DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
5/23/2011
As we near the climax — so to speak — of the so-called “Reproductive Health” (RH) debate, the main issue becomes all the more apparent as the excitement of the foreplay fades. One pro-RH columnist wrote in his column last Friday: “What is at the heart of the RH law — and this is what the anti-RH groups strangely underplay — is using government money to subsidize reproductive choices.” Well, lawyer-columnist, I am highlighting it in my column; and I say you and so many other pro-RH supporters are either being taken for a ride or are taking others for a ride on one of the biggest scams in this nation’s history.
It seems that the real reason for the RH bill is not stemming the Malthusian formulation of population robustness equals poverty, or preventing the spread of HIV, or promoting sex education, or upholding the woman’s right to decide on matters relating to her ovaries. The real purpose is “using government money to subsidize” sex choices!
RH bill proponents really have a strange idea of what government money or subsidy should be used for; and that is coincidentally the way Aquino III’s government and his “civil society” cohorts — who are all backing the RH bill to the hilt — think of it, too.
First of all, PeNoy does not look kindly on the subsidy for rice farmers that the National Food Authority has been extending all these decades. His Budget secretary has in fact made the motions of totally slashing the NFA budget several times. Neither does PeNoy view with kindness or understanding the appeal of millions of MRT/LRT commuters to continue with the state’s “subsidy” (if it can be called that) of their fares, which they solely rely on to travel daily from home to work or school, which is as basic a necessity as power and water in modern life. But when it comes to “reproductive choices” — or sex — this they will subsidize to the tune of billions!
The appeal for the MRT/LRT subsidy was met with different tactics of dissuasion by Aquino III to convince commuters that it is such a burden to government. And when the commuting public wasn’t fazed, PeNoy’s spokesmen even attempted to browbeat Metro Manila’s MRT/LRT-riding population into thinking that they’re being unfair, selfish and abusive for demanding this transport subsidy when the rest of the nation’s taxpayers aren’t using the system. Yet what these prevaricators conveniently omit is that these MRT/LRT commuters are precisely the majority that go to work everyday earning subsistence wages from which government exacts its pound of flesh in terms of taxes — taxes that pro-RH proponents would now want to subsidize the sex choices of the beneficiaries of “free contraceptives and condoms,” the poor and unemployed (that is, if these reach them at all, given that macho culture and inebriation are some reasons that condoms are cast to the wind).
The only thing certain is that, once it becomes law, billions will be specifically allocated by the RH bill, whereby its first approved budget “shall be included in the subsequent General Appropriations Act,” i.e. automatically appropriated and/or sponsored — in perpetuity. That budget is certain to reach Big Pharma (including the FVR-linked Carlyle Group), which then also translates to “automatic sales in perpetuity.” Equally certain are the congressmen’s pork barrel allocations for a least one RH van per congressional district (including drugs, condoms, sex education materials, staff and fuel) that will have the congressman’s likeness emblazoned for all to see. Then, all of these monies are sure to come from the nation’s taxpayers, a great majority of whom are Metro Manila commuters who won’t get any subsidy for their essential work-related fares.
Regarding the RH vans, it must stated that there is already a proliferation of barangay health centers with literally hundreds of thousands of health workers all over the country, so why the RH vans for each congressman, over and above the free ambulances? Local governments do have a big say in these health centers’ budgets and supplies, as well as the dispensation of essential drugs; but keep in mind that neither the national or local governments dedicate budgets for free medication for deadly diseases such a tuberculosis and dengue (go to East Avenue Medical Center and see how expensive these are for the poor).
Yet the bleeding hearts of PeNoy’s government as well as many RH bill proponents believe “contraceptives and condoms” deserve a subsidy of at least P3 billion or more (when we factor in other government agencies such as PhilHealth, National Anti-Poverty Commission, etc. being mandated to fund the RH program)?
An important observation was made by one veteran street parliamentarian about the RH bill proponents taking to the streets to picket, rally and demonstrate for this subsidy for the poor’s “reproductive choices.” He noted the brand new tarpaulins, canvasses and cardboards, and the gleaming colors of the streamers and placards used, not to mention the full page ads. These can only mean huge funds flowing into the pro-RH bill campaign.
I’m sure that — despite my opposition to the Church’s many positions — whenever the Roman Catholic Church funds its campaigns, we know where these are coming from; but for those activist groups associated with Etta Rosales and Dinky Soliman, just where do they get their money? I guess we shouldn’t look far.
We know that USAid, as mandated by Henry Kissinger’s 1974 NSSM 200 (which we have no space to elaborate on), has always been for population control; same with Big Pharma. And, lest we forget, these people have the conditional cash transfer funds at their disposal too, which, as of the latest news, has already been increased by P2 billion over the P21 billion originally allocated. Shades of the CodeNGO PeaceBonds again?
(Tune in to Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m., and Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 6 to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Tuesday, 8 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com and http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Monday, May 23, 2011
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Elitism disguised as populist politics
BACKBENCHER
Rod Kapunan
5/21-22/2011
Admittedly, it is easy for one to conceive of a constructive idea that would help put a sense of direction to our society than have it implemented. In fact, even if the idea stands as a mere suggestion, still that will encounter difficulty of being implemented if coursed through our politicians. That simple suggestion becomes one of arduous assignment because the person who conceived of that bright idea thinks quite differently from the politicians in whom we repose our trust to implement them.
Such is the sad realism that is happening in our society. Instances of bright ideas coming from ordinary people are innumerable, and yet many of them are not taken into consideration all because any suggestion that it will be good for the people, and society as a whole, may not be that good for our politicians. Maybe that can be attributed to the fact that we have relied much on that elitist (disguised as a populist) democracy. But even this view is bound to meet its dead end for what is good for the people may not necessarily be good for our politicians. Following that line, one could sense that our politicians are honed by their self-centered instinct of on how to survive in an election under our system of unlettered process of elitist democracy.
At a glance, the wishy-washy reluctance of our politicians to legislate well-meaning laws underscores their refusal to depart from the pseudo-populist line much that only by supporting populists policies will help determine their chances of being elected. But that the people do not know is that many of the proposed bills patronized by politicians came mostly from elitist interest and pressure groups often disguised populist policies. In fact, a much deeper analysis of the given political environment would reveal that our people are ignorant of what a populist democracy is.
Besides, modern propaganda communication have already perfected the art of mass deception to deprive our people of their ability keenly distinguish a real populist policy from an elitist pressure-laden policy, more so if packaged into our consciousness as a populist policy. The irony is we assume that an interest or pressure group policy as a people-oriented policy; that a populist policy is always right relying on that false notion that what is good for our people will be good to our society.
If one would have to ramify that theory, one would soon discover that it is one of the greatest political fallacies of our time. The truth is what is good for the people may not necessarily be good for the government, just as what is good for the government will not necessarily be good for the people. It is on this basic political postulate that exposes the hard truth about our understanding of democracy for frankly speaking the politicians we elected no longer epitomize our democratic idealism. As one would lament, what good is our democratic process if the politicians we elected were created and sponsored by interest or pressure groups made up of the elite that are more successful in exploiting populist sentiments than in actually supporting populist policies.
Rather, the correct theory is that what is good for the people is always and is necessarily good for the government. The trouble however about that theory is that the people themselves have failed to come out with what is essentially good for them. This explains why coming out with misguided form of populist policies has become the forte of politicians for the simple reason that it is most appealing to the people. Hence, through the years of catering to what we believe as constituting the majority, we have produced demagogues much that demagoguery is more appealing compared to a dour but straightforward politician.
This explains why all politicians want to play the role of chief executives because it is in that capacity where they are able to enforce their policies that reflect more of their abeyance to the elite that made possible their election. For instance, senators, congressmen, provincial board members, and city and municipal councilors all scramble to play the role of chief executives within their own limited dominion than in legislating laws and ordinances that would give to them the indelible trademark of becoming a statesman.
Moreover, politicians shun the idea of participating in debate or making a stand on such specific issues precisely because they know that what is being debated will not be on the basis that our people have politically matured, but an ominous hint that one pressure or interest group has gained the upper hand in the propaganda war. Classic to this is the stand of many of our elected public officials on the reproductive health bill. Their position is not based on their understanding of it, but on weighing which side is more popular.
This also explains why many legislative proposals on taxation, education, health, business franchise, public works, rights of certain minorities or groups, etc, are products of rigorous lobby. Despite that none of us would question because we believe they have with them that badge of having been elected by the majority, not knowing they were blinded by the volley of propaganda made by their financial brokers. So, as we move on in our crusade to fulfill our role as an independent state by legislating laws co-terminus to our exercise of sovereignty, we found ourselves mired deeper in political contradictions.
To date, many of our politicians have been reduced to political retardates incapable of seeing the rationale why they have to come out with this or that law. They failed to see the wisdom that good laws can never been inconsistent to good government which combines the policy of serving the people and a policy of disciplining them. Thus, unless and until we could do that, we will never be able to achieve a respectable level of political maturity. Forever we will be stacked to that self-centered elitist politics disguised as populist democracy which is susceptible to foreign exploitation, and our people degenerating to one devoid of any political morality and values.
(rodkap@yahoo.com.ph)
Rod Kapunan
5/21-22/2011
Admittedly, it is easy for one to conceive of a constructive idea that would help put a sense of direction to our society than have it implemented. In fact, even if the idea stands as a mere suggestion, still that will encounter difficulty of being implemented if coursed through our politicians. That simple suggestion becomes one of arduous assignment because the person who conceived of that bright idea thinks quite differently from the politicians in whom we repose our trust to implement them.
Such is the sad realism that is happening in our society. Instances of bright ideas coming from ordinary people are innumerable, and yet many of them are not taken into consideration all because any suggestion that it will be good for the people, and society as a whole, may not be that good for our politicians. Maybe that can be attributed to the fact that we have relied much on that elitist (disguised as a populist) democracy. But even this view is bound to meet its dead end for what is good for the people may not necessarily be good for our politicians. Following that line, one could sense that our politicians are honed by their self-centered instinct of on how to survive in an election under our system of unlettered process of elitist democracy.
At a glance, the wishy-washy reluctance of our politicians to legislate well-meaning laws underscores their refusal to depart from the pseudo-populist line much that only by supporting populists policies will help determine their chances of being elected. But that the people do not know is that many of the proposed bills patronized by politicians came mostly from elitist interest and pressure groups often disguised populist policies. In fact, a much deeper analysis of the given political environment would reveal that our people are ignorant of what a populist democracy is.
Besides, modern propaganda communication have already perfected the art of mass deception to deprive our people of their ability keenly distinguish a real populist policy from an elitist pressure-laden policy, more so if packaged into our consciousness as a populist policy. The irony is we assume that an interest or pressure group policy as a people-oriented policy; that a populist policy is always right relying on that false notion that what is good for our people will be good to our society.
If one would have to ramify that theory, one would soon discover that it is one of the greatest political fallacies of our time. The truth is what is good for the people may not necessarily be good for the government, just as what is good for the government will not necessarily be good for the people. It is on this basic political postulate that exposes the hard truth about our understanding of democracy for frankly speaking the politicians we elected no longer epitomize our democratic idealism. As one would lament, what good is our democratic process if the politicians we elected were created and sponsored by interest or pressure groups made up of the elite that are more successful in exploiting populist sentiments than in actually supporting populist policies.
Rather, the correct theory is that what is good for the people is always and is necessarily good for the government. The trouble however about that theory is that the people themselves have failed to come out with what is essentially good for them. This explains why coming out with misguided form of populist policies has become the forte of politicians for the simple reason that it is most appealing to the people. Hence, through the years of catering to what we believe as constituting the majority, we have produced demagogues much that demagoguery is more appealing compared to a dour but straightforward politician.
This explains why all politicians want to play the role of chief executives because it is in that capacity where they are able to enforce their policies that reflect more of their abeyance to the elite that made possible their election. For instance, senators, congressmen, provincial board members, and city and municipal councilors all scramble to play the role of chief executives within their own limited dominion than in legislating laws and ordinances that would give to them the indelible trademark of becoming a statesman.
Moreover, politicians shun the idea of participating in debate or making a stand on such specific issues precisely because they know that what is being debated will not be on the basis that our people have politically matured, but an ominous hint that one pressure or interest group has gained the upper hand in the propaganda war. Classic to this is the stand of many of our elected public officials on the reproductive health bill. Their position is not based on their understanding of it, but on weighing which side is more popular.
This also explains why many legislative proposals on taxation, education, health, business franchise, public works, rights of certain minorities or groups, etc, are products of rigorous lobby. Despite that none of us would question because we believe they have with them that badge of having been elected by the majority, not knowing they were blinded by the volley of propaganda made by their financial brokers. So, as we move on in our crusade to fulfill our role as an independent state by legislating laws co-terminus to our exercise of sovereignty, we found ourselves mired deeper in political contradictions.
To date, many of our politicians have been reduced to political retardates incapable of seeing the rationale why they have to come out with this or that law. They failed to see the wisdom that good laws can never been inconsistent to good government which combines the policy of serving the people and a policy of disciplining them. Thus, unless and until we could do that, we will never be able to achieve a respectable level of political maturity. Forever we will be stacked to that self-centered elitist politics disguised as populist democracy which is susceptible to foreign exploitation, and our people degenerating to one devoid of any political morality and values.
(rodkap@yahoo.com.ph)
Friday, May 20, 2011
A coup in the IMF?
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
5/20/2011
Then the international cable channels first reported breaking news of International Monetary Fund (IMF) Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s arrest for alleged sexual assault, my reaction must have been typical of most: Another powerful man caught in a scandalous bind; serves him right. The assumption of guilt was too easy, especially since the IMF and its bureaucrats have the image of being instrumentalities of financial and economic tyranny all over the world.
Then, I had a quick rethink and pulled the reins in, especially when Strauss-Kahn was denied bail and later placed in solitary confinement — virtually incommunicado.
This can look very much like the Monica Lewinsky affair, which prompted Bill Clinton’s bombing of Yugoslavia to divert attention, as well as Eliot Spitzer’s “soft assassination” to stop the then New York governor from completing investigations into finance executives’ and investment bankers’ shenanigans in the run-up to the 2008 Wall Street crash.
I may not have given the news of Strauss-Kahn’s arrest a second thought had it not been for a deeper suspicion that something was fishy. Many of those in the highest echelons of power have proclivities they help each other hide. The shit only hits the fan when something disrupts the harmony.
Strauss-Kahn, like Spitzer, is tackling issues involving the global financial mafia in the European financial crisis. A scandal like this could actually be symbolic of a significant policy rupture within the global power elite. I researched the matter and found two significant articles — the first by Mike Whitney entitled “IMF chief Strauss-Kahn caught in ‘honey trap’” and the second by Michael Bucci, “‘Soft assassinations’: Strauss-Kahn and Eliot Spitzer.”
Strauss-Kahn does have enemies in high places: He is the presumptive front-running candidate of the French Socialist Party, seen to have an edge over the rapidly sinking and unpopular French President Nicolas Sarkozy, caught in his stalemated Libya attack amid worsening domestic economic conditions and workers’ protests.
Sarkozy, known as the candidate of the global oligarchy, is very cozy with the US neo-conservatives who have been pushing the hawkish war agenda on the global stage. Under his watch, they have taken France into two African imbroglios (Libya and Côte d’Ivoire), all for their interlocking defense and oil industries.
At the same time, the Euro currency bloc is in the midst of massive financial and economic readjustments that have instituted traditional monetarist financial and economic measures painful to the working class but extremely beneficial to the banking cartel through multibillion bailouts.
Whitney sees Strauss-Kahn as beginning to redirect the IMF away from this traditional monetarist IMF policy, saying, “…if Strauss-Kahn was set up, then it was probably by members of the western bank(ing) coalition, that shadowy group of self-serving swine whose policies have kept the greater body of humanity in varying state(s) of poverty and desperation for the last two centuries. Strauss-Kahn had recently broke(n)-free from the ‘party line’ and was changing the direction of the IMF. His road to Damascus conversion was championed by progressive economist Joseph Stiglitz in a recent article titled ‘The IMF’s Switch in Time’… (that says) ‘The annual spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund was notable in marking the Fund’s effort to distance itself from its own long-standing tenets on capital controls and labor-market flexibility. It appears that a new IMF has gradually, and cautiously, emerged under the leadership of Dominique Strauss-Kahn.’”
Whitney sums up “Strauss-Kahn (as) trying to move the bank in a more positive direction, a direction that didn’t require that countries leave their economies open to the ravages of foreign capital that moves in swiftly — pushing up prices and creating bubbles — and departs just as fast, leaving behind the scourge of high unemployment, plunging demand, hobbled industries and deep recession. Strauss-Kahn had set out on a ‘kinder and gentler’ path, one that would not force foreign leaders to privatize their state-owned industries or crush their labor unions. Naturally, his actions were not warmly received by the bankers and corporatists who look to the IMF to provide legitimacy to their ongoing plunder of the rest of the world. These are the people who think that the current policies are ‘just fine’ because they produce the results they’re looking for, which is bigger profits for themselves and deeper poverty for everyone else.”
To conclude, Michael Bucci quotes French economist and socialist Jacques Attali: “The most likely outcome is that this case will stick… Even if he pleads not guilty, which he may be, he won’t be able to be (a) candidate for the Socialist primary for the presidency and he won’t be able to stay at the IMF.” Bucci then continues, “But farther behind the curtain might be found investment bankers and international financiers (the Spitzer “soft assassins”). While Messrs. Spitzer and Strauss-Kahn might share a common reprehensible lust, this group (the international financial mafia) represents the world’s top criminals. Like Al Capone and the Chicago mob, they continue to remain immune and prevail, while the audience is glued to sex, money and maids.”
What we are seeing may be an IMF coup in the form of a sex scandal. Reports have it that the detained IMF chief is already under suicide watch (a pretext for you know what). Let’s refocus on the real issues in this L’affaire Strauss-Kahn and wage a campaign to free him if we must. Most importantly, let’s redouble our efforts to rid this world of the menace that is the global financial mafia.
(Tune in to Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m., and Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 6 to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Tuesday, 8 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com and http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Herman Tiu Laurel
5/20/2011
Then the international cable channels first reported breaking news of International Monetary Fund (IMF) Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s arrest for alleged sexual assault, my reaction must have been typical of most: Another powerful man caught in a scandalous bind; serves him right. The assumption of guilt was too easy, especially since the IMF and its bureaucrats have the image of being instrumentalities of financial and economic tyranny all over the world.
Then, I had a quick rethink and pulled the reins in, especially when Strauss-Kahn was denied bail and later placed in solitary confinement — virtually incommunicado.
This can look very much like the Monica Lewinsky affair, which prompted Bill Clinton’s bombing of Yugoslavia to divert attention, as well as Eliot Spitzer’s “soft assassination” to stop the then New York governor from completing investigations into finance executives’ and investment bankers’ shenanigans in the run-up to the 2008 Wall Street crash.
I may not have given the news of Strauss-Kahn’s arrest a second thought had it not been for a deeper suspicion that something was fishy. Many of those in the highest echelons of power have proclivities they help each other hide. The shit only hits the fan when something disrupts the harmony.
Strauss-Kahn, like Spitzer, is tackling issues involving the global financial mafia in the European financial crisis. A scandal like this could actually be symbolic of a significant policy rupture within the global power elite. I researched the matter and found two significant articles — the first by Mike Whitney entitled “IMF chief Strauss-Kahn caught in ‘honey trap’” and the second by Michael Bucci, “‘Soft assassinations’: Strauss-Kahn and Eliot Spitzer.”
Strauss-Kahn does have enemies in high places: He is the presumptive front-running candidate of the French Socialist Party, seen to have an edge over the rapidly sinking and unpopular French President Nicolas Sarkozy, caught in his stalemated Libya attack amid worsening domestic economic conditions and workers’ protests.
Sarkozy, known as the candidate of the global oligarchy, is very cozy with the US neo-conservatives who have been pushing the hawkish war agenda on the global stage. Under his watch, they have taken France into two African imbroglios (Libya and Côte d’Ivoire), all for their interlocking defense and oil industries.
At the same time, the Euro currency bloc is in the midst of massive financial and economic readjustments that have instituted traditional monetarist financial and economic measures painful to the working class but extremely beneficial to the banking cartel through multibillion bailouts.
Whitney sees Strauss-Kahn as beginning to redirect the IMF away from this traditional monetarist IMF policy, saying, “…if Strauss-Kahn was set up, then it was probably by members of the western bank(ing) coalition, that shadowy group of self-serving swine whose policies have kept the greater body of humanity in varying state(s) of poverty and desperation for the last two centuries. Strauss-Kahn had recently broke(n)-free from the ‘party line’ and was changing the direction of the IMF. His road to Damascus conversion was championed by progressive economist Joseph Stiglitz in a recent article titled ‘The IMF’s Switch in Time’… (that says) ‘The annual spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund was notable in marking the Fund’s effort to distance itself from its own long-standing tenets on capital controls and labor-market flexibility. It appears that a new IMF has gradually, and cautiously, emerged under the leadership of Dominique Strauss-Kahn.’”
Whitney sums up “Strauss-Kahn (as) trying to move the bank in a more positive direction, a direction that didn’t require that countries leave their economies open to the ravages of foreign capital that moves in swiftly — pushing up prices and creating bubbles — and departs just as fast, leaving behind the scourge of high unemployment, plunging demand, hobbled industries and deep recession. Strauss-Kahn had set out on a ‘kinder and gentler’ path, one that would not force foreign leaders to privatize their state-owned industries or crush their labor unions. Naturally, his actions were not warmly received by the bankers and corporatists who look to the IMF to provide legitimacy to their ongoing plunder of the rest of the world. These are the people who think that the current policies are ‘just fine’ because they produce the results they’re looking for, which is bigger profits for themselves and deeper poverty for everyone else.”
To conclude, Michael Bucci quotes French economist and socialist Jacques Attali: “The most likely outcome is that this case will stick… Even if he pleads not guilty, which he may be, he won’t be able to be (a) candidate for the Socialist primary for the presidency and he won’t be able to stay at the IMF.” Bucci then continues, “But farther behind the curtain might be found investment bankers and international financiers (the Spitzer “soft assassins”). While Messrs. Spitzer and Strauss-Kahn might share a common reprehensible lust, this group (the international financial mafia) represents the world’s top criminals. Like Al Capone and the Chicago mob, they continue to remain immune and prevail, while the audience is glued to sex, money and maids.”
What we are seeing may be an IMF coup in the form of a sex scandal. Reports have it that the detained IMF chief is already under suicide watch (a pretext for you know what). Let’s refocus on the real issues in this L’affaire Strauss-Kahn and wage a campaign to free him if we must. Most importantly, let’s redouble our efforts to rid this world of the menace that is the global financial mafia.
(Tune in to Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m., and Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 6 to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Tuesday, 8 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com and http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
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