The Politics of our State

Two thought exercises -

Sea and Sky

Politics in our Republic
is like Sea and Sky

The Nation the Sea, the State the Sky
thought reflecting thought, blue upon blue
salt and water and spirit - in faithful motion
we, the people, in deep conversation.

Turbulent water disturbs it,
stormy Skies don't calm it -
but then, Nights turn to Days,
clouds, storms in their great rounds,
governments, parting ways, election days,
gold and silver rays.
---<--@

The Talk in the Walk

Let us first recall to mind - 

Countries take, people make. 

And that this is true for all Countries, including ours... 

More interested should we be in what Countries do 

than in what their people say - whether true or false. 

Because as regards decisions, 

people make them, Countries only take them - 

that Country may translate water into Motion. 

Country, for the intent and purpose of this blog, being a verb, 

its motion is only as faithful as the substance that give rise to it. 

And the richness of this substance 

depends on the depth of our civic spirituality 

as a human people. 

---<--@

If our Nation stops talking the talk, 

our Republic stops walking the walk.

Now, imagine if you will, 

my brothers and sisters of the Promise, 

that upon this - our Land of Promise - 

you were this Republic - 

the particular spirit of Country 

tasked by the deeper workings of Providence 

to shepherd this one Filipino Nation, 

not the Nation itself, mind you - 

but our Republic organism.

Imagine it were you. 

What would you like to hear from your Nation? 

Worthless banter? Bitter silence? Empty thoughts? 

Unfeeling, uncaring politics? Contemptuous prattle? 

Distasteful murmurings of unbelief? Scornful distrust? 

The incessant noise of battle, of war and discord? 

Hate speech and the ignorance of your Liberty? 

Or the happy chatter of a joyful people? 

Let us look now at our National bird - the maya bird - 

An industrious, little, long-suffering creature with wings. 

Almost invisible to us Filipinos for its commonality. 

T'is a bird 

who lives in the moment, 

not because it wants to 

but because it has to

humble
with a life span of only a fraction 

of what is allotted to us human beings  

yet courageous enough for its future 

displaying great fortitude for their young  

at times even more solicitous
than human mothers. 

Hear them sing in the morning... 

just before they go about their day, 

its almost like a daily prayer 

of praise and adoration 

to our God. 

- selah -

Do you think our Nation sounds like the bird 

we carefully took to symbolize and represent 

something we cherish in our people?

Certainly,
we can not all be incapable of worthwhile talk. 

But certainly also,
there is still much to be desired 

in that same regard.

- selah -

What is the center of the Republic? 

The place in the heart 

from which we speak to each other 

as citizens not unlike
one another. 

If we, in this thought exercise, 

should come to the same conclusion 

that there is indeed insufficient 

"chattering of a joyful people" 

going around these days, 

then we must find this center - 

the citizen in ourselves. 

And rejuvenate
the National Dialogue - 

that we may fill it once again 

with substance becoming 

of the Philippine State.

- selah -

My brothers and sisters in the Nation, 

nowhere can we find the best solutions for our problems 

than in ourselves. 

For we are each other's keeper  

keeper to our common humanity, 

our human community, our remembrances, 

our liberty, our posterity - before God.

We were born into it - 

by a choice to live the values 

that make our citizenship 

noble and worthwhile. 

Hence, 

whether natural or naturalized, 

we profess one spirit.

So let's talk the right talk, 

and together walk the right walk.

We can not build the right world with the wrong values.

Nor the right Republic with the wrong civics.

---<--@

=^.^=

Our Divided Pond

"While the tree craves calm, the wind will not subside." This is a proverb the PRC media frequently quoted last year when commenting on the rifts between the PRC and the Philippines over the South China Sea.



Our only fault is not having a credible air-sea military deterrent to enforce our core national interests concerns within our territorial waters as well as the primacy of our economic interests within our own EEZ's alongside our international legal obligation to keep these outlying waters secure from piracy and free from lawlessness.

I always come back to this weakness in our own national defense when I ponder on the bilateral equation between the PRC and the GPH.

We did not unilaterally draw these lines on the map, we accepted them from the community of nations. We accepted them along with the rights and responsibilities that our nation must undertake along with them.

We did not harass the Chinese fishermen (PRC) in Scarborough shoal in April of last year, we were enforcing our maritime laws as we should - not because "we can" but because as a Republic, we must.

After all what is a Republic without law but a sham against the people and a lie against the nation it is commanded by God to shepherd.

But what is law without the truth? For the former arises out of the latter and drives it constantly against its limits, not to destroy it but to make it perfect.

But what is the truth? It is - in its ultimate form - certainly not a thing that Man may create for himself, else all law become void and the universe itself unmade.

It seems to me that when the truth is made to be arbitrary, as it is with Beijing's insistence on keeping all claimants cornered, regardless of the avenues of international legal remedy, it all will boil down in the end to raw force and in this regard, the time is late.

We have to accept responsibility for what we presently lack and build upon it in a way that is befitting the necessary and the real. And we must do this not for anything else but our own true sense of well regard for this Republic undertaking of Country of ours and our love for our nation as a whole.

We have to be firm in the right. Defend where we can and get our own act together as one Republic whole. The elections this year affords our people a chance to act upon our national longings, one of them being to live in the safety and security not only of our own peace but also with the peace of the nations in our region, their strength added to our own and ours with them.

We do not want to make an enemy of the PRC. I myself as a citizen of this Republic do not believe in enemies, for as a nation, it is my conviction that we must only believe in friends and potential friends. Not because we are weak for this is not a time to be weak. Now is a time for strength.

We must always be ready to answer to questions regarding matters of peace, whether they are of our own creation or is a thing created for us by circumstances within our world or through the dynamics involved in our necessary relations with other nations for we have constitutionally renounced the use of war along with all its potential for abuse.

This is not to say that we will not defend ourselves, this is to say that we must make it clear that our heart lies only in our defense and that we are answerable to the answers we as a nation have determined to allow for ourselves about these matters.

The real question is, has the PRC already made an enemy of us? Who is the tree and who is the wind?

Where there are more questions than answers, the truth is valued. When there are more answers than questions, there is no certainty.

The Code of Conduct, as I foresee it, being a document largely defined by the economic nature of the issue as regards the South China Sea-West Philippine Sea, must answer for our region - the question of wealth - is not peace and friendship between the nations in our region a form of wealth in and of itself?

Did not the Chinese also say that the angry can be made to be happy again but the dead can not be brought back to life? Indeed, not unlike this saying, I also place a high value on human life. This is why I place a high value on peace. For in its most complete and absolute form peace is truly over war.

Never must this issue take away our common hopes for a better Asia and from our Asia, a better world - for all nations... dreaming together this time.
---<--@

War is not the test,
O nations of the children of Mankind -
war is the tutor!

Peace is the test -
and to pass this test brings success.

Salutation #135

When you speak,
thy words set time forth
and imparts motion to all things
so you must be sure of thy speaking.

When you are not speaking,
you observe, you listen, you understand.

So you must be aware only of thy not speaking.

- selah -

Pay diligent heed to thy not speaking
for only in silence shall you know the words.

In the timeless,
when all things within thee are still -
you observe all things around thee in motion.

Tact is when not to speak.
---<--@



(A Rock, A Hard Place, and [Diplomatic] Tact)

It is not Man's nature to wage war,
it is War's nature to wage war.

- selah -

If we bandy about with evil words
- one to another -
and in our nations do the same,
if we are indecent and respect not
the dignity of other individuals,
let alone other nations,
we are indeed sowing the seeds
of new conflicts.

But if we speak
like Men should speak
and not debase our humanity
into the level of brutes,
all men, rational men,
and not evil men who have already
slept in their souls with War,
listen to the sound of reason
and would try to avoid
harming themselves
or others like themselves.

Life - as a whole -
is not inimical to itself.

But sadly, 

my brothers and sisters of the Promise,
we live in an everyday world of contradictions;
of lies, half-truths and malice -
the veritable atmosphere of hell.

We can ill afford
to conform to it
and hope to remain human.
---<--@


...

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

20110711

Conservation and Energy Independence

I want us to be a forward-thinking nation!

Absolutely speaking, how we practice conservation effectively as a people will affect our energy future.

To what extent we exercise a common ownership of our natural environment as individuals NOW will determine our long-term energy independence as a nation.

Our goal is to go green by 2045.

How we dispose of garbage, how we buy our food, how we go to work, how we treat the well-being of animals and plants, etc. - all these things are directly related to the way we think about conservation.

And the way in which we understand conservation collectively will affect our national policy-making in our Republic with regards to our long-term energy independence as a nation.

It's a free Country so let us be prudent with the way in which we use our liberty.

With regards to energy, our national mantra shall be - "everything is related to everything."

And with regards to conservation, at this late hour, let us also permanently attach the adjective "wholesale".

Because if we do not go all the way today - it will become progressively more and more difficult for us as a nation to achieve a measure of energy independence.

Conservation in the context of the paradigm shift (from War to Peace) in our national thinking becomes a necessary element of our national strategy.

My fellow Filipino compatriots, energy independence may sound highly ambitious but it is also highly necessary. And it is just as well that we think about these things sooner than later.

Later might be one moment too late.

---<--@

Spratly and the Common Defense

The Spratly issue is contentious.

We are getting into the thick of it. But let us not get the notion - here and now - that this dispute is, in any way or form, the primary motivation that informs and impels our will of common defense for this one Republic of ours.

We are to continually develop our defense capabilities (on our own as well as in coalition with our allies) at present out of a necessary love of God and Country as a matter of course.

For we are no longer part of the last great age of War, my honorable compatriots - its paradigm is past. We should learn to discard also the thinking that the defense exists because of a threat that compels it to exist as in the last great age of War.

The defense exists and have always existed whether there is a threat or not.

We are not defending out of a need to shield ourselves from other Countries. We are defending now because building up an effective defense is an integral part of our undertaking of Country and this defense shall be informed by the depth of our belongings to each other and nothing else.

We will defend what we love.

My noble Filipino brothers and sisters of the Promise, do not overextend yourselves as regards to the Spratly issue. Every nation here in our world is broken, each to a degree, and all are War-weary. All present indications are that, if we should exercise patient as well as prudent understanding with all parties involved, this issue shall be resolved not by force of arms, but by the overarching requirements of these present times - this greater season of Peace.

Therefore, I am still holding out for an equitable solution to the dispute in question - a solution that will do adequate justice to the sovereign right of all claimants.

I say "adequate" because I recognize that in such a dispute, one who is skillful in diplomacy must draw a middle course between two evils.

In the meantime, let us focus most of our national energies into filling out what is necessary in our nation to make our one Republic more and more ready to face the challenges of this new age.

We must become aware also that our region belongs to a greater (continental) belonging and that this nascent continental belonging too will flounder divided against itself.

In the thick of this dispute therefore, let us try to place ourselves within our own belongings in Asia to which we are all part that we may at least take notice of the calm of a greater good that exists as clear skies above the storm which is (in this case) this Spratly dispute.

---<--@

Think about it -

It is not Man's nature to wage war, it is War's nature to wage war.

If we bandy about with evil words one to another and in our nations do the same, if we are indecent and respect not the dignity of other individuals, let alone nations, we are sowing the seeds of new conflicts.

But if we speak like Men should speak and not debase our humanity into the level of brutes, all men - rational men and not evil men who have already slept in their souls with War - listen to reason and would try to avoid harming themselves or others like themselves.

Life as a whole is not inimical to itself but sadly, my brothers and sisters of the Promise, we live in an everyday world of contradictions; of lies, half-truths and malice - the veritable atmosphere of hell.

We can ill afford to conform to it and hope to remain human.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

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