Letters

 What and where are the Lost Characters? Gone for good as "Wandering Bytes"? Go figure.

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This page forms part of a series of reprinting in this site few of my articles and messages that appeared in some cyber forums. At first, I thought it best to abstain from blogging my political and related thoughts, but then the zoon politikon that is also me (like everyone else) cannot just shut up my animal mouth or allow my reptilian pen to just dry out. After all, politics is a territory claimed by almost every thinking human, and I just can't always let pass every chance to stake a claim even on just a small piece of political real estate.

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10 March 2006
(for rallyists who are maliciously accused of being "bayaran" or "hakot crowd")
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I don't think you should allow yourselves to be put on a spot wherein you have to defend your principled activity and convictions against unprincipled hecklers who accuse you of being "bayaran" or "hakot-crowd". In the first place, to be "hakot" is to be mobilized -- what's wrong with that? Every mass action necessitates mass mobiization -- that's the rule.

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Anti-rally hecklers should be the very first to know who really are the "bayaran" in the political divide: bayaran are those criminals in government who get their dues and perks and funds-to-plunder from taxpayers' money.
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And when principled people like you (no need to mention the Diokno's and the Randy Davids) ask where have all the public funds and decency gone, these same criminals with able assistance from their cheering squad and hecklers have the gall to attack your persons.
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The problem with the numerous revolutions and struggles mounted by the people since the Katipunan is that the fallen tyrants and criminal bureaucrats had gone unpunished, leaving generations of Filipinos, specially the unprincipled hecklers, not being able to comprehend that the nation and their generation had been wronged by these tyrants, to say the least.
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These hecklers, therefore, are prime candidates to be the next criminal-bureaucrats, if not tyrants themselves. And so the cycle continues: criminals-in-government run the nation's life, cheered and rah-rahed by new generation of unprincipled hecklers.
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Having learned from these failures, I'm afraid the next revolution (people power... whatsoever) might not be as merciful as the previous ones.

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Mar 3, 2006

(On a forwarded email signed by a certain "Isang middle class pinoy....")

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I don't understand why such a boorish message purportedly from a "middle class" individual be entertained and passed around. Note the sweeping description and vulgar assertion "...bayaran na mahihirap kungdi man ay tangang mga excited na reporter na parang naka-shabu lagi....mga praning e at naghahallucinate." Geez! The writer sounds more like the "bayarang mahihirap" or "reporter na parang naka-shabu" that s/he mocks.

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The email sender signed his/her message with a breathtaking "Isang Middle-Class pinoy na walang puknat na binabawasan ang sweldo ng Buwis!" -- as if s/he and s/he alone and the rest of the middleclass ang siya lang walang puknat na binabawasan ng buwis. Excuse me, FYI, pati rin po ang mga manggagawa sa pabrika at mga establisimyento sa serbisyo ay walang puknat na binubuwisan through their payslips, and of course through the indirect taxes that we ALL pay (the masses included) for almost everything we purchase: sigarilyo, gasolina, sine, mane, popcorn, hopya, mane, popcorn....

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If the email-er is trying to present his/her personal views as that which the middle class holds, sori na lang, but I'm sure the rest of the middle class have a more educated view. And if s/he believes that s/he is middleclass by the size of his/her purse, and if thousands more share his/her stand on the current issues, then it won't be long before the pinoy middleclass would echo what their counterparts in India in the '80's lamented: "before we were middleclass... today we are beggars."

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Isang "middle class" or not, the email writer typifies the ordinary pinoy: cautious, even segurista, taking a long long long time before making a concrete stand. Why, it took the whole nation 14 years (a whole generation) before standing up to the dictator in Edsa. And I guess, it was only when the middleclass felt their economic position was being heavily eroded that they finally made a stand. Thanks to a suicidal Ninoy, then to an equally suicidal Enrile-Ramos. Edsa 1 may be considered "middleclass-led people power uprising", but it sprang from a "bahala na" mindset of a middleclass who brood in the MIDDLE for so long in face of adversity or danger. I was in Edsa, in days 2, 3 and 4. And that happened only after I and my colleagues weighed everything and began walking, telling ourselves: "bahala na."

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In the end, victory is especially sweet when it finally comes to those who have stayed long in the MIDDLE while refusing to take sides. That's middleclass? But staying in the middle has its own risks: one might get caught in the crossfire!... or worse, receive a boorish message signed by a certain "Isang Middle-Class pinoy na walang puknat na binabawasan ang sweldo ng Buwis!"

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Whew!

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26 Feb 2006

(Reply to a Bible-quoting email-er, who, at the height of the state of emergency, exhorted everyone to "Just OBEY")

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In short, you're telling us to behave like ROBOTS.

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Look... had Christ himself 'Just OBEYed' the powers-that-be during His time, you wouldn't be the "christian" you claim yourself to be right now. Blind OBEDIENCE is synonymous with IGNORANCE, or worse, imbecility. Rebellion, on the other hand, can acquire at a certain point, the level of HEROISM, if not sainthood.

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You made it appear that freedom of speech is "rebellion" and therefore, unchristian. Why, had Christ kept His parables only to Himself, you wouldn't have the Scriptures, and the temerity, to quote it today.

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You may continue reading YOUR bible. The rest of us will continue to read THE Bible, the Koran, the Baghavadgita, newspapers, books on philosophy, history, politics, science, culture, tsismis, komiks, playboy, etc... and will surf the internet, too. Don't be afraid, you can read these things too.

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Freedom of speech and the right to information is "rebellion" only to those who'd want to keep the people ignorant so they may hold on to power, and keep the people ignorant so they may hold on to power... ad infinitum.

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