Thoughts on "We, the People"

IF TODAY we were to mythologize the history of our Republic, the chief protagonist of the story would be "we, the people"; the one, the true, the brave.

Another hundred years from now, this would still be true.

If only we were fully aware of this...

As a believer in "we, the people", I affirm the virtues of the Philippine State reside always in the people; that wisdom substantial for the good of all is entrusted to the keeping of the Filipino public in every generation.

When power in human government being ever in need of a constant source of strength and renewal finds in the people, no better source; rule and reliance is established in a State that is Republican and Democratic.

For in whom sovereignty resides is through whom the national sovereignty must be constantly ensured and preserved and government that is made to recognize the source of its authority is made capable of bearing trustworthy fruit.

If all our troubles as a Republic were to lead to a peaceful awakening in ourselves; one that empowers the nation and thus, enables the government of the nation to advance our vision in time, then we owe it to our past to make a way for our tomorrow. And the present shall not seem so muddled and dim. 

Rizal's awakened pen and the awakened souls of our illustrious founding generations never had a hope so great as our freedoms to be such - a nation brightly lit.

There is nothing as fundamental to the justice of human community as life and to her laws as the right to live in peaceful communion with others living within her.

Thus, again we are returned in our quiet meanderings to the people - the life of the nation.

The people are to be defended, the nation preserved.

Human dignity is to be recognized in all Filipinos and the human potential in each our persons upheld.

That the law of the State and the justice of the State derive their fundamental natures from ideals original to and characteristic of all our citizens as human beings. That the law serve, for the people observe, and the people observe for justice both preserve them and persevere in them.

We shall always be served by finding our beginnings therefrom whenever we need to...

I also presently observe that we, the people, in not being fully aware of this, at times allow ourselves to be obsessed by some passing evil and spurred by diverse forms of desperation often act in haste and that grave consequences especially in matters of State follow in the usual and confound us in its wake.

An example of this is when we as an electorate elect, set apart and call into authority more than a few leaders unfit for the spirit and reality of the Country we are trying to establish for ourselves and our posterity.

We forget to recall the symbolic value of the vote in the same way we unconsciously profane the mythic vision of a people, free and fair, living within the embrace of a Republic that is the dominion of their own sovereign peace. We have a right to be here. 

The rich tapestry of our pre-history now remain largely unavailable to us, but the living memory that is spiritual (water) can never be denied our nation. T'was a blessing unto us before we were a people.

If we were a Country with artificial frontiers; that "we are" is Providential.

Were we to rebel against the dictates of Providence, our peace upon this earth shall always be one that is by the sword sustained. Never to us as Country shall be made known from heaven, a peace that is to itself sufficient - being of its own remembrance, alive and one.

So I understand the wounds of our colonial past. I try to, I have them within myself as well. I know that the wounding may not be by our own hand but the healing shall not come by any other hand but our own.

And if our hearts have become so familiar with the pain that our minds have come to think to ourselves we are no longer in need of the truth, why do each present time cry out still for a remedy to hurts time itself has left unforgot?

How do we reconcile ourselves to these labors?

Can we be hero and anti-hero at the same time?
---<--@

Liberality of the Filipino Spirit

Filipinos, they say misery deserves company. But not from ours.

We in the nation deserve happiness.

In all its wondrous shades of diversity, happiness and the paths that from it lead all to human progress and achievement to us is possessed of one ageless color - gold.

This splendid color for our nation is the color of imperishable treasure.

Therefore -

Let us trust ourselves to be happy for the good fortune of our fellows.

Liberality of the Filipino spirit is thus:

Generosity exercised not so much by the hand than by the heart.

And forget crab mentality.

Just do it.

---<--@

Fossilized remains of Filipino crab mentality.

The Nine Common Human Needs: Functional Literacy

Education in an Age of Spirit and Thought.

The state of our Public Education in the 21st Century must change with the times. The advancement of the Filipino spirit through the pursuit of academic excellence is the central reason why as a Nation we maintain a public and a private school system - right alongside each other.

Education in our Nation is not exclusive to either public or private domains. Neither is Education as an institution of the Philippine State obscure about its principles and intention. This Republic shall and will maintain a system of education prescribed by our Constitution (Article XIV). 
---<--@

We shall forgo the mindset that private schools are better than public schools.

This is a remnant thought left behind by a system of things past - a manifestation of colonial mentality, if you will - wrought about by an unjust division in our Nation (between conqueror-and-conquered or those-who-subdue-and-those-who-are-subdued) that is founded upon a reality in our midst that no longer exist...

And have not existed for some time now.

Let me also re-iterate that while we struggle with these remnant thoughts, particularly about those past evils that our Nation and its spirit was forcibly subject to, we should not place any blame on things that no longer materially exists - our colonial past is not an evil to blame, but a memory we should bear in mind to properly place into our living remembrance of these present times. 

We can not hate the past for being what it was: Spain is to be loved and respected because we are a people of the Now and live not in the past, accounting before God, only the promises of the living moment, imploring Him to bring this Nation unto a morning worthy of our Flag and Anthem.

And in this moment - forever, mabuhay - there are only those who we elect to govern and those who elect who choose to be governed by them - freely, in a free, fair and representative system of Country wholly and faithfully embraced by a State that is entirely the belonging of the Filipino people - past, present, and forever.

Therefore, our public school system will co-exist harmoniously with our private school system united in their synergistic commitment to Academic Freedom.

Private schools are mostly specialist schools. They adopt means and methods particular to their design and are possessed of their own specific institutions accordingly. 

But our public schools shall be built as foundation institutions of academic and civic fluency.

And the entire Educational system in this Nation shall and must be re-dedicated in the service of the Filipino youth upon whose strength and spirit every new dawning that shall, God-helping, break upon this Land of the Morning entirely depends - in all our behalf.

Human ignorance is profoundly spiritual in nature. Knowledge is to us as time, only a borrowed thing. What profits the labor of our Education is how it shall resolutely and faithfully serve, in the name of our children in the Nation, the Truth.

We must consider this, my brothers and sisters of the Promise, when we think of Functional Literacy in the Nation: Truth is not in the eye of the beholder. Truth is what beholds us back.

This is decidedly a subject possessed of more breadth and depth than can be handled in this work.

However, for our intents and purposes, we shall limit our thoughts to the renewal and re-dedication of Public Education in the Nation as an institution of the Philippine State entirely. This Republic being what it is, private institutions of learning shall then be made to freely and creatively compete. God-helping, with our successes.

I shall commit for us here, some thoughts I have been nurturing regarding the matter. Let me also add that it is good that I commit these into writing now - that others with a similar persuasion to improve on Education in our Nation may freely add upon these thoughts.

K-12 Standard, National

Civics                                                   Academics
- Open Learning                                   - Structured Learning
- Realized "In"                                      - Recognized "From"
- Learner with Nation                           - Teacher with Learner
- Core Competency                             - Core Curriculum
- Informal Transmission                        - Formal Instruction

Human Fluency is Academic and Civic Fluency exercised in unison. 

Foundation Thinking - IS - the Foundation. 

The product of this Education system is in the students we successfully transform into the dominant spirit and thought that must pervade their chosen fields of service.

In common, this we shall call Human Fluency.

We seek shall to graduate human beings who are professional citizens and life-long learners in their own right - knowledgeable both in heart and mind.

They shall know their profession and know what to love in their Nation (and in other Nations) and therefore, apply themselves accordingly.

They shall upon graduation be - 

Work Ready - and - Career Worthy (or) College Ready - and - Career Worthy (and their Education shall be esteemed) Global in Currency - Local in Scope.

"Hindi hilaw, hindi over-qualified - talagang tamang tamang tama lang."

The fruit of this vision
in the Reality of the Nation is
Human Fluency.
---<--@

The Nine Common Human Needs

Salutation #186

Fatalism, it is oft implied,
is a cultural predisposition in our Nation
that inclines our society
to accept evil with resignation.

(The Brave Resignation of the First Filipinos)

The first Filipinos,
all of our elder tribes that comprise
those ancient Barangays and their particular communions
that peopled our lands and navigated our seas
long before the advent of Colonial times,
came upon this realm of restless skies
restless earth, and restless seas
and realizing by the power of their own experiences
an understanding of the greatness of these natural forces
sought not to take them into their knowledge
but to dwell in harmony with the spirit of this dominion
and so came they to a knowledge the forces of this realm
by seeking not to bend these forces to their will,
giving to these forces none of their words.

For our first Fathers, the ancients of our Nation,
in knowing the vast forces that dwell within this realm
sought not by their knowledge to master them through earthly will
but unanimously allowed from within each their own cultures
an abiding form of common and equal respect, each according to each,
and all according to their elemental natures as they are to be understood
through their own enduring reality and the character of its freedom
- as they are - in the restless natures of sky, earth, and sea
along with all the bounteous life therein that dwell within this realm
and so worked to introduce themselves to the Providential wisdom
that brought the lightning to the clouds, and fire to the mountains,
thunder to the earth, subdued the skies according its proper measures,
and gave due season to the winds that brought in the Great Water
and thus, dictated the life cycles of the earth and nurtured its flowing rivers
allowing these forces, in due time, to reveal themselves to them,
and the will of Providence to take them freely into their own safety
introducing to them a knowledge of the truth of those things -
adding to their wisdom, and blessing their communities.

Our ancestral cultures
- the lineages of the First Filipinos -
by their free acceptance of the Hand of Providence
in the restless natures of our skies, our lands, and our seas
gained through courage and acceptance of greater forces
an understanding of words greater and more powerful,
adapted to its wisdom, and made it their own.

This is the primary source of that Surrender.

It arose from a very determined will
born of the discerning faith of our ancient Fathers
to harmonize with the unyielding peace of greater things.

It is, as taught by their common heritage in our Soul,
a surrender to the greater wisdom that abide in greater things
freely accepting of the Providence that rightly governs All
and the better knowledge of truths that prevail in Heaven,
recognizing these things as greater and far above
any knowledge that is of the earth.

So we have come
to accept the existence of physical evil
and surrender to the greater purpose for their existence
by accepting the wisdom and the existence of a Divine Providence
that rules over all our choices... and does see beyond them
as a Reality ever so greater than our own, but most of all,
infinitely better than us and more benign than the limits
by which our hearts allow us to perceive and to understand
the pain of their reality, and the tragedy of our familiarity with its evils -
particularly when it touches ours - in our own time -
and in every time.

For we have learned - in due time -
not to question the wrath of natural forces
and as a people have come to bend like the bamboo
to the unfathomable will of Divine Providence
and surrender our pain to the embrace of a Good God.

- selah -

In our own days, seemingly far removed
from the time of ages past - so far removed, as it were -
that we forget that time is not a measure of its merest count
but is always a passage from a dawn limits to an age of limitlessness.

So where time seem distant - the distance is the illusion.
There is no distance in time - only timeless remembrance:

Love and remembrance.

It is tragic what happened to Bohol, Cebu, -
and as we feel the pain of the recent earthquake that shook
the Visayas and parts of Mindanao - we may ask again
the question the first Filipinos first asked, "why?"

It is a right thing to be hurt? Because it is not.

But should we believe
we should again seek to question
the existence of these natural forces,
challenge their reality over our own,
and seek to apply our will of anger or regret
- no matter how righteous they really are -
over forces far above the power of our humanity
to overtly command, and therefore completely prevent?

Because it is also not.

Rather, these forces should exist to question us -

as they did exist during the time of the First Filipinos.

Not to surrender to them but to expect them,
and to learn how to prevail over them
by surrendering them to God.

- selah -

Moral evil though - the things of War,
and the Evil in all evil things.

These we must always question.

For these were always alien to our Surrender
for a surrender to an evil fate is not the Surrender
that was inculcated in the spirit of our Nation
by our First peoples.

They are the source of our Fatalism.

The real words to use is Brave Resignation.
---<--@

Guns and Colonial Mentality

"Ang baril ay mabuting alipin ngunit masamang panginoon. (The gun is a faithful servant but an evil master.)" - Fernando Poe, Jr.



This quote encapsulates a liberating view of arms, one that releases our spirit from the colonial mentality that inclines us to believe - through the common experience of our people - that the prime utility of arms is to gain power over others, especially others weaker than we are.

If during past times the strength of arms were indiscriminately used to subdue the strength of our spirit, then the same truth that lives in the virtue of arms shall be the necessary remedy that shall awaken our nation from the error of past ways - so let us together reflect upon this...

Guns mean goons only if the virtue of arms is forgot dahil ang baril ay masamang panginoon.

But if we remember what FPJ said and make use of arms as our arms were intended - for the defense of our nation and in faithful service of all that we love - we serve ourselves well, my brothers and sisters of the Promise.

We serve ourselves well because we have - together - mastered the gun and by this throw off - more and more - of the lingering yoke of dark spirits past dahil ang baril ay mabuting alipin.

- selah -

People who fear the gun, in truth, fear other people.

But it is a work of Justice to instill good will and solidarity among men and peace and brotherhood among the nations of man that this fear may eventually turn into fellowship.

Arms do not serve individuals, arms always serve a community that looms greater than the self.

(Can we realistically conceive our local defense industry prospering in the absence of this truth in our culture? No, because colonial mentality holds us back in many places and through many diverse ways.)

To do justice to the gun, we must first do justice to ourselves - as ourselves - and re-discover ourselves as a nation - together this time.

In this context, the utility of arms find their original purpose and scope.

Through the reality of nationhood, the virtue of arms find strength and meaning and the ends for which it's knowledge and grace has been by God ordered and intended - in and among - our kindred nations of our one family of nations - the safety and peace of humankind.

This is the virtue of arms.
---<--@



So let us remember what FPJ said - to us - and - for us - about guns and the knowledge and virtue of arms - and say to him in return - "mabuhay ka, FPJ!"

Conflicted

We hate America

and we love America 

all at the same time - it seems.

Not because of America as herself 

but because we may at times be conflicted.

- selah -

We define our relationships
and we may only define those realities 

that exist within our focus.

When we know ourselves, 

we will also know our friends. 

And the sooner this awakening 

completes itself in our soul as a nation, 

the better.

- selah -

Is it America's fault then,
my fellow Filipino compatriots,
that we're so conflicted about America?

Here is where I personally stand -

I am neither pro-America nor anti-America.

I subscribe to neither schools of thought
for both of these teaches a form of exclusion
that estranges us from the reality of our nationhood.

The truth is
we can not live to be other people
- just the same as -
we can not live without other people.

We may only believe in the best of America,
trust in the best of America, build upon the best of America
- all the while remaining true to ourselves as ourselves -
with each our hearts abiding - as one -
steadfastly here in the land and in the Republic
where we all as one nation
rightly belong.

This is not hard to do
if we know who we are, my people,
and we may only come to know who we are
if we refuse to let our national identity be defined
by hatreds, divisions, and all manner of evil inspirations.
---<--@

Embracing the Times

20110922

Poor English

It was reported in an article today that a Senator of the Republic of the Philippines feels himself somewhat less than his peers in the Senate for admittedly having "poor English".

Do I detect an unmistakable trace of colonial mentality here? As it is my thrust in this blog to also dispel the ghosts of times past here in our New, Old Philippines, let me counter the Senator's fears as regards the above issue.

Language is no substitute for heart. If you have heart, Senator, any language will do you. All languages are equally important to the man or woman who speaks from the riches of the heart.

So speak your own truth and in Filipino, if you want to, no one should judge you for it in this great Country of Filipinos. If anyone does, he or she is the lesser person, not you.

There shall come a day when we shall as a nation benefit from the wisdom locked away in their great lineages scattered among the languages of the earth. That time will not come sooner unless we overcome what holds us back from that future today.

So God bless you for speaking the truth, sir. The end of the troubles that plague our society will not come unless we recognize in what we speak, here in a Country as blessed with diversity of tongues as our own Republic, that morning heralded by the tongue of angels.

If I were blessed by God with a language of common expression other than English, I would still use it. So must you. Speak and be heard not by how loud but by how full thy words!

---<--@

Mabuhay, our noble Senators - God bless us all.

Virtue of Truthfulness

20110910

Land of Promise

Glorious Motherland,

Pearl of the Orient Seas,

the fire of our love for thee

pines for thy proud embracing.

Land of Promise,

Cradle of the Brave,

from the tyranny of oppression

thou shalt never yield.

Across thy shining seas

and verdant mountain peaks,

fair winds and thy native blue skies,

the splendor of this hymn and song

speaks of thy vaunted liberty!

The brightness of thy Banner

undiminished in triumph waves,

the glory of thy stars and sun

are lights that shall ne'er fade.

Land of the Morning,

worthy of honor and of love -

our home away from Home -

what happiness it is

should the enemy draw near

to die for thy liberty.

---<--@

Salutation #48

A FILIPINO is a Filipino is a Filipino. This is our national minimum.

(Soul of Country)

O my nation, who are you?

Why do we long to wear the image of other nations like a mask?

Why do we take comfort in being somebody we are not?

What have become of us, my people?

Why do we seek to imitate the way of other peoples?

Do we not have our own remembrance to honor and way to cherish?

Can we not see our own reflection in the timeless places and faces

contained in the spirit of our Country?

O where is the soul of my Filipino people?

Why should we love and honor those - wicked things -

that disrupt the peace and harm our common good?

Are we not a free Republic?

Do we not share common commitments

to look after each other's individual good

- in a true spirit of service -

laboring in hope and goodwill

- together as one -

to fulfill the promise of the present and of every present,

and be at peace with the living memory of our past

honoring our duty to all generations yet to come?

Do we not have recourse to the - strength and potential -

of our freedoms together?

Have we not learned from the pain of our martyred past

the high cost of these freedoms;

this present promise of liberty and self-determination?

Have we forgotten the native heart that - singularly beats -

for this, our beloved Motherland?

Have we forgotten the spirit of the nation

that provides for us a certain place between this one earth and sky?

How much more suffering,

how much more tears and sacred blood must be consumed

in the name of this present moment

before the dawn of the morning is come into our hearts

and the will of the one Filipino Republic

is made to shine like a bright sunrise in our souls?

We are a patient people.

But too long have we waited, too much have we suffered

- to high a price have our generations paid -

to let anything hold us back

from the promise of tomorrow that awaits us:

The vision of a united, free, peaceful and prosperous

- one and faithful Filipino Republic -

with liberty, equality, justice and opportunity

for all our citizens and our posterity

without distinction or prejudice

as to race, creed, sex, age, ethnicity or social class!

O when will I sing the victory songs of our Motherland?

When shall the troubles of my nation cease,

O LORD, and one Sovereign of All?

When shall the past end and tomorrow begin for my people?

When shall we be made again into one heart?

O my beloved people,

brothers and sisters of the Promise,

the captive soul of the Filipino nation must be set free!

We are the masters of our national destiny.

But until we realize - here and now -

who we are as a nation distinct but not apart

from all the other kindred nations

of the one Peace of the one Brotherhood of Mankind;

until we awaken again into ourselves

- and enter into the heart of this one nation -

as a people worthy of this free Republic, its mission and its sacred trust,

the dawn of our morning will seem so far away.

We, as one people, must awaken to the soul of Country.

It only takes an instant to realize - who we truly are -

together in each ourselves, citizens to each other,

and a lifetime to become for our Country - what we truly must -

faithful sons and daughters of a common Motherland;

the timeless, living community that has loved,

sheltered and sustained our generations

under the eternal vigilance of Almighty God

from the very beginning of the generations

of our one people.

---<--@

If you still want to know the name of the Angel of the Philippines, it is this - "Go and be a good citizen".

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Citizenship with Fidelity

The Peace of the Brotherhood of Mankind

Maiden of the Sea

How fare thee, dear nation,

my Pearl of the Orient Seas

standing at the threshold

of another thousand years?

O dear island nation,

how came we to know thee?

O Sanctuary of my people,

a love 7,107 islands strong

emerging now from thy sleep,

awaiting the dawn!

Thy past is a mystery,

a deep longing for answers,

who were thee, O nation?

What was our name

from before the Crown

and the sword of Spain?

O dear Country,

our home away from Home

beautiful for thy people

and for thy bay side sunsets

blessed with great riches

and fruits of earth and sea.

O Land of the Morning,

my hope and my patrimony.

O how I love thy sweetness,

all our dreaming together

those days of my childhood,

'twas long as forever

fond for friends and family,

for love of God and Country

I shall soon remember -

O strong Republic,

be faithful for people

prosper thy peace together

strong for for thy faithfulness

and faithful for thy togetherness

now hearken to thy courage,

and aright to thy self!

Arise brave Republic,

become present for our hope!

For God has kept thy secrets,

thy lost memory of times before:

Thou loved the maiden

embraced by the sea!

So young and vibrant,

and promised to thee.

Thy nation to wed thee,

O for beautiful Country!

The people adored thee,

for thy spirit was free;

all the other nations

were so happy for thee.

Have thou now forgotten

that promise long ago?

Return now to the wonder

and never let go.

The night's almost over,

daybreak twilight draws near.

Aright my dear people,

the dawn will soon break.

Our Republic awaits us,

O nation most dear -

Our Land of the Morning

is soon to appear!

O dear Filipino nation,

we are who we are!

Long have the years

kept dear Country away -

through trial and sorrow,

through fear and strife,

through furious battle,

through bloodshed tears,

how long the struggle,

we fought to remain

through every opponent,

our hope overcame!

Night has not claimed us,

we are the same.

---<--@

20110507

Our President Noy is in Jakarta for the 18th ASEAN Summit.

As you know, my fellow Filipino compatriots, our nation is an integral part of the ASEAN. And I would that we should always bear this in mind and heart. We rightfully belong to this region and this region rightfully belongs to our ASEAN Neighborhood.

We should preserve a sense of good will and proper pride about our regional grouping in ASEAN. Because no other grouping of nations can build up the earth here in our region but ours. This is our own dreaming together as ASEAN.

If we remain focused here in the Philippines on our own goals of peace and national development, right here within our own Republic undertaking of Country, we should become aware also that we are adding to the strength of our regional community.

There will come a time when we can reach further out of ourselves in peace and good will with other nations in times of need, and with much better means, but until that time, right here is where we must all begin, right here in the Philippines - our Republic as an integral part of the ASEAN Neighborhood.

Depending on which Country one belongs, every Country here in ASEAN is the best place to live on earth. But only if we collectively believe we can make it so.

It is important that we learn to accept the needs that arise from realities that are local to our region. These needs essentially drive our nations together toward its natural goals which lead to peace and prosperity.

Or if we are not yet wise, it could drive our nations apart.

However, the fact that we have ASEAN is good. Because it manifests our common will of unity.

We can not enlarge the horizons of our own world view realistically if we can not learn to grow out of the colonial mindset that seeks greener pastures elsewhere first.

We can not neglect the fact that we live in this region.

Though each nation in ASEAN belong also to the greater regions of the earth, it is here in the Philippines, and here in our ASEAN, where we must always, always think to build first.

My honorable compatriots, that inherent tendency to disown by false comparison, our Country and our Region, is something we have to learn to let go if we are to finally come into our own in this world.

If we can not learn to love our own, we can not love (at all). If we only love our own, we do not love (we hate). None of these attitudes of nationhood are conducive to peace and development.

If we want to love, we must simply do so bravely, beginning with ourselves and like the stars shining outward - love all things without condition, without compare, and without measure.

For we are a nation distinct but not apart from the one family of the nations of Mankind (which is represented in and by the U.N. of which we are all part).

Two things I should like to write about here in particular as regards to the 18th ASEAN Summit:

Firstly, the Border Dispute between Thailand and Cambodia, I should like to point out, share a similar dimension with the larger, more complex Spratly dispute.

They are both essentially an issue of overlapping claims of sovereignty.

None of these are viable population centers which means the present conflict is not essentially military in nature.

Behind all the rhetoric, in both cases, I think I can safely say that the issue is entirely driven by something else.

In the case of the border dispute between the two member nations of our ASEAN Neighborhood, I do not think it too unrealistic to say that in the interests of both Countries and the greater good of the region, the conflict may be safely contained by delimiting the nature of the engagement away from traditional military means.

By this I am manifesting my belief that this is cultural engagement and therefore, amenable to other solutions of a more ambitious nature.

Furthermore, the military solution can not simply be sustained either so the sooner it is taken out of the cards, the better.

The creation of a Common Trust solution that takes into consideration particular concerns as well as puts the territory squarely in the stewardship of both nations might be the better way ahead for both Thailand and Cambodia.

Therefore, I challenge the ASEAN Neighborhood to come up with a Common Trust solution to the Cambodia-Thailand Border Dispute.

A Common Trust solution to this unfortunate border dispute, in my own view, will yield valuable lessons learned that in turn will contribute toward a workable solution to the Spratly issue.

However, ASEAN must first connect the two issues together.

The other thing is the reaffirmation of the essential doctrine of Civilian Superiority Over the Military.

---<--@

The Royal Wedding

Last week, much of the world had a breather...

I am a fan of Princess Diana's advocacy against the use of land mines and I still am. I am also very appreciative of her de-mining efforts here in our region.

I think something went full circle last week... It certainly feels that way to me.

I am certainly not against the institution of the Monarchy as an integral part of the Responsible State, mind you.

That I was - like you - born into a Republic undertaking of Country simply does not make it that way, my honorable compatriots.

I am however, like you, against bad governance of all sizes and stripes.

So congratulations to Prince William and Catherine!

May God bless their wedlock vows that He may keep them always together.

May they always be able to say forever to each other and mean it.

May God prosper their works of leadership and service.

And may God further bless their union with the new life of children.

Cheers to the Royal Couple! God bless the U.K.!

Good on you, Will Wales.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang ASEAN! Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

The Paradox of Power