On the Mound of Political Madness

What’s happening in our country, Mr president?  That’s one unforgettable  question thrown by Emmanuel Pelaez, Vice President of the country, during the time of President Ferdinand E. Marcos. That’s one question  the ordinary man in the street would like to ask in times like now, but coming from people who ought to know things, it was stupid.

Right now, to date, 57 bodies have been recovered in one of the most heinous, probably most gruesome,  massacres of the modern time – the Maguindanao massacre in Mindanao. Half  of them belong to the camp of the Mangudadatu, one ruling clan of Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat provinces. The rest of them were innocent motorists who happened to be on route  where a checkpoint was set up and where prime targets were being herded to be massacred.

Where was government when everything happened? That is probably one very, very stupid question. Because since things came out, fingers everywhere  have been pointing to the Ampatuan Clan behind the massacre. The Ampatuans are THE government in that part of the country called Maguindanao province.

Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat are creation of government. They were cut from old Cotabato province which was then hot spot of Christian-Muslim conflict in the time of President Marcos. Creating the two new provinces gave Muslim Filipinos better chances at being at the helm of political power as Old Cotabato in the whole had become  dominant Christian. Today, both are controlled by people who are known very close to Malacanang palace. Government has depended on these local forces to maintain peace and order in the region. “Monsters reared by the state”, as some observers have put it.

All fingers pointing to the Ampatuan clan are  indeed at this time allegations. But, for Department of Justice [DOJ] Agnes De Vanadera to say that the Ampatuans cannot be considered suspects I think is misplaced. Was not it better if she had called all those who have been pointing  fingers and get into what those people are talking about, instead? Either she has been miss-projected  [ABS-CBN Nov 25 evening news] or she must be out-of-place. Already her name was linked in the bungled MOA-AD, what ever was in it, where it was not Ed Kabalu and company to come out benefactors but the  ARMM governorship that is incidentally, currently controlled by one of the Ampatuans.

Of course the Generals know everything going on in there all the time, or they ought not be generals. But as we can see the matter was politics and between politicians. Last time a General did what he believed need to be done, he ended up in the hills. That’s General Jarque for messing up with politics and politicians.

The military has today ordered government issued firearms in Maguindanao province turned in. Now, that sounds like sense.  Yes, just give that order Sire/ma’am!

Media reports show the Ampatuans and the Mangudadatus as former allies. Feud or Ridu has also been mentioned. I don’t know how factual the latter is, but in Feud there is no such thing as justice that we know.  In feud, the acts are the just and the justice part of it.  A culture. The hen and the egg thing.  There can only be punishment for any ‘wrongdoing’ for those caught in the act by  now  third party intervention.

Have you been in a place where everybody qualified as bandits and thieves? Like, abduction and rape is not abduction and rape, because they are for the times the other side pillaged and burned or butchered [and they don't call them as such]. They call them justice. And everything is nowhere from the start of the conflict. Restoring sanity order won’t be easy in such places.

Anyway, I smelled something like somebody had sworn  and another had  wanted him to eat his words. It looked like a miscalculation. I must be imagining the ways of warriors at war.  And we have that kind of reality in many places out there, folks.

More updates

Gov’t prosecutors now say they have witnesses against some Ampatuans 12/10/2009

And more allegations coming in

Trick or Threat?

Halloween just went. In the Philippines, which is predominantly Roman Catholic, yesterday in the calendar was All Souls Day. Every Filipino family, or at least member, has been to the cemetery to visit the dead ones. Every Town, village and locality has a Fiesta day.  This is Filipino tradition, Hispanic in origin. Filipinos brought or extended festival to the cemeteries.  Halloween as fiesta for all cemeteries has now become national tradition of Filipinos. Because of complaints, many cemeteries have banned liquor and music by late generation, though. Marginalized indigenous Filipinos do not have Halloween season. After sending the dead off, Indigenous Filipinos simply regard burial grounds as all-time reverend.

Philippine Halloween Celebration is November 1 and 2, which are All Saints day and All Souls day respectively. In Hiligaynon, All Souls day is translated Tigkalalag or Tagkalalag [root Kalag, to unintangle/departed] translated: time of, for spirit, soul, or ghost. In Pilipino, the national language, the day is called Araw ng mga kaluluwa – literally Day of the spirits/souls/ghosts, and also Araw ng mga patay or Day of the departed /dead. Another word for  All  Souls day is Undas, whatever that word actually means as nobody can tell the origin and meaning.

The season is one of the heaviest in term of  human traffic,  of people going to and from urban centers and the provinces.

All soul’s day celebration is a mix of old tribal and Church customs thrown into one. Old Malay custom in the celebration, for example, is preparation of delicacies, mostly sweetened rice preparations, that is or are offered to the dead. Offering is usually done in some quiet corner of the house or in cemeteries. Originally, offering of food is done where spirit is or are believed to be, of no specific time or special day.

Burning of candles for offering is Church influence. Urban Filipinos have developed a weird practice of burning candles in front of homes and in sidewalks on All Souls day. Here in Payatas, many homes had it and everybody now is doing it. There was nothing like that in the place some ten or fifteen years ago. I guess many Filipinos who have migrated to urban areas have no opportunity to visit their dead because of social and or financial constraints, so they expressed it in, around the homes, and in the streets.

We do have western Trick or Treat that has gotten into our culture. I first encountered this in Marikina some twenty five years ago. I opened the door surprised to see some kids in ridiculous costumes demanding candies! I could not give them some sticky rice cake we did have in the house so I gave them the go-away-from-here threat

And, yes, Floral offerings. I remember, flowers used to be daily decoration of homes, schools, offices, churches.  It is also given to special people. Philippine cemeteries are now full of them on All Souls day. A very lucrative business during the celebration. Flowers for the loved ones that’s how it is. The influence is western and modern in the country.

What a week. I mean it’s all been scary ghosts and Para normal movies dished out in TV everywhere I switched. I had settled for Flatliners starring Keifer Sutherland, Julia Roberts and other familiar faces I know I can tell when I see their names flashed again.

It’s one movie I’ve seen before, actually, that I decided to see again because I could not remember very well what it was all about. The movie is about a group of medical students who secretly experimented with death experience. They took turns experiencing being dead. Death as defined by the movie is cessation of breathing, heart beat, and electrical activities in the body, as in real dead. By turns they put one of them to total sleep, or dead. Then the subject is stimulated back to life when it was at the limit where they can be brought back.

What the film showed of people while they were in their dead moments can never be real. What the subjects told after they were resurrected was their story, their nightmares, their Imaginations. Our characters were there dead on the experiment table. They were there being watched by their live peers ready to revive them when it is time. Subjects were there at the table all the time. That they were going places and meeting people while their body lay dead is but a dream and cannot be real. I guess nobody can really tell or impart what goes when a person has gone dead.

Now, that reminds me about Nightmares. Nightmare, from people who have experienced them, is dream, scary dream, a product of  the mind. Most people translate the word nightmare to Bangungot. Bangungot and nightmare are not the same. They may have similarities. Nightmare in Hiligaynon is Daman, scary dream, like when a person wakes up screaming running away from something not there.

I have experienced nightmares in my boyhood. I can no longer recall most of them except that they were usually associated with scary folklore, or dreams near those I saw  in scary movies. From the experiences, I have learned ability to re-awaken myself. Like, ‘hey, I don’t like this; this is a dream’ so, I woke up. I have only one unforgettable  nightmare. It was nothing to do with  the metaphysical or supernatural world. Whew! I woke up really panting and to remember the nightmare all these past 25 years. What about? I was with wife and three toddlers in some crowded city street I did not know where.  Suddenly they were not with me. I ran everywhere looking for them and asking strangers if they knew. I lost them! thanks God it’s just a dream.

Bangungot or Hupa the Killer Disease

People have died in their sleep.  That’s  Bangungot. It’s known as Hupa in Hiligaynon.  Bangungot is also a Hiligaynon word. In there, bangungot and hupa are not the same. Bangungot in hiligaynon means asphyxia or near-asphyxia  like when one has a severe case of nasal congestion. Hupa or calm after [storm, rage, etc] is one major killer of Filipinos. I believe it killed more than many people think. The figure is around half of all natural deaths in the community where I have lived since 1984. Old people dying make no wonder. Young healthy people suddenly dead bring out many stirs.

The young actor Rico Yan died, as medico legal said, something of disorder of the pancreas during his sleep. A taxi driver neighbor died, blood oozing out his mouth and nose, while taking a short nap at a parking lot. He was diagnosed a cardiac arrest. Another neighbor living next door could not be awakened one morning. He was breathing but pale except for his lips that had darkened. Hospital declared him clinically dead of stroke. Yet another was dismissed by people as caused by his drinking habit and for going to bed drunk. Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson might not be different from them.

Bangungot is something I think people know little about because apparently most victims of Bangungot did not live to tell the experience. I have been searching for survivors but I saw only people who apparently say things that they have heard and not out of experience. There must be survivors or there won’t be many stories. Some of the stories are in fact very old like the folklore about the Aswang that I think is a product of Bangungot. Bangungot is something physical and real but perceptions and imaginations, which are unreal, might have been added to them by survivors. I suspect some writers of scary movies have gone through the experience.

I happen to be one survivor. It first happened when I was around eighteen. The Tiktik is real. It is a nocturnal flying creature nobody can tell the look, but makes a sound that gave it its name. [It probably is a kind of bat, or irregular sound made by some of them] That when there is a Tiktik there is an Aswang or evil being not far behind. I was a stranger in a place. A nice couple had said that it was safe if I slept inside the house. People had died in the locality killed by aswang, they said. I belong to the generation that no longer believes in many old tales. In some places and times, I could have laughed the matter off as I always did. In fact earlier that evening I did.

A tiktik did make a pass later that night. It triggered bangungot in me. It must have been instinctive like, ‘hey, wake up, you have an appointment and you’re already late!’ only it said like ‘hey, danger around!’

Then I realized I could not move. I tried to scream for help but I realized I had no control. Odom or damned by evil spirit is what the folklore has said about that. I have no control of my body except perhaps my eyelids. Vision was hazy but yes, there was some control because I was able to shut any light coming in. It must have been instinctive not to want to see things. Consciousness, yes, which was exactly why it was most scary. I was in panic. I did not only feel my heartbeats, I thought I heard my heart pounding very fast and hard. There was loud ringing in my ears like a lingering aftershock of a powerful firecracker exploded too close . I suppose it was caused by sudden and extreme blood pressure. That the Aswang was there and it was staring down at me [in the manner of the alien getting the smell of helpless Segourney Weaver] well, I did imagine it. I had almost felt the presence of some supernatural being. However, nothing touched me. I heard nothing except the snore of my sleeping companion, as I was not alone. I did not see a thing because vision was shut.

Have you ever tried lifting a truck? At least the truck lifted a little. The efforts, the emotion, the feeling, while under Bangungot were more than that. All efforts are useless. I could have blown my heart attempting to move a finger or a toe. [How fast can the human heart go? Probably any figure is short. They are records from live subjects and do not include heartbeats that blew organs and killed people. I could have blown a lung, an ear, a pancreas, a brain cell, some weakest link, lucky I did not. Few more bouts happened in the months that followed. And then for nearly two decades I had none of them until it kept recurring again. About a dozen times in all, maybe, because it never came to me to record the count. Latest occurrence was about 9 years ago.

I remember the second experience was scary absurd, funny you might say. It was the Tiktik again! I thought I saw a human silhouette as my shutters opened that by second instinct I also closed as fast. “You cannot touch me, devil!” is all I can say in myself. This time I really felt it breathed down on my face. Nevertheless, no, I felt my hand was lifted and placed on its head! “No, you are not real, devil! This is a dream! I am sick! It is just my mind playing against myself! I have a disorder!”

Back to reality later, everything must have been a dream. My mind must have been mixed up or confused between reality and imaginations.

The latest was most interesting. It settled the last lingering doubts whether consciousness is real or not. It happened in daytime and not in the stillness of the nights when they usually occurred. Children were yelling and laughing in the street while I was in it. There was nothing to do but listened to them most of the time. They were there all right when I regained myself. I also happened to be facing where the wall clock was so I noted the time was not far different. The Tiktik and the Aswang were finished and gone long time ago. I think Bangungot is too complicated to explain in brief.

To explain it in near medico terms, by some cause I must have been through temporary comatose state. A near death situation. Mind is helpless over the body. They have always been scary. Every time always seemed the end. One may regain oneself or one may not. In my experience, things went like these: 1 Struggle 2 Resignation 3 Calm 4 Blank [no idea how long] 5 wake up [automatic]. In later experiences, struggle has been done away. That leaves 1 Resignation 2 Calm 3 Blank 4 either wake up, or back to normal sleep. I guess sad will be when blankness turns to final sleep. For most Bangungot cases, I suppose there were only struggle that ended in permanent sleep.

How does one regain the self in a very helpless situation? I guess I was lucky my mind was equipped enough to overcome the situation especially the first time it happened. The mind is all you have since body cannot be willed in such situation. Thinking is all the mind can do. And when it is clear that there is no way, mind started to wish. Wishing is praying, and praying is wishing… helpless resignation.

As taught by Bangungot, prayers that I learned when I was a kid are mostly trash. Since then, I have archived almost all in some dark corner of my mind. Praying for Saint Cory will not help. Maybe, impromptu and direct ones are better. There is only one prayer valid at the end of the road that I will not even change a word. For me, guess what, it is the only prayer that makes sense. The Credo left only one sentence intact and valid. Well, what worked for one may not work for all, vice versa. The Absolute of people is variable, so mine here are no rules.

Bangungot is like driving a car to the max with its clutch down or its gears in neutral. Let us put it another way. Bangungot is as if my CPU just hung. I happened to be equipped with automatic restart or reboot. On second thought, maybe I was not. Just some finger simply decided to push Restart button for me and I was not time for the junk yard.

related post: [Mind over body]

Cashing In On the Gullible – Nationalism

Liberalism stands for human rights, for freedom. Like, man has right to travel and to move freely, free of political restrictions. That man should be free to be anywhere he [they want] to be. That’s the human spirit moving towards oneness, folks. In fact, advanced countries have been moving towards that goal. In regions where countries are about equal in potentials, usually people will want to travel for reasons except economic opportunism. For a start some countries no longer require visa of their neighbors.

But those countries don’t extend their policy to all.  This has little or nothing to do with race and nationalism. The reason is obvious; they will be swarmed and swamped by the third world that are fleeing their country mostly for economic reason, which by itself is deemed nothing wrong except for the many negative complications that it will cause the host country.

Nationalism and the Filipino People

Nationalism has its deep root at race.  It is one recognized and acceptable form of racism actually. It is a norm by present-day people. Simply and nicely defined, Nationalism is one’s love for own country and its people.

nationalism [násh’nəlizəm] noun

1. desire for political independence: the desire to achieve political independence, especially by a country under foreign control or by a people with a separate identity and culture but no state of their own
2. patriotism: proud loyalty and devotion to a nation
3. excessive devotion to nation: excessive or fanatical devotion to a nation and its interests, often associated with a belief that one country is superior to all others

-nationalist, noun adjective

Nationalism is one popular political issue. Adolph Hitler rode on it. So did Mao Zedong and all other revolutionary movements. They have no monopoly of it, though, because everybody going for power somehow rode, or hopes to ride, on that popular issue, too. Who in politics does not in any way?

President Elpidio Quirino had “Filipino first policy” for his trademark.  Even media, those which are obsessed about ratings, employ them… focusing on race where the matter is in fact irrelevant or needless. Filipino is one of the most repeated words of shows like Wowowe which is actively promoting Filipino. Of singers and songs, there are a lot of them. And ex-President Joseph Estrada says he is running for President this 2010 “…para sa masang Filipino.” Manny Pacquiao, behind the line “dala ko ang pangarap ng bawat Filipino” was not outdone. I guess it must have sounded more preposterous if the ad says dala ko ang pangarap ng bawat tao.  [He is the current supreme human in his category, actually.] But why did not they just say “dala ko ang  pangarap ng bawat isa sa inyo.” And, cannot a commercial product be sold on its  own merits by him?  Things sold and stayed by their own merits or because they delivered, mind you.

Filipino is a word that has evolved. It means of the Philippines, its people. During colonial time it is a term applied to island-born Spaniards and Spanish mestizos as different from Spain-born full-blood Spaniards.  Of  no  Spanish blood were referred to as Indios.

Ok, one thing good in promoting Filipino [synonymous Bayan] in the country is because the country is comprised of many tribes. Promoting Filipino erodes tribalism or Philippine regionalism. But this has to reconcile with Philippine commitment to the world – man’s commitment to the human race itself. Pushed or carried too far, Filipino [or whatever nationality] boils down to what it really is – bare racism by naked racists behind it.

Nationalism is purely a political issue. By invoking or promoting nationalism one is, in fact,  involving oneself in political exercise, one is aware of it or not. And except for being political, nationalism is irrelevant in many matters. Let’s take creation of more jobs and alleviation of poverty in the country, for example. Does the color of money, the color of people, the imaginary lines of the world, or the political lines drawn in the map, matter in there? As we can see clearly, the answer is no. If there are relevant issues in there, they are about social justice, social-economic-environmental impacts, or anything other than race or nationality that is clearly politicking if made an issue.

Nationalism is behind protectionism which is considered counter-progressive and against consumers’ interest. It is against freedom of competition. It is  about protection of industries that might  not be competitive and/or are incompetent [in  price and in quality of products or services].   There might be legitimate issues but, again, definitely they must have nothing to do with race or nationality, and  politics – meaning politicking.  [Nobody escapes politics.]

politics [póllətiks] noun

1. theory and practice of government: the theory and practice of forming and running organizations connected with government (takes a singular verb)
2. policymaking activity: activity within a political party or organization that is concerned with debate and the creation and carrying out of distinctive policies rather than merely the administration of the state (takes a singular or plural verb)
3. [omitted by this blog]
4. [omitted by this blog]
5. [omitted by this blog]

In the other hand because of the rise of anti-racism, some may drop mention of race or nationality yet may have trace or smack of them.

Talking about race, I’m reminded of dormitory life when I was a young student in Cebu. Ilonggos were like birds of same feathers, me among them there.  In the other side was the Bisayan block comprised of Cebuano, Waray, Boholano and minorities from Mindanao. I remember the mutual ridicule, dislike and mistrust between the two blocks. It was a situation that existed before I came, so there’s no telling who started what. I guess tribalism was already a way of life even before everyone there was born. Like they say, racism begets racism. Now, that reminds me of Fuehrer Adolph Hitler, the Jews and by-gone history.  It might have been the Ilonggos if not the Bisayans. Or, it might have been the Chinese but incidentally it was the Jews and Adolph Hitler, and him  against the world.

Tribalism has become taboo in national politics. In fact we have people from minority tribes who made it in our national elections. Today it would be most stupid for a political aspirant to even mention one’s regionalism [same as religion] in public. Nobody won national election for declaring one was an Ilocano, an Ilonggo, a Visayan, a Waray, a Moro, a Chinese, whatever, before the nation. Promotion of one’s race may also be promotion of its counterparts. Racism is self-isolationism. And when racism is generated, any one is small against a gang of all, thus, is at the losing end.

Every political figure without exception comes from a certain tribe. And political observers usually already knew who is what from gossips. Nobody can do anything about his their origin. And everybody is expected to win in their region. They are accepted and acceptable realities in Philippine politics. Matters end there since race was never made an issue, has become non-issue in politics today. If we look at members of minorities who made it nationally they are well adapted and well integrated. Nothing indicated them separated from all the rest, which is reciprocated.

Going back to Nationalism which is a higher form of tribalism, it makes people [no statistic of them] feel good inside. People can be made happy, angry, laugh, or cry, by it. But while Philippine nationalism has its sharp edge as we see pointed at tribalism, it has a double edge that is pointed at the world. Imperialism is no different. It is nationalism pushed  at the world, too far to the point of being  unfair or unjust.

Well, a hundred years or a millennium from now, the word nationality will probably mean permanent residence,  address, while nationalism would be funny silly or anything. And nationalist, boiling down to itself, will probably be synonymous with racist that in street lingo today means pig. Actually, there are people who believe that that day has come long time ago. Some of them are maybe playing along with politics when some of them perhaps have their tongues firmly in check. And, yes, there are  ones who simply love spelling things out.

Every word has its use, or is intended to be used. But next time you hear that word Filipino [or any race] mentioned where it is in fact needless and can be omitted or supplanted without losing any point or thought, well, we have a politicking politician there, folks. Or, maybe it’s just another of those… umm…nationalist walking around.

[I think politicians should be riding on anti-racism instead. It's a more popular universal thing that's in today. Nobody with mind enough loves a racist anymore.]

What is my nationality? I am a Filipino. That’s something I can’t do anything about. I’m a proud Filipino if you’ll ask me about that… a proud person actually, an individual with my own personal identity, merits, and demerits  if I screwed up.

block quotations are from:  Microsoft® Encarta® Premium Suite 2005. © 1993-2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Related article

Cory Aquino a victim of “insensitive” US TV joke

Freak Calamities, the Boring Sides of Them

Passenger ships that have sunk caught by storm, or during normal weather. They have happened many and more often times in the Philippines. We have Maritime vessels [MV} Don Juan, Doña Paz, Princess of the Stars, Marilyn, Cebu City, and most recently, Super Ferry 9 – just to mention the sensational ones. They’re for the facts.

Economics is involved. Like, ship captain for whatever reason simply wants to do his job done and/or, shipping line think they can make it despite problem. Normal nature of business. In the world of business, more particularly in the world of transport, every second of delay or freeze translates to big loss of income [profit]. The accidents that we saw were only by those that gambled and lost and they do not include those that gambled and got away with it.

Some practices are not only self-destructive since they concern the safety of others. That’s one reason why there are supposed to be stringent regulations and/or implementations of them by the State. Politics is involved.

Anyway, as usual, we have public out roar every time calamity happened but, there, it happens again exactly as before. [If you have overthrow of State as your end, then sell it with them there if you think people will buy] They are all within opinions and beliefs.

Flash floods that killed tens, hundreds and thousands - they have become not unusual. The biggest of them killed around ten thousand people in Ormoc city some years back. There is no end to them in sight because, as soon as things normalize, people will be creeping back into the gutters, river banks and spillways. The country has a high rate of poverty. Meaning, we have a mass that has no place to go. It’s them who are in the hills slashing and burning our forests. It’s also them providing cheap labor for illegal loggers. They are also in urban centers; many of them have ended up living in streets and gutters. The problem is not simple as telling everyone to get out of the gutters. Forcibly driving them away did not work.  It only shifted the dispossessed somewhere else like place.

Relocation did not work and will not work under the situation. Poverty dictates. People sold their ‘rights’ in relocation sites and returned to the streets and gutters. Illegalizing such transfer of rights did not work.  Soon administrators were facing, are or will be facing square one, exactly as before.

Titling of lands used to spare ten meters along both sides of rivers and  major creeks free from titled properties. Land owners usually usurp control of such spaces. But more often, those spaces are settled by deprived people searching for a place of their own. They became public domains squatted. In fact, in Metro Manila there are creeks that can no longer be located. Some of them were discovered to have been titled. Squatting is not a monopoly of the poor.

Meantime disasters like those caused by Typhoon Ondoy, and Typhoon Pepeng coming close at its heel, strike.

Donations that pour appear awesome but the way the situations look they are far from adequate to fill the needs, for all the victims. There will always be not enough of aids, especially foods, out there. How long do you think one regular shopping bag of noodles, rice and a few canned goods will last one family? There are 4 million Filipinos devastated by Ondoy by flood – two and three storey-high in parts of Metro Manila [and not by the typhoon itself]. Well, there are legitimate organizations out there, folks, for those who would like to donate.

Pepeng that struck a little farther north, where it almost stayed stationary for three days, has yet to make a report. Initially, Pangasinan and the Cagayan valley are total wrecks. And the regions happen to comprise one major bread basket of the country which is already a traditional importer of grains, if that is not bad news enough.

No, there is no dearth of volunteers out there to ease the pains, all as usual. In fact there are more volunteers than needed in there. That’s the great Filipino spirit of heroism – the bayanihan culture, at work.

But is not everything ironic? Where were we when people were talking about averting disasters?

By the way, I’m reminded. This is appreciative of Ms Gina Lopez and company for all the efforts of cleaning Pasig River and Manila bay of floated and sunken garbage. The problem there starts with this person who wants his/her place clean. [It is universal of people to be clean.] She sweeps scattered litters, such as what children throw in streets, into a narrow gutter when nobody is looking or cared. Lucky for everybody, there is garbage collection once a week in the locality, so sacks full of them await city collection. But collections seem not adequate because the gutters are, actually, most of the time filled with garbage! Thanks goodness, rain has come. It flushed everything down into the creek. ! [I can only imagine her counterparts living beside the esteros.]

Creeks connect to Marikina River… that connects to Pasig River… and then into the Laguna de Bay [diversion spillway] or to Manila Bay, thus, welcome to the world.

Have you been dragged in court because of garbage? I was once. It started because of my contention that people have no right to pile garbage out in the street, [much more since they were visible from where I sat in my dining table]. It was a she, and her contention was that I had no right to object since her garbage was not placed inside my premises. Oh yeah? I shoveled them all back into her premise and that was it! We ended up in the Regional Trial Courts of Quezon City, no, not about garbage but for allegedly me calling her a thief and her daughter a slut! I wondered where she had got the ideas that seemed to be appropriate.

Ok, let’s talk about disastrous Flash floods. We Filipinos have a saying “What good is hay when the horse is dead?”  It stemmed from the Filipino culture of caring none or less for the sick or the needy, but everybody is suddenly there to aid when that person is dead! Should not we be talking more about averting freak calamities? Or, maybe we should be doing that in the lull or in between calamities.   A typhoon might be erratic but disasters by flash floods or by landslides due to it are no freak. They have become predictable  with the state of our watersheds and because of  the state of the nation – the state of the Filipino people. 

First thing in solving a problem is recognizing the problem and recognizing the root causes of it. Let’s talk about ending poverty – one of the root causes of them all. Let’s forget dole outs because they are palliatives [that don’t end poverty.] People need jobs. They need decent wages. Everything takes off from there. Nobody really wants to live in the gutters!

Let’s talk about repairing our forests. In fact forests are capable of taking care of themselves when and if humans are not in there. Forests can do things for themselves, in fact better, without the humans. In advanced and industrialized nations people are not in the forests burning and slashing. Because of opportunities in their cities they won’t even stay in farms if it is not for the huge subsidies of their governments…. Hey, people, where’s everyone?

Nature Dictates and Man Is Slave – Obesity

More and more people are concerned against obesity. To trim and slim people have become multi billion-dollar-industry, actually. I can’t seem to look at scenes in TV where a steel tube is inserted in and out to siphon fat from some flabby person. The whole process is ridiculous in the first place. I can’t imagine. The situation could have been avoided.

Obesity is not limited to the rich of society. The poor, particularly that in urban areas,  among the malnourished have their cases of obesity, too. In urban areas, as the fangs of poverty keep closing in at the poor, poor are retreating to basics, will abandon all but foods.

Filipinos are rice eater. Rice as we know is starch or carbohydrates [sugar], high in energy but low in protein. High protein content in rice is in the bran [13%] but then rice bran is fit for animal feeds.

Obesity is rare in Philippine countryside. Getting meat or rice is not as simple as taking a little walk or taking a ride to and from market. There, people plow, they weed, they harvest, they haul, and they pound to cook and to eat; to do it all over again.  It is not as simple as going to the ref to see what’s for grub. They also walk a lot to socialize.

People have always talked about obesity as a matter pertaining to physical activity, artificial exercise, and food intake. Some have gone to pointing to chemical toxins by advanced civilization as one of the causes. As we know toxins affect liver and nervous systems. Liver and nerve diseases as causes of obesity? That one is new. Yet, others believe that illnesses and diseases are rooted in the mind. Directly and indirectly, I think, they are.

I think some obesity is linked to very little mental activity in people. There are people who think much while others think very little.

People do not just say things out of nowhere. Let’s take the word “lousy”. There are people who are, literally, lousy. That’s right, there are people who you can put lice in their heads and the next day lice will be gone. No anti lice shampoo needed. That’s a fact. Probably lice migrated to heads they found environment-friendly. Maybe some heads are literally hotter than others, I really don’t know except for the fact.

No, I’m not saying that most active minds are automatically geniuses because they are not always the case. I think degree of mental activity is something that developed naturally and became involuntary so that there seems nothing one can do about it when one is in or out. We have words like workaholic associated to that.

Mental activity requires energy greater than many people think, and in my personal observation most active minds are also more often naturally active and lean bodies. Have you been in a situation when your mind race and you tried to keep your body slow or arrested? Hold those fingers and your feet from wriggling! they are energy seeking to be released.  Mind and body  must naturally go together. Anyway, energy  from food intake must be about equal to total energy spent; rarely gaining surplus that we know will be stored as body fat, for one to stay lean.

For an obese person to be also an active mind and body, one must be  extremely a voracious eater – one negative connotation of the word Obese, meaning glutton.

Some people eat small yet they grow fat. That’s a fact. That proves suggests that obesity may also be biological-genetic: Efficiency of body to synthesize energy from raw material and efficiency in utilizing that energy. [Like  comparing old-fashioned home appliance that uses high energy when  the work it produces can be matched by energy-saving, more efficient, model.]

Advances in technology must have contributed to the rising cases of obesity. What I am saying is that maybe modern man is less active thinker today than yesterday in addition to already lesser physical activity due to changed lifestyles, plus richer food intake of the modern-day.

I guess everything is a two-way street.  But for most obese  it is more of a one way street. Over supply when there is now little actual demand will be storing or fattening.  Obese condition did not develop overnight.

Science has theorized that it was improved diet that had accelerated evolution of Homo erectus to Homo sapiens and finally to modern man. As man was gaining intelligence his nourishment went less hard to easy. Vice versa, that improving energy intakes supported evolution of size of brain, or supported bigger brains, for more intelligence. He was getting energy more than needed for physical activity. Man developed bigger brains and becoming more intelligent to where he is today.

Anyway, as a young boy I was always obsessed for foods. I remember being always subject of ridicule at the table. I usually ate as that of my father and any of my siblings put together. I had always wanted to be like some of the burly or fat bullies I saw around. One time, father had whispered to mother that maybe I needed some de-worming as I never grew big, and I never grew fat. I have always been lean.

As a construction worker I never had problem with overweight. My worry has always been about not to lose weight.  My struggle is against being underweight. When on the go I have learned to eat heavy at breakfast. I must also take snack at break times, morning and afternoon. Sweets [candies] which are cheaper, practical, and most effective as they are readily liquefied and carried into the blood stream, would be fine. That’s some trick I have learned when I was in the army. Or else, I might be burning body proteins down to my bones in every march and in every swing of a hammer. Today, as semi retired and when out of work, I usually eat only twice a day with just coffee for breakfast and at times of day. It’s called APPETITE, folks.

Appetite is the body regulating itself. I think everybody is just a slave to this thing called appetite. But some people must have their regulator out-of-order. And when appetite dictates ‘grab’ when it should be dictating ‘not in the mood’ or ‘not hungry’, then I guess that person needs handcuffs and shackles to keep him off foods. Teasing some people gluttons does not work. Something stronger than that is dictating. Some obese have simply grown callousness when it comes to that. 

For those with overweight problem, next time you have your hands on some video disc why not try the hard copy version if available, instead? I think reading is more energetic. Reading requires more imaginations compared to seeing fast actions. Or, when not pushing or heaving any of those, I should say, silly gymnast thing, or instead of seating, or lying awake doing nothing , maybe you should have your hands on computer games – the one that requires quicker responses. Spend, spend, and  spend all those surplus, folks.

Gymnastics is good only for keeping flexed. Uh uh, ok, its good for both.

Meantime how about that lice test, folks? We Filipinos are known for cheating but since one can keep the result to oneself, please, no cheat! And don’t forget the count. There is mild, moderate, and high, you know.