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I made this blog post four years ago to the day. Thought I'd repost it, since it still seems as timely as it was then. And to be frank, I still think we're in the same mess as we were before.

Today marks the 19th anniversary of the EDSA Revolution, the bloodless revolt resulting in the ouster of former President Ferdinand E. Marcos, who ruled with an iron fist for almost two decades. The EDSA Revolution, brought forth to our consciousness the concept of "People Power" as a peaceful means of effecting change in our government. Though one of the most significant events in our nation's history, the People Power Revolution was only the climax in a series of events which started 32 years ago, when President Marcos issued Proclamation No. 1081 on September 21, 1972, placing the entire country under Martial Law.

The suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, along with other fundamental rights, such as freedom of expression and the right to assembly, led to widespread abuses throughout the country, resulting in innumerable instances of wrongful imprisonment, denial of due process, conviction without trial, or worse, summary execution. The movement of all citizens was also curtailed through the imposition of a curfew. These were truly dark times indeed, which only ended when Martial Law was lifted nine years later on January 17, 1981 through Proclamation No. 2045. But by then, the seeds of dissension have not only been sown, but have taken up root in the nation's consciousness.

Two years later, former Senator Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino, Jr., was assassinated on the tarmac of the Manila International Airport as he was returning from exile from the United States. This triggered an outpouring of sadness and sympathy from the people, leading to the most attended funeral in the country's history and the elevation of Ninoy Aquino to the status of martyr. Ninoy Aquino finally gave a face to the nation's growing unrest. A botched investigation, along with speculation of a government conspiracy and cover up only exacerbated the situation. Wave after wave of political protests ensued, finally prompting President Marcos to declare snap elections to be held on February 1986 in an attempt to obtain a fresh mandate. Stepping up to the plate to meet the challenge as opposition candidate was Ninoy Aquino's widow, Corazon Aquino.

After a tumultuous campaign period and election proper, accusations of mass cheating, and both sides claiming victory, a small faction of government forces, led by then Minister of Defense Juan Ponce Enrile and then Vice Chief-of-Staff Lt. Gen. Fidel V. Ramos broke away from Marcos administration and took up defensive positions in Camp Aguinaldo. Archbishop of Manila Jaime Cardinal Sin gave his support to the rebellion, and issues over radio a plea for support for the rebel group. The cry for revolution became too loud to ignore, and many ordinary citizens heeded the call. Despite the threat of attack from government forces, wave after wave of civilians surrounded the rebel positions, forming defensive barriers and making it impossible for government troops to attack without endangering them. On February 25, nineteen years ago to the day, Corazon Aquino was sworn in as President at Greenhills, San Juan. An hour later, Ferdinand Marcos also took his oath as President at Malacañang. Before the day's end, Ferdinand Marcos and his family, along with some their supporters would be out of the country, on their way to Guam, and eventually, to Hawaii. The revolution was over.

My Two Cents

The EDSA Revolution was a significant turning point in our nation's history. We've proven that a change in our government's leadership can be made without violence, without bloodshed. Unfortunately, that may also be our undoing. Since 1986 we have had two (arguably) more EDSA revolutions, with one ending in failure.

The second EDSA Revolution, aptly known as EDSA II took place on January 2001, and concluded with the ouster of then President Joseph E. Estrada, and the assumption into office of then Vice President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo after a controversial impeachment trial over allegations of corruption which was never concluded.

A few months later, in April and May, EDSA Tres took place. The third EDSA Revolution, if it can be called that, was a poor excuse for a revolt supposedly supported by the masses, as it only gained support from the lower class and a small number of politicians loyal to former President Joseph Estrada. The keys to the success of the first two revolutions, namely, support from the military, support from the church, and support from the middle class were conspicuously absent. In the end, EDSA Tres was more characteristic of a mob out of control than any peaceful revolution I've heard of. It ended abysmally, in failure.

The danger with this revolutionary mentality is that we have instituted revolution as means, in fact a popular means, of changing the status quo. As a democracy, we are supposed to be a government of laws, and not a government of men. And yet, our laws have been bent over backwards to accommodate the concept of people power, the concept of a peaceful and popular uprising. Despite appearances to the contrary, leadership is much more than a popularity contest. And yet, we have extolled trial by publicity, and significantly depended on public opinion to determine not only who leads us, but national policy as well on a number of occassions. Whatever happened to due process of law? I for one, am NOT a supporter of President Joseph Estrada, but everyone deserves due process. And I mean everyone. To find himself out of office due to a controversial justification and interpretation by the Supreme Court of the law and the circumstances surrounding his ouster is...well...at the very least disconcerting. Laws are supposed to protect society. Extremely wide latitudes in its interpretation can be dangerous. And let us not forget, the impeachment trial was never concluded.

The Supreme Court has always had my respect. In fact, it is the most respectable, in my humble opinion at least, of the three branches of government. But perhaps, perhaps, it may need to be a bit more circumspect. Then again, history will be the best judge of all, as we were indeed on the brink of a constitutional crisis at that time.

A good leader must always be willing to do the right thing, even if it is unpopular. Leaders are supposed to make right decisions, not popular ones. If we always get rid of unpopular leaders at the drop of a hat, well, that can only be described as crab mentality at it's worst. And look at our headlines. Protest rallies are the norm. Filing of cases of impeachment are the norm. Are all of them sincere efforts to create worthwhile change? What do you think?

The bottom line is, our leaders are supposed to be chosen by the people at large. Not by a certain percentage of the population who congregates in a specific location, not by the church, not by the military, and not by any economic class. Yet this has happened. In fact, it has happened more than once. There are definitely situations which warrant revolution. We should not be so quick to resort to it if there are other lawful means.

The revolution that took place on February 21-25, 1986 was a true revolution in every spirit of the word. EDSA II toes the line somewhat, yet is generally accepted. EDSA Tres crosses it completely, hence its failure. Revolution is a very dangerous and potent weapon. We as a society should be more responsible in wielding it.

We should also stop milking the past EDSA revolutions for all its political worth. A lot of politicians still take the revolutions as a license to make bad decisions. They keep bringing it up in speeches, and it can be sickening at times. Remember the past. But let us stop dwelling on it. The world has changed. Situations have changed. We have to look to the future.

That's just my two cents worth.

Links:

The 1986 EDSA Revolution Website
EDSA II: The Spirit of EDSA Lives On
EDSA Tres: Angry for the Wrong Reason

Some photos from:

An Online Guide About the Philippine History
Center for Southeast Asian Studies Picture Archive Vol 04

Here are even more signs that you may be a tech noob. God help me, I seem to be bumping into more of them everyday.

1. You try to measure the speed of your internet connection by sending an email to yourself (and actually timing it with a stopwatch);

2. You can't connect to your own wireless router because you don't know your own WEP/WPA key (and instead insist that the Wi-Fi adapter is broken);

3. You think a software firewall is the same as an antivirus program;

4. You think the "NO SIGNAL" message on your monitor means something is broken on your PC...when the monitor cable just worked itself loose;

5. You buy an expensive optical mouse only to use a old piece of corrugated cardboard as a mousepad;

6. You believe that a fast CPU means your PC will be fast at everything;

7. You expect a $1000.00 notebook to be twice as fast as a $500.00 one;

8. You believe a cheaper CPU is "less durable" or "less reliable" than a more expensive one;

9. You expect to be magically connected to the internet anywhere you are as long as your notebook's Wi-Fi adapter is turned on.

10. You still believe that old marketing crap about a CPU being faster simply because it has a higher clock speed.

It's not my intention to put down other people just because they may not be experts when it comes to computers and technology in general. I don't know everything there is to know about computers myself. But I am annoyed by people who think they know everything when it comes to computers, insist on their own, often fallacious, misguided beliefs, and worse, force their opinions on me. For some reason, I've been encountering quite a lot of them lately. And with computers and other gadgets getting more affordable by the day, I'll no doubt bump into more of them in the future.

Wearing a diver's watch doesn't make a person into a diver. Owning a 4x4 doesn't make a person a serious off-roader. In the same vein, owning a PC, no matter how expensive it is, doesn't make a person into a computer expert as well.

At the Women's Lib International Conference...

The first speaker, a lady from England stood up and said: "During last year's conference, we spoke about being more assertive with our husbands. Well, after the conference, I went home and told my husband, Barrington, that I would no longer cook for him and that he would have to do it himself.

After the first day, I saw nothing. The second day, I saw nothing, but on the third day, I saw that he had cooked a wonderful roast lamb."

(The crowd cheered).

The second speaker, from Russia , stood up and said: "After last year's conference, I went home and told my husband, Ivan, that I would no longer do his laundry and that he would have to do it himself.

The first day, I saw nothing. After the second day, I saw nothing, but on the third day, I saw that he had done not only his own washing, but mine as well."

(The crowd again cheered).

The third speaker, a Filipino lady from the Visayas, stood up and said: "Aftir lass yir's kampirins, I wint hom and tuld dat lazy husband op mines, Pidro, dat I was tro getting his slippers, kuking his meals ol da tyme, washing his underwir and dat he was going to heb to do dem himsilf."

(The crowd went wild with cheering and clapping that lasted for five long minutes).

She continued; "After da firs day, I see nating. Aftir da secun day, agin I see nating, but aftir da tird day, I could see a little bit out of my left eye."

From my inbox...:-)

Just a repost. You never know who might notice.

Anyone here interested in purchasing a plot of commercial land located along Commonwealth Ave. in Quezon City? It's my father's property, and it has a lot area of 2,844 sqm., with a number of residential improvements. The frontage is a bit on the small side, at 14 m., but it directly faces Commonwealth Ave.

The lot has been on the market for quite a while, but since the real estate market has been down for some time now...well you know how it is.

Just in case you're interested, or know someone who is, please feel free to leave a comment or to email me at ronallandottk@yahoo.com. To cut the hassle, would prefer to deal with direct buyers only. Sometimes it can be quite hard dealing with a multitude of brokers and middlemen...you know how that is too. :-)

You can also call 9315575 if you have any inquiries.

Siteplan of the property.


Aerial view. The road at the top of the photo is Commonwealth Avenue.


Here's a tighter aerial shot. The improvements are clearly visible from this distance.

And just in case you're wondering, no, I didn't hire an airplane or a helicopter. Used Google Earth instead. :-)

People are strange.

I'm slowly creeping up on middle age and yet I still get blindsided at times by the sheer absurdity shown by some people.

Just when you think you've seen it all.

The irony is, I'm a loner. Left to my own devices I'll probably stay on my own. I have a fair number of friends (too many if you ask me), but if it were all up to me I'd rather avoid them all. You go out of your way to help someone, to share your experiences, your expertise, to provide company, and for some reason you still get burned in the process.

Or maybe it's just because I have the wrong friends.

Don't get me wrong, most of my friends are nice, intelligent people. It just gets tiring sometimes adjusting to each and everyone of them. Most of you are thinking that I shouldn't adjust, that I should just be myself, and that's probably correct. The thing is, I was always a fairly easy going type of person, and for me it has never really been a big deal to accept the various nuances and idiosyncracies of most people. That's me. I'd gladly give up ground if it would make everyone happy and comfortable, but if I know I'm right, and the situation calls for it, I wouldn't have second thoughts about taking ground from anyone else. Most of the time I don't even have to be right. Hey, like everyone else I'm entitled to my own opinion. But if my opinion isn't respected for what it's worth (which really isn't much since an opinion, is well, just that), then there's no point in keeping up pretenses.

Really, I can take abuse as well as the next guy, but sometimes enough is enough. It's not always about being right. Sometimes it's just about you respecting the bloke right next to you, which isn't too difficult really, as long as the bloke respects you back.

It's strange that some people would rather be right (even if they're not) than have friends, not that it always has to be a choice between the two. Of course you can opt to turn a blind eye towards it, but sometimes, you just can't...or you just don't feel like it.

Well, whatever. Not that it's a big deal anyway. It's just...strange.

Happy to oblige.

I getting sick and tired of all the hooplah about "saving the planet" and BS like that. It seems like everyone is getting on the green bandwagon, from politicians, celebrities, even that guy I don't know from around the corner is obsessed about doing his bit in order to prevent climate change, global warming, whatever you want to call it.

The thing is, I think this is nothing but a whole lot of crap, meant to ease our conscience as we continue wrecking the planet by using up its limited resources and dumping noxious poisons into our skies and oceans.

Am I saying global warming is a myth? No, definitely not. It is a reality attested to by eons of geologic records. Global warming is a cycle that the Earth goes through every 40,000 to 100,000 years or thereabouts. What this means is that, whether we do anything or not, the Earth will definitely warm up, as this is what it has been doing for several million years now. Maybe we can slow it down, sure, but stop it? I don't think so.

So what does this "save the planet" mantra really mean for us?

For me it simply means that mankind, in all its arrogance, has proudly claimed itself as responsible for this phenomena and likewise responsible for preventing it...when in truth and in fact there is probably nothing we can do to stop it. The millions and millions of tons of greenhouse gases that we have pumped into our atmosphere have definitely sped up the process of warming up the planet, but make no mistake, global warming will happen, regardless of whether we all turn green or not.

What I'm particularly annoyed at is the way that we have labeled ourselves as saviors, as guardians of the Earth, that it is up to us to save the planet. The less glamorous truth is that we are not in any way saving the planet, we are merely saving ourselves. Earth has been here for billions of years before the first human ever stood up on two legs...and it will continue to exist for billions more even after the last person has died and turned to dust. The Earth has withstood innumerable cataclysmic events and mass extinctions, and it still endures.

How can we be so conceited so to claim that it is up to us to save the planet? Earth isn't dying, it is merely reacting to the irresponsible way that we have been treating it. The planet doesn't need saving, mankind does, and if we don't clean up our act real soon, we stand in real danger of wiping ourselves out. Maybe not anytime soon...but eventually.

The sooner we realize what we humans really are in the grand scheme of things...maybe then, we can save ourselves...and perhaps clean up the mess we made of this planet.