadcast has presented new sets of girl’s Halloween costumes which they deemed “too risqué”. The black suede leather “streetwalker” costume definitely passes muster – to me at least – as too risqué for young girls. But when they brought out a bumblebee ballerina costume similar to that worn by that little girl in a Blind Melon music video titled No Rain back in 1994 as too risqué, I said to myself oh boy here we go again… But seriously though, are these people who point out age-inappropriate Halloween Costumes doing their part in halting the global scourge of child pornography, or are they just desperate for attention? Maybe Penn and Teller can do an exposé on this on their show.

The problem with labeling Halloween Costumes, as too risqué is that 100% of the cases presented on the media only applied to girl’s costumes. What about boy’s costumes? Should we be – together with the Federal Government - start banning little boys from wearing Robin Costumes (Batman’s young sidekick)? Especially in Boston because of the inappropriate effects it might incur on their local parish priests?

Maybe this is just a ploy by TV networks to prop-up their sagging fall season ratings. But the risqué Halloween costumes issue will probably be here to stay. Especially if that Larry Flynt “movie” about Gov. Sarah Palin’s “Drill Here, Drill Now” energy independence program becomes famous and every girl in America aged 10 and below starts to dress like Gov. Sarah Palin – the way Hustler Magazine CEO Larry “Barely Legal” Flynt sees her.

Popular Music Goes to Washington

2008-10-01T03:11:00.000-07:00

A concept that used to be inconceivable back in the good old days of “Reaganism”, does the increasing use of copyrighted popular music in US Presidential campaigns mere kitsch, or does it expose the ugliness of American politics?

By: Vanessa Uy

The trend probably first gained widespread media notice during the 1992 Clinton-Gore campaign ticket using Fleetwood Mac’s Don’t Stop (you know the lines: “Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow…”). But the 2008 US Presidential Race has made the issue of using copyrighted popular music in campaign ads an especially contentious one, especially the Republican McCain-Palin campaign ticket’s practice of “drafting” songs like Van Halen’s Right Now and Heart’s Barracuda instead of nicely seeking permission from the artists themselves. Instead, the GOP ticket drafted these songs like the way they use young Americans in their prime as cannon fodder for Halliburton and KBR. If this isn’t bad enough, Senator John “The Manchurian Candidate” McCain even used Jackson Browne’s Running on Empty on an anti-Obama political campaign ad highlighting Senator Barack Obama’s lack of experience. McCain did this without asking permission from Jackson Browne which is a sure sign of GOP-style hypocrisy given McCain and his ilk's propensity of admonishing musicians inspired by Woody Guthrie’s “socialist” views. A move that’s even worse than McCarthyism.

Maybe the Democratic Party always has a penchant for doing things like this right. Like Senator Barack Obama’s choice of using Stevie Wonder’s 1973 R&B classic Signed, Sealed and Delivered. A song brimming with an eternally optimistic view on life, which surprisingly doesn’t sound corny in comparison to the song’s hackneyed brethren.

So far, the Democrats had managed to avoid the pettiness of their GOP rivals by officially releasing ads criticizing their rival candidates that utilized copyrighted popular music. To me, it would be very interesting if the Democrats ever attempt to pull-off such an undertaking. Especially the Lunachicks’ song Spoilt is ripe for the taking as an almost biographical critique of the 8 years worth of George W. Bush’s miserable failure - which the GOP’s Vice Presidential candidate and Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin affectionately termed as the Bush Doctrine. Or what about Lunachicks’ Fallopian Rhapsody as a critique for Governor Sarah Palin’s anti-feminist Heinrich Himmler inspired Lebensborn pro-life stance. Given the choices, how long can the Democrats resist to be drawn into such political pettiness, or maybe the Democrats are a better bunch of people than I am? Maybe the message is Washington D.C. will never be like your private listening den or I-pod.

Bridging the “Two Americas”: An Overlooked Foreign Policy Issue?

2008-09-20T07:28:00.000-07:00

Ever since the 2004 US vice presidential hopeful John Edwards shed light on the issue of (mostly economic) disparity of the “Two Americas”, no follow-through has been done to alleviate the “alienation”. Does Foreign Policy experience start here?

By: Vanessa Uy

Its been four years since John Edwards first brought the issue of “disparity” between the “Two Americas” into the media spotlight. Of those four years that has passed, almost –if at all – has been done to address this issue. Despite the fact that the disadvantaged part of the “Two Americas”, were largely made up of African-Americans and other cultural minorities in the US.

Ever since the Civil Rights movement began in the turbulent decade of the 1960’s, the divisive politics that engendered a schism of the perfect American Union was finally addressed. From the Native Americans who were virtually made “foreigners” in their own country to the African-American community who never got a fair share of the American Dream ever since Abraham Lincoln declared the Emancipation Proclamation. When it comes to healing the rift between the European Anglo-Saxon majority (hegemony?) and those on the other disadvantaged America – the cultural minorities alienated to the point that they feel as if they are foreigners in their own country. There’s progress for sure – albeit a painfully slow one.

One issue that became de rigeur in the 2008 US Presidential Race is Foreign Policy. No one in his or her right mind wishing for that much-coveted position in the White House will ever make a speech about “Foreign Policy Begins at Home”. It could be tantamount to political suicide. And yet, the ill-conceived policies of the past US Administrations had virtually created an another America. An America that’s not only disadvantaged financially, but also left out of their rights to reap the benefits of all the good things that America’s Founding Fathers had fought for. The divisive politics that lead to this was exemplified by that January 28, 2008 Newsweek cover story about how President George W. Bush and his neo-conservatives destroyed America.

The present Bush Administration not only widened the rift further between the African-American community and White America, but also made all of America’s ethnic minorities – especially Americans of Arab descent – virtually foreigners in their own country. Since the Republican Party / GOP ‘s selection of Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin as their Vice Presidential candidate. The GOP used the Foreign Policy experience issue to criticize their Democratic rivals. Yet they are oblivious of the Bush Administration’s folly of government mismanagement of creating a “Foreign Policy” crisis right on American home soil – i.e. the schism of the “Two Americas”.

Strangely, the Alaskan governor and Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin has been “discretely quiet” about the Native Americans / First Nations people in Alaska protesting against the wholesale crude oil exploration on their ancestral lands which could lead into widespread environmental degradation. Governor Sarah Palin has been also “discretely quiet” about the “good” things she has done to the Native American / First Nation community in Alaska during her tenure as governor of that state. Alaska may be close to Russia but I wonder if Governor Sarah Palin had ever been close enough to a Russian TU-95 Bear to make her ears ring for three straight days. Where is the Foreign Policy experience there? Yet Sarah Palin tried to single-handedly wipe out the progress made by the Women’s Liberation movement during the past 30 or so years with her overtly misguided NAZI / Ku Klux Klan-leaning “Pro-life” stance.

While the Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama had worked with inner city youths in his home base of Chicago, Illinois. Especially Chicago’s South Side famed for it’s disadvantaged African-American communities left out of the American dream. Barack Obama had been very busy working on schemes to make these disadvantaged communities a contributing and prosperous part of America. To me, this is Foreign Policy in action on American home soil aimed at alleviating the damage made by the divisive and obstructionist politics of Bush Administration Neo-Conservatives. And yet the real issue is conveniently spin-doctored to fit into the lipstick on a pig / lipstick on a pit bull-soccer mom rhetoric and demagoguery. Wlth this make the 2008 US Presidential Elections even more interesting?

2008 Beijing Olympics: The Big Picture

2008-08-29T05:01:00.000-07:00

Praised by the current International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge as truly exceptional. But as the Beijing Summer Games closes, will the injustices and Human Rights violations being done to make it possible also end?

By: Vanessa Uy

When China won the much-coveted International Olympic Committee or IOC bid to host the 2008 Summer Olympic Games back in 2001, a small but significant number of people view this as a “Faustian Pact” between the heavy-handed Beijing Government and the IOC. This was unfortunately proven as the years past into the run-up of the Beijing Games. Amnesty International had received findings that China has used the Beijing Olympics not only as a pretext for cracking down on political dissidents, but also of corrupt Government Functionaries unlawfully evicting legally titled residents from their land and homes just to built the Birds Nest Stadium and other Olympic-related facilities. In their desperation to make the air around Beijing pass World Health Organization safety standards. The party officials has even ordered factories around Beijing to suspend their operations and removing 90% of cars from running two weeks before the Games just to pass the WHO clean air standards. Note that the level of pollutants on the air around Beijing is usually five times above the safe limit mandated in the WHO standards, and these are just the normal gripes that we know about.

There’s a long list of issues on why the numerolologically-very-auspicious-by-Feng-Shui-standards 2008 Beijing Olympics got it’s unflattering moniker of “The Genocide Olympics”. The issue of The People’s Republic of China’s unlawful annexation of Tibet back in 1951. The June 4, 1989 incident at Tiananmen Square, and the Beijing Government’s active complicity of the humanitarian crisis in Darfur due to the party officials’ dealings with the present Sudanese government has unfortunately allowed the Beijing Olympics’ Torch Relay to be compared, even to Adolph Hitler’s 1936 Berlin Olympics. The 1936 Berlin Olympics is when the first Torch Relay of the Modern Olympics originated by the way. The dark side of the 2008 Beijing seems to make the Milarepa Fund / Free Tibet movement forever in vogue, and even made Joey Cheek’s Team Darfur probably as famous as the bravado displayed by American swimming star Michael Phelps winning scores of gold medals that are up for grabs.

On the lighter side, the Beijing Government has even ordered gourmet restaurants around Beijing not to serve dog meat dishes as a means of appeasing “Western Sensibilities”. Which is relatively easy to enforce given that the party officials can easily evict long-time residents just to set-up the Olympic facilities.

Given that the modern Olympic Games thrive best in a climate of artificiality, witness the lovely voice of Yang Peiyi singing “Ode to the Motherland” being lip-synced into the perfect “Borg Girl” and Chinese version of a 7-year-old Courtney Cox Lin Miaoke. This issue alone is a 250-page doctoral thesis subject-in-itself, the ultimate of political constructs that those in the know call it as “Dadaism”. Dadaism is all about “If the tail were smarter, it would wag the dog”-type political spin doctoring. About why you’ll only see Sub-Saharan Black African children being used in existing ant-child soldier / anti-child combatant campaign posters, instead of a pubescent Armenian girl who looks like Dakota Fanning carrying a Soviet-made big bore anti-materiel rifle. I just hope that when Yang Peiyi grows up into a Chinese version of “Sarah Plain and Tall”, the Beijing party officials will generously reward her contribution to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

As the 2008 Beijing Olympics draws to a close, the next Olympic venue - namely London – will be hard pressed to match the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Games. Which by far is seen by many as the best in all the history of the Modern Olympiad. But the London Olympic Games 0f 2012 is still four years away, maybe it's too soon to tell. Given also that IOC assessments conclude that the 2008 Beijing Olympics is the most watched so far of all the Summer Olympics that came before it, the injustices wrought by China’s Foreign Policy adventurism – sadly – will remain unseen by the worlds major news providers. Even Roberta Cohen of the “Little Green Men Chasing” Brookings Institution having indisputable proof of the Beijing Government’s complicity of the on-going systemic ethnic cleansing in the Darfur Region of Sudan is of hardly any consequence when the International Community is reluctant to tackle these issues. If the Bush administration run US Government continues supporting a very wasteful energy policy of borrowing billions from Beijing just to buy crude oil from people who hate America to the core. Then the injustices in Darfur and Tibet will surely go on. A compromised superpower surely can’t save the world.

Should Team Sports Be Banned From The Olympics?

2008-07-10T05:10:00.000-07:00

The proposal has been around since modern revival of the Games started in 1896 about team sports should be eliminated. The rational being is that it is tantamount to simulated war games. Is this the Olympic Ideal in extremis?

By: Vanessa Uy

The proposed idea of banning team sports from the Olympic Games has perennially manifested in and out of discussion whenever we reexamine if our current Games are “keeping the faith” of the original Olympic Ideal. Compared to the amateurism versus professionalism debates of the past, which inevitably resulted in the creation of the American “Dream Team” wrecking havoc in the 1992 Barcelona Olympic basketball competition, the rational behind banning team sports from the Olympic events is by no means just a mere political demagoguery and anti-war rhetoric. After all, the two World Wars of the previous century have resulted in the cancellation of the continuity of the Modern Olympiad three times, as opposed in ancient Greece where it was on going wars and conflicts – not the Olympic Games – that gets suspended. Plus the recent widespread global criticisms on the Beijing Government’s questionable Foreign Policy decision to sell arms and provide technical support to the incumbent Sudanese government that’s responsible for the on going conflict in Darfur is a case in point. War is indeed seen by all as the worst anathema to the Olympic Ideal.

But if both team spirit and cooperation an (supposed?) integral part of the Olympic Ideal; wouldn’t it be bunkum to criticize on this? After all Mikhail Bakunin – famed anarchist and student of the “Human Condition” – have cited that humanity is very cooperative and creative when it comes to destroying his or her fellow human beings. Not to mention that the Olympic Games might become a tad bit boring if soccer / European football and basketball were removed because these “interesting” sports are for all intents and purposes signify simulated war games.

Has our argument now devolving into some philosophical “crepuscular zone” reminiscent of the former US Supreme Court Chief Justice Potter Stewart’s inability to define obscenity? Will commercial sponsors now be fleeing in droves because the Olympic Games had become boring and people lost interest in it because the probably two main crowd-drawers of the Olympics - namely European football / soccer and basketball are banned just because they "vaguely" resemble simulated war games to the powers-that-be. Thus creating a situation that compromises the Games’ ability to “pay its way”?

The good news is that team sports will still be an integral part of the Olympic Games for the foreseeable future – maybe for thousands of years hence. So for now, those in favor of banning team sports from the Olympic Games may just as well sit back, relax, and enjoy the Games. After all, many of us are still busy formulating “politically correct” ways to show our disdain against the Beijing Government’s stance on Tibet (or is “unlawful annexation of a sovereign territory” even defined as war anymore), His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and Darfur without burdening the ordinary working class Chinese. I’m welcome to any suggestions.

Should There Be A Permanent Site For The Olympic Games?

2008-07-10T05:00:00.000-07:00

With growing global concerns over the Beijing Government’s less-than-stellar Human Rights and Foreign Policy track record, is it high time for the International Olympic Committee to consider a permanent site for the Olympic Games?

By: Vanessa Uy

During the dawn of Western Civilization, the Olympic Games were originally part and parcel of ancient Greece’s theology and belief system. The games were held in honor of Zeus for nearly 12 centuries with almost no intrusion by politics. Back then, the Olympic Games were more than a display showcase of athletic prowess. Contests of dance and choral poetry are held together with the games on the plain of Olympia. The Olympic Celebration was of paramount importance to the ancient Greeks, even wars were interrupted to assure that the quadrennial (every four years) celebrations would take place.

But isn’t it high time for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to consider a permanent site or venue for the Olympic Games – preferably in Olympia, Greece. After all, the Olympics have been cancelled three times since the Games’ modern revival in 1896 because of the two World Wars. Never mind the constant plague of nationalistic political rivalries, plus the newer threats of “commercialism” that had turned the beloved “Hallowed Ground” of the Olympics into just another backdrop for advertising. Plus the constant threat of boycott every time the nation who won the coveted IOC bid still needs a lot of progress. Especially when it comes to Human Rights, the right to habeas corpus, or just the plain basic ethics that we in the “Enlightened Christian West” seems to take for granted on an alarmingly daily basis that this inevitably created “Gitmo” and Abu Ghraib.

Under our current agreement, the IOC chooses sites for the summer and winter Games several years in advance. Once the host countries are selected, it is the responsibility of the governments – and their respective local business entities - of these selected countries to provide all the facilities and the bulk of the financing for the Games. But these requirements have shown a track record of constantly reverting to excessive displays of nationalism by the host countries. Not to mention the construction of extremely expensive facilities which are seldom utilized after the said country’s duration to host the Olympic Games ends.

A permanent site for both summer and winter Olympic Games would be helpful in turning our present Olympics into a much stronger institution. Currently, the Olympics are seen as nothing more than a short-lived spectacle that’s vulnerable to political and commercial exploitation by their temporary host’s country. Given that the proposal for a permanent Greek site has a rational that the region is relatively stable politically both at present and in the foreseeable future. Plus, there could be an added bonus that the Games could acquire an identity of their own just like the celebrations of old.

In addition of a permanent site for the Olympics, it could also be a big help if the duration of the Games were extended from two weeks to, maybe, two to three months. In my opinion, this would allow the Olympic participants / athletes an opportunity to better know one another and also allows them to share experiences that are generally impossible in our current politically-charged competitive setting.

During my research: I’ve found out that thirty years ago the government of Greece had suggested proposals on some ways to proceed in establishing a permanent site for the Olympic Games. Especially when it comes to on how the financial burden shall be born. The Greek proposal suggests the formation of a politically neutral and militarily inviolable “Olympic State” in the area of the original site at Olympia. If this Greek proposal does go underway, the “Olympic State” would fall under IOC jurisdiction, although sovereign territorial rights would remain with Greece. The IOC would install and own the facilities at the site, plus the Olympic Committee would also be permitted to administer the Olympic area and granted powers to govern it. This enables the IOC to determine the terms of and conditions for entry. Greek law would apply within the area, but Greek military forces are forbidden to enter under any circumstances.

For all intents and purposes it was a good proposal. But many IOC member countries failed reaching a consensus especially when it comes to how the financial burden should be borne. And also of on how to equitably appropriate the financial benefits of the games among IOC member nations. Faced with this difficulty, the Greek proposal for a permanent site for the Olympic Games became more or less shelved indefinitely. But given the “perennial” problem of countries with less-than-stellar Human Rights and Foreign Policy records managing to win the much coveted International Olympic Committee bids to host the Olympic Games, isn’t it high time to reconsider the Greek proposal for a permanent site / venue for the Games?

Child Pornography: Do We Really Know It when We See It?

2008-07-10T04:41:00.000-07:00

From Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland author Lewis Carroll’s portrait photography of Victorian children to Annie Leibovitz’s Vanity Fair photos of Miley Cyrus. When it comes to child pornography, do we really know it when we see it?

By: Vanessa Uy

If it’s hard to draw a timeline that shows how often free speech is co-opted by despotic political leaders, let alone made impossible to sort it out from genuine out and out obscenity due to the influence of “Aspirational Paedophilia” posing as free speech / artistic expression. Was this “threat” to Western Civilization started in 1998 when Hustler magazine CEO Larry Flynt started the Barely Legal franchise - thus making paedophilia aspirational – back in 1998? Or was it when the Russian teen Lesbian duo Tatu and accused punk poser Avril Lavigne battled for fame in 2003? Though many anti- Avril Lavigne websites still accuse Avril Lavigne of glamorizing the “Dickensian Dinginess” aspects of child pornography, by citing the way Avril Lavigne’s on-stage butt-crack exposure which became sexist humor fodder on the Joe Rogan Dough Stanhope era “The Man Show” is similar to the way Fiona Apple and Sheryl Crow glamorized the "Heroin Chic” in the late 1990’s. This despite the fact that Avril Lavigne will probably be turning 24 this year, thus proving the 21st Century adage that the blogosphere is indeed a fierce and fickle mistress, especially as an art critic. Add to that the recent row over the Miley Cyrus a.k.a. Hannah Montana “controversial” Vanity Fair portraiture by Anne Leibovitz and the Australian child pornography row over artist Bill Henson’s photo exhibition in a Sydney gallery depicting nude pre-pubescent kids that even “Lord of the Rings” and “Elizabeth” star Cate Blanchett managed herself to get embroiled. But the question remains; do we really know child pornography when we see it? Or is child pornography just a manifestation when the most cherished of our sociological constructs like Human Rights and Civil Liberties get trampled upon every time Halliburton and KBR exercises their “right to be greedy”?

When it comes to defining pornography and / or obscenity, the rational among us – which I hope constitutes the majority – always point out the immortal words of the former US Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart. The famous quote of former US Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart goes as: “I know it when I see it.” Some say this highlights his failure to define obscenity during the Jacobellis v. Ohio case back in 1964 which later became a landmark US Supreme Court decision. But to some people – including myself – believes that what US Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart meant about his famous quote “I know it when I see it” is that cases of pornography and / or obscenity should be examined on a case to case basis. Especially when it comes to Bill Henderson’s controversial photo exhibitions that the current Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has deemed obscene even though thousands of others have deemed it as mere artistic expression.

Sadly the wisdom of this landmark US Supreme Court decision went on unheeded – even viewed as just a mere US Supreme Court docket - when then President Ronald Reagan spent millions of American taxpayers’ money on a dubious pro-conservative biased study on pornography. Reagan asked then Attorney General Edwin Meese III to head this “commission on pornography”. This culminated into the 1,960 page report titled “Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography Final Report” dated July 1986. Unfortunately, the Reagan – Meese definition of “pornography” is next to useless when used as a benchmark to find out whether the “staged” antics of Avril Lavigne, Miley Cyrus and their ilk are guilty of glamorizing child pornography and / or promoting aspirational paedophilia.

The good news is that level headed folks everywhere now see the 1,960 page “Commission on Pornography Final Report” as nothing more than the Reagan Administration’s attempt at co opting every freedom loving American’s Right to Free Speech back in the 1980’s. Which makes the then President Ronald Reagan’s remarks on the signing of the Child Protection Act of 1984 rather somewhat bunkum. Hell, Avril Lavigne could have uttered those same remarks on Saturday Night Live and everybody would think that it’s one of those retro 1980’s stand up comedy routine.

The bad news is that the legacy of the Reagan – Meese pornography commission fiasco means that every “devout” Anglo-Saxon Protestants around the world now harbor an “eternal suspicion” every time they see those beautiful Victorian era Art Nouveau-like child portrait photography of Lewis Carroll – a.k.a. Oxford mathematician Charles Dodgson. And interpret these as “child pornography”. Just like the current fiasco pertaining to Annie Leibovitz’s “Homage to Lewis Carroll” Vanity Fair photos of Miley Cyrus. Although the one where Miley Cyrus’ perky pubescence showing through her diaphanous sports bra might inspire every Vladimir Nabokov wannabes to invent lepidopteral / entomological labels for pubescent teen-age girls.

Despite of the political demagoguery that has become part and parcel on our attempts of defining what constitutes pornography and / or obscenity, to me, we may be misleading ourselves. Let along completely missing the point every time we examine the problem from the very narrow and somewhat limiting perspective of Abrahamic Theology / Judeo-Christian Morality. And everyone can now freely hate me as I say Darwin and Nietzsche could be right on the mark.

After reading the main article of the February 2000 issue of Discover Magazine about how Mother Nature utilized beauty as a survival trait. It began to dawn on me that as a society Western Civilization has yet to sort out what falls under “Slave Morality” and what falls under “Master Morality” in order to accept the true nature of ourselves. Babies, young kids, even pubescent teen-aged girls are genetically designed to be beautiful because it has a better chance of survival every time grown-ups with means (i.e. money, food, power, WMD s etc.) feel obliged to take care of them. We should be thankful to Mother Nature for delaying the manifestation of the "ugly gene” (usually this gets full-blown when one reaches 18) in each and every one of us for as long as humanly possible.

Though some might label my Darwinian embrace of aesthetic beauty as mere demagoguery, well, that’s their loss. Although in a perfect world, scantily clad perky pubescent teens do make great superheroes. Bad guys and everyone’s “Uncle Phil” would be “too distracted” to be evil. Someone should send a memo to Marvel Comics’ Stan Lee about this. But in the end who would you trust as the final arbiter when it comes to what constitute pornography and / or obscenity, yourself or an “organization” who thinks that the decision for one of their founders to burn alive 3,000 Jews is a good thing?

The Anti-Semitism of John Hagee

2008-06-06T07:48:00.000-07:00

Prominent spiritual advisers with controversial views seems to be de rigueur in presidential election season America, even the paragons of mainstream conservatism – the GOP – had joined in the bandwagon. Will this end the separation of Church and state?

By: Vanessa Uy

If you think Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s brand of Black Liberation Theology is too “out there” then Pastor John Hagee’s Israel Lobbyist’s acceptable-form-of-anti-Semitism must be something that belongs in a parallel universe. Though only known by the Senator John McCain’s supporters as his major endorser, Pastor John Hagee became famous almost overnight when his anti-Semitic views about the Holocaust were being broadcast by major news channels like NBC for example. Not only that, Pastor John Hagee is also found to be anti-Catholic. Kind of odd considering he supports Adolph Hitler’s “action” on European Jews during World War II - F.Y.I. Hitler is Catholic by the way.

Pastor Hagee’s latest controversy started when one of his sermons about his view that God (the Protestant Anglo-Saxon kind) was right in allowing Adolph Hitler to exterminate all of Europe’s Jews. According to the Pastor, Adolph Hitler was a “hunter” sent by God who was tasked with expediting “God’s Will” of having the Jews re-establish a state of Israel. Because of this, many in the United States now view that Senator John McCain’s presidential bid is now in peril due to his endorsement by this controversial pastor. Anti-Semitism by Evangelical Christian pastors is by no means a new phenomena, back in the late 1960’s Billy Graham once spoke against the Jewish community’s stranglehold on the American nation during his stint as then President Richard Nixon’s spiritual advisor. A pastor that harbors views that is no longer welcome to a majority of people who are already accustomed to the open egalitarianism of 21st Century America.

As a spiritual leader and pillar of his community, to me, Pastor John Hagee is a walking contradiction. This is so because Hagee help found the Christians United for Israel – an Evangelical Christian pro Zionist organization. I’m a bit suspicious of pro Zionist Evangelical Christians and their ilk like the pro Israel lobbyists because they often denigrate Jews who chose to remain in American soil – especially those living in Brooklyn. And another proof of Hagee being a walking contradiction is that the San Antonio B’nai B’rith Council awarded him with its “Humanitarian of the Year” award. By then it was the first time this award was given to a gentile.

To me, people like John Hagee and their ilk i.e. the somewhat hypocritical Israel support lobby that’s currently active in Capitol Hill, is the major reason why détente between Israelis and Palestinians was never achieved – let alone a viable diplomatic solution to this somewhat intransigent problem. And what about those pro Zionist / pro Israel Evangelical Christians who have a low opinion on Jews living in America, especially in Brooklyn. Would somebody explain this to me in an erudite manner without resorting to the sci-fi / fantasy section of the Holy Bible. Or should I resign my fate that this is the only explanation the rest of humanity will ever get.

Of Reverend Wright and the American Dream

2008-05-30T06:57:00.000-07:00

A growing number of Americans viewed him as the one who jeopardized Senator Barack Obama’s bid for the 2008 presidency, but should the American voters damn Reverend Wright for speaking out what he had on his mind?

By: Vanessa Uy

Carole Simpson – one of Senator Hillary Clinton’s supporters – said on a Larry King Live interview that Baptist preachers, in general, have very big egos. Though somewhat an unfair generalization, I do agree with Carole Simpson’s view on Baptist preachers. In my view, one does need a very big ego when preaching something that is inexorably will someday go out of fashion like institutionalized / mainstream Christian doctrine. Even the subatomic particles have adopted Buddhism’s “Eightfold Way” a few moments after the Big Bang. Sadly, how subatomic particles chose their way of life – or my Friedrich Nietzsche like critique on Christian slave morality - is the least of Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s problems in the face of the US election season demagoguery.

Reverend Jeremiah Wright gained worldwide fame – or notoriety depending on your point of view – when his polemic critique on the Bush Administration’s despotic Foreign Policy that lead to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center towers was aired all over US national TV and the Internet. Though many before Reverend Wright had expressed more damning polemics on the shortcomings of the American society and of the powers-that-be on Capitol Hill from John Steinbeck’s “The Grape of Wrath” to Exene Cervenka and Lydia Lunch (remember “Rude Hieroglyphics” back in 1995). Reverend Wright’s uniqueness in comparison to the previous reactionaries his relatively close connection to the 2008 presidential hopeful Senator Barack Obama. By being senator Obama’s pastor Reverend Wright was inadvertently thrust into the scrutiny of the “Stuffy as a Box” conservative values of White House power politics. Obama’s political opponents are now using Reverend Wright’s views against his bid for the presidency. But how sincere are the concerns of Senator Obama’s political rivals? Are they playing the ugliest variant of the “race card” by reserving the role of Tom Joad only to white male Americans?

As of late, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright has been known for a lot of things. A self-made man, an enlightened patriot – but a 21st Century American mass media-manufactured-caricature of an African-American he is not. Before becoming a pastor on the Trinity United Church of Christ, Jeremiah Wright lived an overachieving life that’s more a product of Gene Roddenberry’s writings than Death Row Records. Wright served six years in the US Navy and was part of the medical team that treated former President Lyndon B. Johnson’s gall bladder back in the 1960’s. In short, Reverend Wright really did pay his dues when it comes to patriotism.

Like the late Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador who was an outspoken critic of government repression, Reverend Jeremiah Wright has also adopted Liberation Theology to criticize the shortcomings of the Bush Administration. Not just on Foreign Policy, but pretty much on everything from the economy to promoting the arcane demagoguery and racist ideology of Anglo-Saxon Creationism / Intelligent Design. By adopting James Hal Cone’s Black Liberation Theology, Reverend Wright has very much upset the White American status quo. Especially since James Hal Cone’s Black Liberation Theology – to me - sounds like a mixture of Friedrich Nietzsche’s views on power politics and Socialist-leaning Latin American Liberation Theology. When Black Liberation Theology espouses the idea that the task of Black Theology is to kill Gods who do not belong to the black community does carry a shameful implication. But does this implication meant that the Calvinism and Protestant Work Ethic that made America the last true geopolitical “Superpower” has been denying the African-American community from benefiting the bounty of this American Dream?

The Olympic Games: Politics As Usual?

2008-04-23T05:05:00.000-07:00

Ever since the modern revival of the Olympic Games back in 1896 in Athens, Greece, the Olympics had since been plagued by nationalistic political rivalries – even cancelled three times - due to world wars. Will a once sacred institution ever gain independence from fractious politics?

By: Vanessa Uy

The Olympic Games have even earlier roots than our current modern equivalent that started back in 1896. The first Olympics were held in 776 BC at Olympia, Greece. Back then, nothing was of more importance to the Greeks than the quadrennial (that’s every four years) festival of sporting events and religious rites. Olympia was even considered a sacred ground. Wars were suspended, and a solemn peace – Ekecheiria – lasted for the duration of each and every Olympics.

Then came the intrusion of fractious politics of one form or another, which now threaten the upcoming 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics with widespread boycotts. The rationale behind this boycott range from Beijing’s unlawful annexation of Tibet to the Beijing Government’s complicity in the ongoing genocide in the Darfur Region of Sudan due to its lax regulation of armaments exports. Not to mention the spotty Human Rights record when it comes to handling its own political dissidents. Sadly the genocide and crackdown of political dissidents issue also applies to Tibet and to the country’s exiled spiritual leader His Holiness The Fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet.

The political turbulence plaguing our modern era Olympic Games have occurred several times before of varying degrees of controversy. Even during the 1896 Athens Olympics, a row over who’s following the Gregorian or Julian calendars was a point of contention. But controversy became big-time during the 1936 Berlin Olympics, which also started the tradition of the Olympic Torch Relay. Our current Beijing Olympic Torch Relay lately became a target of anyone expressing his or her political sentiments over the Beijing Government’s “Shameful Policies”.

After reading a book by Richard Mandrell titled “The Nazi Olympics”, which is about how the author saw the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games. I finally gained a clearer understanding about the rationale of anyone using the Olympic Games as a platform to express political views. Though the books salient theme is about how athletes are increasingly regarded as national assets. Comparable to the procurement of World War II era “prestige necessities” like fighter planes, submarines and synthetic rubber manufacturing plants. Add to that the triumph of African-American track and field athlete Jesse Owens, which shattered Adolph Hitler’s belief in the “Aryan Myth”. This finally made maintaining a “stable” of athletes a necessity if a country wants to maintain her national standing.

And who can ever forget on how John Carlos, the US gold-medal sprinter in the 1968 Mexico City Games who bowed his head and raised a black-gloved fist during the playing of his national anthem as a critique of the Civil Rights situation in America. He later said: “The Olympics is nothing but a full political scene – everything in the world athletics is. It’s country against country, ideology against ideology. The people you run for – the officials – overshadow you with their political ambitions, with the face they want you to put for your country.”

Then came the shocking assassination of 11 Israelis at the 1972 Munich Games by Palestinian militants is by far politics at its bloodiest. The “political debacle” that spurred on this terrible incident remains unresolved till this day. And might get even worse before it gets better.

The 1976 Montreal Olympics was more popularly known for leaving the host-city with a billion-dollar debt. Yet the political overtones were very much alive when 17 African nations refused to compete in the Montreal Games due to the exclusion from Olympic membership of South Africa and Taiwan by the International Olympic Committee.

The 1980 Moscow Olympics was popularly known for being synonymous with the word boycott. The US led boycott of the games which Canada, Japan and the then West Germany were among the nations that later followed suit has called into question whether this is the beginning of the end of the Olympic Ideal. Though many then viewed that the boycott was justified primarily because the Civilized World’s protest over the then Soviet Union’s unlawful invasion of Afghanistan just to quell a suspected threat of Islamic Fundamentalism is very much justified. The planned boycott of a growing number of Western nations over the upcoming Beijing Olympics is partly bolstered by the relative success and the political ideals behind the US led boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games.

The 1984 Los Angeles Olympics was boycotted in a tit for tat response by the then Soviet Union and other Warsaw-Pact countries / allies. The Los Angeles Games was more famous for its blatant commercialism despite it’s the first time that a host-city finally earned a profit from the games.

The “minor quip” of the 1988 Seoul Olympics was the press finally finding out about the scandal over the use of illegal performance enhancing substances like anabolic steroids which later plague the athletes who used them with chronic health problems several years later. Luckily, no one used then President Chun Doo Hwan’s brutal crackdown of student protests as an excuse for boycotting the games.

The 1992 Barcelona Olympics was more of a PR issue for the city when the spectators were greeted with a high incidence of petty crimes like purse snatching and pick pocketing. Though no one threatened to boycott the games using Tomàs de Torquemada, the Spanish Inquisition, the Colonialism / Imperialism issue, complicity on the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, and the unsolved disappearances / murders during the Franco dictatorship as an excuse.

The 1996 Atlanta Olympics was a controversial one because the proposed venue of the centennial of the modern Olympics was supposed to be Athens, Greece. But the city of Atlanta outbid Athens. No one threatened to boycott over this. The threat of domestic terrorism by now largely forgotten Christian Fundamentalist / extremist who blew up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City back in April 20, 1995 is the only big issue surrounding the games. Though a prankster was charged with disturbing the peace by blowing up a somewhat large firecracker during the opening ceremonies.

While the 2000 Sydney Olympics was largely incident free. The planned protest by Native Australians or Aborigines about the “Stolen Generation” issue was kept out of the media’s gaze probably due to the efforts of then Australian Prime Minister John Howard’s “Secret Police Apparatus”. Though the Aborigines later got their apology when Kevin Rudd became the current Prime Minister of Australia.

The controversy surrounding the 2004 Athens Olympics were mostly pertaining to the politics of money and bureaucratic red tape which dangerously delayed the finishing of the facilities to be used during the games. The issue over the partition of Cyprus never came up though.

The upcoming 2008 Beijing Olympics is probably the most controversial Olympics to date not just because of the “political overtones” surrounding the event but also the levels of air pollution in Beijing which could pose as a health hazard to the athletes. Will the Beijing Government stop the wheels of their industry just to keep the air quality acceptable during the games? Though the International Olympic Committee’s decision for Beijing to host this year’s Olympic Games was decided over three years ago. The long list of “rationales” for boycotting it did not gain widespread discussion until near the end of 2007. Back then the row over YAHOO! CEO Jerry Yang giving the Beijing Government vital information that allowed them to arrest journalist Shi Tao as a political dissident seems like an excerpt from a bad episode of the TV series 24, was the only popularly known rationale for boycotting the games. The banality of evil for those who don’t witness it first hand notwithstanding, yet it was when the Beijing Government’s heavy handed crackdown over the unrest in Tibet got the badly needed media exposure did everybody became convinced that boycotting the games is a moral imperative. Adding to that the spotty Human Rights record, not to mention the AN YUE JIANG and her shipload of weapons bound for the ailing “Mugabe Regime” in landlocked Zimbabwe being uncovered in the port of Durban in South Africa only strengthens the case for a boycott. But the question is should we?

The Beijing Government has been accusing the Western media for their somewhat biased reporting in regards to the upcoming Summer Olympics. But the BBC’s extensive news coverage regarding the plight of the working class Chinese eking out a living. What about the athletes who probably spent years – even decades - honing their skills? Should these people just voluntarily penalize themselves over the International Community’s failure to deal with Beijing’s heavy handedness diplomatically? This has got me thinking whether there is a better way other than an all out boycott in showing our disapproval over how the powers-that-be ran China. When the US government staged a trade embargo against the then “Apartheid Government” of South Africa, they choose only goods that are of use to the Apartheid Regime. While necessities are still available to the average black South African. Top level dignitaries like the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon says he will not attend the opening ceremonies of the upcoming Beijing Olympics citing scheduling conflicts of his junket. Maybe the participating athletes – as a sign of protest – will do what John Carlos did during the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, a symbolic show of defiance.

Islamophobia Anyone?

2008-03-28T04:30:00.000-07:00

The term has now served as a popular description of the mindset of the people running FOX News. Is “Islamophobia” a mere byproduct of the 9 / 11 attacks or a deeper symptom of disdain by the West over non-Christians?

By: Vanessa Uy

As time went on, the Patriot Act has more or less devolved into the reading of the Riot Act to American Citizens subscribing to the Islamic faith. Also, the Bush Administrations “War on Terror” had turned into something more that half of the world’s population always feared – a war against the non-believers of Christianity. But there’s a growing consensus that the Bush Administration / GOP definition of “non-believers” does not only apply to Muslims, but also to women, ethnic minorities, homosexuals, even practitioners of so-called “rational thinking” and “reason”. Yes, rational thinking and reason: the two greatest foes of Creationism. Plus given the recent public rantings of Barack Obama's pastor - Reverend Jeremiah Wright - only serves to show that organized Christianity in America is no longer ashamed to show "political ambitions".

As America is being destroyed by the current Bush Administration in a way that most al-Qaeda operatives can only dream of, I have a nagging feeling that the root cause of all of this is the means in which the Bush Administration made “The Power of Christ” somewhat oversold. I mean has anyone seen Pat Robertson going into the refugee camps in the Darfur Region of Sudan turning stone into bread? How about doing the same miracle in areas worse hit by Hurricane Katrina? It really seems like the “Blue State” regions of America are fast becoming the last bastions of reason, literally. And it seems it's now up to them to act as the last bastion of socio-cultural tolerance.

The “brand” of “Christianity” that the Bush Administration is presently promoting – by force – around the world has been creating global resentment on an unprecedented scale. The Bush Administration’s Christendom’s core mission really is to wipe out Civil Liberties and the right to self-determination around the world. When they imprison Viktor Bout, we can kiss goodbye to our right to self-determination. Its getting very, very hard for the Bush Administration’s Christendom to realize that the world doesn’t want to be saved, only to be left alone. I just hope that the term "Islamophobia" will only apply to George "Dubya" Bush and his Neo-Conservatives.

The One Laptop Per Child Program: The Politics and the Bureaucracies

2008-02-15T04:11:00.000-08:00

With two major competing programs known so far. Will the current one laptop per child program really help children in developing nations prepare for future I.T. jobs, or will the two competing programs devolve into a commercialism turf war similar to the VHS and BETAMAX War of the early 1980’s?

By: Vanessa Uy

Despite over-extensive press coverage, a lot of us “nettizens” never seemed to have lost interest on the promises and the problems surrounding the one laptop per child program. As of late, there are two major programs all rivaling the merits for their raison d’être like fiscal sensibility, technical feasibility and sheer practicality. The two programs are currently field tested on a scale to accommodate the need of a typical school in Nigeria to gauge the success – or failure – of the program.

One “version” of the program is the brainchild of philanthropist Nicholas Negroponte. One of the aims of his one laptop per child program is to provide a bridge that would span the gulf of the existing “Digital Divide” that exists in developing countries. Another aim of Nicholas Negroponte’s program is to promote computer literacy in the poorest parts of the world. The computer laptops used in Nicholas Negroponte’s pilot scheme costs a little over a hundred US dollars each, they’re Internet / Mesh Network capable and can send video and still pictures to the Internet via it’s built-in webcam. If it succeeds, the program would serve as an irrefutable proof of the modern computer’s feasibility as an educational tool even in developing countries. One of the program’s more intransigent problems is the endemic lack of a steady supply of mains / grid electricity in developing countries. This problem can be solved by using a rip – cord operated generator similar to those used in those portable radios that are distributed throughout Africa during the 1990’s to help broadcast information in preventing the spread of HIV / AIDS. Though equipping the laptops with such generators would increase their price, there are also plans for solar / photovoltaic chargers for the laptops built-in batteries. Despite of the problems, the hands on / try something / creativity promotion proviso of the laptops has been one of the most redeeming qualities of the program. By training their problem solving skills, the laptops have become a very positive educational influence to the students despite of Nigeria’s rigid “old school” tradition of educational hierarchy that new knowledge and skills should flow only one way – from the teacher to the students.

The other one of these one laptop per child program that rivals Nicholas Negroponte’s is being run by the Intel Corporation, and is called the Intel PC classmate program and is tried on an another school in Nigeria. The Intel PC classmate program according to Intel is about investing in school kids (Tapping the knowledge economy?). The laptops that are provided by Intel to the students currently costs 350 US dollars each. The reason Intel’s laptops are more costly is because of the extensive use of solid - state flash memory technology in their laptops. At present, solid – state flash memory technology is much more expensive than conventional data storage devices like hard drives and CD / DVD burners. But solid – state flash memory devices can work much more reliably than their “conventional” counterparts in the arduous conditions typically found in the environment where the laptops could be used like dust, moisture, and the shock forces produced when the laptop is “accidentally” dropped. The Intel Corporation says their program is investing on Nigeria’s children by “grooming” them to acquire skills as future I.T. employees. Thus making the children’s job prospects in the future much more secure.

From my point of view, both programs are really visionary in tackling the current problems that can be encountered when developing countries try to improve their educational system. Will the promise of both programs remain but a dream when faced with the harsh realities of the high cost of upgrading the telecommunications infrastructure of developing countries just to make them Web 2.0 compliant, and what about these countries electrical grid infrastructure? Plus, let’s not forget that most developing countries like Nigeria is still currently trying to upgrade their existing “conventional” educational system just to provide basic literacy skills – which includes the English language by the way – which are a pre – requisite to computer literacy.

Even though both of the one laptop per child program is already 5 years old. Both of the programs original “mission directive” was to alleviate the “lack of qualified teachers” problem in developing countries by allowing financially disadvantaged kids access to the vast stores of knowledge that’s available on the Internet. Despite of current technical problems like status of the local telecommunications and power grid infrastructure, plus the politics of censorship that’s recently discussed by this year’s Internet Governance Forum (IGF) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The greatest benefit that the one laptop per child program will be to the environment because unnecessary air travel will be kept to the absolute minimum. This is so because NGOs and program overseers can track the progress of there respective “pet projects” on-line because the kids are uploading the video documentation of the program’s progress. Who knew that something that started out as an educational program is now a part of the solution in reducing our overall “carbon footprints”?

Internal Revenue Allotment Law Loopholes: Gentrification in Disguise?

2008-02-01T04:34:00.000-08:00

Every democratically elected government has the legal right to tax their constituent citizenry in order to raise the much needed revenue to maintain it, but what if the said government resorts to rigmarole and bureaucratic legalese to increase revenue collection. Taxation without representation anyone?

By: Vanessa Uy

Before we delve into the essence of what is Internal Revenue Allotment or IRA, lets briefly review the facts surrounding the current fiscal environment of the Philippine Government. Our country is in deep financial woe. The current marching order of the incumbent administration is to look for new revenue sources. This means the Philippine Government has to improve existing tax collection laws, which sadly it has failed to do during the past 30 years or so. Tighten up the government’s budget and maximize to spend what’s left on “concrete infrastructure” i.e. infrastructure projects that blend utility with public relations appeal. The benefits of maximizing spending is a proven idea that allowed the economist John Maynard Keynes to formulate plans that saved America from the Great Depression. In keeping with the subject at hand, just what is Internal Revenue Allotment?

According to the Section 284 of the Local Government Code of the Philippines (RA 7160), Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) is a local government’s share of revenues from the national government. It (the amount) is largely based on land area and population. LGUs (Local Government Units) also derive revenues from various sources. Typically, the IRA for municipalities accounts for 90% of total revenues. Since cities have more sources of local revenues like taxes collected from large business establishments, their IRA ranges from 50% to 70% of the total.

Recently, there’s a row over a number of municipalities being “fast tracked” by the national government to be declared as cities even though the annual average population and income of these municipalities barely meets the criterion needed for it to be legally declared as cities. The reason the national government did this so that they can save a bundle by reducing their IRAs to these municipalities. Other legal “loopholes” in the IRA law are exploited by the incumbent administration include the short - term financial incentives to a municipality’s bid for becoming a city despite a lack of existing taxable viable commercial infrastructure in the present and in the foreseeable future. Also, what about domicile data? Since the majority of Filipinos now work abroad, the average annual population of these municipalities could vary wildly because an overwhelming majority of these workers can go home only once every 18 months. Some of them even have to wait for 5 years just to go home. This government oversight – i.e. inadvertent omission or error – could result in long – term reductions in Internal Revenue Allotment of those municipalities.

To compensate for lost revenue, these city / municipality hybrids will fall back on the methods that will work expediently under the current political climate is by increasing the rates of real estate tax. Surely this will lead to gentrification since our tropical climate has become a Mecca for Western tourists. It won’t be long that only “expats” (ex patriots / rich foreign nationals) can afford to keep their homes while the long - term native residents (ordinary Filipinos like you and me) will be driven to the “poorhouse” thanks to exorbitant real estate taxes.

If I sound unduly alarmist, it is because the Internal Revenue Allotment existing “legal loophole” has shed light on the fact that our country’s outlying municipalities had inherited – by legislation – the proverbial “Bad Part of a Social Contract”. You know: that bad part of the social contract from the incumbent administration that willingly sidelines social justice issues just to improve the government’s revenue collection. Why should those citizens living in the outlying municipalities owe Feudal Obligations to the Makati Corporate Elite?

As of late, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and her Public Relations Campaign Machinery has purchased TV airtime about how the majority of us Filipinos had benefited the previous seven years of economic progress that her incumbent administration had brought. You know that “Sa pitong taong nakalipas, ramdam namin ang asenso” TV adverts. You know, those public on air testimonials of Filipinos who benefited our country’s economic progress during the past seven years. Even though to me that particular advert reeks of jingoism, the truth can’t be denied. The problem is, does the extra money that us Filipinos earned during those previous seven years of economic progress will just be used to pay the coming exorbitant real estate tax increases? Just because the national government wants more revenue while the outlying municipalities be forced to increase real estate taxes just to keep their basic programs running. If our newfound prosperity only allows us a pittance to spend on something just to keep our existing roofs over our heads, then to me this doesn’t qualify as economic progress. And who among us would be genuinely happy to owe Feudal Obligations to people who by far are not exemplars of ethics and social responsibility like our corrupt elected government officials. If this does not qualify as gentrification, then I don’t know what is?

Fahrenheit 911: Did it miss by a Mile?

2008-01-16T03:25:00.000-08:00

Once ridiculed as: “The proof that President George W. Bush piloted the plane that slammed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center building in September 11, 2001.” Is “Fahrenheit 911” a legitimate critique on the Bush Administration?

By: Vanessa Uy

I don’t know how many people in the United States are kicking themselves for voting Bush another term in office when the Hurricane Katrina/FEMA fiasco came out, are approval ratings a good indicator? Despite of John Ashcroft spontaneously bursting into song, Fahrenheit 911 just missed the Abu Ghraib Prison scandal by just a few months. That story could have added a “sense of legitimacy” to “Fahrenheit 911” that might convince hard core Republicans that they are betting on the wrong horse so to speak. Then came FEMA’s mishandling of the Hurricane Katrina disaster, then the sex scandals of Republican Congressmen with their pages with mounting e-mail evidence…then came Reverend Ted Haggard…

In Michael Moore’s credit, he really tried hard to tackle in presenting the evil behind relatively esoteric subjects like Halliburton that can easily hide their scandal via corporate rigmarole that can have most average citizens in need of legal assistance just to keep up. In all of this, I just wonder how many virgins did the Moral Majority/GOP sacrificed in order to postpone the arrival of Hurricane Katrina so that “she” won’t become a 2004-election issue?

Is Zimbabwe a Threat?

2008-01-16T03:22:00.000-08:00

Is Zimbabwe qualified to head the UN’s Sustainable Development Program, or are the European Union’s concerns groundless?

By: Vanessa Uy

In May 4, 2007, Zimbabwe was elected to head the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Program via “Secret Ballot.” This made Francie Nhema, Zimbabwe’s environment minister very magnanimous in victory. But there are lingering questions on how Zimbabwe could head this UN program when President Robert Mugabe’s flawed land reform policy has transformed the country from “Africa’s Breadbasket” to a country whose agricultural system can hardly even feed her own people. And for the first time, the US Government showed concern on Zimbabwe’s human rights violations and the Mugabe regime’s treatment of the political opposition. US State Department’s Dan Reifsnyder voiced his concerns over Zimbabwe’s ability and qualifications to run the UN Sustainable Development Program. The British Government and the European Union have always been mindful of Zimbabwe’s human rights record of the past three years or so. Is President Robert Mugabe another Idi Amin in the making? Only time will tell.

Once upon a time, the former British colony called Rhodesia changed her name to Zimbabwe back in 1979 to assert her newly acquired freedom and sovereignty. In 1980, Robert Mugabe was elected president. That’s right people, he’s been running the country since that time. My “dogs-of-war” buddies have viewed Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe –at the time- as a model for African self-determination. But 20 or so years later it’s as if Zimbabwe has fallen from grace. President Mugabe’s heavy-handed approach to quell the political opposition has been criticized by the EU for a number of years now. And President Mugabe’s greatest folly is the expulsion of “white farmers” from their own farmlands. These lands were given to native Zimbabweans with no industrial- scale farming expertise. This policy has decimated Zimbabwe’s agricultural industry since then.

It’s good that the US Government finally gave a damn about this issue and voiced their criticisms over the Mugabe Regime. In the last 4 years, it seems like only 10 Downing Street gives a damn about the course of action President Mugabe takes. It seems that the policymakers on Capitol Hill are willing to overlook one more of Africa’s problems, like they did back in April of 1994.

A Ban on Cluster Bombs

2008-01-16T03:18:00.000-08:00

In Lima, Peru a conference was held campaigning for a total ban on cluster bombs by next year. Will it fair better than Princess Diana’s campaign for a global ban on land mines?

By: Vanessa Uy

In the week ending May 26, 2007 – the conference for the comprehensive global ban on the use and production of cluster bombs / sub munitions took place in Lima, Peru. 46 countries have already sign up earlier this year in Norway in support for the campaign, while 20 more countries have sign up during the conference in Lima, Peru as a show of solidarity in banning the use and production of cluster bombs and/or sub munitions. Not surprisingly, the biggest users and producers of cluster bombs and/or sub munitions namely: the US, Russia, China, and of course Israel are absent.

As anti-personnel weapon systems go, cluster bombs don’t work very well militarily. This is due to the inherent manufacturing faults where sometimes 50% of the sub munitions won’t explode immediately upon deployment. These UXO (unexploded ordnance) has a nasty habit of maiming and killing non-combatants/civilians long after the military conflict is over. The UN has even declared that UXO - like land mines are considered as a pollutant because of their ability to render croplands useless. Since the 1980’s, there has already been a global campaign to ban these weapons. In the Vietnam War movie “Bat 21”, the indiscriminate nature of cluster bombs were portrayed on celluloid. Also unexploded ordnance has a nasty habit of being turned into IED (improvised explosive devices) by resourceful “freedom fighters.” It was also known that as late as the mid 1990’s, nomads of the Sub-Saharan region have the misfortune of finding out that anti-personnel mines laid by German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel’s “Afrika Korps” still work.

Desperate Housewives: Desperate for Ratings?

2008-01-16T03:11:00.000-08:00

Who would have thought that feminism and post-modernist consumerism would result in a very, very ugly dialectic? Desperate Housewives, Girl Power gone wrong?

By: Vanessa Uy

Hi, my name is Vanessa and I never watched a full episode of Desperate Housewives in my entire life. All the facts I learned from this politically incorrect TV Series is what I've overheard by "Desperate Housewives'" fans talking on the bus. Though I’ve watched enough World War II movies that made me extra sensitive to racial epithets. If I had to choose between watching a season of Desperate Housewives and an instructional video from Médecins Sans Frontièrs (MSF or Doctors Without Borders) on how to treat assault rifle trauma, I’d choose the later. Besides Teri Hatcher / Susan Meyer may have a low opinion on non-Hollywood doctors like MSF or Filipino medical personnel for that matter.

The “Desperate Housewives” row over Filipino doctors is about the September 30, 2007 episode of the show. In this particular show is a scene were Teri Hatcher’s character – Susan Meyer – was being confronted by a doctor with the information that she may be experiencing menopause. During the conversation, Susan Meyer (Teri Hatcher’s character) cut the doctor short and this is when she uttered the racial slur. This is the excerpt.
Dr. Mayfair: “I know for a lot of women, the word “menopause” has negative connotations. The heart aging, brittle bones, loss of sexual desire…”
Susan Meyer: “Before we go any further, can I check those diplomas? ‘cause I would like to make sure that they’re not from some “med school” in the Philippines.”
To me, this qualifies as an attack on us Filipinos. The writing staff of Desperate Housewives intentions might just be for the purpose of entertainment but we Filipinos, say that this is really underhanded. We have been offended – if not ridiculed by the said statements.

As Americans, I can assume that the writing staff of Desperate Housewives that their society doesn’t tolerate racial slurs and I experienced this first hand. Back in February 2001, while vacationing with my relatives in Wisconsin. I almost got into a fight with a group of African–Americans because I was telling a funny anecdote to my cousin – in a Bavarian dialect – in which a group of African–Americans misinterpreted as a racial slur directed at them. Plus I’m a pale skinned green- eyed redhead (Chinese-Uzbek-German ancestry) didn’t help matters either. Fortunately, the group understood my pleas in explaining my esoteric language use and the tense situation was peacefully resolved. Understandable since obscure Bavarian dialects is not a major part of the American high school curricula.

Now, for the sake of justice, it’s my time to cast a critical eye on the TV series “Desperate Housewives”. I always view any-town-USA-gated-communities with disdain even if I’m presently residing in one. These “communities” represent the dark side of Capitalist Consumerism. These are the communities were probably the malfeasant personnel of the private security contractor “Blackwater” grew up. I think the writing staff of Desperate Housewives should undergo ethnic or cultural sensitivity training by sentencing them to do community service in San Francisco’s Castro Street district. Or doing volunteer work in a Turkish-Armenian support group.

Extraordinary Renditions: The 21st Century Inquisition?

2008-01-16T03:05:00.000-08:00

As yet another program by the Bush Administration / Oligarchy to turn back the clock on human rights and civil liberties on a global scale. Will Tomàs de Torquemada’s bureaucratic legacy outlast Einstein’s Relativity Theory?

By: Vanessa Uy

The world owes yet another debt of gratitude to courageous news channels like the BBC who are brave enough to report on the shortcomings of the US Government’s “War on Terror.” It’s a well- accepted conventional wisdom that torture seldom – if ever – works because anyone under the pain and torment of torture will say anything to end it. Thus proving the unreliability of information / intelligence obtained under duress. Even when armed with the foreknowledge on the ineffectiveness of “Ecclesiastical Inquisition” style of torture, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) still practices these “Extraordinary Renditions” on captured Al Qaeda / terrorists suspects. “Extraordinary Rendition” is CIA speak for flying captured terror suspects without trial to another location or country with lax human rights laws to be tortured as to extract “useful information.” As featured in BBC’s “The World Uncovered” documentary about the CIA’s “Extraordinary Renditions”, Ethiopian exile and long time UK resident Binyam Mohammed suffered under the inhuman conditions of the CIA sanctioned torture. Radical Egyptian Cleric Abu Omar was abducted in Milan, now his whereabouts is unknown. While Khaled El Masri was taken to one of the CIA’s secret “Black Sites” then tortured. He was later released due to his innocence but not before enduring “Inquisition” style torture that left him mentally scarred for life.

These “Extraordinary Renditions” had been going on since the succeeding days after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and has been kept out of the prying eyes of the world’s media. Luckily, humble “plane spotters” have photographic proof of the planes used in these “Extraordinary Renditions” like the Gulfstream with registry numbers N379P, thus have blown the cover on the CIA’s “illegal operation.” Dick Marty, the Council of Europe’s chief investigator has already collected enough proof that the CIA ran secret prisons in Europe since 2002. Also, there is enough proof so that the 25 CIA agents can be tried “in absentia” in Milan.

How did it come to this? Has America squandered the world’s sympathy after the September 11, 2001 attacks? Haven’t the last thousand years taught the West about the futility of torture as an intelligence- gathering tool? And by the way, how can arresting Muslim Clerics who are more concerned about how to spend their scant funds on improving their local Mosques cripple Al Qaeda? Had the Bush Administration / Oligarchy came to a point that they think they are so infallible that everything they do for our protection they think is right. Must we stand idly by that for every legitimate Al Qaeda operative that the CIA agents apprehend 50 innocent people have to undergo the CIA’s “Extraordinary Rendition.”

The CIA’s “Extraordinary Rendition” reminds me of the days when the Vatican was still a “superpower.” The Vatican set up the “Inquisition” supposedly to protect mankind from evil, but all that happened was a lot of property confiscated by the Papacy and a lot of people burned at the stake – close if not similar- to the CIA’s “Extraordinary Rendition” of today. Did the burning of Joan of Arc or Giordano Bruno change the Catholic Church for the better? God only knows. And don’t even ask me to try to fathom on how Galileo – by accepting Copernicus’ views- threaten the Catholic Churches “Canon Law.”

The Bush Administration / Oligarchy had ran the “War on Terror” and “Operation: Enduring Freedom” in a way that reflects obsession of turning back the clock to the good or bad old days, depending –of course- if you’re a Democrat or a Republican. Back to the days of the “Ecclesiastical Inquisition” with the CIA’s “Extraordinary Rendition”– or even further- to the days before the existence of the “Magna Carta” with their “warrantless arrests” of terror suspects. Their actions make the Baader-Meinhoff Gang / Red Army Faction seems more humane by comparison.

It’s only in the 21st Century that we now fully realize the extent of damage “Institutionalized Torture” can inflict. Former political prisoners incarcerated during the 1970’s and 1980’s are now speaking out their own individual ordeals and torments. A well-known side effect of this “Institutionalized Torture” is “Indoctrinated Dehumanization” where whole societies forgot what human rights and civil liberties mean. Here in the Philippines, “Indoctrinated Dehumanization” is the resulting side effect of the “Institutionalized Torture” widely used during President Ferdinand Marcos’s regime. At that time, torture was routinely practiced with impunity to suppress political dissent. As a side effect of this, a generation of Filipinos – probably 99% of them- who are in the High School and College-level readily accepts legally/state sanctioned torture as right as long as it saves lives or stops terrorism. I wonder if the Philippine Government has complicity in the CIA’s “Extraordinary Renditions” program. Better brush-up on my Urdu and Pashtun, who knows if you could accidentally meet face-to-face with these “terror suspects.”

When George W. Bush’s term ends, will he gobble up needlessly the Secret Service’s resources because he made so many enemies by allowing the CIA’s “Extraordinary Renditions” to go on? With this issue dogging him, he can never retire quietly and peacefully. There are probably three places when he can retire with guaranteed security with the peace and quiet he so desires. The Chemical Corps section of Fort Bragg amid tanks of dimethyl sulfate. The Groom Lake facility in Nevada officially known as “Area 51” where Hangar 18 is a very good defensible position. Lastly, NORAD the US Space Command complex inside Cheyenne Mountain officially known as “Area 52.”

Astronauts: NASA’s Weakest Link?

2008-01-16T03:01:00.000-08:00

Conventional wisdom states that a system is only as strong as its weakest link. Does this mean that NASA’s greatest asset - human space explorers i.e. astronauts -are also their greatest liability?

By: Vanessa Uy

Ever since NASA astronaut Lisa Nowak’s adult diaper-aided crime-of-passion / escapade became headline news, things have not been going well for NASA’s manned space exploration program. Then came the allegations of the drunkenness of shuttle astronauts slated for current missions – the “bottle to throttle” fiasco. And the most disturbing of all: the pre-flight sabotage of the vibration monitoring / detecting computer that’s slated to be installed in the International Space Station (ISS) which seems like the proverbial “last straw” that NASA won’t be able to recover. Despite a live news conference last 27th of July 2007 that aired on both BBC and CNN about the administrative action that would be taken by NASA to investigate these allegations and the establishment of a “Performance Integrity Criterion” that will be followed rigorously by the astronauts. Despite of the recent successful launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavor, is NASA’s reputation already tarnished beyond repair?

At the cost of almost a billion dollars per launch, the American taxpayer has every right to be mindful about the professionalism and integrity of their astronauts for a lot of reasons other that the “astronomical” cost of running the best manned space exploration program on the planet. Ever since the 1980’s, there are scientific experiments -whose benefits even includes a cure for cancer- can only be performed in the weightless conditions i.e. in space. So Americans held their astronauts with high regard like some “latter day messiah.” To me, the pre-flight sabotage of the vibration-monitoring computer is the most disturbing of all the “irregularities” that has surfaced in recent investigations. If this is true – and the “tampering” incident had been going on since NASA first started the series of “microgravity environment” experiments back in the 1980’s – then the data obtained during this experiments should be taken with a “grain of salt.” That’s billions of dollars and countless man-hours of drudgery wasted, in other words - one giant “step back” for mankind.

Recently, the “Blog-o-sphere” is abuzz with opinions/suggestions that since NASA launches more unmanned missions like the latest PHOENIX Mars robotic space probe, the administrative body should fire all of their astronauts. To me, the problem with this logic is that at present –or even in the foreseeable future- we still don’t know how to build “robots” that are smart and self-aware enough to replace our “human space explorers.” The “human versus robot” debate extends even to the nurse / caregiver camp, but this is a topic for future discussion.

There exists a “Kultur Kampf” between the two main schools of thought weather it would be ever possible that we humans can ever construct a “robot” that is self-aware and as smart as us. On one camp, Alan Turing – the Great Grandfather of our modern computer technology- believes that by the middle of the 21st Century advancements in computer technology would allow us to design and construct “computers/robots” that are self-aware and as smart as or even smarter than us. Alan Turing even designed a test named after him - the Turing Test - as an evaluation tool to see if a “computer system” has the ability for self-awareness and human like intelligence. Turing “dreamed-up” the concept back in the 1940’s by the way. In the other camp is Roger Penrose – one of the greatest living theoretical physicist today- who theorized that electronic computers can never replicate the process of the human mind that give rise to self-awareness and intelligence. To put it in overly simplistic terms, a skilled blacksmith can create a very beautiful sword but that same sword can never create a blacksmith – even a mediocre one. Sadly, I’m subscribing to Roger Penrose’s view because it’s backed up by my own day –to- day “empirical evidence.” Though the last time I heard from Roger Penrose, he was very optimistic about “quantum computers.” Even if we are fortunate enough to have developed human-like robots -10 years from now- capable of replacing NASA’s astronauts, when was the last time a space probe / robotic spacecraft had a ticker tape parade down Madison Avenue after returning from a successful mission? Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein produced “cartoons” doesn’t count by the way.

Like it or not, humans are way better designed than “robots” when it comes to tackling the unexpected nature of space exploration. The American Taxpayer and the global community of space exploration enthusiasts will just have to live with the “frailties” of our very human astronauts like tendencies to “blow out some steam” once in a while. And there is the ever- present potential to resort to “substance abuse” in an otherwise stress-filled occupation. Despite all of this, there’s one thing we humans have that won’t probably be replicated by our “faux-sentient cybernetic creations” – for centuries to come – is our ability to better ourselves. This is the raison d’être of drug rehab and alcohol treatment centers that guarantees the job security so-to-speak of their counselors and psychotherapists. And I just can’t help but re-emphasize our ability to better ourselves. As proof of this, one of the latest astronauts on the Space Shuttle Endeavor – Barbara Morgan – has transformed herself through training from a “mere” schoolteacher to a full-fledged astronaut. She had done this because current NASA policy doesn’t allow “civilians” to ride in the space shuttle since the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster over twenty years ago.

And let’s not forget that our global overpopulation problem has no other “viable” solution in the foreseeable future other than space colonization. The sooner we develop our space exploration programs into a viable space colonization endeavor the better off humanity could progress without destroying the fragile ecosystem of our planet.

Bad Habits From the Cold War

2008-01-16T02:57:00.000-08:00

Are assassinations of dissidents a holdover of the Cold War – era Soviet Union? Or is it just a bad habit that’s extremely hard to break.

By: Ringo Bones

The news on Alexander Litvinenko’s assassination using polonium210 in London triggers déjà vu to us folks old enough to live in the shadow of the Cold War. During 1978, an almost similar event occurred in London. The Bulgarian Georgi Markov, one of the staunchest critics of the Soviet State at that time was poisoned using an umbrella equipped with a pneumatic pellet shooting mechanism that fires a 1.7 mm diameter pelet laced with ricin (a toxic protein found in castor beans) injector. Markov survived his agonizingly painful ordeal when a doctor tried an unproven procedure, removed the then unknown ricin pellet from his wound. The BBC and Germany’s DW-TV was the first news agencies to cover the said incident. Unluckily, Litvinenko’s case was so rare that doctors were at a loss as to what to do. It was only a few days later that the investigators knew the cause of his death. Rumors are abound that the secret apparatus of the former Soviet Union used to smuggle radioactive substances into the U. S. Embassy in Moscow, supposedly to kill American V. I. P. s softly.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, there had been well - documented incidents where radioactive substances are used for murder. Near the end of 1993, Russian “Mafia” assassins allegedly planted gamma-ray-emitting pellets in the secluded workspace of a businessman in Moscow. He died within a few months of exposure. There have been more than half a dozen similar cases that’s been reported in Russia since then.

Is polonium going to be the active ingredient of those “dirty bombs” that “terrorists” are supposedly planning to deploy? That will be tough because most experts will point out that polonium has a half-life of about 139 days, which means it has a nasty habit of vanishing over time. Even though that only minute amounts of polonium are needed to kill an individual, most of what is produced commercially only amounts to a few grams per batch of production. And that’s enough to satisfy most legitimate uses of the element throughout the entire industrialized world. So if you want to procure substantial quantities of polonium for your evil needs. Either you have your own nuclear reactor designed to produce radioisotopes or you regularly rub shoulders with the powers-that-be that regulate the nuclear industry that they would look the other way every time you would do an evil deed. Isn’t it sad that when the fruits of modern technology are misused, it’s always used to maintain an oppressive status - quo.

Is Creationism Racism

2008-01-08T03:12:00.000-08:00

Creationism – the ideology – has hidden consequences that belie it’s metaphysical / intellectual you say tomato type syllogism. Is creationism really just a harmless intellectual exercise?

By: Vanessa Uy

Ever since I started listening to my 78 RPM shellac of the Billie Holiday song Strange Fruit on a regular basis back in 2005, I started to wonder if we, as a society, has really advanced since 1939 the year Billie Holiday’s Strange Fruit was released. Sadly, it seems like we are constantly reassured that racism is alive and well. And the proof of this is the Jena High School incident in Jena, Louisiana where the white high school pranksters still think that lynching is fun – in 2007! Scarier still is that this “American Bible-Belt Racism” is based on “their” fundamentalist interpretation of the Holy Christian Scripture.

Ever since proponents of the literal interpretation of the Holy Bible justified Archbishop James Ussher of Armagh, Ireland, in 1650 to conclude that “God” began creating our universe in 9 a.m. on the 23rd of October in 4004 BC. This declaration of dogma –more or less- made Organized Christianity a relatively racist religion that brought us the anti-miscegenation statute of the state of Virginia, the famous Scopes Monkey Trial, to the “Children of Ham” debates between Mormon presidential candidate Mitt Romney and Christopher Hitchens. Although the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints / Mormon faith’s “racists” stance has since been reformed. This happened back in 1978 when Spencer W. Kimball, the Mormon Church’s 12th president, proclaimed that the “long-promised day” had arrived, in which every worthy man, black or white, could take up priesthood in the Latter Day Saints.

Despite reforms and the “toning down” of the racist / separatist stance of the Religious Doctrine of various Christian sects, there are some who are still sticking by their “racist” interpretation of Holy Scripture. Like the US Aryan Nation, also known as the Church of Jesus Christ Christian whose battle cry of “ Serve the Lord of Glory and His Holy Race” makes Al-Qaeda look like a bunch of drunken college frat boys in comparison. Plus a host of other racist Christian sects that had almost made it to the mainstream American political process, like the 6th Day Creationists and the Ku Klux Klan.

Despite of the devastating social impact of creationism in present- day pluralistic-Politically-Correct America, President George W. Bush approved the teaching of creationism / intelligent design in public schools a few years ago. Maybe, we still need constant reassurance on the dangers of extreme fundamentalist Christian beliefs like creationism. Even a couple centuries before Archbishop Ussher toyed with the idea, Tomàs de Torquemada ordered during his heyday in the Spanish Inquisition for 2,000 Jews to be burned alive. This incident should have served as a “red flag” on the dangers of fundamentalist beliefs. Yet, the present Bush administration would blame the news about the burning alive of 2,000 Jews by Torquemada on the “Liberal Media”.

To me, the degree of harm that a belief in creationism can inflict upon you probably rests on where your genetic make up lies on the wrong – or – the right side of the Caucasus Mountain Range. In short, Anglo-Saxons never had it so good in George W. Bush’ America. Thank God for Barack Obama for finally talking about that proverbial “Elephant in the Room”.

The Brookings Institution: The Real “Men in Black”?

2008-01-06T04:48:00.000-08:00

Is the Brookings Institution – which is primarily an economic security study concern – responsible for the excruciatingly slow scientific progress of space exploration 50 years after Sputnik I?

By: Ringo Bones

In the 20th Century it took us only 44 -or so- years from the first airplane flight to an airplane flying faster than the speed of sound. Why can’t our existing space programs progress just as fast? Ever since that National Geographic documentary about space exploration in which a Brookings Institution report was published. This report advising NASA against reporting findings on the existence of extraterrestrial life to the general public, every coffee shop and internet café in the Far East are now a buzz about the Brookings Institution’s true purpose. But first, here’s a primer on that said institution.

The Brookings Institution is a non- profit public policy “think tank” based in Washington, DC. As the United States of America’s oldest “think tank”, Brookings is devoted (primarily?) to public service through research and education in the social sciences, particularly in economics, government and foreign policy. The Brookings Institution’s stated principal purpose is “to aid in the development of sound public policies and to promote public understanding of issues of national (i.e. the US of A ‘s) importance. Brookings was founded in 1916, when a group of “reformers” (or is that government officials of limited legislative powers dissatisfied with the incumbent administration) founded the Institute for Government Research (IGR), the first private organization in the US devoted to analyzing public policy issues at a national level. The Institutions founder, philanthropist Robert S. Brookings (1850-1952), originally financed the formation of three organizations: The Institute for Government Research, The Institute of Economics, and the Robert Brookings Graduate School. The three were merged into the Brookings Institution in 1927. The Brookings Institute, is currently headed by Strobe Talbott a former Clinton administration appointee in the US State Department.

The “mystique” surrounding the Brookings Institution began in 1958 when the United States Congress created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under the new Space Act to replace its 1915 predecessor the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics or NACA. Throughout the 1960’s, under US Government behest, NASA adopted a very unusual non-disclosure policy that prohibited their management from releasing information concerning the discovery of sentient extraterrestrial life capable of space travel. The policy was created and fashioned after the Brookings Institution report entitled “Peaceful Uses of Outer Space”. In that report, the Brookings Institution recommended prohibition of disclosure with a warning against the revelation of the existence of extraterrestrial life to the people of America and the world. Brookings Institution thinkers feared (vicariously?) social, economic, and religious upeaval could result. Many now believe that the Brookings Institution’s conclusions were based on the now famous events, which transpired in October 30, 1938, the public reaction to Orson Welles’s radio broadcast of “The War of the Worlds” and the local panic that ensued.

In the 21st Century, humanity’s level of sophistication has surely risen “a few notches” since that 1938 radio broadcast. To me, it’s quite “difficult to understand” how a futuristic agency tasked with the goal of space exploration -like NASA – can be handicapped by a fear, which originated before most of us were born. Are civilian astronauts / “space tourist” immune to the US Government’s “behest” to keep quiet about “ET”? Maybe this is why none of the billionaires are setting up their own space programs in frenzy.

Does extraterrestrial life exist, is the moon landing “staged’? To end the speculation, civilians should be allowed free access to space despite of the dangers and fiscal costs. Sometimes I wonder after all this time there is no photo of the Apollo 11 landing site taken by a space probe –preferably commissioned by a non- US Government entity (Will China or India suffice) - orbiting 100 kilometers above the moon.

In my opinion, it seems like the people in charge of the Brookings Institute were still living in an “Aristotelian Mindset” when they fashioned their “Peaceful Uses of Outer Space” report. It’s a pity that the great literary giants in Europe during the late 15th Century onwards didn’t write “science fiction” the way Gene Roddenberry makes conjectures about “alien civilizations”. I mean, What if William Shakespeare wrote a “story” about how to properly interact with the native peoples of the “New World”?

In Brookings Institutions defense, they are seldom –if ever – taken seriously by the various US administrations that came and went since the end of World War II. Brookings even made it into then President Richard Nixon’s famous “enemies lists”. Brookings even warned the US Government back in 2000 that if the proper financial reforms aren’t done, a credit crunch – as what is currently happening –can occur.

Basing on the existing facts about the case, the Brookings Institution cannot be held wholly responsible for arresting the development of space travel because they merely work in an advisory capacity. Their “Space” policy may be found wanting but at least some of their ideas keep “minor wars” from getting out of hand while Wall Street goes about like its business as usual.

Blackwater Security Consulting: Malfeasance in Arms?

2008-01-06T04:44:00.000-08:00

While Blackwater’s notorious September 16, 2007 incident is a day which will “Live in Infamy” for most of Iraq’s civilians, is this another case of “Ways v Means”?

By: Vanessa Uy

The first time I heard of Blackwater was back in April of 2007 when a former “Dogs Of War” neighbor of ours talks about back in the days when they “Liberated” Zimbabwe back in 1979, they weren’t behaving like Blackwater personnel. I think they’re telling the truth because they’re not afraid to post their own pictures on their MYSPACE account. Ah, to not live in fear, priceless.

Known for their close ties to the GOP, Blackwater Security Consulting was founded in 1997 by ex US Navy SEAL Billionaire Erik Prince and Al Clark. As Blackwater’s exploit’s got inadvertently scrutinized by the international media thus gaining their reputation as mercenaries. However under international law, American citizens working for Blackwater are not considered “mercenaries” when they are assisting the US military. While the Organization of the Islamic Conference recently classified Blackwater as a terrorist organization, due to it’s recent excessive use of force on innocent Iraqi civilians.

Blackwater is based in the US State of North Carolina where it operates a tactical training facility - which it claims to be the world’s largest. The company trains more than 40,000 people a year from all of the various military services and a host of other agencies.

Of the US State Department’s three major private security contractors, Blackwater is currently the largest. At least 90% of the company’s revenue comes from government contracts, two-thirds of which are “no-bid contracts”. Blackwater’s current president, Gary Jackson, is also a former US Navy SEAL.

Blackwater was one of the several private security firms employed following the US invasion of Afghanistan. Blackwater was also hired during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina by the Department of Homeland Security to maintain order in New Orleans and to “apprehend looters”.

Incidents of misconduct and malfeasance of some Blackwater personnel happened way before the September 16, 2007 “shooting spree” incident. According to the US State Department, on December 24, 2006, a drunken Blackwater employee shot and killed a bodyguard who was protecting the Iraqi vice president. In the weeks after the September 16, 2007 incident, the legal status of Blackwater and other security firms in Iraq is a subject of contention.

I don’t know personally anyone of those currently employed by Blackwater who’s assigned in Iraq but could this be a case of a few bad apples ruining the whole bunch? I mean Blackwater –as a corporate entity – usually does whatever it can to maintain the professionalism of it’s personnel because I question the wisdom of running the company via some kind of Machiavellian machination. Or is their primary mission in Iraq is to rule by fear i.e. “To rule by fear is to rule completely”?

Deconstructing the Feminist-Filipina

2008-01-03T02:40:00.000-08:00

Is Feminist-Filipina a socio-political construct that will eventually evolve into this uber-being or just a soapbox for empty materialism as a corporate byproduct of Corporate Manila?

By: Vanessa Uy and May Anne Uy

The Feminist-Filipina: What a curious beast? Do they define themselves by pledging allegiance to cause oriented groups currently in vogue like “Gabriela?” (Aren’t they always in vogue?). Or are they collectively taking a stance –however unpopular- against a part of our heritage that we should not have been proud of. Like the 500 or so years of the Catholic Church’s hegemony on our nation that has managed to keep the genocidal acts against the native peoples of most of the “New World” and the destruction of these people’s way of life from becoming common knowledge. We –the writers-wonder if the concept of “self determination” and “human rights” means something to The Vatican back then? Is the Feminist-Filipina in essence a stillborn ideology due to preceding historical events? To find out, first let’s take a look into the past.

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel saw history as a “dialectic”-a process of constant change brought about by the inevitable clash of opposing ideas. According to this theory, the tension between conflicting ways of thinking caused a struggle for power/control. Out of this struggle came: new ideas, new solutions, and the process cycles back again. Hegel’s “idea-centric” view on the dialectic should make our present day information society a “Dialectic Nirvana” for him. While Karl Marx’s view on this “dialectic” was to us more pragmatic because humanity doesn’t live on ideas alone. Marx’s view on the “dialectic” was not limited to opposing ideas but rather humanity’s ceaseless desire for material self-improvement. In other words, everyone want’s to get rich by any means necessary. To Marx, the “dialectic” was actually a struggle for coveting material goods and the control of the means of producing them. History was the record of this struggle.

If you think both of Hegel’s and Marx’s view on history sounds like a book report on Nicolo Machiavelli’s “The Prince” to you, then you are not alone. Many an enlightened scholar subscribes to this point-of-view. Like the “ideas” extolled by Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” or Miyamoto Musashi’s “The Book of Five Rings” are practically a handbook on how to deal with conflict within the ever-changing socio-political dynamic in a manner that’s still acceptable in our contemporary supposedly-politically-correct-pluralistic society. And just because these works are old, it’s very important not to undervalue the ideas and lessons contained in the writings of Machiavelli, Sun Tzu, or Musashi. We are not talking about abstract philosophies here that might be discussed in the corporate meetings between TV moguls and the “Focus Groups” on how to boost the viewer ratings on upcoming “Pinoy Soap Operas.” There are human ramifications on what the general population perceive, as correct and how these people conduct themselves in our society while harboring their pre-conceived ideas. Believe it or not, the responsibility has fallen upon us-like manna from heaven- to enlighten everyone. Even those who are out to get us feminists!

The Catholic-centered Philippine society has a perception that feminism is much like Darwinism-determination without strategy which they have a disdain for being a Godless ideology. On why after all this time they can’t declare détente is beyond us. Even though the Philippine society in general are somewhat complacent on the issue on the necessity for women in general to learn noble traits which are traditionally reserved for men like militaristic-style honor and self-sacrifice. Is this a holdover from our Victorian past? Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek like the works of Friedrich Nietzsche isn’t exactly curricular requirements on this part of the world.

Are the glory days of the Feminist-Filipina still yet to come, or does it “suffer” from being viewed as just a passing phase or a fashion statement du jour? Must we be at the mercy of the Holy Bible toting folks who continue to confuse their maps for our territory? That’s a shame though since the most interesting parts of the Holy Bible are seldom discussed like Genesis chapter 19 verses 32 to 34 or that Iron Maiden song about Revelations chapter 13 verse 18.

Art of Election

2008-01-03T02:36:00.000-08:00

After World War II, art academics describe Dadaism as an artistic movement hijacked by politicians to embellish their propaganda machines. Here’s some of the how and the why.

By: Vanessa Uy

Whenever election time comes around, I tend not to take my civic duties lightly. Since this is one of the few times when we ordinary folks are granted the power to decide the future of our nation and for the betterment of everyone. But there’s no ignoring that art, for better or for worse- plays a much larger role than you think in the coming political races.

Dadaism, as defined by Webster’s dictionary as an artistic movement based on deliberate irrationality and negation of the laws of beauty and organization. If at first we steer away from the political connotations, Dadaism in my experience has a fixation with the absurd or flippant imagery, object d’art or actions were presented as opposed to conventional art works. For example, a wooden bust of George W. Bush were presented with a machete attached by a chain, visitors are invited to chop at it if they so desire. Dadaism’s strongly represented protest against the conventional sentimental admiration of art. The movement gained popularity in France, from 1916 until the start of the 1920’s, when a sect of Dadaism that has grown tired of politics merged into surrealism. In more recent times, surrealism is more commonly displayed in the cover art of albums by the Rock group Yes and the Salvador Dali-esque Anthrax’s “Persistence of Time” album cover art.

One Dadaist symbolism that’s been hijacked by political forces was the “fasces”. The fasces were formed by a bundle of rods bound with a red cord, which was carried by the lictor (attendant of a magistrate) in ancient Rome. The fasces symbolized the magistrate’s authority to enforce obedience. Outside the walls of Rome, an ax (securis) was carried in augmentation to the bundle of rods; the ax indicated that the, magistrate, as a military commander, could exercise the power of life and death over those under his command. The fasces, was chosen by Benito Mussolini as the symbol of his 1919 movement in Italy, which became the “Fascist Party”.

The Marxist-Leninist Socialism’s iconic hammer and sickle emblem, which symbolizes Communism, was used on the Soviet flag. During the Cold War, the hammer and sickle was a very ominous iconic symbol, which the Western powers say best symbolizes the “Evil Empire” which brought humanity to the brink of nuclear annihilation.

One politician here in the Philippines has an electoral poster designed to make this certain politician look like an Orwellian “Big Brother.” This poster design, castes the politician in a sinister light even though this certain politician has a good track record with an altruism that doesn’t pave the proverbial road to hell. Better consult your “focus groups.” Just like the wooden George W. Bush bust with the machete, political/election posters are torn down after election in a cathartic expression of renewal.

To know more about Dadaism, check out DW-TV’s Arts21 web site.

Evangelical Christians and Al Qaeda: 21st Century Axis Powers

2008-01-03T02:32:00.000-08:00

Have you ever wondered why Osama Bin Laden never specifically vilifies Evangelical Christians? Are they consolidating power like what Hitler and Mussolini did? Take a look at my musings to find out why.

By: Vanessa Uy

That May 14, 2007 BBC news broadcast of Dr. Thomas Ice of Liberty University probably brought a sense of disbelief to millions of BBC’s “level-headed” viewers around the world. While the other million or so was sent on a mad dash to write their own “Techno Thriller” novel to rival the best of what Tom Clancy has offered to date. Does anyone agree with me that the BBC’s news story on Dr. Ice is a good springboard to write a good fictional story? The one that comes to mind is about people like Dr. Ice initiating events that would lead to an all-out nuclear exchange that in our present reality seems indefinitely postponed by the Grace of God and Her Infinite Wisdom.

Did you remember a while back when the Bush Administration invaded the sovereign country of Iraq in search of WMD? A few months afterwards, there was a growing interest on the exploits of the “Baghdad Sniper” who targets American soldiers with impunity via a Dragonov sniper rifle. Dragonovs are basically Kalashnikovs modified to have a much longer range and improved accuracy. Have you noticed that most of the “Baghdad Sniper’s” victims are Mexican or/of Latino descent, and the “white” people who got shot are either Jewish or/of Eastern European descent especially those whose family name ends in “S-K-Y.” The kind of people who are often vilified by “Evangelists.”

Have you ever wondered: Why Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell or any other famous Evangelical religious leaders never got vilified by Osama Bin Laden and/or Al Qaeda? The similarities of their religious ideologies are quite uncanny. They both reject the relevance of rationality and cultural diversity to their religious teachings. They go out of their way to keep women subservient by any means necessary. And the most curious quirk of all: their belief that their “God” only chooses a particular race to be granted salvation. The Evangelical “God” chooses the white Anglo-Saxon race. While Bin Laden/Al Qaeda’s “God” favors Muslims of Arabic descent. They have an unhealthy fixation of rationalizing men’s “rights” to abuse women if it suits their fancy. Looks like half of humanity will be doomed if this “Religious Madness” is allowed to escalate even further.

Jerry Falwell: A Legacy of Hate

2008-01-03T02:29:00.001-08:00

Ever since he founded the “Moral Majority” back in 1979, Jerry Falwell probably has a dubious influence of creating a rift between Islam and the West.

By: Vanessa Uy

When Jerry Falwell passed away last May 16, 2007, all my sentiments point to good riddance. For most rational level- headed Americans, Jerry Falwell may seem no more than a minor irritation to accepted standards of civil liberties. Jerry Falwell influenced the creation of PMRC (parents music resource center) back in the 1980’s which bought us the “Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics” stickers on our records/CDs that are still with us today. But it’s much more serious for us here in parts of South East Asia, where Jerry Falwell’s ideas are used by right wing militants- to murder Socialist/Left Wing activists from 1970’s till the present.

To me, Jerry Falwell’s legacy of his “Moral Dictum” of harassing and vilifying the non-Christian members of the human race is tantamount to “cultural genocide.” His “follower’s” utter disregard for environmental concerns brought us global warming which they claim as their right by virtue of “Anglo-Saxon Manifest Destiny.” Now doubt, Jerry Falwell is Al Qaeda’s raison d’être for without Al Qaeda many young Muslims think that they would be wiped out by people like Jerry Falwell before the end of the 20th Century.

Despite of Jerry Falwell’s passing, there are a lot of “Christian Bigots” lining up to take his place like Ann Coulter. She single handedly started a campaign of “cultural genocide” to anyone who doesn’t subscribe to the “Moral Majority’s” views. If she gets enough political power and clout, Ann Coulter would allow legislation of a law that would outlaw anthropology and shut down the National Geographic Society.

When God Goes To War

2008-01-03T02:24:00.000-08:00

From the Biblical “conflicts” and Medieval Crusades to the present day sectarian violence in Iraq. Is God’s big plan about us killing each other off?

By: Vanessa Uy

Why does an ideology that supposes to foster brotherhood and sisterhood for all mankind- became a platform for- most if not all recent conflicts and strife? No, I’m not talking about Marxist-Leninist Socialism for those of you who are “Cold War” veterans out there. I’m talking about this arcane ideology where God say’s one thing and the followers do another, in other words- religion. I’m not one of those people who subscribe to the notion that Iraq is the Arabic for Yugoslavia. This schism in monotheism has been around since these only-one-God organized religious groups became established. In Jerusalem, where this “covenant” between the one and only God and mankind was consecrated, we were one step closer to universal peace. In actuality though, a “holy industry” was established which became a tourist attraction of itself. But it also spawned the inevitable unholy rivalry between the faiths. If you look at Judaism, Christianity, and Islam closely, you could see both the kinship and the disparity between them. How’s that for cognitive dissonance T.S. Elliot style.

The schisms that were grabbing news headlines at present are between Sunni and Shia Muslims being played out in the major urban centers of Iraq. While in the Christian front, it’s usually a sensationalized shouting match on “Faith TV” as opposed to the IRA bombings in Dublin, Ireland more than 20 years ago. In seeking answers to why something that’s so beautiful with lofty altruistic aims for mankind could become something ugly like a Holy War probably is a question for the ages. But I think we should have the moral responsibility to avoid our ignorance blinding our faith.

The present rift between Islam and the West has its roots on injustice, especially on how the United States Government conducts their “War on Terror.” Would the same powers-that-be investigate the links between The Vatican and the IRA. Or what about when Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in April of 1995, nobody placed 700 Club’s Pat Robertson and Rev. Jerry Falwell under surveillance. But when Osama Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda launched a suicide attack at the World Trade Center Building towers on September 11, 2001, Muslims worldwide are still feeling the “inconvenience” of George W. Bush’s “War on Terror.” This undoubtedly brought about by a convenient scapegoat of the “intelligence reports” that the Arab elite are funding the spread of the “Wahhabi Doctrine” by any means necessary.

Here in the Philippines- religion should not be relegated by the government as a mere “philosophical abstraction.” There are human ramifications on what the general population perceive as canon / dogma or fact in relation to how they conduct themselves in a pluralistic society. I have first hand experience on the mindset of these supposedly God fearing Christians. They are self-styled Christian Supremacists who abhor a -2400 Fulton Street San Francisco-or a-Seattle, Washington-style pluralism. They don’t want Muslims, Feminists and Communists to be integrated into mainstream society. They hassled most –if not all-of my friends during most of 1999 imposing their own agendas about their outlandish Bill Gates / Microsoft / Y2K Bug / 666 conspiracy theories.

A few days ago, I visited the web sites of both Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) and the Revolutionary Anti- Imperialist League (RAIL). Their views on extra judicial killings / murders of Left-leaning organizations like “Gabriela” here in the Philippines perked my interest and since this became a hot topic recently. To me either the RAIL “blogger” doesn’t live here or is practicing self-censorship because he or she lacked vital knowledge on the kind of Christianity that’s practiced here in the Philippines. The RAIL “blogger” probably doesn’t share my daily experience with these gun-toting Christian Supremacists who see sexual equality / liberation and pluralism as no different from Marxist-Leninist Socialism and who believe they have a shot of sainthood by killing anyone who harbors such thoughts. Does these murders become extra judicial when the present administration does a very lousy job in educating the Christian majority about basic human rights or at least the “Cold War” is over and that there never was an “Evil Empire.” In the US, these supposedly extra judicial killings are labeled as hate crimes for the religious component I just mentioned. You may think I’m a stooge of the current administration, but don’t hate me for telling it like it is. I live in a culture where most- if not all- of the people go about with a blind obedience to the Christian God. A culture victimized by 500 years of genocidal Catholic oppression. A culture that doesn’t even have an equivalent- word for extra judicial killing and hate crime in their native vocabulary. It’s really hard to change a group of people whose religious leaders think that Sufi Islam and Hinduism are pseudo-religions founded by 1960’s rock stars and hippies.

Who Owns God?

2008-01-03T02:18:00.000-08:00

By: Vanessa Uy

“Anything done out of love is beyond good and evil.”Thus spake Friedrich Nietzsche.In the ten years of my mortal existence I had always wondered what the phrase “God is Love” means.Currently one of the loudest voices- claiming- infalliability- though- short- in- correctnes today are the Evangelical Christians.Since their Talibanization in the late 1990’s for hyping the Y2k Bug, they have in my opinion,abandoned all rational thought,the only thing needed to establish a dialogue between the Christian West and Islam.But enough about the altruistically themed adverts circulating in the BBC and CNN.

First, some axes to grind.For the most part,Evangelical Christians have a fairly limited ambition.On a personal level,they want to gain this supposedly “Eternal Life” stuff and annoy anyone of us who doesn’t subscribe to their belief system (though not necessarily in that order);on a professional level, they want you to learn,albeit forcibly,about Jesus Christ.And usually that’s about as far as it goes.

Me,on the other hand ,wants more. Not the one content with the usual fire and brimstone rhetoric,I just want to pull a deeper resonance every time I am invited by my Buddhist , Jewish,and Muslim friends to join them in celebrating one of their various high holidays;I’m somewhat disinterested in the dogmatic good versus evil dichotomy that is so manipulated by the evangelical powers-that-be as to infringe upon our civil liberties like going to certain art exhibitions and listening to music.In short ,how can the Christian West respect the beliefs and customs of other civilizations if they don’t respect the civil liberties of their constituents?

It isn’t that left-leaning-feminist-liberals such as myself fail in their attempts to advance Western Civilization or humanities collective perception about God,or are even wrong for wanting to do so.Maybee I’m just avoiding being pigeonholed by a media perception of feminists as spoiled rotten rich kids, anglo liberal inside,whatever color outside.We do care about how the rest of humanity looks at the Holy Church or Western Civilization.A media perception that in the mid 1990’s we came very close to achieving our ambitions of a utopic society could be our battle cry or our collective raison d’etre at best.

But the fact of the matter is that almost all organized religions really doesn’t need reinventing.Moreover ,feminist- liberals as a lot still seems a little too brainy for our own good.Sure ,altruism,the kind practiced by the evangelical powers-that-be,is a very noble idea,but like the amoral,money hungry Corporate World,they are run by people,who are in general more interested in self gain (material wealth,a good afterlife).Evangelical Christianity isn’t exactly the sort of philosophy that thrives on introspective reflection i.e. free thinking.

Should feminist-liberals shoulder the burden in establishing a dialogue that will result into a fruitful outcome in improving relations between Islam and the West.If we succeed,we may well rewrite the book on how the media and humanity should perceive God.Until then,however,there’s this late 20th.century movement called “empty materialism” or shop ‘till you drop for the uninitiated,an idea that’s much easier to acquire.