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Men in Boxes in the Name of Peace
I am a Filipino. I am a woman. My skin color is bronze because originally my forefathers came from the Malay and Polynesian race. I believe that to honor nature is to honor God. I am Buddhist. But my soul has no citizenship – my soul has no gender, no color, no race – my soul has no religion. I went to college in the late 1970’s at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City where the revolt against Marcos’ tyranny began. Many young and bright students like me hoped and fought for a better Philippines despite the horror it brought. Female students marked as activists were abducted by the Philippine military. Some were never to be seen again. Some came back with broken souls, after being tortured, and with cigarette burns all over their bodies after being raped. They were not killed because their role was to reveal to the other students the price one must pay for freedom. Male students disappeared as well, many never to return. I was 17. Never after this was I ever to trust institutions that continued to betray the same people they are meant to serve. And as I journeyed through life, my defiance against institutions grew. As I write this, a part of me wants to lash out at the enemy and inflict upon him the same agony, with the same intensity that I once witnessed as a young woman. Part of me wants to see the enemy suffer the same extreme pain he forced on mankind. But I hold back, desperately trying with all my heart and my mind, with such difficulty to temper my passion, my anger and my emotions. I am helped by those people close to me and dear to me who have risked my wrath by telling me to withhold my aggression. But how does one become objective in the face of death and destruction? Who is the real enemy? I keep asking myself this over and over again. The enemy is the mind of man. I strongly believe that the cruelty and poverty that the people of Mindanao have suffered since the time of Ferdinand Marcos is the result of a government-supported military presence in the area. My brother describes the situation of my people, the Filipinos, through his music. Later on in my brother’s musical career he composed and recorded a very beautiful and moving song entitled, “Mindanao.” The song calls for justice and equality for “his Muslim brothers and sisters” in Mindanao. He wrote another heart-wrenching song, entitled “Sa Kuko ng Agila” (By the Claws of the Eagle), that describes the Filipino people as prisoners of the Eagle; that is America. Every time I hear this song, my brother helps me see how the Filipino people are like a man held fast by the Eagle as it soars. The Eagle flies proud and high in the sky with its claws buried deep into the neck of the Filipino. And the Filipino bleeds gently, continuously screaming for freedom. Presidential candidate Joseph Estrada, before the 1998 presidential election, turned my brother's song into a movie with the same title - as a bold statement against America. The Filipino masses loved the movie which greatly contributed to the campaign of Estrada. He became President of the Philippines. He was ousted in 2001. Since the end of Marcos’ dictatorship, there have been 3 presidential elections in the Philippines. The first one was in 1992. Former military general Fidel V. Ramos won. But his rival Miriam Defensor, who is currently a senator, disputed the election results and claimed that she was cheated. The most recent presidential election was in 2004 when our current president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo claimed victory. Again, her rival the late Fernando Poe Jr., legally disputed the election results and claimed he was cheated. The only undisputed presidential election result in the Philippines since Marcos was when Joseph Estrada ran for president. He pursued a very strong anti-American Imperialism campaign. Estrada never finished his term. In 2001 during the second people power revolution and on the morning of the day that Joseph Estrada was ousted and removed from his home to be brought to jail, I received a phone call from one of our senators a former military general who I believe is one of the greatest minds in the Philippines. He reminded me that, “It is not our leaders who are the true evil that reigns over the country there is a bigger evil that Filipinos do not see.” I have seen so much violence since I was 3 years old, growing up in a violent environment and I understand the hatred it brings. It is through my understanding of this relationship between violence and hatred that I have been able to let go of it. There is already so much pain and suffering in this world and I have vowed that I would never contribute to it. I am only an instrument in this life, guided by the higher forces of the cosmic world. I want my life to be an instrument for peace, not pain.
Cultural Blindness In the name of peace, America has waged endless wars causing death, destruction and massive environmental catastrophes on an increasing scale. In the process it has also waged war against itself. Today America crumbles from within. America has some of the world's worst incidences of incarceration, indebtedness, violent crime, obesity, other self-created health problems, and material consumption. It is karma. And who is greatly responsible for the destruction of mankind and the world? Men in boxes. There are only two kinds of people in the world. There are those whose minds are free and who can think outside of the box, and then there are those whose minds are institutionalized, who are in prison. The latter minds are contained, limited, they are boxed. They do not question. They do not think for themselves. Although there are great minds working for institutions such as the military, the church, academia, the United Nations, and other world development institutions such as the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the IMF, if these minds cannot think outside of the box, their perceptions are extremely limited. This is the root cause of the reasons for the political, economic, and environmental problems of the world today. Men in boxes are the ones working for and leading, self-serving if not evil institutions, charlatans posing to save mankind and the earth. But of course there are a few exceptions.
To which he replied,
I answered saying,
He responded saying,
I answered,
I added,
His answer,
The last thing that I am is an “elitist socialite”. So if anyone wants to annoy me, they should call me an “elitist socialite.” God, these words insult my intelligence. It is the equivalence of calling me a “social parasite”. I grew up poor, went to public schools at the time when education for the poor in the Philippines was the best in the Far East. I will always belong to the poor. Anyway, this man knows how to push psychological buttons worthy of a mental challenge. Like the Tagalog term which we love to use, “Mapikon - talo!” This jargon means, in a heated discussion whoever loses his cool is the loser. I welcome any healthy, intellectual argument. And he is right. Our leaders have betrayed our people. And they continue to betray our people. Like I said, I am not a Muslim. I do not understand their culture. But I know that it is the conflicts among themselves that divide them. Ultimately, it will destroy them as America will therefore be better able to “divide and conquer.” But as long as these brave and noble Muslims have one voice and are united, America will never succeed in subjugating them. Culture represents the soul of a nation. I believe that when this is damaged or lost, the inner-core of a people is harmed. A nation without culture is a nation without soul. Greed and materialism is born and consumption reigns. A friend, a British-Filipino who grew up in the U.K., came to visit the Philippines. After a series of trips to the countryside he commented, “The people are so poor and yet they are so giving. They give whatever they have. And they seem so happy, yet they are so poor.” I said, “Poor in what sense? They are poor in material possessions but very rich in matters money cannot buy. They are generous. They give from the wealth of their hearts because their soul is rich.” Free thinker and writer Michel de Montaigne from the 16th century, French Renaissance said:
The Muslim culture as with many other cultures is complex and little known to the rest of the world. I was born in the northern part of the Philippines where Filipino culture is very strong. As I was growing up I was taught by my elders to respect and put into consideration other people’s cultures. But this respect is something one can understand only if they have lived in a cultured environment and experienced the depth and meaning of it; that is that culture is sacred to its adherents, to its people. Culture is something abstract to most Americans as they are detached from their distant and estranged European and other roots. American journalist and novelist George Packer author of “The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq,” commenting on the Americans' inability to understand other peoples and their cultures, states that what the Americans failed to do when planning for Iraq after the war was to give consideration to the history and the complexity of the social relations of the Iraqi people. In Baghdad two Iraqi men told Packer, that the invasion of America - "…was an insult. It was not Saddam under attack, but Iraq, and they insisted that pride and patriotism prevented them from putting their destiny in the hands of another country." Wouldn't Americans react in exactly the same manner to an invasion by foreign forces? How would Americans feel if Russia had invaded them? How would the people of America feel if China were to occupy the U.S. with her vast army of Chinese soldiers to impose on them the Chinese way of life, the Chinese government, and sort out the intense social illnesses eating up the American citizens? On reviewing George Packer’s book along with another book written by Pulitzer Prize winner, Anthony Shadid, Night Draws Near: Iraq's People in the Shadow of America's War - Robert Westbrook, history professor at the University of Rochester in NY states:
He continues:
Professor Westbrook asks:
Cosmic Forces, Great Military Men and America’s Wars Money and power corrupt as, more often than not, those with wealth and power do not also have inner wisdom and sensitivity. This leaves their understandings and actions unbalanced. Without this balance, without inner peace, they are unable to see that they not only do not have the right to impose, but they are incapable of imposing their will on others. With the absence of inner wisdom and sensitivity, conceit takes root, it rules and so then can corruption expand. The sun rises, and life and light emerge, from the east. When the sun god turns his back on earth, darkness cloaks the earth from the west. Darkness, which in eastern philosophy symbolizes death, begins from the west. Yin and Yang - West and East, I wonder if these two opposing forces have affected the evolution of the earth and mankind. Is not our challenge on earth to ensure that these opposing forces are balanced? British national Stephen Pollard, Principal Economist for the Asian Development Bank said:
How many more brave American soldiers will die on the battlefields created by America? How many more civilians will perish along with them before America learns what is best for its own people as well as for the rest of mankind? Is it really too late for change? No, I believe there are many, many brave and great American minds – minds that are free, that continue to question and challenge their institutions. Collectively I believe they have the power to alter the future of their people, as well as that of the earth, for the better. Others believe America is a great power. And sadly, many Filipinos believe this is true and so they walk around looking and talking like American clones, parroting the Americans. My people don’t realize that America suffers, and to such a great degree, from the world’s most dangerous social sicknesses. Filipinos must learn that we cannot look to America to solve our problems as America has worse issues to contend with concerning their own affairs. The level of incarceration in this so-called great nation is the highest in the world. At the end of 2006, 7.2 million Americans were either in jail, on probation or on parole. During the first quarter of 2008, more than 1 in 100 American adults were incarcerated. An estimated 13 million Americans are alcoholics. Twenty-five to forty percent of all patients in the U.S., not in maternity or intensive care - are being treated for alcohol related problems. The total annual cost of alcohol-related problems in America is $175.9 billion dollars! Untreated alcohol problems cost an estimated $184.6 billion dollars a year in health care, criminal and business costs as well as resulting in 100,000 deaths. Concerning drug problems, 60% of the world’s illegal drug market is in the U.S.A. An estimated 6 million Americans use Cocaine. An estimated half a million Americans use Heroin and an estimated 20 million use Marijuana! An estimated one third of Americans between the ages of 20 to 40 have used illegal drugs, once in the past year and almost half of the Americans entering the military have used illegal drugs, once in the past year. With regards to America’s intense eating disorders, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about six out of 10 Americans are either over-weight or obese! In August last year, Hamid Varzi of the International Herald Tribune, the global edition of the New York Times wrote:
During the term of former president Clinton, his administration brought down the level of America’s international debt through wise economic management. But today America is the most indebted country in the world, thanks to Bush. Michael Hodges author of the Grandfather’s Economic Report, published in the U.S. as a public service reports:
Hamid Varzi adds:
Despite all this borrowed money pouring into the country daily, the standard of America’s educational system is declining, the gap between rich and poor has risen, 50 million Americans are without health insurance, infrastructure crumbles, their manufacturing base is down 60 percent since the 2nd World War, the dollar is shrinking in value and now America has the lowest consumer-saving rate since the depths of the Great Depression! Today, more than one million homes have been foreclosed, the highest rate in the history of the U.S.!
There are an estimated 32 million people in Kenya and an estimated 300 million in the United States of America. Although a very poor country, Kenya is not a burden to the world since it consumes so little. The real threat for the world’s environment is America. The U.S. consumes 320 times more resources than Kenya does! I would like to quote the most eminent American humorist Mark Twain who said:
Also from Mark Twain, commenting on the Treaty of Paris and American interests in the Philippines, he stated:
This was the year 1900. If the powers of America had listened to this great artist, the world would be very different today. But then as an artist, the mind of Mark Twain was free. It was not boxed. It was not limited. And he was not to be listened to by boxed minds. Criticizing the actions of America and Spain after the brutal murder of the Filipino national hero Jose Rizal in Luneta Park, Reverend Herbert S. Bigelow, February 12, 1899 at the Cincinnati Congregational Church as part of his long sermon said:
He ended his message with this:
The Reverend and Mark Twain were men with great intellect, depth and vision – only possible outside of the box. If only such men were the leaders of America, then the world today would be a very different place indeed. The earth unravels and the world is falling apart because of the acts of evil men, men who have access to great military powers, men who promote greed and who hunger for more power. Of these men, of those who rule America, many of them may have been great warriors. They were, some still are, military men with great minds and strong spirit, men who commanded and who can command large armies of soldiers. Some of these men of power have won many battles on foreign fields. But they have never confronted and conquered the most difficult battle of all; that is the battle within them. They have no inner peace. They have no balance. How can such men bring balance and harmony to the world when they cannot achieve this for themselves?
It is the institutionalized minds of great military men that have seriously manipulated and influenced the actions of America. These are the men responsible for war. They may have had good intentions but since their minds are locked up in boxes, can they possibly know the reality of the world? Who are the true powers that really control the politics of America? It is not just senators and congressmen that influence the core of the American political structure. What if the US army and other US military factions are instruments, pawns to higher powers herding them into battle in the name of the propaganda that makes it their moral obligation to make war? And since these men, these soldiers, these warriors have minds contained in boxes; will most of them stop to question or think? Or will most of them only obey blindly? What if one camp of America’s government is setting the stage to create an excuse for war? Many Filipinos believe that Marcos in the past staged disasters and bombings in the Philippines to justify his dictatorship. I believe that there are separate sectors that control the complex political structure within America and these factions are not necessarily working for the same goal, as each group primarily serves its own goals. Tim Weiner, is a reporter for the New York Times. He has received the Pulitzer Prize for his efforts on secret national security programs and has spent the last 20 years writing about the American intelligence network. He has traveled to several countries including Afghanistan as a journalist to personally investigate the operations of the CIA. He has written a book entitled, “Legacy of Ashes” which is about the history of the CIA. According to The Wall Street Journal, the book is “truly extraordinary . . . the best book ever written on a case of espionage. Here is the hidden history of the CIA: why eleven presidents and three generations of CIA officers have been unable to understand the world; why nearly every CIA director has left the agency in worse shape than he found it; and how these failures have profoundly jeopardized our national security.” Tim Weiner asks, “Is the CIA still a dependable source of information for the US after it delivered wrong information to George W. Bush with regard to the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq?” Was the agency really unaware of the truth? In 2004, Bush criticized the agency publicly saying”they are just guessing.” He said this with regard to the very crucial information that became America’s false rationale for waging the war against Iraq and decided the fate of so many, many lives. Today, after hundreds of thousands of deaths, most of the world knows that there are no weapons of mass destruction in poor Iraq. So why are there still 160 thousand US troops deployed there? Why can’t these institutionalized minds have the courage and humility to accept they made a grave mistake and get their men and women in uniform out of there? And so the complex powers that govern the US continue to betray their own people as well as the rest of mankind. I wonder what the truth is. Why is America really so interested in Iraq? Is this really a humanitarian reason? Or is it because of resources and the profits gained from the business of war through arms and reconstruction? In the book “Legacy of Ashes”, Tim Weiner, with regard to the future of America, states:
Muslim Mindanao I have written this article against the advice of those who are close to me. I have done this to deliver a message to the Filipino people – to show them another face of America and at the same time hoping that they would stop looking to America, or any other country, for answers Strategically, the Philippines is very crucial to American interests being so close to China and the rest of Asia. The Americans have been here since before the “Treaty of Paris” which was signed on September 3, 1783. As Mark Twain stated, posing to liberate us from Spain, America occupied the Philippines and subjugated and oppressed the Filipino people, violating human rights. The Philippine-American War, an armed military conflict which originated with the Filipinos struggle for independence against the U.S. occupation, lasted from 1899 to 1913. Still today the Americans have no genuine desire to ever allow the Philippines complete independence. They will never leave. The American military and the British military are in Mindanao today, increasing in numbers as time passes. A few kind-hearted American men in uniform have proudly told me that what they are doing in Mindanao; that is helping the people to build schools, clinics, and other public facilities, is good for Mindanao. I asked them, “At what expense? Why has it become the job of top American military men to build schools, clinics and other public facilities in Mindanao? Isn’t that technically the duty of the Asian Development Bank where the U.S. is a major stock holder along with Japan and whose headquarters is right here in the Philippines? And since when did America give anything for free?” The fight for the future of the world is no longer about money or arms to expand power. Today’s fight is the fight for world survival and this means controlling natural resources. Beyond its vital strategic location, the Philippines is also one of the top 5 wealthiest nations in the world in natural abundance. In marine life it is top 3. In coral diversity, it is number one. The deepest part of the ocean lies off of Mindanao, the Philippine Deep. It is common knowledge to Filipinos that there is oil in Mindanao. There are also gas deposits. This is why the American military are here, not to contain terrorism, but to contain the territory of Mindanao, masquerading as good Samaritans and agents of development - to build schools, medical facilities and drill wells. The truth is America’s intent is to control Mindanao’s natural wealth and the Philippines’ strategic position. And if I were one of the minds running America today, I would seek the same end. Except, I hope I would have the wisdom and the long-term vision not to “divide, exploit, destroy and conquer” as Americans do. I hope I would unite, cooperate and help run the place like a good business enterprise. I would seek the humility to respect the sacrosanct Muslim culture. I would nurture the land and the sea so that the earth and its people could benefit for many generations to come. I believe this is possible. And when we believe it is possible then it is there for the taking. I believe it is possible to make lasting peace with the Muslims of Mindanao. They have been so wronged for so many centuries, by Spain, by the Philippine government and the U.S. I believe it is possible to reconstruct Mindanao, if there is genuine concern from the Philippine and the US governments to do so. Japan and Europe went through a process of reconstruction after the 2nd World War. It takes a long time but it is possible. Look at Japan and Europe today. I believe that reconstruction, restoration, and people participation to negotiate, to seek consensus to a peaceful co-existence for business and trade is what is honorable to pursue. It is the right thing to do. I also believe there are some American military minds that are not just great but exceptional. These are the minds that can go in and out of the box and can see the world through a broader perspective. The bodies may be in uniform but the minds are free. They have the strength of spirit, depth and true concern for humanity and the earth. Their minds have vision and they understand that their government’s actions in the past have backfired on them. They understand the necessity for change. I have met a few of these great American warriors. I pray they prevail. Because I believe their minds will save their people and mine. Otherwise, I fear Mindanao will become another Afghanistan and Iraq. And the people of Mindanao - Filipinos, my own people, will be the next to be obliterated by America. Where is the rationale for the greed of man? All could dissipate in an instant. We were born with nothing. We will die with nothing. Everything around us is temporary, borrowed, including our very own life. We have this life only for a brief moment of time. All that surrounds us will disappear into nothing. At the end of our journey the material is of no value. We carry only our soul to the after life. Ultimately, my loyalty is to my soul. I wish to settle my karmic debt in this life, not create more. Can we not work together to respect, protect and preserve all life on earth? Can we not do what is honorable, what is our duty to our souls? Can we not protect the very life that sustains our lives, the life of mother earth- our true mother? I will publish my next book entitled “Muslim Mindanao” which I will launch next year. I am neither Muslim nor Christian. What I am is a living soul hoping for peace and equality amongst the people in my beloved homeland as well as the rest of the world. So, may God help us all.
Marlene Aguilar
__________ Dr. Ron Crocombe is an author and Professor Emeritus in Pacific Studies, University of the South Pacific. He lives in Rarotonga, Cook Islands. He is a highly respected authority on all matters pertaining to the Pacific islands. He has worked as consultant for major international institutions including the United Nations, World Bank and Asian Development Bank for more than 30 years. He has lived and worked in the Pacific islands for over 50 years. He states:
__________ “Aguilar’s portraits are of a darker goddess, the more interesting Lillith rather than the penitent Eve - little will prepare you for her essays. Aguilar has a take-no-prisoner approach to her takes on national history and culture. She is not for the faint-hearted. Oh, we’ve heard historians rant about our damaged culture but Agular’s first person oratory (most were written as speeches) is like a series of primal screams. Inflammatory. Provocative. Pugnacious.” –Inday Espina-Varona
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© 2008 Marlene Aguilar. All rights reserved. |