mongster's nest

- disturbing fantasies, traumatic verses, definitely mongrel thoughts

R

Links: Khmer Humer. Indonesia’s Battle of Aru Sea. Reflections on Indonesia’s Independence Day. Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej is the world's richest royal.

China milk scandal and Southeast Asia, a post written for Global Voices. Read the French, Bangla and Chinese translations. The New York Times links to the post. New pictures in my webshots album.


My name is Raymond, maybe most of you already know that. I was named after St. Raymond Nonnatus, of course you didn’t know that. But this post is not about me. What I want to highlight is the use of political terms which start with the letter R. This is a year of Big Rs – recession, reproductive health, renewable energy, and don’t forget – revolution. But let me mention other acronyms first.

RA – Reaffirmists. Back in college, activists were either reaffirmists or rejectionists. Those who supported/reaffirmed the basic principles of the national democratic revolution (with a socialist perspective) were known as reaffirmists. And those who rejected the left’s rectification movement were called rejectionists, or revisionists. This acronym is no longer often used in mainstream media. RA activists are simply referred to as natdem or ND activists.

RB – Rafael Baylosis. UP student leader during the First Quarter Storm. Together with other honor students (there were only 25 cum laude graduates in UP in 1970), RB participated in a protest action during their graduation rites with placards exhorting students to “Serve the People” and denouncing “American Cultural Aggression.” RB is still an activist.

RC – Renato Constantino. Nationalist historian.

RE – Renewable Energy. Thanks to climate change/global warming and rising oil/gas prices, RE is now a special concern of many individuals and institutions. There is a pending RE bill in Congress. Everybody is supporting it, even the oil companies. Most RE advocates are sincere but opportunist politicians and discredited leaders are joining the crusade. Beware.

RH – Reproductive Health. RE is popular; RH is controversial. Many politicians are secretly supporting the RH measure in Congress. But the Catholic Church is opposing the RH bill. What is the Church’s argument: RH is abortion. Maternal health is abortion. Adolescent reproductive health is abortion. Infant care is abortion. Sex education is abortion. And according to them, the Philippines is not overpopulated. And another unbelievable claim: 90 million Filipinos can survive/thrive in Bohol island.

RJ – Refer to RA

RM – Ramon Magsaysay. Former president of the Republic of the Philippines. Man of the masses or CIA agent?

RN – Registered Nurse. Nursing is the most popular college degree in the Philippines. But there is a shortage of qualified health workers in the country. Why? Majority of Filipino RNs are working abroad.

RO – ROTC or Reserve Officers Training Corp. My generation succeeded in the long campaign to remove the dreaded ROTC program as compulsory subject for college students, at least in the private schools. ROTC was replaced by the National Service Training Program. As usual, the military wants to bring back the ROTC program in colleges and universities.

RP – Republic of the Philippines.

RVAT – Reformed Value Added Tax. It’s similar to the bailout program of America. Save the economy by robbing the poor and giving the money to the rich. Spend small amount of money on high profile projects, name the program ‘Katas ng VAT’, while pocket the rest of the booty. Clever.

RX – Cost of prescription drugs in the Philippines is one of the most expensive in the world. Bawal magkasakit – kulang ang duktor, mahal ang gamot, may melamine pa ang gatas. Generics Law is impressive (Australia copied it) but ineffective.

3Rs – Reading, writing, arithmetic for basic education skills. Reduce, reuse, recycle to save the environment. Replace, reduce, refine for the ethical use of animals in scientific procedures.

Big Rs

Reform – The favorite campaign slogan of US presidentiables: change. Change Washington. Change Wall Street. Reform health care. Reform immigration policies. Rhetoric?

Recession – Economists disagree that the US economy is under recession. They do not believe there is an ongoing global recession. They like to call it credit crunch. But the indicators are very obvious: unemployment figures, inflation rates, foreclosure cases, bank losses. What more is needed to convince the eternal optimists that something is terribly wrong with capitalism?

(John Mangun of Businessmirror is angry. “Don’t confuse things,” he reminds the left and the media. He insists the bailout package of the US Federal government is not really a bailout. According to him, the precise term which we should use is “economic rescue plan.” But John is wrong. First, it is not the left and the media which proposed the name of the bailout package. Blame the US Treasury for the wrong choice of term. Second, “economic rescue plan” sounds like a bailout. When is a bailout a bailout? Remember the military general who reprimanded a reporter for describing a US army attack as bombing. The general said, “Don’t call it bombing, it’s air support.” Don’t call it bailout, it’s an economic rescue plan.)

Revolution – The big-R in America is recession. Americans fear a repeat of the 1930 Great Depression. As much as possible, American politicians and economists will deny the existence of a recession. In the Philippines, the word recession does not provoke intense fear among Filipinos. Recession is not a heavy political/economic term in the country. Maybe because “recession” is an everyday reality for many Filipinos.

The big-R in Philippine politics is revolution. By revolution, I mean the real revolution ha. (Not the ampaw revolution of glamorous housebuilders). I’m referring to leftist mass movements and the armed struggles of communist and separatist rebels. Government apologists will deny the quiet but growing advances of revolutionary movements. They will lie to the people about the real strength of the revolutionists. Those who are afraid to lose their comfortable status in society will ridicule the potential of the revolution. Mention the word revolution and it will spark comments from ideologues, pseudo progressives and blind followers of the ruling order about the irrelevance of the left and its purported crimes against humanity.

In America, politicians often lie about the existence of recession. In the Philippines, reactionary forces are convincing themselves that the left is already a spent force.

Related entries:

Go green, go red.
Brain drain in the health sector
UP student council
Don’t get high on drugs
VAT and Arroyo
In other words

posted by: mongpalatino at October 11, 2008 11:33 | link | comments (4) |
nation

Comments:

#1  11 October 2008 - 14:20

 

very nice blog, This milk situation is very scary for us and our babies

Anonymous

#2  16 October 2008 - 01:41

 

I like what you wrote about "Revolution" and the recession, which I think is now or is fast becoming a depression. This particularly resonates with me--

"As much as possible, American politicians and economists will deny the existence of a recession," and how US government denies the strength of true left social movements-- no, not the Obama campaign-- but grassroots, bottom-up movements with actual potential to cause real, lasting change. The democratic party is nicknamed by socialists, "The graveyard for progressive social movements," because it always covertly finds a way to usurp these movements and greatly tone them down, usually by giving a progressive leader or two a seat at their table and pushing propaganda like, "You can't vote for _____ (name of any 3rd party candidate), because it's too important that _____ (name of any Republican candidate) does not win!" Most liberals and even some further-left progressives fall for this and rather than spending their time on true social movements such as health care for all, anti-war, no death penalty, or green, end up spending their time trying to get Democrats elected. I am for grassroots, social movements, educating people about how we are exploited and how things like health care, housing, and food are human rights, and that a truly democratic socialist system is possible. Thanks for your blog!

-Vanessa

Anonymous

#3  16 October 2008 - 08:00

 

This is john mangun.

you miss my point completely. a "bailout" would imply 1) saving these companies and banks. 2) a panacea for the problem. these companies are far from saved and it is not a cure
regards

Anonymous

#4  24 December 2008 - 12:23

 

dude you are an idiot. you dont know shit. you are a disgrace

Anonymous

Comments: