As regards the question of the National Wealth, should the Government exist to serve the needs of the poor or the rich?

As regards
the question of the National Wealth,
its recognition, creation, conservation, transformation, and ultimate possession,
should Government exist to serve
the needs of the poor? No.
The rich? No.



Government exists to come to the aid of all of its citizens
that they may - rich or poor - be able to dwell harmoniously together
in order to effectively meet their common human needs -
WORKING together to secure both the dignity and promise of human life,
serve and defend the national peace, enrich their sovereign freedoms,
and to be better and better able to guarantee for their common posterity,
a Republic that - with each generation ripens - for the good of all generations -
in virtue and maturity - in time and in remembrance.

The material betterment that Capitalism promises
is founded on the truth that all citizens must first of all, regard each other as such -
as human beings to each other - being variously but consistently sympathetic
to the poverty and humiliation of the human condition and thus,
willing to work freely with each other under God
to continuously co-create and prosper
the National Wealth.

Upon this singular moral condition is founded
the ethical safeguards that are necessary to preserve the societal certainty
of its central ideals of entrepreneurial competition and market freedom.

Businesses that come to possess a superior management
stand to outdo those that consistently fail to acquire it.
And proceeding from this first ideal (i.e. authentic human entrepreneurship)
in a free market environment (i.e. one that is possessed of authentic market freedoms),
products (and services as products) that are better made consistently stand to gain
a better share of the Common Market (as a whole) - but -
only inasmuch as it is a consequence, direct as well as indirect,
of the first ideal -

An enterprise driven system designed to create and multiply both capital and industry
by inclining citizen-consumers to be citizen-producers, and provides for these ideals accordingly

a Free Market System - purposed, structured, and therefore, expected to faithfully function

(1) to encourage the maintenance and practical evolution of good business practices,
(2) reward both dedicated management and dedicated labor with a positive workforce culture
and (3) effectively transfer all of its variously intended benefits to the intended good of the citizenry
who by being able to - freely and equally - participate in the creation of both supply and demand
maintains his or her essential responsibility as an active participant in a Capitalist economy
both in the consumption of goods as well as in the promotion of the pertient commercial good
thus exercising free choice as regards the nature and direction of the Common Market.

(Materialism 
confounds these ideals
and places the merit
as well as the burden of virtue
on the Market itself which
can neither possess it
nor become possessed by it.
Citizens get enlightened.
Corporations do not.)

For indeed, everybody
must enter into everybody's labor
and everybody's labor must be aligned and directed
toward the ultimate end for which all human labor must be purposed
which is a just distribution of this world's material goods within the Nation
as a reality proceeding from an equitable appreciation of the National Wealth -
which is always more than just the material component of "being rich".

This is the kind of Capitalism
I should like to subscribe to -
an economy of matter and spirit. 

We are, as a Nation,
to be wealthy first (and recognize it)
before we become wealthy (and realize it).
For there is only one direction toward wealth
and that is to become truly wealthy - for everybody.

Virtue is currency.

Not the rigid, materialistic, purposeless
and therefore, at times, quite cruel and inhuman system
- divisive of rich and poor and therefore, ultimately hostile to both -
an economic system that has lost its ability to steer itself
with the progress of the Nation whose existence
guarantees it own success.
---<--@

What makes you happy does not always make you rich. 
But what makes you rich must always make you happy.

Salutation #164

The real answer
to the question of poverty in our age
may not be more but BETTER forms of prosperity.



(The Question of Wealth)

Wealth,
darling Starshine -
what is it?

- selah -

"What is wealth?" -  beloved,
is a question we should each know
how to ask the citizen in each ourselves.

For the recognition of wealth -
its forms, orders of value, real purpose in time,
generation, preservation, conservation,
and ultimate possession -
is the central question being sought
(to be sufficiently grasped and understood)
by each our answering - in our own times and places -
the collective call of each our own undertaking of Country.

The answers - that each of us are -
whose completeness in the ascent - as a whole -
(like stars finding their way together
into every new morning of every new day
unto the completion of our Country)
drive forward the economy of our generations.

Indeed,
the singular - temporal - pre-occupation
of every nation (of the children of Mankind)
is how to adequately understand
the question of wealth.

Truly,
it is important to understand this question.

FOR
how one nation understands the Question
directs its timeless energies unto the answer...
even... precious starshine, all the way.
---<--@



Ask yourself:
is money - by itself -
wealth enough?

Money
can be good.

- BUT -

Money
can be bad.

Why?

Starshine,
what (or who) makes it so?
---<--@



Questions ask, answers answer.

Salutation #156

You can not see love
yet you feel it when it's near
and even more so when it is far...

The spiritual soul
implicitly understands this.

But to the unspiritual
this only brings confusion.



(Rich in all things, Rich above all things)

Starshine -

Is Mankind 
truly experiencing 
an awakening in the soul? 

We can feel our way
toward an answer to this
by how we learn to come to love
what we can no longer see.

We can not see virtue
but we can understand its worth.

AND if this love of the spiritual
overcomes our love for the material,
far from nullifying our national prosperity,
it will cause our people to become rich indeed -
rich in all things, rich above all things.

Reality is that our Reality is
99% invisible to the human eye -

   We can not see Country
   but we hope to understand its worth.
   For what is essential is formed in formlessness.

We are seen more than we can see.
And loved more than we are able to believe.

---<--@

Salutation #153

Prudent stewardship of the temporal order does not disincline the wings of the soul to flight for a rightful love of the things of the earth is one that does not diminish the appetite of the spirit for virtue and truth.

Material prosperity is not undesirable, materialism is. 

For materialism breeds greed and greed is the real dirt.

Therefore, one must guard not against matter but the spirit for it is this dirt that soils the soul; it is this dirt that buries the spirit.

(Nation vs Materialism)

SIMPLY PUT,
economic prosperity
depends on two things:
matter and spirit.

THIS is why materialism
ultimately destroys national wealth.

- selah -

Virtue is currency!

The rich need the poor, the poor need the rich
for each may only prosper with the other
and this relationship, by it's own virtue,
sustains the middle classes
which is the surest foundation
of a strong and steadfast democracy
providing safe shelter - for all:

A community of striving souls
standing for a just and lasting peace
where freedom is nourished - for all -
and peace, though imperfect, is yet
strongly believed and understood - by many -
as an ideal to be perfected in practice
in vision as well as in mission
- in thought and in act -
as an expression of the good will
of all citizens - least to great,
past, present, and forever.

A society of citizens
living in a just equality with each other
where every and all opportunity
though offered and received in unequal parts
by each individual citizen quantitatively
becomes a quality in the nation
that creates wealth equally
for all.
---<--@

Of Virtue and Vice

Salutation #128

The Common Market
serves the national wealth.

And this wealth is not wholly material. 

For the building up of the (inhabited) earth
is a labor that is an economy of both matter and grace.



(Prosperity Measures)

My fellow Filipinos, 
brothers and sisters of the Promise,
let us together take note -

If any undertaking of Country
should like to re-introduce or re-invigorate
its own nascent market efficiencies,
a Nation and its own Responsible State
must work together - to promptly ensure -
that the Common Market exists for the Nation
and not the other way around.

This is why
austerity measures
- in and of itself -
will not work.

For the vigor
of the national prosperity
must ultimately depend upon
the trust of the people - abiding freely -
at the heart of the Common Market.

Therefore -

Discipline the market,
not the people.

Then reassure the people,
not the market.

- selah -

Prosperity measures
are all about restoring faith
and allaying the fear at the heart of the Nation
about its own local industries, market institutions,
economic prowess, and material sufficiency.

And this is only because 
the Common Market exists for the Nation
and not the other way around.

The process of recovery,
in this particular sense,
can be summed up in one word -

"TRUST".

Engender trust 
and reap a reciprocity of trust.

Virtue is currency.
---<--@

The Three Elements of Country

Service, Synergy and Sovereignty

View in Review 20120511

While there are other note-worthy articles I should like to include in this Review, for today, I am going to delve exclusively on the one issue that seems to loom in the horizons of my mind - Scarborough Shoal.

(I initially did not expect this incident to become so protracted...)



Scarborough Shoal is NOT a population center.

It is an economic resource.

For what else is it?

There is a difference here, a subtle but significant one.

- selah -

Sovereignty lies chiefly in the nation - in the reality of we, the people who under God and before our laws and constitutional ideals are ordered and arrayed (in time and dimensional space) as one nation.

And from the nation extends to those spheres proper to our Republic undertaking of Country.

Why is it then that in the issue of Scarborough Shoal we are becoming so willing to undertake with China (PRC) burdens proper only for the defense of a population center?

Sovereignty has degrees just as equally as defense has depths yet sovereignty in all its places must be equally well-defended.

How we undertake this defense - against War, against each other - lies chiefly in how we must succeed in its conduct.

If we do not succeed in a diplomatic course of action as history has always been so eager to point out, we shall have no other recourse but an armed confrontation - a low-intensity conflict, as it were.

In this particular outcome, if we allow it to be, we shall be in control with China (PRC) only of how much damage we shall each be willing to sustain, for in this particular outcome, all parties would have already lost even before formal hostilities will have already begun.

We can not subdue China (PRC) neither can China (PRC) subdue us.

In this particular outcome, the longer view of things both obscures itself from our vision and denies itself from our foresight.

For we certainly could pursue the Scarborough Shoal issue through to its military means but to what ends, my fellow Filipinos, to what uncertain ends?

So instead of going into that exercise in sheer futility that in this particular case is armed conflict, it is to our common benefit with China (PRC) to find a way to share the advantages as well as inherent responsibilities of maintaining a common marine area as a mutual resource meant for the peace of both our peoples.

There is a middle ground to be found here. War shall not avail us anything.

And this middle ground has got to be found, recognized and commonly agreed upon through the use of an innovative approach that seeks to let go of old and antiquated ways of thinking... for the times are truly changed.

My personal position here (in support of President Noy) is to clarify, communicate, compromise, recognize, coordinate, legislate, and conform - exhaust every means, take every opportunity to transform this unwanted incident into an achievement of good worth to our nation (with armed confrontation only as a means of last resort in the conduct of the defense) - all for the greater good of our common regions in Asia, for the good of our Asia, and from our Asia to our needful world so much in need of respite and repair.

Moreover -



Scarborough Shoal is well within our 200 nautical mile EEZ or Exclusive Economic Zone (a compensatory advantage of our Archipelagic nature) and its continuing and responsible maintenance as an integral part of our territorial seas is sanctioned by UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea).

Of the substance of this truth, lettered in international law, and witnessed by many of our kindred nations, we may indeed constantly rely.

It is more costly, in terms of the national wealth, for the PRC to do what our naval forces and maritime law enforcement agencies must be able and indeed are able to accomplish in these waters. This is to maintain the law of our Republic and extend forth the sovereign peace of our one nation into this maritime territory - not to make it ours - but to preserve it as a resource for the good of our nation.



The PRC's over-extension (inherent in its claim to the whole of these waters west of our Republic) is also a cause for concern among other Countries in our world whose vital interest it is to keep those international shipping lanes within and beyond our EEZ free; whose nations need assurance that these sea lanes are kept open and available as a common trust of all nations.

However, the law by itself is troublesome if we ignore the fact that that the PRC is laying a claim to Panatag or Scarborough. This is why it is important to meet the PRC in the middle and preserve not only the dignity of both our Republics but also the viability and value of the shoal for the use of our future generations.

The US commitment to our defense may only be as strong as our own commitment to our own defense.

We must be able to take this in principle: Our primary defense in the context of the common defense and in concert with the mutual defense of our allies is always our responsibility.

We must be a friend to our friends and they shall be a friend to us.

The old mold of our ASEAN, however tenuously, may still understandably prevail.

That our ASEAN of late may still feel itself a random and accidental falling together of unrelated interests within our region instead of that purposed, principled, unified, Providential gathering of kindred nations into one focused and decisive regional force for collective peace and human community within our Asia may be evident in the uncertain stance that our own region is now taking here in our own region.

Therefore, we, as a defense partner with the United States and as part of the one ASEAN Neighborhood, must take both of these vital considerations arising from this unwanted incident as an impetus to spur forward the transformation of our Republic as well as that of our region with ASEAN and recognize its potential as an integral part of our diplomatic initiative.

We must do everything in our power to amicably resolve this standoff with the PRC.

Mabuhay! God be with us all.
---<--@

The Human Cost of War

Indeed,
my fellow Filipino compatriots,

the first ones to suffer the pains of War 

are ever the weak and the vulnerable.

- selah - 

Not our politicians,
not our able soldiery, 

not our middle classes,
not our wealthier classes, 

not even the criminally inclined, 

it is our small fisherfolk 

and their humble, hungry families 

who bear the brunt of this stand-off.

People whose minds (and stomachs) 

dwell furthest off of this brewing crisis!

We must bear in mind and heart 

that the human cost of this deadlock 

begins with them and is now counting...

   (Indeed,
   War will not cease
   until all of us
   - from least to strong -
   are made weak and vulnerable.
 
   For the spirit of War is a devourer of peoples!)

If we who are able
do not consider their plight 

to lend to our sense of urgency 

a deepening sense of justice, 

we might find ourselves taking stands 

on the wrong foundation.

---<--@

Salutation #124

In this way
all are made to be strong
and when all are strong,
the nation is ever at peace.

For those who have
and those who doesn't have
give to each other
- according to the freedom of our freedoms -
something that each the other
may not gain
by themselves alone.

Industry thrives,
and all the people thrive
in industry.
---<--@

(Labor Day 2012)

Today is Labor Day 2012.

A Republic is

a particular work of Country

and today is that day of days

we remember the toils of the common man

upon which splendor and virtue - each of us -

must constantly build and rely upon.

The day we remember

the toils of the common man, 

is the moment we shall finally understand 

the endeavors of our own humanity 

to be happy and therefore, free!

For the success of our nation's daily pursuits 

to liberate our generations (as a whole)

from the bondages of this world -

   from illnesses, from pains, from wars,

   from suffering, from corruption, from vices,

   from grief, from decay (both corporal and spiritual)

   and from death, even the final death -

is an unfolding work of a promised reality

we must constantly strive to master and to gain

from the realizations we shall together

profit - from this understanding.

- selah -

Today we reflect

upon the value of our labors -

   (Consider now, if you please,
   my brothers and sisters of the Promise, 
   your present abode - how it became -
   even before you called it a home;
   or the food upon thy table, or the water in thy glass,
   or the road before thy way, or the clothing on thy back -
   trace each their memory forth from thee - and understand -
   how you are made able to reap its blessings
   seemingly without sowing?

   For these are only these
   due to the nationhood in each of us 
   as well as through the nations that are all of us.)

How we cherish it.

How we recognize it.

How we appreciate

its potential, its dignity,

and its lasting contributions

in ourselves, in others like ourselves,

as a nation, and as a Country.

And therefore,

how we, as a nation,

have chosen to reward our laborers
a share of the national wealth -
   (i.e. with and through riches not just monetary
   or merely momentary in their natures.)

from least to great,

especially the least of all.

Mabuhay!

---<--@

Salutation #108

Honest labors bless.

Dishonest labors curse.

Clean money brings happiness.

Poisoned money brings only death.

(Law and the Real Economy of Nations)

THERE IS a vastly distinct

- yet subtle -

difference between

an economy that is real

and one that is false.

- selah -

A real economy

is one founded on the labors

all nations ought to work -

the labor of common human needs!

It is the work

of building up the inhabited earth

which in turn sustains the life of the people

and bring together all our generations.

In a real economy

- virtue is currency -

and grace, free and divine,

an integral part

of the national economy.

It is always

- a labor of hope -

(and so, ascends to the LORD)

and is the soil upon which

every national vision

is planted.

From out of this soil,

every particular tree of Country,

ordained, endowed and commissioned by God,

grows and reaches out to heaven -

and destiny.

A false economy

is one that takes away

from the strength and the vitality

of the real economy

that ought to animate the spirit

of every nation's dreaming together.

It is not the opposite

of a real economy

but a false version of it

and one that may offer

the external appearance

of similar fruit.

(A real economy

that from all outward appearances

appear to be at 100%

may only be, in fact, at 40%

because of the 100% false economy

thriving within it.

It is never as clear cut as -

real economy = 40%

false economy = 60%

total economy = 100%

The discernment of the Responsible State,

the vigilance of all its concerned government institutions

underpinned by the skill and will of the citizenry

especially first responders in law enforcement

all have a necessary part to play -

for all these individual actions contribute

to the over-all workings

of a healthy national economy

- which in turn -

shelters the person

and promote the well-being

of all.)

All species of criminal activity

and all those activities (as a whole)

that exploit the hope of the people

and take undue advantage

of the common human needs

that ought to be entirely protected

- by the Sacred Trust -

of every nation

produces diverse structures of evil

(social in nature

and organized as far

as it is allowed

by it own host nation)

that, each in its own ill-turn,

feed into these false economies

that steal away (like a host of parasites)

the time, talents, and the treasures

of Country.

It is always a work

wrought in lies and false hopes.

It is always an endeavor

supported by vice and brute force.

And it ultimately leads the people

into emptiness and despair.

For

despite all outward appearances,

all false economies are possessed

of no vision, no promise,

and no victory.

To join with it then, is futility.

Now,

it is one of the essential functions

of Law to draw a line

- clear and straight -

between a real economy

and a false economy.

RA9160 requires that we draw that line!

---<--@

RA9160 is the Anti-Money Laundering Act of the Philippines.

Common Human Needs

20110527

A Mature Republic

Mature nations derive their eternal significance according to responsibility. The most powerful is not necessarily the greatest. The greatest is the most responsible.

Of the five ages of Country, my fellow Filipino compatriots, only the first four is well within our natural competency as a nation distinct but not apart from our one family of nations.

The fifth age is a supernatural event. For at the hour of fulfillment, when all things true and good the LORD, our God, shall restore unto their original beginnings, all nations shall be transformed into ascended nations - together.

This hour is commonly known as the Last Day or General Judgment. Now, as the one heart of Mankind implicitly knows, this hour shall certainly come to pass for the promised time shall indeed be fulfilled.

But this hour is known to God alone.

So we shall leave it at that. For we are a nation under God, my people, and we shall forever be that way

Therefore, for our own intents and purposes of building a better, brighter, kinder Philippines, it shall be sufficient for us to concentrate our freedom and our will on the first four ages of Country.

We shall be aiming precisely for the fourth age - a mature Republic.

---<--@

A Nation Distinct But Not Apart...

These days, under our President Noy, we are laying the groundwork of those things to come.

Now, being always mindful that our nation as a whole is always greater that what the present can perceive, let us make that last statement more complete:

These days, under our President Noy, we are laying the groundwork of those things to come - for us, here in our present time, and for all our generations, past as well as those that are yet to come.

My honorable compatriots, if we perceive ourselves only in part, we shall find it quite difficult to grow into a fuller, more potent appreciation of who we are as we are - as we must be.

Consequently, we shall find it hard to qualify in our souls those little, seemingly unknown acts of civic responsibility and common patriotism that we are everyday required to meaningfully accomplish as citizens to each other. For they will seem pointless - like a fish out of water.

But a miracle is almost always composed of little acts of faith.

Likewise, to get to the fourth age of Country - a mature Republic, we must labor to commit ourselves sedulously to accomplishing meaningfully those selfsame acts of civic responsibility and common patriotism - for ourselves (i.e. family, friends, tribes, communities), here in our present time, and for all our generations, past as well as those that are yet to come.

- selah -

Every nation is unique to itself and to it belong its own destiny.

When this destiny is understood by the peace of its people - the vision of the national success is perceived by the whole of the nation.

When this destiny is likewise perceived by the Responsible State, it drives forward the motion of Country (for Country is a verb) into its ages in time.

For the peace of the State and the peace of the Nation are one. And this vital unity builds as well as enriches the Common Market, prospering the people, giving glory to God.

- selah -

For our intents and purposes, my brothers and sisters of the Promise, our destiny is to work our way into becoming a mature Republic and to shine in the brightness of its remembrance - not only for the good of our own nation, but equally so for the good of all the kindred nations of our one family of nations (represented in and by our United Nations institution).

Truly, one who understand these things should agree with me that it has now - more than ever - become vital for us Filipinos to awaken to a knowledge of who we are as ourselves - as our new, old Philippines.

- selah -

We were not situated by the Providence of the LORD, our God, upon a continent so we should not be thinking in terms continental nor should we be building in terms other than tropical and archipelagic. We have to re-discover our own unique forms of architecture.

Too some say that national power is intrinsically linked to national productivity. This is true.

But national productivity is first of all, linked to civic responsibility. And this sense of civic responsibility is founded on a heart of peace that in this Republic "we belong" truly as citizens to each other.

This is how we shall "open a way for the poor".

Indeed, my friends, middle class is key.

---<--@

Our Justice System

We are not a material people (i.e. unspiritual).

I can name you precisely those problems that we face today that arise out of a forgetfulness of those things we have just mentioned above.

I am quite sure however, that those of us who are abreast of these things already know them.

These problems affect those fundamental national functions because those things that lack our remembrances are existential national truths.

Having said that, I greatly admire Secretary de Lima for her indefatigable spirit and unwavering determination to make things work. She is truly a blessing to this great Country of ours.

It is always a good thing that we pray for her and for all our national leadership.

One must never again doubt the fact that our women have a great contribution to make to the future of this Republic.

Our Justice system is not broken, my people. It has always been there.

Its spirit has apparently become diluted however, and therefore, keenly require our own greater participation that it may continue to preserve the life and the promise of our nation.

Having said that, here are the Five Pillars of our Justice System:

1. Our National Community
2. Our PNP
3. Prosecution/Public Defenders
4. The Law Courts
5. Corrections/Penology.

---<--@

Our Common Market Environment

Our natural resources are the patrimony of all our generations.

It is sad to hear the report from among our news agencies about the plunder of our coral reefs.

These reefs take generations to grow, my fellow Filipino compatriots and they are presently being destroyed in a comparatively very brief span of time.

Is this not an outrage?

In a previous post, I have identified four major sources of poverty (i.e. corruption, geography, division, ecological depletion) - this plunder of our natural resources is one of them (ecological depletion).

We are being taken for fools by criminals who do not recognize the value and the beauty of the natural patrimony of this nation of ours.

I think it's about time we citizens wise up to them. Let us echo the call of our DENR and of our President Noy -

Boycott all black coral products!

---<--@

The Joplin F5

Lastly, let us pray for the victims of that massive tornado in Joplin, Missouri, USA.

May all of those who have been lost to friends and family find their way back to God and may all of those whom they have left behind be likewise led by the LORD back to safety and peace.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas, long may our remembrance serve us! God bless us all.

Patient Perseverance

20110430

Salutation #8

(Awakening)

I shall speak plainly -

we are a nation emerging,

a Republic awakening to itself!

So awaken, O Filipino soul -

return to a knowledge of yourself,

O my honorable compatriots, peace.

There will be a time

for building our material prosperity

but that time is not yet come.

I shall speak plainly -

we are a nation emerging,

a Republic awakening to itself!

Once we have emerged

we shall know how to build.

Only then shall we build.

Today, we shall remember.

---<--@

A little note:

Globalization is dangerous unless the world shifts from a mixture of Emerging and Developed Countries into a mixture of Developing and Mature Countries.

This may only be achieved in a climate of peace.

Of the Ages of Country, the transition from Emerging to Developing is an internal shift which though different in character is not unlike the transition from Developed to Mature.

When we will have completed this shift by 2012, my honorable compatriots, we will have completed our remembrances as a nation.

What proceeds is vigorous national development through to 2045.

Do not be overly anxious or perplexed by wars or rumors of wars, or of earthquakes, or of the general atmosphere of our world approaching 2012. What really matters is what we are to do with our time today - together.

The things concerning the end of time as we know it or the Last Day (General Judgment) shall indeed be fulfilled. But it is the LORD, our God, alone Who knows the hour of the fulfillment (to our vigilance belong the discernment of the season).

Our work as individuals apart and as individual nations together is to always be ready for the time of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and so our greatest security against the uncertainties we shall be facing in the near future is the knowledge that we are indeed doing this necessary work of humble preparation not just as human individuals but also as human nations.

For this is the labor required of us, nothing more, nothing less.

Now, my friends, we will do this vital work in a season of peace.

That season is today.

So let us do all that is humanly possible for us, my fellow Filipino compatriots, bearing in mind and heart that God will fill what is impossible for us to do.

Peace to all our nations and good will to all men and women of peace.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Healing Work

To the Class of 2011

DREAM BIG DREAMS!

Your nation, dear starshine, is in need of your dreams. So you must dream big!

I kid you not, there is a strain of thinking in Filipino society these days that is so smallish, so restrictive, so constrained, so limited, it predisposes the unwary to a life of penury.

Don't you know you are the equal of any of your contemporaries on the planet? What dreams the youth of our world today are capable of - you are capable of.

So don't sell yourself short. My advice to you is to go and dream those dreams.

Dreams are all about possibilities. They are the "stuff" of yet unborn realities.

If you shall ask me what is this "stuff"?

I shall answer you with a question - "what are your possibilities"?

We are not a material (i.e. unspiritual) people, starshine. Everything you really need is already in yourself.

The plight of many of our poor people here in the Philippines is desperate indeed. But material poverty is no obstacle to the human heart. Many successful Filipinos will attest to that.

The only kind of poverty that truly impoverishes is the spiritual kind. Remember, we are not a material people, starshine.

Everything you really need is already in yourself.

Let go of the thinking that money is the goal of education. Better yet, let go of the thinking that wealth is about money. Money per se is not wealth. Wealth is much larger than money.

Learning itself is wealth. The ability to dream is wealth. Virtue is wealth. Health is wealth. A good friend is wealth. A good family is wealth. A lively faith is wealth. A healthy parish community is wealth. A vibrant and prospering barangay community is wealth. A strong and faithful nation is wealth. There are a lot of things other than money that make one rich indeed and you may add them all to this list.

So do not be restricted by the thinking that money is the ultimate end of your life's labors upon this world.

Let your dreaming be a dream of happiness. Let it be one of sweet release and of joyous realization.

What you believe in your heart, dearest starshine, are like seeds planted in your soul. So it is very important for you to know where these seeds come from and what these seeds are.

Because the souls of the young are fertile ground indeed. You must, especially in your youth, be aware to nurture only those things in yourself that shall lead you to your dreams that you may work sedulously to awaken these dreams in yourself - that you may bring it out into our needful world.

There are things - truths - proper to you. You must seek them and come to an understanding of them that you may come to know who you are as God intended you to be - who you must be and therefore, work to become.

You must become this person, dear starshine, and when you do, your dreams will come true.

Find yourself and the rest will follow.

The real secret to making money is not the desire to make money - it is simply the willingness to be yourself.

Money is a by product of the knowledge that comes with being happy with who you are - mature in your gifts, secure in your faith, steadfast in your hopes, and alive in your love.

It takes a lot of hard work to be happy - but isn't happiness the ultimate aim of all human labor? So why be skimpy?

Go and dream big dreams!Some people study with a view to making big money and end up sad and broken. They think with their minds by excluding their hearts.

There can be great desolation even in the midst of great material wealth. This is a sad fact indeed.

You must not be this way, dear starshine. You must always lead with your mind but think with your heart. For we are not a material people.

Jesus taught, "seek ye first the Kingdom of God and all these things shall be given you besides".

Isn't this the same as to say, "everything you really need is already in yourself"?

Think about it, our precious starshine, and don't forget to pray.

Find yourself, Beloved of God: Believe.

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Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless the Class of 2011.


Dreamer of Dreams

20110303

The Common Market

Time, Territory, Treasure: Of the three elements of Country, one characteristic sets this one apart - it is material and therefore, temporal in scope. Therefore, every consideration must be viewed with regards to the Common Market with this nature in mind.

It is limited in its material nature.

The problem with wealth and wealth generation, most especially here in our midnight world, my honorable compatriots, is that the definition of wealth and its honorable pursuit is often profaned by things that are the means created to attain to our prosperity.

The Common Market serves the national wealth. And this wealth is not wholly material. The building up of the (inhabited) earth is a labor that is an economy of both matter and grace.

The end that the Common Market serves is in fact, spiritual. For the happiness that it enables Man to pursue is ultimately one that must transcend it.

The true Filipino dream is freedom.

This freedom in the absolute sense is freedom from all forms of temporal bondage; an end to suffering, an end to war, an end to exile tears and a return to our original Promise.

In terms of the national destiny - this freedom is the natural birthright of all Filipinos.

Therefore, this national destiny must be perceived by all Filipinos to be available to all Filipinos.

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From Emerging to Developing...

Once again, my fellow Filipino compatriots, we are feeling the effects of our own vulnerability. God love the Philippines, O my nation, but there is still a quite significant lack of opportunity in this Country. The repatriation of our OFW's fleeing the turmoil in the Middle East have forced this issue upon us now.

We have much work to do: Opportunity is key. For a culture of opportunity is a culture of hope and a culture of hope is the cradle of leadership. It is where leaders beget leaders and where service is distinct from servility.

The refining place of nations is like the birthing place of stars; a place of great internal activity. Here the dust and the darkness of the void is transformed into energy and light. Therefore, given the troubles of this present time, we are not far from this culture of hope, O my nation. The labor that through our ages in time will take us through from emerging into developing only takes humility and heart.

First and foremost, we must work to achieve a lasting, durable and meaningful peace through to next year. We owe it to God and Country to devote ourselves to this essential task. Because we can not harness our fullest potential divided and dark from within our own self - without this peace, my people, we are only a shadow of our real nationhood.

Indeed, we must complete our remembrances through to next year.

In every Filipino individual (most especially in our youth) are the seeds of something great and these seeds of human potential are nourished first and foremost within the embrace of every Filipino family.

Do you yourself share this conviction?

Then let us work for a culture of hope and desire in our hearts to obtain from God the peace that ensures the order of our generations: A culture of hope nourished in an atmosphere of peace is a culture of life.

If we are to really become one of Mother Asia's new tiger economy, we must work to inculcate in our culture, a real appreciation of the raw power of our local potential as a nation. As I have written to you before, my honorable compatriots, there is merit in our people - we are a nation not because of weakness or evil but because of what good there is and what good there is is because God is and that is all: He is the LORD.

What of the movements seizing those undertakings of Country in Middle East Asia? Are these mass outpourings of popular sentiment secular or are they religious? They are neither. All of these movements are essentially human because of the fact that they are national. They are by nature civic in scope and are therefore fueled by issues that concern the citizenry.

Therefore, only in human terms can we attempt to perceive them. There are no precedents to these events. However, there still remains that familiar danger of distorting the essential nature of these movements.

It is important that we arrive at a right understanding of these things. Because the current of these days events lead us on toward solutions - if we are attentive.

Darkness is but darkness that does not lead us to the light: As we are a nation distinct but not apart from our other kindred nations, we must not be one to stand aloof from the suffering of other peoples. If we are to love others as ourselves, we must understand that they too are as ourselves - human with common human needs.

There is a risk that these movements might become radicalized.

Therefore, we ought to pray for and respond to these needs not just as human individuals but as a nation in ourselves - ever with an understanding heart and a willingness to be decisive.

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Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Common Human Needs