Dry scalps
I’d meant to blog about it last weekend, but it slipped my mind.
Last Friday, the Manila Bulletin’s banner story went something like this" 40% Filipinos have dandruff."
I kid you not. For a moment I thought that I was looking at an issue of The Onion, so I doubled back and checked — yep, it was the mast head of Manila Bulletin all right, and yep, D-a-n-d-r-u-f-f spells dandruff.
I wish now that I’d bought a copy of that amazing issue. It has never once occurred to me that having itchy and flaky scalps was a major problem for Filipinos. I mean, gasp, what it was dandruff that’s causing all the social conflicts? The intelligence, common sense and every drop of humanity , morality and compassion the nation’s top officials have been corrupted by pityriasis capitis).
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Lately I feel deeply sympathetic with (to? my grammar is shot to hell) the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer. I’m not very cheerful these days and I have the lowest expectations of everything (and maybe everyone as well — expecting nothing will ensure that you will not be disappointed and hence you will not be made unhappy) and in the midst of this slightly black mood I feel a wee bit happy.
Kim says I should be more determined and put my foot down and do what I want to do (find the work that will make me happy and make my soul light) and not give in to what other people want. I will be like Nietzsche when he became disenchanted with Schopenhauer and figuratively breathe in fresh air.
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Malacanang should be warned against taking the long-standing
demand of the Filipino Muslims and
indigenous for political autonomy and custody of their ancestral domain
lightly. I do think that Pres. Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo should not issue statements or promises concerning the Muslim
people’s ancestral domain and political autonomy if she will not be able to
keep them because these might well result to heightened conflict. I would
advise caution (but at the very core of me, a voice is yelling that all of Arroyo’s statements regarding Muslim autonomy are merely for political expediency and to
placate the increasing national alarm over the intensifying conflict in
Mindanao.Just another political stunt .)
Pres. Arroyo has been quoted in newspapers saying that she
is all for Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to have full political, fiscal
and religious authority over a so-called Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE), the
proposed name of the governing body of a new Moro homeland.
Our Muslim brothers
and sisters have long been fighting in defense of their right to religious,
economic and political autonomy and the right to their ancestral lands. Through
the decades, peace and justice has long eluded Mindanao because of the political chauvinism of the national government. While Pres.
Arroyo’s words that she will work towards the implementation of a Muslim
ancestral domain regime sound very positive, we are deeply wary that she will
not be able to make good on this promise. This is not a matter to be taken lightly
because thousands of Muslim lives have been sacrificed towards this goal, and
Pres. Arroyo should be cautioned against making promises only as a means to an
immediate solution but without real sincerity to establish genuine Muslim
autonomy and independence.
Filipino Muslims have
the right to demand autonomy given the long history of neglect and repression
they have suffered under the series of national administrations. The Muslim people’s cultural, religious and
political rights have consistently been thrown to the sidelines and their way
of life severely undermined and devastated by years of military conflict.
The poor and working
sectors among the Muslim people are in much need of economic relief as their
Christian counterparts. They need jobs and access to basic social services such
as health, education and housing. Hand in hand with political, fiscal and
religious autonomy, Malacanang should also extend full assistance to Filipino
Muslims by providing these. The exploitative monopoly of landlords and big
local and foreign businessmen in Mindanao should also be put to an end and genuine
agrarian reform should be implemented to benefit Muslim farmers. The plunder of Mindanao’s
natural resources by unscrupulous transnational oil, electricity and mining companies
should also be stopped.
We can only hope that these heartening words of the
president favoring Muslim autonomy and respect for their ancestral domain are
not just for empty platitudes and promises. This is a life and death matter for
thousands of our Muslim brothers and sisters.
