Howard the crab
The one sitting next to me in the first picture is Richard del Valle, singer and marketing man extraordinaire. In the second pix I’m with Martin and Emil, two local artists. Manong Emil is a Philippine Collegian alumni and post People Power 1 activist. The last one, the guy who’s trying to figure out the Hong Kong trail map, is my friend Raymond Letourneau (he was the one I went up the mountain with last Tuesday).
It makes my husband worry that I might be getting too happy in Hong Kong because I’ve made a few good friends. That I’d want to stay here for good.
The fact, however, is this, I also have friends back at home in the Philippines; and I miss them. Having friends here is a major bonus to my being able to write and write and write. But home is where my husband, my family, friends and the Movement is, so it won’t be long til I’m in the Philippines again.
This is something Ray emailed me after we talked about the Macapagal-Arroyo campaign’s drive to crush the NPA (and most likely butcher thousands more civilians in the process). We found a crab (!) up in the mountains, and it was so bizarre.
"Howard the Mountain Crab” and his NPA stories
They walked slowly through the jungle - guns drawn. With every drop of rain or crack of a branch they stood wearily watching – listening – ready at any moment to be in full battle with the unknown. The crunch crunch sound that was omnipresent ubiquitous around them, seemed to rise and drop.
As they walked around the large tree they almost crushed the bright orange creature that they, having lived in the mountains all their life, had never seen nor knew what to make of it. As they came closer, guns ready, Howard looked up and said “Mabuhay”
And so the story of Howard the crab and his life with the NPA began. His many heroic feats and valor would prove much greater than anything he had done in the past including the escape form the pot – which would turnout to be the smallest feat of his incredible life. And why in Philippine history this great orange crab would go down in history as the major factor in the rebirth of this great nation."
I think I’ll write a longer story about Howard. I don’t know why the heck Ray chose to name the wee creature ‘Howard.’
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Jus me, kung alam ko lang saan magbabayad ng revolutionary tax sa NPA, sa kanila na lang ako maghuhulog. Sa bawat piso na binabayaran ng mga Pilipino sa mga produktong binibili sa tindahan, o serbisyong ginagamit, kalahati o higit pa ang napupunta sa buwis at tubo. Hindi naman bumabalik sa akin o sa pamilya ko ang buwis.
I don’t think the NPA is severely reliant on taxes. That would be the Macapagal-Arroyo government (heavily dependent on taxes and OFW remittances). I should think that NPA survives mainly on the support of the common Filipinos — donations of food and medicine and equipment and such. That would be more logical.
Maybe the Commission on Audit can go check the records of the NPA, harharhar.
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After changing my blog’s title many times ("I wish my dog could talk," "Scourge of Good," Trephination Procedures"), I finally settled on ‘Achieving Happiness." It’s a fitting name to what I want to have for myself and others.
I stumbled upon this great quote from Epicurus which, to me, states that all human efforts are directed towards finding happiness; but there is a definite kind of happiness that he philosophized about: the kind that gives one fulfillment, denies no one justice, and allows one to evolve as a human being without the encrumbrances of unncessary things (such as ostentatious wealth, fame and power).
The underscoring is mine.
"Let no one be slow to seek wisdom when he is young nor weary in the search of it when he has grown old. For no age is too early or too late for the health of the soul. And to say that the season for studying philosophy has not yet come, or that it is past and gone, is like saying that the season for happiness is not yet or that it is now no more. Therefore, both old and young alike ought to seek wisdom, the former in order that, as age comes over him, he may be young in good things because of the grace of what has been, and the latter in order that, while he is young, he may at the same time be old, because he has no fear of the things which are to come. So we must exercise ourselves in the things which bring happiness, since, if that be present, we have everything, and, if that be absent, all our actions are directed towards attaining it.” —Epicurus, Letter to Menoeceus
It makes activists HAPPY to be doing what they’re doing — dreaming awake, creating bit by bit a new kind of society and a new kind of life. It makes me happy to know that though still I live under an unjust system of politics and economics, I am doing my share in fighting this system. The psychological returns are tremendous. If it can only be converted to money, I’d be freaking wealthier than Bill Gates.
