26 September 2013

Foucault and the Warning Against the Fascism in Us


I'm not sure, but I find it hard to read Michel Foucault. I have been more entertained reading essays about him and his work. Foucault loathed the 'love for power', but he was obsessed with the 'love for boys'!

Though I'm not so much a fan of Foucault, I must admit that as a socio-political student and a social media user, a particular note from Foucault has always kept me on my toes, constantly reminding me to be beware of the innate fascism in us. Here, I share, my favourite problematique, reminder, warning, and challenge from Foucault:

[T]he major enemy, the strategic adversary is fascism .... And not only historical fascism, the fascism of Hitler and Mussolini — which was able to mobilize and use the desire of the masses so effectively — but also the fascism in us all, in our heads and in our everyday behavior, the fascism that causes us to love power, to desire the very thing that dominates and exploits us.... 
How does one keep from being fascist, even (especially) when one believes oneself to be a revolutionary militant? How do we rid our speech and our acts, our hearts and our pleasures, of fascism? How do we ferret out the fascism that is ingrained in our behavior? 
... [T]he tracking down of all varieties of fascism, from the enormous ones that surround and crush us to the petty ones that constitute the tyrannical bitterness of our everday lives.

25 September 2013

Framing Reproductive Health Message


Reference to Rappler's commentary 

Wish that Rappler’s Ana P. Santos had simply entitled her essay "The Cost of Child Rearing in the Philippines", instead of this sensational yet scandalous title.

Source: deepbox.com
I do not support the Reproductive Health (RH) Law along this line of reasoning and framing which is somewhat close to the logic of eugenics (specifically, the author's Platonic eugenicist concluding argument that "each and every pregnancy should be wanted and properly planned for"). I support the RH more on the basis of the principles of education, well-being, socio-economic development, and the good life. My political-economic sense is that, in the context of Philippine socio-historical realities, the focus of the struggle must be to create the material conditions (e.g., institutions and policies) necessary for the state and/or society to prevent social problems and prepare for all social needs and challenges, including health-related and societal issues such as unplanned pregnancies and unemployment. In a word, my approach is to target the 'structure of poverty' primarily and not concentrate the solution—or the blame—on the 'psyche of the poor victims'. 

This is just a feedback on the author's way of framing the message. As activists, we should be careful and strategic about the way we communicate, as well as the syntax and diction we use. Even in multicultural countries with good RH practice where I have experienced. living, studying, and working, their knowledge dissemination activities, communication strategy, and information drive on public health concerns are mindful of and sensitive to peoples' sensibilities. We are dealing here with social realities and real-life issues, not merely theoretical abstractions and, as far as I know, there exists no sovereign individual immune from historical-structural constraints. Perhaps the author has to learn from Filipina mothers who have experienced prenatal care, birthing, mothering, and being women in more developed countries where reproductive health — including the perspective towards babies, the challenge of rising teen pregnancies, and women's rights — are not promoted in the way she has framed it in her commentary. 

Is the author a mother, I wonder? If so, there must be something in her personal life and experience that has greatly shaped this particular outlook. If not, I hope that when she becomes a mother/parent she would write again on the same theme. My observation or hypothesis is that, even among feminists, I see a marked difference in worldview between mothers/parents and non-mothers/non-parents.

18 September 2013

MNLF and the Lessons of History: A Struggle for Recognition and Redistribution

Reference to Eric Gutierrez's commentary 

Source: MCW
Eric Gutierrez offers here a very good analysis focusing on Nur Misuari against the background of changing historical and social dynamics. In addition to an analysis of leaders of these rebels such as Misuari, we might as well understand the specificities of the causes of rebellion in Muslim Mindanao in all its complexities and sensitivities. 

Misuari's 'tantrums' is only a symptom — and that the ongoing armed confrontration in Zamboanga City and parts of Basilan as episodic — of the fundamental causes of rebellion with historical, socio-political, and economic-developmental dimensions. Even without the benefit of studying the history of these conflicts, a simple reading of the 1996 GRP-MNLF Final Peace Agreement would already tell us how and where our government institutions and our society as a whole have failed the agreement. A quick visit in Western Mindanao and the ARMM would also help us in our understanding — not to mention that the MNLF, or at least the ideas of their struggle, still has considerable mass base of supporters and sympathizers. Misuari has indeed 'blown it' and so have the administrations from Marcos to Cory to Ramos to Erap to Gloria to PNoy, as well as the former MNLF commanders and leaders who have betrayed their revolutionary idealism and have become co-opted and corrupted by money politics and the perks of being elites themselves in the mainstream plutocratic society. 

If I were to summarize the legitimate clamor and aspirations of the peoples of (Muslim) Mindanao as part of the Philippine state, it's about the struggle for recognition and redistribution. These civil-political rights for recognition and the socio-economic rights for redistribution were the promises of MalacaƱang's Imperial Manila to be accorded to our brethren in the ARMM peripheries. These were the fundamental ideals anchoring the GRP-MNLF Final Peace Agreement and are still the most basic concerns of the current GPH-MILF Framework Agreement negotiations.

It is only when we have learned the 'lessons of history' that we could attain lasting peace and development in Mindanao and the entire Philippine archipelago. Crucial to this learning is the realization of the peoples of Mindanao that the struggles for recognition and redistribution are too important to be entrusted to: the insincere politicians in the government, the war freaks in the military, the corrupt in regional and local governments, the selfish socio-cultural and religious bigots in the communities, and the leaders of armed groups who rhetorically use the plight of the oppressed and marginalized to advance their personalistic and parochial interests in amassing power and wealth. 

Another Mindanao is not only possible; it is also necessary!

14 September 2013

Drones in Conflict Zone Zamboanga City?

GMA News has shown and reported a flying object over the conflict zone in Zamboanga City. If this is indeed a drone, this has to be investigated and opposed by peace advocates and anti-war activists within and outside the government.... 


At least, to me, the investigation and opposition are based on two major grounds: 
  • first, the question of sovereignty (make sure that it is not a US drone flying over Philippine territories); and 
  • second, the point that the resort to military means and the use of modern weapons of war like drones are not solutions to resolving deep-seated conflicts in our society.

Feeling for Zamboanga City, Calling for Peace and Development

I have visited Zamboanga City three times—the last was about a decade ago. It always reminds me of the best seafoods I have ever tasted. This memory I would like to keep with me, as well as my appreciation of its peoples' arts and crafts.

Couldn't take the ugly sights, images, and sounds of war in the news.... Am feeling both sad and angry! 
Source: Reuters

How and why have we become a violent culture? But I believe that the emergence of this culture has deeper historical, political, and economic causes. It is complicated; but when are we going to realize that military actions and senseless violence, as well as PR spins and media psywars, cannot resolve our nation's longstanding conflicts? 

Again and again and again, give peace a chance and take the political governance task of bringing about true socio-economic development seriously.

13 September 2013

On the ASEAN Community 2015 Agenda

in Project Syndicate: A World of Ideas, 13 September 2013

So, FVR is still at it -- an ardent proponent of ASEAN regional integration. Sorry, Mr. ex-President, but this integration project will not succeed by 2015 and, importantly, its neoliberal capitalist ideas for Southeast Asian economies must be opposed. 

I have argued in an article that the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) 2015 project is anti-development and anti-democratization in political-economic and socio-ecological terms at both domestic and regional levels. Here's my article's abstract:
Understanding the ‘AEC’ project appears to be more important now than making prognosis about the ‘2015’ target. The year 2015 is only symbolic, at best, of a much deeper ideology being used by particular sections of the elite class and social forces to advance their specific worldview for the preservation and promotion of their material interests. To complement existing debates, it is thus a worthwhile analytical endeavour to examine the ideas and interests behind the AEC. In doing so, the task is to address the problematique: What does the AEC project mean for socio-economic development and democratization, particularly for the general well-being of the peoples and environment from society to society in the region of Southeast Asia? 
In this paper, I attempt to unpack the AEC Blueprint to reveal the project’s neoliberal capitalist strategy of ‘accumulation by dispossession’ whereby the drive for the acquisition of more wealth and power by the economically wealthy and politically powerful necessitates the deprivation of the peoples’ collective rights and access to the economic, political, social, and ecological commons. I therefore offer a critical reading of the AEC project in the analysis, specifically its agenda for the establishment of a competitive single market, and conclude with some important pointers on forging an alternative regionalism process for Southeast Asia’s development and democratization.
Unfortunately, FVR has to wait until December to read it when the article is published in Germany.

07 September 2013

Classic Basketball

Got casually invited to play street basketball with tall, big international guys -- me wearing jeans, t-shirt, jogging shoes, eyeglasses.... 

Realized signs of aging and the need to do more conditioning exercises: wanting in the stamina, speed, reflexes of youth.... 

Now with body-aches, pulled hamstring, bruise, callus.... In pain; but feeling so refreshed!


Happy that I still managed to do some Samboy Lim-patented shots and moves.... 'Classic basketball' as an African mate called it, haha! ;-)