This entry was all brought to mind by my postponing with several a-bloating entries still in draft form, and taking time off to read article by Lei Feng in the Asia Sentinel, China’s Disasters by the Number:
Like the US post-9/11 and my fellow office workers, many of China’s Netizens have been trying to find meaning in what it is being called the worst year in the country’s history – though none mention the famines in the late ’50s or the Cultural Revolution years.
There were the crippling snowstorms of January, unrest in Tibet followed by what is widely perceived here as international insult and humiliation heaped on the “sacred flame” of the Olympic torch while it made its journey outside the Middle Kingdom. A horrific train crash came next and now the earthquake the Internet is abuzz with material that is familiar in its own way to Americans who have pondered the coincidences of the John Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln assassinations (“Lincoln had a secretary named Kennedy, Kennedy had a secretary named Lincoln; both had vice presidents from southern states named Johnson…”).
It is also reminiscent of the weird idea that a Nostradamus couplet foretold the attack on the Twin Towers, or that the word “Satan” could be seen in the smoke that rose above the collapsed building on 9/11.
In China, it’s about numbers: add up the dates of the snowstorm (1-25), the Tibet riots (3-14) and the earthquake (5-12) individually and you get “8” normally an unusually auspicious number and the reason the Olympics will kick off on 8-8-08 (and why it costs significantly more to get a phone number with multiple 8’s).
The five tooth-achingly cute cartoon character Olympic mascots called ” — I think of them as exotic, colorful Smurfs are also now seen by some to be harbingers of China’s recent miseries. Representing a fish, panda, swallow, Tibetan antelope and the Olympic flame, those seeking coincidence see the panda as an earthquake warning, since the ravaged area is also home to China’s endangered giant panda; the Tibetan antelope well, you can figure that out; ditto for the Olympic flame; the swallow is seen as emblematic for the “kite city” of Weifang in Shandong province where China experienced a deadly train crash last month.
The remaining one is a fish symbol, representing water, which online doomsayers suggest could indicate pending horror in the Yangtze River.
Some Taiwanese TV stations are also blaming the feng shui of Beijing’s massive new “Bird Nest” Olympic stadium, saying it has “interrupted the pulse” of a giant dragon said to lie beneath the country.
When Franklin D. Roosevelt died, Josef Goebbels whipped out an astrological chart and confidently informed Hitler that the tide had finally turned in favor of the Third Reich. Nancy Reagan consulted astrologers. Aguinaldo supposedly had a potent anting-anting, Time Magazine reported in 1944 that Quezon was somehow convinced he would never die in the daytime (he died in the morning) and of course Ferdinand Marcos adorned his room with mystical pentagrams and had a great faith in the significance of the number seven. President Arroyo has had the presidential palace exorcised several times, she consults mystical nuns (one independence day celebration involved little flags adorned with some sort of slogan being dropped from a helicopter, apparently upon the prophetic exhortation of one such nun), while Feng Shui principles are applied to the layout of the Palace and so forth. Former Speaker de Venecia decided to support the last impeachment because he was receiving letters dictated by his dead daughter from beyond the grave. And Romulo Neri, apparently, does nothing without consulting the I Ching.
If, as Randy David says, the real crisis confronting our country is what he calls A Crisis of Modernity, then you have to despair of a political class that determines its political actions not according to a pragmatic cost-benefit analysis or anything else, but according to omens and other efforts at divination. Not least because this prevents any real, rational, analysis of political events and trends. Or then again, if numerology and divination helps us cope with an increasingly complex world, maybe it’s no big deal?
Karl, i think the British East India Company (a trading outfit which was outsourced by the British Empire to manage its India colony) was cutting costs which is why they used beef intestine and pig lard (or vice-versa) for manufacturing the gun powder casings. They thought they can get away by not telling the native soldiers.
BTW, the movie was very entertaining (and educational) and the musical numbers fitted well into the story line, and were well choreographed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4NSZGoQY0M&feature=related
OMG!
Did someone just mention that terrorist General Black Jack Pershing!
He killed the native american indians and killed lots of filipinos!
That man is a disgrace!
CVJ,
Ty for the info and the link!
On Blackjack Pershing and the 49-plus-1 Muslim terrorists:
Bummer: Black Jack Pershing Vs Muslims – Its an Urban Legend
http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/archive.cgi/noframes/read/90763
Now there is a slight chance the website that the story is untrue may be counter-propaganda. 😐
Like when FITNA came out and within 3 days, dozens of other links appeared in Youtube or that other video-clip-web-site with FITNA. Clicking on the links, though, pointed you to lectures on or counter-claims about #####.
Not sites about Mother Teresa nor Fidel Castro…. it appears the only websites with “the truth, nothing but the truth” out there in the web are those about Rocky Balboa. 😛
Point of clarification: The story about 49+1 and General Pershing may be urban legend. But the website provided by TongueTwisted apparently is a WikiLeak by someone who obtained lecture-material written by a US Marine interrogator.
The interrogator’s statement : My interrogation technique is quite simple. I follow General Pershing’s example and order a pig to be slaughtered near the prisoner. The blood of the animal run’s freely toward the prisoner’s feet. He will immediately lift his knees to avoid making contact with it. I fill a syringe with the pig’s blood and threaten to inject him in the arm. The prisoner will talk — and quickly.
Fair? Depends on your perspective. Effective? Extremely.
He also said this about torture:
Fallacy #3. Torture as a means of interrogation is generally not accepted throughout the world.
In point of fact, within the last three years, more than three-quarters of all countries in the world have practiced torture as a means of interrogation. This applies to their own citizens, as well as foreigners, whether combatants or not.
I hazard to guess that the Abu Sayyaf, MILF, MNLF and NPA are torture-practitioners, too.
Nash, at least Pershing is an equal opportunity murderer. In the History Channel, i watched a World War I documentary where the soldiers under his command were still ordered to attack on the morning of the last day of the war. Everyone knew that an Armistice had been signed previously which will take effect at 11 am on that day.
cvj: Here is a website talking about the US Congress inquiry into wasted lives, the last hours of WW I, the french Marshall Foch and what military men think of ceasefires.
http://www.historynet.com/world-war-i-wasted-lives-on-armistice-day.htm
Read at your peril — may contain half-lies, half-truths and propaganda.
Pershing didn’t put an end to the spate of violence in the Moro Province despite alleged use of pork to deal with so-called Islamic “terrorists.” His victory over the Moros at the Bud Bagsak battle in June 1913 didn’t even deter the Moros. When he bowed out of office as governor of that province later that year, he proclaimed that Moroland was already secured from the threats posed by juramentados, those suicidal fighters who would go on a rampage killing Christians and Americans until they themselves got killed in the process.
Such was not the case. The violence in Moroland continued until shortly before the grant of Commonwealth status in 1935. This is well documented by many reports. Francis Burton Harrison’s diary (then adviser to Manuel L. Quezon) partly testifies to this fact. (See MLQ3’s reference). Also, Vic Hurley wrote more elaborately on Moroland after Pershing left, but never mentioned such atrocity associated with use of pigs against Moros. In fact, he valorized the Moros as fighters, not as terrorists: “As fighting men, they take first rank in the pages of martial history.†(http://www.bakbakan.com/swishkb.html)
UPnS is probably right. Accounts on Pershing’s exploits using porcine matter to terrorize those juramentados may be more urban legend than truth. His biographer, Dr. Frank Vandiver, also denied it.
Exploits like Pershing’s are thought to be apocryphal since they have not been captured in photos (as in the Abu Ghraib torture) or in tapes (as in the “Hello, Garci” tapes).
Moreover, in the case of the Garci tapes, GMA partisans also urge that what has been memorialized remains “legally doubtful” for lack of “proper authentication.”
not merely “doubtful”, abe. like it or not, the alleged tapes (regardless of authenticity) are simply not “evidence”. any speculation based on that is still a speculation. we’ve gone through this can of worms before. when are you going to think like a law professor that i think your are? partisan or not, let’s not be intellectually irresponsible trying to fool the laymen in this blog.
i shudder to think how many “historical accounts” exist that are nothing but tall tales, fictional romanticism, partisan interpretation, or half-truths based on defective information. history, as it transpires in real time, is always written by the victors. the vanquished almost never get to tell their stories in a believable way because, in most cases, they have no proof.
Abe,
Considering the technology at that time was very poor(primitive photography, no tape recorder, and of course, the first airplane was invented in 1905), it’s hard to capture events like those. But then, there were US writers and servicemen, many of whom didn’t respect or like Pershing. They could have used his “unacceptable military tactics” as cannon fodder to demolish his integrity. Moroland history tells us that Pershing rose to the rank of General over the shoulders of some 80 promotable officers before he assumed the post as governor of Moro Province in 1909.
Pershing’s own files in the archives of Washington, D.C. and other libraries also didn’t give a hint that he maltreated (or “tortured”), or ordered his Moro captives to be killed. He admitted, however, that he’d rather shoot them as long as they were firing back or hacking Americans with their krises. In his memoirs, he detested American officers who played rough with Moros in a fair fight. While he regarded Moros as “savages” (like the American Indians that he fought), he fought them fairly according to established rules of engagement. He was non-partisan compared to those brutal officers in Moroland and Iraq. As a testimony, he earned the admiration of many Moro leaders (Amai Manabilang, Datu Grande, Datu Piang, Arolas Tulawie, Sultan Kiram, etc.) who, after being conquered, would rather submit and defer to American authorities than follow Christian leaders like Quezon and Osmena.
Now, those GMA partisans are entirely different. They never have an iota of professionalism and objectivity. The Garci tapes are genuine despite those questions (due to editing) hurled by her lapdogs about authenticity and legality. Those who come from Garci country would not have any doubt that Garci was the operator of GMA’s cheating machine in the Muslim areas of Mindanao. Sadly, many Muslim officials sided with or condoned cheating rather than promoted fairness and justice. That’s a far cry during Pershing’s time in Mindanao, when the Moros would rather not cooperate with the Christian leaders in Manila. Or would only do so as a matter of palabas.
The Filipino public, though, seem to be more concerned with personal safety and is willing to strengthen the powers of the state against criminals and terrorists. One of the latest laws passed — Human Security Act 2007 — while the Anti-Torture Bill has been in discussion as far back as 2004.
The Filipino culture is a supportive environment for torture — a large proportion of the Filipino public is approving 😐 when a pickpocket is pinag-babatukan or even kicked and punched by the police and police-trustees inside the jail.
The Asian Human Rights Commission bewails the lack of a Philippine law criminalizing torture. As the AHRC cites lack of leadership by GMA and the Philippine congress, AHRC also notes that the legal community is at fault (Filipino lawyers argue the Constitution already prohibits torture even when they know the Constitution is toothless without “…an enabling law that defines torture as a criminal act and provides adequate remedies.â€Â}
The AHRC notes — the tacit support for torture is also endemic not only among lawmakers and lawyers “.. but also the public.â€Â
People’s “understanding of torture is so flawed,†the AHRC said, “that torture has subconsciously become an acceptable practice, a normal part of criminal investigations. Brutality and cruelty in police stations and military camps? Any person suspected of committing a crime, in many Filipinos’ view, deserve to be abused,†the AHRC said. “As a result of this attitude, the basic foundation of criminal justice — the presumption of innocence — is diluted and becomes irrelevant.”
————————–
Stupid AHRC — must be the British legal background or whatever. It is just wordsmithing if AHRC think it can present a connection with willigness to discard the presumption of innocence with supportive of torture 👿 .
“The Filipino culture is a supportive environment for torture ”
Sad but true.
Our kuyog mentality,pag may sumigaw ng manghihipo, o mandurukot.
Kahit di naman nakita makikigulpi sila.
well madami din naman dedma na walang pakialam.
On GMA that we have discussed the can of worms a million times over. The positive side is acknowledging that these are indeed can of worms .
Pero it seems that acknowledging is nothing;pagpalagay natin si Glria ang humirit nito:… sige na, me kinausap akong taga comelec anong masama dun,nag sorry na ako?
O sige na kinausap ko na ang nga taga zte, anong masama,kailangan pa bang maging state visit para mangimbita ng investors?
I agree that most stuff maybe tall tales,half truths even those written in history books,autobiographies,the heck I could even imagine someone writing that the president never apologized and the president never made an unofficial state visit to counter claims of other writers who writes the opposite.
Saw the link cvj,
Parang gumamit ng sebo de macho ang mga dancers.
Going back to that independence war in india;
here is what’s according to wikipedia, regarded by many as reliable,with about the same number of people who thinks it is not as reliable as it claim to be.
“The final spark was provided by the controversy over the new Pattern 1853 Enfield Rifle. To load the new rifle, the sepoys had to bite the cartridge open. It was believed that the paper cartridges that were standard issue with the rifle were greased with lard (pork fat) which was regarded as unclean by Muslims, or tallow (beef fat), regarded as sacred to Hindus.[15]. East India Company officers first became aware of the impending trouble over the cartridges in January, when they received reports of an altercation between a high-caste sepoy and a low-caste labourer at Dum Dum.[16] The labourer had taunted the sepoy that by biting the cartridge, he had himself lost caste, although at this time the Dum-Dum arsenal had not actually started to produce the new round, nor had a single practice shot fired.[17] On January 27 Colonel Richard Birch (the Military Secretary) ordered that all cartridges issued from depots were to be free from grease, and that Sepoys could grease them themselves using whatever mixture ‘they may prefer’.[18] This however, merely caused many Sepoys to be convinced that the rumours were true and that their fears were justified.
”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Rebellion_of_1857
Karl, yeah whether rumor or not, the soldiers believed it enough to rebel. In the wikipedia entry on Mangal Panday, it also explains that:
…which goes back to my original point (at May 23rd, 2008, 12:31 pm) that we have to be careful and engage in such a way that will not offend religious and community sensibilities that will fuel further conflict among fellow Filipinos.
cvj,
well said.
KG,
Going by the same logic someone here said, I suppose we shouldn’t believe that that rebellion was caused by, of all things, fat, unless there are evidences to prove it.
Further, why don’t we throw away the Bible and all those history books? Life is real easy, isn’t it? For once, we should think like lawyers.
But how sensitive?
Frontpage magazine has an article:
Outlawing the PIG by Janet Levy:
http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=B4D7EA5D-074C-4D34-AB04-71E9354504CB
“The practice of political correctness may soon be tallying another casualty: the pig. Increasingly, as America and the rest of the Western world continue accommodating Muslim religious demands, pork food products are being singled out for removal from dining tables and pig-related trinkets banished from the desks of office workers.
If this continues, good ol’ American food, such as barbeque replete with hot dogs and ribs and the typical American breakfast of eggs, bacon and sausage, might be seen as the equivalent of political poison. Could outright censorship of pig depictions in drawings, pig references in literary works and pig portrayals in movies be far behind? Could the well-known, cartoon figure Porky Pig become a cultural embarrassment of our unenlightened past as we fear to utter the “P†word?”
“Further, why don’t we throw away the Bible and all those history books? Life is real easy, isn’t it? For once, we should think like lawyers.
”
That would make life MUCH MUCH easier!
Hay,Naku We should live in Bizzaro I mean Benign0 world ,were everything is so simple!
Bencard, I could no more fool the laymen in this blog who can do their own vetting of the many exchanges here about the Garci tapes can of worms than I could the millions of Filipinos who have formed their own judgment upon actually hearing their president from a recorded phone conversation asking Garci to pad the presidential election results so that she would win by a million votes.
Is Sabrina Harman’s photo with her thumbs-up and smile over a dead Abu Ghraib detainee in body bag speculation based on speculation? Or that too tells us of another can of worms?
Hawaiianguy, all of history has been illegitimate, the saying goes. Even Hitler has alluded to the genocide of the native Indians by the Americans to justify his massacre of the Jews.
where everything is so simple,I mean.
sa dinami dami ng mga errors ko, tama na muna ang ikorek ko ang isa.
there you go again, abe. your ears were just hearing too much of something that wasn’t there. it was like a mirage that comes out of desperation for a “smoking gun”. you can keep trying but i assure you, the result will never be different.
Karl, reminds me of my late colleague in Malaysia who quipped that the movie ‘Babe’ was only 15 minutes from start to ending when it was shown in their local theaters.
The author may be correct in her observations but to single out the Muslims reflects more on her prejudice. We go back to the postmodern concept of the ‘Other’ brought up by Hawaiianguy above.
For a view of what Mohatma Gandhi had achieved for India and Muslim-Hindu relations, click here:
The Guiding Path of Gandhi
by V. Sundaram
http://www.boloji.com/analysis2/0164.htm
This item may be in store for Mindanao.
http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=197&page=22
Cvj,
Sorry to hear about your late colleague.
Yah, singling out muslims is preejudicial.
The author did mention the jews, but only to support her bias against the muslims.
maiba tayo tungkol sa pagworship ng mga non muslim sa saudi,etc.
Come to think of it,siguro tinotolerate na ng mga muslims ang discrete practice of the non muslimns to worship.
Imposible naman na di nila alam ang mga ginagawa ng mga ofws natin,na tinelivize pa yata at prinint pa yata sa dyaryo na gumagawa sila ng paraan para mag misa at any innovative way para magdasal.
mlq3, do you know for a fact when and where this land-grabbing by christians from muslims happened? because i’m a mindanaoan and what i know is that it’s not safe to buy a piece of land from a muslim. there’s a risk some descendant or relative will claim back the land for the simple reason they didn’t give their approval. that’s true even if you’re a muslim yourself. a christian grabbing a piece of land from a muslim is calling for disaster.
KG, erap was applauded here in mindanao for attacking the milf
UPn, i see you also have soulmates in India. If that kind of tribal attitude has a significant presence over there, no wonder Gandhi was shot.
Karl, if that’s the case then its good to hear. The type of Islam (Wahhabism) practiced in Saudi Arabia is more conservative than in other places. When i was in Malaysia, i could go to mass anytime if i wanted to.
“KG, erap was applauded here in mindanao for attacking the milf”
OK,how cam I argue against first hand knowledge,but has the milf’s strength anyhow diminished?
“Karl, if that’s the case then its good to hear. The type of Islam (Wahhabism) practiced in Saudi Arabia is more conservative than in other places. When i was in Malaysia, i could go to mass anytime if i wanted to.”
Maybe they are still conservative,just wshful thinking that they are no longer that conservative,considering the stories I hear about how creative the pinoys in hearing mass.
kg, like what supremo said, the mindanao problem will not go away. the peace process is just a cottage industry so they have something to do while recovering strength. what else is there to do after having been beaten? the government only needs to project superior arms and all will be well.
Ok mindanaoan,got you.
“the government only needs to project superior arms and all will be well.”
What brand of projector will they use?
Is there any crystal ball which says we will be all chinese in 3 generations?
Joke only Mindanaoan.
I got lots of relatives there in Mindanao from my mother’s side (in Davao);Misa ang surname nila .kaya importante din sa akin kung anong nagyayari sa Mindanao.
I just wish all will be well in Mindanao.
kg, Liesegang DV900! hehehe. mindanao is much better now than two decades ago
Funny thing you have mentioned two decades. It has been almost two decades since my last visit.
Nice brand btw. hehe
cvj: I thought M. Gandhi was shot by a Muslim?
I don’t know what you picked up from those 2 articles I linked to about India, but it seems the message about Gandhi is that he ultimately betrayed the country, that he misread the thinking of the Muslim leaders he allied himself with:
and that M. Gandhi practiced political deception.
But as usual, one has to beware propaganda, misguided souls, appeasement and treachery.
My mistake. Wikipedia (which writes of Gandhi more glowingly than the 2 articles I pointed to) says the assassin, Nathuram Godse, was a Hindu radical with links to the extremist Hindu Mahasabha, who held Gandhi responsible for weakening India
I never knew this, but Mohatma Gandhi had several “names” especially during his last years (and even in today’s India), to include “Father of Pakistan”.
Click here for a description of the mindset of the Hindu assasin:
http://www.rediff.com/news/2001/jan/30arvind.htm
which included this:
It was not by the Muslim citizenry of India of his time until they were goaded and “inspired”… it was by political leaders (of the Muslim League). Mohatma Gandhi may simply have been not bright enough and not tactically-adept enough. Even Gandhi, in the months before his death, was feeling despondent and depressed that his “non-violence” principles were failing to bring India the goals that he – Gandhi — had desired for it. There was no way for Gandhi to not have known the bloodbaths — citizens against citizens.
Gandhi was against partitioning, but the principle of “unintended consequences” overtook him; appeasing the Muslim League proved a mistake for Gandhi. Gandhi, too, probably was among who said “We’ve been had!!!!”.
And cvj…. do you believe that there are Gandhi-like non-violence practitioners among the current leadership of the “Mindanao separatist movement” ? Do you believe that the Mindanao residents (even just the 18% who are Muslims) want to be governed by the separatists?
UPn, the Satyagraha of Gandhi does not assume that the adversary also subscribes to non-violence. It’s similar to Jesus Christ’s turn the other cheek philosophy which so-called Christians seem to have forgotten.
I think the role of moderates on both sides is to make sure the war freaks on their own side don’t takeover the agenda. Yes, i believe that there are peacemakers on both sides. If you take a systemic viewpoint, as i do, the real struggle is not between ‘Christians’ and ‘Muslims’ but between the Peacemakers and the War Party of both sides. George W. Bush and Bin Laden are actually allies since war serves both their agenda.
The last thing i want to see is for the Philippines to be another Yugoslavia (or Rwanda).
peacemaking should not be confused with appeasement. the former only works when both opposing parties are willing to give up demands that are declared non-negotiable. the latter seldom ever works, if at all, and often leads to a shooting war because the “appeased” is never satisfied, and the “appeaser” sends a wrong signal of being weak or a pushover.
judging by the declared intentions of the muslim leadership in mindanao, i doubt the dispute will ever be settled by other than a decisive armed conflict similar to the u.s. civil war between the union forces and the confederates. of course, the politico-religious separatists will never vow to complete defeat just like the palestinians against the israelis and will continually wage a protracted, even endless warfare, as long as dying for their cause is regarded by them as a ticket to “paradise”.
“. . .the moro leaders had at times preferred the american to the christian filipino side: support for the americans was strong in muslim mindanao even when christian areas went through an initial period of ambiguity because of the abandonement of bataan and corregidor.” – mlq3
Mahilig sa “imported†ang mga kapatid natin na Muslim. Ayaw ng lokal. Pilipino pa rin sila.
Kidding aside, even on their ancestry, prominent Filipino-Muslim families trace their lineage back to foreign shores, whether to Arabia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, peninsular Malaysia or Borneo. The most noble are those who can link their families to the Prophet Muhammad.
The importance of “tarsilasâ€Â, literally meaning “name-chainâ€Â, or written genealogy, illustrates the importance Filipino Muslims entrust to lineage. And the Filipino-Muslim nobility always trace their ancestry to Middle Eastern or South Asian forebears, preferably extending all the way to the Prophet Muhammad.
For example, among the Maguindanao bangsamoro, nobility is linked to their apical ancestor, Sarip Kabungsuwan. According to the tarsilas, Sarip Kabungsuwan was the son of Jusul Asikin, the daughter of the Sultan of Johore, and Sarip Ali Zain-ul Abiden from Mecca. Thus, Kabungsuwan was the offspring of a princess of the Melaka royal family and, more significantly, the son of an Arab sharif (the original Arabic form of “Sarip”), and hence a direct descendent of the Prophet Muhammad.
The tarsilas relate how Kabungsuwan arrived by chance at the mouth of the Pulangi River in Cotabato and began to convert local chieftains and their followers to Islam. He married the daughters of some of these chieftains, thus establishing in Mindanao a barabangsa, or royal lineage, whose members claimed a sacred genealogy, tracing their origins to the Prophet Muhammad.
Among the Tausugs, the founder of the Sulu Sultanate, Hashim Abubakar, was the son of a princess of Johore and an Arab sharif who traces his ancestry to Muhammad.
It must be noted that much of the Filipino-Muslim elite, true to the self-perpetuating instincts of the upper classes, collaborated with Spanish and American colonizers in order to preserve their privileged status.
I learnt a lot Jude,et al!
On all out war.
For me an all out war is not a solution.
The reason we would not know the armory of MILF plus the others. We not know how much the JI has suppiled them,even others like ordinary arms dealers and gun runners including our AFP.
I am not mocking my dad’s modernization program for the AFP, because it is not his fault kaya di ito matuloy tuloy at iba ang nangyari. I am against all out war and I said that it was the civilian/lawyer dnd personnel who convinced Erap of the all out war,but I would not really know if I am giving ERAP too much credit for that all out war. I am speaking for myself against all out war.Erap’s war was not even allout, it was just throwing out the MILf out of their strong hold, they did not touch the Abus,konti lang sila bakit di pa inubos.Don’t blame our geography for that.
sa ngayon,our navy can’t even outrun the pirates, our special forces like SWAG can be outsmarted or out intelled.
I just did not want to argue with mindanaoan,one to sawa ;but we can not just simply project that we have more arms.
I may have to agree that what happens in today’s peace talks are trying to make everybody happy,which is appeasement in every sense of the word.
What do we do, ask the americans to Visit us forever?
Sa mga news tuwang tuwa na mga taga Basilan at taga sulu tuwing darating sila.Now Palawan is next,is that the projection of strength mindananoan is talking about?
Having them here for so long even made us fool ourselves that we can do without them. all out war? come on!
KG, i don’t know who’s arguing for all-out war. the milf has around 10,000 to 13,000 ragtag fighters, too small to fight the afp. like what erap did, they’re easy to crush. it’s only for show, to have some leverage to negotiate.
I have to apologize Mindanaoan,but it is more on this comment below,which was not from you(which come to think of it has a point).
“judging by the declared intentions of the muslim leadership in mindanao, i doubt the dispute will ever be settled by other than a decisive armed conflict similar to the u.s. civil war between the union forces and the confederates. of course, the politico-religious separatists will never vow to complete defeat just like the palestinians against the israelis and will continually wage a protracted, even endless warfare, as long as dying for their cause is regarded by them as a ticket to “paradiseâ€Â.
I am not even saying this comment is out of touch,because it is not.
But thanks for the clarification,anyway.
Sorry for giving the impression of argument,mindanaoan.Nalimutan ko ihand break,temporary foot break lang ang nagawa ko.