'A Good Game' in Europe

No. 'A Good Game' is not signing off despite of the recent surveillance conducted on to this site by the US State Department and the World Bank. The site meter of this weblog has noted and recorded the respective visits of these institutions, which I call global panopticon. They must have detected in their powerful search engines the previous post here on 'The Emergent Bush-Wolfowitz Project'. It is nice to be visited by these global surveillance institutions, and to know that 'A Good Game' is serving its purpose as a tool to critically analyse and discuss the dynamics of contemporary global political economy.

The struggle and resistance continue. At the moment, 'A Good Game' is in Copenhagen at the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (NIAS) studying yet another dynamics of resistance: 'Emerging Oppositions to the Liberal-Conservative Malaise in East and Southeast Asia'. Click here for the news. I hope to blog more on this soon.

The Emergent Bush-Wolfowitz Project: From New Imperialism To 'Post-New Imperialism'?

There is an emergent Bush-Wolfowitz Project. The White House has nominated US Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz as next head of the World Bank to replace James Wolfensohn. This development has implications for the rest of the world. Surely, nothing much substantial will change in the global political economy of development as capitalist market-led development shall continue anyway. But the changing of the Bank's leadership may also mean the changing of the strategy in managing the global capitalist system and its contradictions as well as in promoting continued capital accumulation.

In the essay I submitted a few months ago to Professor J. Gabriel Palma of Cambridge University, entitled 'Governing Global Capitalism: The Politics of Ideology and the Economics of Information', I argue that it would be analytically useful to think of the Bank, in partnership with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), as ‘problem-solving institutions’ geared at the management of the general conditions for capitalist accumulation and at resolving the contradictions capitalism induces. ‘Problem-solving’, in this sense, does not adhere to Robert Cox’s narrow conception of a ‘problem-solving’ orientation as the management of the status quo, which appears to be uncritical and unreflective of current realities. This is because, as Paul Cammack rightly points out, ‘there is no moment at which a “problem-solving” orientation aimed at maintaining the status quo is enough. The managers of domestic and local economies need just a “critical” a perspective as their opponents, if by “critical” we understand an analytical perspective which is mindful of complex processes of change, the clashes of interest they provoke, and the need to find innovative responses as new situation arise’. Beyond their own triumphalistic rhetoric, the global managers of globalising capitalism – the Bank and the Fund – are all too aware of capitalism’s contradictions and crises. It is for this reason that globalisation is presented not only as a blueprint for continuing development through the market but also as a project of crisis management.

The Bank and the Fund are not welfare institutions that prioritise distribution function. In reality, they cannot anymore also be viewed as Keynesian institutions prioritising stabilisation function because they have become bastions of neo-liberalism as they call for, if not forces, the restructuring of the world economy, targetting the policies of welfare and developmentalism along the conditions that satisfy capitalist profit. Neither the view that the Bank and the Fund are regulatory institutions – which prioritise regulation function of correcting market failures such as monopoly, negative externalities, and asymmetric information – would be adequate in analytically capturing the complexity of the governance of global capitalism.

There are at least two models of neo-liberalism that have emerged since the early 1980s: the Washington Consensus (1980s - early 1990s) and the post-Washington Consensus (mid-1990s - present). The two models contrast not along the ‘state versus market’ debate as active state involvement in making markets work has always been present in the history of political economy. The contrast lies in their respective strategies and focus in the management of the global capitalist system and the drive for accumulation. The Washington Consensus focused on an ‘open market economy’ through macro-economic structural adjustments in the policies of privatization, deregulation, and liberalization. The post-Washington Consensus, on the other hand, focuses on ‘competitiveness’ through a comprehensive institutionalization of ‘competition cultures’, especially on labour market reforms and the development of ‘human capital’. This post-Washington Consensus is the so-called Wolfensohn-Stiglitz project. Wolfensohn is the outgoing head of the Bank to be replaced by Wolfowitz. Joseph Stiglitz, former chief economist of the Bank, is a nobel prize winner for his 'economics of information' scholarship. This Wolfensohn-Stiglitz project focuses on the use of institutions (including the state), policy coordination, and the ‘information-theoretic approach’ as the strategy pursued by the Bank and all pro-capitalist political forces in the management of global capitalism, in particular the utilisation of non-market responses (that is, not merely setting prices right and the faith in the magic of the invisible hand) to address market imperfections.

The world now awaits for another neo-liberal offensive to be carried out by a military hardliner defender of American interest. My fear is that ‘new imperialism’ may be transformed to what I would call 'post-new imperialism'. New imperialism, as depicted in the process of globalisation, is a unique way of capital to dominate without exercising direct extra-economic power such as the political institutions and the military. Under new imperialism, uneven development does not anymore mean a system of the rich robbing the poor. All that is done is to subject and subordinate the workers and poor countries to capitalist market, and hence in a geography where majority are proletarianised and impoverished, and where both capital and labour are dependent on the market for their survival and self-reproduction. Post-new imperialism may go back to the old, pre-capitalist system of appropriation where capital accumulation is carried out through direct ‘extra-economic’ coercion.

The emergent Bush-Wolfowitz Project is about imposing the imperial hegemony of the US in particular and global capitalism in general through the subjection of everyone to the imperatives of the capitalist market that is sustained by direct extra-economic power of imperial political coercion and military rule. What Wolfowitz and the pro-capitalist forces are about to face is how to protect the interest of American capital in particular vis-a-vis the fastest-growing and strengthening economies of China, the European Union, and East Asia, and how to manage global capitalism in general vis-a-vis the increasing rage of the billions of people in misery around the world.

A Student's Tribute To Ka Dodong

I just watched the on-line video of a tribute to President Francisco Nemenzo (PFN), the outgoing 18th president of the University of the Philippines. It is a tribute by people who have worked with Ka Dodong for over 40 years in the University. Not a single student was however interviewed to share a story how great a teacher Ka Dodong is. As a former student of Ka Dodong, I would therefore like to pay tribute to him as he retires from UP and as he leaves his post as president today, his 70th birthday.

Ka Dodong is perhaps the most influential person to my continued passion for political science. I was his student in Political Science 11 (Introduction to Political Science) in 1998, and in Political Science 190 (Practicum on ‘Citizen Participation in the Legislation Process’ when we lobbied for the passage of the Clean Air Act) the following year. He is the only professor I have given ‘the best’ commendation in the Student Evaluation for Teachers (SET). I cannot imagine myself having this obsession in the discipline of political science had he not been my professor in the introductory course. I learned from him the basics of politics with analytical astuteness and conceptual clarity. It’s really a great achievement having his signature in two of my undergraduate classcards as well as in my diploma. He is a very engaging teacher whose diction is too powerful to behold. He welcomes debates and constructive criticisms. He always succeeds in exciting the students with ideas. And he comes to class well-prepared, always with a computerized lesson plan uniquely crafted for each and every session.

I learned from Ka Dodong the values of critical thinking and intelligent activism, the basics of Marxism and especially the humanism of Marx, the significance of political theory, and the power of the ‘word of mouth’. He made me realize more that my youthful idealism must be guided by wisdom.

I am proud to say I made the right decision of supporting him when he was nominated to be UP president six years ago, leading UP into the 21st century. No regrets at all. I had then several disagreements and even confrontations with fellow activists and students over harsh and unfounded criticisms thrown at him, especially when I supported his administration’s modernization programme and when I co-convened the UP4RGEP in support of the Revitalized General Education Program.

Ka Dodong is a visionary leader who lives up to the principles of democratic governance where people have access to the corridors of power. A few years ago, I learned of the cry of the janitors and personnel in Palma Hall who were being unjustly compensated by their agency. I organized these people, sought the help of Ka Dodong, and without any hesitation Ka Dodong himself found time to meet up with them. After the meeting, these workers told me they were touched by the simple humanism of Ka Dodong who earnestly let them speak up their concerns right in the Office of the President, who sincerely listened to their call for justice, who swiftly acted on their legitimate resentments, and who made them feel as human beings whose work are truly regarded with value.

Yet, far more than his greatness and brilliance as a teacher, Ka Dodong is a very endearing human being who is unconscious of his charisma. I truly appreciate and admire his simple thoughtfulness, humility, and good sense of humour. He finds time to reply to text messages and e-mails of his former students. I was touched when I received a personal, congratulatory text message from Ka Dodong, the UP president himself, just before I marched for my graduation. He is a simple academic who continuous to live a humble and modest life. He does not resort to the outmoded values of clientelistic relations that is still sadly practised by many senior academics.

His sense of humour is also remarkable. A few months ago, he came here in KL to attend the EU-ASEAN Rectors’ Conference. Together with Joe, we welcomed Ka Dodong in the KL International Airport. He was on a backpack. (Yes, the president of the country’s premier university in a backpack! Cool!) After checking-in in his hotel we went out to eat late at night. Ka Dodong does not fancy eating in posh restaurants. He likes eating at the sidewalks, in hawkers’ stalls. We went to Jalan Elor, a busy street of Chinese food hawkers. A Chinese vendor approached us speaking in Chinese, sounded like he was convincing us to eat in his stall. Ka Dodong spoke to him in Tagalog for quite awhile. They had a Chinese-Tagalog conversation. After the conversation, I asked Ka Dodong, ‘Kinausap n’yo po ng Tagalog?’ He replied to me, ‘Oo. Pareho lang iyon. Kahit mag-Ingles ako hindi rin kami magkakaintindihan’. We burst into laughter. Ka Dodong is impressed of ‘street smart’ people. Actually, he is a street smart himself.

To Ka Dodong, thank you so much for everything. Thank you for the learning I got from you and the meaningful moments I shared with you, learning and moments that could last for a lifetime. Thanks for the kind words in your recommendations to me. Thanks for always being supportive of me – for supporting my successful flagship project, the ‘Political Discussion Series’ when I was Representative of the Department of Political Science to the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy Student Council; for attending the Anniversary Night of the UP Samahan sa Agham Pampulitika (UP SAPUL) when I was its Chair; for supporting the Department of Political Science Debating Team when I was its coach during the Centennial of the Silliman University; and for keeping your lines open to all my social and personal concerns and advocacies.

A few days before I left for KL on September 2004 to pursue my graduate studies, I visited Ka Dodong in his office to thank him for everything, and to wish him well in his future endeavours. I know that he is looking forward to this day when he can now spend more time reading, writing, travelling, and sharing precious moments with his beloved family and friends. Yet, I think that he deserves to be professor emeritus, and he should be, so that many more students will enjoy a truly wonderful and inspiring learning experience with him in a classroom – and even in a cyber classroom – from time to time.

In solidarity, I join the people gathering today paying tribute to Ka Dodong at the Abelardo Hall, University of the Philippines Diliman Campus in singing ‘The Internationale’:

Arise ye workers from your slumbers
Arise ye prisoners of want
For reason in revolt now thunders
And at last ends the age of cant.
Away with all your superstitions
Servile masses arise, arise
We'll change henceforth the old tradition
And spurn the dust to win the prize.

So comrades, come rally
And the last fight let us face
The Internationale unites the human race.
So comrades, come rally
And the last fight let us face
The Internationale unites the human race.

No more deluded by reaction
On tyrants only we'll make war
The soldiers too will take strike action
They'll break ranks and fight no more
And if those cannibals keep trying
To sacrifice us to their pride
They soon shall hear the bullets flying
We'll shoot the generals on our own side.

No saviour from on high delivers
No faith have we in prince or peer
Our own right hand the chains must shiver
Chains of hatred, greed and fear
E'er the thieves will out with their booty
And give to all a happier lot.
Each at the forge must do their duty
And we'll strike while the iron is hot.

I know that Ka Dodong does not want to be reminded of his birthday. But people like me whose lives he has dearly touched love to be reminded of one of our lives’ most valuable moments – the birth of a truly good human being, Francisco Nemenzo. Happy Birthday, Ka Dodong! Maraming salamat! Mabuhay ka!

Another Philippine Society Is Possible

The method of dialectical reasoning is perhaps the most neglected, yet very useful, revolutionary ideological tool of our time. It starts from the proposition that everything changes, except the necessity for change; and that a theory about social change must therefore change with changing times. What Marx wrote over a century ago still holds true today: 'the present society is no solid crystal, but an organism capable of change, and constantly engaged in the process of change'.

Over a month ago, I posted here 'The Nightmare of the Philippine Left: The History of All Dead Generations' as a wake-up call to the Philippine Left, especially to the dominant Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), that suffers not only from the living, but from the dead generations. It is so sad to think that alongside the modern evils of globalising capitalism and increasing elitism in the Philippines, the Left and the people it hopes to liberate are oppressed by the whole series of inherited evils, arising from the endurance of outmoded forms of struggle and thinking. While the CPP continues to bully and threat the groups and individuals it tags as 'counter-revolutionaries', the forces of capital are celebrating their orgies and the political elites having a laugh, and the masses in deep misery.

It is pathetic that the ongoing debate within the Philippine Left has become a discourse that could somehow signify a sense of 'insecurity' among progressive forces -- that is, 'who are the real agents of change?' A statement of concern on the threat of violence in the resolution of political difference has just been issued by the global civil society, World Social Forum (WSF), to which I am in solidarity with:

The last few years have seen a very large number of diverse groups and organisations coming together in spite of their differences to confront neo-liberal globalisation. However, we are deeply concerned that there are still some groups in the world today that attempt to deal with political differences using physical attacks and death threats. A recent example of this is the situation which has emerged in the Philippines where a number of individual intellectuals, activists (Walden Bello and Lidy Nacpil) and organisations engaged in various forms of struggle against militarism and globalised capitalism have been listed by the international department of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) as 'counter-revolutionary' and as 'agents of imperialism'. Some individuals named on this list have already been assassinated and, based on past experiences, this list constitutes a credible threat of assassination.

Therefore, those of us gathered here in the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil and others in the world, inspired by the pluralism and inclusiveness of this global process, believe that when the security of activists is at stake we cannot act as if the problem is a local one. In our efforts to consistently build an international movement for fundamental transformation we strongly reiterate that the resolving of political differences must be done through the struggle of ideas and democratic dialogue and not through the politics of individual assassination.

We call on everyone within the global justice movements to re-assert this principle and express solidarity with all those who are victims of such threats.

This statement has been signed by respected left intellectuals and activists around the world such as Alex Callinicos, Leo Panitch, Naomi Klein, Susan George, and Tariq Ali.

I could imagine the CPP labeling the WSF as another international 'counter-revolutionary' (reactionary) movement. This thinking is plain and simple dogmatism. Wake up, CPP! The world has changed! The WSF may not have the blueprint for a utopian alternative world order, but we must be united in the essential common task of resisting the inhumanity of capitalist globalisation. Mao may have been right to say that 'political power grows out of the barrel of a gun', if and only if political power is understood as coercion, fear, and terror. In the long run, however, it is ideas which are more powerful than guns. Guns may kill people. But ideas can only be killed by a better and an overwhelming one.

While I am aware of the objective and necessity of armed struggle, the CPP however has the history of using its arms a la criminals. An armed struggle, I believe, must be guided by this dictum: 'Peacefully if we can, violently if we must'. Indeed, another Philippine society is possible as much as another world is possible; but this could only be realized through a passionate struggle of organized and unified progressive movements that are founded on the principles of humanism, justice, and democracy.

Reminders For The New Year

It’s been exactly a week now since we entered the new year with renewed promises and resolutions to ourselves. Yet, for some of us there’s nothing new in the new year, but only the continuation and perpetuation of old, vicious habits. There are some however who are determined to live up to a renewed commitment to liberate the inner self from boring and unproductive routine. I admire those people who have this discipline. As the saying goes, ‘before you conquer the future, you must first be able to conquer yourself’. What is the way out then of outmoded habits and repressive routines? Since nobody has the right to compel the way we are supposed to live our lives, it is perhaps helpful to be ‘reminded’ of some of life’s important lessons from people we admire - from our parents, family, friends, and teachers - aside from our own personal learning. Reminders have liberating force. They are aids to free us from our habitual incarceration from debilitating routines. Hence, I would like here to share these very inspiring ‘Fifteen Reminders’ from my comrade and former professor in sociology, Randy David - who, I think, is celebrating his birthday today. I have already heard most of these thoughtful reminders from him in our class in the Sociology of Post-Modernity three years ago and in his various writings and speaking engagements over the years. I learned from Ka Randy the sensibility of balancing the quest for personal perfection and the commitment to social solidarity.

1. Though our lives may be limited by circumstances not chosen by us, we nevertheless make choices all the time. Doing nothing, letting events dictate our lives, is also a choice. Be mindful of the choices you make. Do not abandon your actions; answer for them.
2. It is necessary to look after our selves. Try to look good always so you don't add to the world's gloominess. But do not forget that you also have a duty to live well with others. Give cheer, offer solidarity. Never be the cause of another person's humiliation.
3. Take care of your body, listen to its needs. It works in powerful ways, but it is not infinite in its capacities.
4. We each have our goals, big and small. Our goals are a mirror of our values. Always be conscious of what your goals are, and what it takes to achieve them. Do not hesitate to review and revise them by going back to the context that gave rise to them.
5. Living is essentially problem-solving. The solutions that work are often formulated from new ways of looking and describing. Observe how others look at life. Read and expand your moral vocabulary. Re-describe your life.
6. To understand a thing, science says, is to measure it against a standard. It is also to comprehend the context from which it sprang, and to know its uses. But remember: not everything is worth knowing.
7. Everyone has values. We acquire these in the course of our lives. Make sure your values serve you well; treat them as your "personal defense and necessity." Once you've settled on your values, live by them relentlessly.
8. The main purpose of living is to turn yourself into a beautiful and strong human being, a worthy link in the chain of generations. Each one of us is given a chance to be an artist: our selves are our first raw material.
9. Too often we become the slave of habit. Take time to pause and be silent, so that you can hear the voice of the inner self that may be struggling to free itself from mindless and debilitating routine.
10. There is no sure-fire formula for achieving anything. Armed with knowledge, you may also draw strength from having a lot of hope.
11. Live without resentment and guilt.
12. Love unconditionally and without expectation.
13. Be mindful of the world around you, and learn from Nature.
14. See clearly and act with grace.
15. Face each day with cheer.

May these reminders perpetually refresh our consciousness each and every day. And may this new year ushers in a much more caring world for all of us. Happy New Year everyone!

Closing 2004, Closing A Cycle, Moving On

In a few hours time, we are bidding goodbye to 2004. New year's resolutions are again made. Even the ‘creatures of habit’ are resolved to reinvent themselves. Self-reinvention however is constrained by habits, which are the accumulation of practices that have become integral into our human system. The society or environment in which we find ourselves in also poses constraints in this process of self-reinvention.

I do not believe that habits determine actions and predispositions of an individual. I believe that people – in this case, adults – are capable of self-reinvention. People learn how to learn. Habits are in fact the subject and object of self-reinvention. Habits constrain, but not uniquely determine, individual predisposition.

Overcoming old habits, and hence accustoming ourselves to new ones, is not an easy task. This would involve forgetting and realization – forgetting some of the past that are better forgotten which are necessary for us to enjoy life more, and the internalization of a consciousness (a deeper personal realization) to ‘move on’.

Apparently, I have the consciousness about the possibility of self-reinvention. But I still find it difficult to forget some of the regretful past. Perhaps I am not yet conscious at all; I am just cognizant of it. There is therefore a need to elevate this cognition into the level of a consciousness, in which realization is deeply internalized into my system. Likewise, forgetting is too difficult for sentimentalist people like me. Was it Nietzsche who wrote about the sensibility that individuals become sad because they have memory? To a greater extent, I think he is right. Memory, especially bad ones, just makes us sad. (Meanwhile, I’m reminded of one of the lines in Pablo Neruda’s famous poem on love – ‘Love is so short; forgetting is so long’.) But as we forget and leave in the past those finished moments, learning must be permanent and must be integrated in our self-reinvention.

To friends who are having reflections at the moment and who are resolving to reinvent themselves for the coming 2005, it would be fitting to reflect on this beautiful text by Paulo Coelho entitled ‘Closing Cycles’:

One always has to know when a stage comes to an end.

If we insist on staying longer than the necessary time, we lose the happiness and the meaning of the other stages we have to go through. Closing cycles, shutting doors, ending chapters – whatever name we give it, what matters is to leave in the past the moments of life that have finished.

Did you lose your job? Has a loving relationship come to an end? Did you leave your parents’ house? Gone to live abroad? Has a long-lasting friendship ended all of a sudden?

You can spend a long time wondering why this has happened. You can tell yourself you won’t take another step until you find out why certain things that were so important and so solid in your life have turned into dust, just like that.

But such an attitude will be awfully stressing for everyone involved: your parents, your husband or wife, your friends, your children, your sister, everyone will be finishing chapters, turning over new leaves, getting on with life, and they will all feel bad seeing you at a standstill.

None of us can be in the present and the past at the same time, not even when we try to understand the things that happen to us. What has passed will not return: we cannot for ever be children, late adolescents, sons that feel guilt or rancor towards our parents, lovers who day and night relive an affair with someone who has gone away and has not the least intention of coming back.

Things pass, and the best we can do is to let them really go away.

That is why it is so important (however painful it may be!) to destroy souvenirs, move, give lots of things away to orphanages, sell or donate the books you have at home. Everything in this visible world is a manifestation of the invisible world, of what is going on in our hearts – and getting rid of certain memories also means making some room for other memories to take their place.

Let things go. Release them. Detach yourself from them. Nobody plays this life with marked cards, so sometimes we win and sometimes we lose. Do not expect anything in return, do not expect your efforts to be appreciated, your genius to be discovered, your love to be understood. Stop turning on your emotional television to watch the same program over and over again, the one that shows how much you suffered from a certain loss: that is only poisoning you, nothing else.

Nothing is more dangerous than not accepting love relationships that are broken off, work that is promised but there is no starting date, decisions that are always put off waiting for the “ideal moment.” Before a new chapter is begun, the old one has to be finished: tell yourself that what has passed will never come back. Remember that there was a time when you could live without that thing or that person – nothing is irreplaceable, a habit is not a need. This may sound so obvious, it may even be difficult, but it is very important.

Closing cycles. Not because of pride, incapacity or arrogance, but simply because that no longer fits your life. Shut the door, change the record, clean the house, shake off the dust.

Stop being who you were, and change into who you are.

And so, I must stop being who I was. I must recover myself from alienation. I must ‘move on’ - so basic in life, yet too easily forgotten; so common, yet too easily neglected. I’m closing 2004, closing a cycle, and moving on.

The Nightmare Of The Philippine Left: The History Of All Dead Generations

As Asia experienced the massive underwater earthquake yesterday, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) – the longest running armed guerrilla ‘revolutionary’ movement in Asia guided under the ideologies of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism – marked the 36th anniversary of its re-establishment. But the Party needs the kind of jolt that hit Asia yesterday to wake it up from complacency and the nightmare of the past.

In its anniversary statement, the Central Committee of the CPP calls on its force to ‘avail of the worsening crisis of the world capitalist system and the domestic ruling system of big compradors and landlords’ as well as to ‘intensify the guerrilla offensives to advance the new democratic revolution’. Read the statement released yesterday (December 26) here. But how can the Party exploit the crisis and contradictions of the world capitalist system if it is burdened with its own crises and contradictions?

On 7 December, the Party released a diagram entitled ‘Kaugnayan ng mga Kontrarebolusyonaryong grupo sa mga Trotskyista at Sosyal-Demokrata’ (‘Connections of the Counter-revolutionary Groups with the Trotskyites and Social Democrats’), showing the connections with various Trotskyites factions abroad of several ‘pseudo-revolutionary petty bourgeois grouplets in the Philippines’. These groups include the party list Akbayan, the socialist organization Bukluran sa Ikauunlad ng Sosyalistang Isip at Gawa (BISIG), and the democratic think-tank Institute for Popular Democracy (IPD), among others. Several key personalities in the Philippine social movements are also named ‘counter-revolutionaries’ including my former professor Walden Bello and Akbayan Representative Etta Rosales. Bello is a respected scholar in the Philippine academe and a recipient of the ‘alternative nobel prize’ for his advocacy against neo-liberal, corporate-driven globalization. In my work in the Philippine House of Representatives in the 12th Congress, Rosales is regarded as the most esteemed and credible progressive, left legislator in the chamber. Click here to see said diagram.

The Party, being the only left movement in the Philippines that has the monopoly of the use of force with the New People’s Army (NPA) as its armed wing, is historically notorious for subjecting to assassination those people it labels as ‘pseudo-revolutionaries’ or ‘counter-revolutionaries’. Just recently, two former leaders who have defected the Party, Romulo Kintanar and Arturo Tabara, have been punished to death. Read a statement on this issue from the founder of the Party himself, Jose Maria Sison, here.

The CPP has its gloomy and horrible past. In the early 1990s, it was on a ‘state of war’ - comrades killing one another. It was a tragic moment for the Philippine Left, leading to its division between those who re-affirm the Marxism-Leninism-Maoism ideology of struggle and those who reject it. Several progressive social movements have also emerged.

While it is true that the world capitalist system is, as ever, in crisis as well as the ruling domestic class in the Philippines, the Philippine Left is also in crisis. As the capitalist social structure limits - but not uniquely determines - the social formation and the social struggle; the kind of social struggle we could advance ultimately depends on the kind of social formation we have. At the moment, the progressive social formation in the Philippines is beleaguered with conflicts among one another, and with crises of their respective institutional and ideological capacities. Hence, the prospects are dim for a social struggle that could transform both the capitalist social structure and the capitalist-dominated social formation into a truly democratic, socialist one. Antonio Gramsci aptly puts it, ‘the old is dying, but the new cannot be born’.

The Central Committee of the CPP asserts in their anniversary statement - ‘As always, we pay our highest respects to our revolutionary martyrs and heroes who have made the supreme sacrifice in the service of the people’. Let the Communist Party of the Philippines be guided then with the true revolutionary ideals of Marx, Lenin, Mao, and Che – who are among the revolutionary martyrs and heroes to whom the Party pays its highest respects. It must save itself from further alienation, and from suffering what Mao calls as the ‘contradictions of the onions’ (that is, people who are red in the surface but counter-revolutionary inside). Most often, progressive movements become alienated because they have forgotten the cause and objective of their very existence. It is then necessary to remind the Party of the ideals of the revolution.

Mao and Lenin have preached the ideals of ‘democracy’. Mao once said ‘let a hundred flowers bloom; and a hundred schools of thought contend’. Lenin reminded the people that nobody has the monopoly of ideas. This is what is to be a revolutionary – someone who upholds the democratic ideals of free articulation and thought. Too, Che Guevarra, one of the greatest romantic guerrilla revolutionary leaders in history, reminded the people in one of his letters to his children that the heart of a true revolutionary is one that is able to feel deeply any injustice committed against anyone in this world.

When will the CPP ever learn? While the state and capital continue to celebrate their orgies, the Party is still traumatized with the nightmare of the depressive past of the Stalin-Trotsky conflict, the rectifiable errors of Stalin, Mao, the Soviet Union, and other revolutionary personalities in history, and the failures of the Party itself. In the Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, Marx wrote about the dialectics between agency and structure in the making of history, which could also be said in the case of the Communist Party of the Philippines in particular and the Philippine Left in general:

People make history, but they do not make it just as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves; but under circumstances directly encountered, given and transmitted from the past. The history of all the dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living.

Let this reminder of Marx serve as a learning to be lived with by all revolutionaries. To the extent that the radical potentials of all exploited groups are coordinated at the domestic, regional, and global levels in advancing unified struggle against the undemocratic neo-liberal system, a truly democratic change could be realized. Hence, without a credible, humane, democratic, and unified counter-hegemonic force, the progressive movement cannot sustain the revolutionary momentum and become a force for structural change.

Absurdity Of The Most Powerful Earthquake: From A Traumatic Society

Yesterday morning Southeast Asia (specifically Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and Burma), Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, Maldives, and Somalia experienced one of the most powerful earthquakes in history with a magnitude of 9.0 in the Richter Scale. As of this posting, more than 12,000 people have been reported dead, many are still missing. This is the first time I have learned of an earthquake being experienced across countries – a real natural disaster regional in scope.

In view of the fact that this earthquake is the strongest in 40 years, this is the most powerful earthquake I have felt since my existence. Living in the 16th floor of an 18-storey building here in Malaysia, the tremor felt in the country was truly nerve-wracking. You could feel the building swaying. I was still sleeping when the earthquake happened. The tremor woke me up. Initially, I thought I was just dizzy. Knowing that Malaysia is not within the ring of fire, I even doubted the engineering of our building as I was reminded of the building that collapsed in Divisoria, Manila due to poor and corrupt construction about five months ago. But this thinking could be absurd as Malaysia is reputable in being stringent in building infrastructures (I am however not undermining the issue of corruption also prevalent in the country). Now I realize that this dubious thought was a by-product of my Philippine upbringing.

I used to think of the Philippines as a stressful nation. But now, I have realized it is also a traumatic society – with its street crimes, its inefficient infrastructures built on corruption, and its natural disasters aggravated by man-made disastrous egoism.

Meanwhile, my deepest sympathy goes to the bereaved families and nations of those who have untimely died. I am in solidarity with them in calling for a much more cooperative, humane and caring world especially at this moment of natural crisis.

First Christmas Away From Home: Some Reflections

I love Christmas. It is actually part of my values. Today is my first Christmas away from home, especially away from my dear family and close friends, and from lovely kids (especially from my godchildren) for whom I enjoy preparing presents.

For 24 consecutive years since my birth, I have been accustomed to the lively atmosphere of Christmas season in the month of December. When it comes to celebrating Christmas, there is really no place like the Philippines. I’m trying to get over with the culture shock of observing the Christmas season in a non-Christian society. Now, I wonder how many more Christmases in the future I’ll be spending away from home.

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Last week, I was in Singapore with two Filipino friends. At Orchard Road, on our last night in the city, I was teary-eyed watching kids and teens on one of the stages along the road singing Christmas songs. It just hit me that I miss Christmas in the Philippines. But I know that I also share this sentiment with millions of Filipinos around the world missing their families back home. It is sad to think of the contradictions and the seeming inhumanity in this reality. Overseas Filipino Workers send money to families in the Philippines to be able to ‘materially’ enjoy the celebration of the season. But we all know that the psychological and social pains in this contradictory relationship are just sealed and concealed. It also reduces the ideal of the ‘family’ into mere money-relations.

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For regulation theorists of political economy, Christmas season is one of the modes of regulation that contributes to the stability of the regime of accumulation in the capitalist system. The season calls for consumerism – that is, for people to consume in proportion to what is produced. There is a tendency towards overproduction in this system of unregulated production. For capitalism to be stable, production and consumption must be in equilibrium, and class conflict must be regulated. This would involve increasing the purchasing power of the people. For advanced economies like Singapore in Southeast Asia, for instance, the system tends to be stable because of the high purchasing power of the workers. In the case of the Philippines, the billions of pesos of remittances sent by the over eight million OFWs during the Christmas season somehow contribute to the stability of the system. The remittances prop up the purchasing power of their beneficiaries. But of course, this structure is not without contradictions; it is still precarious and susceptible to class conflict between rich and poor especially in a plutocratic society such as the Philippines.

Studying Christmas as a cultural norm – a mode of regulation – within the general system of capitalism, is indeed one interesting intellectual endeavor for students of political economy. Another equally interesting endeavor would be to study the strategies of capital in appropriating surplus from culture in general and from cultural differentiation in particular. For example, capital has ways of extracting surplus from the observation of people on cultural holidays such as the Christmas of Christians and the Hari Raya of Muslims, in which practices of these occasions may vary in some ways from society to society within the capitalist geography, and hence promoting the principle of market choice.

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Yesterday, I sent Christmas e-cards to family and friends saying in general: ‘Merry Christmas Greetings from KL! This is my first time to spend Christmas away from home. It's sad. But it's not sad at all. Christmas is not about me anyway. It's about God. (",) My Christmas wishes for you are success, peace, happiness, love, good health, and more blessings. MARY Christmas!’.

Indeed, there is a need to bring ‘Christ’ back in Christmas because there is a terrible hunger for love in this uncaring world. Merry Christmas everyone!

Pursuing My Personal Legend

Three months ago I ‘physically’ left my hometown, resigned from my relatively distinguished post in our office, and bid goodbye to my dear family and close friends. I said to myself I must miss my hometown, family, and friends so that I may not miss other wonderful opportunities and beautiful things the world is offering for young dreamers like me. Indeed, I have to go; I also have to pursue my ‘personal legend’. Life is, after all, about letting go and letting God.

Leaving the Philippines, a country that could be characterized as a sentimentalist ‘society of families’, is truly heartfelt. Yet, I hope that the teardrops of my loved ones were tears of joy. I would like to share with them this beautiful Prologue from Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist:

The Alchemist picked up a book that someone in
the caravan had brought. Leafing through the pages,
he found a story about Narcissus.

The alchemist knew the legend of Narcissus, a youth
who daily knelt beside a lake to contemplate his own beauty.
He was so fascinated by himself that, one morning, he fell
into the lake and drowned. At the spot where he fell, a flower
was born, which was called the narcissus.

But this was not how the author of the book ended the
story.

He said that when Narcissus died, the Goddesses of the
Forest appeared and found the lake, which had been fresh
water, transformed into a lake of salty tears.
"Why do you weep?" the Goddesses asked.
"I weep for Narcissus," the lake replied.
"Ah, it is no surprise that you weep for Narcissus," they
said, "for though we always pursued him in the forest, you
alone could contemplate his beauty close at hand."
"But..... was Narcissus beautiful?" the lake asked.
"Who better than you to know that?" the Goddesses said
in wonder, "After all, it was by your banks that he knelt each
day to contemplate himself!!"

The lake was silent for some time.

Finally it said:
"I weep for Narcissus, but I never noticed that Narcissus
was beautiful. I weep because, each time he knelt beside my
banks, I could see, in the depths of his eyes, my own beauty
reflected."

"What a lovely story," the alchemist thought.

As I’m giving a good game in pursuit of my personal legend, I do hope that my family and friends – people dearest to my heart whose existence are truly part of my nurturing – could see in the depths of my eyes, my heart, and my spirit their own beauty reflected.

Starting 'A Good Game'

And now I'm starting 'A Good Game' - a reflection of my thoughts and sentiments as I play a good game to the the greatest game of all, LIFE.

'A Good Game' is for someone and for some purpose. In this Game, there are neither winners nor losers, only learners. It is hoped to be a game of learners of politics and the social sciences in particular and of life in general. In a word, 'A Good Game' is dedicated for learners and for learning.

As reflections from me and from ka-blogistas are posted on 'timeless time' at this 'spaceless space', 'A Good Game' comes into being. Looking forward to a challenging good game with ka-blogistas that will stay with us all our lives, let 'A Good Game' begin....