Sunday, December 21, 2014

Why Do We Repeat History? By Erick San Juan

Why Do We Repeat History? By Erick San Juan

"If TRUTH be the key to FREEDOM, then TRUE history must be the key.", my friend Elias Crisostomo commented.  It has been repeatedly said that: 'Those who do not know history are bound to repeat it.' (George Santayana) And true enough, this country has been going round and round the vicious cycle, unable to go beyond and above the turbulence of economic, political, social, religious and other aspects of national life.

Social diagnosis would reveal that too few of our citizens know our history, if at all, the distorted version of our history.  Among the many are the politicians and government officials who were hired on the basis of recommendations rather than qualifications.  And speaking of qualifications, knowledge of history of the very country and people that we are to serve is an imperative; otherwise, one wouldn't know what to do, the appropriate methods and approaches that would suit the need of the constituents and the country as a whole.

Unfortunately for us, the commonly prescribed books of Philippine history are not only biased, slanted and maligned but likewise short-cut to serve the requirements and interests of the past colonizers who continue to be present despite their physical absence but through their local agents known as the oligarchs. Through the existing textbooks of history,  education becomes the giant brainwashing machine of foreign interest.

History books that highlight the defeats  which we celebrate nationally rather than the triumphs of those who died in defense of our land, people and dignity.  History materials that contain nothing more than the What, the When, the Where and the Who. They describe the events but not the reason why the event happened.  They talk of the who’s who, but only the names and excluded the description of the character, the motives, the interest and the attitudes of the personalities.

While character assassination is common in some local books, a plenty can be found in books of foreign authors, mostly American authors who viewed the Filipinos with contempt and discrimination.  The use of “little brown brother” connotes, at the very least, a demeaning of the greatness of our race even long before America became a nation. Nonetheless, this imperial language was treated with passing grace by the majority of the Filipinos unmindful of the insults lodged against our people and country.  This was made possible by the American model of education that shaped the mind and molded our character, especially our scholars and even military officials trained in the US. In the language of Stanley Karnow, an American journalist cum historian, author of IN OUR IMAGE: America’s Empire in the Philippines, and to quote: “most of the Filipinos I met spoke Americanized English, they knew more about the United States than they knew about the Philippines, as if they were some kind of lost American tribe that had somehow become detached from the U.S. mainland and floated across the Pacific”.

With this scenario, therefore, would it be logical to conclude that the reason why we cannot progress nor evolve as a nation is because we remain ignorant of the past, the true story of our history?  Shall we not examine repeatedly and try to derive deeper meaning in the old adage: “Ang hindi lumingon sa pinanggalingan ay hindi makakarating sa paroroonan”.  While we are aware of the immediate past, we must likewise look into the remote past because that is where the comparison and the secret of our greatness can be found. “Ang kahapong lumipas ay ugat ng walang katiyakang bukas”. (Quotes given to me by Elias)

However, if in the present we would distill the lessons from the past and make of them as inputs in charting our future, then, I am almost certain that we could attain our destiny as a great nation; greatness, not in terms of economics alone, but great in terms of moral, cultural, and human aspects of life. Yet, this cannot be done, nor it can happen, if we just do lip service. This journey to greatness requires unity of purpose and unity of action.

The polarization of our society is triggered by our myopic perception, devoid of view-point and stand-point. To arrest therefore this endemic character, Elias hereby proposed as early as of 1985, to re-write our history from our own perspective.  A historical convention that would reconstruct the bits and pieces of our historical footnotes obscured and obliterated by writers and authors to sway the Filipino psyche away from his true identity. Let alone an official version of Philippine history crafted by the genius of our illustrious nationalist scholars.

Idealistic young Filipinos and the more mature patriotic citizens developed through time a reservation, if not hatred, to the Americans.  Yet, somehow, many realized that not all Americans, particularly some authors and writers, deserved a suspicious look and a cold treatment. There are, as a matter of fact, disappointed and even criticized negative writings about the Philippines and the Filipinos. They themselves abhor the misconception, the discrimination, the 2nd grade treatment, and even foreign policies of the American government affecting the Philippines.

I am one with Mr. Bobit S. Avila of Philippine Star who, in his recent article, mentioned about a book entitled: Imperial Cruise written by James Bradley, an American.  I have not read the book yet, but Bobit seems to lead us to what the author exposed about some truths about how the Americans treated us during and after they set foot on our archipelago as well as the motives and the policies as far as colonization is concerned. Another American author by the name of Stanley Karnow, gave us a glimpse of the past in his book IN OUR IMAGE: Americas Empire in the Philippines. To add another, is an antique writer of humorous stories which romanticized America’s rural past. This man is Samuel Langhorne Clemens--better known as “Mark Twain”, who, by his conviction is more Filipino than an American.  He wrote his thesis, a landmark in anti-imperialist writing, “To The Person Sitting in Darkness”, published in North American Review in 1901.  Twain wrote: “Shall we?"  That is, shall we go on conferring our civilization upon the people that sit in darkness, or shall we give these poor things a rest? His  writings reveal a fierce anti-imperialist, likened to Teodoro A. Agoncillo or Renato Constantino.

Twain wrote in favor of Aguinaldo and the infant republic taken from the Filipino people. He was against the tricks of Funston in trying to capture General Emilio Aguinaldo, as well as the atrocities committed by the American soldiers in the Philippines.  He reacted to the cable of President Theodore Roosevelt to Gen. Leonard Wood, (who later became Governor and a bane to Manuel L. Quezon) and congratulated Funston for winning a battle with Moros in Mindanao, saying that the campaign lodged by Funston was a “brilliant feat which upheld the honor of the American flag”.

Twain wrote: “. . . with 600 engaged on each side, we lost 15 men killed outright and we had 32 wounded—counting nose and elbow.  The enemy numbered 600—including women and children—and we abolished them utterly, leaving not a baby alive to cry for its dead mother.  This is incomparably the greatest victory ever achieved by the Christian soldiers of the United States  . . . (Roosevelt) knew perfectly well that to pen 600 helpless and weaponless savages in a hole like rats in a trap and massacre them in detail during a stretch of a day and a half, from a safe position on the heights above, was no brilliant feat of arms even if Christian America, represented by its salaried soldiers, had shot them down with Bibles and the Golden Rule instead of bullets.  He knew that our uniformed assassins had not upheld the honor of the American flag, but have done as they have been doing continuously for eight years in the Philippines – that is to say, they had dishonored it”.

Moreover, he wrote that the American flag must be changed – its white stripes painted black and the stars replaced by the skull and crossbones.  Reading Mark Twain is to discover that America is not-- never benevolent at all.

By the way, this ignoble acts of the American soldiers were not in history books nor read and taught in school. What we have read were the acts of benevolence, their superiority of values and political as well as military power, their friendship . . .  minus the betrayal.  Another instance that was omitted in our textbook was the Balangiga  massacre; the harassment they did to the villagers, that in retaliation, the local massacred no less than 51 American soldiers.  And in the ensuing counter-retaliation, they erased the village population and took the bell of the church—now in their custody at Ft. Wyoming, USA.

During World War II, we lost more one million lives in a war that is not ours; but because of their (American) presence, we were dragged to become second-class heroes of the USAFFE.  Many of our HUKBALAHAP guerillas were likewise betrayed by the Americans. Up to now, many were not given the benefits what's due them. Yet, hardly you will find accounts of these tales in our history books, if at all, in loose articles and monographs.

So, with all these omissions and obscurantism, Filipinos of today continue to revere the Americans; continue to trust and depend upon, however, short of understanding.  Truly to be anti-American is be classified as Communists. To be patriotic is to be an insurgent.

Most Filipinos are not really anti-elite nor Anti-American or racist, but we have to put everything in the right perspective to correct our distorted  history always beholden to the victors.

We also have to be wary that wars and conflicts stage managed by the evil geniuses have destroyed historical artifacts, relics, manuscripts, old maps and books, thus, destroying the culture and ideology of a nation and replace them with their mind conditioning agenda. The so called 'Animal Farm' where  nation-states were taken over by the globalists through proxy and fronted by their puppets in the government,military and the church.

Let's get our act together to achieve a new unified Philippines  in the offing. Merry Christmas to all!!!

Thursday, December 18, 2014

Drums of War by Erick San Juan

Drums of War by Erick San Juan

In the midst of celebration this yuletide season, the drums of war had started beating under the baton of the globalists or the neoconservatives or neocons (for short) as how Paul Craig Roberts in his article ‘On the Brink of War and Economic Collapse’ put it : “The neoconservatives, a small group of warmongers strongly allied with the military/industrial complex and Israel, gave us Granada and the Contras affair in Nicaragua. President Ronald Reagan fired them, and they were prosecuted, but subsequently pardoned by Reagan’s successor, President  George H.W. Bush.

Neoconservatives remain very influential in the Obama regime. As examples, Obama appointed neoconservative Susan Rice as his National Security Advisor. Obama appointed neoconservative Samantha Power as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Obama appointed neoconservative Victoria Nuland as Assistant Secretary of State. Nuland’s office, working with the CIA and Washington-financed NGOs, organized the U.S. coup in Ukraine.

To advance their agenda, neoconservatives propagandize the populations of the U.S. and Washington’s vassal states. The 'presstitutes' deliver the neoconservatives’ lies to the unsuspecting public: Russia has invaded and annexed Ukrainian provinces; Putin intends to reconstitute the Soviet Empire; Russia is a gangster state without democracy; Russia is a threat to the Baltics, Poland, and all of Europe, necessitating a U.S./NATO military buildup on Russia’s borders. China, a Russian ally, must be militarily contained with new U.S. naval and air bases surrounding China and controlling Chinese sea lanes.

The neoconservatives and President Obama have made it completely clear that the U.S. will not accept Russia and China as sovereign countries with economic and foreign policies independent of the interests of Washington. Russia and China are acceptable only as vassal states, like the UK, Europe, Japan, Canada, and Australia.

"Clearly, the neoconservative formula is a formula for the final war.”

And this final war is designed to take place sooner than we thought. Although some peace loving people tried to delay it, but unfortunately the program is on. And the targets – Russia and China.

Since the crisis in Ukraine, Russia has suffered sanctions imposed by the US-led demonization of Russian President Vladimir Putin and has projected Putin’s image as the modern day Hitler. As NATO advances its forces to Eastern Europe and the US Congress approved H. R. Resolution No. 758, there seems to be no stopping the war drums from getting louder and louder.

Even 91-year-old geopolitical expert, Henry Kissinger, one of the old-timers of American diplomacy and foreign policy in his interview published in German Der Spiegel in early November stated his views on Russia. The former State Secretary talked about war and peace, Ukraine and Crimea, the mistakes on the side of the United States and Europe as they implemented their policy towards Moscow.

Mr. Kissinger was never a friend of Russia despite that he was branded in the past by CDL (Christian Defense League) as a former KGB agent code named BOR.To the contrary, he always did his best to weaken the USSR and then Russia in belief that the policy met the interests of the USA. It makes his opinion carry even more weight. Kissinger is sure that Washington and Brussels are responsible for the escalation of the situation in Ukraine. As he puts it, “Europe and America did not understand the impact of these events, starting with the negotiations about Ukraine's economic relations with the European Union and culminating in the demonstrations in Kiev. All these, and their impact, should have been the subject of a dialogue with Russia.” He adds that, “Ukraine has always had a special significance for Russia. It was a mistake not to realize that”.

According to Kissinger, America can avoid a conflict with Russia, “We have to remember that Russia is an important part of the international system, and therefore useful in solving all sorts of other crises, for example in the agreement on nuclear proliferation with Iran or over Syria. This has to have preference over a tactical escalation in a specific case”. Kissinger finds senseless the Ukraine’s attempts to punish Russia by dragging NATO into the civil war raging in the east of the country. The old timer warns that a new Cold War would be a tragedy. Three weeks had passed after the interview saw light when the US House of Representatives made the world move one step closer to the tragedy, the foreign policy veteran warned about. On December 4 the representatives approved the resolution N 758. It passed with 411-10 votes.

The resolution slams Russia for unleashing a military aggression against Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova and calls for military and intelligence aid to Ukraine. The document calls on North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies and United States partners in Europe and other nations around the world “to suspend all military cooperation with Russia, including prohibiting the sale to the Russian Government of lethal and non-lethal military equipment”. The US House of Representatives wants Ukraine and EU to curb interaction with Russia and expand sanctions. Moreover, it calls on Ukraine and the European Union to reject Russian energy supplies. The representatives directly threaten the Russian Federation and accuse it of violating the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF). Finally, the House suggests that the US take a decisive action to intensify the information war with Russia. It “calls on the President and the United States Department of State to develop a strategy for multilateral coordination to produce or otherwise procure and distribute news and information in the Russian language to countries with significant Russian-speaking populations.”

Speaking in the St. George Hall of the Kremlin before representatives of both houses of parliament and other dignitaries in his annual address to the Federal Assembly on Dec. 4, Putin passionately appealed to the Russian people to defend Russia’s existence, just as they had done in the Great Patriotic War against Hitler. Concerning the sanctions, he stressed that even without the Ukraine crisis, the United States and its allies would have found some other pretext to curb Russia’s growing capacities. “The policy of containment was not invented yesterday,” he said. “It has been carried out against our country for many years, always, for decades, if not centuries. In short, whenever someone thinks that Russia has become too strong or independent, these tools are quickly put into use.”

A day after Putin’s speech, a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs told the Russian news agency TASS: “We watched the Russian President’s statement with great interest. Russia is our good neighbor and a comprehensive strategic partner. The level of trust and cooperation between our countries is very high.” She added, “We respect the road taken by the Russian nation, including its domestic and foreign policies. China is determined to keep building up the strategic partnership with Russia.”

One day later, President Xi Jinping said, at a two-day conference of the People’s Liberation Army, that the production of sophisticated military equipment must be accelerated. (Source: Merkel, Obama Join Neo-Cons As Danger of World War Rises by Helga Zepp-LaRouche)

Indeed we are living in very exciting times of a possible world war in the offing as we face our own bully in the region. Let us all pray harder and may the Lord bring PEACE to all.

Monday, December 8, 2014

EDCA: Whose MBA?

EDCA: Whose MBA?
By Erick San Juan

"It is a military basing agreement.". This is the statement that the petitioners, as well as the oppositions to the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (Edca) had strongly emphasized in their arguments on what EDCA is all about.

After two days on the oral arguments at the Supreme Court and a day (December 1) at the Senate hearing with Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, head of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, for and against EDCA were heard.

The Supreme Court gave both camps 20 days to file their respective memoranda while Sen. Santiago said she would ask her colleagues to adopt a resolution that will express the view that the agreement needs concurrence. She said the Senate is left with the option to express its sense on the EDCA since the Palace has considered the agreement enforced even without Senate concurrence. She added that the Senate resolution will be able to manifest before the Supreme Court on what are the attitudes of the Senate as a collective chamber and it will also convey to the President the sense of commitment of various senators to the EDCA. (From various sources)

For whatever its worth, the Supreme Court and the Senate are doing their jobs in order to find a solution to this ever controversial ‘agreement’. Although we have to be wary because in these exciting times wherein a regional conflict might end up in a “global revolution” (a.k.a. global war), in the process, our country and its citizenry will be used again as Uncle Sam’s cannon fodder.

It is not an assurance that the supposed ‘agreed locations’ for US troops and material and other military hardware in our territory will serve as a deterrent especially against China. As I have written in many of my articles and have discussed on my daily radio program, the US military presence here with its increased troops in rotational basis will serve as a ‘lightning rod’ and a magnet that will attract US enemies. Remember that we are located strategically and that is very much convenient for the American troops in case of a crisis. But what about us? What's in it for us?

The point raised by Dean Merlin Magallona is a point to ponder by those who will decide on the constitutionality of EDCA. Dean Magallona said that the argument of the Department of Foreign Affairs that the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement with the United States is an implementing agreement of the Visiting Forces Agreement, which is also the implementing agreement of the Mutual Defense Treaty is an “absurdity”.

“An Implementing treaty of an implementing treaty of an implementing treaty is an absurdity,” said Merlin Magallona, former dean of the University of the Philippines’ College of Law, at the Senate hearing on EDCA.

He also argued that there is a clear “discontinuity” between EDCA and MDT, particularly after the expiration in 1991 of the Military Bases Agreement between the two countries. (InterAksyon.com)

The mere fact that the VFA through the MDT has already put the whole country in the crosshairs, do we have to add another agreement and this time around will actually put the whole archipelago as Uncle Sam’s military base? And the worst thing is, in spite of these agreements, we were never treated as an ally nor a real friend in this part of the region compared to Japan and South Korea. Even Acting Solicitor General Florin Hilbay said that there is no guarantee (via EDCA) that the US will help the Philippines if ever the territorial disputes will escalate into a shooting war.

As I always say, we are not anti-American and not all Americans are bad. There are only some (under the influence of the globalists) who are greedy and always think of themselves and treat their allies as slaves.

Yes, there was a vacuum when the US bases left Clark and Subic but who's fault? We rejected the bases in disguise without an assurance that nobody can bully us or at least we really have an MBA(May Backer Ako) who can protect us in case of threat and aggression.

Now  we are being bullied by China and we still believe that big brother will help us. We seem so helpless.

What if China and the US elites are conniving to create a situation? Especially now that US owed China not only $1trillion but trillions of dollar. Despite the lost of pro-Beijing group in the recent Taiwan elections. In spite of China's former army Gen. Liu Jingsong warning that China would not be afraid to use force to resolve the Taiwan issue, both Taiwan and the Philippines should be wary of the global financial crisis coming where these giants will surely look for new enemies to unite their angry nationals.

The pattern of 'painting in the west and fighting in the east'  is in the offing. Be vigilant!

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

China: Which is Which? By Erick San Juan

China: Which is Which? By Erick San Juan

In the recent meetings of world leaders in various summits, one can easily notice how China finds its way in trying to dominate the summit with its soft power, specifically at the APEC.

Taken from the report of Helga Zepp-LaRouche of the Executive Intelligence Review: “President Obama’s economic strategy, which had just caused a resounding electoral defeat for the Democrats in the mid-term elections, had actually been that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which excludes China, would dominate the APEC summit, and the Chinese version, the Free Trade Agreement for Asia and the Pacific (FTAAP), which would be open to all, would not even be discussed at the summit, and neither would the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) or the New Silk Road. Instead it was the inclusive FTAAP—which even the by-no-means pro-Chinese Peterson Institute in the United States had referred to as the superior model—that turned out to be much more attractive to the APEC states.

What China is offering with its various economic initiatives—the New Silk Road; the Maritime Silk Road; the Silk Road Development Fund, for which it has put up $40 billion in capital; $20 billion more in loans at low interest rates, which China extended during the subsequent ASEAN conference in Myanmar for projects of the Maritime Silk Road; and above all, the increased economic integration of the BRICS countries, and their cooperation in high-technology areas such as nuclear energy and aerospace—all this has far outstripped the U.S. policy, which offers nothing more than to be the “partner” that forces increased military spending for geostrategic alliances, and a policy in the interests of the banks.”

This may look so good knowing that China is at very close second to the United States when it comes to economics but there is another view why is this so.

In a private conversation with Francesco Sisci, Robert Mundell said that “political economy is politics with numbers; that is, if there are numbers without politics, this is just been counting. The point of the AIIB and the new fund for the Silk Road is to transform China's huge cash reserves into real credit, and this is the practical challenge awaiting China in the next weeks and months.  And the "soft power" China is rightly hankering after starts only with success in making its credit (as opposed to "money") available in Asia.”

Reality check dictates that China had to find another way to deal with its domestic economic problems even if its projecting a sound economy to the rest of the world. From the article ‘Is China building a mortgage bomb?’ by William Pesek (Bloomberg), he cited that “the first Chinese interest-rate cut in more than two years is a stark recognition that the world’s second-biggest economy is in trouble.

After years of piling even more public debt onto the national balance sheet, it makes sense to have the People’s Bank of China take the lead in propping up gross domestic product. Yet while today’s benchmark rate cut should help stabilize growth, the move also adds to worries about looser credit that could pose risks to the global economy. The case in point: mortgages.
Earlier this year, Chinese officials took several stealthy steps aimed at stabilizing the property sector and bolstering GDP growth. The China Banking Regulatory Commission loosened lending policies. Even before cutting the one-year lending rate to 5.6 percent and the one-year deposit rate to 2.75 percent today, the central bank had cut payment ratios and mortgage rates, while prodding loan officers to ease up on their reluctance to approve borrowers without local household registrations. Pilot programs for mortgage-backed securities and real-estate investment trusts got more support. Incentives were rolled out to encourage high-end buyers to upgrade properties.

There’s good news and bad in all this. The good: It marks progress for President Xi Jinping’s efforts to recalibrate China’s growth engines. In highly developed economies like the U.S., the quest for homeownership feeds myriad growth ecosystems and offers the masses ways to leverage their equity for other financial pursuits. And China’s debt problems are in the public sphere, not among consumers. The bad: If ramped-up mortgage borrowing isn’t accompanied by bold and steady progress in modernizing the economy, China will merely be creating another giant asset bubble.”

Like in the US bubble after bubble has started to blow and the only way to deal with it is to create an outside enemy or to continue with its global war on terror (a.k.a. perpetual war) among sovereign states and in the process finding minerals (like oil and gas) when militarization completed its task and had to remain in the ‘occupied’ country via peace-keeping operations. It’s actually a win-win solution through its so-called military modernization among its allies, arms race will fuel their ailing economy via the military industrial complex.

Meetings of the world’s leaders through summits may be tricky. Most of the times by using a lot of rhetoric and if one will not be wary, they can be taken easily for a ride and will end up as part of a scheme and actually be shortchanged in the process.