Reflections on the Bangsa Moro

 

FALSE FLAG TERRORISM

 

Webster Tarpley, author of 9/11 Terror Fraud: A Coup Against Civilization, explained what he called “State-Sponsored False Flag Terrorism.” False Flag Terrorism means creating terror and blaming it on somebody else much like what Hitler did when his group burned the German Parliament building and blamed it on the rival communists.

 

Tarpley said that such projects need four ingredients. The first are the PATSIES. They are the FALL GUYS or “oswalds” (as in Lee Harvey Oswald) who are “dupes, useful idots, fanatics, police agents, double agents, and provocateurs.” The second are the MOLES. They are government officials loyal to a PRIVATE  network. The third are the PROFESSIONAL KILLERS or “asteroids”. They are the technicians, CIA and special forces and the “old boys”.

 

These three groups are used by the government to plan and execute their schemes – the false flag terror projects. But they need the cooperation of one group to make the project believable. That group is the CORPORATE-CONTROLLED MEDIA. This is the “indispensable ingredient” to a successful project.

 

The Media handles the “main propaganda in favor of the official explanation of events despite inevitable absurdities, contradictions, etc.” The media is responsible for the “mass brainwashing in Anglo-American tradition.”

 

BUSH’S FIRST AWARENESS OF 9/11 ATTACK

 

The documentary showed George W. Bush speaking in a town hall in Orlando, Florida on December 4, 2001. Somebody from the audience asked him, “How did you feel when you heard of the terror attack?”

 

His answer: “…I was sitting outside the classroom and I saw an airplane hit the first tower, the TV was obviously on. I used to fly myself and I said to myself, ‘There’s one terrible pilot.’…It must have been a horrible accident. But I was whisked out there and did not have much time to think about that.”

 

Goodness Gracious! The President of the United States saw the plane crash on the First World Trade Center Tower and the only thing that came to his mind was that it was a horrible accident and the plane had a horrible pilot? And his Chief of Staff, advisers and Secret Service escort whisked him out of the room in order to meet with a group of elementary school children?

 

Not only that. Most of the world saw on TV or on Michael Moore’s documentary that when the second plane hit the other tower, his Chief of Staff whispered to him, “A second plane has hit” and he remained seated listening to the teacher read a children story to a bunch of kids.

 

This was the reaction of the man who later called on the world to wage a War on Terror because the World Trade Center towers were attacked. He then went on to bomb and cause the death of millions of Muslims in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as thousands of his own soldiers.

 

BUSH SAW THE PLANE ON TV IN SEPTEMBER 11

 

Mr. Bush, Jr. said he saw on TV in the morning of Sept. 11 the plane hit the tower. According to Zwicker, Bush repeated that story on at least one more occasion. But, as the documentary showed, no TV station showed on Sept. 11, 2001 a plane hitting the tower.

 

The footage which showed the first plane hitting the tower was first aired only the day after, on Sept. 12, 2001.

 

Was Mr. Bush lying? Or he just couldn’t remember what happened on that momentous day, which occurred just less than three months earlier? Or, as the documentary insinuated, did Mr. Bush truly see that footage on TV on that day – privately – when nobody else had the chance to see it?

 

In another documentary I saw earlier, the documentarians asked what was a French TV crew doing in the middle of New York, on the street, with such heavy equipment lying on the road just in time to get a perfect shot of the first plane hitting the tower?

 

In that documentary, one can see obvious video manipulation. The car’s wind shield reflected the plane hitting the tower perfectly yet the building was way way behind it. It simply defied the laws of physics or optics.

 

9/11 COMMISSION

 

The documentary asked if the 9/11 was that important – the US entered two wars for it, why then was the Commission tasked to investigate it was created only 411 days (more than a year and a month) after the event? In fact, Mr. Bush grudgingly agreed to it amidst calls for its investigation.

 

And Bush first appointed Mr. Henry Kissinger, the prime adviser of President Nixon of the Watrergate scandal fame. The New York Times remarked that it was clear that Bush wanted “to contain the investigation (the White House) long opposed.”

 

The program also reminded the viewers that Mr. K , with the help of the CIA, had Chile’s President Salvador Allende killed. And that Mr. K was an expert at cover-ups.Mr. K had to back out because of an almost universal backlash.

 

But 431 days after 9/11, Bush named two people to lead the Commission – Thomas Cain and Lee Hamilton. Both are cover-up experts themselves and its Executive Director is a right-wing hawk.

 

As to the mandate of the commission, its leaders declared: “We are not out to blame anyone.” So what were they out to do? No one was to be held accountable for the failure of intelligence in 9/11?

 

And what was the budget of the Commission? Only $ 3 Million! A 1996 commission on Casino gambling had a bigger budget - $ 5 million. The Columbia Shuttle Explosion Commission had a budget of $ 50 Million as did Clinton’s Whitewater deal Commission.

 

9/11 COMMISSION REPORT

 

Zwicker said that the Commission requested 11,000 documents from the White House but the White House released only 25 % of that with many portions of the documents blocked out. White House officials also resisted requests that officials testify under oath and Bush rushed the Commission’s deadline.

 

According to the documentary, Bush and Cheney met the Commission behind closed doors. They refused to testify under oath. No tape recorders were allowed. The President did not give any opening statement. And those taking notes were asked to submit them to security personnel.

 

Mr. Zwicker concluded that in law, Bush and Cheney’s actions are considered GUILTY DEMEANOR.

 

And according to the 9/11 Commission, the ultimate cause of the 9/11 event was “a failure of imagination.”

 

The Commission actually blamed some people. They blamed the FAA or Federal Aviation Administration. According to the Commission, ‘The US military is itself blind, being wholly dependent on the FAA to inform it about what is going on in US airspace.”

 

Only imbeciles would believe that. The country that spends more on military arms and technology than Russia, England, France, Germany and China put together depends solely on a civilian agency for information regarding its airspace? That is preposterous, incredulous, absurd, ridiculous, and absolutely idiotic.

 

Thierry Meyssan in his book PENTAGATE wrote that the military possesses “several very sophisticated radar monitoring systems, incomparable with civilian systems.”

 

Zwicker added that according to the website of these systems, they are “capable of detecting and monitoring a great number of targets that would be consistent with a massive Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile or SLBM attack.

 

The Commission wants people to believe that America can defend itself from massive missile attacks but was unprepared for a couple of airline passenger jets attacking the Twin Towers.

 

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

 

The documentary then enumerated some questions left unanswered by the Commission like:

 

-         What caused the collapse of the Twin Towers? Heat from the burning jet fuel could not possibly destroy the steel structure of the buildings.

-         What hit the Pentagon? The hole is not big enough for a 757 jumbo plane.

-         What is the connection between the Bush and the Bin Laden families?

-         What caused the startling case of the World Trade Center Bldg. 7, which collapsed without even being hit by anything?

 

CONCLUSION

 

The documentary concluded that the US Constitution demands from its citizens to “guard against enemies foreign and DOMESTIC.”

 

The documentary asks – Why do most people still remain blind to the possibility that 9/11 was an INSIDE JOB?

 

The answer: Because of the media. It says that “today’s media feast on, profit from and join in the trumpeting of outside threats, demonization of designated goons…”

 

The documentary concludes by calling on the Americans to be vigilant and make their MEDIA and GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABLE.

 

 

 9/11 LEGACY

 

History will certainly show that the 9/11 attack was a great hoax foisted by the Bush-Cheney clique on an unsuspecting world.

 

For years now, there are numerous books, articles, documentaries, websites and blogs that document all the contradictions and absurdities of the official 9/11 narrative.

 

But it is a great crime to humanity if the perpetrators of this Great Conspiracy will go unscathed. Millions have died, been maimed, wounded, displaced, tortured or simply made miserable by this hoax. Americans have lost many of their civil liberties in the name of Homeland Security. The same goes with the citizens of other countries like the United Kingdom and even the Philippines which has its very own Anti-Terror Law.

 

In the land of Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, there is now a Thought Crime Bill or HR 1955 a.k.a. Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Act of 2007. 400 congressmen voted for this bill as against 6 (3 democrats and 3 republicans). This Act will effectively criminalize dissent as well as control the Internet. No more freedom of speech and expression for Americans. I hope the American Senate will throw this Act into the dustbin.

 

As for the Muslim world, the Muslim masses should make their leaders accountable for being so cowardly and worse, for helping the West in killing millions of Muslims. A crime is done not only by commission but also by omission. In other words, a crime is done not only by doing it but also by NOT doing anything to prevent it. And so the Muslim leaders, especially the Arabs in the case of Iraq and Pakistan in the case of Afghanistan, are just as guilty as Messrs. Bush and Blair and their cohorts.

 

 

 ===========

 PART 1

see related post: CNN’s In The Footsteps of Bin Laden

 

 

 

                                                            “The imbecility of men is always inviting

                                                             the impudence of power.”  - R. W. Emerson

 

 

I have just seen a video documentary titled “The Great Conspiracy: the 9/11 news special that you never saw” by Barrie Zwicker, journalist and media critic.

 

The fact that Mr. Zwicker used the title The Great Conspiracy indicates that he was confident of the facts he documented. Since that fateful 9/11 day, the media in the US and most of the world had succeeded in making people feel stupid when faced with conspiracy theories. Conspiracy theory has become taboo and anyone who entertains conspiracy theories are considered ignorant, illogical and delusional. Mr. George W. Bush warned the American people thus: “Let us never tolerate outrageous conspiracy theories concerning the attacks on September 11, malicious lies that attempt to shift the blame away from the terrorists themselves.”

 

If you believe in Mr. Bush, then don’t watch the video or read this blog post. But if you have an open mind, you might find the video and this post educating and enlightening.

 

Now that George W. Bush and his gang are going out of office and are to be replaced by an intelligent Democrat, I hope that there will be a real investigation of the 9/11 event. This is of utmost importance because 9/11 has made Muslims all over the world suspect and has made the lives of millions of Muslims all over the world worse –  the worst of which includes the massacre of Muslim men, women and children from the mountains of Afghanistan to the desert towns and cities of Iraq and even up to the hills and valleys of Mindanao.

 

Because of 9/11, all legitimate struggles for people’s self-determination and freedom – from Palestine to Chechnya to Mindanao – are reduced to simple terrorism by the adherents of the Bush-Cheney doctrine.

 

It is only fair that Justice should be served.

 

MY FIRST REACTION TO 9/11

 

On Sept. 11, 2001, I was, like everyone else, shocked to see on TV the so-called Attack on America. I immediately remembered that it was barely a week before when I was reading Media Studies essays by supposedly critical thinkers. After reading the last article by a University of the Philippines professor, I thought, “these communist-leaning people should stop writing such essays. They picture the world in such dire straits with the U.S. doing all the evil stuff and absolutely gave no peaceful remedies or alternatives.” I thought that students and young people reading such articles would be so frustrated and full of hate and might just do something crazy against Americans.

 

When I saw the 9/11 attack, I thought, “ My God! This is the consequence of all these hate-filled ramblings of closet communists masquerading as learned academicians.”

 

It was a bigger shock to me that the supposed attackers were Muslims and not socialists or communists or plain crazy people.

 

I felt sorry for the victims of the attacks as well as for the suicide bombers. The suicide bombers, too, have families and lives of their own.

 

THEN CAME THE QUESTIONS

 

I was stuck to the TV for days. I noticed so many illogical things happening. I wondered why the buildings were falling so neatly in place as if they were brought down by a controlled demolition job.

 

I wondered why the third building went down, too. It was not hit by a plane but went down in exactly the same manner.

 

When I heard that the supposed culprits were Arabs, I was immediately suspicious. How in the world could young Arabs hijack several planes all at the same time? And these were young rich Arabs. I studied in Saudi Arabia among such Arabs. Nobody from our school would even think of doing such a thing. Not even in their dreams.

 

THE PASSENGERS

 

Since they were plane crashes, I waited for news of the passengers. There was a supposed phone call from the wife of a government official. The wife was on one of the planes.

 

As days and weeks went on, there was so much focus on the people who died in the buildings. But none for those on the planes. No relatives of supposed passengers were ever interviewed except, I suppose, the government official who received a phone call.

 

And there were NO black boxes. In all plane crashes, the black box is the first to be searched. And I have the impression that black boxes are practically indestructible.

 

And where was the plane that crashed on the field on its way to the White House? It crashed on land, so why was there no pieces of the plane? Surely, the bomb that blew it was not a nuclear one. So why did it simply vanish?

 

And where was the plane that crashed on the Pentagon? Weren’t there any survivors?

 

THE CULPRIT

 

When the White House announced that the culprit was one man named Osama Bin Laden, I thought it was simply stupid. Who was he? How could he be able to launch such a complicated plan? Absolutely no way.

 

Then, Bush announced that the Afghanistan government should surrender Mr. Bin Laden to the US. Why would any Muslim government surrender another Muslim to a non-Muslim government to hang? It was ridiculous. Even the US and European countries do not just surrender their citizens or even asylum seekers. England protected Salman Rushdie and did not surrender him to the Iranian government.

 

And then suddenly, the Afghanistan government, run by the Talibans, was being demonized by the western media. Whoa! Who created the Talibans and made them strong and take over Afghanistan? The Americans did! When so many in the world were complaining of Taliban atrocities, America was the Taliban’s greatest protector.

 

Everything was turning into a farce.

 

 

THE BUSH WARS

 

Then, the inevitable happened. Bush attacked Afghanistan. What was amazing was that it was sanctioned by the United Nations.

 

 

I was so shocked that the world was letting an incredible thing to happen. They would let one country (USA) bomb and kill millions of people of another country (Afghanistan) for a crime supposedly committed by one person (Bin Laden) from a different country (Saudi Arabia).

 

I lost my faith in the wisdom and leadership of so-called Muslim countries (Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, etc.) including their organization – the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC)– for allowing such a crime against innocent Muslims to be committed. For me, all the leaders of these Muslim countries had lost lost their moral ascendancy over anyone.

 

After bombing Afghanistan to almost kingdom come, Osama Bin Laden still remained free. He still is.

 

And then, all of a sudden, Bush went for Iraq.

 

Putting Saddam Hussein, a Baathist, in the same league as Osama Bin Laden, an alleged fundamentalist, was simply idiotic.

 

Yet the imbeciles of America were easily won over by Bush. And so did the imbeciles of Britain, Germany, Spain and of course, the Philippines.

 

Fortunately, the United Nations refused to sanction the war. The UN chief, Kofi Annan even declared the US attack on Iraq as ILLEGAL.

 

The so-called Weapons of Mass Destruction supposedly owned by Iraq turned out to be nothing but a big lie perpetrated by Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld and believed by Colin Powell.

 

Bush and Cheney are now going out of office but the Bush wars in Afghanistan and Iraq continue.

 

THE GREAT CONSPIRACY DOCUMENTARY

 

Barrie Zwicker’s “The Great Conspiracy: the 9/11 news special that you never saw” documentary was made in 2004 and is just one of the many documentaries debunking the 9/11 attack as nothing but one big HOAX. The most popular documentary on the issue is still Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11.

 

Barrie Zwicker calls the 9/11 affair as the “OVERARCHING FICTION AND CRIME AND COVER-UP OF OUR TIME.” Its bible or official narrative is the 9/11 Commission Report. And its precious commodity is FEAR, which is promoted, offered and sold to the public by its masterminds – Bush, Cheney et al.

 

THE NEW BUZZ WORDS

 

The Western and Westernized media has new buzzwords – Terror, Terrorism, “Believed to be linked to Al-Qaeda.”

 

Zwicker calls these words – THOUGHT-STOPPERS.

 

Media people like Maria Ressa simply have to use the phrase “believed to be linked to Al-Qaeda” in reference to an individual or group for that group or individual to be immediately considered Public Enemy Number 1.

 

In the 1950s, Senator McCarthy used the C-word (Communist). Now, it’s the T-word (Terrorist).

 

WESTERN ARROGANCE

 

Every time George W. Bush or his stooge Tony Blair or their cohorts proclaim to their people that the so-called terrorists attack the West because “they hate our freedoms” or against “our democratic way of life”, I feel like I want to puke. It is so nauseating in its idiocy and ignorant arrogance.

 

Why would anyone, even Osama Bin Laden, attack or even hate America because of “America’s freedoms”? Nobody hates Freedom. Bin Laden’s declared hatred for America stems from the fact that the American troops are occupying his country – Saudi Arabia. And his call to arms to the Muslim brothers is based on the fact that the holy cities Mecca and Medina, which are situated in Saudi Arabia, are in danger of being occupied by the Americans.

 

TERRORISM

 

The documentary explained that terrorism, which was the last resort of oppressed people’s struggling for self-determination, has been re-defined by the 9/11 event. It also mentioned the aphorism that one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.

 

Zwicker quoted Herman Chomsky’s definitions of RETAIL terrorism and WHOLESALE terrorism. The first, which is the one trumpeted by the West, is committed by individuals or group of individuals. The second, which is denied by the West and their client states like the Philippines, is committed by the states.

 

Zwicker quoted from the book The American Empire and the Fourth World, which says: “The imagery of terrorism (has) replaced that of savagery and (then) communism as the main explanatory catch-all to describe the real, illusory or manufactured enemies of the American way of life.”

 

In the olden days, against the American Indians, the enemy was savagery. In the 1900s, against the Filipinos, the enemy was savagery. President McKinley declared that it was America’s “manifest destiny” to bring the Filipinos out of savagery into civilization and Christianity. Somebody had to correct McKinley that the Filipinos were Christians.

 

In order to convince the Americans that the Filipinos were indeed savages, they brought to the US some people from the Mountain Province wearing nothing but G-strings.

 

The Americans also pictured the Moros as savages to defend their occupation of Moroland.

 

From the 1950s, Communism was the BAD WORD all over the Western world including the Westernized Philippines.

 

After 9/11, the new buzz word was TERRORISM. But, as Zwicker puts it, if the US uses terror, it is defined as “NOT terror.” If the other side uses terror, it is defined as “the only kind of terror”.

 

Within hours of 9/11, Bush designated the villains and in 30 days, the Patriot Act was passed by the US Congress which cost the Americans the loss of civil liberties and granted the State extraordinary powers to encroach on the privacy and rights of individuals, including committing torture, in the name of Homeland Security.

 

In the name of Terrorism, pre-emptive war is justified. The war against Terrorism has become the Medieval Christians’ just war or holy war better known as the Crusade.

 

Because of Terrorism, America sacrificed thousands of American lives, committed murder and mayhem on millions of people, spent trillions of dollars for military and other spending.

 

Terrorism has criminalized dissent.

 

Former Washington correspondent of The Globe and Mail Lawrence Martin wrote, “last year, acts of terrorism killed 300 to 400 people, ranking it so far down the list of dangers…that it is barely visible.”

 

Zwicker added that 300 Americans are struck by lightning each year.

 

Yet when people like Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Tony Blair, Angeka Merkel, etc. talk, it is as if the terrorists have killed millions of people.

 

FAKE TERROR ACTS

 

The documentary reminds viewers that Fake Terrorism is not new. The best example is the Nazi’s torching of the Reichstag (Parliament Building) one week before elections. The Nazis blamed the Communists for it and called on the Germans to rally to the Nazi cause because “the Fatherland is under attack”. In the same vein, Bush rallied the Americans after 9/11 because “the Homeland is under attack.”

 

In the Philippines, we are all familiar with the Plaza Miranda bombing and the fake assassination attempt on then Defense Secretary Ponce-Enrile. These events were used by President Marcos to justify the declaration of Martial Law.

 

9/11 – ANOTHER BIG LIE

 

Do people believe that 9/11 is a big lie? According to the polls, Zwicker said, 63 % of Canadians and Germans believed that the “US had something to do” with 9/11.

 

With the election of Barack Hussein Obama as the next US President, it can be assumed that the majority of Americans do not buy Bush and Cheney’s 9/11 scenario.

 

In his book  Body of Secret: Anatomy of the Ultra Secret National Security Agency, media man James Bamford mentioned some of the scenarios considered by NSA in order to trick US public opinion against Cuba after the debacle of the Bay of Pigs invasion. These include: “an exact duplicate for a civil registered aircraft…At a designated time, the duplicate would be…loaded with selected passengers all boarded under carefully prepared aliases. The actual registered aircraft would be converted to a drone…The destruction of that aircraft will be triggered by radio signal…” The Cubans would then be blamed with electronic instruments to used as proofs.

 

Sounds familiar? Many writers / thinkers / non-mainstream media people have already questioned the presence or reality of the planes involved in 9/11. At least one of the first Pentagon crash eyewitnesses interviewed on TV said that he saw a missile hit Pentagon. He certainly did not say that it was a jumbo jet. Could it be a drone?

 

Bamford also wrote that the NSA even considered blowing up the rocket ship carrying astronaut John Glen to space and then blame the mishap on the Cubans.

 

VIETNAM WAR LIE

 

To get the support of the US public for an attack on Vietnam, the media and government claimed that US ships were attacked by North Vietnamese PT boats in the Gulf of Tonkin on Aug. 2, 1964. The newspaper report covering the attack was interestingly datelined Pearl Harbor.

 

But there were NO PT boats in the area at that time. In the book In Love and War by Jim and Sybil Stockade, Admiral Jim Stockdale wrote that he was a fighter jet pilot flying at that time and he saw no Vietnamese boats at all. The fake news article was hatched by LBJ, Sec. of State Dean Rusk and Defense Secretary McNamara.

 

It is reminiscent of the time when William Randolph Hearst sent a New York Journal photographer to Cuba in 1898 with the instructions: “You take the photographs, and I will provide the war.” Hearst succeeded in initiating the Spanish-American war, which as all Filipinos know, was the reason Mother America came to “liberate” and “civilize” the Philippine natives.

 

The Philippine-American War cost untold deaths and suffering for the Filipinos (Moros included) and the occupation of the Islands for 40 years. It was a costly war for the US, too. Two-thirds of its armed forces were sent to the Philippines and it took them several years because after the war against the Philippines of Aguinaldo came the war against the Moros in Mindanao.

 

The Vietnam War cost the Americans 58,000 US soldiers, caused the death of 3 million Vietnamese and the eventual humiliation of the US who had to leave Vietnam in defeat.

 

FIRST GULF WAR LIE

 

To get the support of the US public for an attack on Iraq in 1991, the government of George Herbert Bush presented Kuwaitis who claimed that the Iraqi soldiers were killing incubator babies in Kuwait. The most compelling witness was a 15-year old girl who was invited to a Congressional hearing. In tears and in good American-accented English, she (whose name was not revealed for security reasons), recounted how she saw Iraqi soldiers take Kuwaiti babies out of the incubators and put them on the floor to die.

 

The dramatic testimony of the pretty English-speaking Kuwaiti girl drew the support of the American people to launch the Desert Storm against Kuwait.

 

Later, Canadian investigative journalists found out that the girl was actually the daughter of the Kuwaiti Ambassador to the US and that she was coached by the PR firm Hill and Knowlton.

 

The first Gulf War and its succeeding sanctions against Iraq resulted in the deaths of millions of Iraqis, including 500,000 children.

 

With so many fake attacks and fake stories in American history in the last 100 years, isn’t it possible that the 9/11 attack was also fake like the Gulf of Tonkin or the reports of Hearst’s newspapers or the fake tears of a 15 year old girl?

 

And what about the Pearl Harbor attack which led to the entry of the US into World War II. Documents show that the Japanese attack was deliberately provoked by the US government and that the commanders in Pearl Harbor were deliberately left in the dark about the Japanese military build-up, advance and attack on the American base.

 

According to the documentary, Zbigniew Brezinski wrote that the US needed another Pearl Harbor to re-strengthen and re-position the US as a World Power.

 

…  CONTINUATION  …

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the first time in my life, I followed the whole two-year election campaign, from the primaries to Election Night. These are my impressions:

 

1. The long campaign makes the people get to have a good grasp of who the candidates are, how aware they are of the issues and where they stand on the various issues.

 

Perhaps it would be better if the campaign period here also last that long.

 

 

2. The teleprompters make good orators. It is such a pleasure listening to great speeches delivered eloquently. It’s been a long time since I last heard a good speech from a Filipino politician.

 

The speeches of the Democrat party people were very good, especially during their party convention. The Clintons, the Obamas, Biden and others were excellent orators.

 

 

3. The debates in both the primaries and the ones between the standard bearers were great. The questions were tough and the answers were credible. They were so unlike the so-so debates among Philippine senatorial and presidential debates (if any).

 

And the debates were not limited to the candidates. The news programs regularly invited personalities from the two camps who debated with each other. The congressmen, senators, strategists, commentators, analysts, etc. gave the viewers better grasp on the issues involved. These kind of debates simply do not happen in the Philippines.

 

 

4. The campaign was No. 1 in the Media agenda. The news networks, the TV programs, the papers, and the radio shows all talked about the campaign – on a daily basis. It is impossible for an American not to know what was going on in the campaign.

 

In the Philippines, materials about the campaigns can only be read in the papers, heard on some radio shows and on news programs, plus the advertisements. There are no comedy shows like the Jon Stewart Daily Show or Robert Colbert Show or the Late Night programs, where campaign issues or personalities were always talked about.

 

I had been active in many national campaigns, and I have always thought that most of the electorates know very little about the candidates or the issues.

 

5. In the US, as a rule, media people - reporters, anchors, presenters, etc. — do not let the politicians get away with B.S. If the politician say something obviously wrong, they correct them. For example, when Rudi Giuliani said that the media people do not question Obama about his past, his associations with people, etc. the interviewer told Giuliani that "it was not true." When Giuliani persisted, the interviewer stood his ground. He said they had been asking Obama all sorts of questions for the past 18 months. Giuliani had to give in.

 

In the Philippines, that would never happen. Media people as a rule are either afraid, intimidated, ignorant, under the pocket of the politician or has the mistaken notion of "politeness" in media interviews.

 

6. During the whole campaign, one gets the impression that the politicians were really thinking of the people. They were concerned about the Medical Insurance. They want all the Americans to have access to medical insurance at the most reasonable price.

 

How different they are from the Filipinos. Here, nobody thinks of Universal Insurance. The majority of the Filipinos do not even have medical insurance.

 

A month or so ago, a relative of a friend died. He was in his early 50s. He did not have medical insurance so he hardly went for check-ups or medical treatment. He did not want to spend for his medical treatments.

 

He was not a poor man. He was a La Sallista and so are his sons. Yet he could not even afford to pay his medical bills.

 

The state of medical insurance in this country is deplorable. Filipinos simply cannot afford to get sick.

 

 

7. In the land of intellectual giants like Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and Henry David Thoreau, I am amazed that intellectual pygmies like George W. Bush, Jr., John McCain and Sarah Palin can still find so many followers.

 

I was shocked when I learned that Bush, Jr, actually graduated from Yale University and took his M.B.A. at Harvard. People have told me that anyone can graduate from any American school, including the Ivy League ones, if one has money. But, really, how could George W. Bush get degrees from the top two US schools? It boggles my imagination. Just listen to him speak!

 

According to Oliver Stone’s movie, “W.”, George, Sr. had something to do about Jr.’s admission to Harvard. And of course, the family name got him into Yale.

 

 

8. I never believed that there is actually such a thing as a “dumb blond”. Blonds are just as intelligent or as dumb as brunettes or redheads. According to Shelly Winter, Marilyn Monroe was really intelligent. And she went for intelligent guys like Arthur Miller or John F. Kennedy. Joe DiMaggio was just an aberration in her love life.

 

But after watching Elizabeth Hasselbeck of The View, I must say, if ever there is a dumb blond, Elizabeth is it. I think she is the dumbest blond ever.

 

 

9. Finally, with the election of Barack Obama, the anachronistic and war-mongering foreign policy of Bush based on Samuel Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations will come to an end. In my other blog, I wrote:

 

AMERICA HAS SPOKEN - OBAMA IS THE MAN

 

Barack Obama is the next US President. Amazing!

 

Just a few years ago, the US President’s policy closely conformed to Samuel Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations scenario where the world was seen as divided into power blocks much like in the Middle Ages – the Western World (Roman Catholic and Protestant Europe), the Byzantine (now the Orthodox Catholic as represented by Russia and Greece), the Islamic Empire, the Chinese Empire, the Indian Civilization, the Africans, etc.

 

Huntington divided the world according to religion and race. He suspected the “hyphenated” Americans (Latin-Americans, African-Americans, Asian-Americans) as the “fifth column” working for America’s enemies. America, as seem by Huntington, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Bush is basically white West European descended from the Western Europe of the Middle Ages or the descendant nation-states of the Roman Empire.

 

This civilizational paradigm was the basis for Mr. Bush’s wars against Iraq, Afghanistan and adversarial relations with Bush’s “axis of evil” and cold relations with Russia.

 

AMERICA’S WESTERN IDENTITY

 

Huntington wants a uni-cultural America in order to be better armed in a 7 or 8 - civilizational world. He is against multiculturalism in the US. As I wrote in an academic paper:

 

Huntington says, “multiculturalism at home threatens the United States and the West.” (Ibid.,p.318)

 

America, a country of immigrants and the melting pot of the world, must now reject calls for multiculturalism because, for Huntington, “a multi-cultural America is impossible because a non-Western America is not American.” Huntington says, “The preservation of the United States and the West requires the renewal of Western identity.”

 

For present-day Americans whose cultural roots do not lie in Western Europe, this could be very problematic. The Blacks might just have to stop calling themselves African-Americans, the Hispanics would have to forget Latin America and consider Spain as the origin of its culture, and Eastern Europeans might just have to be wary of its mother culture especially if they happen to be Orthodox Christians. And the Jews will just have to identify themselves with Western (i.e., Roman Catholic and Protestant) civilization.

 

The Asians may just have to go home. Huntington states,” Whatever economic connections may exist between them (U.S. and Asia), the fundamental cultural gap between American and Asian societies preclude their joining together in a common home.” (p.307) As for the Muslim Americans, they have started feeling the heat since 9/11 according to news reports.

 

John McCain fully supports this civilizational paradigm policy. He calls for a new League of Nations which would not include Russia, China and other potential enemies (read: civilizations). He obviously has no faith in the United Nations. His campaign painted Obama as “the Other”, directly or indirectly. Obama was the mysterious “Other” – Black, Muslim, and potential Terrorist.

 

But with today’s election of the African-American Barack Obama, one can hope that Huntington’s idiotic ideas will now be thrown into the dustbin.

 

The Dream of Martin Luther King, Jr. has been achieved. The war Abraham Lincoln waged for racial equality finally bears fruit. The American Dream is now a reality to all Americans – white, black, red or yellow.

 

A NEW AGE

 

Hopefully, the election of Barack Obama means the dawning of a new age of peace and prosperity for America and the world. That is my hope.

 

However, the signs do not augur well for America. There are forces beyond Obama’s control – the military-industrial complex (the same one Eisenhower warned against), the bigotry of people, etc.

 

Obama needs to be strong and steadfast and steer a course that is as far away from the Huntington-Bush-Cheney doctrine as possible. He must promote a paradigm shift in the world’s perception of reality and lead the world in pursuing goals that promote truth, peace and prosperity for all.

 

I wish President Barack Hussein Obama all the luck in the world.

 

 

 

 

 

Some writers have categorized people according to the year of their birth.

• Lost Generation (1883–1900)
• Greatest Generation (1901–1924)
• Silent Generation (1925–1942)
• Baby Boomer (1943–1960)
• Generation X (1961–1981)
• Generation Y (1982–2001)
• Generation Z (2001–)

These categorizations are from Generations  by Strauss and Howe. According to this list, Senator John McCain is of the Silent Generation while Senator Barack Obama belongs to the X-generation.

 

The last 2 US presidents – George W. Bush and William “Bill” Clinton belong to the Baby Boom generation. The seven presidents before them belong to the Greatest Generation (also called the G.I. Generation), namely, George H. W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson, and John F. Kennedy.

 

For the first time in US since 1960, somebody who does not belong to the Greatest (G.I.) Generation or the Baby Boom Generation will become President.

 

SILENT GENERATION

 

Historian and best-selling author William Manchester (American Ceasar) described the people of the Silent Generation as "withdrawn, cautious, unimaginative, indifferent, unadventurous and silent." TIME Associate Editor Gerald Clarke, 32 (in 1970) wrote:

"We are renters still, taking as our own the values of both old and young—and not thoroughly comfortable with either. Many of us now feel quite at ease with pot, rock and permissive sex; many of us reject the youth culture categorically. Most of us, however, occupy the unhappy position of being undecided: we want to enjoy, but deep down in our pre-Spock psyches, we feel we shouldn’t. We puff marijuana at parties when we would be happier with Scotch or gin; we don bellbottoms when we would rather be in tweeds; we jump into affairs when we would rather be at home in bed—asleep. The visible result often is a compromise: the staid Wall Street lawyer, in vest, rep tie and cuffed trousers in the daytime, who turns Bloomingdale hippie in the evening, donning tie-dyed pants and tank top to weed the garden.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Generation

 

The Silent Geners were the Artists of the century as epitomized by John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Bob Dylan. They were really not that silent. They led the civil rights movement and the Women’s Rights movement in the US. They were the bosses of the Baby Boomers.

 

In the Philippines, they were the pioneers of Pinoy Rock like the Juan de la Cruz Band. They were also the leaders of the socialist / communist movement like Jose Ma. Sison and Crispin Beltran. They were also the kings of Philippine movies – Fernando Poe, Jr. and Joseph Estrada.

 

In the US, nobody from this generation became president. John McCain belongs to this generation.

 

Perhaps it is unfortunate for the Philippines that three of its presidents belong to this generation – Corazon Aquino, Fidel Ramos and Joseph Estrada.

 

The Philippines only had 3 presidents from the Greatest or G. I. Generation. But in 1953, Magsaysay became President way ahead than the first US President from that generation. But after Magsaysay, the Lost Generation (1883-1900) regained its leadership for the generation’s last hurrah. The Greatest Generation’s Kennedy won in the US elections of 1960 as did Diosdado Macapagal in the 1961 Philippine presidential elections. Then Marcos held on to it for more than twenty years, finally losing it to the next generation – the Silent Ones through Corazon Aquino. Cory passed on the torch to her fellow Silent Gener who was succeeded by another Silent Gener.

 

In 1992, the Philippines lost its chance of having another president from the Greatest Generation in the person of Jovito Salonga of the Liberal Party. 

 

It appears that the Silent Generation was better off leading movements like human rights, women’s rights and civil rights or doing music, films and the other arts. When they lead countries, they tend to be conservative, authoritarian and second-rate. France’s Jacques Chirac is the epitome of Silent Generation world leaders. For decades, he struggled against Greatest Generation’s French leaders Valery Giscard d’Estaing, Georges Marchais and Francois Mitterand. He finally won when these guys left the political scene.

 

Finally, in 2001, a Baby Boomer, Bill Clinton’s classmate at Georgetown University, took over the Philippine Presidency.

 

BABY BOOMERS

 

Twenty years for a generation is long enough during the first half of the 20^th century. In the 19^th century or earlier, a generation would be around 30 years. This is because life did not change rapidly then. However, the rapid advance of technology in the second half of the century makes the experiences of people sharply different even if their age differs by only a decade or so. One decade in today’s epoch equals to generations in previous eras in terms of change in one’s daily lives.

 

Just a decade ago, we did not have HD TV or broad band internet or video-capable cellphones or DVD’s. A decade ago, personal computers have 2 Gigabytes of memory at best. Today, PC’s can have more than 300 GB!

 

The Baby Boom generation, whether it is defined as people born from 1943-1960 or 1946-1964 (the more common definition), could not possibly contain only one generation of people. The elder half of this generation is so vastly different from the younger half in fundamental ways.

 

From wikipedia, the Baby Boom Generation is described, defined, categorized in several ways:

1946-1972

·         The Baby Boomers were the generation born just after World War II, a time that included a 14-year increase in birthrate worldwide. Baby Boomers in their teen and college years were characteristically part of the 1960s counterculture, but later became more conservative, eventually gave birth to Generations X and Y. Most academic and demographic literature uses 1946 and 1964 as the cutoff years of the Baby Boom generation.^[1]

1954-1969

·         Generation Jones, first labeled by U.S. social commentator Jonathan Pontell, is the younger portion of the Baby Boomers. Their early life experiences hold more in common with Generation X than with the Boomers.

1964-1979

·         Generation X is the generation born between approximately 1964 to 1979, during the time of the Vietnam War, and connected to the pop culture of the 1980s and 1990s they grew up in. Other names used interchangeably with Generation X are 13th Generation and Baby Busters. Most of this generation are children of The Baby Boomers and The Silent Generation. Those born before 1973 spent most of their teen years in the 1980s.^[2]

*****

In the 1985 study of US generational cohorts by Schuman and Scott, a broad sample of adults was asked, "What world events over the past 50 years were especially important to them?"^[5] For the baby boomers the results were:

·         Baby Boomer cohort #1 (born from 1946 to 1954)

o        Memorable events: assassinations of JFK, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr., political unrest, walk on the moon, Vietnam War, anti-war protests, social experimentation, sexual freedom, civil rights movement, environmental movement, women’s movement, protests and riots, experimentation with various intoxicating recreational substances

o        Key characteristics: experimental, individualism, free spirited, social cause oriented

o         

·         Baby Boomer cohort #2 (born from 1955 to 1964)

o        Memorable events: Watergate, Nixon resigns, the Cold War, the oil embargo, raging inflation, gasoline shortages

o        Key characteristics: less optimistic, distrust of government, general cynicism

 

 

Obviously, there is much confusion here. I would agree in the division of Schuman and Scott but I would not call cohort # 2 as Baby Boomers. I would say, the legitimate Baby Boomers are those born from 1943-1956. These people were born at the end or after WW II. It was a time for rejoicing. It was the post-war boom in the US, the Marshall Plan years in Western Europe, the independence years in the developing world. In the Philippine, the period was called the “Liberation.”

 

These people were born during a time of plenty. There were enough jobs for everyone and the future looked bright. Their parents were well-off and they grew up in the sanitized world of the 1950s and the mid 1960s.

 

They followed their elders’ lead in fighting for civil rights and other social rights movements. They listened to Rock n Roll of Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and later, the Beatles. Their Peace advocacies led to the younger ones to the hippie movement. They went on to lead revolutions – from the sexual revolution to actual liberation movements.

 

Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Franklin Drilon and most top Philippine officials belong to this generation. My brother Jun Abbas, Nur Misuari and Hashem Salamat of the Bangsa Moro revolution all belong to this generation.

 

The younger half of the so-called Baby Boom generation is so different from the older half such that they deserve to have a totally different category. Those born from 1955 to 1964 should be distinguished from the Baby Boomers of Clinton, Bush, Jr., Gloria Arroyo or the Bangsa Moro revolutionary leaders. As pointed out by other authors, this group has more similarities to the X-geners than to the elder Baby Boomers.

 

Those born in the late 1950s up to the late 60s belong to a totally new generation, distinct from the Baby Boomers. The world has become very different then. Russia had launched its Sputnik rockets, America started building its Inctercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs), the Civil Rights movement had started. This is the period between the First Indochina War (French vs Vietnam) and the Second Indochina War, popularly known as the Vietnam War.

 

The children grew up in the 1960s and 70s amidst The Cold War between the Superpowers. While the Baby Boomers danced the Swing, and Boogie, they danced the Disco, New Wave and Break dance. The Baby Boomers listened to Rock and Roll, this one listened to Rock Music – from folk rock to acid rock to punk rock, etc.

 

While the Baby Boomers are unfamiliar with computers, this generation were the pioneers in Personal Computers. Bill Gates and Steven Jobs of Microsoft and Apple belong to this generation. This is the first computer-savvy generation.

 

David Foot in Boom, Bust and Echo defines Generation X as those born in the US between 1958 - 1964 (post birth-peak Boomers). He calls the X -Geners  born 1967 – 1979  as the ‘Baby Bust’ generation. Foot says that the Baby Busters had more economic opportunities than the X-geners.

 

So, are those born from 1958-1964 or thereabouts Baby Boomers or X-geners? So as not to confuse them with the elder Boomers or the younger X-geners, I will call them the New Epoch generation. I belong to this generation. And so does Barack Obama.

 

US ELECTIONS

 

When George Herbert Bush fought Bill Clinton for the US Presidency in 1992, it was a fight between the G.I. or greatest generation represented by George Bush, Sr. and the Baby Boom generation represented by Bill Clinton.

 

Since 1960, only people from the Greatest Generation became US president until then. In 1992, for the first time in US history, a Baby Boomer became the country’s president. And the Baby Boomers led everywhere – in England and other countries, in major business enterprises, etc.

 

In 1996, the Baby Boomer Clinton was challenged by another G.I. generation leader – Robert Dole. It was the G.I. geners last try at world leadership.

 

In 2000, two baby boomers fought for the White House – Al Gore and George Bush, Jr. Four years later, George W. was challenged by another baby boomer – John Kerry.

 

This year’s US election, the G.I. Geners and the Baby Boomers are gone from the limelight.

 

The Silent Generation has taken over the Republican Party. John McCain is the last champion of the Silent Generation.

 

The Silent Generation has often been overshadowed by their elder brothers – those who belong to the Greatest or G.I. Generation. Later, they were taken over by their juniors – the Baby Boomers. John McCain is hoping to finally break the jinx of the Silent Generation and become the first US President from that Generation.

 

Interestingly, he chose a running mate that does not belong to either the Silent Generation or the first half of the Baby Boom Generation. He chose Sarah Palin of the New Epoch Generation..

 

Meanwhile, the Democrat candidate Barack Obama also comes from the New Epoch  Generation.  And interestingly, his running mate, Joe Biden, comes from the same generation as McCain – the Silent Generation.

 

And so for the first time since 1960, the two presidential tickets do not include anyone from either the so-called Greatest or G.I. Generation or the first half of the Baby Boom Generation.

 

For the sake of America and the world, I fervently hope that the next president of the USA will come from my generation – the New Epoch Generation. It is the generation that understands and experienced the past and comprehends the future.

 

McCain belongs to a generation way past its prime. Obama belongs to a generation that is most capable of leading the world into a new epoch of a world based on peace, equality, prosperity and knowledge.

 

 

World crude oil price has dropped from more than US$ 147 per barrel in June 2008 to less than US$ 65 per barrel today. In the US, gasoline pump prices have dropped more than 50 %.

 

But in good old Philippines, the pump prices remain practically the same. 

 

In times of increasing world oil prices, the Philippine oil companies promptly announce price hikes practically by the week. But in times of decreasing world oil prices, they "rollback" only a peso at most, and usually, they would not if there were no calls for it from the public.

 

With the massive plunge in world oil prices, the oil companies in the country are raking it in. And as usual, the poor Filipino consumers are suffering.

 

Add to that is the increase in power rates for MERALCO granted by the intelligent people of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).

 

Hurrah for Demagoguery and Mediocracy! Hurrah for the Arroyo administration!

 

By the way, I have not heard much from Arroyo cheerleaders who claim that their president had done so magnificently for the Philippine economy. I am reminded of them every time I heard McCain, until recently, constantly claiming that the "fundamentals of the (US) economy are strong".

 

Oh, and now that the American and European economies are in the doldrums, I hope Arroyo would not say that she is so good because the Philippine economy did not suffer as much. Well, like during the Asian Financial Crisis, the Philippines did not fall as much because it was already so low. If you’re already in the Ground Floor, where would you fall to?

 

Besides, in the country, there is practically no investment banking to speak of, the Stock Exchange is small and the banking and insurance systems are a joke.