Accents
"I'm leaving on a jet plane..." (2)
Oakland, California, Dec. 5--In last week's column I chose "gems" (wow!) from forty-odd columns that, I like to think, have created ripples in the mighty ocean of your mind. I continue with snatches from the rest of the columns I wrote while there in the beloved Bayan Ko--carrying with me here in the U.S. of A. the journalist's dream of making a difference no matter how little.
Trickle of words can be mightily powerful--be it in the placard hoisted in demos, on a ribbon pinned on an advocate's breast, or on a protester's graffiti on fences. Or lines inscribed on Robert Kennedy's resting place at the Arlington Cemetery that I stored in my laptop: "Each time a man stands up for an ideal and acts to improve the lot of others or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance." These then are ripples that dare you and me to hope high, struggle unceasingly, and win finally:
Lawyers for social justice
An all-encompassing concept of social justice as defined by Justice Jose P.Laurel was adopted by the association (in Iloilo): "Social justice is neither communism, nor despotism, nor atomism, nor anarchy, but the humanization of laws and the equalization of social and economic forces by the State so that justice in its rational and objectively secular conception may at least be approximated. Social justice means the promotion of the welfare of all the people, the adoption by the Government of measures calculated to ensure economic stability of all the component elements of society, through the maintenance of a proper economic and social equilibrium in the interrelations of the members of the community, constitutionally, through the exercise of powers underlying the existence of all governments on the time-honored principle of salus populi est supremo lex [the good/well-being/health of the people is the highest law]."
Pushing the frontiers of aquaculture
Memories rushed in to this retiree watching the flags of SEAFDEC member countries unfurl under a bright sun. Where before there were five when I started working at SEAFDEC, now eleven were fluttering, holding a promise of a better future for their people: Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Viet Nam, Myanmar, Indonesia, Cambodia, and Laos. ...(Five SEAFDEC/AQD Chiefs) oversaw AQD pushing the frontiers of aquaculture -- putting up with, narrowing, confronting the challenges of the unknown.
"We will not walk in fear..."
In the exercise of his profession, Edward R. Murrow built the famous Murrow legend and tradition of "courage, integrity, social responsibility, and journalistic excellence, emblematic of the highest ideals of both broadcast news and the TV industry in general." He exposed insidious societal evils that ate into Uncle Sam's fiber of being -- feats that placed Edward R. Murrow foremost in journalism's hallowed hall of fame
...ushering in the pure air of freedom enjoyed by his fellow Americans be they from the left, right, or center.
Come the likes of Proclamation 1081, Marcos' Martial Law, or its copycat, Arroyo's 1017, are we going to cower in fear? I was in the US heartland during harsh February, and I wouldn't know how deeply we in the media were affected by 1017's chilling effect. If extreme punitive measures will chill us to the point of inaction, gag us in conformity, or stifle us in obeisance, then bid goodbye to freedom of expression, the sine qua non of our vocation. For life itself to have meaning, we must think, speak, write to uphold freedom of expression lest existence be damned.
War: as insane as it gets
Without fear of or favor for any of the adversaries, let me say that war is extremely insane. War is also most immoral when there is hunger across the fence. Renown consumer advocate Ralph Nader declares: "One month of military spending can erase poverty in the world." And there's multi-talented Peter Ustinov (1921-2004), the actor, writer and director who left us with this blazing condemnation of war hawks: "Did you know that the worldwide food shortage that threatens up to five hundred million children could be alleviated at the cost of only one day, only ONE day, of modern warfare." A bulls-eye hit Ustinov had delivered at the military-industrial complex, a hive of profiteers who laugh their way to the bank while people die.
I am proud of my daughter
Often I'm asked what it takes to make a parent feel so high, and always I answer: when a son or daughter imbibes and lives the values the parents hold sacred and precious. ...Two months before the US invasion of Iraq in March 2003, I swelled with pride to learn that three people close to my heart were in a peace rally, marching along with thousands other in San Francisco to follow the path of peace, not tread the path of war. Coming into the cold of winter were the threesome: my daughter Rose, her husband Timothy, and their son James Raphael, ten years old now thirteen. They marched with thousands all over America in defiance of the proponents of war and warmongers swollen in verbosity, pomposity, and obfuscations. ...Rose embodies the indomitable human spirit: outspoken, freedom-loving, fierce in upholding fairness and justice for all. Which is to be a citizen of the world. Which is to be a Filipino, too. A Filipino with his humanity, decency and dignity intact as he confronts on the table of ideas the causes of Third World disadvantages, deprivations and degradations.
Are you a subversive?
Is the P1 billion appropriated by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to wipe out NPAs include the communists? I don't think so. My resident lawyer (Atty. Rudy Lagoc who is not a communist) likewise does not think so. Rudy was very emphatic about this: Include the communists as criminals only and only when they take up arms against the government. To be a communist is not to be a criminal. What is criminal, he said, is taking up arms against the government. He went on to explain that the repeal of the Anti-subversion Law has made the Communist Party of the Philippines legal. Relevant to mention at this point that the great US democracy has long ago legalized the Communist Party in their midst.
Grandmothering
What I am to a large degree, I owe to Lola Loling, some of whose habits, beliefs, likes and dislikes I imbibed via my mother. First page in my book of remembrances was that Lola was not a believer of superstitions. I've always believed that Lola was born ahead of her time. ...I remember Lola to have a bad word for usurers--money lenders "nga naga-puga sang balhas sang mamumugon" (squeezing the perspiration out of the workingman). Lola understood micro-finance as early as in the 1940s and ‘50s. She would have been happy today to know how micro-financing benefits the little man without having to run to "5-6" bloodsuckers.
The big 12 Little Things
The title of the book is kilometric: 12 LITTLE THINGS EVERY FILIPINO CAN DO TO HELP OUR COUNTRY. Author Alexander L. Lacson calls them little but they are actually big because they take all of a Filipino's determination, patience, perseverance, and all the love of country "with fervor burning" in his heart. Or the patriotism that the average Pinoy conveniently takes for granted.
"1. Follow traffic rules. Follow the law.
"You may ask why following traffic rules was designated as the 1st Little Thing. The answer is simple. Traffic rules are the simplest of our laws. If we learn to follow them, it could be the lowest form of national discipline we can develop. Since it is totally without monetary cost, it should be easy for us to do. It should therefore be a good start."
OK, but let's have more well-defined pedestrian lanes, and do install more traffic lights in busy intersections to put the jam in its proper place in the bottle but not in Iloilo City's streets.
Let kindness overflow
Somewhere, somehow, sometimes the milk of human kindness overflows to douse the cynicism in our souls. Be it in the macro or micro sphere of our individual lives -- public or private, political or personal, massive or minuscule -- the warring positive and negative forces reach crashing point, when lo and behold, one heaven sent appears to make sense of our world. A kind soul comes to the rescue before we get overwhelmed. ... Because Rudy carries a cane to maintain balance, it warms the heart to see another in the line gesturing, "After you, Sir. " It is especially nice to see this in kids giving way to the old and disabled, instead of pushing the insensitive "Me first" no matter what.
If you think the world has gone cynical (which I can't help thinking so whenever drivers throw traffic rules to the winds), witness how kind gestures flourish to even up the scales: security guards holding the doors wide open and moving the check-in table to make ample passage for senior citizens, younger people you never knew offering to lift bags from beleaguered hands, and many others -- strangers but brothers and sisters in the family of man -- whose compassionate acts make for a gentler, kinder, saner world.
(To be continued)
(Comments to lagoc@hargray.com)