Fortunately for me (for it taught me how to be strong), we transferred to Australia at a time when racism was still considered to be the norm there and many Australians made sure that "colored" people were made not to feel welcomed in that land of Kangaroos.
I ended up left out and lonely with a group of other "wops" and "chinks," the children of Asian, Italian and African embassy personnel who were sent to study in the same school.
Every day, the other students made fun of us, pelted us with stone and rubbish or luckily avoided us like we had the plague.
It wasn't the same for my younger siblings who were sent to the public school.
My younger brother, who eventually became a member of the Philippine national soccer team that was sent to Denmark, became a rugby star athlete of their varsity team then and there. He was brown like me; he was small like most Filipino children, but boy could he run.
He used to run circles over the bigger and clumsier Australian children and made them look foolish in the football field.
Because of that, not only was he tolerated for the colour of his skin but even became popular at his school.
His popularity extended to my younger sister in that school so she was spared from all too obvious racial discrimination.
Looking back, it also helped that the kids who studied at the public school were middle class and so were not as snooty and boorish as the kids who studied in my school.
Unfortunately, I wasn't athletically gifted as my brother.
Worse, I was into science, writing and had a natural (Filipino) affinity for those who are weak and oppressed.
I decided to stick with a group of geeks and colored despite the fact that my brother's fame has been noticed by the kids at my school.
There was a particular bully who was the team captain of the rugby squad of my school.
When his team lost to the team that my brother was in, he took his sore temper at me and started kicking and boxing me at school.
When I had enough of his cruelty, I broke his arm. It turned out that while my brother had a natural talent for football, I had a natural flair for breaking other people's bones.
Breaking the arm of the bully did not end my woes, however. After that incident, other students came over to test me and challenge me to fistfights.
There was a time when I had to fight someone everyday for several weeks.
Sometimes I won and sometimes I lost. I went home bloodied, bruised and black eyed, but eventually I gained the respect of the kids at my school and my neighborhood.
I gained the respect of other people because I was willing to stand up to their bullying and threats. This taught me valuable lessons that have served me well time after time.
I learned that respect is not given freely. It must be earned.
Two, I learned that one must be willing to fight to defend one's honor if one is to have peace.
Nobody gave me peace in that school when I was young, I had to take it from them.
If we are to have peace in Mindanao, especially with the MILF, we must first earn their respect.
It's as easy as that.
The MILF is acting like a bully and threatening us with war.
The cowards and the idealistic but naive among us are crying for a peace deal with the MILF even if it means dismembering the Republic just to make the MILF happy.
But not only is the MOA turning over vast lands to the MILF unconstitutional, it is treason.
The cowards among us want to commit treason just to have an uneasy peace in Mindanao.
The Arroyo government (the predator that it is) has taken advantage of this cowardly thinking and has used the MOA in order to change the constitution.
The government negotiated with the MILF in bad faith knowing that it cannot deliver the terms stated in the MOA.
The MILF are now on a warpath and has taken to the wanton destruction of lives and property to express their disgust over the non-signing of the MOA.
I told you so! I said that this MOA would result into more fighting in Mindanao.
Well it already has. This is all the government's fault. All the peace panelists and the high officials of OPAP should resign in disgrace. They should be made to answer for this war.
