No doubt, the United States, together with many other decent, likeminded nations, has a pivotal role to play in solving (for all) the West Philippine Sea (WPS) crisis, even amid China running amuck in the said disputed body of water. Wake up, panda!
This is widely seen for the US not only as a big part of the community of nations worldwide, concerned and solicitous about the worsening problem away from their own, but also one that serves as an international police and the nation that bears the most and modernized, mightiest power of them all, militarily.
Sadly, however, the US seems to have grown as a democratic country to become all “Republicans versus Democrats” in the matter of governance.
Whenever a controversy arises, what usually comes out, flaunted and bannered in their news headlines and in the halls of power (each for their own party) is a brewing/steaming/continuing battle between Democrats and Republicans. Earlier, the US Congress lambasted/chastised former president Donald Trump (a Republican). Now, it is President Joe Biden (a Democrat) who is currently being demonized by political evils, facing an “impeachment inquiry” in the same chamber as a backlash. Wretched.
The Americans have apparently become too materialistic and must have forgotten God, consequently. Their country is no longer as great as it used to be (in character, spirit and truth), courtesy of development. Everything about the US government (internally) at this juncture proves to be mostly (if not all) about politics, politics and politics. Hence, what do politicking US legislators and executive (even judicial) officials possess that our leaders can emulate and imitate? Nothing. But with the way things have been going in Philippine politics, you judge, my countrymen.
Oh, the blinding, deluding effects of selfish politics and partisan “public service,” and eccentric imitation. Our democracy is not ours. Let angels be angels. But let demons or “politics” be crushed in our land and lives -- as Filipinos, not as Americans, Chinese, Russians, North Koreans, Japanese Tempura or K-Pop idolatrous hordes and herds.
This is perhaps why we are what we have become as a people (poor, pitiable people) because we, Filipinos, especially our leaders, are fond of imitating other countries and nationalities, and love their culture more than our own. Worse, we imitate exactly even what is not adaptable to and plausible/workable for our own peculiarity, uniqueness, ethos and situation as a country and culture, and as heroes and ennobles in our own respects and rights.
Ridiculous, in their penchant to imitate, there lingers a pending bill in Congress that aims to legalize divorce in our country a la US. Catastrophe. May I ask, with due respect: Why not legalize abortion too and ban prayers in schools as they do in the US? Do we even wonder why mass-shooting and devil attacks in student campuses there have become prevalent and common occurrences? Ominous.
And what about the countless “broken” American lives that could have been mended and solved but have instead ended up worse in misery -- due to their divorce law?
Only God is perfect. Acceptance and selflessness are the keys (in general) toward enduring, lasting marriages as God Almighty purposes it -- not divorce, not eros love.
Genuine love, freedom and happiness are found only in submitting to the will and plans of God in, for and through your life. Life is much bigger than your tiny, little, selfish world. Whether you know it or not, there is a God who loves and cares for you. And whether you like it or not, He is a part of your life and every bit of your being.
Huwag naman po ninyong idamay ang hindi mabilang na mga “problemado” na mag-aasawang Pilipino (at mga anak nila) na maaari pang magpatuloy na kumpleto at buo, magmahalan at lumago sa espiritu bilang pamilya — sa kabila ng mga natural na kahinaan ng laman at gusot ng buhay, ngunit mauuwi sa ganap na pagkawasak — nang dahil sa diborsyo (o demonyo) o dahil sa kakaunting bilang ng mga wala na talagang lunas kundi ang maghiwalay. Ngunit ang ating kasalukuyan at umiiral na “legal separation law” ay may tugon para sa kanila.
Stop imitating and hallucinating, and so stop self-destructing.
Take a look at a few (among many others) of the weird, silly laws in the country that we most love to imitate: In Delaware, whispering in a church is illegal. In Florida, you can be punished for wearing masks and hoods that cover the face in public. In Georgia, you are forbidden to use a knife and fork when eating fried chicken. In Tennessee, there is a law that prohibits the sharing of Netflix passwords to others. In California, they needed to debate and legislate a law that guarantees its citizens to freely access sunlight and hang their clothes outdoors to dry their laundry.
From “In God We Trust” aphorism during Abraham Lincoln’s time of civil war, chaos and economic woes, the dictum has long evolved to be “In Gold We Trust” since “progress” crept in, nonchalantly, pathetically.
Close to home, please don’t call jeepneys the “jeepneys” that are presently plying or playing in the streets of Metro Manila. Awkward. These four-wheel calves are neither jeep nor jeepneys, but mini buses that the government wants to see running on our roads to “replicate” and replace the real jeepneys. Deceptive.
Go ahead with your transport modernization programs and develop bigger, modernized jeepneys, but do it with the looks and features of jeepneys still intact and readily noticeable in them -- instead of developing a screwed up mindset among our people for everyone to call something (by a name) for what it is not. Stray dogs.
Retire corruption and inanity, and the old, retirable jeepneys, but never retire our beautiful heritage and our brave, artful, artistic, romantic, humble, amiable, down-to-earth, adventurous, original identity as Filipinos. The Filipino jeepney partly epitomizes our soul as a nation. It is symbolic of many things unique and wonderful about being a Filipino since our heroism in liberating ourselves from foreign dominations, one after another.
But why dump the jeepneys? Why phase them out only to give our nation a face that is not its own? Stop governing our country in ways that will make naturally smiling faces frown. However old my mother is now (100 years old, turning 101 in February), I love her just the same. And I will never allow her to be brought and “cared” for in the Home for The Aged just like how Americans do to their elderly “loved” ones. Sob.
Haven’t we yet realized that what attracts foreign tourists to the Philippines more than anything else is the happy, smiling, caring, charming, kayumanggi faces of Filipinos (intrinsically), and their hospitable nature even amid sufferings -- as abused, used, beleaguered people.
Solve all the abuses, exploitations and sufferings in our country -- but please retain our soul as a people and nation. Sell it not. Listen to the voice of reason and poverty. Have a heart for our jeepneys and the Filipino couples, and the elderly, and then do the same for all the rest of us, Filipinos at heart.