27 August 2011

Politicians are like diapers....

Reference to the Al Jazeera news report here:
Japan's prime minister announces resignation - Asia-Pacific - Al Jazeera English

This is like Japan changes its PM every year. 

As it's said: politicians are like diapers; they have to be changed regularly! (From my favourite Mark Twain: “Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason.”

Thus, I look forward to the September 15 elections in Denmark. I believe the left coalition will win this time and get back to government after a decade of right-wing disaster. But I'm much more keen on seeing how much votes/seats the right-wing will still get because it'll give us an idea how much more people we need to reach out: to challenge institutionalized racism in Europe and elsewhere that breeds monsters like Breivik; and to reassert the humanity of the ethos of egalitarianism, socialism, welfare, and solidarity.

16 August 2011

Taga UP Diliman ka kung ...



Taga UP Diliman ka kung ...





  • habang buhay mong saulado ang 'student number' mo;
  • at alam mo ang mga salita, lugar, o termino na: 

'Form 5', 'enlistment', 'enlist', 'prerog', 'sit-in', 'class card', 'blue book', 'AS', 'AS 101', 'toki', 'ikot', 'FC', 'SC', 'Sunken', 'lagoon', 'MainLib', 'tambayan', 'org', 'ka-org', 'orgmate', 'block', 'blockmate', 'block handler', 'transferee', 'make-up', 'prelims', 'midterms', 'finals', 'proctor', 'SA', 'Kule', 'isko', 'iska', 'iskolar ng bayan', 'Diliman Republic', 'Tsanselor', 'CSSP', 'CAL', 'Eng', 'Econ', 'Educ', 'Malcolm', 'FA', 'Vinzons', 'PublicAd', 'NCPAG', 'PH', 'HK', 'HE', 'SOLAIR', 'ISSI', 'CSWCD', 'TWSC', 'CS', 'NIGS', 'Asian Center', 'PCED', 'CBA', 'post office', 'lobby', 'landing', 'Reg', 'PNB', 'Infirmary', 'Hardin', 'tibak', 'PolSci', 'Psych', 'Kas', 'Philo', 'Socio', 'Anthro', 'Oval', 'Oble', 'Freshie', 'Frosh', 'graduating', 'USC', 'Peyups', 'Vanguard', 'frat', 'fratman', 'brod', 'rumble', 'soro', 'sis', 'SAMASA', 'Shopping Center', 'Bahay ng Alumni', 'Balay', 'Alumni Center', 'Parish', 'Pool', 'Arcade', 'Krus na Ligas', 'Dagohoy', 'Ricarte', 'Daang Tubo', 'UP IS', 'Math Building', 'checkpoint', 'CP Garcia', 'Philcoa', 'Pantranco', 'Katips', 'Film Center', 'UP Theater', 'Carillon', 'PH', 'AIT', 'PSSC', 'arboretum', 'MBB', 'CASAA', 'CS', 'US', 'LOA', 'AWOL', 'MRR', 'UPCAT', 'LAE', 'cognate', 'SocSci 2', 'NatSci I/II', 'PI 100', 'CRS', 'SR', 'STFAP', 'bracket', 'uno-1.25-1.5-1.75-dos-2.25-2.5-2.75-tres', 'kuatro', 'removals', 'singko', 'retake', 'sample exam', 'isaw', 'Kalayaan', 'Narra', 'Sampa', 'Sanggumay', 'Molave', 'Ilang', 'Yakal', 'Ipil', 'Kamia', 'IC', 'dormer', 'coop', 'Fair', 'Lantern Parade', 'Oblation Run', 'Vargas', 'Quezon Hall', 'Recto Hall', 'parking lot', 'University Av.', 'Balara', 'Central', 'Sarah's', 'Mang Jimmy's', 'Silungan', 'Rodic's', 'Likha Diwa', 'Chateau Verde', 'CK', 'Beach House', 'LB', 'isawan', 'Aristocart', 'fish ball', 'Mang Larry', 'Mang Max', 'Zorro', 'Live Aids', 'Elvis', 'Pep Squad', 'maroons', 'taho', 'balot', 'chicharon', 'lumpia', 'monay', 'ice cream', 'manggang hilaw', 'turon', 'banana kyu'....

Hehe, and it has been a little over 10 years since graduation! Thanks for the gifts of learning and nostalgia! Iba talaga ang UP! :D

10 August 2011

London Riots: It's not a protest against capitalism, but a manifestation of 'it'



Sorry to some hard core friends in the left, but judging by the scale and effect of the London riots now, I call these idiots 'lumpens' in the real Marxist term. It's not a protest against capitalism or neoliberalism. To me, it's a manifestation of the dark side of capitalism and neoliberalism that real forces for social change must likewise condemn and oppose.


Revolutions, uprisings, and insurrections inspire and encourage people to join the struggle, rather than frighten and harass ordinary community people and workers. At times, looting is necessary out of hunger or cold (just like this seagull), but looting based on capitalistic consumerist mindset to get luxury goods and gadgets is never justified.



Stop acting like organic intellectuals to these lumpen thugs! And let's continue questioning, critiquing, and attacking the real enemy: the system that perpetuates the sacrifice of human beings and nature to profit!

06 August 2011

On 'Active Citizenship'


Below is a facebook comment I made on a friend's (AM) essay entitled 
"Active Citizenship as Remedy to National Crisis: Some Sketch Notes"

Some random (academic) notes here.

First, I take a cue from your title, which supposedly encapsulates your message, theme, or point. Two concepts should have been well-defined in your discussion: 'active citizenship' and 'national crisis'. I'm afraid that I have not fully grasped what you really mean by 'active citizenship' and what is the 'national crisis' being referred to.

Also, I have uneasiness with the term 'remedy', which to me has a 'palliative' connotation (as I understand it, progressives as much as possible must try to unpack, or to address, the root cause of a problem). 

Second, I think I cannot provide a conceptual framework for 'active citizenship' without linking it to 'democracy' (and thus its synonymous: 'socialism') and without critiquing 'capitalism' and 'elitism' (which replaced active to 'passive citizenship' in the political sphere, and which required active producers but excluded them from the fruits of their own labour in the economic sphere).

Third, since your text has not made explicit the linkage of the concept of 'active citizenship' with democracy, socialism, elitism, and capitalism, you have linked it with, or come up with, terms that do not seem 'progressive' to me (sorry, an unavoidable phrase) — 'empowerment', 'answer to old socialist thought', 'individual freedom', and 'empowered consumer'.

Fourth, to elaborate on this....

[a] Active citizenship is essential to — but not synonymous with — the struggle for democratization and the ideals of democracy (which is not simply empowerment).

[b] Active citizenship is encouraged and necessary for the realization of socialism (reclaim the original signification of socialism and democracy without anymore referring to that 'old socialist thought' of the NDs on democratic centralism).

Laging sabi ni Ka Dodong noon sa BISIG, ang tunay na pagbabago ay magmumula sa mulat na mamamayan.

[c] Active citizenship is the antidote to passive citizenship, which the system of elite rule has created. Elitism entails the depoliticization of the citizens by reducing substantive ideals of popular power into procedural/formal/electoral democracy. Walden Bello calls this 'elite democracy', a regime of elite rule that has been restored by the EDSA System. Walden refers to this as the 'permanent crisis' (which may be similar to your idea of 'national crisis') and he problematizes how and why every attempt at economic and social change failed under the EDSA System.

I think there are two recent books that can guide or help substantiate your discussion on active citizenship and social crisis — both written by Akbayan intellectuals: Walden and his Focus associates (2004 [2009]) - The Anti-Development State: The Political Economy of Permanent Crisis in the Philippines; and Nathan Quimpo (2008) - Contested Democracy and the Left in the Philippines After Marcos

Walden provides a very good discussion of the historical installation of institutions and system of 'passive citizenship'. He pretty much addresses your problematique, arguing that the political economy of permanent crisis in the Philippines delineates an EDSA System of 'elite democracy' (i.e., formal/procedural/electoral institutions for elite rule and elite legitimacy) coupled with an 'anti-development state' (i.e., weak state captured by the private sector). While Walden traces the institutionalization of 'passive citizenship' (under a pre-1930 American mode of governance for a colonial and postcolonial state), Nathan focuses on 'active citizenship', highlighting a 'democracy from below', with social movements and civil society intensifying the contested nature of democracy in the country.

You may also want to look at Joel's (Rocamora et al.) concept of 'low intensity democracy' in the early 1990s.

[d] Active citizens are not merely 'empowered consumers' in the marketplace of capitalism, but active in the sphere of production, as workers who are not simply 'empowered' but with 'active power' to govern and control the workplace and their own lives. Here, active citizenship is associated with particular 'class' power (not just 'identity') — that is, strength, power, or rule by 'the people'; particularly, for and from the point of view of the workers, the poor, the vulnerable, and the marginalized.

Fifth, maybe we can also question the suitability of the concept of 'individual freedom' with that of progressive 'active citizenship'. In your text, you criticized neoliberalism, but the idea of individual freedom reminds us of the same language used by the most zealous proponents of (neo)liberalism, namely, F. Hayek and Milton Friedman.

Yes, we have to take seriously the gains of 'liberal democracy' on civil liberties, rights against state and non-state abuses, checks against arbitrary power. After all, socialists and progressives have been a crucial part of these major victories and struggles. But there have been mechanisms within the elitist and capitalist system that encourage passive citizenship — as Walden ('elite democracy'), Ka Dodong ('plutocracy') et al. have long been arguing. 

Imagine the contradiction: a provision for the protection of rights against the guaranteed powers of others (especially the propertied class and the political elites). For instance, the reason why the likes of the Marcoses, Estradas, Ampatuans, and soon the Arroyos remain powerful despite prosecution or conviction is because our justice system only deprives them of 'civil and political rights', but not their economic rights and wealth which, in turn, can easily regenerate political power.

Instead of 'individual freedom', my sense is that 'active citizenship' means self-government, or self-governance. That is to say, the power to govern ourselves has to do with our day-to-day lives. For example, the 'Right to the City' campaign that we are developing at IPD-AEPF is about people having power over the creation and management of the community or space we live in, reclaiming it from the control of market forces or real estate developers in cahoots with city officials, or at least making those who govern accountable to the governed. 

And finally, 'active citizenship' encompasses the entire society, from the workplace to the state, at both the polity and the economy. The enactment of the Freedom of Information bill must be a priority in the assertion of active citizenship and in democratizing the polity.

Under conditions of neoliberalism, the economy is being depoliticized and made immune from public scrutiny. From Marcos to PNoy, the technocrats have monopolized development plans and economic decision-making, while progressives have never been part of the government's economic team — progressives are always appointed to agencies (especially NAPC and at some point TESDA) with the mandate to face and deal with the 'poor' but without equipping them/us the institutions, power, resources, and positions to effectively address 'poverty'. 

04 August 2011

On the Floating Car Incident...


On the floating car incident.... There are countless opinions coming from different perspectives; but it boils down to 'value judgement' (i.e., one's personal values).

From a 'development' and 'economics' perspective, the driver has a point. Modernity so requires 'information', but the way people insist on (survival) 'instinct' is telling of the social progress we are now in. Unfortunately, the driver was not in a society where public authorities take responsibility of informing tax-paying citizens about risks and hazards in public spaces in real time.

From a 'sociology' perspective, the online comments suggest of a class conflict, particularly the loudest voices who loathe what they perceive to be an 'arrogant' behaviour. I just hope that we do not become the kind of people who need the energy that comes from hating, insulting, or making fun of someone intensely in order to keep going.

As for me, I choose to remember the unnamed people who came to help for they remind me of the true Filipino values of bayanihan, pagdamay, at pakikipagkapwa-tao — values that our nation misses so much, so dearly.