pnoy ako, pnoy tayo org poster (in support of noynoy aquino's presidential bid in 2010)

Preaching to the choir

They say people who blog (bloggers), a tremendous percentage of which are well-educated, well-informed, "well-off" and well-"everything", are the ones running the "online show" -- and this assumption is not without basis. Go ahead and search the net for familiar terms and you'll most likely see the same blog over and over again. Another case of the "bourgeois" lording over the masa crowd looking for vital information online? Maybe.

An unwitting, unconnected, un-influential, regular Joe searching for "best presidentiable" being diverted by Google to so and so's PR9 blog and being lectured and enjoined to vote for "change" -- the good old "good vs. evil"  sort of mentality -- putting personalities in a box or grooming a personality to fit in a customized box. Continue reading →

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There is no greater honor for a blogger like me than be dedicated an entire post as response to one article I've written, specially if it's from no less than one of those bloggers I have great respect for. It doesn't even matter if that blogger disagrees with me or not.

True to his blog's tagline, @cocoy is indeed "conservative in what he says, liberal in what he accepts". If you are a reader who disagrees with most of what I write, please do yourself a favor by reading his response -- he will give you a crash course in  "Disagreeing with Grace 101" and "The Art of Subtle Yet Effective Persuasion". Very nice article, @cocoy. I enjoyed reading it.

And now, to return the favor... :)

I actually wanted to leave a comment there but it turned out longer than his post so in the interest of unwritten net propriety I had to do it here. I apologize in advance for this lengthy post. I do not have the time to edit and make it shorter.

The question, I think is not whether Noynoy is too good to be true but rather more on whether he can deliver results as he promises. It is not whether his character is "without reproach" but more on whether his character is strong enough to weather the storms (political and natural) that is sure to continually hit us. It is not whether he is experienced or not. The question is whether experience will "make him" or "break him".

@Cocoy writes:

Perhaps, more than the assertion that Noynoy Aquino is inexperienced, this is something he must overcome. RJ has a point. And she isn't alone. It isn't merely, Noynoy Aquino but more than twenty years of failure by our leaders to lift our people out of poverty. It is like a woman breaking your heart, over and over again. How then do you trust?

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This resolution filed last November 2008 by Congressman Luis Villafuerte of Camarines Sure, who happens to be a kababayan (both of my parents hail from Camarines Sur, Bicol) which was not intended for any other purpose but to ask the Supreme Court on voting procedures by the Senate and the House (how to vote — separately or collectively?) is now being fashioned in a way that may serve the purpose of a select few and  not the benefit of the whole Filipino nation. As of this time, he has declared withdrawal of support to the resolution he himself authored and consequently withdrew from the party as well so he’s now independent, so to speak. Are we seeing moro-moro style tactics here?  Continue reading →

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Photo by London Permaculture

Amidst this economic crisis we are faced with, news articles still have room for politics and 2010 elections-related articles. That's not surprising -- considering how grossly-invested we are in our politics.

I've read a few hundred news feeds today (most of those I merely "scanned" and skimmed-through) as I don't exactly have all day to read all, you know. Well, I've read the usual -- the Obama frenzy, the doomsday economic prophecies, the life sentence given to Rizal Day LRT bombers, etc. But this one article written by Mark Ubalde of GMANews.tv was interesting enough to me that I read the entire article. Continue reading →

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"There is nothing easier than lopping off heads and nothing harder than developing ideas." -- Fyodor Dostoevsky

"I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of their way and let them have it."

"Wars are seldom caused by spontaneous hatreds between people, for peoples in general are too ignorant of one another to have grievances and too indifferent to what goes on beyond their borders to plan conquests. They must be urged to the slaughter by politicians who know how to alarm them." Henry Mencken

"There is no such thing as a good war and there is no such thing as a bad peace." Benjamin Franklin

"Short-circuiting the long-established principles of patient negotiation leads to war, not peace." Jimmy Carter

I miss the good old days -- when things weren't as complicated as they are now. It seemed rather peaceful then (or so I thought). Fact is, the world in general has not been truly peaceful at any time. Wars are as constant as change. And this world has seen one too many wars. There will always be small wars fought in certain parts of the world for all sorts of reason. I think humankind has a penchant for wars -- probably part of what makes us human -- to be hostile at times when certain boundaries are crossed. Continue reading →

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The reality of poverty, for most of our brothers and sisters follow them to their death -- as is the case with Mang Pandoy -- the man showcased in the SONA (State of the Nation Address) by then President Fidel V. Ramos as a representative of the poor whose lives he aims to improve. Many years after that, the man born poor died poor. If you find it too harsh a word, I'm pretty sure there's a more politically-correct term for that. Underprivileged? Less fortunate? Economically-challenged? Gah. Does it matter how we call it? Apparently, it does not. For if we examine closely, "terms" don't change a reality. Is there anything more glaring than the reality of your family's incapacity to even give you a proper burial? My friends, Mang Pandoy lies "clad in a faded violet shirt, laid in an ordinary wooden coffin". His death is no poorer than the life he lived. The man clearly died "waiting on the world to change" -- waiting on his economic status to at least change from bad to fair. He died waiting for a chance at a better life. Continue reading →

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