THE recent wave of popular uprising that started on December 18, 2011 in Tunisia has now escalated far and wide. It was beyond the imagination of even the most astute social forecasters. For who would even thought that Hosni Mubarak would bow out that fast after 30 years of power in Egypt? Or, most astonishingly, who would have ever drawn up a scenario for a demagogue like Colonel Muammar Gaddafi doing a game-over by hiding like a rat under a culvert toward his death whereas in 2008 he was bestowed by African rulers with the title “King of Kings” with 42 years of iron rule in Libya?
Albeit initially disorganized and seemingly spontaneous, this movement has been referred to as Arab Spring, probably because it has beaconed new hope and awakening for the Arab world that has been resistant to change for quite a time now. Global observers have identified the following factors that led to the popular protests: dictatorship or absolute monarchy, human rights violations, government corruption, economic decline, among others. All these add up to the cry for changing of political leadership; while others have been forcibly dethroned, the rest have promised to step down at the end of their terms—unless, of course, the protesters make it sooner.
Inspired by the Arab Spring comes now the Occupy Wall Street Movement. It started on September 17 at the financial district of New York City. On its 48th day at press time, this initiative has now snowballed to about 900 cities worldwide. Like its inspiration, this too is a leaderless people-powered uprising. But the main difference is this is not directed to a particular leader. It is apparently addressed to the well-entrenched financial system that has bred social injustice, global economic imbalance, corporate greed and the darkest side of capitalism. Taken seriously, this is sending a very chilling message to world, so that even the Vatican has issued an 18-page document on it, entitled, “Towards Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of a Global Public Authority.” The document calls for the establishment of a “global authority” and a “central world bank” to rule over financial institutions that have become outdated and often ineffective in addressing current financial mess.
But will these movements reach the Philippines shores? The chair of the CBCP Commission on Social Action, Justice and Peace, Bishop Broderick Pabillo, answers in the affirmative. He says, “In the Philippines, we find similar restlessness brewing among our sectoral group…this rising tide of discontent, coupled by the indifference of the general public, is substance for insurgency which the Church hopes to stem.” In the nearest future, he is convening a social reform movement which he calls “Kilusang 99%” which is about “making the poor the center of development and making the government accountable for the welfare of the majority.”
Friday, November 04, 2011
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Year of Faith
POPE Benedict the XVI has officially announced the Year of Faith that will commence on October 11, 2012 and end on November 24, 2013—the feast of Christ the King. This will mark the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council and the 20th anniversary of Blessed John Paul II’s publication of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
The formal announcement was made last October 15 during an international conference on new evangelization held in Rome that was attended by 33 bishops’ conferences and 115 new movements, organizations, charismatic groups, parish renewal programs and study groups; convened by the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization.
The intention and content of the Year of Faith is extensively explained in an Apostolic Letter entitled “Porta Fidei” (The Door of Faith) which the Vatican released two days after the formal announcement of the Year of Faith.
This, of course, is all about the new evangelization which the Holy Father is strongly pursuing in response to a “profound crisis of faith that has affected many people” the world over. In Porta Fidei, he reveals, “Ever since the start of my ministry as Successor of Peter, I have spoken of the need to rediscover the journey of faith so as to shed ever clearer light on the joy and renewed enthusiasm of the encounter with Christ.”
If the composition of those who were invited to the international conference on the new evangelization where the Year of Faith was formally announced were any indicator, then one may surmise of the directions this new initiative is going to take. Present during conference were the so-called leaders of Communion and Liberation, namely, the Community of Sant’Egidio, the Neo-Catechumenal Way, the Emmanuel Community, the Charismatic renewal communities, the Brazilian media group Cancao Nova, and an Italian parish renewal group. Reportedly, the new Catholic movements dominated the crowd—which may be a manifestation about a heavily but spontaneously emerging pastoral in the Church today.
But even more telling were the topics discussed during the same conference. The discussions focused largely on how to better evangelize in the area of culture, in political involvement, in the use of media, and in the regular apostolate of among migrants, families and parishes.
The opening of the Year of Faith will be occasioned by the General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in October 2012 on the theme “The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith”. It will be interesting, and one can hardly wait, how the Synod will come up with the new ways of transmitting the faith so that, as the Pope pointed out, there will be a “renewed energy to the mission of the whole church to lead men and women out of the desert they often are in…” But will the android, the apps and the iPad be counted?
The formal announcement was made last October 15 during an international conference on new evangelization held in Rome that was attended by 33 bishops’ conferences and 115 new movements, organizations, charismatic groups, parish renewal programs and study groups; convened by the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization.
The intention and content of the Year of Faith is extensively explained in an Apostolic Letter entitled “Porta Fidei” (The Door of Faith) which the Vatican released two days after the formal announcement of the Year of Faith.
This, of course, is all about the new evangelization which the Holy Father is strongly pursuing in response to a “profound crisis of faith that has affected many people” the world over. In Porta Fidei, he reveals, “Ever since the start of my ministry as Successor of Peter, I have spoken of the need to rediscover the journey of faith so as to shed ever clearer light on the joy and renewed enthusiasm of the encounter with Christ.”
If the composition of those who were invited to the international conference on the new evangelization where the Year of Faith was formally announced were any indicator, then one may surmise of the directions this new initiative is going to take. Present during conference were the so-called leaders of Communion and Liberation, namely, the Community of Sant’Egidio, the Neo-Catechumenal Way, the Emmanuel Community, the Charismatic renewal communities, the Brazilian media group Cancao Nova, and an Italian parish renewal group. Reportedly, the new Catholic movements dominated the crowd—which may be a manifestation about a heavily but spontaneously emerging pastoral in the Church today.
But even more telling were the topics discussed during the same conference. The discussions focused largely on how to better evangelize in the area of culture, in political involvement, in the use of media, and in the regular apostolate of among migrants, families and parishes.
The opening of the Year of Faith will be occasioned by the General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in October 2012 on the theme “The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith”. It will be interesting, and one can hardly wait, how the Synod will come up with the new ways of transmitting the faith so that, as the Pope pointed out, there will be a “renewed energy to the mission of the whole church to lead men and women out of the desert they often are in…” But will the android, the apps and the iPad be counted?
Wednesday, October 05, 2011
The winter out of the Arab Spring
EARLY this year, the world was glued to the unfolding of the so-called Arab Spring that started in Tunisia and high-peaked with the expulsion of the powerful Hosni Mubarak out of his own Egypt. Most global bystanders thought that a trailblazer of a new paradigm was in the offing.
International news organizations were feeding viewers with video footages of protesting crowds who were mostly young people and who appeared not to be goaded by radical movements or extremists. In Egypt, for instance, Muslims and Christians were rallying and praying together at the Al Tahir Square. Data streams in social media were oozing with encouraging messages. At the outset there seemed to be no dent of extremism or Islamic agenda. Young people, it seemed, just wanted to live better lives like their neighbors in Europe. They never even longed for the blood of deposed government heads who fleeced their countries through decades of corruption. Nobody, of course, dared to suggest that democracy was looming in the horizon. What was certain was change was brewing—hence, the Arab Spring.
But not until last Sunday, October 9. That day “winter” started with a rather peaceful protest by Coptic Christians who were upset over the recent attack on a church in Assuan, Southern Egypt and deplored the silence of the new government at what happened. This group was part of the protesters in Al Tahir Squared that called for a change of government. In the rally, the Copts called for the resignation of the governor of the province and accused him of motivating the extremists to attack their church.
The protest which started peacefully in the spirit of the Arab Spring degenerated into total chaos when security forces reportedly intervened by violently repressing the protesters with armored vehicles. It ended with 25 dead and 500 wounded. Coptic priest Father Daoud said he saw a tank roll over 5 protesters to death.
Two days after the rampage, about 20 thousand people attended the funeral of the victims at the Coptic Cathedral in Cairo where the Coptic Patriarch Shenouda III announced three days of mourning and prayers to commemorate the victims whom they regarded as “martyrs who have saved the Church.” A Coptic, Aida Mahrous, told the press: “the next regime will be the same as the previous one. Politics will never change. To solve our problems we need to show that Christians and Muslims are one people, because otherwise the government will remain a mass of corruption.”
For now, nobody really can tell what is the next picture—except that tentacles of winter seem to be inevitably coming out of the Arab Spring.
International news organizations were feeding viewers with video footages of protesting crowds who were mostly young people and who appeared not to be goaded by radical movements or extremists. In Egypt, for instance, Muslims and Christians were rallying and praying together at the Al Tahir Square. Data streams in social media were oozing with encouraging messages. At the outset there seemed to be no dent of extremism or Islamic agenda. Young people, it seemed, just wanted to live better lives like their neighbors in Europe. They never even longed for the blood of deposed government heads who fleeced their countries through decades of corruption. Nobody, of course, dared to suggest that democracy was looming in the horizon. What was certain was change was brewing—hence, the Arab Spring.
But not until last Sunday, October 9. That day “winter” started with a rather peaceful protest by Coptic Christians who were upset over the recent attack on a church in Assuan, Southern Egypt and deplored the silence of the new government at what happened. This group was part of the protesters in Al Tahir Squared that called for a change of government. In the rally, the Copts called for the resignation of the governor of the province and accused him of motivating the extremists to attack their church.
The protest which started peacefully in the spirit of the Arab Spring degenerated into total chaos when security forces reportedly intervened by violently repressing the protesters with armored vehicles. It ended with 25 dead and 500 wounded. Coptic priest Father Daoud said he saw a tank roll over 5 protesters to death.
Two days after the rampage, about 20 thousand people attended the funeral of the victims at the Coptic Cathedral in Cairo where the Coptic Patriarch Shenouda III announced three days of mourning and prayers to commemorate the victims whom they regarded as “martyrs who have saved the Church.” A Coptic, Aida Mahrous, told the press: “the next regime will be the same as the previous one. Politics will never change. To solve our problems we need to show that Christians and Muslims are one people, because otherwise the government will remain a mass of corruption.”
For now, nobody really can tell what is the next picture—except that tentacles of winter seem to be inevitably coming out of the Arab Spring.
Saturday, October 01, 2011
Rice sufficiency
IN the wake of two successive strong typhoons “Pedring” and “Quiel” that hit Central Luzon, the Department of Agriculture gave an assurance that rice in these areas will last until December this year. Reportedly only about 350,000 metric tons of palay were damage during the typhoons, which accounts for only about half of the 800,000 MT surplus of the 3 million MT of palay that this region’s farmers produce annually.
In a press conference of late, Agriculture Undersecretary Joel Rodinas was quoted saying, “Our food requirements for this year are fully secure even with the typhoons and floods. We have an assurance from the NFA (National Food Authority) until next (palay) harvest that we are fully secured.” He noted that the NFA has presently a stock of 200,000 metric tons of rice. NFA administrator Angelito Banayo confirmed this and disclosed that procurement of rice is still on-going in areas not affected by typhoon particularly in Panay island and Central Mindanao.
Without sounding politically bias, this development at the agriculture department seems to pursue a change of paradigm. In past administrations, the commonly heard strategies, or at least in news stories, were about “rice shortages,” “importations” and, worse, tons of rice rotting in NFA warehouses. Those were the times when even churches would be engaged by Malacañang to participate in a program called “Bigasan ng Bayan” which was about trading to the poor cheap but low quality rice that was imported from Vietnam or some other neighboring Asian countries.
Strangely enough, the issue then was not about rice importations despite the thriving of rice cartels; perhaps because the country has been numbed to a resignation that it is not capable of self-sufficiency especially in terms of rice production.
Which was why, perhaps, there were raised eyebrows when Department of Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala expressed optimism that the Philippines will be rice self-sufficient in 2013—despite a low government budget for rice program of only P5.217 billion in 2011, which is definitely lower than the condom program of Senator Pia Cayetano who is emotionally hard-pushing for a P13.7 billion budget for the implementation of the Reproductive Health Bill in 2012.
Ground data appear to be sustaining the Alcala optimism as the Department of Agriculture seem on track with a rice sufficiency program dubbed as “Food Staples Self-sufficiency Roadmap (FSSR) that consists of three main strategies: increase and sustain production of grains, improve farm mechanization and reduce postharvest losses, and manage consumption. Nobody really can tell if at the end of the day this scheme will succeed or not. But what really matters for now is the idea that maybe this country which used to be listed as one of the major rice importers in the world can be self-sufficient in rice after all.
In a press conference of late, Agriculture Undersecretary Joel Rodinas was quoted saying, “Our food requirements for this year are fully secure even with the typhoons and floods. We have an assurance from the NFA (National Food Authority) until next (palay) harvest that we are fully secured.” He noted that the NFA has presently a stock of 200,000 metric tons of rice. NFA administrator Angelito Banayo confirmed this and disclosed that procurement of rice is still on-going in areas not affected by typhoon particularly in Panay island and Central Mindanao.
Without sounding politically bias, this development at the agriculture department seems to pursue a change of paradigm. In past administrations, the commonly heard strategies, or at least in news stories, were about “rice shortages,” “importations” and, worse, tons of rice rotting in NFA warehouses. Those were the times when even churches would be engaged by Malacañang to participate in a program called “Bigasan ng Bayan” which was about trading to the poor cheap but low quality rice that was imported from Vietnam or some other neighboring Asian countries.
Strangely enough, the issue then was not about rice importations despite the thriving of rice cartels; perhaps because the country has been numbed to a resignation that it is not capable of self-sufficiency especially in terms of rice production.
Which was why, perhaps, there were raised eyebrows when Department of Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala expressed optimism that the Philippines will be rice self-sufficient in 2013—despite a low government budget for rice program of only P5.217 billion in 2011, which is definitely lower than the condom program of Senator Pia Cayetano who is emotionally hard-pushing for a P13.7 billion budget for the implementation of the Reproductive Health Bill in 2012.
Ground data appear to be sustaining the Alcala optimism as the Department of Agriculture seem on track with a rice sufficiency program dubbed as “Food Staples Self-sufficiency Roadmap (FSSR) that consists of three main strategies: increase and sustain production of grains, improve farm mechanization and reduce postharvest losses, and manage consumption. Nobody really can tell if at the end of the day this scheme will succeed or not. But what really matters for now is the idea that maybe this country which used to be listed as one of the major rice importers in the world can be self-sufficient in rice after all.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Gambling money worsens the poor
IN July this year, the Senate inquiry on the cars granted by Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) to a couple of bishops has shown that the supposedly well-crafted PR work of PCSO to demolish the church (that is staunchly against the legislation of the Reproductive Health Bill) was not too well-crafted after all—it backfired. Cans of worms were opened and the public saw how this gambling institution has misused hefty funds for purposes other than those allowed by its Charter—including intelligence work, advertizing and, allegedly, electioneering.
But it did not stop there. A few days ago, the PCSO leadership started a new tirade. This time, it threatened to delist the erstwhile favorite charity beneficiaries—the religious organizations. Names of church institutions were exposed together with the amount of money they have been receiving from gambling.
And this is where a more serious issue looms.
Since 1996, the Bishops have already issued four pastoral statements strongly discouraging the use gambling money for charitable work for the poor. In its latest statement on gambling issued in 2005, the bishops says: “For it is most unfortunate that in our situation of poverty today public funds gained from legal gambling are often the only resource for the poor to be assisted adequately. Even if this were so, the CBCP does not encourage this manner of helping the poor. It could easily be construed as approving and promoting the culture of gambling and thereby scandalize the faithful.”
Understandably enough, some church people would rationalize receiving money even from devil himself if only to help the poor. But on closer scrutiny, in the Philippine context nobody helps poor people by giving them a short term relief that gambling money provides. Rather, the poor becomes even poorer, because a short-term provision cannot redeem a long-term devastation to the psyche of the poor that has wallowed deep into the culture of gambling. When one becomes such, he loses his capability for industry, his right sense of values and finally his dignity.
The bishops’ 2005 statements says it better: “However, applying the general moral principle to the specific Philippine situation, the CBCP has deemed it necessary to state on several occasions that the form of gambling that is organized, widespread, and systemic, whether legal or illegal, is not desirable. It is creating a culture of gambling that is seriously eroding the moral values of our people. In its illegal form, especially jueteng, gambling has bred a clandestine network of corruption that feeds itself on the hundreds of millions of pesos lost to gambling especially by the poor.”
Time now for a few church people to part with PCSO and the pseudo-charity that gambling money provides.
But it did not stop there. A few days ago, the PCSO leadership started a new tirade. This time, it threatened to delist the erstwhile favorite charity beneficiaries—the religious organizations. Names of church institutions were exposed together with the amount of money they have been receiving from gambling.
And this is where a more serious issue looms.
Since 1996, the Bishops have already issued four pastoral statements strongly discouraging the use gambling money for charitable work for the poor. In its latest statement on gambling issued in 2005, the bishops says: “For it is most unfortunate that in our situation of poverty today public funds gained from legal gambling are often the only resource for the poor to be assisted adequately. Even if this were so, the CBCP does not encourage this manner of helping the poor. It could easily be construed as approving and promoting the culture of gambling and thereby scandalize the faithful.”
Understandably enough, some church people would rationalize receiving money even from devil himself if only to help the poor. But on closer scrutiny, in the Philippine context nobody helps poor people by giving them a short term relief that gambling money provides. Rather, the poor becomes even poorer, because a short-term provision cannot redeem a long-term devastation to the psyche of the poor that has wallowed deep into the culture of gambling. When one becomes such, he loses his capability for industry, his right sense of values and finally his dignity.
The bishops’ 2005 statements says it better: “However, applying the general moral principle to the specific Philippine situation, the CBCP has deemed it necessary to state on several occasions that the form of gambling that is organized, widespread, and systemic, whether legal or illegal, is not desirable. It is creating a culture of gambling that is seriously eroding the moral values of our people. In its illegal form, especially jueteng, gambling has bred a clandestine network of corruption that feeds itself on the hundreds of millions of pesos lost to gambling especially by the poor.”
Time now for a few church people to part with PCSO and the pseudo-charity that gambling money provides.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
The pro-RH lie
IN last week’s senate hearing a Pro-RH Senator finally admitted that the heavily hyped eleven maternal deaths per day in the Philippines is a public relations phrase “used by NGOs to drive home a point.” The doctoring of statistics is certainly a case of intellectual dishonesty that can never be whitewashed by any intention no matter how good.
In this case, the intention is even doubly dubious in the sense that it is now obviously deceiving some tax payers into believing that there is an urgent need for a legislation that will cut down on maternal deaths. But of course more frightening is the fact that this deception has found its way into text books of schools to teach young minds and ultimately trigger a perspective and behavior that will look at pregnancy as death-causing and therefore should be avoided like a disease. And look at how the pro-RH diehards are trying to convince legislators and the public that birth control pills are “essential medicines”.
The “driving home a point” alibi is not actually as comfortable and slight as it seems; it is actually a lot more penetrating that will sadly cause a long term effect in education and mores, like it is now happening in the West and in most European countries. Naiveté aside, the scheme is sinister, the program is global.
The same maybe said of the gigantic figures of abortion incidence in the country that Senator Santiago has raised to 570,000 annually which, if true, is easily half the number of abortions in the United States where abortion is legal and where the population is roughly four times more than the Philippines.
Reportedly, she has based her claim on the 2008 extrapolations by the Guttmacher Institute and the UP Population Institute—which analogically is like asking thieves about the incidence robberies in the country. The New York-based Guttmacher Institute is the former research arm of the pro-abortion group Planned Parenthood, the largest provider of abortion services in the US.
Of course these abortion figures are, to borrow Santiago’s term, “taken from thin air.” The Guttmacher statistics were mere extrapolations of a projected 90,000 or so admissions in hospitals across the country in 2008 due to abortion complications and then multiplying it by a factor of 6 or 7. At the Senate Hearing last week, this prompted Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile to say: “In other words this may or may not be true,” referring to the half billion alleged cases of abortion in the country annually, to which Santiago replied in the affirmative.
But one thing good with the RH Bill debates is that cans of worms are getting opened and more lies are being exposed. Another one is, in all debates conducted by television networks that are mostly pro-RH, the numbers are slowly but surely favoring where the truth is.
In this case, the intention is even doubly dubious in the sense that it is now obviously deceiving some tax payers into believing that there is an urgent need for a legislation that will cut down on maternal deaths. But of course more frightening is the fact that this deception has found its way into text books of schools to teach young minds and ultimately trigger a perspective and behavior that will look at pregnancy as death-causing and therefore should be avoided like a disease. And look at how the pro-RH diehards are trying to convince legislators and the public that birth control pills are “essential medicines”.
The “driving home a point” alibi is not actually as comfortable and slight as it seems; it is actually a lot more penetrating that will sadly cause a long term effect in education and mores, like it is now happening in the West and in most European countries. Naiveté aside, the scheme is sinister, the program is global.
The same maybe said of the gigantic figures of abortion incidence in the country that Senator Santiago has raised to 570,000 annually which, if true, is easily half the number of abortions in the United States where abortion is legal and where the population is roughly four times more than the Philippines.
Reportedly, she has based her claim on the 2008 extrapolations by the Guttmacher Institute and the UP Population Institute—which analogically is like asking thieves about the incidence robberies in the country. The New York-based Guttmacher Institute is the former research arm of the pro-abortion group Planned Parenthood, the largest provider of abortion services in the US.
Of course these abortion figures are, to borrow Santiago’s term, “taken from thin air.” The Guttmacher statistics were mere extrapolations of a projected 90,000 or so admissions in hospitals across the country in 2008 due to abortion complications and then multiplying it by a factor of 6 or 7. At the Senate Hearing last week, this prompted Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile to say: “In other words this may or may not be true,” referring to the half billion alleged cases of abortion in the country annually, to which Santiago replied in the affirmative.
But one thing good with the RH Bill debates is that cans of worms are getting opened and more lies are being exposed. Another one is, in all debates conducted by television networks that are mostly pro-RH, the numbers are slowly but surely favoring where the truth is.
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