24 June 2006
amidst the crossfire
To live amidst armed conflict is no life cliche'. Just a few weeks ago, I saw that people who have lived amidst violent political struggles for so many generations, like most humans, never get used to violence.
Group A of the two warring groups in my adopted hometown, or more precise to say the town that adopted me, almost opened fire against suspected enemies Group B. Occasional firing had been going on outside the residential areas since mid morning of that day. But in the afternoon, Group A sent grade and highschool students and teachers either running towards their homes or hiding inside school buildings when the group announced that suspected Group B members are inside the community.
I saw the kids crying like they wanted to go back into their mothers' womb, parents scrambling for their children. People, faces in deceivingly quiet panic, in nervous calmness shut close nipa windows.
Open fire inside the community did not happen that day. The municipal police chief told Group A that the latter just mistook some community residents for Group B members. Not surprising since they also mistook the police chief, who walking to his house from his farm somewhere in the mountains, as a Group B member shortly before police chief slid into his uniform.
What could have happened if Group A was right and they opened fire at Group B within the community? What could have happened if group A was wrong and still opened fire?
As always, between warring groups, the civilians in the middle always bear the unjust burden of running/hiding for their lives.
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The flower in the picture was a witness.
20 June 2006
maari bang ilaga ang baril at ihain sa hapag kainan?
pasintabi na lamang po. nais kong magsulat sa tagalog-filipino. nababagabag lang ako sa mga balitang nasagap sa telebisyon. isang bilyong piso ang ilalaan para palakasin ang AFP, kasama na ang mga armas na bibilhin, para sugpuin ang mga rebelyon.
kung nais talaga ng gobyerno na magkaroon ng kapayapaan sa bansa, bakit baril, at hindi pagkain, trabaho at kaunlaran ang paglaanan ng pera? kung ang mga perang ito ay tulong mula sa ibang bansa, sa bansa o mga bansa rin bang iyon bibili ng armas? bakit di paglaanan ng pondo ang mga krimen tulad ng kidnapping, dangerous drugs trade? kawawa mga kaibigan kong intsik, laging takot makidnap.
ni hindi talaga tayo natuto sa turo nina kristo at buddha, atbp., hay.
ayon pa sa balita, unavoidable daw ang civilian casualties? o Diyos ko (talaga pong dasal ito) ilayo nyo po kami sa masasama. iligtas mo po ang bayang 'Pinas.
kahirapan ang problema ng bansa. cure the illness, not just the symptoms.
Mga readings at websites kung trip nyo magbasa:
news:
http://news.inq7.net/nation/index.php?index=1&story_id=79751
http://news.inq7.net/breaking/index.php?index=1&story_id=79440
nonviolence:
http://www.gandhiinstitute.org
http://www.nonviolenceinternational.net
kung nais talaga ng gobyerno na magkaroon ng kapayapaan sa bansa, bakit baril, at hindi pagkain, trabaho at kaunlaran ang paglaanan ng pera? kung ang mga perang ito ay tulong mula sa ibang bansa, sa bansa o mga bansa rin bang iyon bibili ng armas? bakit di paglaanan ng pondo ang mga krimen tulad ng kidnapping, dangerous drugs trade? kawawa mga kaibigan kong intsik, laging takot makidnap.
ni hindi talaga tayo natuto sa turo nina kristo at buddha, atbp., hay.
ayon pa sa balita, unavoidable daw ang civilian casualties? o Diyos ko (talaga pong dasal ito) ilayo nyo po kami sa masasama. iligtas mo po ang bayang 'Pinas.
kahirapan ang problema ng bansa. cure the illness, not just the symptoms.
Mga readings at websites kung trip nyo magbasa:
news:
http://news.inq7.net/nation/index.php?index=1&story_id=79751
http://news.inq7.net/breaking/index.php?index=1&story_id=79440
nonviolence:
http://www.gandhiinstitute.org
http://www.nonviolenceinternational.net
12 June 2006
Bagulbol sa araw ng kalayaan/Griping on independence day
Last week, nag-nenok ako (i got) two doves from a wedding reception in Makati. Our band played for the newly-weds and their guests. The couple released 100 doves; not all doves were able to fly away to freedom. I think half of the doves stayed on the tree branches and some even hopped around the floor.
So I got those two doves and brought them home. But the two are like chickens, they do not fly. They flap their wings once in a while and walk around the house, pecking here and there.
Bandmate bassist Louie Talan said maybe it is because they have been in the cage all their lives and released only when bought for wedding receptions.
So I call those doves chicken.
They are just like us, aren't they? When we celebrate independence day, do we really feel that independence? Do we really fly? Or do we take the stairs, or any device to pretend that we are actually using our wings to reach our dreams?
Is it real peso appreciation if it comes from foreign direct investments in the form of investments on detructive large-scale mining, displacing communities and livelihoods? Or portfolio investments that can actually leave the country in a snap?
Do we get elected because we truly deserve it or because we took the stairs of goons, guns and gold?
Why do we love New York up to now?
Is a victory sign atop a pile of dead activists a symbol of truimph of peace?
Just how do we reach our dreams? Do we walk around and peck at other people?
The symbol of our independence are still doves. But they are doves like my chicken doves. I just hope it won't take another 400 years to teach them to fly.
So I got those two doves and brought them home. But the two are like chickens, they do not fly. They flap their wings once in a while and walk around the house, pecking here and there.
Bandmate bassist Louie Talan said maybe it is because they have been in the cage all their lives and released only when bought for wedding receptions.
So I call those doves chicken.
They are just like us, aren't they? When we celebrate independence day, do we really feel that independence? Do we really fly? Or do we take the stairs, or any device to pretend that we are actually using our wings to reach our dreams?
Is it real peso appreciation if it comes from foreign direct investments in the form of investments on detructive large-scale mining, displacing communities and livelihoods? Or portfolio investments that can actually leave the country in a snap?
Do we get elected because we truly deserve it or because we took the stairs of goons, guns and gold?
Why do we love New York up to now?
Is a victory sign atop a pile of dead activists a symbol of truimph of peace?
Just how do we reach our dreams? Do we walk around and peck at other people?
The symbol of our independence are still doves. But they are doves like my chicken doves. I just hope it won't take another 400 years to teach them to fly.
09 June 2006
Disturbing the peace
Peace itself as a concept is an ambigious, vague and elusive word. I realized reading and talking about it is way much easier than struggling for it.
How do you speak of peace if the gun is pointed into your mouth?
How do you tell people to speak if silence is survival?
How do you speak of rights, if all the time is spent looking for food?
How can you be secured of the rule of law in a schizophrenic land?
How long can you convince a person trained to trigger the gun not to shoot?
How do you call for lasting truce among parties determined to outwin each other?
How can I ever stop my armed offender with a plough and prayer?
So many questions. So many answers. But violence eventually persists.
How do you speak of peace if the gun is pointed into your mouth?
How do you tell people to speak if silence is survival?
How do you speak of rights, if all the time is spent looking for food?
How can you be secured of the rule of law in a schizophrenic land?
How long can you convince a person trained to trigger the gun not to shoot?
How do you call for lasting truce among parties determined to outwin each other?
How can I ever stop my armed offender with a plough and prayer?
So many questions. So many answers. But violence eventually persists.
08 June 2006
Enough is enough is enough
What is a copycat? According to Miriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, copycat: one who adopts or copies the behavior or practices of another. What is plagiarism? The same reference says, plagiarize: to steal or pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own.
More than a decade in the music industry allowed me to see just how many musicians are not just copycats but are actually plagiarizers. Being a copycat is not really bad, because it means recognizing who the original is, and acknowledging being inspired by or imitating that original. In many ways, it is good for both original and copycat.
To be a plagiarizer is unforgivable. Whew, I have seen guys who would steal your ideas right before your eyes. Even if you make them know that you are not happy with them doing that.
Being a woman who has to be twice as good just to be on equal footing with the man is already a burden. But not to be adequately recognized, if not unrecognized, for artistic and creative agency, for so many times? ...."Enough is enough is enough is enough..."
The wanna-be Britney Spears are truer than the pretentious trailblazers.
More than a decade in the music industry allowed me to see just how many musicians are not just copycats but are actually plagiarizers. Being a copycat is not really bad, because it means recognizing who the original is, and acknowledging being inspired by or imitating that original. In many ways, it is good for both original and copycat.
To be a plagiarizer is unforgivable. Whew, I have seen guys who would steal your ideas right before your eyes. Even if you make them know that you are not happy with them doing that.
Being a woman who has to be twice as good just to be on equal footing with the man is already a burden. But not to be adequately recognized, if not unrecognized, for artistic and creative agency, for so many times? ...."Enough is enough is enough is enough..."
The wanna-be Britney Spears are truer than the pretentious trailblazers.
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