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.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Monday, January 31, 2011
Will Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution Free the Arab World?
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.
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.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Philippine OFWs: Swing Vote of the 2010 Philippine Presidential Elections?
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.
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?
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.
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.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Fall of the Berlin Wall – 20 Years After
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?
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?
Friday, October 16, 2009
President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize: Too Premature?
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.
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.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Remembering Corazon Aquino
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.
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.
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