Thoughts on Foreign Policy

Foreign policy is a domestic issue.

If we were to obtain for ourselves from the Republic vision, an independent foreign policy, then we must bring this issue closer to home. We must be able to know and express our place in this world.

Rizal was a true citizen of the earth. 

He exercised human citizenship as a foundation of his being Filipino He was not a xenophobe. His best friend was an Austrian, Ferdinand Blumentritt. And we all know his love life.

Our 1987 Constitution offers us guidance in the form of two things - renunciation of war (conferring the right of common defense) and amity among nations (conferring the right of family).

I perceive those to be two sides of the same foreign policy coin.

War to me is not a foreign policy. 

Personally speaking, I believe in an independent, interdependent foreign policy, one that stresses the importance of an interdependent planetary community as an immovable constant in a changing world.

At its soul is love of friendship.

Its central concerns are human rights and national rights simply expressed as their basic human causes and these as goods reciprocal.

And these also expressed as sovereign need and sovereign trust in international relations.

And so - less stress on politics, more emphasis on clear and resolute choices.

No peace is perfect. But the decision to pursue peace must be one that is perfect enough. Truth is the first casualty of every nation's falling away from peace. Darkness sets in. War then takes its place. And so begins the death of human purpose and the corruption of human order.

If truth can not be resurrected by the choice to return to the path of peace, it is not a failure of peace but a failure of choice.
---<--@

Thinking Forward 30 Years

So in a future world 30 years from now... 

When our technology has developed widely enough and deeply enough that the sum of all these innovations combined have become applications fully capable and mature enough to replace us in those fields of human endeavor traditionally reserved for the human professional...

What then?

If the maturity of our remembrances do not keep abreast with these advances, not to mention keep ahead of the evolution of the spirit of War, our own technology might eventually forget who we are and soon after become hostile to our common humanity.

Instead of being in our common service, our machines may become our masters and through them, War will gain another way of entering into our times.

The human realm is a temporal realm - time is for us what the timeless is for the angels. Time is the sea we human beings were created to swim in and prosper through - as a family of Nations.

Our exile was also a time not a place. Place is relative to time... 

Choice is important... The choice for peace. The choice to love. The choice to remember. The choice to accept. The choice to change and to be... The choice to say, "yes". 

Awakened freedoms awaken dreams and bring them forth in time.

These choices take us places... places arising from things we think about and do everyday.

Small indeed when compared to the immensity of the universe we inhabit...

A universe that itself was birthed from a single choice... a choice our Creator made for us... still makes with us and through us and for us - for the glory of His Name and for our good.

Here things rise and fall, but in the midst of all it's comings and goings, we know of things that stay and are for always - and these are not things.

Machines can never be made to understand or comprehend these deeper things of the Spirit. How can they? Our technologies are purely temporal constructs. But we human beings are not machines - a part of us shall always transcend, now and forever, of the physicality of all things temporal.

For we are the stewards of this realm of God's creation. This is how He made us. If we forget, it is our loss.

But how can we? All things seen and unseen proclaim His Peace.

Religion proposes this to our hearts - we react as if it were an expectation already in us, so that if we are generous to the call of faith, we are then made to discover the wonder of faith seeking understanding...

And we make a choice.

But even if one is not religious or have chosen to have no religion, it stands to naked human reason... If we do not take care of what we have on this planet, what little we do have left will soon leave us with the ebbing of the tides of time.

We are how we treat each other, and that is all.

- selah -

Here in the Philippines, our path in the short term as regards these takes us through to 2046... Half-way through, we have to prove our peace and pass the test, that we may carry on safely, assured of better times ahead.
---<--@

51st State of the Union?

With all due respect, America had had to go through some harrowing times before her Republic got to where they are right now... And is still beset with problems comparably as tough as the problems we are now being faced with.

These are a Country's defining moments, my brothers and sisters of the Promise... when the ice sure seems thin and the breaking point is near - if we so choose to honor ourselves and our friends, and place our duty to Country firmly in the right... (so remember, no peace without adversity.)

Indeed, we share some of those defining moments with the US - especially during WWII in Bataan, upon Corregidor, along the infamous death march from Marivelles to San Fernando, the fight back from Leyte, from Lingayen, and into Manila -

BUT we do have defining moments of our own that are all our own - the spirit of EDSA '86 (politics aside, one of the great triumphs of the nobility of the Filipino spirit - think about it), the gallant Ayungin 9, the humble but resounding victories of our ongoing Internal Peace Process are but some examples.

My fellow Filipinos, we shouldn't be comparing what we have with what they have AND expect greatness from ourselves at the same time. For all great moments arise from the same (human) spirit - are of the same seed, same soil, same sky, same soul... our human habitation after all is but one realm in Creation.

But we can not have our cake and eat it too.

What this Country of ours need is sharper focus and deeper love.

AND what the US - and - this Republic of ours need is a greater and more profound understanding of the friendship that we already share,

THAT, God-helping, we shall 'ere and Now, ever always share.

For no one Nation is perfect, and that's why we have each other - that's why we are created, called, and commissioned as one Family under one God.
---<--@

We can not have our cake and eat it too.

Awesome vs. Not Awesome

The only way to counter racism is to foster a culture of racial harmony. 

Congratulations on your well-deserved Miss World victory, Megan,
you do honor to your people with your beauty and grace - salamat sa iyo. 

Miss World 2013, Megan Young, is awesome.


This person ain't (hopefully, just temporarily).

We could be friends, you know. 

Your India, if you really are from there, is an ancient human Nation and a vastly beautiful culture. I am in love with her just as much as I love my own.

Each of our Nations have distinct vulnerabilities, particular to our sufferings, for I'm not claiming India or the Philippines to be perfect either.

But this I do know, we are all possessed of something wonderfully good that makes it all worthwhile.

Because no matter the evil in the midst, large and expansive is our inherent capacity to hope and dream of better days. This makes us beautiful - as Nations and as individuals both - nowhere in All creation may be found such a great concentration of near limitless possibilities than in every human heart.

If only you are able to see that we are all struggling to be free from the fetters that keep us earth-bound and impoverished and incapable of just being happy. Because it is a difficult battle, Devina, this life.

We are rich or poor not on account of what we do to effect our ultimate release from the bonds that keep us unhappy, but on who we decide we truly are - so that each of us may hope to become - all throughout our choices in life - who we truly must - and be who we are - as a creation of a great and good God.

For all human work - no matter how menial - is directed towards this one goal of human happiness - a state of ultimate rest, a condition of perfect peace - a focus without focusing, a being without effort - all religions promise it - all revealed works teach it - all Mankind yearn for it.

In my rich Catholic faith, it is a state of Beatific Vision - the forever being with the Being of God - without the veil of time and the fear of mortality - felicity in Christ! Certainly, I would clean toilets to achieve it - if only it were that easy (or simple) - as many bowls as I can. 

You know this deep in yourself - this longing to be happy - because you too are - just like the rest of us, a human being.

So please try to acknowledge and appreciate what is enriching in our diversity and have a good think about your recent actions here so that, even though they were evil, you may yet profit from them.

May it all add up to your benefit. For Nations are expected to assist each other in this fight.

I forgive you, Miss DeDiva, and God bless you.

Thank you for uniting us more strongly as a Nation.

Australia is a laid back Country

Australia is a laid back Country, it is oft said... but what does this mean?



Every undertaking of Country
counts it's days according to it's own rhythm,
giving them form and measure according to its own spirit...
and those who belong to her nationhood
come to feel this passage in their moments intimately,
more and more so by the count of their years.

I would not compare Australia to other Countries...
I have learned to love her as she is... our Australia Fair
(And to judge none - for no nation of ours is without sin
and as such, no undertaking of Country is without salvation)
And though I know a bit of her, having spent some of my time

embraced by her - and in her spirit, soaking in the life, 

diversity and remembrance of her varied peoples, 

I can not truthfully say I have become blessed enough 

to fully appreciate the depth of her spirit as a nation... 

for Australia is not only fair, she too is ancient -

the roots of her community, quite vast and quite deep.

BUT this is do know -
and all my family and friends over there may agree:
Australia is a laid back nation, fair dinkum!

And when I say this,
I mean she is a land built with human communities
devoted to much happier, and much deeper human pursuits...
a nation inherently aware of a calling deep within herself,
reaching out together towards horizons a little bit above
that of the mere material... and the obviously temporal
for hers is that spirit that values things that are brighter
and more excellent than just the coin... and the clock
(to the point that civic generosity is sometimes exploited).

So there seems to ALWAYS be time in Australia
(at first, this was admittedly a source of boredom for me)
most especially, moments set aside and devoted
to the quest of other necessary things besides money...
(her shops close uncomfortably early, specially on weekends).

And this, according to yours truly, is why she is perceived
by her other kindred nations to be easy and laid back in her nature -
because it is part and parcel of her inherent wealth and wisdom
and so Australia keeps her time and treasures accordingly -
time for family, time for friends, time for mateships enough to mature
time for nature, time for fun and sports, time for learning a craft or a cure,
time for worship, time for politics, time for sacred remembrances to endure
time in abundance, time welling up from the dreamtime - plenitude!
Time enough for the benefit and enrichment of all Australians.
---<--@


Fairness and Mateship

Human Nations

To be human or not be human? That is the question for the nations of this age.



Into this age, we shall not fight over distinctions in ideologies or religions or ideals or culture or race... No, the times will require us to produce the common fruits of all of these...

For we shall be tested by the challenges of this age by our ability to remain human beings to each other, not only as individuals but as individual nations - able to persevere in the strength of the human spirit and prosper in the one peace of our sacred remembrances.

We shall be tempered and refined by the obvious practicalities of these unfolding times through evils that only we, together as the one Family of the Nations (of the Children of Mankind), can hope to surpass.

The Advent of War

The first time Man saw in himself the image of the adversary of All Nations was when Cain killed his brother, Abel. It was not coincidental that the killing of the first innocent human life upon our world also inaugurated the Advent of War upon the earth.

Now is the time to see through the illusion of the Adversary to find in the reflections of the Evil in all evil things, a way to make peace with ourselves in our world - for this is our world (redeemed by Christ and preserved by our Nations) - and in finding our peace with each other, an understanding of the truth worth defending together - in each other with each other...

...the truth of our common humanity.

Freedom's Common Pursuit

Democracy is like a tree, and so like all things that grow and live and breath, must begin from the roots. It is a natural system of living life born of the seeds of remembrances that must grow where it is sown.

No one tree is the same in the Garden of our world... each of our nations grow at different paces, is found at different ages, yet all are born for purposes that are both fully human and fully divine.

We bear different fruits - each edible and good for the sustenance of All - and all worthy and lasting in the eyes of our LORD, everlasting fruits born from timeless works that glorify with seeds that share - knitting together with the fabric of visible creation, the truth that will prevail at the consummation of time.

We learn from each other not by making each other the same but by seeing in each other what is familiar in All - trusting in our differences, and sharing in our strengths - so that, in choosing to believe in our diversity, together find, in the familiarity of our unity, the peace which is shelter to all mankind; the one Peace of the one LORD.

If thy Peace is God's then know ye it belongs to All Mankind.
---<--@

What is your world view?

Our Philippines,
when we emerge to become a developing Country
(and we will because we must)
will emerge into a nascent family of nations -

each of these nations endowed by God with both
- a hope that is in common with ours
as well as an experience particular to each their peoples,
shaping for that nation also
- a hope which is particular to them.

Our emerging in these present days,
as we are now just learning,
depend just as much upon our own strength and self-reliance
as upon our national view of the world -
how we belong to it, and how we plan to integrate with it -
therefore, one of the first things I should like to ask our candidates,
both executive and legislative,
is this -

What is your world view?

For if, God-helping,
we become the mature Republic
the LORD is calling us to be,
this sense of a world view shall guide us
in our treatment of other nations -
so may the LORD preserve us from vanity
that we may as a nation hope to prevail
against the errors of the past age.
---<--@

The Alienation of Hatred

2013 to 2022 is the International Decade for the Rapprochement of Cultures

Starshine,
when nations are angry at each other,
the reasons could be many things,
but it could never be because
they are nations.

They are angry
at the reasons they're angry
and this could indeed be many things
- true or untrue, right or wrong -
but it could never be because
they are nations.

Lest we forget,
lest we forget.

The craft of all nations is peace.

As a tree may only be destroyed from the roots,
a nation may only be undone by its willingness
to forget its own remembrances.
---<--@



A Hindu saint who was visiting river Ganges to take bath found a group of family members on the banks, shouting in anger at each other. He turned to his disciples smiled and asked,

"Why do people shout in anger shout at each other?"

The disciples thought for a while, one of them said, "Because we lose our calm, we shout."

"But, why should you shout when the other person is just next to you? You can as well tell him what you have to say in a soft manner", asked the saint.

The disciples gave some other answers but none satisfied the other disciples. Finally the saint explained,

"When two people are angry at each other, their hearts distance a lot. To cover that distance they must shout to be able to hear each other. The angrier they are, the stronger they will have to shout to hear each other to cover that great distance.

What happens when two people fall in love? They don't shout at each other but talk softly, Because their hearts are very close. The distance between them is either nonexistent or very small..."

The saint continued, "When they love each other even more, what happens? They do not speak, only whisper and they get even closer to each other in their love. Finally they even need not whisper, they only look at each other and that's all. That is how close two people are when they love each other."

He looked at his disciples and said,

"So when you argue do not let your hearts get distant, do not say words that distance each other more, or else there will come a day when the distance is so great that you will not find the path to return."

(from the Internet)

In a world as small as ours,
and getting smaller each day,
do we have to keep on
shouting at each other?

Indeed, 
these distances 

can become quite near.

---<--@

Starshine,
if you understood the words of the saint,
you must now also realize - within your own self -
that this distance that prevents us
from seeing each other - as human beings -
is a spiritual reality.

For this unseeing is a form of darkness.
And this distance too is a form of darkness
the cause of which is our persistence
to choose true-blindness
over true-sight...

A darkness that (both) prevents
as well as seeks to prevent.
---<--@

Those who live for anger
know that the alienation of hatred
is permanent.

For theirs are those whose spirits move
from wilderness to wilderness
finding neither company
nor safe abode.

But those who live for love
know that, through one may become angry
and restless for a day,
one may always return to love
and find peace.

Excepted from Love that thou may live
---<--@

Starshine,
remember the impassable divide
between the rich man and Lazarus?

Truly, it is far easier for the soul of Man
to travel from one end of the universe to the other
than to bridge a spiritual distance as permanent
- as that which divides -
(the golden realms of) heaven
and (the bitter desolation of) hell.

Pray not to remain
a fugitive to thy own heart.
Release thy self (to love) and be free.

- selah -

In the end we are all wildflowers...
In the end we belong to each other...
In the end we belong to all nations...
In the end all nations belong to us...

Love is the perfection of nations.
---<--@

Remember:

When nations make war 
because they are nations, 
endless shall be our strife!

When history forgets and
its spirits live for no regret
the ruin of Man shall be rife!

The Path of Plenty

Starshine,
the path into the way of many trees
is the path of plenty.

It is also one path.



Love your own and others like your own.

Salutation #169

The human spirit is under siege -
the diversity which is its surest strength
and the unity which is its strongest foundation
is everywhere undermined
and corrupted.

Brother stands against brother,
nations against each other,
all in the not knowing
all no longer know.

(For what our nations
now seem to only remember
- under this season in time -
are reasons for war more so
than reasons for peace.)



(Zeal for the House of Humanity)

Darkness reigns

in the House of Humanity!

Christians are threatened.
Muslims are threatened.
Jews are threatened.

Hindus are threatened.
Sikhs are threatened.
Buddhists are threatened.
Atheists are threatened.

Every soul and every spirit
(whatever shines in ourselves)
across every belonging, 

and every belonging
across every nation
is threatened.

Somewhere in our world, 

this is always true.

If everybody is threatened,

who then is doing the threatening?

If we can not draw the line
- together this time -
when and where this insufferable war
against our common humanity ends
and the peace of our needful Mankind
truly ever begins... O ye peoples,
where then do we look to
for the morning?

Shall we wait till we all
shall have lost our humanity?

Shall we wait till every nation
have turned to ashes from within
and our world so needful of respite and repair
utterly plunged into a terrible darkness?

Can we hope to withstand another age of war?
---<--@



"Evil has taken a prominent place
in the hearts and minds of many;
like a dark star that rises
Wormwood ascends from sin to sin
in the Sacred Sanctuary of the soul
to eclipse our Eternal Daystar
turning our poor world into midnight
in the inward seasons of the celestial sky."

- Generation Y