"In every community there are many shades of political opinion. Among the shadiest of these are the liberals. Ten degrees to the left of center in good times, ten degrees to the right of center if it affects them personally." - Phil Ochs
by Carlo Cielo
Thing about Philippine culture and society is, the usual paradigms tend to not apply.
For example, if one’s social politics is potable clear water, ours is slimy sewerage. There's various structural debauchery and pollution to sift through, that others may have already overcome. Filth and trash in various layers, that once Western paradigms get cast here like the rays of light they purport to be, these often get refracted : muddled, severely distorted.
And normally doesn't settle. There's the films of grime such as landed oligarchy, bureaucrat capitalism, and neo-colonial/imperialism to deal with. They may still keep the vernacular and tone, but they get spelled out in a different context and intent; one which loses the already maudlin spirit these were supposed to have.
I've had teachers who scoff at Bush and fanatical Christian faith, yet would put SARAH PALIN to shame in their praise of corporate dictatorship. Let's just say that, soon as a prominent, debutante socialite here starts mouthing off about her being 'completely liberated', she ain't referring to freedom from patriarchal, feudal structures and constraints; she's only saying she's free from everyone else. And in ways w/c would probably not endear her to the Filipino feminists – you know, the types who'd march in the streets, fighting for actual liberation.
So true progressives here tend to scoff at the term, much less being labeled with it. And definitely, I'd be among those people.
One reason is semantics. The word 'liberal' recalls 'neo-liberal', a market fundamentalist ideology of ruthless deregulations and foreign usurpations w/c has since created more injustice - unacceptable, of course, to any self-respecting Left. Another is because it's really a bourgeois smokescreen by these dominant caciques who never meant to be liberal. Hence, a bourgeois construct in and of itself : one that is content with giving lip service to pet causes, is divorced from the conditions on the ground, and could only propose 'diplomacy' and 'politeness' in the face of open threats, including those which are legitimate.
That’s how you've got censors here supporting free speech. Or abusers espousing 'human rights'. Or militarists preaching 'non-violence'. Or rich trophy whores flaunting ‘empowerment’. Or plutocrats vying for univ. health care. Or friends of oil companies espousing green tech. Or ‘liberals' supporting a fascist. These are all perfectly acceptable in the land of impunity.
You've got sisters of land barons here scolding the farmers they deprive, and blaming their dispossession on the fact they won't take the pill !
'Liberal' can only leave a bad taste in the Fil. proletarian's mouth. To the mind of the powerless and deprived, such only seems like a buncha sympathies the well-fed could afford to have. It is so damn elitist in context, and reactionary in application, that it becomes RIGHTIST.
This is an extreme rightist nation, after all, weaned on rightist thinking, and ruled by rightist hegemony. So, whenever ‘liberalism’ rears its ugly head in these parts - say, wagging a finger to those who had to burn old chairs to keep their education - it won’t be that a few caring for the many, but a clique of right bastards flaunting ‘liberalism’. Liberalism that aims to 'spray the skies with pesticides' and exterminate the peasants, with weapons and tools funded by liberal ‘democracies’.
You see this 'freedom' ? They will hit you with it.
Once menace comes into play, the dichotomies unravel.
*****
So where was I ? Oh, yes. Feudal.
Filipino-style liberalism:
"We are socialists, we are enemies of today’s capitalistic economic system for the exploitation of the economically weak, with its unfair salaries, with its unseemly evaluation of a human being according to wealth and property instead of responsibility and performance, and we are determined to destroy this system under all conditions.” - Adolf Hitler, 1927 [1]
"Our adopted term ‘Socialist’ has nothing to do with Marxian Socialism. Marxism is anti-property; true Socialism is not. " - Adolf Hitler, 1930 [2]
Fooling people all the time.
[1] Hitler’s speech on May 1, 1927. Cited in: Toland, John (1992). Adolf Hitler. Anchor Books. pp. 224-225.
[2] Carsten, Francis Ludwig (1982).The Rise of Fascism, 2nd ed. University of California Press, p.137. Quoting: Hitler, A., Sunday Express, September 28, 1930.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Monday, March 29, 2010
Torching The Campus :
Fixed and reedited for Blog Action Day for
Education.
Please check out the Kabataan
Partylist website :
http://kabataanpartylist.com/blog/
march-29-is-blog-action-day-for-education/)
for more details.
It is also a personal response
in light of recent events.
The Polytechnic University of the
Phils. ( PUP ) students
lit up broken chairs, but who
were BURNING STATE UNIVERSITY
DOWN THE GROUND ? And who were
ones hard pressed trying to put it out ?!?
I'm just going to say, they
didn't start the fire.
And if we are going to talk about
'symbolic violence', well, it never
gets more barbaric and crass than what
those Arroyo fucktards did during the
UP Centennial.
---
by Carlo Cielo
You want violence ?
Yeah, that was what I was up to at the time. It's my idea of a parade. It's none of your business, or anyone's, but the fact. It's the least anyone can do to deal with what was , and still is, a misguided commemoration of a malaise. Of a state college that used to mean more than overpricing of public infrastructure, or fetishistic embrace of property. The lingering social question now being how to break up such impasse, esp. in the face of bad elements. Nonetheless, it's very apparent that something, or anything, has to happen.
Few hours earlier, I was with a buncha pips, the people I know, the ones left worth talking to. In the Vargas Museum, at the Coffee Shop. Was purposefully drowning out the noise of these damn 'festivities' in my head, much as I couldn't prevent myself from passing through it : the Rayadillo batch processions spilling out onto that road near the pathway between the Social Science building and the canteen, and then some folks or another who were annoying. Ridiculous. Anyway's I was like, out, ya know; nurturing my belly that's just been filled by Mongolian Rice bowl. Until the tail-end of that walk, seeing them pals, and starting conversation.
There was that fellow comic book org. member, who was also set to graduate that year of 2008, and Ernest Caliwag, who was my classmate. Talks were opened with pleasantries, then quickly led to the substantial and on-topic. We were talking about globalization and post-modernism, of the right sides to the left sides of the spectrum, and back again. Basically, on how the whimsical, nay capricious nature of vacillation between positions has left the idea of ' right and wrong ' futile, arbitrary, and temporary. Since, there are no grand theories now, no 'other' power in the world anymore, or alternative, what with all of truths dissolved by the shock-absorbing globalization. At least, that's the conclusion the comic book guy came down to, amidst sips of tea of some kind. Frankly, it was nothing much.
Without warning, a stream of angry folks descended down the road from where we sat, and I didn't need any more prodding. It was time.
This was the UP Los Banos contingent I remember joining with, helmed by pissed-off shouts, and terse invective. A dozen or hundred crescendos build up into chorus : 'No to TOFI ( Tuition Fee Increase ) ! Junk TOFI ( Tuition Fee Increase ) ! ' Further to the front of them was the militant student group STAND-UP with which, I guessed, this group was set to assimilate. All of whom have been steadfastly pushing this opposition from the very start; an opposition which I more than fully support and agree with. They were out to give all these thieving, lying fuckers a piece of their minds, after more than a year or so of their atrocious, gruesome silencing. Thought to my self, 'Hey, I wanna give these fuckers a piece of my mind, as well. So, let's go ! ' That, we did.
Jeers and sneers greeted us at every step. Stares that were suspicious and mean. Insults that came down to rambling, the perpetrators themselves too conceited to even want to be heard. Personally went past the former University of the Phils. president, whom I interviewed for a college project a few months earlier, in which he stood exposed and revealed a sycophant. He didn't seemed pleased with us; very few were. Yet we kept on, and proceeded with the red banner signs made unwanted and rejected by the climate. Like this wasn't our world and we were of a different species. As if protest never existed in this place. Or even the most administrable decencies.
Did anyone ever thought of the timing ? I wondered to myself that. Not many people I know stopped and thought why this shindig was being held smack dab at the middle of a work week. Why wasn't this done at a friendlier, and more welcoming schedule, for all students and faculty and possible participants ? Like on a FRIDAY perhaps, or a Saturday. It's always done that way, right, it's the way it works. It's how it turns. The fireworks were nice, but COME ON. This was so fucking inconvenient.
" How many more classrooms would have been bought instead of the fireworks ?", I thought. " Or personal computers ? Or books ? " Potentialities that which were smoldered into ash - with the intended benefactors footing the bill for the burning. And they never signed up for this, oh no they didn't. We didn't either. We just wanted a school to enroll in, to pass a few credits in, to graduate, and gain a diploma from, to get a job with. It's what the taxpayers all intended, when they agreed to pour their blood, sweat, and toil to build an architecture for the future - a sane and decent one for their own selves or their kids to live with. Not to be threatened by, or lambasted for, but a means with which to rise up, and get back at the daily iniquity that's casually being done to them.
The least they wanted was to have all these burned at the altar of Centennial.
But that's why these headmasters were bent on keeping out as many people as possible, these fanciful Cultists of Friedman, like they did in 2006. People would have led to more than just the altar burning. They were going to mess with the Academic Excellence, and that is blasphemy in their record !
All of which expose the disposition of a University of the Philippines ( UP ) not being about shared investments, but tribute - to the Pagan Temple of Supply And Demand. No one must stand in the way of its Free Reign.
More jeers. It gets worse. They were actively getting physical now, pushing at the protesters. Maligning, threatening, scowling, spewing expletives, scoundrels that they are. Throwing epithets or two before walking away in denial of everything. A hostile group of nitwits who cross our paths just as they would our nation's future. We're not welcome. The Filipino wasn't welcome. It was severe.
And so the show went on. A hundred folks started stepping up their place of worship; alumni, professionals, achievers with the slightest connection to the university. There was this old person, near a hundred year old, wasting her years, as she was being hailed for the fact he still lives and breathes. Odd in times of ritual sacrifice. One by one, they lit their torches, raised 'em high, and put them in the altar. The throng raised its voice and cheered.
The last one to put the torch down was Mrs. Emerlinda Roman.
Here is the campus you have built your dreams on, Filipino :
Watch it burn.
Education.
Please check out the Kabataan
Partylist website :
http://kabataanpartylist.com/blog/
march-29-is-blog-action-day-for-education/)
for more details.
It is also a personal response
in light of recent events.
The Polytechnic University of the
Phils. ( PUP ) students
lit up broken chairs, but who
were BURNING STATE UNIVERSITY
DOWN THE GROUND ? And who were
ones hard pressed trying to put it out ?!?
I'm just going to say, they
didn't start the fire.
And if we are going to talk about
'symbolic violence', well, it never
gets more barbaric and crass than what
those Arroyo fucktards did during the
UP Centennial.
---
by Carlo Cielo
You want violence ?
Yeah, that was what I was up to at the time. It's my idea of a parade. It's none of your business, or anyone's, but the fact. It's the least anyone can do to deal with what was , and still is, a misguided commemoration of a malaise. Of a state college that used to mean more than overpricing of public infrastructure, or fetishistic embrace of property. The lingering social question now being how to break up such impasse, esp. in the face of bad elements. Nonetheless, it's very apparent that something, or anything, has to happen.
Few hours earlier, I was with a buncha pips, the people I know, the ones left worth talking to. In the Vargas Museum, at the Coffee Shop. Was purposefully drowning out the noise of these damn 'festivities' in my head, much as I couldn't prevent myself from passing through it : the Rayadillo batch processions spilling out onto that road near the pathway between the Social Science building and the canteen, and then some folks or another who were annoying. Ridiculous. Anyway's I was like, out, ya know; nurturing my belly that's just been filled by Mongolian Rice bowl. Until the tail-end of that walk, seeing them pals, and starting conversation.
There was that fellow comic book org. member, who was also set to graduate that year of 2008, and Ernest Caliwag, who was my classmate. Talks were opened with pleasantries, then quickly led to the substantial and on-topic. We were talking about globalization and post-modernism, of the right sides to the left sides of the spectrum, and back again. Basically, on how the whimsical, nay capricious nature of vacillation between positions has left the idea of ' right and wrong ' futile, arbitrary, and temporary. Since, there are no grand theories now, no 'other' power in the world anymore, or alternative, what with all of truths dissolved by the shock-absorbing globalization. At least, that's the conclusion the comic book guy came down to, amidst sips of tea of some kind. Frankly, it was nothing much.
Without warning, a stream of angry folks descended down the road from where we sat, and I didn't need any more prodding. It was time.
This was the UP Los Banos contingent I remember joining with, helmed by pissed-off shouts, and terse invective. A dozen or hundred crescendos build up into chorus : 'No to TOFI ( Tuition Fee Increase ) ! Junk TOFI ( Tuition Fee Increase ) ! ' Further to the front of them was the militant student group STAND-UP with which, I guessed, this group was set to assimilate. All of whom have been steadfastly pushing this opposition from the very start; an opposition which I more than fully support and agree with. They were out to give all these thieving, lying fuckers a piece of their minds, after more than a year or so of their atrocious, gruesome silencing. Thought to my self, 'Hey, I wanna give these fuckers a piece of my mind, as well. So, let's go ! ' That, we did.
Jeers and sneers greeted us at every step. Stares that were suspicious and mean. Insults that came down to rambling, the perpetrators themselves too conceited to even want to be heard. Personally went past the former University of the Phils. president, whom I interviewed for a college project a few months earlier, in which he stood exposed and revealed a sycophant. He didn't seemed pleased with us; very few were. Yet we kept on, and proceeded with the red banner signs made unwanted and rejected by the climate. Like this wasn't our world and we were of a different species. As if protest never existed in this place. Or even the most administrable decencies.
Did anyone ever thought of the timing ? I wondered to myself that. Not many people I know stopped and thought why this shindig was being held smack dab at the middle of a work week. Why wasn't this done at a friendlier, and more welcoming schedule, for all students and faculty and possible participants ? Like on a FRIDAY perhaps, or a Saturday. It's always done that way, right, it's the way it works. It's how it turns. The fireworks were nice, but COME ON. This was so fucking inconvenient.
" How many more classrooms would have been bought instead of the fireworks ?", I thought. " Or personal computers ? Or books ? " Potentialities that which were smoldered into ash - with the intended benefactors footing the bill for the burning. And they never signed up for this, oh no they didn't. We didn't either. We just wanted a school to enroll in, to pass a few credits in, to graduate, and gain a diploma from, to get a job with. It's what the taxpayers all intended, when they agreed to pour their blood, sweat, and toil to build an architecture for the future - a sane and decent one for their own selves or their kids to live with. Not to be threatened by, or lambasted for, but a means with which to rise up, and get back at the daily iniquity that's casually being done to them.
The least they wanted was to have all these burned at the altar of Centennial.
But that's why these headmasters were bent on keeping out as many people as possible, these fanciful Cultists of Friedman, like they did in 2006. People would have led to more than just the altar burning. They were going to mess with the Academic Excellence, and that is blasphemy in their record !
All of which expose the disposition of a University of the Philippines ( UP ) not being about shared investments, but tribute - to the Pagan Temple of Supply And Demand. No one must stand in the way of its Free Reign.
More jeers. It gets worse. They were actively getting physical now, pushing at the protesters. Maligning, threatening, scowling, spewing expletives, scoundrels that they are. Throwing epithets or two before walking away in denial of everything. A hostile group of nitwits who cross our paths just as they would our nation's future. We're not welcome. The Filipino wasn't welcome. It was severe.
And so the show went on. A hundred folks started stepping up their place of worship; alumni, professionals, achievers with the slightest connection to the university. There was this old person, near a hundred year old, wasting her years, as she was being hailed for the fact he still lives and breathes. Odd in times of ritual sacrifice. One by one, they lit their torches, raised 'em high, and put them in the altar. The throng raised its voice and cheered.
The last one to put the torch down was Mrs. Emerlinda Roman.
Here is the campus you have built your dreams on, Filipino :
Watch it burn.
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