Previously posted on my Facebook Page.
I get stereotyped as “political.” Or all I talk/write about is politics. I am drawn to politics because political facts define how we exist in society. But then my “politics” is mostly a writing activity. Fact is, In person, I am a light, easy dude. I joke a lot, frequently silly, juvenile jokes. When conversations turn into political arguments, I don’t engage. I don’t lecture political activism. In my younger/active years, I “walked” my activism more than I wrote/spoke about it. 👈👅👉
The Junior is the new President of the Philippines. I spent most of my life helping bring down Ferdinand Marcos Sr.'s 20-year dictatorship. I almost died doing so. But the past is the past. I have healed from wounds incurred in those days. These days are for my children, grandchildren, and yours. Optimism in light is pro-active fun; pessimism in the dark is doomsday inertia. But positivity right here, right now—doesn’t mean you’d ignore yesterday’s blood on today’s tracks. 🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭
Student loan forgiveness. Most Asians avoid college loans and just pay up. In case they are broke, they take 3 to 4 jobs and save up (for college). Cultural truth that is widely accepted by my people: A college degree generally boosts an individual's earnings over their lifetime. This: Any broad-based forgiveness would cost billions of dollars. All taxpayers, not just those who have a college degree, would be contributing to the cost of cancellation. Not fair. Just saying. 📚💰📚
What is NFT? “Non-fungible token.” A unique digital identifier that cannot be copied, substituted, or subdivided, that is recorded in a blockchain etc etcetera. Whatever. Critical Race Theory. Sensitivity Editor. Cultural Appropriation. Affirmative Action. And so on and so forth. Academia invent/s these kickass words, terms, and blah when all the world needs is straight-through communication and gut-level messages. Or they just want to force-feed the value of googling? 🤨👉📱
Post-election: Philippines. I sat with a think-tank that ran the presidential bid of (the late) Sen. Raul Roco in late 1990s. We lost to an inebriated clown. I was young, naïve, and idealistically gullible—but I learned through the years. The Marcos family is back. So be it. Campaign/runup to election day is different from leadership performance as is. Pre-proclamation are all “walk” and “talk.” Time to judge the “work,” not forgetting blood on the tracks (of the past). 🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭
Looks like the new President of the Philippines is Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Many are frustrated. But I am easy. My romantic idealism has been superseded by pragmatic cool. If your calling is political activism or Congress lobby? Fiscalize, advocate—in pursuit of socioeconomic change. An accountant, “taho” vendor, or schoolteacher? Don’t stress by hurling murk 24/7. Be a good accountant, “taho” vendor, or schoolteacher. You are serving the people, not the government. 🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭
The bond that connects a child to the mother. Forged right in her womb and carried there for nine long months, then ushered to earth with fresh blood and sweet pain? When the umbilical cord is cut, that streak of tears running down her face as the baby screams the first cry of life. Magic! That is love, that is the world. How am I supposed to experience that? It’s beyond me, beyond my limitations as a man. [--From my essay, “Mother.” Written in 2005, on the day my mom passed away.]❤️👱♀️💖
Happy Mother’s Day to mothers of the world! I mean, moms who gave birth to another life. Not figurative-moms, okay? Otherwise, everybody will claim to be a “mother” as well. And please, lose the drama of “…my mom never loved me” or “…my mom betrayed me the moment she voted Trump!” Everybody has a mother. We ain’t here on earth if mom wasn’t here first. It wasn’t the father who nurtured us within her for nine months and shed blood to give us life. It was Mom! 👶👩💓👱♀️
No brainer. Johnny Depp can be abusive when drunk or drugged. Cliché among the rich and famous. So wife Amber Heard sought divorce in 2016. Ms Heard received a $7 million settlement, which she vowed to donate to an L.A. Children's Hospital and ACLU. But only fraction/s of the donation were given. Anyhow, the court advised Depp and Heard to move on. Amber didn’t. She should have. Now she’s about to lose in a $50 million defamation case filed by Depp. 🎭🎬🎭
Anti-war is the activism ideal that feeds my existence, youth to old age. I was an anti U.S. military bases activist till Clark Air Base and Subic Naval Base left the Philippines in 1991. But I am not anti-military; I am anti-war. Yet I don’t get it that many colleagues who supposedly shared my advocacy now support NATO or militarism per se—mainly due to their partisan politics. For me, whether you call yourself Right or Left, as long as you are anti-war, I am with you. ☮️☮️☮️
