AFTER ARIZONA MASSACRE, WHAT’S NEXT IN ANGLO-SAXON AMERICA?

Erle Frayne D. Argonza


Americans were shocked again by another event of mass murders done by an expectedly sociopathic man—a certain Mr. Loughner, 22 year-old White man. Just about a month ago, a White man in the east coast shocked Americans when he shot at a school board’s officials before shooting himself to death.

Aren’t Americans supposedly inured to such sociopathic murders already? Not only Americans, but White men and women shouldn’t be shocked at all over such tragic deaths, as White society has been showing increasing signs of madness over the last 150 years or so.

I’m sure nobody has forgotten Jack the Ripper. At the time the crimes of serial murders were done by the diabolical killer over a century ago, sociologists were busying themselves with studying the fragmentation of the collective mind in modern society, which has been the cause of crimes and suicides.

Just go back to the works of Emile Durkheim, George Simmel, Alexis de Tocqueville, Karl Marx, Max Weber, and you would browse for yourselves the painstaking inquiries and theorizing done by sociologists then to capture the fragmentary state that institutions and the collective mind were undergoing.

Onwards through the latter half of the 20th century, Western (read: Caucasian) thinkers haven’t ceased to capture in theory what was going on behind society’s structures that was cause behind fractured minds and sociopathic behavior. Felix Guattari, Gilles Deleuze, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Julia Kristeva, Jacques Lacan, Jean Francois Lyotard, Jacques Baudrillard, to name a few luminaries, continued the tradition of studying the fragmenting society, psyche, and their expressions in symbolic constructs.

So, with the latest round of massacre expectedly by another White man, what else is new in Anglo-Saxon America? That gunner’s psyche is fragmenting, rendering him as a dangerous walking predator of sorts. Too many Anglo-Saxon men and women, followed by their colored people who were socialized into the Anglo-Saxon’s culture, are fragmenting in their psyche just as White society’s institutions have been disintegrating (read Baudrillard, Lyotard, Foucault).

Let’s get this straight: the phenomenon of sociopathic massacres is highest in the United States, though it is also prevalent in other Western countries. In contrast, such massacres are nearly absent in the ‘emerging markets’ that are today’s growth drivers of the global economy.

One need not even resort to using statistical correlates or chi square test to check whether being White man’s country is a predictor of such sociopathic murders. And among White man’s countries, the USA is topmost in the total incidence of such a ‘deviant’ or ‘abnormal’ behavior.

I did discuss the matter of mass massacres with my mother very recently. She acquired American citizenship and is already retired, though she chose to have a dual citizenship. She is very much aware of the social pathology that goes on in the USA, and was of the opinion that the next mass massacre is just around the bend.

So I raised the ‘research problem’ to my Mom about when would be the next massacre in case? Using intuitive forecasting, based on pass trends, I surmised that most likely over the next six (6) weeks at least, another massacre will take place somewhere in Anglo-Saxon America, and most likely it will be a White man committing the crime.

I won’t be surprised if my own estimate of one massacre in six weeks will turn out to be badly underestimated, that a couple or more will take place in the days ahead. A society that is in deep crisis—socially, culturally, economically, politically—is replete with possibilities of pathologically-induced massacres.

To comprehend their own states of being, I would counsel Americans (predominantly White Anglo-Saxon) to go back to the work of the late Pitirim Sorokin titled Crisis of our Age. Likewise read the works of Daniel Bell concerning the unfolding Post-Industrial society up North.

Well, there also was the late Jurgen Habermas who reflected on the ‘legitimation crisis’ and its attendant malaise in White societies. From Habermas you can branch out to the works of Erich Fromm, Herbert Marcuse, and Ernst Bloch.

But this is what Americans ought to think about: time is running out on America. Too many luminaries up North have written about the fragmentary society and psyche, yet Americans failed to grapple with the realities unfolding, failed to address the fragmentation process with ‘best practices’ done at all levels.

Americans better be quick in altering the course of their history, for the compass of the unfolding history points towards sinking in quicksands of uncertainties, chaos, and a Dark Age.

[Philippines, 15 January 2011]

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SET YOUR ANNUAL GOALS FOR 2011

Erle Frayne D. Argonza


2011 has already started, and it began with an ambience of all-time high optimism across Asian countries. In my beloved country Filipinas, the Hope index measured an incomparable 89%, or that Filipinos are of the predominant hopeful mood that all will be well for their respective lives.

To start the year right, it would be best for each and every one of us to set our goals for the year. On the informal level of the lifeworld, there is this fancy for setting ‘new year’s resolution’ as the old year is about to end and the new year is just minutes away. This ritualistic practice can be improved on if the person sit down and put into writing the goals for the year.

As a professional, I have made it my personal practice to set goals for the year since I began working way back in 1981 yet. Then, at the end of the year, I would assess the level of goal attainment, correct flaws by rectified goal-attainment for the coming year, and then setting all in all the goals for the year in a very organized manner.

It would be best if you scribble your goals in the very diary or appointment book that you are using for the current year. Identify just about a few workable or doable goals, e.g. in my practice I would have just three (3) maximum goals to work on. Scribble each goal thereafter on a distinct or dedicated page in your diary.

After I write down a goal, I would then write some descriptions of the goal, and even identify sub-goals. Then, it would pay that I would also identify the ways to achieve the goal and sub-goals.

You can go ahead and prioritize the goals. Present the goal first which is top priority, then which is moderate priority, and which is least priority. Go ahead and scribble descriptions, sub-goals, and articulations about quantitative and qualitative targets.

After writing down your goals, make sure to check them every week or so. It would be bad practice to log them in, and then forget to check on them later.

The style of goal-setting can be as creative as it can get. For the prepped up young working persons, adding graphic images and jotting down the goals on one’s Blackberry or cellphone would be add fun and excitement to the goal-setting and execution.

For all ye global citizens, please don’t forget to set your goals for the year. If you have no fondness for this kind of exercise, better rethink about your position and begin the practice for your own sake. Moving ahead blindly, without a personal plan for the year, is like straitjacketing yourself.

[Philippines, 14 January 2011]

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PHILIPPINE STOCKS @4,200+ POINTS, WILL SURGE ANEW BY 2011

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Asian bourses continue to perform excellently, and the Philippines is a contributor to this bullish trend. In the past year, there were some junctures when the bourses did dip a bit, but never too dip as not to be able to surge back ahead. The bourses reflect the optimal growth patterns in Asia and are bound to replicate the feat in 2011.

By the start of 2010, I was of the opinion that the Philippine stock exchange will trade very bullishly, that it will eventually breach the all-time best record of 3,600+ points achieved during the era of the Ramos presidency yet. True enough, it did breach the 3,600 points and ended up at 4,200+ points by end of December 2010.

To recap, 2,000 points is the bourse’s psychological break point in my beloved Philippines. Quite a barometer of the economy’s health, the stock index says that the economy here is faltering when the bourse crashes below the 2,000 point barrier and stay down there for many months. At some time in 2009, that incident happened, though fortunately for the country the stock index climbed back past the 2,000-point threshold quickly.

Being among the Asian countries that have learned to insulate themselves from global economic downturns and great recessions, the Philippines did bounce back right away and saw the index breach the 3,000-point level in the first semester of 2010. This trend alone is cause enough for great hope for the coming months and years in this country.

With ‘smart money’ leaving the North due to stagnation and recession, it wasn’t long before the Ph bourse soon felt such ‘manna from heaven’ getting invested into its stock options. With that happening, the stocks meteorically ascended the 4,000-point level in the 2nd semester, and was optimistically forecast to reach 4,600+ points by certain quarters.

Witnessing the pattern of periodic decreases amid a general trend of sharp climb, I did raise eyebrows over the mega-optimistic forecast. I was already happy to see the 3,600+ points breached, but a 4,600 point conclusion is far from achievable in 2010. And so, true to my intuitive forecast, it settled at 4,200+ points, or just 200+ points beyond the new barrier of 4,000 points.

As big ticket projects are now on the pipeline for negotiations and implementation soon, we can expect investments to surge upwards more sharply this 2011. This will be reinforced further by the upgrading by Moody’s of the country’s investment grade from “stable” to “positive” just as soon as the new year commenced.

An offshoot of the optimism in the investment field will be entry of more players locally to purchasing stocks in the new IPO options opened to the public. Furthermore, ‘smart money’ from overseas will inflow into the local bourse and capital markets, thus ensuring another year of surge in the stock index.

This time around, I will be among those who will accept a forecast of the Philippine bourse breaching the 4,600+ points at the end of 2011. Granted that fairness in the stock trading and surety of regulatory mechanisms will be stronger this year, the Philippine bourse will perform excellently again this year and facilely breach that new forecast level.

[Philippines, 13 January 2011]

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WESTERN ECONOMIC SHRINKAGE A REALITY AS ASIA RISES

Erle Frayne D. Argonza


Magandang araw sa kapamilyang global! Good day to fellow global citizens!

For three decades already, I have been echoing a prognostication that was already current stock within sociology, about the ‘decline of the west’. Let me return to the same theme, as the rapid decline of the West and the fast rise of Asia is now a reality of the current historical juncture.

Just a couple of days ago, the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s or PDI’s opinion pages published an article by the past recent premier of the UK, Gordon Brown (PDI, 7 January 2011). Titled “Reviving the West,” it was a rather straightforward admission of the techno-economic decline that the West had undergone and the rapid ascent of Asia as the global economy’s growth driver.

As Brown succinctly stressed, “Time is running out of the West, because both Europe and the United States have yet to digest the fact that all the individual crises of the last few years—from the sub-prime crisis and the collapse of the Lehman Brothers to Greek austerity and Ireland’s near-bankruptcy—are symptoms of a bigger problem: a world undergoing a far-reaching, irreversible and, indeed, unprecedented restructuring of economic power.”

That was the former premier speaking, a technocrat and economic manager prior to his premier stint, so it does carry weight as much as those of the globe-trotting former US president Bill Clinton. Gordon went on to demonstrate his deep knowledge of the rising middle class consumers of Asia who altogether will make the greatest consumers the world over in the foreseeable future.

Said Gordon:

Of course, we all know of Asia’s rise, and that China exports more than America and soon will manufacture and invest more as well. But we have not fully come to terms with the sweep of history. Western economic dominance—10 percent of the world’s population producing a majority of the world’s exports and investment—is finished, never to return. After two centuries in which Europe and America monopolized global economic activity, the West is now being out-produced, out-manufactured, out-traded, and out-invested by the rest of the world.

That indubitably is an empirical substantiation of the thesis long held by Western social forecasters about the ‘decline of the West’. Oswald Spengler, Arnold Toynbee, Daniel Bell, Alvin Toffler, and John Naisbitt have churned out voluminous prognosis and forewarnings about the same thesis within a century’s span…and that thesis is now a reality.

In the middle and last portions of Brown’s article, he admonished Americans in particular to re-invent the ‘American dream’. The way to the revival of the West, with the USA showcasing the compass, is to re-structure the economy altogether. Accordingly, the nascence of over a billion middle class Asian consumers is a huge opportunity for America to re-invent itself and revive a strong economy.

Brown also forewarned America’s politicians, notably the Right, about criminalizing external forces, such as China’s currency, as culprits behind the decline of the US economy. Intervention measures such as currency wars are flawed, precisely because they fail to address the internal factors that are truly the causes of the economic decline.

To a great extent, I do agree with the evaluations and interventions of Brown. Fact is, I have already begun to echo the theme that America and Europe ought to reverse the policies of liberalization, privatization, and deregulation that led to de-industrialization, agricultural decay, infrastructure decay, and the rise of a ‘virtual economy’ based on predatory finance (vulture funds, derivatives or hedge funds). As I had been saying all along, the West should go back to the principles of the ‘real economy’ where wealth is produced from agriculture, manufacturing, infrastructures, transportation & communications, and science & technology.

As a matter of fact, I have been among Asian analysts and development practitioners who have urged the Americans to go back to the economics of New Deal propounded by the late Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Likewise should the tried & tested policies upheld by Alexander Hamilton, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick von List, and John F. Kennedy, policies that impelled the rise of the physical economy and brought bountiful prosperity to Americans (read: created a predominant middle class), be put to the fore in rebuilding America.

Gordon resonates somehow with the ‘physical economy’ framework, even as he heralded the need for a new Marshall Plan for the world. Accordingly, the Plan could help to recast the banking system that was dirtied by its engagements in speculative financing and contributed to creating financial bubbles. The Western peoples should better listen to him, more so the youth who will be tomorrow’s Western leaders.

Let me re-echo the same message I have been saying all along: that prosperity should be a win/win phenomenon. No one here in Asia would ever want the USA and Europe to go back to the era of ‘cave man’ economy of hunting & gathering. I’d be happier many more times if the West should re-invent itself, cease from playing the destructive game of win/lose logic in order to prosper, and move back to reconstruct its physical economy altogether.

Asian spiritual masters, who incidentally also discoursed on economic doctrines (i.e. Baha’ullah, Gandhi, Vivekananda, Sarkar, Sri Aurubindo), left us all the legacy of building prosperity through the way of peace, cooperation, and mutual-help. It’s time for the Western peoples to retool themselves, by throwing away the binary and destructive thought system they inherited from their forebears, and by learning from Asia’s spiritual and intellectual giants.

[Philippines, 09 January 2011]

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IS THE PHILIPPINES ALREADY INDUSTRIALIZED?

Erle Frayne D. Argonza


Let me continue with the reflections on my beloved Philippines’ economy. This effort is often part of my self-accepted duties to update myself and my compatriots about the state of the Philippine economy at the start of every year.

Just a week ago, I came across an article writ by one of the stock market columnists in the Philippine Daily Inquirer of PDI, that re-echoed an emerging perception in the international business community concerning the Philippine economy’s being ‘industrialized’ today. Coming from the business community itself, this evaluative perception is replete with many implications for the country. It bodes well for the country in fact.

I wish that the perception will resonate with greater power by the day so that those in academic and ideological circles will rethink their positions about the Philippine ‘mode of production’. As far as the Maoists are concerned, PH will always remain as semi-feudal/semi-colonial, backward, agrarian economy. Some academic circles will re-echo the same old worn out “PH is a service economy, with mixed economy features.”

This analyst still recalls very well the ‘mode of production’ debate that reverberated the halls of the University of the Philippines in the 1980s. I graduated from this university in October 1980, then came back to take up graduate schooling in sociology from Nov. ‘83 to April ‘89, and so I was able to flow with the discussions and debates ensuing. The debate centered largely on whether the Philippines is semi-colonial/semi-feudal (Maoist) or capitalist mode (moderate Marxists, populists, social democrats).

By the mid-90s, the debate was already faltering and dying out. It was a dead debate when the year 2000 rang a sonorous beacon of the new millennium. But if you ask any of the competing ideological blocs today about their perceptions of Philippine reality, you will notice that they will churn out the same lines that they’ve been saying for decades.

As regards the perception that PH economy is a ‘service economy’, the criterion is largely based on what sector—agriculture & forestry? industry? services? –contribute the greatest to the gross domestic product or GDP. Since services contribute 55% to the GDP, then PH is a ‘service economy’.

That evaluative perception has a kindergarten undertone to it, as it relies on simplistic assumptions. Just because the industrial sector, which churns out barely 30% (manufacturing + infrastructure combined) of the GDP, looks diminutive than services, doesn’t merit an economy to be judged as ‘services’ or ‘non-industrial’ economy.

To be fair to those opinion quarters who have their own paradigm that churn out specific evaluative judgements, the term ‘industrializing’ was used to label Philippine development since the 1980s. At one point, PH was included among the NIEs or ‘newly industrializing economies’, and so the reference point was industry more than services.

Let’s go back to the USA in the year 1900 when it was already adjudged as industrialized. Industries began to enable the imperialistic pursuits of the USA then, if you recall your history well. But at that time, agriculture was still employing over 90% of the workforce, and nary an evidence can be shown that industry had out-stripped agriculture at that juncture as the main contributor to the national income (today’s GDP) perentage-wise. Yet the USA was already adjudged as ‘industrial’ at that time!

If the criteria would be largely the (a) prevalence and (b) impact of capital goods or ‘reproducible goods’ industries, then the market players have clear evidences to show such increased prevalence and impact. Save for integrated steel and castings & forging industries, every vital capital goods are already being manufactured in PH today. Unless of course that the ‘services economy’ judges are blind to these developments.

The emerging perception and judgement about PH economy should be impetus enough to cause a re-tooling by the analysts and ‘best practices’ innovators. It would prove beneficial for everyone if coteries of opinion-makers, business executives and capitalists themselves would begin the ball rolling by publishing their emerging perception about the ‘emerging markets’ such as PH to be already ‘industrialized’.

As a related event, I just signaled the young Prof. John Ponsaran, head of the development studies program in the UP Manila, about the emerging perception. I once taught in the UP Manila’s department of social sciences, where development studies is niched, so I know the temper of the faculty there that goes for debating on anything under the sun. I hope the emerging perception will be tackled in that campus.

[Philippines, 08 January 2011]

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PHILIPPINES’ FOREIGN EXCHANGE BREACHES $62 BILLIONS

Erle Frayne D. Argonza


Good day to you, fellow global citizens!

The newspapers this morning released a gladdening news about a macro-economic fundamental in my beloved Philippines: foreign exchange or FOREX reserves breached the U.S. $62 Billion mark. The news item means that my country has all the foreign currencies to purchase a year-long worth of imports and still end up with a surplus of money.

That is inarguably good news, a veritable proof of how strong the Philippine economy is. My country surely belongs to the ‘Asian economy’ and is part of the region that is intractably the growth driver of the global economy today. PH’s forex grew by almost 50% from $44 Billion in 2009 to $62 Billion in 2010, and that is a very newsworthy development.

Practically all of the major macro-economic indicators in the country ended up with good results as of end of December 2010, thus ensuring prognosis of healthy fundamentals in the foreseeable future. GDP growth rate is good (c. 7%), balance of payments is at surpluses worth billions of U.S. dollars, exports & imports have rebounded since the lamentable contraction in 2009 (affected by the North’s recessionary winds), wages have been going up, inflation rate has been a manageable 2.8%-4.2%, debts are manageable (no fiscal crisis in the short run), domestic market had expanded by double digit, and liquidity has been sustained at manageable level.

So far so good! I have no better wish than to see the rising forex levels sustained so that PH can breach forex reserves of $100 Billion as early as 2012. At that level, we can safely say that foreign currency (dollar, pound sterling, yen, euro) will be an over-the-counter commodity, thus ending decades of forex crisis that was a factor behind PH’s low capability to secure foreign loans for its big ticket development projects.

The days of the forex crisis—whence forex levels wasn’t even enough to pay for 1 month of imports—is way behind us now in the ‘pearl of the orient seas’. Our forex reserves, added to the other macro-economic fundamentals, have rendered our country as more than stable economically and financially, thus meriting an upgrade in its assessment by investment evaluators (e.g. Moody’s).

The only thing to watch out, in a cautionary manner, is the contribution of portfolio investments to the forex level of late. As the northern economies burn, ‘smart money’ has been departing from their niches and finding new havens in Asia. And so a substantial sum of billions of dollars of that ‘smart money’ found its way into the Philippine financial and capital markets.

Our financial markets here are very highly liberalized, so the danger that volatilities can bring to our very own forex reserves is there. Extreme volatilities elsewhere in the globe can lead to investors’ gross divestment of their portfolios, thus leading to a domino effect of economic crash.

I have no problem admitting that short-term investments do make an economy healthy enough, provided that the regulatory mechanisms—available as tool to address volatilities’ adverse effects—are strengthened or reinforced at this moment. We can never have a repeat again of the Asian financial meltdown in 1997, a meltdown that began with currency attacks and then led to domino effects of crashing blows on banking, realty, manufactures, infrastructures, and the other sectors as well. No sir! We can and should never have a repeat again of that Dark Year of ’97!

Short of installing capital control measures, such as what Mahathir Mohammad did for Malaysia, PH’s central bank and monetary board should evaluate quickly the impact of possible volatilities through simulation models at hand. Maybe more tighter regulatory interventions should be installed as options in case of the contingencies arising, measures other than manipulating the liquidities through interest rates or shoring up fiscal capabilities through extended treasuries sales.

Among the options to be taken is the imposition of a Tobin Tax on all cross-border financial transactions. I have been echoing this option since the late 1990s yet, and I will again echo it this time. Just by imposing 0.35% tax on all such transactions, the country can accumulate buffer stocks of monies for the rainy economic days, at the same time that it can contribute immensely to international organizations such as the UN (as per prescription by the late economist James Tobin).

Meantime, for the Filipinos and Asians, cheers over the buoyant forex reserves in Manila! Mabuhay!

[Philippines, 08 January 2011]

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WOMEN CHIEF EXECS: INCREASING COUNT, KUDOS TO WOMEN POWER!

Erle Frayne D. Argonza


Women are making themselves felt more and more in the field of state governance these days. It surely pays to reflect on the increasing ascent of women in this field of endeavor.

In my own country PH, women have since expanded their presence in the top management of state and business bureaucracies. Latest count by the commission on women puts the number at 40% of total exec seats held by women, which renders PH among the exemplars of women empowerment in Asia and the world.

Our immediate past president, Gloria Arroyo, showed her own executive acumen as the Philippines graduated to middle income status from that of a poor 3rd world country during her incumbency. In 1986, our first lady president Corazon Aquino became the iconic symbol of democracy domestically and worldwide. Both lady leaders joined the select coterie of globally influential lady execs for their exemplary feats.

The most recent additions to the lady chief execs are Australia’s Premier Julia Gillard and Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff. I’ve already expressed my kudos to the noblesse ladies, and I wish that they will propel their respective countries towards greater growth and magnanimity in the global community.

The latest gender report shows the following list of lady chief execs (see AFP, 2011):

Australia: Prime Minister Julia Gillard
Argentine: President Cristina Kirchner
Bangladesh: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed
Brazil: President Dilma Rousseff
Costa Rica: President Laura Chinchilla
Croatia: Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor
Finland: President Tarja Halonen
Germany: Chancellor Angela Merkel
Iceland: Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir
India: President Pratibha Patil
Ireland: President Mary McAleese
Kyrgyztan: Interim President Roza Otunbayeva
Liberia: President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
Lithuania: President Dalia Grybauskaite
Slovakia: Prime Minister Iveta Radicova
Switzerland: Confederal President Doris Leuthard
Trinidad & Tobago: Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar

Goodwill and best wishes to all the women chief execs! Mabuhay!


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RE-ECHOING KUDOS TO PRESIDENT ROUSSEFF OF BRAZIL

Erle Frayne D. Argonza


Brazil and the world are all eyes today on the newly elected president who just took her oath as chief exec, the magnanimous lady Dilma Rousseff.

Rousseff replaces the very popular Lula da Silva who had to step down due to constitutional limits on presidential terms (2 terms only). Both leaders come from the same socialist party of Brazil, even as Rousseff once served as top cabinet aide of Lula, so we do expect a continuity of the redistributive policies of Lula.

A former guerilla, who was among the audacious patriots who dared to clash it out with the military dictatorships that were backed, or should we say installed by the U.S.A. She suffered incarceration and political torment, rose above those constrictions as democracy returned, and ascended to power like a phoenix.

To recall, Lula worked out to bring social equity to its fruition, the result of which enlarged the middle class in Brazil. Poverty alleviation programs have been churning out good results as more poor folks graduated to middle income status during his term. His government’s innovative cash transfer program is being copied by various countries in the world today including my own beloved Philippines.

Lula will surely be well remembered for his feats, and hopefully the socialist party that he belongs to will stand by those redistributive policies that were inspired foremost of all by socialist doctrines. For his feats, Lula became the world’s most popular and admired leader in the whole world, and put Brazil all the more at the center of the world’s global growth drivers.

We will all be missing Lula, the same way that we miss Mandela of South Africa. But no worry, there’s Lady Rousseff who will continue the Lula’s policies and programs and who will dare to innovate more in such areas as providing aid to developing countries that are in need. Rousseff will strengthen Brazil’s leadership in Latin America, enough to veer away the south from the hegemonistic bullying of the U.S.A.

I did echo my kudos to the honorable Rousseff after she won her electoral victory. Let me re-echo my greetings again:

Best wishes for you President Dilma Rousseff in your incumbency as chief executive of Brazil! Goodwill to all Brazilians! Mabuhay!

[Philippines, 04 January 2011]

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Come Visit E. Argonza’s blogs anytime!

Social Blogs:
IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com

Wisdom/Spiritual Blogs:
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com

Poetry & Art Blogs:
ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com

Mixed Blends Blogs:
@MULTIPLY: http://efdargon.multiply.com
@FRIENDSTER: http://erleargonza.blog.friendster.com
@SOULCAST: http://www.soulcast.com/efdargon

ARGONZA BACK FROM THE HOLIDAYS, EXTENDS GOODWILL!

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Good day to all ye global citizens, readers, friends & fellows of this enthused analyst from Manila!

I’m back from the holidays, recharged and refreshed. I haven’t returned though to my gym works, so I promise myself renewed gym burning late this week.

Ye fellows of mine who did intake so much food inputs this past holiday season, don’t forget to burn down those extra fats, cleanse away excess bad cholesterols, and regain back your regular weight. Go back to your physical regimen, or develop one if you have been neglecting your physical wellness in a long time or so.

There are so many exciting things to talk about this year, more so from where I’m located: Asia. Just sit and relax, sip coffee or beverage while you browse over my coming notes, share comments every now and then. We will be together in the excitement, like riding our roller coaster of blog thoughts.

Goodwill, good health, prosperity to all of you for the year 2011!

[04 January 2011, Philippines]

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Come Visit E. Argonza’s blogs anytime!

Social Blogs:
IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com

Wisdom/Spiritual Blogs:
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com

Poetry & Art Blogs:
ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com

Mixed Blends Blogs:
@MULTIPLY: http://efdargon.multiply.com
@FRIENDSTER: http://erleargonza.blog.friendster.com
@SOULCAST: http://www.soulcast.com/efdargon

FAREWELL 2010, LET’S BE HOPEFUL FOR 2011!

Erle Frayne D. Argonza
December 2010

A happy, prosperous New Year to you all!

2010 is now ending, and so is the month of December. Each one of us has his/her wish list for the coming year, as well as farewell notes for 2010. If there is any ground where we can all meet, it is the ground of Hope: hopeful that things will be better for us personally, family-wise, collectively for the coming year.

I am very happy to note that the PulseAsia already did its survey of perceptions for the coming year, with the result ending on a very optimistic light. It showed overall that 89% of Filipinos are very hopeful for the coming year. This is all-too important a compass of our perceptions for 2011.

If there is any wish I have for you fellow global citizens, it is to know the Filipinos’ optimism for 2011. I am very much aware about the rough economic storms going on in the North, and the fiery hostilities in war-torn countries. Naturally, the peoples of the North and the war-torn countries will demonstrate perceptions of pessimism.

As a matter of fact, the peoples of Europe and the USA have shown a lower than 50% result in optimism surveys on a yearly basis. Even if their economies are doing well, there seems to be a subterfuge nihilism in the West in particular, as shown be the general pessimism of their peoples for the coming year.

There is surely a big challenge on the leaders of the West + Japan to keep on shoring up the optimism index of their peoples. Nothing is wrong with exuding optimism amid crises, so in case that the tide can be reversed yet, let us all be hopeful for 2011.

Another mood that we all perhaps must exhibit for 2011, arising from an exuberant optimism, is a state of happiness. “Don’t worry, be happy” says the old cliché from a song in the 80s.

In such a light, there is no mistake that we must learn from the peoples of countries who have exhibited high marks in the Happiness Index. This year’s happiness index is topped by Denmark, Switzerland, and contiguous countries, so let’s all look at how their peoples are able to exude happiness in a continent that has been burning economically.

Without further ado, we global citizens are urged to feel the contagion of that happiness. No matter what crisis we face as individuals and as groups, we should all find the courage to smile, laugh, and be merry.

For your inspirational pieces, let me dedicate to you the works of the late Dr. Jose Rizal, patriarch and national hero of the Philippines. Of indomitable courage, will, and genius, Dr. Rizal showed calmness and sobriety even when the most powerful of maelstroms struck him down via martyrdom in the hands of the Spanish Empire’s forces.

Rizal gave so much hope not only to Filipinos but also to other peoples who struggled to be freed from the yokes of their colonial oppressors. Up until these days patriots of developing countries read his works, while wealthy countries have built monuments for him. He is a man for all seasons, as well as a ‘guru of nationhood’.

That said, don’t forget to set your goals in clear and concise statements. Identify around three (3) core goals, scribble each one separately in a page of your 2011 diary or appointment book, and let them guide your actions for the entire year.


[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com,
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO YOU WHO MADE ME TOP BLOGGER!

Prof. Erle Frayne D. Argonza
December 2010

Peace, love, and light to you!

I take this occasion to thank you all enthused readers and fellow writers for your high appreciation of my scribbles on society, wisdom, and self-development.

Before the year closes, I did a follow up tracking of end-users and discussants of my writings. I was surely gladdened by the huge addition of numbers of sites that did cite my writings and/or discourse on them. My social blogs continue to be esteemed among the world’s top sociology blogs, thus making my year end with a Big Bang of delight.

I wish to extend to you a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year!
For the coming year, may we all co-partner to build a global culture of cooperation and peace-building.

Special thanks to the following online news, magazines and portals for citing my notes as among the top blogs on cyberspace:

http://asiafinest.com
http://clpl-india.com
http://humanitariannews.org
http://newestnews.net
http://pul.se
http://sociology.alltop.com
http://thedailyreviewer.com
http://topcityblogs.com
http://www.nonprofit.org

For recognizing me as Finalist-Best Society, Politics & History Blog, special thanks to the Phiippine Blog Awards:

http://www.philippineblogawards.com.ph

Thanks too to the following sites that have cited, discussed and debated on various notes of mine about a diversity of topics and themes:

http://abazurkiem.ciekaweforum.info
http://acutemigraine.info
http://adamsmithlegacy.com
http://aksesoriswanita.com
http://aksibintang.com
http://alltop.com
http://artsandsciencesfilipiniana.blogspot.com
http://asean-society.org
http://au.kcegy.com/tag/asean
http://awakento1.org
http://azionianziani.wordpress.com
http://bedico.multiply.com
http://benjaminmangubat.multiply.com
http://belog.web.id
http://blissnbaguio.multiply.com
http://blog.coupledb.com
http://blog.searchaid.info
http://blog-yemek-tarifi.com
http://boardreader.com
http://bookmarkercenter.com/web/permohan
http://books.google.com
http://botd.wordpress.com
http://browser9.com/index.ph
http://cantbustme.com
http://castasiaforum.org
http://cc.bingj.com
http://cerita-17-dewasa.co.cc
http://cewek-cantik.com
http://conceptsinproduction.com
http://connect.in.com
http://csmotes.com
http://cuba.mx.am
http://culturalrelativism.blogspot.com
http://deepmarket.com
http://digg.com/users/renziebaluyut.history
http://dolores.pinoyexchange.com
http://domainsbyip.com
http://dprogram.net
http://duniabimbimdanbella.info
http://eastasiaforum.org
http://economicobjectivism.wordpress.com
http://eeeph.netbooks.ph
http://en.anoword.com
http://en.wasalive.com
http://er5uyt5.2y.net/robots_doing_a_job.html
http://esthernababan.blogspot.com
http://eternalgodliness.punt.com
http://ewss.ifrance.com
http://extrafastnews.co.cc
http://facegle.com
http://facetopics.com
http://feedraider.com
http://findaway.hk/university
http://forum.prisonplanet.com
http://forumpolis.com
http://fotoalbumshop.net
http://fototoday.net
http://franzranches.blogspot.com
http://fvdb.wordpress.com
http://garneringrightideas.com
http://gestaro-xe.cx
http://globalbalita.com
http://govguru.com/incapacitation
http://groups.google.com/group/k4FyALA4...
http://groups.google.it
http://groups.yahoo.com/groups/Patriots_of_the_Philippines
http://g4g.jp/m/22281
http://hubpages.com
http://humanityhealing.ning.com
http://hutnyk.wordpress.com
http://iamretromanila.multiply.com
http://intercotire.com
http://jeffmahonc.com
http://jk22.blogspot.com
http://josephparton.com
http://koha.nip.gov.ph
http://kotagidis.com/news
http://lanaodelsur.inetgiant.com.hp
http://leathernews.myip.org
http://lovingenergies.spruz.com
http://luciotanwatch.blogspot.com
http://makeasackboy.com
http://manila.newsbit.com
http://marketingkristin.ning.com
http://maryraab.wordpress.com
http://masroy.net
http://math-learn-direct-proven.mathlearndirect.com
http://mediaindonesia.co.cc
http://metalsinvestor.info
http://mixx.com
http://mmsnews.cz.cc
http://mountzion.ning.com
http://mr.wikiwix.com
http://nisim-tw.com
http://nonprofits.info
http://nuip.net
http://obatamandel.com
http://omgili.com
http://online-profitsnow.com
http://opitslinkfest.blogspot.com
http://origin-bx.businessweek.com
http://otomm.com
http://paper.li
http://peacocksandlilies.com
http://penditasuvarmabhuni.blogspot.com
http://petites-phrases.com
http://pipl.com
http://pirs08.webs.com
http://politekon.blogspot.com
http://pottersweal.wordpress.com
http://psychicdirectory.wallwack.com
http://pulitika2010.wordpress.com
http://responsible.ning.com
http://reut-blog.org
http://revspeech.proboards.com
http://r-domain.net
http://rizalls.lib.admu.edu.ph
http://sacet.ddns.pl
http://sanjhaa.com
http://sharethis.com
http://shopswissskydiver.net
http://shop.swissskydive.org
http://sixevent.com
http://skripsi-tesis.com
http://society.leapfish.com
http://surchur.com
http://tagadavao.wordpress.com
http://technology.kosmix.com/topic/Prex
http://tibak.freeserver.com
http://tipsoke.com
http://today.smashits.com
http://toketcewek.com
http://trendsbuzz.com
http://tweetmeme.com
http://twit.ch
http://vans3n.multiply.com
http://webpac.lib.nthu.ed.tw
http://webmarketools.com/info/mu-lemuria
http://wordsdomination.com
http://worldwidebusiness.ning.com
http://www.123people.com
http://www.96147.com
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com
http://www.aidworkers.net
http://www.angel.am/Etheric_plane
http://www.answerbag.co.uk
http://www.asean-society.net
http://www.asiafinest.com.br
http://www.ask.com
http://www.blogged.com
http://www.blogsope.net
http://www.buildhome.tizo.pl
http://www.carboncapturereport.org
http://www.cnn.com
http://www.davidicke.com
http://www.deepmarket.com
http://www.doodlesource.com
http://www.drunkduck.com
http://www.elib.gov.ph
http://www.familycommitment.org
http://www.finir.org
http://www.fiskedepan.se
http://www.friendly-shopper.com
http://www.galacticroundtable.com
http://www.godlikeproductions.com
http://www.go2web20.net
http://www.hcrefund.com
http://www.hot-mp3.com
http://www.icerocket.com
http://www.inetgiant.com.ph
http://www.iyou.me
http://www.jamesoo.com
http://www.kankermesothelioma.net
http://www.kiwihomepage.co.az
http://www.kosmix.com/topic/Arjuna
http://www.linkedin.com
http://www.longislandrealestatecentral.com
http://www.lovanre.net
http://www.lowongankerjajulis.com
http://www.mail-archive.com
http://www.mb.com.ph
http://www.mixx.com
http://www.mode.org
http://www.mylot.com
http://www.mynewsdigest.com
http://www.neatanswers.com
http://www.norocks.net/node/155206
http://www.nowcosm.com
http://www.onlineobchody.com
http://www.oqqi.com
http://www.pakspectator.com
http://www.peekyou.com
http://www.pep.ph
http://www.pointsdevente.com
http://www.politicaltaxes.com
http://www.provideo.shop.de
http://www.psychantenna.com
http://www.pubsub.com
http://www.rehabfromdrug.com
http://www.samepoint.com
http://www.seo-torque.com/3/philippines_alltop
http://www.seotriz.com/newestnews.net
http://www.spiritbond.com
http://www.rgb-mediat.fi
http://www.rssmicro.com
http://www.tapatt.net
http://www.theakan.com
http://www.the-az.com
http://www.thetemplepub.com
http://www.toluu.com
http://www.topix.com
http://www.tumbir.com/tagged/omniverse
http://www.tweetcepts.com
http://www.untitledarchive.com
http://www.upm.edu.ph/manilakule
http://www.usforcenews.info
http://www.wallcloud.net
http://www.wealthyauthority.com
http://www.westpalmferrari.com
http://www.wopular.com
http://www.wordloo.com/abscbn_news.html
http://www.wordsdeals.com
http://www.yasni.co.uk
http://www.yansi.co.uk/radha+soami
http://www.youtube.com/user/alvin19048
http://www.zitrend.com
http://www.zoominfo.com
http://www3.mbl.re1.yahoo.com
http://www3.mbl.sp1.yahoo.com
http://vd.finline.2y.net
http://vetrey.cw.cm
http://xa.ying.com/kq/groups/2206632
http://yasamkadin.com
http://yoga-experts.info
http://yunico.com
http://z6.invisionfree.com/flipzi
http://1farakav.wordpress.com/2010/10/05
http://3qareon.com/vb/maharlika-nation-topics

May the spirit of Christmas translate as more blessings to all the supportive individuals, groups, and internet sites for the coming 2011!

Mabuhay!

PROF. ARGONZA SURGES YET ON WORLD ALLTOP BLOGS!

A pleasant day and Happy Holidays to fellow global citizens!

Yuletide season is now at our doors, and the spirit of fellowship has been harboring glad tidings of good news as Prof. Erle Frayne Argonza, a social analyst and self-development guru from Manila, has been continuing to gain mileage in his magnanimous efforts to enlighten humanity about the current social and cosmic issues. To date, dozens of online newspapers and magazines across the globe have featured Prof. Argonza’s writings on their very own websites.

Another very warming development most recently was the conferment by the Philippine Blog Awards of FINALIST-BEST SOCIETY, POLITICS & HISTORY BLOG on Prof. Argonza’s Ikonoklast. Thus, Prof. Argonza is indubitably among the Philippines’ top bloggers today, buttressing the earlier recognitions of him as one of the world’s top sociology bloggers.

For your reads and exchange of notes about Prof. Argonza’s blogs, please visit:

SOCIAL WRITINGS:
Unladtau: http://unladtau.wordpress.com
Ikonoklast: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com

WISDOM WRITINGS:
BrightWorld: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com Cosmicbuhay: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com

ART & POETRY:
Artblog: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com
Argonzapoem: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com

Join now the growing numbers of global citizens who find Light in Prof. Argonza’s englightening blogs!


Argonza & Associates Consulting
December 2010



TOP BLOG SITES:

http://asiafinest.com
http://clpl-india.com
http://humanitariannews.org
http://newestnews.net
http://pul.se
http://sociology.alltop.com
http://thedailyreviewer.com
http://topcityblogs.com
http://www.nonprofit.org

CONFERRED ‘FINALIST-BEST SOCIETY, POLITICS & HISTORY BLOG’ ON PROF. ARGONZA’S IKONOKLAST:

http://www.philippineblogawards.com

CITED ARGONZA BLOGS FOR DIVERSE THEME DISCUSSIONS & ANNOTATIONS:

http://abazurkiem.ciekaweforum.info
http://acutemigraine.info
http://adamsmithlegacy.com
http://aksesoriswanita.com
http://aksibintang.com
http://alltop.com
http://artsandsciencesfilipiniana.blogspot.com
http://asean-society.org
http://au.kcegy.com/tag/asean
http://awakento1.org
http://azionianziani.wordpress.com
http://bedico.multiply.com
http://benjaminmangubat.multiply.com
http://belog.web.id
http://blissnbaguio.multiply.com
http://blog.coupledb.com
http://blog.searchaid.info
http://blog-yemek-tarifi.com
http://boardreader.com
http://bookmarkercenter.com/web/permohan
http://books.google.com
http://botd.wordpress.com
http://browser9.com/index.ph
http://cantbustme.com
http://castasiaforum.org
http://cc.bingj.com
http://cerita-17-dewasa.co.cc
http://cewek-cantik.com
http://conceptsinproduction.com
http://connect.in.com
http://csmotes.com
http://cuba.mx.am
http://culturalrelativism.blogspot.com
http://deepmarket.com
http://digg.com/users/renziebaluyut.history
http://dolores.pinoyexchange.com
http://domainsbyip.com
http://dprogram.net
http://duniabimbimdanbella.info
http://eastasiaforum.org
http://economicobjectivism.wordpress.com
http://eeeph.netbooks.ph
http://en.anoword.com
http://en.wasalive.com
http://er5uyt5.2y.net/robots_doing_a_job.html
http://esthernababan.blogspot.com
http://eternalgodliness.punt.com
http://ewss.ifrance.com
http://extrafastnews.co.cc
http://facegle.com
http://facetopics.com
http://feedraider.com
http://findaway.hk/university
http://forum.prisonplanet.com
http://forumpolis.com
http://fotoalbumshop.net
http://fototoday.net
http://franzranches.blogspot.com
http://fvdb.wordpress.com
http://garneringrightideas.com
http://gestaro-xe.cx
http://globalbalita.com
http://govguru.com/incapacitation
http://groups.google.com/group/k4FyALA4...
http://groups.google.it
http://groups.yahoo.com/groups/Patriots_of_the_Philippines
http://g4g.jp/m/22281
http://hubpages.com
http://humanityhealing.ning.com
http://hutnyk.wordpress.com
http://iamretromanila.multiply.com
http://intercotire.com
http://jeffmahonc.com
http://jk22.blogspot.com
http://josephparton.com
http://koha.nip.gov.ph
http://kotagidis.com/news
http://lanaodelsur.inetgiant.com.hp
http://leathernews.myip.org
http://lovingenergies.spruz.com
http://luciotanwatch.blogspot.com
http://makeasackboy.com
http://manila.newsbit.com
http://marketingkristin.ning.com
http://maryraab.wordpress.com
http://masroy.net
http://math-learn-direct-proven.mathlearndirect.com
http://mediaindonesia.co.cc
http://metalsinvestor.info
http://mixx.com
http://mmsnews.cz.cc
http://mountzion.ning.com
http://mr.wikiwix.com
http://nisim-tw.com
http://nonprofits.info
http://nuip.net
http://obatamandel.com
http://omgili.com
http://online-profitsnow.com
http://opitslinkfest.blogspot.com
http://origin-bx.businessweek.com
http://otomm.com
http://paper.li
http://peacocksandlilies.com
http://penditasuvarmabhuni.blogspot.com
http://petites-phrases.com
http://pipl.com
http://pirs08.webs.com
http://politekon.blogspot.com
http://pottersweal.wordpress.com
http://psychicdirectory.wallwack.com
http://pulitika2010.wordpress.com
http://responsible.ning.com
http://reut-blog.org
http://revspeech.proboards.com
http://r-domain.net
http://rizalls.lib.admu.edu.ph
http://sacet.ddns.pl
http://sanjhaa.com
http://sharethis.com
http://shopswissskydiver.net
http://shop.swissskydive.org
http://sixevent.com
http://skripsi-tesis.com
http://society.leapfish.com
http://surchur.com
http://tagadavao.wordpress.com
http://technology.kosmix.com/topic/Prex
http://tibak.freeserver.com
http://tipsoke.com
http://today.smashits.com
http://toketcewek.com
http://trendsbuzz.com
http://tweetmeme.com
http://twit.ch
http://vans3n.multiply.com
http://webpac.lib.nthu.ed.tw
http://webmarketools.com/info/mu-lemuria
http://wordsdomination.com
http://worldwidebusiness.ning.com
http://www.123people.com
http://www.96147.com
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com
http://www.aidworkers.net
http://www.angel.am/Etheric_plane
http://www.answerbag.co.uk
http://www.asean-society.net
http://www.asiafinest.com.br
http://www.ask.com
http://www.blogged.com
http://www.blogsope.net
http://www.buildhome.tizo.pl
http://www.carboncapturereport.org
http://www.cnn.com
http://www.davidicke.com
http://www.deepmarket.com
http://www.doodlesource.com
http://www.drunkduck.com
http://www.elib.gov.ph
http://www.familycommitment.org
http://www.finir.org
http://www.fiskedepan.se
http://www.friendly-shopper.com
http://www.galacticroundtable.com
http://www.godlikeproductions.com
http://www.go2web20.net
http://www.hcrefund.com
http://www.hot-mp3.com
http://www.icerocket.com
http://www.inetgiant.com.ph
http://www.iyou.me
http://www.jamesoo.com
http://www.kankermesothelioma.net
http://www.kiwihomepage.co.az
http://www.kosmix.com/topic/Arjuna
http://www.linkedin.com
http://www.longislandrealestatecentral.com
http://www.lovanre.net
http://www.lowongankerjajulis.com
http://www.mail-archive.com
http://www.mb.com.ph
http://www.mixx.com
http://www.mode.org
http://www.mylot.com
http://www.mynewsdigest.com
http://www.neatanswers.com
http://www.norocks.net/node/155206
http://www.nowcosm.com
http://www.onlineobchody.com
http://www.oqqi.com
http://www.pakspectator.com
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http://z6.invisionfree.com/flipzi
http://1farakav.wordpress.com/2010/10/05
http://3qareon.com/vb/maharlika-nation-topics

ECHOING FAMILY PEACE ON XMAS 2010

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Kapayapaan! Peace be with you!

This social analyst and guru of self-realization already discoursed on the ‘peace project’ in so many previous articles (academic, spiritual, blogs). I will re-echo the ‘peace project’ as a fitting message for the Christmas holiday, an event that had already begun in the Philippines with the dawn mass or simbang gabi.

I will focus my peregrination though on the family aspect of life, on family peace, which admittedly was left behind in my past discourses. My previous writings were reflections about meta-narratives, about macro realities of war, peace accords, hostilities, discord among classes, ethnicities, and nations.

Wellness and the absence of it take place at many levels, so does it take place at the family level. Since this morph of wellness involves social relations and their affective manifestations, we will refer to it as psychosocial wellness. The term sounds like health-related, and it is: total wellness is the characteristic jewel of health, and health characterizes the quality of family relations.

Christmas celebrates peace in its universal sense, so does it celebrate family peace. The absence of hostilities at the family level—both nuclear and extended families—isn’t the only focal goal to attain as a wellness challenge. The greater challenge is to sustain healthy relations that will redound to growth-inducing bonds.

In philosophical terms, family living should strive to veer away from ‘death principle’/nihilistic state and traverse towards ‘life principle’/creative state. The family should be a ground to take stock of and repair the imbalances and disordered state (relative to dysfunctional) that all members invariably suffer from, rather than a ground for mere passive acceptance of each one’s weaknesses and defects. Coming to terms with such a state is the challenge of family living.

To substantiate my point, let me share to you a narrative about an old friend of mine who is couples of years my junior. Let me call him by a code name Phoenix. I met him in my campus dorm—at the University of the Philippines (Diliman)—while I was in graduate school in ‘84-‘86, he a young man who was intellectually inclined and ambitious. We instantly clicked with one another, became discussion partners and developed a lingering friendship. We both dreamt of authoring our own books in the future, a goal that both of us have already achieved.

While intellectually capable, I noticed that he couldn’t demonstrate his love for a woman and build a granite-strong Eros. A female student shed tears before me, as her love for Phoenix seemed burnt right away in the cold heart of the man. I have to appease the young woman no end, as she kept coming to me for comfort and let me read the poems she wrote for Phoenix (I was already into listening-counseling vocation then).

To my real shock, I found out from Phoenix’s own tongue that he grew up with a father who showed no compunction in beating him up. From childhood through his college years, Phoenix was cruelly abused by his father, who was without mistake a dangerous sociopath. Were it not for Phoenix’s own high-achievement predisposition, his learning could have been badly impaired by the demonic hostility of his own father.

Phoenix eventually finished his masteral degree, took up law which he also finished (U.P. College of Law), became a successful professional, and authored his book (it was published later). Good looking and conversationally engaging, he was the epitome of success that a woman would find in a man. But the shock of it all is that his capacity for Eros, for loving a woman, had been impaired forever by the arid child-rearing he received from a sociopathic father.

There are too many persons out there whose life trajectories are similar or parallel to Phoenix’s. Many of them may have built families of their own, but chances are that, with the dysfunctionalities in them remaining un-addressed (via psychosocial therapy), their families could have disheveled. Some who parented kids have committed crimes of killing their own children/babies, others have committed fratricide, and still others killed their respective spouse. Truly catastrophic endings for families begun with good intentions!

If the personal imbalances in each family member remain un-addressed, they will become the cause of absence of peace internally and among family members. The dense energies within each one will simply keep on recycling and manifesting in hostilities and even suicidal ideation (intrapersonal hostility).

Christmas is a very fitting occasion for renewing bonds. Though bonds may be renewed without preconditions, the reunion during a Christmas occasion can serve as fitting moment for therapy. If each party to the reunion would attune to thoughts of delight founded on devotion, then the occasion would be subtly therapeutic.

That’s why Christmas is so important an occasion, not only for Christians but for men and women of all faiths and persuasions. As I declared in another article, Christmas should be globalized as a multi-cultural holiday. No matter what happens, let there be Christmas holiday every year, as it contributes to building psychosocial wellness at the family and friendship levels (friendship is marked by fraternal bonds).

So for this year’s Christmas holiday, let there be family peace unto all families on Earth. Let this family peace be a timeless testimony to our personal efforts to build peace at all levels of life.

Peace, love, Light unto all of you!

[Philippines, 16 December 2010]

[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com,
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]

ARGONZA’S IKONOKLAST FINALIST IN PH BLOG AWARDS

Erle Frayne D. Argonza


Good evening from the suburban boondocks east of Manila!

I was just recently informed by the officiating committee of the prestigious Philippine Blog Awards that my IKONOKLAST blog landed among the finalists to the BEST SOCIETY, POLITICS & HISTORY BLOG category (see http://erleargonza.blogspot.com). The news ignited an instantaneous elation in me that bordered euphoria.

A social scientist, development expert and spiritual guru for some time, I found blogging as a perfect platform for the conduct of my messenger mission in advancement of the Light of truth, knowledge, wisdom to our fellow citizens of Planet Earth. Being a late-comer in the cyber-field, I began to blog and do social networking only in late 2007, so any news today of recognition as a top blogger, both nationally and internationally, is awesomely euphoric for this humble servant of the Almighty Creator.

Fact is, I wasn’t a born writer. A born warrior-leader, intellectual and healer I am, this I openly admit, avocations that were already optimized and practiced with fulfillment. But as a writer, I had to learn the hard way, struggling from my basic education grammar days up through my professional career era.

I came to discover the passion for writing along the way, as I was also learning the crafts of dancing, acting, story-telling, and musical presentation (song, composition, acoustic guitar rendition). No matter how flawed my writing was at the start, I was never discouraged by acerbic critics about mistakes. Love for the craft simply led me to work hard to perfect the art and practice of it….Until I got to where I am, scribbling notes and recondite peregrinations with erudition and skill.

But even then, my bent for technical-academic writing dominates my style. This makes me exude a truly humble mien when I contrast my writing to those of other writers and thinkers. The winners of the very prestigious Ramon Magsaysay for literature, National Artist for literature, National Scientist awards, Palanca Award (Filipino, English) appear as truly talented, born writers whose works I genuinely appreciate. Eminent persons they all ended up, some of them even became members of the very prestigious international writers’ organization PEN.

I would never imagine myself as being an all-top writer of sorts like the awardees of those aforesaid accolades, though I do envision myself as reaching out to enthused souls very efficaciously through the pen. So it surely comes as a surprise, sufficient to ignite elation, that certain online media sites would recognize my writings as among top sociology blogs.

And that was what happened over the last twelve (12) months of consistent blogging. Never mind the months when I rested from the craft for a while, for one reason or another. As soon as I resumed writing, dozens of internet sites cut-and-paste and discoursed on my social writings, while couples of others openly assigned certain articles of mine to the alltop sections of their online magazines, newspapers, or related media.

Amid such open recognitions, I would never imagine my writings as landing in the Philippine Blog Awards, a prestigious accolade-granting institution of late (see: http://www.philippineblogawards.com.ph). That is like winning a National Artist award to me, and I’d be humble enough to reckon with my blog’s status. Until one fine day this last quarter, when some benignly appreciative souls from my beloved Philippines brought my Ikonoklast blog—as official nomination—to the attention of the Philippine Blog Awards.

That nomination alone was ample cause to wobble my heart with thunderous beats of delight. I thanked the Almighty Creator profusely and endlessly for the nomination-type recognition as it already is proof enough that my advocacy campaigns have been achieving the desired results. It caps the profusion of subtle recognitions, as hundreds of internet sites today have already been discoursing on my writings. Most notable of those that recognized my writings are the following:

 http://asiafinest.com
 http://clpl-india.com
 http://humanitariannews.org
 http://newestnews.net
 http://pul.se
 http://sociology.alltop.com
 http://thedailyreviewer.com
 http://topcityblogs.com
 http://www.nonprofit.org

The latest news about the Finalist status is a multiplier effect on my elation, and I do anticipate that I would go euphoric over it before Christmas Day. I likewise feel happy for my fellow Finalists, and for the one who will be declared winner among us. Win or lose in the championship, all finalists are already top bloggers, the cream of the country’s bloggers.

So I would conclude by extending my thanks to the avid supporters, the Philippine Blog Awards, and the Almighty Providence for this top blogger feat. This development has made my Yuletide holidays enormously wonderful, rendered as another milestone event in my making as a writer and messenger of Light-filled causes.

[Philippines, 14 December 2010]

[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com,
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]

LOVE & LIGHT FOR AFRICA THIS YULETIDE!

Erle Frayne D. Argonza


The Yuletide Season is now here with us, Christmas is a globalizing special event, so let me say my yuletide greetings to my fellow global citizens.

For this piece, the greatest love and care I wish to share is for the peoples of Africa. The post-colonial efforts of Africans to establish strong nations, sustain economic growth, and graduate to middle income countries have been marred by colossal barriers. Such barriers are strongly external, a matter I’ve treated in past articles, so I pray and wish that Africans will be able to dis-entangle from those encumbrances.

As a matter of revelation, I’ve long wanted to serve Africa as a development expert. There were already two (2) occasions for me to offer my services to do enterprise development for the continent, one for the southern African region (I could have based in Madagascar) and another for the northern region (Ethiopia could have been my base).

Having drafted some project prospectus for each of those endeavors, I then prepared to fly to the continent. Just as when I was ready to move on, driven by my eagerness to serve the peoples there, something happened to my clientele sponsor. Communications stopped on the African side, which left my consulting team and myself wondering what was going on there.

I guess that’s how tough it is to push through with agenda of change anywhere in the continent. From North to South, East to West, enormous obstacles are getting in the way of change programs. In the end, the marginal peoples of Africa suffer all the more from misery, hunger, alienation, and psyche fragmentation.

I invite my fellow global citizens to please pray with me for the welfare and growth of Africans and the African nations. Let us wish together that Africa would be able to salve its ailing problems of poverty, hunger, dreaded diseases/poor health, discrimination against women & children, ecological degradation, and low human capacities. Let us pray that 2011 would be a much better year, as new opportunities for human development will flourish.

Peace is a pre-requisite for prosperity, for nation-building. So may those guns of warring enemies across the continent be silenced somehow and give way to dialogues for cooperation and mutual help. May there be more procurement of peace and the building of peace zones across the continent in the years ahead.

Let us also pray with the Africans that European imperialism, which seeks to fragment Africa in order that Euro-oligarchs will be able to get back the continent and exploit its natural resources, will erode all the more. May Euro-imperialism be consigned to history in the short-run, thus enabling Africa more breathing space for nation-building, cross-national cooperation, and prosperity.

Finally, let us pray and wish that Africans will be able to forge greater cooperation and unity among the nation-states, and strengthen the continental union that took them painstaking efforts to construct. Let there be a united Africa in the long-run, thus ending millennia of conflicts and hatreds.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you Africans!

Love & Light!

[Philippines, 10 December 2012]

[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com,
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]

GLOBALIZING CHRISTMAS

Erle Frayne D. Argonza


Christmas is now nearing as of this writing. Christmas bell tolls, kids’ carols, merry songs & dances are now up in the air, inviting everyone else to share the spirit of fun and camaraderie.

A Christian and sectarian holiday Christmas is, no one doubts this. Granted that Christmas is a sectarian affair, is it possible to transform it into a global/universal, multi-cultural event? There are apparently two (2) perspectives that clash concerning the matter.

From the point of view of fundamentalist, ultra-conservative church practitioners, whether Christian or non-Christian, Christmas is a sectarian affair and should not veer into cultural spaces not meant for its observation. A Muslim fundamentalist would throw monkey wrench at any attempt to globalize Christmas, and the same may be true for those fundamentalists of other denominations.

From the vantage point of a non-fundamentalist, cosmopolitan person, Christmas is one occasion that Christians can share to others. It is a multi-cultural affair, and it belongs to the whole of humanity for that matter. Ergo, everyone on Earth better attunes to the Christmas spirit and feel the ‘family of mankind’ fraternal bonds that the affair espouses.

As to where I stand in that polarity of perspectives, I am among those who wish to share the Christmas spirit as a multi-cultural blessing. Born a Catholic, but now a freethinker who espouses post-church spirituality, I remain attuned to the Christmas holidays just the same for the reasons stated above.

Christianity is a cult of Jesus, and I will have nothing to do with following or propagating such a cult. Esoteric Christianity, however, isn’t the same as the folk Christianity of the flocks who regard Jesus as a cult figure, and I squarely stand on the grounds of this mystical version of Christianity.

Esoteric Christianity teaches universal brotherhood among its core lessons. Universal brotherhood, a battle cry of cosmopolitan esotericists, is still a very valid principle to stand up for. It is the ethos that permits a soul to go beyond the bounds of sectarian precepts, embrace fellow humans as co-family members, and build a culture of dialogue across the planet.

I do hope that the more cosmopolitan Christians would consciously invite non-Christians to be part of the holidays, truly embrace their non-Christian brothers and sisters, and allow the latter to participate in such year-end party rituals as gift-giving. And, invite the non-Christians to 24th of December midnight gathering, where they can sit by the Christmas tree and partake of the food blessings for the occasion.

Non-Christians who may not be invited by Christians in their homes on the 24th & 25th of December can also go ahead and celebrate the affair with their families and friends on the said dates. Nothing is wrong for them to put up a Christmas tree at home and party on the 24th midnight and on the 25th of December. And, at the end of the month, celebrate New Year’s Eve too.

In the Philippines, the transformation of Christmas into a multi-cultural event has already been going on in the 60s till 1972. Unfortunately, the Mindanao War came, a Christian-Muslim schism was propagated, and Muslims became reluctant to celebrate Christmas with their brethrens among Christians.

I just hope that the tide of cleavages is now ebbing and ceasing. We formally recognize Muslim and Chinese occasions in this country, and so it would be fitting for all Filipinos including Chinese and Muslims to celebrate Christmas as well. By Chinese I refer to those Chinese who are Buddhist, Daoist, atheist, or non-Christian.

The occasions for Christmas parties are now going on, from one organization to another, and so it is best for us all to participate in these events. And, comes the 24th-25th of the month, celebrate Christmas at home as a ritual occasion to solidify family bonds. Then, comes the New Year’s Eve, celebrate with a Big Bang accompanying a party or gathering.

Peace be with you! Advanced Happy Holidays!

[Philippines, 08 December 2010]

[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com,
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]

PHILIPPINES & ASIA CHEER UP GLOBAL ECONOMY FOR 2011

Erle Frayne D. Argonza


The yearend Holidays are now nearing, and so we all better cheer up for the forthcoming holiday season. As early as November, Christmas trees and gigantic lanterns were already set up in malls and public places in the Philippines, a very thoughtful way of demonstrating love and generosity.

There is much reason for the global economy to cheer up for 2011 as indicated by our own very optimistic business environment and national economy here in the Philippines. Our region ASEAN is mightily growing at robust rates, India and Korea are doing good, and China is very heatedly growing.

As already discussed by various analysts and writers, ASEAN + China + India + South Korea—dubbed as ‘Asian economy’—have been the growth drivers of the global economy as a whole. High growth rates, well managed liquidities, healthy macro-economic fundamentals, and high foreign exchange reserves all converge as multi-factor drivers of growth in Asia. As a result, consumption is still moving up here, thus compounding the growth toward sustained heights all the more.

The Philippines has its own good news to share to the globe. A ‘Santa Claus’ list of glad tidings shows the following:

Philippine currency is the 2nd best in Asia. Strong and trustable, even treasuries and bonds denominated in Peso are selling like hot potatoes.

Foreign Exchange Reserves are at an all-time high of $56+ Billion (end of October), enough to buy almost a year of merchandise imports.

Growth rate as of the 1st two (2) quarters was at a whopping 7.9%, showing mightily good production levels. Yearend growth rate would be no less than 6.5% at the minimum, a figure that will be sustained well through 2011 and beyond.

Local bourse has hit a high-time figure of 4,200+ points recently. This is way above the psychological breakpoint of 2,000 points (that now looks very Jurassic), and will optimistically breach 5,000 points by 2011.

Overall GDP per capita (nominal) will breach $2,000 and will move up rapidly to the next levels over the next few years. Purchasing power parity or PPP per capita will exceed $10,000 around 2013-‘14.

State wages have been moving up by 15% per annum consistently for couples of years now. This move drives up private sector wages as well. Wages will again move up in strides from 2011 to 2016.

Inflation has been reduced down further, and will stay comfortably at the 2.5%-3.5% range by 2011. This is welcome news for a nation that is so fed up with hyper-inflations in the ‘80s and ‘90s.

Unemployment has been going down steadily, and will be at a manageable level of 8% or lower by 2011. Rising growth rate can then be sufficient to address the other problem of underemployment.

Exports and imports, or foreign trade, have returned to pre-global recession levels, thus contributing to more employment and higher wages.

Filipino businessmen’s investments overseas have moved up, and will continue to expand in 2011 and beyond. These contribute to overseas remittances and employment of Filipino labor and experts abroad.

The list is longer than the above-stated, though suffice us to take note of that short list. Those items are fundamental to sustaining the economic machine year by year, reduce poverty till the middle class dominates the population, and shoot up human development to notches higher than today’s indices.

Japan, USA and EU are on economic fires but the dampening situations there won’t totally hurt the global economy. Emerging markets have done their best to insulate themselves against the fiascos and fires of the northern economies, thus enabling them to serve as the hope of the world.

The cheery environment of Asia should better be the one focused upon by our global citizens, a cheer that serves as the ‘Santa Claus grin’ of the global economy as a whole for this year and the ones forthcoming.

[Philippines, 06 December 2010]

[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com,
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]

JUDICIAL OVERSIGHT IN DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS & BUSINESS

Erle Frayne D. Argonza


A relatively pleasant month it is in Filipinas this month of the year, though it showers intermittently as cold winds up north converge with warm equatorial winds. As the air becomes cooler, let us reflect on a raging issue worldwide concerning the extent of judicial power in economic & business concerns.

Filipinas is mired right now in questions about the said powers of our magistracy (Supreme Court) in regard to interventions in franchises and business operations. The executive (presidency) is particularly getting peeved at the seemingly Draconian powers the magistracy has been exhibiting, powers that could obstruct presidential initiatives in pushing through the new investments in big ticket projects.

There is now a perception peddled by the president’s spin doctors that the magistracy is turning into an obstructionist. Recognizing that the Supreme Court is no perfect institution, as the Justices’ decisions on business and project concerns could be tainted with corruption, to declare that it is obstructionist (i.e. it makes decisions for the sake of demonstrating its powers over the presidency) demands deeper reflections and deconstruction.

Presidential prerogatives could turn into bad curves every now and then, as they are used to favor certain market players over and above the Law. This is where our reflections should begin. The presidency (executive institutions) in the Philippines is particularly very corrupt and inept, and favors certain market players at the expense of fairness and constitutional regulations.

The abuses of presidential prerogatives on business franchises during the time of President Ramos, among others, have seen onerous franchises and contracts executed. The energy sector in particular became infested with greedy power producers who were favored over other players, palpable acts of felony that should have incarcerated the president himself.

But that’s not all. There were the Malaysian investors known for notoriety, who cornered whatever state companies and business concerns there were available in the 1990s for their portfolio investments to gobble up. The National Steel Corporation landed in the hands of the Hottick Group that never introduced any internal development in the company but which, in fact, closed the company up and sold it at five (5) times its purchase price much later (with state intervention in the transaction) to the Indian group Global Steel.

So many big ticket projects during Ramos’ incumbency were akin to the National Steel fiasco, while others were mired in corruption in the granting of the franchises. Ramos himself became a very wealthy man after he left office, yet he remains free amid the questionable presidential prerogatives his Office exercised then.

It is within the context of abusive presidential prerogatives that one should comprehend the exercise of judicial oversight with high-level intervention. The judiciary is a last bastion of fairness and rationality in project contracts and business franchises in a country with weak governance institutions, and so it flexed its muscles as provided for any way by the national charter as the Philippine case exemplifies.

No matter how well meaning the executive department may be, it has no monopoly of powers and wisdom to decide prudently about projects and franchises. President Aquino’s coterie of aides is pregnant with greedy and corrupt elements that include those who served as cabinet members in previous regimes. So why should the public leave everything to the presidency, when the presidential office is a classic nest of graft?

When the judiciary commits flaws that must be addressed, then they can be cited by a vigilant civil society and be addressed properly. One case in point is the issue of plagiarism hurled against a Justice by the professors of the University of the Philippines College of Law, with the concomitant demand for resignation by the plagiarist concerned.

While the magistracy continues to strengthen its own internal weaknesses, it must just the same exercise its oversight powers concerning developmental projects and business franchises. It will prove catastrophic if the incompetent presidential aides will hatch an operational modus aimed at destroying constitutional powers of judicial oversight, as such will become a new monstrosity that will lead to new rounds of corrupt acts by state and business mafias.

[Philippines, 04 December 2010]

[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com,
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]

HUMAN RIGHTS AGOG IN BARBARITIES & MADNESS

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Pleasant day to you all!

The Maoists in Manila have just released the update news that an activist (Left-leaning) is killed every week during the incumbency of President Aquino. Maoists constitute the largest Left group in the country, with an organized force large enough to participate in electoral contests and win legislative posts.

That report is surely a very revealing fact. Not only activists, but media men are also the target of summary executions and assassinations in this country, supposedly a bastion of free press in Asia.

Just recently, a topnotch botanist, Leonardo Co, was sprayed with automatic rifle bullets while conducting research on field, killing him and two of his associates. The army unit that is subject of investigation as culprits claimed that the research team was caught in a crossfire between state and rebel forces.

Human rights constitute a totality of entitlements that we have won after so many hard struggles. So much blood has been sacrificed just to make our world a livable one, blood poured to erect the edifices of prosperity, good working environments, balanced ecology, and exercise of our basic freedoms.

During the regime of the previous president Arroyo, an economist with a doctorate among her credentials, hundreds of human rights-related deaths, largely through summary executions by army and police forces, were recorded. No less than the United Nations Commission on Human Rights sent a team to investigate the human rights situation here, with the findings clearly indicating a bad situation for human rights.

Just recently, another team of experts, this time from the Human Rights Watch, did the investigations about the same theme, with focus on those committed in Mindanao. The feudal-fascistic Ampatuan family became the most focal subject of the research, with findings of gory stories of murders committed by Ampatuan politicians blindly intoxicated with power, using state paramilitary forces to commit heinous crimes.

It surely takes time for civility to take shape everywhere else in our planet. Even the bastions of democracy such as the Philippines fail in the tests of indicating successes in building human rights. In the USA, martial law was almost declared during the Bush era, a cryptic act that could have seen millions of Americans jailed and hundreds of thousands exterminated in concentration camps.

In Europe we are witness to the massive prejudices against immigrants, with Muslims appearing to be the key target of slanders and employment discriminations. Sarkozy expelled Romanian Gypsies just a few months ago, and he seems to watch with glee as his economy burns down like hell.

Power assymetries that we though would disappear with the advent of modernity, keep on being recycled in new forms. Rationality—authentic reason characteristic of authentic persons—is fading and giving way to Madness, as lamented by the contemporary philosophers.

Human right is synonymous to civilization, and the full respect of human rights can only happen in a society of rationality, wisdom, and universal love. Such a society operates on the culture of dialogue, the respect for differences, recognition of talents and competencies, and the essential respect for one’s humanity.

Sadly, such a society is not around yet, even as we need to do colossal spade works to build it. I still recall the likes of Jurgen Habermas, Erich Fromm, and Herbert Marcuse pontificate about the ‘sane society’, the ideal society that is rational, full of compassion (loving behavior), and productive. I resonate well with the minds of these thinkers who contended that no matter how bad the situation is, hope is there in building that culture of civility in a ‘sane society’.

Such a dream of building a future world can be done in a non-exclusionary way. Let us not tire in doing our spade works to build it.

[Philippines, 02 December 2010]

[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com,
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]

WIKILEAKS ERODES REMAINING U.S. CREDIBILITY, WORLD POWER BULLYING IS OVER!

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Dusk has begun to envelop my space as I write this piece. The WikiLeaks has been receiving a crescendo of publicities recently, as the leaked secrecies of the US diplomatic community has reached the big media players, eg. The Guardian. The devastating impact of the WikiLeaks on US credibility is now gnawing at the morsel of US governance itself, further exacerbating the already fragmentary situation of US governance institutions.

As I’ve been elucidating in articles of mine, the new millennium opened up with a context of multipolar world order, an emerging context that demanded re-carving of foreign policy architectures and the actual diplomatic dealings of world and regional powers with other nations. Sadly, the United States faired very badly in adjusting to the emerging context, as it chose the hawkish path of brinkmanship, unabashedly exhibited superpower arrogance, and bullied other nations into submitting to its diktats.

Take the case of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Rather than use the United Nations as the platform to contemplate and decide on the fates of the so-called “rogue” states, the US bamboozled its allies into submitting to its hawkish diktats, compelled them to join the “coalition of the willing,” or be identified with those who are “against us.” The hubris and arrogance of America’s leaders was captured emphatically in the finger-pointing George W. Bush whose madness exudes a demonically behaving sociopath.

The WikiLeaks disclosures have revealed to the world the true and honest perceptions of Americans towards the leaders and peoples of other nations. America’s diplomacy is but putting superficially sweet-looking mascara on top of the real thing: Saxon condescension on all peoples and nations of the planet. For Americans are truly of Anglo-Saxon psyche: the same marauding, pillaging, plundering, and destructive Saxons of antiquity whose very culture and psyche the Americans have inherited en toto.

Over a hundred years ago, upon America’s invasion and occupation of the Philippines, its leaders and negotiators already manifested the sordid duplicity that is markedly demonic. Presenting themselves before then president Aguinaldo as allies who’d help the Filipinos flash out Spain’s imperial forces, the Americans eventually ended up showing their true intentions by invading the country, an invasion that led to the deaths of almost a million Filipinos nationwide.

Having planted themselves well on Philippine soil deep up through the hinterlands, the conquering Americans than sang with gusto “Brown Monkeys with No Tails in Zamboanga” everywhere they went. So demonically condescending, you’d wonder whether the Anglo-Saxon Americans have ever truly modified their behavior across time.

It now seems, as the WikiLeaks aptly reveal, that America’s leaders and probably seconded by most of its people regard all other leaders and peoples as ‘monkeys with no tails’. For even those White leaders of the West do not escape the derision and philistine condescension of the Americans, coming at a time when the USA’s own western allies need them badly to help salve their ailing economies and stave off the possibility of a continent-wide protest movement that could lead to a new round of Spartacist anti-oligarchic revolution.

The likes of WikiLeaks do speak of new innovative ways of tech-oriented non-conventional means to battle the global oligarchy, beginning with the Anglo-American oligarchs and their political, technocratic, and military subalterns. Not only the USA but other world powers as well will not be spared from the scrutinizing vigilant eyes of concerned citizens who will disclose internal defense, diplomatic, big business, and related classified information, the effects of which will deal devastating blows on the images, credibility, and institutional strengths of entities and powers concerned.

Not just world powers but, again, the financier oligarchy will be de-fanged by the non-conventional attacks that will be waged against them via unveiling WikiLeak-type information. For world powers are mere footstools of the oligarchs. How I wish that the same modalities of disclosures will reveal the evils of the global elites, led by the Houses of Rothschilds and Rockefellers. Sooner or later, the world’s peoples must be made aware of the real nature of the elites and the world/regional powers as their puppet footstools.

The time for world power bullying has finally come to be reversed, with the advent of info-tech platforms for guerilla-type attacks versus the rich and powerful. America’s last bits of credibility are now being pulverized by the WikiLeaks disclosures, and it will just be a matter of time before those of other demonic world powers’ will follow.

[Philippines, 02 December 2010]

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