Israel's Holocaust

There seems to be no end to the violence that the Israeli nation can wreak on its Palestinian neighbors. This picture of an injured Palestinian child comes from the BBC news website.

Is this the way Israel wants us to remember them by? This singular nation, specific victims of the Holocaust, targeting innocent children, creating orphans out of hundreds of Palestinians?

I whole-heartedly agree with the assertion of journalist Len Olea that Israel is clearly a war criminal, together with its ally, the United States, in destroying the lives and property of Palestinians in Gaza City.

The way Israel treats Palestine civilians is no more different from the way the Nazis treated Jews during World War II. However flimsy my argument may be, there is still no reason to justify all this mindless violence against women and children.

Reclaim EDSA

February 25, 1986 is no special day. February 25, 1986 is an historical day. I shall never forget a day when hundreds of thousands of my countrymen converged along Epifanio delos Santos Avenue (or Highway 54 to the ancient ones) in a rare display of nationalism -- a virtue I have always viewed as lacking in us.

At that historical intersection of EDSA and Ortigas Avenue now stands a figure of religion. And under its wings a platoon of battle-ready soldiers always stands guard. An obvious desecration of hallowed ground, where prayers, tears, and sweat mixed with the heady air of nationalism.

We, as a people, have allowed bastards to step on our hallowed grounds, on the very spot where our race as one country found expression.

We are a masochistic race. We revel on our despair, on our woes. We want progress, but we are cowards, afraid of sacrifice for our own kin, afraid of confronting the bastards who corrupt our society.

What else can be said about a people who allow themselves to be trampled upon, to be spit upon, to be treated like animals?

We pay for the salaries of policemen who regularly violate our rights for peaceful assembly and free speech. We pay for the very bullets of soldier-assassins that maim and kill activists, priests, and journalists. We pay for the the special no. 8 license plates of our so-called honorable representatives, for their bullet-proof cars, for their arrogant security detail and for the luxuries of their wives, mistresses, and spoiled kids.

And of course, the very cash that flows from the bloodied hands of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to her minions comes from our pockets lined with fear and abuse.

All of these, we fight with prayers, we fight with protest rallies, we fight with text brigades.

Let us heed Engr. Jun Lozada's call for truth to overpower all the profanities of the present regime. Truth shall set us free, truth shall power us to resolve this maddening crisis.

GLORIA RESIGN!

Lest we forget

The Palace spin doctors are working overtime. We have seen information overload, and even a humongous fart that had claimed precious lives.

However, in the midst of all these issues, we should never forget that Malacañang tried to bribe our local officials. We should never forget that Malacañang tried to ram down our throats as taxpayers a very costly (ahhh... it is still an understatement) project that our telcos can do for us at lower prices. We should never forget that Malacañang, through the AFP, murdered journalists, priests, and activists in their pursuit of dictatorship, deftly disguised as the "strong republic."

The damned must be damned.

We should never forget. We must not forget.

the road towards entrepreneurship

Among our plans on our return to Manila is to pursue commercial endeavors. Just last night, I was talking to two very good friends about establishing a company that will sell exclusively-designed shirts.

Countless hours will surely be devoted in designing sample shirts, and of course the requisite permits and licenses must be applied with the corresponding government agencies.

How I wish establishing a business is just as easy as buying a prepaid SIM card. Yep, I know, there are reasons behind the difficult path towards entrepreneurship, but I don't think the government, with its penchant for exporting Filipino workers (and an irrepressible urge to kill those left behind), appreciates a darn thing about Filipino entrepreneurs.

Unfunny

We can’t seem to find a way to fight off this menace that imposes its unfounded authority on us.

Why is it? To what unseen, unexplained, unbelievable sickness have we succumbed?

The violence this election season is so mind-boggling. The COMELEC, the armed forces and the police seems to have no power whatsoever to stop those unseen, trigger-happy hands. God help us in condemning those fools (the powers-that-be, and their gun-wielding idiots) to the abysmal depths of Hell.

This country is definitely, and unbelievably, sickening. For what can we be proud of as a people? People Power? That was ages ago. Manny Pacquiao? Yeah, as if boxing with lotsa advertisements weren’t enough for him.

We as a people should be proud if we have our pride in the first place. However, we have no pride as I speak, considering the unfaltering count of killings that take place around the country, from the rural streets to the urban jungles. We have an unelected president who has surrounded herself with retired generals posing as civilian Cabinet secretaries. We have honorable, bemedalled soldiers languishing behind bars. We have dishonorable former government officials running for elective posts. We have a former president, morally ascendant over all her predecessors, being wiretapped for unknown reasons.

This country is no longer funny. We have all these paradoxes, and they are not at all funny.