Achieving Happiness

There are so many things to
be said about being cold, and the body’s need to be warm.

 Time seems to stretch much
longer than usual when you’re freezing, and the body’s understanding of itself
and how it functions goes a little haywire: there’s an inbuilt mechanism in our
biology and physiology that fights off the drop in external temperature; but
the struggle is bitter and is never equal. The climate almost always wins, and
we can only try to add more artificial layers to our bodies to make sure that
they continue working and not break down from the disappearance of heat.

 Heat is such a luxury here.
If heat could be bottled, we would all be rushing to buy them. The sun is my
best friend here, and every time it disappears behinds the clouds, a kind of
depression sets in.

It is cold here in Hong Kong,
but early this morning I marched with the Philippine delegation of protestors
led by the ILPS and Bayan from Victoria Park down to the Wan Chai harbor front
– the closest that we could get to the HK Convention Center where the WTO
Conference is being held. I’m bundled in two shirts, a sweater and a jacket,
but I still couldn’t stop shivering. My lips are cracked, the skin on my palms
is peeling in ugly patches,   my face has turned blue and pink in turns –
like some fruit that couldn’t make its mind if it was ripe or nearly rotting;
and worst of all, I have dandruff. My scalp is a desert of dryness, all
moisture gone.

 It is freezing here in Hong
Kong, but there is a message that must be delivered at all cost, and to suffer
a little discomfort  is nothing compared
to the duty of speaking out to the public – to the people here in Hong Kong and
to rest of the world why the WTO must be opposed and why it must be defeated.
All of us are clad in various jackets and sweaters, but most don’t have
mittens. The cold cuts the air, and attacks our exposed hands and ears and
faces like so many tiny knives, and you wonder afterwards that there aren’t any
wounds where you felt the knives cut and slash.

Still we raise our fists and
march down the streets of this busy city and fight against the current of cold
air to generate heat that will enable us to speak out loudly against the WTO.

 Filipinos, Koreans,
Bangladeshi, Indians, Taiwanese, Canadians, Americans, people from various
countries and of different nationalities are here to denounce the WTO and the
horror imperialist globalization unleashes against the workers and farmers of
the world. Underneath the bulky layers of clothes, each one of us are afire
with  anger and outrage against how
unjust, immoral and inhumane the current set-up is in the world. Millions are
starving, dying of preventable diseases, being subjected to dehumanizing work
and living conditions, intellectually stunted and physically maimed by the
vicious corporate agenda of the WTO and the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
and the World Bank (WB).

This is a very humane and
human struggle. When we say ‘Junk WTO! Kong Yee Sai Mao! Da Do Mei Di!’ we mean
it. These are not empty words, or mere propaganda slogans. I believe in these
words I shout out in unison with thousands of other protestors here in

Hong Kong. People’s organizations have scrimped and saved
for almost a year to put together enough funds to send their representatives
here.

I want an end to the global
poverty. I want an end to war. I want the exploitation of the poor by the rich
and powerful to stop. I want food and jobs and health and shelter and education
for everyone. I want those who exploit, plunder and kill in the name of profit
to be pushed under the wheels of the downtown trams and crushed.

There is neither order nor
organization in this entry. My brain is still swirling from the flood of
impressions it has been receiving for the last five days.

We have been conducting study
sessions here at the ILPS Pavillion – discussing the impact of imperialist
globalization of the lives of the working people. There are so many reasons to
be defiant and angry about, and everything comes out very stark and simple to
me: billions of people under the yoke of virtual slavery enforced by a few
thousands of greedy elite.

Last 14^th, the
ILPS sponsored a forum on trade and war, and almost 300 people attended (quite
a feat, considering that the forum was held outdoors and the thermometer
stopped at 13 degrees).

Among the main speakers in
the forum exposing the role of globalization and the WTO in the fomenting
global strife and war were Dr. Jane Kelsey from New Zealand (“Historical
Overview of Imperialist Globalization”); Antonio Tujan Jr of the Asia Pacific
Research Network or APRN (“Imperialist Collaboration and Competition in
Exploiting Weaker Economies through the WTO”); Dr. Haluk Gerger from Turkey
(“Globalization and the New World Order”), Dr. Carol Pagaduan-Araullo, Bayan
chairperson and vice-president for external affairs of the ILPS (“The Military
Face of Globalization”); Manuel Perez
Iturbe, Charge d’Affaires of the Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of
Venezuela in the Philippines (“US Agression and Provocation: The case of Venezuela”); and Luis Jalandoni, Head of the
Peace Negotiating Panel of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines or
NDFP (“Advancing the People’s Struggle Against Imperialism”). The opening
address was by Prof. Jose Maria Sison, chairperson of the ILPS, and the speech
was read by Coni Ledesma, a member of the NDFP Peace Panel, and international
spokesperson of the Makibaka, or the revolutionary women’s organization of the
NDF.

The evil triumvirate of the
WTO-IMF-WB and all other global
monopoly-capitalist organizations, share the common goal of ensuring the
continued domination of global capitalism — imperialism — over the people of
the world no matter what the human cost.

The stated intent of the WTO
is to maintain a "level playing field" for international trade. But
we have seen the true impact of globalization and we know the results: war,
crisis and famines. Inequality gives rise to political and inevitably military conflict.  Who would argue this — the predictable and
undeniable result of increased
globalization of the world is increased military intervention.

 According to the various
speakers in the anti-WTO lectures here, more than $780 billion goes to military spending in
the world while less than $6 billion is spent on basic education. Using the
excuses of  globalization, the U.S.
government, for instance,  backed by its
big businesses now claim the right to intervene and attack with their military
forces anywhere in the world, launching wars against the countries asserting
their sovereignty and economic independence like Iraq, Palestine, the Latin
American states, Cuba, etc. 

Clothed in silk
business suits, the monster that is globalization consumes human flesh to
accumulate wealth. In military khakis, globalization sometimes gives rise to
the wiping out of tens of thousands with arsenals of death.

 What’s the human element here?

How do you explain the characters and personal
motivations, the psychological make-up, heck—the moral composition of those who
see nothing wrong with the way their corporations and banks suck the life-blood of their workers, beat
the bodies of their farmers, and steal and then destroy the future of their children and
grandchildren?

 It can already be predicted
that the WTO’s MC6 will fail. For all the declarations of WTO officials led by
WTO president Paschal Lamy, there is no way to go around the truth that the
WTO’s agenda to break the world open to the abuses and injustices of liberalization will not succeed. The
strong show of force and unity of the peoples coming from various nations all
over the world against the MC6 proves how the WTO’s propaganda is no longer
working.

 The MC6 will inevitably fail
– there is no way that it can succeed given the strong resistance coming from
the same countries and peoples the WTO aim to further exploit and oppress. The
most meaningful pressure comes from outside the WTO, with hundreds of millions
of workers, peasants, women, youth, indigenous peoples, fisherfolk,
intellectuals, mass-based organizations and social movements worldwide coming
together in a broad anti-corporate, anti-imperialist front against the WTO’s globalization agenda
and the wars that countries like the US launch against nations who resist
globalization.#

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