09:23 | Re: Challenge to the Great Filipino Minds
I am posting my reaction to the multiply blog entry of my friend Peter, and our discussion that ensued after. You may know more of Peter here. This is a long post. Read at your own risk.
amikus
pano yung mga hindi "intellectual" ? what are they to do? as intellectuals* , what are we to do? tanong lang po.
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*siyempre i assumed na agad kasama tayo dun (?)
peter
as to your question, then they can do a lot by filling the crowds and pretend to be one... anyway, "people power" is initially considered through the volume and numbers of people gathered togetehr under one goal... Non-intellectuals are Being-by-numbers, not being-in-themselves .. hehe.. although they can play a big part (through quantity) next to the thinking Filipinos..
as intellectuals, through our thorough education, we are expected to re-act, inter-act, and be-at-one-with- change.. Idealistic as it may sound, but accoding to Jim Paredez (a celebrity who thinks and has his say on this), "idealism is the new realism." well, the least we can do is to make a stand.. For or against, our stand will authentically define our sense of nationalism. . I invite you to speak up, share your thoughts, and help this country... Please.. you cannot be apolitical and indifferent all your life, this is the time to take a stand as a filipino individual.. Believe in the power your voice, it will help a lot...As the Romans had put it: Vox populi vox dei (THE VOICE OF PEOPLE IS THE VOICE OF GOD)
amikus
as i have thought...
people are not just warm bodies to be counted. hindi pang bala ang mga tao sa kanyon. hindi din sila truncheon na puwedeng ipangharang sa mga bala ng
militar.
what is it to be an intellectual? is it the diploma that goes with having finished a fancy named program in a fancy university?
no, this is not apathy. i am not surprised if people seem apathetic. but i tell you, this is not apathy or indifference to our national political situation. people do not live in vacuum. hindi ibig sabihin na wala sila sa lansangan o kaya ay hindi maingay e tuod sila, o amoeba, o parasito na hindi nag-iisip.
i am dissapointed, no, i am enraged with intellectuals who, by reason of having more resources than others are able earn a piece of paper called diploma, think they know more than the average people. we cannot impose what we know on others. they have their own faculties which are able to process reality. maybe not in the same way that we do, but functions just the same.
bumaba tayo sa mga tore natin. alamin nating kung bakit ganito. makisangkot sabi mo nga. ngunit kasabay sana ng ating pagsangkot, tumulong tayo sa pagpapataas ng kamalayan ng iba.
peter
well said.. It may not be considered apathetic nor indifferent, we can then say its a passive acceptance of the things that happen... "passive"? Oh no, not for an educated mind.. As the constitution dictates, "we, the sovereign filipino people...", this entails the assumption of "power" in each individual.. regardless of how one will use it, it will depend on what he knows and what he dreams for this country. I, for one, cannot let all these things be a spit on my face.. wake up, the corruption is rampant.. and how can you embody your participation? through charitable works? through humble pedagogy for the unlearned? through your domesticated television habits? Let's accept it, majority of the filipino does not seem to care.. and that is sad..
Point, throughout the history of the Philippines, were there any instance that the people succeeded without having done such mobocratic ways(for some, it was mobocracy, but if you will going to analyze it, it is democracy in itself, the "sovereign Filipino people," held the power), i.e. rallying in the streets, civil disobedience, or at most, fighting against the foreign forces having only bolos in their hands and their roaring voice to enforce them... and yet, for a while we restored our freedom.. However, behold the tyrrant again... Try to think of it, the Filipino people have been fooled around by an evil.. this is the only possible way that we can be freed from his devilish government..
this is not a question of the levels of intellect by every Filipinos. Regardless of whoever supports, the important thing is that they dare to speak up... BUT, "much" is expected from the learned/educated/ intellectual filipinos of this country... It may sound elitist, but its true.. You have the knowledge and wisdom to stand for your rights, but using it is a different question.. You decide..
amikus
time and time again we question the legitimacy of "power over other" people held by the wielder. what we have now is a case in point.
filipinos may "seem" not to care, but it does not mean they do not care. neutrality is just an imagination. not participating in mobocratic protest actions, or even not voicing out one's concerns, does not mean neautrality, apathy or indifference to the situation.
yes, it is "passive acceptance." but the question really is why do people passively acccept such and such eventuality?
this brings us back to the question of power, but in a different level. do people have power to "re-act, inter-act and be-at-one-with- change"? this is a serious question. without perceived "power over one's self", how can one expect these people to yield their power to the effect of the Sovereign?
we recognize the power of number. as you put it, ""people power" is initially considered through the volume and numbers of people gathered togetehr [sic]
under one goal." but what is number if what we have is just a mass of people who do not understand the very nature or the very importance of concerted mass action? moreso, how can we expect change if the greater mass of people rallying for change do not know what change they are looking for or the power behind such change? time and time again the intellectuals benefitted from the people's ignorance of their own
power.
without raising the people's imagination, without conscientization, we will again and again revert back to what we are and how we were in the last EDSAs. and with that, we are to expect the same problems.
peter
I originally intend my message to those people who are learned, intellectuals, and at least, educated, who i believe have the capacity to re-act, inter-act, and be-at-one-with change.. Now with your question regarding how can a people power effect change if the people gathered were paid, unknowledgeable, etc... that is why I am challenging, not those kinds of people, but individuals who have a critical mind, and has the potent ability to re-act. I wont mind them, they are inexistent for me, as long as they remain indifferent and apathetic.. What i learned throughout my philosophical studies, is that man is a "verb", he is not a mere noun.. he is capable of action, reason, and judgement among many others. Rationality defines him.. But when he impedes his thoughts to come out, thereby allowing himself being silent, immobile and stagnant, then, it is a negation of his nature, it is evil per se. That's the bottom line of it.. We are endowed with these capacities, and yet chose not to react, nor make a stand at least.. I've read the column of Conrado de Quiroz yesterday, and one outsanding lines he rendered were: "there is one thing worse than rulers that are evil, that is people that will do nothing to stop them.."
It's a nice thought to ponder..
another point, before we speculate the reasons why others seem not to care, ask first ourselves: have i rendered enough care for this country before i surmise others' stance?
I have..
you are your own person...
amikus
intellectual elitist at best. ignorant of other peoples' reality at worst.
by "care for this country" what do you mean? in raising other people's consciousness we effect greater change by helping other people reach the political and moral maturity that some intellectuals are not too shy to brandish as laurels in their head.
there is nothing wrong with introspection. the problem is when "educated" people stop at pondering with their own noses and becomes contented at that. then we find them in the streets with their noses and others like them.
we must not forget that this fight is not ours, as intellectuals, alone. we must continously strive to involve the greater people who, by some instances, are seen as "uneducated. " that is the very reason why we must raise their critical understanding of what is.
now really, what have you done?
o wag masiyado seryoso :) i hope you realize this is just intellectual masturbation.
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3 Comment(s)
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19:38 | torture
i am not perfect. many times in my life i failed my self. in so doing, many times in my life i have failed the people who expects better of me. yes, i failed many times. but in every failure i choose to rise. except in one.
i did not rise. i fled. and now it's back.
at the back of my head i acknowledge the inevitability of this eventuality. i, for one, believe that this is destiny--my destiny--albeit it comes at a very unfortunate time.
i love you. and i can't accept that you may be the price of my destiny.
the gamble is me becoming who i want to be, but without you; or me becoming who more or less i want to be but with you. i do not accept that you and my destiny together is improbable. i choose not to accept.
until my formal re-introduction, i have time to reconsider. i had said my yes. but that can still change. i hope. i have less than two days to decide.
...
i should rather die.
i want to die.
somebody kill me, please.
as death is losing either.
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09:02 | role playing
funny that cinderella had thought of prince charming waiting for her at her stepmother's balcony, while she half-ran, half-jogged her way home. when she reached their house's foyer, lo and behold, there was prince charming, with one of her glass slippers in his hands, waiting for her. cinderella, sensing the urgency of the moment, let her other glass slipper loose. the night was too beautiful to be wasted, and so cinderella and her prince charming filled every room with laughter as their shadows danced the night away. the night was perfect, too perfect in fact, to be true.
reality check: don't call me again. ever. was the last from you. i hope not. darn. in a distance, someone is playing urbandub's guillotine.
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10:25 | without malice to anyone
ang salitang Filipino ay hindi lamang tumutukoy sa isang pamilya. ang salitang Filipino ay tumutukoy sa isang bansa, isang bansang Filipino. and sometimes it is worth taking a risk for this country.
--Jun Lozada, 07 February 2008
in a press conference regarding the ZTE scandal
in a press conference regarding the ZTE scandal