A DATE WITH HISTORY

December 26. With Mother Lily, Dr. Voltaire Joseph, Rene, Estelita, Peter at Cabrillo National Monument in San Diego, CA.

The place which overlooks the city of San Diego was named after the explorer of California, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo who and his crew "sailed into this harbor and became the first Europeans to set foot on what would later become the west cost of the United States."--from a post card.

It was late in the afternoon, when we arrived here and cars were still making a bee-line for the entrance where a fee was collected for each vehicle. DR. Bong flashed her mother's senior card for US parks and we were waved in by the guard in US uniform.

***

"We all have choices in the way we react to the words we hear. Our lives and the lives of all those around us will be significantly improved if we choose to react positively rather than negatively."--Ben Carson, author of "One Nation"

MAINSTREAM MEDIA AS PURVEYORS OF HALF-LIES AND DISINFORMATION

     Philippine mainstream media, print and broadcast, have a tendency to warp their news and opinions and convey them as gospel truths. This is not journalism of the 5 Ws ( who, where, why, what, when) and H (how) variety. Whatever genre the journalist writes--news, editorial, feature--he or she starts the facts that must be checked, doubled checked if need be. This is not only accuracy with respect to names of persons and things and places, but on statements or quotations made by persons of interest or subject matter especially those controversial comments.

     Sadly to say, these mainstream media, for the most part, don't dig deeper on the why and how of things they are looking for. "Bias" is the name of their game that give them handsome dividends.

     For example, they keep on harping on human rights abuses committed during the martial law regime, blaming everything to Ferdinand Marcos, referring to him as dictator and Hitler. (Describing Marcos as dictator and liking him to Hitler is fiction, not objective journalism. Why the name-calling? Did Marcos kill or ordered the killing of people? And how many people were killed during his reign? Millions as did Hitler who caused the gassing of 6 million Jews?)

     If these abuses were really a fait accompli, who did it or what forces under the command of Marcos committed them? His private army? Or the Armed Forces of the Philippines that were at his beck and call at that time? Did he order the executions  of these victims? Did he issue a presidential decree to the effect?

     Manila Times columnist Roberto Tiglao, who headed a communist party group in Southern Tagalog during the martial law regime, has written about the Philippine Constabulary, then headed by Fidel Ramos, that did most of the human rights abuses. Ramos, who became president of the Philippines after Cory Aquino, has not refuted the charges.

    Who were these victims? Were they combatants, physically and mentally? Did they belong to the Kabataang Makabayan, a creation of Jose Maria Sison, the former caudillo of the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New People's Army?

     And many other questions that mainstream media appear to have ignored since Ferdinand Marcos was ousted in 1986?

THE KNOWN AND THE UNKNOWN

     In relation to the election, a fait accompli, of a president:

     Known things are scary and it is possible that more scary are things that happened that are or were not known and things that will yet to happen. The blogger and his wife flew to the US legally and entered the American dream, but sometimes we shudder and try not to forget to remember all these things.

     Yet hope springs eternal, as they say, and we expect to enjoy our days in the so-called land of milk and honey.

The Bishops' Theological Confusion Or Dementia?

Does it follow that, by their behavior against Ferdinand Marcos and his heirs, Philippine archbishops worship the God of Wrath of the Old Testament?

(The deity with the tetragrammaton name would not forgive a transgression, even if the deed is committed by just one man, and would destroy, as he did in Biblical times, the sinner and all members of his tribe including his animals.)

Or are the bishops suffering from theological confusion, or selective dementia, and forget that they are the High Priests of the Compassionate Almighty God?

And speaking of accountability, how can a dead man make up for what he did, whatever these are? His heirs had nothing to do with what he committed during his lifetime. This is the askew logic of Marcos haters.

Banner near the St. William Cathedral in Laoag City, Ilocos Norte 

The Ilocos Norte Provincial Capitol

Tired and weary of reading hate messages, especially those excoriating a corpse.

It is absurd, inhuman and un-Christian to kick a dead horse or spit or urinate on a cadaver.

***

"First, learn much and seek to understand it profoundly."--Talmud 

THEY BUNGLED THEIR OPPORTUNITY TO EFFECT CHANGES IN THE PHILIPPINES

HATE AND ANGER AS HINDRANCES TO Human EVOLUTION
     Or Economic Progress,if you may. Also political, social

Ferdinand Marcos was toppled from power in the so-called Edsa People Power Revolution. That was more than 30 years ago. They wanted to change the socio-economic political conditions with the mind-sets that did not go beyond hate and anger. Obsessed with what happened in the past--atrocities, human rights abuses, perceived murders of those who fought the "dictatorship"(their), and other grievances, they miserably failed because they could not shake off the old habits that overwhelmed them--greed, betrayals, revenge.

They could not shake off the hate and anger that dominated them.

Meantime, did they and this generation ask why Mr. Marcos proclaimed martial law in 1972? What was the situation in the Philippines and the world at that time?

For the young people, especially those students from exclusive colleges and universities, mostly in Metro Manila, why don't they ask questions and make their research and read history during the period?

Why did Marcos proclaim martial law? Was it to extend his term/power as elected president?
Who is Jose Maria Sison? Was the "hero" Ninoy Aquino a communist? Who killed him? Why was he killed?

Did the CIA had a hand in the ouster of Mr. Marcos? Did the CIA kill Aquino? If it did, why?

 And many more questions that need answers and explanations.

Dagiti Sansanuong iti Aringgawisda
Wenno Agar-arimasa a Gura ken Pungtotda:

    "Ukinam Marcos. Lastogka Marcos."

Such expressions in the streets in Metro Manila can only come from infantile and decadent minds that invalidate whatever cause they are fighting for.

     Ay, anian a bunga dagiti baribar a pampanunot.
     Ay, ania ket ngatan a lagtolagto dagitoy nga Ilokano
                                                kontra kadaydi Marcos.

Excoriating a dead man and the writer's powerful mountain

The quotation, from a New York- based expatriate writer, represents one of the best paragraphs we have read in English fiction by native literary persons. She has complete control of the language she was not born into.

But the blogger says, thus: " Absurd. Utter nonsense. Sorry, I am a Christian."

You don't kick a dead horse, or a corpse, whose owner has been dead for more than 30 years.

It is like the practice of violent Muslims beheading Christians, believing that by doing this barbarous act,  they will go to heaven or their version of paradise,

Neverthelles, my admiration for her and her writings is yet to diminish. Writers in the language (Ilokano) should read her works.

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The Writer's Powerful Mountain

The writer --poet, novelist, short story writer, even the journalist-- has a powerful position, a perspective that gives him the vantage point,  authority, if you will, to see all things.

But what if he or she does not see communist rats, praying corrupt catholic bishops, preying yellows and their puppies gnawing then, as now, at the walls of the state?

What if he or she does not see the massacre of Christians, the hijacking of billions for the victims of floods and typhoons, the ransacking of the national treasury by members of Congress, the killing of farmers and other misdeeds of the oligarchs including the incompetence of the intellectual imbecile of a president?

Or what if he or she did not see the money rats ransacking the treasury of the unfinished house by the sea in the North Country?