Welcome Back Anarchy

It's been a long time since I wrote on this blog. The last time being back in 09. It's great to be back on the cynical-critical desk...frame of mind, state of mind or what ever you may want to call it. So forgive me if I'm a bit rusty...Where was I...yeah my last entry was all about Estrada and his 2nd attempt at the presidency and surprisingly a lot has happened in Philippine politics since election. Let's all admit that the Aquino Presidential win was a really great thing. Though our current government is admittedly slow as a turtle on weed at least it's getting the basics fixed like graft and corruption, correct budget allocation and even just getting the right people on board. Slow may be a bad term for some but come to think of it's better to be slow and purposive in rebuilding your foundations...better to dig the base of your house in a correct step by step manner than rushing it so you could add that fancy garage or that pink patio you always dreamed of right? Sadly, the debris and wrecks of the last regime's mansion still lay around stinking in PNoy's construction site. To name a few... ZTE like a foul smelling busted piping connection is still left to be rooted out and fixed. The Fertilizer scam and the Maguindano massacre still stenches like an unmarked grave waiting to be excavated while the newly discovered AFP budget scam lies hanging like jumbled faulty electrical wiring system...wheeew Pnoy really has his work cut out for him. But like a Warcraft human village after a repulsed Orc raid, our country has no choice but to rebuild and learn. This entails a lot of patience and trust...trust in ourselves as Filipinos more than anything else. Trust that we made the right thing and will continue to do the right thing come what may. Done are the follies of the past, it's time to proudly rebuild.

Erap seeking presidency again amid legal questions - Nation - GMANews.TV - Official Website of GMA News and Public Affairs - Latest Philippine News

Erap's political machine to run anew? Do we really want him on the driver's seat again? The last time he was driving, we crashed into a revolution and was hi-jacked by somebody worse! We don't need another drunk driver on the wheel! Shady one am meetings & Mafia type deals...are stuff from the 50-60's...let's leave it back in the trunk. If he ever wins in the coming election then I guess that it's better to run this squeaky bus of a country down the cliff and wreck it totally. When will we ever learn?

The Road Back

After Cory’s death it was clear that that torch and burden of the EDSA spirit was passed to a new generation. The passing of Philippine democracy’s icon caused more than just a resurgence of hope in the morally aligned, it fanned the ambers of activism in the young that has far been dulled by indifference and time. With the dwindling count of rally attendees and the frequent politically tainted calls for protests, who could blame them anyway.

Our economically challenged times dictate that work should not be sacrificed in exchange for our beliefs however seemingly right they are. “Can my attendance in a rally add a single peso in my bank account?” is the usual mantra for the yuppie on the street..."Leave the protests to the reds, they seem to be happy doing it anyway" - some may even add. Given the solo flight trend affecting us, It seems that this generation is fighting a different dictator after all…a strong man that doesn’t shackle the collective but promotes the individual’s instinct to preserve himself. The changing times has truly spawned an uglier authoritarian...one that can only be deposed by a personal coup-de-etat..a personal protest…an internal act of defiance.

Fortunately, true to the principles of evolution, human progress has armed us with tools to cope with the forces that threaten to wipe out the Filipino's internal mechanism for collective action..in this case a road back...ironically using the same vehicle being blamed in bringing us astray in the lonely streets of individualism.

The technologically spiral to segmentation has gifted us with the opportunity to optimize the Internet. The web riding in tandem with cable TV undeniably were the happy bikers responsible for touring the wide eyed Filipino to the vista of international landscape. This was good for globalizing Juan but also was bad on the flipside because it allowed him to stray far from what was happening in his own backyard. Unfortunately for us, given the price of DSL & Laptops, the bulk of those led far away were the middle class youth and the intelligentsia...both critical ingredients in a successful democratic political movement given the premise that any revolution lead by the masses will be bloody. With this at hand, how does the Filipino bourgeoisie make-up for lost leadership time then?

Believe it or not like fashion transcending eras, the 10’s is the new 80’s. Just like how a trend repeats itself in a cycle of 25-30 years, we can still refurbish and resurrect the base tools of the 1986 Edsa uprising to combat the new authoritarian.

Internet activism (also known as online organizing, electronic advocacy, cyberactivism, E-campaigning, and E-activism) according Wikipedia is the use of electronic communication technologies such as e-mail, the World Wide Web, and podcasts for various forms of activism to enable faster communications by citizen movements and the delivery of local information to a large audience. Internet technologies are used for cause-related fundraising, organizing volunteers, community building, lobbying, and organizing.

Web activism is no diffrent to the regular thing, exept it can be done in a larger and even limitless scale. Imagine cyber-rallies and web led boycotts and mass commenting. No police thug can whack you with a baton when you protest on your blog. Blatant government disregard of equal justice can now be circumvented by presenting evidences straight to the people through direct video upstreaming. Organizing groups without fear of right & left wing physical persecution is now possible through the networks. The opportunities are limitless.

Who will be First

Kris Aquino publicly pleaded to Noynoy last Wednesday to stay single as he vies for the country’s top post. This comes to no surprise as the position of the Country’s First Lady is also at stake. Currently far from the public’s starving mind is the fact that the female next of kin of an unmarried or widowed president would officially or unofficially act as his First Lady. Elpidio Quirino would be a good case study on this one. Having ascended into the Philippine seat of power widowed (His wife, Alicia Syquia and three of their children died while fleeing the Japanese during the war) Quirino made his eldest surviving daughter Vicky act as his First Lady. Going back to Noynoy’s case, taking out Shalani "Lani" Soledad would seem to be the best logical move for Kris in order to secure the spot. With the Noynoy caravan gathering inertia and the unification of the opposition being smithed, the road to the Arroyo Administration’s end is finally looming in sight. With the FG MIke's trail of scandals still glowing like bloody prints in a crime scene sprayed with luminol, it might be best to also consider who will take the title of First Lady in the next administration. Would it be a Shalani or a Kris?