Philppine Elections 2010:ERAP Reelection

The definition of a TRAPO in Filipino is a piece of cloth used to wipe dirt off something. It may also be described as a dirty piece of cloth used to clean floors, dishes, bath tubs and toilet seats. Personally I do not know if the word TRAPO has an equivalent in the English language or any other language for that matter, but whenever I go home and clean my dirty shoes, I use my handy and age old Philippine TRAPO. Thus, to describe a Filipino politician as a TRAPO is no doubt unchristian and insulting. And though it is true that Filipinos have wittingly coined the word TRAPO as an acronym for TRADITIONAL POLITICIANS, it is still obviously a very shrewd way of calling politicans who have served our country for five or more years DOWNRIGHT DIRTY !

So much for the Christian virtue of respect!

Do we see the Amercian media and American Christian churches call their congressmen, senators, and president TRAPOS?

Never.

That's because Americans know the value of respecting their leaders, even if they do not support the occupation of Iraq and even if they have lost confidence in some of their leaders. In my opinion, this is what makes them a great nation.

Is this what we Filipinos would want teach our children - how to insult our duly elected public officials? We live in a democracy, and no matter how you look at it - democracy, being merely a creation of man, will never be a perfect system, where popular leaders, regardless of their educational backround or social status, will be surely and duly elected.

Look for the giant concrete bust of former Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos which was built on a mountainside in Tuba, Benguet. It's not there anymore. It was dynamited two years ago by suspected Filipino rebels and now stands as a memorial to Filipino fickle-mindedness and disrespect. What will they dynamite next - the Marcos Highway? Haydee Yorac's grave perhaps? Regardless of how evil many Filipinos claim the former President to be, (His guilt was never proven in courts both here and abroad) respect is still a value we should teach our children not just because we are a Christian nation but also because it is the right thing to do.

So, before we begin to teach our gradeschool and highschool students that former President Marcos is this and that, let us first look at the good things he had contributed to our country - things that we now benefit from.

And before we begin insulting the intelligence and integrity of former President Erap Estrada for possibly running for President in the Philippine 2010 elections, let us remember that we were taught to respect even the worst of our enemies.

For like many public servants, both Marcos and Estrada are still men - created in the image and likeness of God. They, therefore, deserve our respect - thesame respect that we are obliged to give to the least of our brethren.

How then can we expect our children to respect us, if we teach them to call our leaders DUMB and DIRTY TRAPOS?

God bless our Philippine Presidents!

http://miguelgoitia.blogpsot.com

The Big Bang or God?

A simple question deserves a simple answer.

Take for example the hundreds of thousands of Somalis who have died because of the brutal civil wars that have ravaged their country for decades. How can God allow Somali women and children to be slaughtered violently in the hands of evil men? How can the all-knowing and omnipotent Creator allow chaos to destroy Somalia? Don't the Somalis also deserve His promise of eternal life?
Atheists and agnostics have asked me questions like these time and again and I have found it quite hard to answer them bluntly without sounding too righteous, overzealous, and overbearing. Would a loving father allow his children to be murdered in cold blood? Would a father subject his children to pain and suffering in the first place? If no father on earth would willingly do this, why then would our Heavenly Father willingly allow us to suffer? Is God, therefore, out there!?

Yes.

You see, God has never abandoned us. It is we who have abandoned Him. We create criminals. We create the evening news. We create polarized societies. And we create corruption, hunger and poverty. We also created Marijuana, Cocaine, and LSD. We created child-porn, and ultimately, we created the Atomic bomb. We make our world the miserable and dark place which it is not supposed to be.

God has nothing to do with the evil we harbor against each other. So, stop blaming Him for what we do. Would it be just to blame and punish your mother in law for a crime that you have committed?

Whether you like it or not, He is out there.

There are hundreds of billions of galaxies in our Universe that are larger than our own Milkyway galaxy, and each of these galaxies have billions of stars, blackholes, and other stellar bodies moving about them. A creation this vast and mind-boggling would surely need a purpose and, consequently, need an architect. For everything has a purpose, as every action produces an equal and opposite reaction.

And though the Big Bang theory quaintly explains how the Universe came to be (most scientists have unreasonably accepted this theory as fact) this theory cannot be proven by science and, as such, can only be taken as a matter of faith by scientists.

The better question is; what then provided the energy needed to produce the Big Bang?

A Japanese diesel generator!?
http://miguelgoitia.blogspot.com

The Slave Nation

When Julius Caesar and his Roman Legions invaded Gaul, Germania, and Britannia, millions were murdered. It is estimated at least 2 million barbarian people perished in his decade long racial genocide, which left western Europe almost empty and devastated. In one of the battles of this successful campaign against the Celtic and Teutonic tribes of Europe, Julius Caesar exterminated 400,000 men, women and children in a single day. Moreover, after this unquestionable act of evil, he invaded Germania and slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Germanic tribes just to scare them away and make them think twice before invading the western Roman provinces.
Because of Caesar's harrowing acts of cruelty, the famed Cicero and Cato and many more Roman Senators denounced him and threatened to remove him from his office and army. Embassies and leaders from the tribes Caesar had destroyed visited Rome and pleaded the Roman Senate to spare their women and children from him, while he continued to plunder and burn their villages unchecked.

Yet, many would have none of this temporary peace, as they valued their freedom more than Roman commerce. Generations later, many German tribes stood their ground against the Legions of Varus and Germanicus and earned their freedom through sheer and indefatigable willpower. Seeing this, the powerful Romans learned to fear the German tribes and decided to leave them alone - a fatal mistake because many centuries later, the German tribes grew strong enough to invade the Roman Empire and sack the eternal city herself.

It makes you wonder, why many historians throughout history have transformed Julius Caesar into a much admired historical figure like Alexander the Great and Napoleon. Kill a man and you are a murderer. Kill a million men and you're a Hero!

Thus, there came a point in Roman history when there where at least three Roman slaves for each Roman in the Italian Peninsula. The slave markets of the eternal city, Campania, and Tarentum were flooded with thousands of slaves for sale whenever the Roman Legions won battles and wars in the east and west. The Roman Legions in the frontlines sold captured slaves "wholesale"to the Roman Equestrian merchants, who a acting as middle men, then sold these poor souls "retail" in Roman cities. Consequently, slave nations, comprised of Gauls, Spaniards, Carthaginians, Africans and more, unwillingly served wealthy Roman whorehouses, latifundias, public baths and sweatshops.
So what!?
Well, as I have said, the Roman slaves 2000 years ago became slaves unwillingly. They were forced out of their homes, made to walk a hundred miles, and the were forced to plow the fields of wealthy nobles.
Slavery of the 21st Century, on the other hand, has not changed one bit!
Filipinos living in the world today are also forced to work thousands of miles away from their homes and family. Promised with a better life abroad, they unwillingly perform menial work for foreigners, foreign organizations, and foreign companies who pay them meager wages. Filipino dancers,pipefitters, sailors, carpenters, janitors, maids, and cooks earn less than their Western counterparts in most countries, for the simple reason that they are Filipino.
Yes, the Filipino Nation has become a SLAVE NATION - a nation of blue collared workers.
Do not get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with blue collared work for work, as long as it is moral, exemplifies the dignity of a person.The issue here is why Filipinos today allow themselves to be paid less than their western counterparts whenever they work abroad, even if they are better workers than foreigners. Since when did less pay become a competitive advantage for job seekers?
Allowing yourselves to be underemployed is the worst form of slavery! And your children suffer for it!

http://miguelgoitia.blogspot.com

The Children of Cain

The M1A and M1A2 main battle tanks continue to play an important role in conventional warfare in the middle east, as they have helped western countries conquer their enemies and, in so doing, maintained an uneasy peace in the region. Whenever these warmachines enter villages and cities, freedom fighters surrender at once for few would ever dare challenge the might of these terrifying monsters.
But here's the rub.
It costs 4.35 million U.S. dollars, roughly 218 million Philippine pesos, to build one M1A2 main battle tank, which makes it a very expensive and extravagant weapon of war. An able military commander can defeat enemy army without a multi-million dollar weapon like this. It has been done before. Take for example, how the Mujahedin of Afghanistan defeated the hordes of Russian tanks that were sent to exterminate them back in the 1980's?
Hasn't anyone considered that the cost of an M1A2 battle tank is equal to the amount necessary to send 1,090 less fortunate Filipino chilren to school - from grade one to highschool @ Php 200,000.00 pesos per child? And yet The U.S. Army alone has 1,174 operational M1A2's and 4,393 M1A1's!

But that's nothing compared to Tomahawk missles!

One Tomahawk Cruise Missile costs $569,000.00 - roughly 28,450,000 million pesos. In the 1991 Persian Gulf War alone, 288 Tomahawks were launched! That's 8,193,600,000.00 wasted Philippine Pesos! With this vast amount of money, the Philippine government could have either built 1,639.00 public schools @ Php 5,000,000.00 per school for Filipino children or could have sent 40,968 Filipino children to school from grade one to highschool @ Php 200,000 per child.That's how expensive it is to wage war in thge 21st Century.

These facts only show how deranged man is because he prefers to kill his brother rather than send his children to school. He would rather kill for power, money and oil rather than help his brother provide a better future for all children.
How can we truly say that we are civilized and sentient beings when we would rather follow corrupt governments and selfish politicians than protect the basic rights of our children?There are no but's, if's, and impossible's when the rights of children are at stake.

We are still, after all, the children of Cain.
http://miguelgoitia.blogspot.com