We don't understand the President of the Philippines' politics of hate, anger, and, maybe, disgust against the United States, where a great number of Filipinos have immigrated and settled. The more he talks, the more he reveals he has little knowledge about the Americans.
President Duterte's inflammatory statements not only against the US, but also against the United Nations and the European Union are useless and disclose only his ignorance of the theory and practice of international diplomacy, not to say, the nuances and intricacies of geopolitics.
At least 100 village folks, at the blogger' prodding, voted for Mr. Duterte as President in the May elections because they believe he would make a difference. The presidents who came after Ferdinand Marcos--Cory Aquino, Fidel Ramos, Joseph Estrada who was ousted for economic plunder; Gloria Arroyo, and Benigno Simeon Aquino III--were all monumental failures. Now, he has become disgusting.
Is he jeopardizing the Fil-Americans who, at 4 million individuals, comprise the second largest Asian Americans in the United States?
***
The Number one Ilokano Writer of His Generation
Poet, philosopher, teacher, the Ilokano icon is always in his elements writing exquisite lines and thoughts as if plumbing from an inexhaustible source of wisdom, nobility, spirituality.
Thursday, October 27, 2016
Friday, October 14, 2016
Tuesday, October 11, 2016
CROSSING THE RIVER TO FREEDOM
Freedom from what?
Freedom from fear so you can plan to achieve your goals in life. Freedom to swing your arms, but alert where the other person's nose begins.
Freedom from anything that you can do without as the years go on: beliefs, possessions?
What are these beliefs? Belief in the Almighty God? Belief in the sanctity of marriage? Belief in the karmic law?
What are these possessions that must be thrown away or given to others?
Books, old newspapers and magazines, old shirts, old brand jeans, old brand rubber shoes, diplomas hanging on the walls.
Do you need them when you cross the Great Divide?
Expand, expand. Ideas are not coming. Are they locked somewhere in the mind? Or the ideas are just not there in a corner of the old mind?
****
Quotations from great writers in fiction
"A writer is at his best only when writing within the character and range of deepest sympathies."--Willa Cather
"The job of the fiction writer is simply to make actual the mystery of our position on earth."--Flannery O'Connor
"The greatest poverty is not to live in a physical world, to feel that one's desire is to difficult to tell from despair."--Wallace Stevens
Freedom from fear so you can plan to achieve your goals in life. Freedom to swing your arms, but alert where the other person's nose begins.
Freedom from anything that you can do without as the years go on: beliefs, possessions?
What are these beliefs? Belief in the Almighty God? Belief in the sanctity of marriage? Belief in the karmic law?
What are these possessions that must be thrown away or given to others?
Books, old newspapers and magazines, old shirts, old brand jeans, old brand rubber shoes, diplomas hanging on the walls.
Do you need them when you cross the Great Divide?
Expand, expand. Ideas are not coming. Are they locked somewhere in the mind? Or the ideas are just not there in a corner of the old mind?
****
Quotations from great writers in fiction
"A writer is at his best only when writing within the character and range of deepest sympathies."--Willa Cather
"The job of the fiction writer is simply to make actual the mystery of our position on earth."--Flannery O'Connor
"The greatest poverty is not to live in a physical world, to feel that one's desire is to difficult to tell from despair."--Wallace Stevens
Saturday, October 1, 2016
FILIPINO ADOLF HITLER?
He must have used "Hitler" as hyperbole, or in a sarcastic manner, in describing how he would deal with his country's 3.3 million drug pushers and drug addicts--slaughter them as what Adolf Hitler, the dictator of Nazi Germany did to the 5.5 millions Jews who perished in the Holocaust.He touched a raw nerve and now he is reaping bitter reactions, nay censure, from not only Israel but from the US, the United Nations and Germany.
He has since apologized to the Jews, not only in the Philippines, but all over the world.
Nevertheless, somebody should tell President Duterte to moderate his language, especially in the presence of international media who sometimes distort his message in translation. His foul mouth is creating enemies not only for himself but for his country, the Philippines with more than 100 million population, most of whom are poor and living below the poverty line.
He has since apologized to the Jews, not only in the Philippines, but all over the world.
Nevertheless, somebody should tell President Duterte to moderate his language, especially in the presence of international media who sometimes distort his message in translation. His foul mouth is creating enemies not only for himself but for his country, the Philippines with more than 100 million population, most of whom are poor and living below the poverty line.
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