Poverty in the Nation

The poor of the earth has always remained upon the earth since ancient times. The Lord Jesus Christ said in Matthew 26:11, "the poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me."

There is a kind of poverty inherent in the human condition.

We each came to our life in pain of death; the most feeble and vulnerable of all of God's creatures. For all men and women are born to this earth stripped of our original freedom.

As babes, none of us can even make the choice to live. Somebody had to make the choice for us. In this way, every human being upon this earth begins life poor.

This is the poverty of our human condition.

It is an evil impressed upon the memory of our beginnings as a characteristic of our exile.

At its roots, it is a physical and not a moral evil.

There is also a kind of poverty inherent in the human social condition.

The kind of poverty we must live through from our birth and the kind of poverty we live with in and among ourselves as we go through life though distinct proceed from each other.

Both of these are evils rooted in the physical characteristic of our exile and are therefore, in their basic forms - transient by nature.

In ideal national conditions, as each of us grows into bodily and spiritual maturity, we gain in wealth what we shed in poverty.

This is so because our Nationhood itself is intended for the purpose of providing adequate means for our humanity to transform the poverty of the human condition into the Wealth of Nations.

To think therefore, that somehow poor people causes poverty in the Nation is erroneous.

(Neither my citizenship inform me through my humanity nor my religious conviction inspire me through my faith that this is so...)

The poor is not the cause of poverty in the Nation.

To unravel the evil of poverty, we must begin again along the lines of a new thinking - and accept that there are poor people - millions of them - in this Country.

Accept that poverty is a moral problem that is national in scope.

And that the poor of this Nation neither caused this problem nor desire for this problem to persist.

Furthermore, if we are to perceive poverty in the Nation as ugly, then let us think it ugly not because of what many others see as repugnant in the physical evils abiding with the lives of our Lord's poor.

For these evils are but an indication of a deeper moral question rooted in the spiritual maturity of our culture. Indeed, more ugly and repugnant is not to address this issue.

So we pause for doubt.

There are poor people in the Philippines. Of course, there are!  

There is also crippling poverty in the Nation. So much so that the Republic itself finds it perplexing how difficult it is to move our poverty index up even a slight notch.

So much so that many in the Nation have seen and considered the widespread phenomenon of poverty in this Country to be a grave concern of State, able to affect matters of national security.

There is poverty and there is poor people in the Philippines.

The poverty is a large part of the problem. The poor people are not.

In fact, the poor are fundamentally part of the solution.

Poverty as a moral evil is a social justice issue. 

As with all issues concerning Justice, it is not the presence of evil that is the problem.

To fail to act on it is.

Poverty that persists in the way that it does in the Philippines nowadays feels unnatural. It is seems in no way an evil that is transient any longer but one that seeks to dwell with the people.

From the evil of poverty arise many other evils that cause more misery and suffering among our people, most especially in the least of our people...

Evils such as human trafficking and other criminal trades that exploit despair as well as violent forms of dissent that in turn cause more weakness, bitterness and discontent in the Nation.

This in itself breeds conditions not suitable for the larger successes Country must aim for.
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2015 is the Year of the Poor

Reflection on the current state of poverty in the Filipino nation

Every President of the Philippine Republic after the Commonwealth period from Roxas to BSAIII has been engaged in poverty reduction and national stabilization efforts.

To be fair on all of them, it must be said that each of them had worked to address the problem of poverty in the Country and contributed in varying degrees toward durable solutions meant to address the same.

While some Presidents were more successful than others, to honor them all as their lineage within our Republic will profit us most in this reflection.

If we were to look closely at the lineage of our Presidents from Roxas to BSAIII, it shall be worth our while to notice significant efforts have also been made by previous administrations toward national stabilization right alongside poverty alleviation.

This is so because our internal divisions directly coincide with our poverty rates. The more fragmentation we suffer as a Nation and as a Body Politic, the more persistent the poverty among us tends to become. And the longer this divided state of affairs persist, the worse off the plight of the poorest Filipinos tend to likewise become.

Our nationhood can endure a lot of ruin. In the sense that our capitalist economy, faithful to its original form, may absorb many failures in favor of even only a few successes in behalf of giving opportunity to all but war makes us poor indeed. This is what I have noticed.

Most of the present Aquino administration's efforts at curbing graft and corruption in the Republic are also efforts directly connected to poverty reduction. Kung wala ngang kurap, walang mahirap.

This platform is clearly laudable to a great extent of our people but not uncommon to the lineage of our Presidents, one in which President Noy has been modestly successful - if not for the current state of our politics.

The political atmosphere of the Philippine State is stormy and uncertain during most days. I will not blame the President alone for the current state of our formal politics in the State as he too is wont to endure this weather of our own making...

Our political culture is something I think we all are responsible for. But the burden of our politics must always fall upon the shoulders of all worthwhile political parties in the Nation who consider themselves loyal to Constitution and State - to lead the change for the better.

In the political sense, the work of climate change in 2016 here in our Philippines is to make the climate within our Republic Sky more certain of itself and less a reflection of the uncertain climate patterns that now persist in our external world - we all have a stake in it.

That the ball may be carried forward from this administration to the next with greater efficiency.
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Thoughts on the Legislative System

Our Congress
may be likened to two lungs
- the Senate and the House of Representatives -
they both feature one function -
Respiration.

Now, as it were - in this metaphor,
each one whole act - of - each one whole lung
is the action of one system -
the Legislative.



IF within each lung
there were divisions that make it functionally stronger
then that is just a natural part of its physiology -
for these divisions assist and facilitate
in the efficient delivery of its vital function:
The meticulous crafting and maintenance
- in behalf of the National whole -
of a living system of law.

BUT if within either lung,
those divisions were to cause either one to weaken and fail -
shall the body ask which lung is giving it such distress?

Indeed,
within the Legislative System itself
- shall either lung - whether the Senate or the House -
reply to the organism, the one Republic of the one Filipino Nation
   (on whose a priori existence its own existence manifestly requires
   and unto whose well-being and safety, it is - as a whole - subordinated
   both in sovereign function - as well as - in sovereign authority),
"only a fraction of either one of us did it"?

NO, because in the first instance, the System itself - as a whole -
is directly answerable to both itself - and - the greater body of the people:
"The we forever" that this Congress exists to singularly serve
and on whose constant behalf must therefore,
diligently and sincerely maintain itself
ever toward that specific purpose
of popular service.

FOR however small the tumor
- just as much as the successful function of the System rely on its parts -
any failure of its parts to deliver is also a failure of the System entire.

This is (and should be)
the beginning and end of the measure
by which all the generations of the people
shall remember and acclaim - our Congress -
in its sessions and throughout its seasons, a Congress:
Never so by its parts but - always and ultimately -
according to its assemblies in their wholes.

Because for richer or poorer, in ill-health and in well times -
all elements that belong to the functions of the wholes within a Republic
are wed to the Systems unto which they serve
as parts to a synergy of wholes.

This is why,
in the way of understanding
our own particular Republic undertaking of Country,
one should never treat the Systems (and its Symbols) that comprise it - like its parts -
withholding one's convictions from bitterness and despair - for our own good,
and to reserve in thy civic spirit - a sacred space of patriotic belief -
where one may always seek to return to with honor.

And so
- in the case of this particular meditation -
one may likewise only exhort the legislative Offices
distinctly as their separate Houses - and/or - at their highest Collegial level,
exhort either august bodies to function FULLY together as a Congress -
and move independently of the stultifying spells of the politics
that this Republic may - even at sundry times obtain
from the persons of each their politicians.

- selah -

NOW
it is normal in the realm of politics to exist in opposition.
Therefore, Opposition parties do not choose to become Opposition parties
but are placed into their position by normal legislative circumstances prevailing in their day
and therefore DO have to perform a function
in particular with their specific calling
from within Congress.

Opposition parties
must oppose the intended legislative priorities of the Majority.
And this it does in order to give them pause - and - to remind them of the Opposition
or the Minority view that only by a twist of Providence, a circumstance of the Divine Wisdom,
the Majority could always have been - and could be - IF the Majority view fails
in their function to maintain the health of each lung, as it were - and coalesce
behind themselves the vital breath that bring new life to the living law.

The Minority view principally represents
the voice of the very, very fine smallness of random chance,
the nature of which the Legislative Body - as a whole -
must always be aware of - and - ever so be made to be aware of
for the System unto which they all as fellow legislators equally serve unto
once willingly given over to the realms of fate and of blind chance
- instead of being dedicated to the challenge of it -
loses control of itself completely and abruptly.

And so the Opposition must not be necessarily adversarial in nature
and should exist not to merely oppose but to "be in opposition" -
ever faithful to the Congressional whole - and - loyal to the Republic whole.
For the Minority in being aware of itself, lends its certain strength
to the Majority - and keeps the whole system sober
and functionally aware that it is.

Because in the end, within the embrace of our National peace,
everybody profits from knowing everybody belongs - to make things so -
and that politics and politicians - in and by their being, are transient by nature -
and this - their persons must always remember - that it is - and - that they are -
AND so realize that the ultimate vocation of all persons who in their souls
profess to belong to this one Republic whole - belongs -
to the right exercise of a common citizenship.

And that sometimes,
one has to be on the right side,
and lose - and carry on.
---<--@

The Power of Party Politics

Sometimes you have to be on the right side and lose.



Party Politics in a representative democracy is healthy.

It is a fact of present-day Republic life that our elected representatives need to be themselves effectively represented from within their own House/s to bring order and structure within the Legislative branch.

Platforms are vessels that convey Party principles and primarily consists of a set of Ideals, changeless and unyielding - and rooted in the National character.

While the Party as itself seeks - at every age - to make and re-make through these Party principles, the relevant politics of their own times.

This means Party politics must and do change to remain relevant but their foundations do not and must not change else, the credibility of the Platform itself comes into question.

And a Party can not be without a Platform and remain substantially united as a potent political force.

More so than as an effective aid to obtaining election victories, political Parties are primarily conceived as a dependable and robust source of mature legislation and of mature legislators.
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I do not understand why Party Politics must extend itself to the Executive branch but it does.

Maybe because the Executive needs the Legislative to be decisive in implementing the legal framework of the national goals embedded in its particular vision for the Country - more so than as an effective aid to obtaining election victories.

But this can only be so if the communities, particularly the elders from their respective Electorates, within the Constituencies of the Legislative branch are not effectively communicating their political concerns as regards their own particular visions of Country to their respective Members of Congress - the members of the House (for Local) and the Senators (for State).

Because it is this continuing Dialogue between the Nation and the Responsible State that the Executive branch (all throughout each and every one of its necessary transfers of vitality and transformations of authority) relies on to be able to faithfully conform and accordingly amend its own popular contributions to the unfolding of the greater Republic Vision - for the people and for the generations of the people.

Indeed, every particular vision of the Executive branch, to be truly reflective of the greater reality of the times, must constantly be stirred up and refined by this Dialogue within the Nation.

For Wisdom is in the people (not in the Parties).

Now, there is always - within the National Dialogue - a certain degree of political noise but lest it deafens one, one must know to stand quietly on the party Platform and discern - the meaningful from the empty, agreements from disagreements, compromises, concessions, improvements...

Good legislators know this and speak out to defeat the noise. Good leaders know this and listen to discern the truth. But a good President should know how to both speak out and listen.

For the vital discernment of the popular Wisdom in every age must always come from the Offices of the Executive branch, from the ground upward, being duly interpreted and skillfully articulated especially at the level of the Office of the President, at the very center of the peace that forms the Sheltering Wings of the Republic State.

Executive vision determines Legislative focus and Legislative focus determines Juridical reach which in turn informs Executive vision.

This kind of optimum politics (pulled upward) represents the highest expression of the National aspiration - tempered and refined (by the larger view enjoyed by the Executive branch) in order to adequately meet with the challenges of a changing reality at every present time.

From this politics is derived policy and from this policy is derived the foundation economics necessary for the efficient structuring of the Republic government and the greater Economy in the Nation and of the Nation (being of both matter and spirit) that must proceed from this - utterly depends on it.

Indeed, both Market Confidence and Consumer Trust (at all levels - both local and international) utterly depends on it.
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Why the shutdown?



In my own opinion, either the aforementioned Dialogue has lost its sense of vitality or the necessary movement of the national politics from the ground upward - into the Vision and Unity of the Executive branch - has lost its way - and has been superseded by something else.

What if as it were, the Power of the Party Politics of the Nation is reduced to the mere Politics of Partisan Power of the Parties - as an aid to obtaining election victories before anything else?

What if Power and Authority has become estranged in the Republic and Love and Justice in the Nation will no longer agree to kiss the kiss of peace?

George Washington himself warned the Nation about this fragmentation of the Unity that bind together the Separation of Powers into the freedom of a Republic and the pitfalls of Party Politics as "fractious agencies subversive of domestic tranquility".

Because the greatest sin that Party Politics can inflict upon its Nation is failure to agree on who or what to serve. Herein, the Power of Party Politics loses its original will and true ability to constantly transform the Earth and subdue it - for the one American Nation.

It forgets and forsakes the larger Unity and the Eternal Principles that bind together the Many States into the one Republic whole -

Not in behalf of the will of the Electorate nor for the sake of the Mandate that thy Union received from a free and sovereign Nation upon the Earth -

But for short term, narrow-minded, and near-sighted gains set forth by small minded thinking - of things that may inevitably only serve to propagate the necessary fragmentation that keeps its will of aberration hidden and secret from the illuminating Wisdom of the people.
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This thy First President foresaw: You are, America, a work of Unity, the fire in thy Soul kindled by a love of thy own freedoms professed and a greater love hath always led thee onward!

Despite all thy sins, for indeed - all Nations have sinned, thou art a Nation possessed with a Freedom to redeem thyself from the grip of past things.

You are - as a national community - one of the major lights of this world. You can not allow yourself to be defeated before the Nations in this most desperate of times upon our failing world by a prevailing lack of unity and agreement from within yourselves.

Only the Adversary of thy own lineage of Victory who is also the Enemy of every form of good that your own particular Nationhood stands for - shall gain from seeing thee weak and in disarray.

Indeed, does this not go against the very grain of everything you are and of everything you stand for so that even the stones and the trees and the skies shall remind you and speak to you that this disunity and this discordant state of present affairs is a thing not becoming of thyself as thyself?

What is wrong with healthcare? Are its provisions so poisonous that you would allow your Nation to tread a path unpaved and unscouted and unknown?

Will your princes from among thy own people not send scouts forward first in a strange land? For this is what this failure to agree is doing - no one is standing watch over the horizons of the morrow.

As a Republic, we are, by each our great motions in the heavens, led from love to love - can we not agree on what we love? For what we love inspires the Truth of what we serve.

Hate portrays but an illusion of love and therefore, is a servant of nothing. 

Division is good if it sows order and purpose to our world and defines reach and not limits. Other than this, division may only conspire to sow discord - confuse, weaken and dilute.

Let me tell you now, the America I know is better than this - much, much better than this...

It is a bit disheartening to see you like this, America, this but nevertheless - we are - as all Nations are, in this long march together as one covenant Family - we are - because there is always hope so that none of us can leave the other alone in the Night without abandoning itself to the Darkness.

You need to snap out of it, Old Glory, and take your position forward in the march.
---<--@


Tah-dah! Success...?