Institutionalizing People Power
Analysis and Opinion
By Karl Garcia
Edsa People Power
We are known for people power, but in most cases it is like an event following a spontaneous combustion due to several reasons like the fraudulent elections during Marcos and the perceived kangaroo Erap impeachment court not wanting to open an envelope.
Power to the people is in full force in elections, but in elections the loser will often say that he or she is cheated which often results in election violence and dynastic clan wars. Who would want to be in the middle of that, so we have the same old faces.
WHAT POWER DO THE PEOPLE HAVE TODAY?
There is often feeling that Representatives don’t actually represent the people’s will but just themselves. From Aguinaldo vs. Bonifacio to the EDSA Revolution, it has always somehow seemed to be about the people vs. the ruling class.
People Power is sometimes alleged not to be the will of the people. Some say the EDSA 1 was only the urban middle class. Many say EDSA 2 was the elite and EDSA 3 was the true people. There is the role of the military in both EDSA 1 and EDSA 2 which is another topic.
Civil society in the Philippines looks more like NGOs, which of course are usually benevolent organizations, but they are not really representatives of the people as well, and anyhow they never had much of a role even after EDSA 1 and EDSA 2.
WHERE CAN DIRECT DEMOCRACY HELP?
Swiss Direct Democracy
Could direct democracy help institutionalize people power? Direct Democracy or pure democracy is a form of democracy in which people decide on policy initiatives directly. This differs from the majority of currently established democracies, which are representative democracies. (Wikipedia)
We talked about Community-Based progress before which talked about community health and community policing.
It’s very important during these times.
The social media community group discussions, change.org petitions, and online protests are forms of Direct Democracy in practice. They are virtual Town hall meetings.
Let us see how we can make Direct Democracy happen nationwide.
THE CITIZEN’S ASSEMBLY OF IRELAND EXAMPLE
The Citizens’ Assembly is a citizens’ assembly established in Ireland in 2016 to consider several political questions including the Constitution of Ireland. Questions considered include: abortion, fixed term parliaments, referendums, population ageing, and climate change. Over 18 months a report is produced on each topic. The government is required to respond officially to the reports in the Oireachtas (parliament); as of 9 April 2019 responses have been given on three of the five topics.(Wikepedia)
Information on composition and recruitment processes of the assembly from the Citizens’ Assembly of Ireland website:
Membership of the Assembly consists of 100 persons, comprising a Chairperson and 99 citizens entitled to vote at a referendum.
All 99 citizens must be entitled to vote at a referendum and are recruited throughout the Republic of Ireland via random selection in accordance with best recruitment practice, as advised by industry experts, so as to be broadly representative of Irish society (using the 2016 Census for guidance).
This is how they recruit members:
Certain categories of citizens were excluded via the screening process, including:
- Certain categories of politicians and political party members
- Journalists and others working in the media
- Those campaigning on aspects of gender equality
- Those not eligible to vote in a referendum
If the people would not want a Committee to elect delegates randomly the voters can vote for delegates in a form of delegative democracy called Liquid Democracy.
What we have in the Philippines is the Initiative and Referendum Act.
We have already discussed here at The Society of Honor the intricaies and the next to impossible to implementation of the Peoples’ Initiative.
The attempt at proposing ABS CBN’s franchise renewal via People’s Assembly was overtaken by events so we know that having a people’s initiative is a Herculean task.
In 2014, 10,000 signatures were gathered to outlaw PDAF, but it was not enough to establish a referendum.
I propose instead of gathering of 7 millon signatures on top of signatures from a minimum of 3% of the voter population from each and every congressional district . . .
We should have our very own Citizen’s Assembly.
Ireland’s Citizen’s Assembly traces its roots from their Constututional Convention, so we could do the same.
The problem is we are allergic of Concon, Concom, ConAss and what have you.
The fear stems from having all the seated incumbents rule for life.
Instead of just touching on the Constitution, we tackle long-wanted enabling laws for anti-dynasty, freedom of expression and a number of often refiled bills.
Comelec and the Philippine Statistics office can provide a database to a consultancy group for recruitment of members of the assembly.
Formulate rules on recruitment.
Answer the following:
- Should it be open to all?
- If not what are the minimum requirements?
- Who are permanently disqualified?
- Should it be random or have a set total number of assembly members per distric or per region?
Find out how to make full use of technology for public consultations and, where technology is not available, make available a manual option.
Set a timetable to have everything done; should it be one or two years?
Once everything is figured out, many long awaited laws could come to fruition.
Without the need for 7 million signatures, all that is needed is a pubic consultation be it by Social Media or Town Hall Meetings.
In closing, the decision and power to make things happen lie with the participation of the people.
The representatives will remain, but because of the direct democracy options given we can pressure our representatives to pass longstanding bills. If they cannot do it, the people surely can.
* * * * * * *
Thanks to Irineo for another assist on this article. KG
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The Society of Honor by Joe America 
“KEEP IT SIMPLE”
https://j.mp/rp-0
(start from ZERO)
SIMPLEST way to learn about the Philippines?
You can connect just about any random word to just about anything.
Talentado!
Thanks, Karl.
“Talentado” has not occurred before at TSOH, right?
Did you mean “talented”?
In any case, I will provide another simple example …
and then post a response, fwiw, to Irineo’s
“In the light of all of this, I see us back to square one or even square zero. I really don’t know now.”
Well, we IT people usually start counting with zero not one, or is it the void?
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1302691-what-is-called-the-spirit-of-the-void-is-where
“What is called the spirit of the void is where there is nothing. It is not included in man’s knowledge. With your spirit settled, accumulate practice day by day, and hour by hour. Polish the twofold spirit heart and mind, and sharpen the twofold gaze perception and sight. When your spirit is not in the least clouded, when the clouds of bewilderment clear away, there is the true void.Until you realise the true Way, whether in life or in common sense, you may think that things are correct and in order. However, if we look at things objectively, from the viewpoint of laws of the world, we see various doctrines departing from the true Way. Know well this spirit, and with forthrightness as the foundation and the true spirit as the Way. Enact strategy broadly, correctly and openly. Then you will come to think of things in a wide sense and, taking the void as the Way, you will see the Way as void. In the void is virtue, and no evil. Wisdom has existance, principle has existance, the Way has existance, spirit is nothingness.”
Some consider Citizens assembly as too good to be trure
https://www.politico.eu/article/the-myth-of-the-citizens-assembly-democracy/
‘DUBLIN — Put 100 ordinary citizens in a room and together they will solve the most intractable political problems of our time and save democracy in the process. If only things were so simple.
Citizens’ assemblies, in which ordinary people are entrusted to carefully consider evidence on an issue and deliver policy recommendations, are the flavor of the month among political geeks across the world….
The legitimacy of citizens’ assemblies rests on the idea that a small group of citizens randomly selected to reflect the age, education level, wealth and gender makeup of the general population does indeed represent the public as a whole.”.
====
Additional comments.
As long as we could make the citizens’ assembly work better than the partylist system which many a politician find loopholes to make it not as a means to represent the marginalized.
What is needed is a selection committee like in a Constitutional Convention or any means as long as it works.
As mentioned this option is more doable than gathering 7 million (or 10 % of tital voters)signatures with a minimum of 3 percent from the number of voters in each congressional district.
That assembly thing in Ireland was a bit of a muppet show as we called ity here. The members where by no means representing the mass of the people. It only really pushed the gender equality thing trough. Most irish consider it a total waste of money and resources. Seeing that Ireland is one of the most equal and laid back nation in Europe (the Republik/South part that is) this would have mostl likely happened even without that assembly thing. Abortion laws went trough long before and where only delayed by church related groups (the church also owns most hospitals) Even with it as law “Family Resources Center (they are pro birth) get 10 times the funding compared to abortion centers.
The main advantage I see in the Swiss model and the others mentioned is that is brings people back into making decisions for themselves, it brings more citizens involvement. THe biggest issue is still that margin groups have a hard time to get their point heard. A point in case in Ireland are the people from the “Traveler Community” also in their case they somewhat sabotage their own case by continuously breaking the laws. A standard democratic system CAN work IF checks and balances are working well. Without that I doubt any system will work. Just imagine they would set up a citizens assembly in the Philippines at the current time……..yeah I can see that: Bong Go leader, Ui in charge of Business affairs, Cayetanso as speaker of the masses and Mocha et.Al as the public repressentatives…..maybe Pacqui as the “peoples voice”……. 😀
Joking asside maybe people taking real charge might not be bad. Assemblies could be set up using mobile devices for voting/commenting. This could be done safely using the likes of Blockchain technology that is hosted independently. Maybe this will be something in the futrure after the systems that failed almost all nations (regardless of what system is used) have collapsed.
Hi Chris!
Thanks so much for your on the ground input.
With the same clowns in the assembly nothing would change.
Like the partylistbsystem which was intended ti be for representatives for the msrginalized, it ended up having billlionaires.
If the check and balances work, if congress act on legislation they are supposed to be championing then there would be no problem.
Once we finally realize that we should not persist on something that is failing or not working.
Thanks again.
Yes, THEORETICALLY the idea of the HOR is to be REPRESENTATIVES of the people.
It is never perfect anywhere as we know, but today we have seen the Philippine HOR basically do what it wants where it wants and decide who is going to be it’s new Lord.
Always a pleasure if I am able to contribute something. 🙂
Hi Chris, nice to see you here. Thanks for the direct feedback on the Irish model.
I have found Bavarian direct democracy to work quite well:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Bavaria
In 1995 the Bavarians decided to introduce direct democracy on the local level in a referendum. This was initiated bottom-up by an association called Mehr Demokratie (More Democracy). This is a grass-roots organization which campaigns for the right to citizen-initiated referendums. In 1997 the Bavarian Supreme Court aggravated the regulations considerably (e.g. by introducing a turn-out quorum). Nevertheless, Bavaria has the most advanced regulations on local direct democracy in Germany. This has led to a spirited citizens’ participation in communal and municipal affairs – 835 referendums took place from 1995 through 2005.
1. First time I experienced it was in some Constitutional amendments in 1998, including the abolition of the already obsolete death penalty (no longer applicable as Federal law is higher than State law anyhow) the rest I don’t remember as I wasn’t too interested yet
2. Second time was the anti-skyscraper referendum of Munich in 2004 where the Traditionalists won, notably with Social Democratic former Munich mayor Kronawitter (who also was Volksanwalt for a long time, people’s lawyer, a civilized kind of Tulfo one could say) and Social Democratic then-current Mayor Ude on the Traditionalist and Modernist side, respectively. Even though referenda have a binding period of 10 years, even now the city government is reluctant to build anything over 99 meters, even if there is a pair of tall buildings now being planned near the Friedenheim bridge outside the Central Ring.
3. Third time was the Bavaria-wide smoking ban in all places even in bars and pubs.
4. I also recall the referendum on the third runway for the Munich airport. Those wanting it lost while those who were against it for ecological reasons won.
5. The people’s initiative against Flächenfraß (space consumption by new buildings) was stopped by the Bavarian Supreme Court because it wasn’t “precise enough”, though the suburbanization of areas like the East of Munich county etc. show it is needed.
What I have experienced of the public discussion here is that there is some clamor (the most was after the smoking ban) afterwards by those who lose, the decision is usually seen as final and accepted after some time. I wonder if in the Philippines it would be, as everybody believes the other side is cheating in elections. A certain concept of fairness practiced in reality would be the requirement for that to work in the Philippines.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_democracy
Dunno if liquid democracy is too avant-garde for the Philippines. The Pirate Party who pioneered it started in Scandinavia and had a real role in Iceland. Just leaving that here for now.
Yes Kronawitter was a good Major. He was in power for quiet a while. Funnily I went to school with the (step) son of the current major and remember his father to be a bit of a snob and real politician slippery and always able to change to fit his goals….
Of course if people have a feeling that they can make changes and that have responsibility due to this then they will engage. It makes them feel to be a real part of it rather then just a follower of new rules etc.
Transparency and accountability are key for this to work. Having obscure machines with hour long glitches is not helping that. I am not too suprised that the Filipinos don’t trust the system anymore…… to much messing with it and too much tribe thinking. 🙂
That’s the buzz word right now among US military, basically its the “Strategic Corporal” concept, meaning the most junior NCOs should partake in the decision making process during combat.
The most apt example is of CPL Guy Gabaldon, who single handedly took 1,500 Japanese soldiers as prisoners overtime in Saipan and Tinian. That’s individual “Auftragstaktik”, I doubt the Prussians actually rolled this out, though Friedrich was a badass strategist/leader. So maybe.
CPL Gabaldon’s CO tried to stop him of course, but seeing that he wouldn’t listen, so his CO set him loose.
The problem here is most Filipinos are not only superstitious but also provincial in thought, hence susceptive to propaganda, pro- or con- , so I agree with gian a lot of autonomy needs to be implanted first. Otherwise, chaos.
I first heard of Auftragstaktik when my younger brother (same age as Karl) did German military service in a Panzer division. Most Pinoys or mixed Pinoys in Germany went to the Panzers as there is a maximum height, being too tall is troublesome if you are in any kind of tank.
Germany also uses a form of subsidiarity / Auftragstaktik by leaving the measures to handle Covid to local, but based on the “incidence rate” (infection rate per 100K population averaged over seven days) – 30 is like yellow alert, 50 is like red alert, and 70 is highest alarm level.
What they do depends on local circumstances, some ban drinking in some places, some limit certain types of parties, some make masks mandatory in certain areas like Munich has now done for the entire city center – all based on local knowledge of where people can cluster.
There is even a campaign for a World Citizens’ Initiative.
Maybe through this we don’t hace to go to the Hague to file a complaint.
I like the idea.
https://www.worldcitizensinitiative.org/
https://www.democracywithoutborders.org/unwci-campaign/
My comment re Swiss direct democracy:
1) it comes from a old tradition of independent mountain farmers who decided to throw out landlords from the lowlands and join to defend their property and interests both against lords and bandits – the 1291 Federal Charter shows this, and that is was a simple form of social contract:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Charter_of_1291
The Charter was probably intended to ensure legal certainty after the death of Rudolf I of Habsburg on 15 July 1291. The first two paragraphs commit all three communities to the joint defence of the three valleys. The remainder of the Charter concerns judicial matters: It calls for arbitration in the case of conflicts, rejects foreign judges, establishes the death penalty for murderers and exile for arsonists, and commands obedience to judges and judicial verdicts.
2) one of the major rules of village assemblies is to meet “under free skies, without weapons”. Remember that practically all farmers in the Alps used to have weapons to defend their land and in parts of Austria they still have the right to a gun license (so I heard). So there is a social contract as well to settle disagreements by majority vote instead of fighting it out. The gun ban during village assemblies is a bit similar IN SPIRIT to the gun ban during Philippine campaign periods.
3) I can imagine this to work in the Philippines where there is a sizable and relatively confident middle class, like in most of Bicol, in Iloilo etc. – in Cebu some direct democracy has alread been noted where even urban poor decided to self-organize and decide what they want from politicians.
I can’t really imagine it (yet) in the urban poor communities of Metro Manila, especially in some barangays were intimidation and vote-buying is rife. So we are back to square one again.
RE People Power:
EDSA 1 was one moment when the middle class and the poor were on the same side, according to MLQ3, just remember reading it in one of his articles.
EDSA 2 was considered elite plus middle class while whether EDSA 3 really represented the poor or just a group mobilized by Erap for him is doubtful.
2016, I think MLQ3 also wrote, was the NEW middle class (many from OFW and BPO money) vs. the OLD middle class which he says was already decimated by migration to the USA, Australia etc. – and some of the OLD middle class became cynical vs. the poor due to EDSA 3 so they stuck to GMA and later voted for Digong anyhow. AND a broad section of the elite allegedly were very cynical about 4Ps, about Kim Henares’ drive to have people pay taxes fully (many doctors it seems) so it was a lot about group interests and barely about national interests, whatever they may be.
In the light of all of this, I see us back to square one or even square zero. I really don’t know now.
RE people power from Prof. Chua:
Click to access chua-haring-bayan-democracy-and-people-power-in-the-philippines.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ec6i-LGkhN0 – Xiao on why EDSA 2 was questioned.
http://www.quezon.ph/2006/09/01/old-and-new/ – MLQ3 paints the big picture from the postwar years until around 2004 very well:
I recently had a conversation with a Filipino in his 70s, who spoke fondly of prewar optimism — the country had, alone of the colonies of the West in our part of the world, secured, prior to World War II, a guarantee of political independence by a fixed date, and was the envy of our neighbors.
The Japanese Occupation swept all of prewar certainties, even arrogance, away; national solidarity, even identity, certainly the economy, was shattered. Our leadership was divided; our political cohesion fractured; our youth decimated; and out of the cracks emerged the violence that has characterized our political life ever since.
Still, things were slowly, if not very neatly, put back together in the 50s, reaching a high point with the Magsaysay administration; but that era, along with Magsaysay’s leadership, was short-lived. The younger generation of guerilleros who catapulted him to power, in a vote of protest against their elders, were left politically orphaned; and sooner than they could imagine, they, who were once the young and idealistic, found themselves challenged by their own children, who no longer looked to Jefferson but instead turned to Mao.
The signs of those times was not, to my mind, the Diliman Commune, but a parallel effort overlooked because it’s inconvenient. When the Diliman Commune, the revolt by students in the University of the Philippines in 1971 took place, some residents of the area banded together and hunted down the radical students. They were defending order and their property rights. There’s a similar political vigilantism among the middle and upper classes today.
The virtue of democracy is it permits the transition from one generation to the next, with as little bloodshed as possible, and hopefully everyone feels they had a say in what happened. It’s not a numbers game or merely following rules. It’s protecting the minority so that when they inevitably become the majority, they aren’t dying to strangle those that led before. But when Marcos’s pomaded generation decided they couldn’t surrender power to long-haired hippies, they consigned the successor generation to limbo — and our country to an escalating cycle of violence, hate, and fear.
Defective as the period transfers of power before martial law were, even that cycle was stopped. Anyone with an independent mind had three miserable choices: shut up, ship out, or shoot it out.
As an academic recently told me, with martial law, the country lost an entire generation of intellectuals. It lost an entire generation, period. Some went to the hills. Others sold out. Still more shipped out, returning only now, to retire.
It’s no wonder that politically, most ideas seem to be frozen in time, somewhere in the 1960s, and these ideas were themselves questioned by those who to my generation seem the hopelessly unhip hippie crowd. The hippies of yesterday have grey hair today; but what’s worse is the increasingly hairless but still dominant generation that the hippies questioned continue to rule today.
An economist also told me recently that when the economy collapsed in 1983, a significant transformation also took place. It was, he argued, the first time corruption became endemic in Philippine society. More so than during the Japanese Occupation, when, as you can read in Agoncillo’s account, the pretensions of the ruling class were punctured by their having to pawn their possessions and scramble for survival alongside the poor.
The poor have always been called criminal by the rich, even though all the poor are trying to do is survive; but when the middle class and the rich either abandon, or are stripped, of all pretenses to public and private decency, you have a truly dangerous situation. No one is left with any moral authority over anyone else; what once served to keep everything cozy and looking good, proves as rotten and corrupt as those once considered moral, political, and social inferiors. So who has any incentive to worship anything except power and wealth? Why should anyone help or believe anyone else?
With martial law, Marcos secured the support of the middle and upper crust, who only abandoned him when he proved too greedy and then, incompetent; when Edsa I restored the premarital law leadership, who, lean and hungry from their exclusion from the rigodon of power, grew fat while the middle class allied with them discovered there was nothing for them; an entire generation of retired middle class professionals were stripped of their dozens of hectares of honestly-bought land, while the political class retains their thousand-hectare haciendas.
In Edsa Dos, in a last hurrah, the tired relicts of Edsa I were joined by the martial law babies, thrilling at the chance to reenact People Power, only to discover within weeks it was only Nani power, and Chavit power.
And again, there was Edsa Tres which failed, because it was not sincerely led, but which gave the downtrodden a taste of something they’d never savored in an urban setting before: they scared the daylights out of their social, political, and economic bosses. The end result was 2004, when I am sure many of your friends said to you what they told me: “victory at whatever price, rather than let the opposition come back to power.”
LEON Ma. Guerrero the great writer and diplomat, once wrote an apologia for martial law titled “Today began yesterday.” And he was right. The problems that horrify our middle and upper classes began yesterday, too..
Two very relevant FB comments by one person:
1. There it is. A plan of action. But we just are not a people of action. I offer no explanations.
The more I try to understand it, the more I don’t do anything about it. We appreciate what’s good for us but often it just means, “it’s what’s good for me or my family “
2. We run to our church and cry for help, but we don’t use that same energy and despair in electing leaders…Bishop Ambo David cannot help you. He doesn’t work for the government. The church cannot save us from our failure to use and understand freedom and responsibilities that come with it…we have a system that can address or implement social change. It’s called the electoral system.
My answer to 2 on FB was:
Yes, but just look at what the so-called “Representatives” did today, what do they represent?
Thanks for bringing them here.
great starting point. This is a herculean task and the only way to really do it is to be dogged and persistent and pray you are doing the right thing.
Democracy does not work with ignorant people. The first priority should be creating more people who have the right views of what democracy is about.
The second priority is creating a moral generation. Moral generation being a secular morality. We have to return to the time of the revolution when they were grasping for what the Filipino is and evolve our concepts to where the world is right now.
Thanks for the conversation starter @karl
Thank you @Gian and welcome.
Thanks also @gian and thanks again @karl.
Re evolution of concepts I was thinking of the kapatiran and kaginhawaan concepts of Bonifacio which are rooted in Filipino culture which Xiao Chua likes to mention.
It used to irritate me that representative democracy is seen as Western and not applicable to the Filipino in some works, though Xiao explicitly mentions EDSA1+2 as a form of kapatiran with damayan (roughly, taking care and respecting one another, like nobody jostles in church and according to Vicente Rafael, people also were mutually respectful of one another during EDSA Dos, in the book “Motherless Tongues”, section “The Cellphone and the Crowd”)
Therefore the challenge to new Filipino thinkers is to modernize kapatiran (not necessarily as brotherhood in the immediate sense, which can’t really work in a larger community like a nation, but in a more abstract sense like fraternité of the French, at the very least some degree of empathy which is lacking between different groups in the Philippines) and kaginhawaan (well-being, something which was in the original idea of the Commonwealth as described by MLQ3) as well as damayan (something which works on the small scale, for example in the way I have experienced how space and payment/change is in jeepneys) or even now when people patiently queue for the MRT – Europeans would stampede under such conditions, I am sure. Use the basic Filipino temperament and upgrade it to modern?
To the first aspect: this is what the Katipunan actually started with in its first 4 years, only they did not finish the popular education (including own library) as they were revealed. That the moral education was also incomplete shows in what happened after 1896 until 1898. There was of course a bit of an evolution from the Kartilya of Jacinto to that of Mabini and then Quezon’s list of values, but somehow that got lost and the MLQ3 summary of what happened from 1942 onwards until 2004 gives a good idea of why. But yes, you are right.
And of course the mediation between the different brother/sisterhoods big and small would be a form of representative democracy, but different from the Western one which is obviously failing in the Philippines as we see in the HOR. The direct democracy might be within such groups which have of course leaders who speak for the consensus of the entire group. Just thinking aloud here, this I don’t know if it is the correct way, but it makes sense to me now. Because Filipino society ISN’T individualistic like Western societies. For further deepening.
These are both important concepts.
Kaginhawaan is key but it should be a undertaken in a manner where the ststus and ease lost by the middle classes is replaced by societal comfort. It is very hard to get household help right now. Whereas the upper classes can hire the middle classes are increasingly pushed towards appliances and buying stuff that makes household help less important.
PhilHealth is similar to this. Everyone not working is automatically given a PhilHealth membership by government while middle class workers have to contend with rising PhilHealth premiums. This creates resentment between workers/income tax payers and the lower economic strata that do not pay income taxes.
Reposting my excerpt from a previous article.
This study evaluates evidence pertaining to popular narratives explaining the American public’s support for Donald J. Trump in the 2016 presidential election. First, using unique representative probability samples of the American public, tracking the same individuals from 2012 to 2016, I examine the “left behind” thesis (that is, the theory that those who lost jobs or experienced stagnant wages due to the loss of manufacturing jobs punished the incumbent party for their economic misfortunes). Second, I consider the possibility that status threat felt by the dwindling proportion of traditionally high-status Americans (i.e., whites, Christians, and men) as well as by those who perceive America’s global dominance as threatened combined to increase support for the candidate who emphasized reestablishing status hierarchies of the past. Results do not support an interpretation of the election based on pocketbook economic concerns. Instead, the shorter relative distance of people’s own views from the Republican candidate on trade and China corresponded to greater mass support for Trump in 2016 relative to Mitt Romney in 2012. Candidate preferences in 2016 reflected increasing anxiety among high-status groups rather than complaints about past treatment among low-status groups. Both growing domestic racial diversity and globalization contributed to a sense that white Americans are under siege by these engines of change.
article, by Diana C. Mutz
Gian, I must admit I am a bit dense and don’t quite get how this is applicable exactly to the Philippine situation. I do get the ABC Grace vs. Digong thing and DE Mar vs. Digong thing but what exact interests where were “tickled” by the three candidates still somewhat eludes me.
@Irineo this deserves a long reply. I’ll calendar this and try to jot down my thoughts.
Trying to create informative videos with friends. Will try to translate this later.
With the kind permission of Will, I am reposting this Q&A with Sonny Trillanes recently:
Q&A
(After zoomustahan with Fmr. Sen. Sonny Trillanes Oct. 8, 2020.)
Q: Where does the AFP stand given revgov or succession by VP Leni Robredo?
A: We were assured by the active senior officers we engaged with that the whole AFP will stand by the Constitution.
Q: Is 91% trust rating for President Duterte possible and credible?
A: No, that is not true. If you look at the breakdown of their report, Duterte got 97% approval in Mindanao with 0% disapproval. That is statistically improbable at this point in his term. So, natuwa ang mga taga Marawi sa pagsira ng tahanan nila? Marami din kaming kamag-anak, kaibigan at Magdalo chapters sa Mindanao and they disapprove of him as much as the antis do.
Besides, Magdalo conducted its own survey on Sept. 8-9, although it only covered what we call the Luzon belt or Lingayen-Lucena belt because of the domestic travel limitations.
Based on the Luzon findings, Duterte has an approval rating in the 45%. If projected nationwide, his approval rating could increase to the low to mid 50’s at most. It is still relatively high, but definitely not 91%.
Q: If elections were to be held now, how would VP Leni fare?
A: Our (referring to antis) work is cut out for us. In our survey’s short list of five names for president, VP Leni is third, after Sara Duterte and Bongbong Marcos. Sen. Pacquiao is fourth; Sen. Lacson, fifth.
Q: Is Facebook a good platform to open minds and hearts?
A: With the shutdown of ABS-CBN, Facebook is now the primary source of news and information for most Filipinos. So, whether we like it or not, we would have to utilize it to deliver the truth to our people. But the adult Filipino users of Facebook is at least 50 percent of our population and what the antis are seeing are merely an echo chamber of like-minded individuals. We still have to reach out to the moderates and the non-aligned.
Q: Resources of a VP Leni campaign, if ever?
A: Judging from Angat Buhay returns, she is a magnet for civic-minded sectors of society, but we have to have a bigger net. For example, we could crowd source her campaign funds once she decides to run. Thinking caps on.
Q: Does she have fire-in-the-belly for campaign war?
A: She may have her own charming way of showing it, but she definitely has fire-in-the-belly for public service and she knows how to be a rock star in a campaign. I saw that for myself in 2016.
Q: What about you as presidentiable, since nakakabayo ka?
A: (Laughing heartily.) No. VP Leni is the only candidate of the opposition.
End.
Too much democracy is dangerous. The Death of Socrates was juried by around 500-900 men (no one really knows but it wasn’t Twelve Angry Men).
I still think a 2 party system is superior. Sure it didn’t work for Bernie, but I can see AOC becoming legit via Bernie’s path.
Per gian’s assumption that this “Left Behind” is what’s driving the Republican party, consider also that the fastest growing religious group here is Catholicism, via the Hispanics.
So I can already see barangay elections get really personal with neighbors being torn asunder. Resulting in more provincial thinking than global. Plus more politics?!!!
Over here you have groups like the Sierra Club fighting for conservationism, which if you really think about it is from the same root as conservative, thus although Sierra Club is historically Democrat, there are also Republicans (mostly hunters/gun rights folks) who agree that the wilderness should be protected.
Thus common ground.
So different groups finding common ground, amassing some serious leverage via membership or money (for example the Mormon Church is rich, and is Republican thus gets heard), and collaboration. I know there are church groups in the Philippines, but less so other social groups.
Social groups politicized is more practical than politicizing the whole population, IMHO, karl.
“So I can already see barangay elections get really personal with neighbors being torn asunder. Resulting in more provincial thinking than global. Plus more politics?!!!”
This is the reason for my caveat re Swiss-style democracy. They probably had the gun ban during village meetings for good reasons. Wilhelm Tell is a great story but the 1291 Federal Charter of the first three cantons had harsh measures against arsonists and bandits of all sorts, so there.
And the last civil war between Swiss cantons was in the mid-19th century and had to be “pacified” by the Swiss Federal Army. After that Switzerland switched from Confederation (looser) to the tighter form of real Federalism. Being protected by mountains made it possible for them to develop their own way for centuries, but the Napoleonic conquest probably shocked them – it definitely made Geneva join Switzerland after centuries of being a city-state on its own – and the loony civil war between two cantons in the cheese -producing mountains of Appenzell as well.
Thanks LCX.
That maybe the problem with gathering signatures of 10 percent of the electorate that seems like politicizing the whole population, the more you force participation the lesser you get like squeezing sand in your hand.
That is why I suggested the Irish model of just getting a number enough to represent everyone, but you already got 100 plus HOR and what happened? and what is happening?
For lack of a word I say we bastardize everything here that a good oiled machine has a wrench thrown at it, sabotage also comes to mind.
I will paste a comment from the previous blog.
“In my coming institutional people power article, an attempt to explore how to give back power to the people ruled by self dealing legislators
who cant pass certain bills for decades like a land use law because of land owner legislators like the Villars.
People can put a stop impunity if they want to and they choose to.
Are we really morally bankrupt thst we are stuck in the mud.
Money seems to be paramount, the piece of the pie
I was right ehen Insaid that Money makes the world go round, no matter how Congress men and senators say that the budget is pork free, we all know that is not true, call it any other name it is still pork.
A city like Taguig to have infra spending budget higher than Calabarzon?
Sure the Senate and the Supreme court are moving to Taguig, there is C6 there, but how can you justify that to the public.
Micha said deficit spending is good, how come, I do not see an end to our increasing national debt, 10 Trillion and growing, is it enough to be Monetary Sovereign and apply MMT in practice?
We have not yet reached the tipping point, we can get out of the mud.
I have proposed community development, call it barrio or baranggay.
Also regenerative development for our agriculture and the industries.
If growth will really be inclusive it would not have to be bayan vs the elite or barrio vs modernity.
Modernity can be achieved without throwing away our traditions.
In keeping our traditions we preserve our identity, our history and our culture.”
“Institutionalizing People Power”
Isn’t Roman Catholicism the biggest “Institution” with the most number of “People” (or followers) and, thus, “the Power”?
If not in the whole world, at least in the Philippines … in the very focus of locus of TSOH.
Given especially what Covid-19 has already wrought around the world, isn’t this the very high time to ask …
“Quo vadis, Philippines?”
When we are down we go left, right, forward, backward and going in circles.The only way is up.
Instead of quo vadis I searched for tipping point here in tsoh, but quo vadis was asked in one if the articles.
https://joeam.com/?s=Tipping+point&submit=Search
Ok let us isolate Quo Vadis.
https://joeam.com/?s=Quo+vadis&submit=Search
This search,
http://j.mp/ja-vadis
generated 32 results; it uses a different algorithm.
“vadis” may not necessarily occur in all the four below,
but they seem to provide great context.
1
May Diyos Naman
Posted by Wilfredo G. Villanueva on January 24, 2016 · 156 Comments
2
Quo Vadis Presdu30’s Philippines
Posted by The Society of Honor on May 22, 2016 · 116 Comments
By Andy Ibay
3
The Pope and the Philippines
Posted by The Society of Honor on January 19, 2015 · 64 Comments
4
Are Filipinos a Siphonophore?
Posted by edgar lores on September 24, 2015 · 375 Comments
What I plan to post next probably has not been mentioned before;
it might just be much ado about nothing … but only God knows.
This, below, is not the one I referred to when I posted this:
“What I plan to post next probably has not been mentioned before;
it might just be much ado about nothing … but only God knows.”
x————
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Worldwide-Filipino-Alliance/info
Welcome to Worldwide Filipino Alliance !
Group Description
This listserve, Worldwide-Filipino-Alliance@yahoogroups.com, is associated with the Worldwide Filipino Alliance-Pangdaigdigang Alyansa ng Pilipino, Inc. (WFA-PAPI) SEC-registered, Internet-based non-stock, non-profot civic organization.
This listserve as well as the NGO was organized by concerned overseas and homeland-based Filipinos who are committed to assist in the development efforts in the homeland and uplift the welfare of our brethren working and living abroad.
The first WFA, 2010 Inc. was conceptualized, organized and registered in the Philippines on February 10, 2008 in response to a felt need by concerned overseas Filipinos to help improve the conditions in the homeland.
This has been supplanted by the WFA-PAPI, Inc which was accorded corporate status by the SEC on April 18, 2011. The five Incorporators-Members-Board of Trustes are all based in Davao.
Our Movement, WFA-PAPI, aims to serve as the action center on convergent common concerns and issues that may need referrals for immediate attention/action by concerned government agencies for the benefit of the 11 million Off-shore Filipinos and their 55 million On-shore relatives.
Our Alliance appears to be the only Internet-based Filipino NGO that is still operating. And this associated listserve or egroup is the most updated, relevant, and respectable egroup among the thousands and thousands of Filipino egroups.
Its subscribers are all over the world. It includes Muslims, Christians, Budhists, Senators, Congressmen, Priests, Ulamas, teachers, militants, ordinary workers in the 193 countries of the world.
Kindly visit our website: http://www.worldwidefilipinoalliance.com for a glimpse of what our Movement has been able to undertake so far.
Subscribers are solely responsible for their postings and moderators are absolutely not liable for any and all postings in this unmoderated egroup.
The Core Group of WFA-PAPI.
Group Website
http://www.worldwidefilipinoalliance.com
Group Information
Members :
1470
Category :
Other
Founded :
Feb 21, 2008
…
——x
I share the above (the Description of WFA) because, IMO, “Worldwide Filipino Alliance” is not very much unlike Joe America’s “The Society of Honor” in its purpose or goal.
I apologize to Joe if my opinion offends him.
I do not know of a way to find out the last posting at WFA’s discussion site.
YahooGroups had “closed” many months ago – and will “finally close” December 15, 2020.
I believe that almost 200,000 – yes, 200,000 – were posted.
(If I may mention … Senator Rene Saguisag, although at “late-comer” there, was a participant till the end.)
A rhetorical question: What has WFA accomplished (for the Philippines)?
By posting this, I hope to give the other participants here (dwindling in numbers?) an idea of where I am coming from or that I have a relatively good head on my shoulders.
From what I understand BLM before becoming a twitter hashtag was a legit e-group from Los Angeles. and by the grace of Russian troll farms, became a legit movement: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/07/24/russias-disinformation-campaigns-are-targeting-african-americans/
The irony of ironies is that LA county’s first DA is their original target from the git-go. Lacey is not only the first black female DA but very active in criminal justice reform, light years ahead of Kamala Harris. Thus BLM original to oust Lacey became a national meme.
I remember we here in TSoH had a blog where in we attempted to make memes, it was a complete failure, i guess TSoH is no troll farm (we’re more long form). I remember mine was the opposite of wolf in sheep clothing for DU30, sheep in wolf he was.
So i7sharp’s egroup that does real world actions, like L.A. s original BLM is laudable, but making sticky memes is tricky. What the Russian troll farms did here in Socal circa 2014-2015 was to send out meet-ups, near freeways and get those protesters who showed to block freeway traffic.
See how that connects to John Hannock’s Boston Tea party??? you set-up enough of those , you’ll hit critical mass pissing off everyone wherein people are actually hurting each other. And that i7sharp is the very essence of politics! Not the Mayflower compact but John Hannock is your ideal here.
Make memes. gian’s on the right track, IMHO. Have you guys seen “the Boys” S2 on Prime? sooo good, dealing w/ this subject.
Hi, Lance!
Is “same banana” a meme? 🙂
In any case, meet Kilroy!
https://j.mp/i7-meme-1
https://j.mp/i7-kilroy
“So i7sharp’s egroup that does real world actions …”
Lance, however we see those “egroups” (such as Yahoo! Groups, etc.)
each and everyone of them will all be gone by 12/15/2020.
You can see more of them here (if the links still work):
https://j.mp/rp-ofc
“Observations on Filipino Conversations”
Whatever power the people (organizers and followers) were able to institutionalize
… all that power have all gone.
Donate to archive.org if you want your old stuff archived.
Archive.org
And wiki must have a Super PAC behind them or they are long gone.
Yahoo made bad business decisions they snubbed an offer by google and instead of being a giant, even with Verizon, they are ants now and soon dust.
“Yahoo made bad business decisions they snubbed an offer by google and instead of being a giant, even with Verizon, they are ants now and soon dust.”
Thanks for your input, Karl.
by the way, let me point out that I know now that I had clearly made a mistake here:
“… however we see those “egroups” (such as Yahoo! Groups, etc.)
each and everyone of them will all be gone by 12/15/2020.”
Rather than make a correction, let me bring up
“cultural mapping” and try to make a link to …
our Miss Universe, Catriona Gray.
The connection will probably not immediately become clear.
That’s where the fun can be found.
So, try this:
https://j.mp/i7-cmap-1
(Note: Yes, I still keep in mind “people, “power,” “institutions.”)
If popou was the Riddler you are Question.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Question_(character)
You are right, Karl.
Catriona Gray’s mom is a native of …
Oas, Albay
– the municipality that is said to have pioneered “cultural mapping.”
If you click older articles under the tipping point search you will find an article entitled: May Diyos naman by Wil.
https://joeam.com/page/2/?s=Tipping+point&submit=Search
Both EDSA 1 and EDSA 2 are right-wing led power grab. The bodies of people were merely used as a shield to prevent the security apparatus of the incumbent regime from mowing down the revolt leaders.
There was no remarkable or significant restoration of power to the people after the plotters were installed. The elitist socio economic and political power structure in the country remained in place.
Is that the kind of “People Power” you want to institutionalize?
The party-list sounded and looked good on paper until it was populated by billionaires and pretend marginalized people.
The military was always involved somehow and civil society’s role was only on photo ops or TV..
Any attempt of civil military relationship is another bound to fail attempt, so are security sector reforms, and that is why the rebellion would not stop.
What I want is to bring power to the people.
My proposal of a citizens’ assembly was shot-down by a resident of Ireland above, if we could make it work, why not?
Short answer: No.
karl, and this is continuation to my point above… Whenever I write email my politicians they always tell you to organize and get people who feel the same about this or that to do something about whatever that ails them. Which makes sense, I suppose, if I were an elected official why do my job, if others can do it for me?
So first ask what are the groups there that are actually doing stuff, for example the church of Iglesia Ni Cristo is like Scientology here i suppose, and the Mormons too, because of their nice buildings. And they’ve gotten into politics, so that’s a success story right there on your idea, right?
Your Dad’s Manila Bay Clean up, are there conservationist groups there actually promoting not only clean-up of Manila Bay but education so Filipinos don’t keep on dirtying Manila Bay? I remember every town I drove thru there, had all these Lion’s Club and Rotary, etc. so besides making Welcome signs in concrete what exactly do they do, besides Tanduay and karaoke?
So list church and service clubs and compare and contrast, from said list you’ll be able to gauge what Filipinos are into politically, like Iglesia ni Cristo, strong community hierarchy clear leader of group, gets things done. So make memes according to this proclivity:
“Mama Mary says she loves you but she’ll love you more if you clean up Manila Bay– her favorite bay. You might go to heaven too. (this message is approved by Mama Mary)”
Use superstition to your advantage is my point, in order to move people. The people don’t want power the people won’t know power if it fell on their laps, they usually want to be saved; if not they are generally happy with the status quo. 90% of the people are usually happy, period.
Too far out even for me.
I know people keep llooking for heroes, but to play with beliefs through manipulation even if it abounds, is not what I want to happen.
Another thing that might work, which is not superstitious stuff is the idea of having a common enemy. Like gian says Left Behind angst.
John Hancock the richest smuggler in New England was getting his tea from the Dutch, when he was supposed to only buy from the British, the Dutch were selling it a lot lot cheaper. So he organized the Boston Tea party. Which today is hailed as revolutionary, when actually John Hancock just wanted to be able to sell and make profit from his Dutch tea to the colonists!
Is there a Boston Tea party just waiting to happen there, karl? Like Chinese 5G, or cheap Chinese good, you could throw into Manila Bay (but of course you’d have to clean it back up). I’m just spit balling here, but you get the idea, get people to want change, like BLM over here.
You can even enlist Russians to make memes, i heard they’re really good at that these days. Though I haven’t really seen weaponized deep fakes, though I’ve seen some youtube ones. Again I think the key lies with Iglesia ni Christo, karl. They are good. They make memes too.
Here is a meme for you.
You are looking for our very own Hancock.
https://www.google.com/search?q=enrile+memes&oq=enrile+mem&aqs=chrome.0.0i457j69i57j0j46j0i22i30.14941j1j4&client=ms-android-samsung-gj-rev1&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8
He was my favourite character in,
There are no right or wrong answers here so all I can do is ageee or not.
Duterte is one big accidental hero of nothing, people wanted action, they got a sleeping president.
Many revolutionary stuff turned out to be duds the French had napoleon, good thing they were able to adjust.
The 7 years war had Washington et al plan for independence and the tea party was a false trigger for the tevolution like Enrile’s fake ambush triggered Martial law supposedly while it was planned by Marcos a few years back.
Wrong about Washington he was a young soldier loyal to the British when he ” triggered” the French Indian War which resulted to the British owning the world for a while including the Philippines.
Those dreaded taxes caused the American revolution .The British had too big a territory witn no money,
but with lots of “Indians”.
And a vengeful France and Spain waiting for a chance of revenge.
So boom!
Citizens’ Assembly could only work if you get rid of Congress altogether.
You cannot have these two existing at the same time because then you will have a schizophrenic policy making body.
Which one would you rather legitimize?
Another good point. I guess that is why they see this as a joke in the UK.(schizo thing)
Another thing is, once in the assembly you are already a politician trapo or no trapo.
As much as all want an anti-dynasty law,If we disqualify former politicians then who would be left? Someone needing to say just trust me, a committee selected me.
With all the caveats, I still want my proposal to work, I choose the Citizens’ assembly that would not turn itself into a joke.
One thing that could go away is the congressional investigations maybe a Citizen’s ovretsight committee that is separate from the assembly can take a look at these matters including or soecially oversight of the ones that have the power of the purse liike NEDA, DBM DOF, Treasury, etc
You can propose the formation of CA the day after your successful revolution because our presently constituted elite are not in the least interested to get rid of the present system.
In the meantime, we’re looking at a President Sarah or a President Bongbong in 2022. What, if any, is the opposition’s game plan?
Irineo posted Wil’s Q and A with Trillanes above
Here.
And as I’ve previously said, Ma’am Leni might have her heart in the right place but it doesn’t seem to show she has any idea what she’s up against or, for that matter, what the country is up against.
Clue: it’s not Rodrigo, he’s just the symptom – a boil in the deep running decayed and decaying system.
Moderation and incrementalism is not gonna work. We need a flushing out. Even the WEF has, for its theme in its annual gathering this coming January, the Great Reset.
Thanks for this.
https://emerging-europe.com/news/wef-sets-2021-agenda-the-great-reset/
Karl, just found this based on what I read in one of Prof. Vicente Rafael’s books:
https://www.chanrobles.com/1899constitutionofthephilippines.htm
We, the Representatives of the Filipino people, lawfully covened, in order to establish justice, provide for common defense, promote the general welfare, and insure the benefits of liberty, imploring the aid of the Sovereign Legislator of the Universe for the attainment of these ends, have voted, decreed, and sanctioned the following..
Even then the Representatives represented themselves mainly, not the people.
The recent events in the election of the Lord as a Speaker are a symptom of that.
Although I’m for the idea of culling and drastically reducing that 8 billion to a more reasonable number vis a vis Mother Nature. I don’t necessarily want to be part of the culled. Neither should anyone. But recognize that folks with power have entertained this idea— they’ve done so thru out history. So be extremely wary when rich people want to offer dignity for everyone.
the idea of dignity for all is not even possible. Even impossible for God himself! think about that. really think about that one. And we put it as part of mission statements! that’s nuts!
If all lives matter is not an insult to BLM, I will tell you that all lives do matter, but for you matter occupies space and has mass.
https://joeam.com/2020/10/14/the-transition-from-duterte-to-yellow/ might be the bridge to making a Citizen’s Assembly useful. As the government and the Super-Cabinet that Joe suggests has a role similar to that of a “King” of old, the Citizen’s Assembly could be like Parliaments of old in an advisory and mediating role, bypassing the now inutile HOR in many ways. This is of course the “top-down” alternative as “bottom-up” might not work yet, though it could be strengthened to prevent a too “elitist” kind of government, but it would have to be channeled to be issue-based.
I STILL see a revolution as very messy, considering that the people will act the same way they do in the barangay politics that LCPL_X has mentioned, and how they acted in 1898. Even the Katipunan tried to educate itself and its members (it has a library even) from 1892 until it was forced to go out into revolution in 1896 because the wife of a member revealed its existence in confession to a Spanish priest. It understood Rizal’s caveat “what if the slaves of today become the tyrants of tomorrow”. Even after cutting the Gordian knot, it will be slog to rebuild and a roadmap is needed.
I think it has to be messy. Michas right, you’re just switching A to B, vice versa, CDE still remain in their spot same ol same ol’… You have to have a musical chair situation, for it to mean change. Make A thru E walk around whilst the music play ensuring there’s only a few chairs, and like you said , Ireneo, people will then all have skin in the game. You don’t put A and B’s feet in the fire, no progress.
On a different though similar note, related really, I’ve been Google’ing her work of late, very interesting:
“I have focused my research and teaching programs on advancing the science and practice of systems thinking, and especially its applications in public policy, engineering, and education. I have ventured on developing methods, tools, and applications to challenge and stretch the boundaries of conventional mental models beyond immediate and direct outcomes to understand the long-term and system-wide effects created by these mental models.
Most of the contemporary persistent issues that we (as individuals, organizations and societies) grapple with (e.g. climate change, risks to national security, resource degradation) are caused by our limited capacity to foresee the delayed and cumulative impacts (e.g. socio-economic, security, environmental) of our decisions and policies. To deal with these challenges, we need to liberate ourselves from conventional ways of thinking focused around narrowly defined sub-problems leading to short-term solutions and unintended consequences. Instead, we need to hone our abilities to see connections, develop big-pictures, and formulate systemic solutions. In other words, we need to become systems thinkers. Systems thinking is an interdisciplinary research field, concerned with drawing on multiple scientific areas (e.g. learning science, decision science, operations research) to support problem solving and decision making in situations featured by complexity, uncertainty, and plurality of views.”
https://www.unsw.adfa.edu.au/capability-systems-centre/dr-sondoss-el-sawah
For karl, this game may hold the key to your plans. All is logistics,
Yes, possibly what helped in Germany’s postwar reconstruction was:
1) everybody was more or less at the same level in a bombed-out country.
2) Ludwig Erhard making a cut and printing new money, invalidating the old, mobilized a reset. True those with land and other properties still had an advantage but a lot of new biz started.
3) The old Prussian landowner class lost their vast plantations in the OLD East, meaning their energies were then directed into building the new West German state and new businesses.
The systemic, “holistic” approach is important, I agree. Even as we look at individual aspects we have to see the root causes and prioritize solving them.
Love this game and this series.
Yes, systems thinking should be the name of the game.
All the plans without accompanying logistics are not even worthy of being called a plan. It is more apt as a happy thought.
gian,
I’m actually not a wargamer, nor a video game enthusiast. Go I started playing because of NH on here. But the Commandant of the Marine Corps is putting a lot of emphasis on wargames, what my readings and some playing (i still don’t enjoy it) have given me a bit of expansion into the thinking involve of playing these game. I still doubt they improve thinking but within the context of said games, the mastery is interesting to quantify, for me at least.
So let me ask you this, aside from DOTA and LOLegends, what games should the military play that you’ve played. IMHO, influence games like Among Us social deduction games and boardgame Diplomacy is what the military should be playing, not “wargames” per se. So Caesar IV makes sense.
Phase 0 is where everyone should be playing at. Tactics is easy just do what H. Poole USMC LtCol, suggests in his books.
Do change.org petitions work or are they just voices in the wilderness?
https://www.quora.com/Do-Change-org-petitions-really-work-Are-there-any-examples-of-success
I’m reading a lot of good stuff coming from this small town just north of Cebu City, karl. Liloan.
From what I’m reading there’s a big concentrated ex-pat community, which means revenue and I think also engagement, kinda like your Makati (but of retirees not really business folks). Sewage system, salt water encroachment, cleaning up environment, etc. etc. So maybe look into what they’re doing right over there. I’m looking at Google Earth, and it looks still pretty green to me. So this is the ground floor before development gets out of hand, while people still have a say, IMHO.
The ex-pat population seems key here.
LCX,
Regarding resets, I know you are fan of Thanos.
Half the population of the universe was wiped out as he wished, he still ended up being depressed.
Dan Brown tried to eliminate half of the population in Inferno, it was stopped, in my regenerative development article, I asked what is to be done so we do not have to move to Mars.
If we do not change our ways we will have water world or mad max.
Thanos was not depressed, karl.
He did the 2nd snap because he was tempted to use the Gauntlet for selfish reasons, power trip i dunno– thus suicide. But in Endgame that other Thanos decided the dead Thanos at the beginning was wrong… not sure if Endgame Thanos was wrong in letting the Earth live or letting the Avengers live, but he intended to annihilate all of Earth or all of the Avengers, i guess it can be both also.
Infinity War Thanos= 50% Universe
Endgame Thanos= 100% of Earth/Avengers
But realistically, karl, 8 billion people on this Earth is not sustainable.
Sure COVID19 will take 1% of that which is 10 million? not sure but that’s what Google says. For the US population which is round off to 300 million it is 3 million. and we’re still at 200,000 souls dead rounded off. My point its pretty difficult to do what Thanos did or what Dan Brown wrote.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toba_catastrophe_theory#Genetic_bottleneck_in_humans But we’re worst than COVID19 virus, karl, at 40 “breeding peers” we still got to 8 billion eventually, https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2012/10/22/163397584/how-human-beings-almost-vanished-from-earth-in-70-000-b-c 8 billion is not sustainable , karl. At some point,
you’re either for humanity or for mother nature. not both. There’s a bunch of Armenians here in Socal protesting demanding American intervention. I’m cheering for the Azeris, karl (maybe cheering ‘s too strong a word, rooting?). But i’m against any American intervention. Putin wants the US and NATO to cry foul. We’re all about Indo-Pacific now, sorry Middle East!
Just please do not say you are rooting for Covid.Advocate Mars transfer or the moon but not decimation of the population. Or have a reproductive health super lobby or something.
Right now the immediate concern are climate migrant refugees, do you want them all sent home?
It is not only the population that is not sustainable the permafrost melt, China can reach Greenland in record time but at what cost?
No to genocide! what kind of being would advocate for culling as long as it is not him and later saying that no one is deserving to be culled, but still in favor of it just because he loves the planet he is in.
Bull crap!
I know nature has its way like disease almost wiping out the Native Americans.
Those who survived were later a victim of genocide.
Going back to BLM
The founding fathers had to appease the Southeners or else there would not be a US of A so somehow they made the African American sub human in the constitution.
It is not a new thing so I say all lives matter.
I know we will have this conversation again, I can’t change you, but I sure as hell disagree with you.
It’s the distasteful line of reasoning that impelled Edgar to stop reading or responding to LCX. It is a topic best relegated to a forum other than this one. There are probably such discussions in China where they are doing some culling as I understand it.
I tried. I will no longer respond to him.
A referendum on Capitalism?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidjeans/2020/10/14/microsoft-ceo-satya-nadella-calls-for-referendum-on-capitalism/#3b50446b4f3d
“
I know nature has its way like disease almost wiping out the Native Americans.
Those who survived were later a victim of genocide.
Going back to BLM
The founding fathers had to appease the Southeners or else there would not be a US of A so somehow they made the African American sub human in the constitution.
It is not a new thing so I say all lives matter.”
Not necessaraily response to LCX but who cares?
E.R.A maybe just about gender rights but anything to amend the language of all” men” are created equal is a start for equality to all individuals all 8 billion of them.(not just Americans;
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_Rights_Amendment
Forgot the link.
What will be is paramount not withstanding Jefferson’s original intention.
https://news.stanford.edu/press-releases/2020/07/01/meaning-declaratnce-changed-time/#:~:text=July%201%2C%202020-,When%20Thomas%20Jefferson%20penned%20%E2%80%9Call%20men%20are%20created%20equal%2C%E2%80%9D,says%20Stanford%20historian%20Jack%20Rakove.
This thing that most people forget about this BLM movement, karl is if the numbers really support the movement.
Meaning are there actually more blacks dying at the hands of police? Dying or seriously injured. but focus on dying because that is the point of BLM.
The rub is no one really knows because although all police send their crime stats, violent and property crimes, they don’t really send to the FBI police deaths because technically incustody and use of force deaths are generally not crimes— police IA and DA’s office clean house locally , nothing gets sent to national offices for the count.
Under Obama they are suppose to have done this. The big city police have, but the rural suburban ones have not. I imagine nothing nefarious, just bureaucratic stuff.
I hope they do all send their numbers so we know exactly what the trends are.
Me personally, knowing something about American history, I know 40s-60s were fucked up times, 60s-70s, this is Joe’s era, people changed things; 80s-90s people just kinda relaxed, there was the Cosby show to Fresh Prince in pop-culture, and lots of blacks making it in show-biz, rap became famous. thus people equated the times to less racism.
2000s to now, social media and people with cameras and able to share their footage.
The question is are cops more prone to killing black people now? or are there just more footage of this that people realize hey policing is not really like the movies thus anger?
Take LAPD for example, karl, at the time of the Rodney King video, there were like 80% White cops, and in the 1960s that was like 100%, lately i believe it’s now 40% White cops, the other 40% is Hispanics. You can also track this same decline in White population nationally, largely due to 60s immigration policies.
So if anything the USA is browning, thus reflected in its police force.
I’m sure rural and suburban police are still hovering around 80%-90% Whites depending where. Also account for the positive feedback loop of social media, more blacks see more black killings, the more confrontational none compliance upon police contact they are. BLM as principle should be calling for comply and listening to instruction.
My point, Whites are dwindling down, unfortunately population wise so too are blacks. My hunch here is that there are more violence abuse perpetuated on white and Hispanic criminals due to their percentage population make up. Why there’s virtually silence there is suspect.
John Boyd (military strategist) said once that we have to win not only the physical and mental but the moral aspect of any conflict. Moral realm can be gamed at the propaganda level. Most of these police shootings i’ve studied via Google is that cops are emptying out their magazines, or herd shooting like mofos.
This tells me cops are actually more scared than cruel and/or racist. My solution is hire more butch lesbian cops. They have balanced their male and female chakras (most have) thus tend to talk to their subjects than opt for use of force, and not play chicken the way guys do (guilty). De-escalation when people are being non-compliant should be the staple of police training. Verbal judo if you will.
Lastly, cops need to learn to take on more risk. That’s their job. I don’t agree with the premise of BLM because I don’t think the trends reflect reality; but I do agree with Defund the Police, because of militarization of police, but that’s a separate though still related matter, karl.
What BLM morphed into is beyond the counting of the number of deaths.
There are many hanging issues dating back to even before the declaration of independence.
Some proponents here wants a parliamentary form of government, in Greece they want direct democracy for them to be able to choose a leader.
https://www.rappler.com/world/europe/greek-pm-proposes-constitutional-change-direct-democracy
http://www.quezon.ph/2013/10/17/civics-for-the-21st-century-power-of-one-concept/ – by MLQ3:
a. “The problem with you is that you take the game of politics too seriously. You look too far behind you and too far ahead of you. Our people do not understand that. They do not want it. All they want is to have the present problem solved, and solved with the least pain. That is all.”
b. “The people care more for good government than they do for self-government… the fear is that the Head of State may either exceed his powers, or abuse them by improprieties. To keep order is his main purpose.”
–Manuel L. Quezon in 1922 (a) and (b) 1938
The quotes above to my mind reflect the conventional wisdom concerning our civic consciousness. Many thinkers have reflected on this (see some samples: ranging from Jose Rizal, Leon Ma. Guerrero, as well as Alfonso Aluit or Rey Ileto or Mina Roces, Randy David or Mark Thompson), and if you’d like a survey of the different sources I’ve consulted and my own thoughts on the matter, please see my Storify story, The Philippines and Southeast Asia.
Randy David’s recent article, Calidad Humana, brings to mind an article I wrote in 2008 (see The Civic Imperative: A Reflection and its companion blog entry, Holy Week Reflection: The Civic Imperative), on how many debates on public issues will be futile, if there isn’t a corresponding, shared civic sense among those who debate..
http://www.quezon.ph/2006/01/19/the-liberal-identity-1946-2006/ – about the Liberal Party by MLQ3.
He also tweeted this:”2 fundamental differences lasted through 3d republic: LP what we would consider today globalist, NP was protectionist; Another difference dated to 1922 unipersonalist (NP) vs Collectivist split, hence to the end LP was more a consultative party than NP.”