Bro. Erle Frayne Argonza
The US presidential polls are approaching. The Democrat Party nomination was recently concluded, and there goes the polls.
As an observer of ‘US reality’, I’d candidly say that if there’s anything most worrisome in the US right now, it’s the economy. Without the pejorative ‘stupid’ by the way, I leave that to Bill Clinton’s spin doctors.
Whoever wins, and whoever would be vice president, this tandem of statesmen (hopefully) will have to go about moving heaven and earth to salve the ailing economy. The ailment is not just a structural one that will be resolved with some palliatives.
First of all is the recession. There is no more denying about this fact. The more that the fed and monetary officials would deny information, the greater the amount of suspicion, the greater the legitimacy question. It was good that finally, there was the admission about the sad state of the economy.
Now, folks, most especially you American voters out there, the recession may not be the end of the downspin yet. Watch out, for the recession could well slide into depression. A 6-quarter period of sustained depression (which means a contraction below the established average, or below zero growth) could be the final blow to the long-drawn drift towards the total collapse of the once-mighty US economy.
Look at the signs of the times, Joe! After World War II, the US produced 40% of the Gross World Product or GWP. It’s now down to 22%. The EU, by integrating their economies, produce a similar aggregate of 22% of GWP. The trend is still of a downward drift, including the EU’s, over the years, not an upward lift.
As to what has been causing the downward drift, let’s take those matters slowly in quite chewable fashion. For now, it’s clear to this observer that “it’s the economy” and not the war or parochial sectoral matters such as immigration, gender, more autonomy for states and cities, and so on.
[Writ 05 June 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
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Monday, July 07, 2008
Friday, July 04, 2008
GLOBAL OLIGARCHS AND THE FOOD & ENERGY PRICE HIKES
Bro. Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago
Good afternoon, Fellows on Earth!
As already presented by this writer/analyst in my previous notes and articles, the current state of affairs of the global economy—which featured the inflationary upswings in the food and energy sectors—have a great deal to do with the machinations of the global financiers or oligarchy.
Across the ideological and paradigm streams, there has been the preponderance for speculations by the same financiers and subalterns that have been the main upward driver of prices in oil and food. The very same operators were also responsible for the temporary upswing in the price of the US dollar which remains as the chief legal tender for exchanging oil.
Below is an article from the Executive Intelligence Review that authenticates to a large degree the positions I took so far regarding oil and food.
[Writ 01 July 2008, Quezon City, Manila]
LaRouche: British Are Behind Food and Energy Hyperinflation
June 22, 2008--This release was issued on June 22 by the Lyndon Larouche Political Action Committee (LPAC).
Lyndon LaRouche today forcefully denounced Prince Philip and his fellow genocidalists in the Anglo-Dutch oligarchy, for willfully promoting the food and energy hyperinflation, which threatens to kill billions of people around the globe. "You cannot understand the current hyperinflationary crisis," LaRouche charged, "without first considering Prince Philip and the late Prince Bernhard's stated committment to wipe out 80% of the human population, through a combination of wars, diseases and famine. If Prince Philip, and his slavish followers like Al Gore were to succeed, the population of the planet would be reduced, in the next several generations, to well-under two billion people."
LaRouche was responding to news reports, in the past 24 hours, that the combined food and energy hyperinflation, has created a global national security crisis, threatening the survival of such leading nations as China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, Morocco, and Egypt. "I warned, months ago, that the food crisis would soon emerge as the number one issue facing every government in the world," LaRouche commented. "The combined shock of $140 a barrel oil and food hyperinflation and shortages, willfully promoted by Anglo-Dutch speculators and their oligarchical backers, has thrown the world into an immediate crisis."
On Sunday, June 22, representatives of the world's leading oil producing and oil consuming countries will meet in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to consider actions to deal with the crisis. Over 40 nations around the globe have been rocked by food riots and other protests over the hyperinflationary crisis, and the worst shocks, LaRouche warned, are coming during the immediate summer months ahead. "By the time we reach October," LaRouche warned, "the situation will be catastrophic."
"There are remedies, even at this late date, to deal with the energy and food hyperinflation," LaRouche continued, "but nothing is going to work unless and until we crush the power of the British oligarchy." LaRouche asked: "Do you really think that Saudi Arabia is going to cooperate, so long as their BAE ties to London remain intact—even if the very survival of the Saudi Royal Family is at stake?"
Good afternoon, Fellows on Earth!
As already presented by this writer/analyst in my previous notes and articles, the current state of affairs of the global economy—which featured the inflationary upswings in the food and energy sectors—have a great deal to do with the machinations of the global financiers or oligarchy.
Across the ideological and paradigm streams, there has been the preponderance for speculations by the same financiers and subalterns that have been the main upward driver of prices in oil and food. The very same operators were also responsible for the temporary upswing in the price of the US dollar which remains as the chief legal tender for exchanging oil.
Below is an article from the Executive Intelligence Review that authenticates to a large degree the positions I took so far regarding oil and food.
[Writ 01 July 2008, Quezon City, Manila]
LaRouche: British Are Behind Food and Energy Hyperinflation
June 22, 2008--This release was issued on June 22 by the Lyndon Larouche Political Action Committee (LPAC).
Lyndon LaRouche today forcefully denounced Prince Philip and his fellow genocidalists in the Anglo-Dutch oligarchy, for willfully promoting the food and energy hyperinflation, which threatens to kill billions of people around the globe. "You cannot understand the current hyperinflationary crisis," LaRouche charged, "without first considering Prince Philip and the late Prince Bernhard's stated committment to wipe out 80% of the human population, through a combination of wars, diseases and famine. If Prince Philip, and his slavish followers like Al Gore were to succeed, the population of the planet would be reduced, in the next several generations, to well-under two billion people."
LaRouche was responding to news reports, in the past 24 hours, that the combined food and energy hyperinflation, has created a global national security crisis, threatening the survival of such leading nations as China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, Morocco, and Egypt. "I warned, months ago, that the food crisis would soon emerge as the number one issue facing every government in the world," LaRouche commented. "The combined shock of $140 a barrel oil and food hyperinflation and shortages, willfully promoted by Anglo-Dutch speculators and their oligarchical backers, has thrown the world into an immediate crisis."
On Sunday, June 22, representatives of the world's leading oil producing and oil consuming countries will meet in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to consider actions to deal with the crisis. Over 40 nations around the globe have been rocked by food riots and other protests over the hyperinflationary crisis, and the worst shocks, LaRouche warned, are coming during the immediate summer months ahead. "By the time we reach October," LaRouche warned, "the situation will be catastrophic."
"There are remedies, even at this late date, to deal with the energy and food hyperinflation," LaRouche continued, "but nothing is going to work unless and until we crush the power of the British oligarchy." LaRouche asked: "Do you really think that Saudi Arabia is going to cooperate, so long as their BAE ties to London remain intact—even if the very survival of the Saudi Royal Family is at stake?"
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
4TH REICH IS A TRANS-ATLANTIC 2-HEADED TOTALITARIAN MONSTER
Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago
Good morning, Fellows across the globe!
Let me continue to write awareness-raising materials about peace, cooperation and development, by focusing on the machinations of the financier oligarchs. The Empire is rising again, the logic being that it is a most fit governance machine for global oligarchic games and forthcoming conflicts.
Guessing gamers have been busy releasing speculations about the next financiers’ great war, and the state machinery that will undertake it. Lacking sophistication in political economy, the guessing gamers end up with superstitious sloganeering and fear-mongering, or reactive behaviors that hardly possess merit and serious attention by the more adroit minds of younger generations.
Following the historic patterns of Empire formations, it has always proved fruitful to wage synchronized conflicts and fatten the oligarchic purses in the process, if an empire formation would do the hot-work jobs for the oligarchs. The last Empire that did the massive aggression for the Anglo-Dutch oligarchs was dubbed as 3rd Reich by its created abomination, Hitler & Nazi movement.
The same Anglo-Dutch financiers, who control at least 80% of the world’s total financial flows, are itching to create a 4th Reich totalitarian state. It is time for a great war, the result of which will flatten the economies and enterprises of contending nations. The wrecked enterprises will then be bought at dirt cheap price by the same oligarchs, and the flattened economies funded back to life by the same financiers.
The question is, just exactly what oligarchic state formations to employ? The EU and USA each produce over 22% of the world gross product, or altogether produce 45% of GDP. The Anglo-Dutch financiers, on the other hand, control over 80% of the global financial flows. Using such data, it is very easy to see the congruence of continental economies and financier interests.
In my analysis, using a combination of institutional analysis and political economy, the combined EU-USA force would be excellent for creating the draconian 4th Reich. Of course, the possibility of a North American Union can be examined, but such a Union doesn’t have the purse power to leverage political strength, do understand this. On the other hand, the EU cannot impose its will on the USA without public dissent being aroused to hell fires, and so no USA-EU political integration is in the offing.
The web of institutional arrangements will see a mega-alliance of USA-controlled North America and a Brussels-based European Union. The trans-Atlantic alliance is a last-ditch effort of the same financiers to exhibit muscle power over the planet, and only the USA-EU axis remains as the loyal consenter to the financier machinations. Japan can still veer away from the axis, while the emerging markets’ giants—China, India, Brazil—are beyond the ambit of such machinations.
The institutional plan calls for the implementation of the final treaty in Europe, the Lisbon Treaty, that will see the advanced unification of the continent. Synchronically, a North American Union, with a common currency called Amero, will replace the NAFTA, complete the political unification process, and form the American bulwark of the new fascist axis. That done, the 4th Reich will be in place, rock-solid in armaments and awash with liquidities for more ambitious, gigantic war efforts.
Part of the governance innovations will be to abolish nations in both continents. Region-states will rise to replace the nations, each region being almost of equal population and size. With no more nations in Europe, the nuclear arsenal of France and UK will be placed in the custody of Brussels, thus transforming Brussels into a nuclear power overnight.
Transformed into police states, both continents will then wage population-control campaigns in the neighborhoods.
Gangster groups will logically be deputized to augment police in searching for guns, drugs, insurgent evidences, terrorist cells, petty criminals, and other perceived enemies of the state. Those young ones engaging in binge drinking and sex orgy parties will also most likely be apprehended.
To accelerate public compliance toward the new order, riots can be engineered in cities across both continents. Food price hikes, oil price hikes, massive unemployment, social welfare cuts, overnight hyper-inflation are the most contentious issues that easily inflame quiet neighborhoods into angry urban mobs. Any high school student taking up a subject on sociology can very facilely see this possibility today. It has already been tried and tested across the globe in fact most recently.
While the continental backyards are being provided draconian order by police forces, the military assets will then flex their muscles for huge wars overseas. To ensure that competing regions and continents will be mowed down fast, inter-regional wars will be engineered. The Sunni-Israel versus Iran-Shiite war is now on the pipeline, waiting for a go-signal, a conflict that will see the weakening of the Semitic military establishments and economies, thus paving the way for less costly involvement there.
Other continents will surely see their own war fireworks fanned to the maximum most likely. It would be an instructive work to analyze and forecast the shaping of events there. For instance, the China-Taiwan and inter-Korean conflicts may ensue again on their 2nd phases. Japanese aggression may also be pursued on a 2nd phase, which could see the Japanese islands devastated with nukes combined with the Tesla Earthquake Machine to put an abrupt end to its zealous militarism.
To cap the article, it is a Trans-Atlantic 4th Reich that is now fast rising. How fast the citizens of both America and Europe can neutralize the abominations now shaping up in their backyards remains to be observed. One this is sure here: it doesn’t matter who will be president of the USA or EU. The financiers and their paid technocratic-political subalterns have already ensured that the oligarchy is in control of the situation.
[Writ 22 June 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
Good morning, Fellows across the globe!
Let me continue to write awareness-raising materials about peace, cooperation and development, by focusing on the machinations of the financier oligarchs. The Empire is rising again, the logic being that it is a most fit governance machine for global oligarchic games and forthcoming conflicts.
Guessing gamers have been busy releasing speculations about the next financiers’ great war, and the state machinery that will undertake it. Lacking sophistication in political economy, the guessing gamers end up with superstitious sloganeering and fear-mongering, or reactive behaviors that hardly possess merit and serious attention by the more adroit minds of younger generations.
Following the historic patterns of Empire formations, it has always proved fruitful to wage synchronized conflicts and fatten the oligarchic purses in the process, if an empire formation would do the hot-work jobs for the oligarchs. The last Empire that did the massive aggression for the Anglo-Dutch oligarchs was dubbed as 3rd Reich by its created abomination, Hitler & Nazi movement.
The same Anglo-Dutch financiers, who control at least 80% of the world’s total financial flows, are itching to create a 4th Reich totalitarian state. It is time for a great war, the result of which will flatten the economies and enterprises of contending nations. The wrecked enterprises will then be bought at dirt cheap price by the same oligarchs, and the flattened economies funded back to life by the same financiers.
The question is, just exactly what oligarchic state formations to employ? The EU and USA each produce over 22% of the world gross product, or altogether produce 45% of GDP. The Anglo-Dutch financiers, on the other hand, control over 80% of the global financial flows. Using such data, it is very easy to see the congruence of continental economies and financier interests.
In my analysis, using a combination of institutional analysis and political economy, the combined EU-USA force would be excellent for creating the draconian 4th Reich. Of course, the possibility of a North American Union can be examined, but such a Union doesn’t have the purse power to leverage political strength, do understand this. On the other hand, the EU cannot impose its will on the USA without public dissent being aroused to hell fires, and so no USA-EU political integration is in the offing.
The web of institutional arrangements will see a mega-alliance of USA-controlled North America and a Brussels-based European Union. The trans-Atlantic alliance is a last-ditch effort of the same financiers to exhibit muscle power over the planet, and only the USA-EU axis remains as the loyal consenter to the financier machinations. Japan can still veer away from the axis, while the emerging markets’ giants—China, India, Brazil—are beyond the ambit of such machinations.
The institutional plan calls for the implementation of the final treaty in Europe, the Lisbon Treaty, that will see the advanced unification of the continent. Synchronically, a North American Union, with a common currency called Amero, will replace the NAFTA, complete the political unification process, and form the American bulwark of the new fascist axis. That done, the 4th Reich will be in place, rock-solid in armaments and awash with liquidities for more ambitious, gigantic war efforts.
Part of the governance innovations will be to abolish nations in both continents. Region-states will rise to replace the nations, each region being almost of equal population and size. With no more nations in Europe, the nuclear arsenal of France and UK will be placed in the custody of Brussels, thus transforming Brussels into a nuclear power overnight.
Transformed into police states, both continents will then wage population-control campaigns in the neighborhoods.
Gangster groups will logically be deputized to augment police in searching for guns, drugs, insurgent evidences, terrorist cells, petty criminals, and other perceived enemies of the state. Those young ones engaging in binge drinking and sex orgy parties will also most likely be apprehended.
To accelerate public compliance toward the new order, riots can be engineered in cities across both continents. Food price hikes, oil price hikes, massive unemployment, social welfare cuts, overnight hyper-inflation are the most contentious issues that easily inflame quiet neighborhoods into angry urban mobs. Any high school student taking up a subject on sociology can very facilely see this possibility today. It has already been tried and tested across the globe in fact most recently.
While the continental backyards are being provided draconian order by police forces, the military assets will then flex their muscles for huge wars overseas. To ensure that competing regions and continents will be mowed down fast, inter-regional wars will be engineered. The Sunni-Israel versus Iran-Shiite war is now on the pipeline, waiting for a go-signal, a conflict that will see the weakening of the Semitic military establishments and economies, thus paving the way for less costly involvement there.
Other continents will surely see their own war fireworks fanned to the maximum most likely. It would be an instructive work to analyze and forecast the shaping of events there. For instance, the China-Taiwan and inter-Korean conflicts may ensue again on their 2nd phases. Japanese aggression may also be pursued on a 2nd phase, which could see the Japanese islands devastated with nukes combined with the Tesla Earthquake Machine to put an abrupt end to its zealous militarism.
To cap the article, it is a Trans-Atlantic 4th Reich that is now fast rising. How fast the citizens of both America and Europe can neutralize the abominations now shaping up in their backyards remains to be observed. One this is sure here: it doesn’t matter who will be president of the USA or EU. The financiers and their paid technocratic-political subalterns have already ensured that the oligarchy is in control of the situation.
[Writ 22 June 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
SPECULATION PESTERS FOOD: U.S. CASE
Bro. Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago
Greedy financiers across the globe made humungous killing in the commodities futures recently, which largely explains the sudden hyper-inflationary price increases in grains. The panic that resulted from the ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ that food stocks are running out further exacerbated the already volatile situation of the food markets.
The flawed reasoning—that the problem has a great deal to do with the supply side—has been bandied by the paid Pied Pipers of the greedy financiers. This is an old hat lie, and facts about the capital and financial markets belie such cranky rationale for a sector (food) that has been subordinated to predatory finance worldwide.
Below is a case study regarding the subject matter of sky-rocketing food prices on account of speculation, culled from the Executive Intelligence Review. Make your own assessment about the matter.
[Writ 30 June 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
Speculators Making Killer Profits Off Midwest Flooding While Farmers Can't Sell Grain
June 16, 2008 (EIRNS)—This morning's frantic speculation on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) opened with corn (December futures) up 19 cents, for a record $8.06 a bushel (contrast to $4 a year ago); and new crop soybeans hit a record $15.53 a bushel (contrast to $8 a year ago). This is the 12th consecutive day for record-setting corn prices on the exchange, occasioned by binge-speculation off the likely destruction of at least 5 million acres (2 million hectares) of crops in the Midwest flood zone, including at least 3 million acres of corn (out of 86 million nationally).
The volume of grain and soy trading contracts is soaring on the CBOT, part of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). All futures trading has risen 26 percent over the first part of 2008 on the CME, compared to same time 2007 (including non-commodity futures of all kinds). The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the Federal agency which could stop the deadly game, but will not, released a report June 13, showing huge flows of funds going into the corn market. The CFTC report gives specifics on the record volumes of outstanding corn commitments—amounting to paper bushels, the way paper barrels exist in oil speculation. The CFTC says that speculative funds have added 34,732 contracts to their long positions and cut 4,588 contracts from their short positions, putting them net long on 219,041 corn futures contracts. Index funds are now net long on 427,352 contracts.
At the same time, prices are falling for the farmer trying to forward-sell his corn or soybeans to his local buyer. There has been a 12 cent drop in the prices offered to farmers for their corn over the past 24 hours! This comes on top of an average 4 cent a bushel drop in prices to the farmer last week in the Cornbelt, according to a spot check of local grain buyers, by Dow Jones. This farmer price disparity with the exchange prices, reflects not only the physical destruction of shipping and processing infrastructure, but also the fact that whenever prices spike on the Chicago Board of Trade, the local grain elevator or buyer is hit with a margin call, that he now cannot meet. So he is not offering farmers forward-contracts. Many local terminals, strapped for cash, have gone bankrupt, or sold out to the wave of hedge and index funds now on a buying spree for hard infrastructure, with which to further hold and hoard grain. E.g. WhiteBox, based in Minneapolis. The cartel terminals, dominated by Cargill and ADM, started denying forward contacts to purchase farmers' grain months ago, under the principle: protect yourself, screw the farmer. The cartel firms offer the farmer take-it-or-leave-it prices, and terms of delivery.
On top of this, key grain and meat processing facilities are shut down by the flood all over the Midwest, for example, a huge ADM corn-processing plant in Cedar Rapids.
Greedy financiers across the globe made humungous killing in the commodities futures recently, which largely explains the sudden hyper-inflationary price increases in grains. The panic that resulted from the ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ that food stocks are running out further exacerbated the already volatile situation of the food markets.
The flawed reasoning—that the problem has a great deal to do with the supply side—has been bandied by the paid Pied Pipers of the greedy financiers. This is an old hat lie, and facts about the capital and financial markets belie such cranky rationale for a sector (food) that has been subordinated to predatory finance worldwide.
Below is a case study regarding the subject matter of sky-rocketing food prices on account of speculation, culled from the Executive Intelligence Review. Make your own assessment about the matter.
[Writ 30 June 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
Speculators Making Killer Profits Off Midwest Flooding While Farmers Can't Sell Grain
June 16, 2008 (EIRNS)—This morning's frantic speculation on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) opened with corn (December futures) up 19 cents, for a record $8.06 a bushel (contrast to $4 a year ago); and new crop soybeans hit a record $15.53 a bushel (contrast to $8 a year ago). This is the 12th consecutive day for record-setting corn prices on the exchange, occasioned by binge-speculation off the likely destruction of at least 5 million acres (2 million hectares) of crops in the Midwest flood zone, including at least 3 million acres of corn (out of 86 million nationally).
The volume of grain and soy trading contracts is soaring on the CBOT, part of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). All futures trading has risen 26 percent over the first part of 2008 on the CME, compared to same time 2007 (including non-commodity futures of all kinds). The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the Federal agency which could stop the deadly game, but will not, released a report June 13, showing huge flows of funds going into the corn market. The CFTC report gives specifics on the record volumes of outstanding corn commitments—amounting to paper bushels, the way paper barrels exist in oil speculation. The CFTC says that speculative funds have added 34,732 contracts to their long positions and cut 4,588 contracts from their short positions, putting them net long on 219,041 corn futures contracts. Index funds are now net long on 427,352 contracts.
At the same time, prices are falling for the farmer trying to forward-sell his corn or soybeans to his local buyer. There has been a 12 cent drop in the prices offered to farmers for their corn over the past 24 hours! This comes on top of an average 4 cent a bushel drop in prices to the farmer last week in the Cornbelt, according to a spot check of local grain buyers, by Dow Jones. This farmer price disparity with the exchange prices, reflects not only the physical destruction of shipping and processing infrastructure, but also the fact that whenever prices spike on the Chicago Board of Trade, the local grain elevator or buyer is hit with a margin call, that he now cannot meet. So he is not offering farmers forward-contracts. Many local terminals, strapped for cash, have gone bankrupt, or sold out to the wave of hedge and index funds now on a buying spree for hard infrastructure, with which to further hold and hoard grain. E.g. WhiteBox, based in Minneapolis. The cartel terminals, dominated by Cargill and ADM, started denying forward contacts to purchase farmers' grain months ago, under the principle: protect yourself, screw the farmer. The cartel firms offer the farmer take-it-or-leave-it prices, and terms of delivery.
On top of this, key grain and meat processing facilities are shut down by the flood all over the Midwest, for example, a huge ADM corn-processing plant in Cedar Rapids.
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
21ST CENTURY’S PLAGUE: COMMODITY SPECULATION
Bro. Erle Frayne Argonza
Speculation, more speculation!
Speculation has driven food prices up, and is now driving gas prices up as well. It is a core feature of the ‘virtual economy’ based on predatory finance, the main game of the global financier oligarchs who are now in practical control of the world’s strategic economic sectors.
Commodity speculation is getting to be a ‘plague of the 21st century’ as claimed by a noblesse gentlaman from Europe, Italian Economics Minister Giulio Tremonti. How to stump out this plague is the greatest challenge facing mankind right now, at a time of recession in the Northern economies, recession that threatens to intensify into a global financial meltdown.
Below is an article from the Executive Intelligence Review that sums up the plague of the century. You may as well participate in the debates on how to curb it and reverse the global trend of financial madness.
Writ 30 June 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
Tremonti: Commodity Speculation Is `The Plague of the 21st Century'
June 23, 2008 (EIRNS)—Italian Economics Minister Giulio Tremonti, an outspoken advocate of convening a New Bretton Woods conference, gave a speech in front of a meeting of the Italian trade union CISL, on June 22, calling on the trade unions to join him in the fight against the real causes of oil and food price increases: "international speculation."
According to the daily Il Messaggero, Tremonti called "surrealistic" his own government's plan, which projects a "planned inflation" of 1.7%. The reasons for that, he said, "are two. The first one is technical, the second one is political. The first one, everybody can get by calling the ECB, which demands to set an inflation rate under 2%."
Tremonti gave the real ECB telephone number. "It is wrong to speak about inflation today. For at least the last six months, we should have been talking about speculation. International speculation was first financial speculation and in the past period, after some disasters, focussed on commodities, starting with oil." Therefore, either you fight a local battle, with old methods and old perspectives, or you fight a global fight, where you fight Public Enemy Number One: speculation.
"Speculation is the plague of this century, a specter that we knew would come, but not in this way and not so fast. Inflation can no longer be explained with the simple laws of supply and demand," Tremonti continued. He then attacked the left, because "in the Left camp, there are speculation managers who have been accustomed to smoke cigars and sail on yachts, and therefore the Left does not talk about speculation." The head of the leftist CGIL trade union, Epifani, protested. If what Tremonti says is true, he was asked, why does the government write the draft budget plan based on those figures? The draft, demanded by the EU, "is a surrealistic document of no use," Tremonti said.
The Anglo-Dutch financial oligarchy is realizing that Tremonti is becoming more and more of a threat. That might be the reason why the Financial Times today published a belated review of Tremonti's book Fear and Hope, saying in its headline, "Tremonti's Best-seller on Fear Strikes Chord." The review reports that Tremonti's actions are gaining popularity and support in Italy, and profiles his book from its weakest sides (anti-China, fortress Europe, etc.), but it does say that he calls for "a new, far-reaching Bretton Woods system," for "a strong state" and "deplores the left-wing protest movements of 1968."
Speculation, more speculation!
Speculation has driven food prices up, and is now driving gas prices up as well. It is a core feature of the ‘virtual economy’ based on predatory finance, the main game of the global financier oligarchs who are now in practical control of the world’s strategic economic sectors.
Commodity speculation is getting to be a ‘plague of the 21st century’ as claimed by a noblesse gentlaman from Europe, Italian Economics Minister Giulio Tremonti. How to stump out this plague is the greatest challenge facing mankind right now, at a time of recession in the Northern economies, recession that threatens to intensify into a global financial meltdown.
Below is an article from the Executive Intelligence Review that sums up the plague of the century. You may as well participate in the debates on how to curb it and reverse the global trend of financial madness.
Writ 30 June 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
Tremonti: Commodity Speculation Is `The Plague of the 21st Century'
June 23, 2008 (EIRNS)—Italian Economics Minister Giulio Tremonti, an outspoken advocate of convening a New Bretton Woods conference, gave a speech in front of a meeting of the Italian trade union CISL, on June 22, calling on the trade unions to join him in the fight against the real causes of oil and food price increases: "international speculation."
According to the daily Il Messaggero, Tremonti called "surrealistic" his own government's plan, which projects a "planned inflation" of 1.7%. The reasons for that, he said, "are two. The first one is technical, the second one is political. The first one, everybody can get by calling the ECB, which demands to set an inflation rate under 2%."
Tremonti gave the real ECB telephone number. "It is wrong to speak about inflation today. For at least the last six months, we should have been talking about speculation. International speculation was first financial speculation and in the past period, after some disasters, focussed on commodities, starting with oil." Therefore, either you fight a local battle, with old methods and old perspectives, or you fight a global fight, where you fight Public Enemy Number One: speculation.
"Speculation is the plague of this century, a specter that we knew would come, but not in this way and not so fast. Inflation can no longer be explained with the simple laws of supply and demand," Tremonti continued. He then attacked the left, because "in the Left camp, there are speculation managers who have been accustomed to smoke cigars and sail on yachts, and therefore the Left does not talk about speculation." The head of the leftist CGIL trade union, Epifani, protested. If what Tremonti says is true, he was asked, why does the government write the draft budget plan based on those figures? The draft, demanded by the EU, "is a surrealistic document of no use," Tremonti said.
The Anglo-Dutch financial oligarchy is realizing that Tremonti is becoming more and more of a threat. That might be the reason why the Financial Times today published a belated review of Tremonti's book Fear and Hope, saying in its headline, "Tremonti's Best-seller on Fear Strikes Chord." The review reports that Tremonti's actions are gaining popularity and support in Italy, and profiles his book from its weakest sides (anti-China, fortress Europe, etc.), but it does say that he calls for "a new, far-reaching Bretton Woods system," for "a strong state" and "deplores the left-wing protest movements of 1968."
Sunday, June 29, 2008
PACQUIAO BEATS DIAZ, RP BOXING SUPREMACY ASSURED
Erle Frayne Argonza
Good afternoon!
Elation and euphoria are back in the Philippines and across the borders today as Manny Paquiao beat David Diaz in the lightweight division of world boxing. Flat on his face in the ring’s floor, Diaz looked like a whacked baby in comatose, ready to face the surgeon for some serious eye and facial injuries sustained during nine (9) rounds of unrelenting offensive from the unbeatable Manny.
From the first through the ninth rounds, Manny Paquiao exhibited superior punching and maneuvering ability and was the clear upper hand points-wise for all of those rounds. His superiority in both speed and power, added to his outstanding maneuvering skill, made him throw every kind of punch on the pathetic Diaz, candidate of America, with ease.
On the 5th round of the game, my compassion as a yogi-mystic began to surface while watching with eyes glued 105% on the TV screen. My compassion was, of course, addressed towards Diaz, whose face already sustained bleeding as early as the 2nd round, and I wished that Manny would knock him out on the 6th round as a matter of compassion. It would be cruel for any professional boxer to go on throwing deadly punches on an enemy who is almost down, and should, in my mind, work out to knock out the opponent early enough so as to minimize heavy injuries that could lead to death at the worse.
That knock out came finally on the 9th round, which made me felt a feeling of relief, and so I exclaimed my jubilation for my compatriot’s victory and compassion. Of course, I thanked God that Diaz is still intact, and was able to stand on his feet at least, thus assuring no further need for surgical operations or whatever. It was just a fight, may this fighter practice more. But like the rest of my kabayans, Manny has warmed our hearts so much again, and on this day he’s the one hero who had united the nation for at least some couples of hours.
Manny is now assured of his Hall of Fame status, with his gaining of a 4th title victory, notwithstanding the awarding to him of the most prestigious World Boxing Council or WBC belt at the 135-lb category. He is also impeccably Asia’s best, as it was the first time that an Asian won four (4) world titles in his career, thus ensuring Asia it’s place in the globe as a continent worth watching for.
Finally, and this is what has given us great pride, Manny’s latest victory has ensured Philippine supremacy in boxing from here on till maybe at least ten (10) years to come. Manny was not just representing himself, but rather he’s the chief icon among couples of others in the middle down to lower weight categories. The coterie of top-gun boxers have made Manila the team to beat, and had swept off Mexico and Thailand as the previous holders of this sports tiara.
For all boxers as a whole, Manny Paquiao’s latest victory had added prestige to the lower boxing weight divisions, and the spotlight of boxing had all the more been focused on these divisions away from the middle-to-heavy weights. He joins the coterie of titans such as De La Joya who earlier gave so much prestige to the lower-to-middle divisions.
Mabuhay si Manny Paquiao! Mabuhay ang mga Filipino boxers! Mabuhay ang Inang Bayan!
Writ 29 June 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
Good afternoon!
Elation and euphoria are back in the Philippines and across the borders today as Manny Paquiao beat David Diaz in the lightweight division of world boxing. Flat on his face in the ring’s floor, Diaz looked like a whacked baby in comatose, ready to face the surgeon for some serious eye and facial injuries sustained during nine (9) rounds of unrelenting offensive from the unbeatable Manny.
From the first through the ninth rounds, Manny Paquiao exhibited superior punching and maneuvering ability and was the clear upper hand points-wise for all of those rounds. His superiority in both speed and power, added to his outstanding maneuvering skill, made him throw every kind of punch on the pathetic Diaz, candidate of America, with ease.
On the 5th round of the game, my compassion as a yogi-mystic began to surface while watching with eyes glued 105% on the TV screen. My compassion was, of course, addressed towards Diaz, whose face already sustained bleeding as early as the 2nd round, and I wished that Manny would knock him out on the 6th round as a matter of compassion. It would be cruel for any professional boxer to go on throwing deadly punches on an enemy who is almost down, and should, in my mind, work out to knock out the opponent early enough so as to minimize heavy injuries that could lead to death at the worse.
That knock out came finally on the 9th round, which made me felt a feeling of relief, and so I exclaimed my jubilation for my compatriot’s victory and compassion. Of course, I thanked God that Diaz is still intact, and was able to stand on his feet at least, thus assuring no further need for surgical operations or whatever. It was just a fight, may this fighter practice more. But like the rest of my kabayans, Manny has warmed our hearts so much again, and on this day he’s the one hero who had united the nation for at least some couples of hours.
Manny is now assured of his Hall of Fame status, with his gaining of a 4th title victory, notwithstanding the awarding to him of the most prestigious World Boxing Council or WBC belt at the 135-lb category. He is also impeccably Asia’s best, as it was the first time that an Asian won four (4) world titles in his career, thus ensuring Asia it’s place in the globe as a continent worth watching for.
Finally, and this is what has given us great pride, Manny’s latest victory has ensured Philippine supremacy in boxing from here on till maybe at least ten (10) years to come. Manny was not just representing himself, but rather he’s the chief icon among couples of others in the middle down to lower weight categories. The coterie of top-gun boxers have made Manila the team to beat, and had swept off Mexico and Thailand as the previous holders of this sports tiara.
For all boxers as a whole, Manny Paquiao’s latest victory had added prestige to the lower boxing weight divisions, and the spotlight of boxing had all the more been focused on these divisions away from the middle-to-heavy weights. He joins the coterie of titans such as De La Joya who earlier gave so much prestige to the lower-to-middle divisions.
Mabuhay si Manny Paquiao! Mabuhay ang mga Filipino boxers! Mabuhay ang Inang Bayan!
Writ 29 June 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
Saturday, June 28, 2008
FATTENING FINANCIERS’ PURSES: WHY WARS HAPPEN
Bro. Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago
Wars fatten financiers’ purses. This has been an established fact, a modus operandi of abominable usurers since the time of the Greek and Italian city-states yet.
The modus is simple, though complex in their implementation. The financier oligarchs, planning behind the scenes, would identify sources of potential conflict, reasons for launching them, and then finance war machines on both sides of the competing parties. Whoever wins hardly matters at all, what matters is that the financiers win all of the time.
This was experimented early during the time yet of the Greek city-states. At the height of its glory, Athens’ oligarchs decided to go on ceaseless war operations that were funded by them, with the aim of course of cashing on the efforts thereafter. The result was the catastrophic Peloponnesian Wars and the Dark Age that followed thereafter and drastically ended the historic Homeric golden age.
The same pattern can be observed in the launching of the Crusade wars. Venice provided the logistics, while Normandy provided the main warfront assets. The result was the Dark Age of that epoch, accompanied by bubonic plagues, depopulations, and Inquisitorial genocides. It took two hundred (200) years of Renaissance (Western renaissance for that matter) in order to get the West out of that rut.
Fast forward to the 20th century, the similar pattern of oligarchic machinations created monsters on both camps of the West. Lenin and Trotsky, funded by the financiers, were entrusted with the mission of terminating the Russian tsar and creating the totalitarian dream of the Fabian socialists. Massive inputs of funds and technologies were then secretly infused in creating the industrial-military complex of the Stalinist regime, ready for its forthcoming mission of an apocalytic clash with the fascists.
The same oligarchic cabal then created the monster of fascism, both of Mussolini and Hitler. They funded the industrial-military complex of Germany in particular, and then waited in the wings for the world war II to happen. How could Hitler’s group of black magic occult paupers (see Germanenorden and Vril Society) ever rise to power and create a huge movement and war machine without massive funding from the oligarchs? And that oligarchy included the Vatican by the way.
The very same financier oligarchs created the military-industrial complex of the United States of America. The same oligarchic cabal enjoy, till these days, the privilege of undertaking armaments production without having to pass through bidding procedures. So much rent-seeking takes place in the process, reeking colossal profits for the same oligarchic families.
The same families today control the financial flows of the globe. The British control 34% while Americans (control) 18%, thus bringing to 52% the control by the Anglo-Saxon oligarchs of total financial flows. Add the control by the Dutch, French, German, Venetian and Japanese, and you can see their almost total control of the world’s financial flows. (See derivatives controls in the Bank of International Settlements.)
Being in control of financial flows, it is most appropriate for the greedy financiers to foment frontier wars everywhere. Instant fireworks anywhere in the planet today instantly induce massive cross-border financial flows in that area of the planet. The resultant cross-border flows can then induce synchronic cross-border financial flows in the other continents for that matter.
This is what makes terrorist movements important for the financiers. Through the CIA, MI6 and related intelligence arms, terrorist movements can be constituted, funded, and then launched. The symphonies of terror attacks everywhere across the planet would be the most desired Wagnerian notes of the financiers, whose purses will fatten perpetually just by waging micro-conflicts in different countries.
Even nuclear arms have already been re-tooled and re-engineered by the military-industrial complexes of the oligarchy’s Northern hemisphere to adjust to frontier wars and micro-conflicts. The Balkans were the guinea pigs of the same weaponry arsenal way back in the 1990s yet, and the successes accruing on those experiences have emboldened military-industrial complexes to perfect the same weapons systems for present and future uses.
In my own country, I learned along the way that the insurgent movements here always had the hands of international intelligence units of the North at their very inception. The Maoist New Peoples’ Army had involved the CIA (agent Ninoy Aquino) in its founding and linkaging with the Communist Party of the Philippines (Maoist), and then infused with CIA agents in its hierarchy who maneuvered US arms to be used by them that came straight from the former military bases here. The Muslim insurgencies also involved American spies at their inception, and quid pro quo negotiations with Americans should the insurgents win in the south. The Abu Sayyaf was organized and trained by the CIA to serve as contingent Islam force against the pro-Soviet government of Afghanistan in the 1980s.
Documentations of British intelligence involvement in the formation of the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt are classic case studies of the machinations of the oligarchy in the Arab lands. It is now history that the same brotherhood became the base for forming jihadists and mujahideens of many countries, involving both the Sunni and Shi’ite forces.
No matter what continent we may examine, we are always confronted with the machinations of the financiers in the mounting of wars and terror operations. Wars without end means fattened purses without end. That is how demonic the minds of the financiers are characterzied, purely greedy and demonic.
[Writ 22 June 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
Wars fatten financiers’ purses. This has been an established fact, a modus operandi of abominable usurers since the time of the Greek and Italian city-states yet.
The modus is simple, though complex in their implementation. The financier oligarchs, planning behind the scenes, would identify sources of potential conflict, reasons for launching them, and then finance war machines on both sides of the competing parties. Whoever wins hardly matters at all, what matters is that the financiers win all of the time.
This was experimented early during the time yet of the Greek city-states. At the height of its glory, Athens’ oligarchs decided to go on ceaseless war operations that were funded by them, with the aim of course of cashing on the efforts thereafter. The result was the catastrophic Peloponnesian Wars and the Dark Age that followed thereafter and drastically ended the historic Homeric golden age.
The same pattern can be observed in the launching of the Crusade wars. Venice provided the logistics, while Normandy provided the main warfront assets. The result was the Dark Age of that epoch, accompanied by bubonic plagues, depopulations, and Inquisitorial genocides. It took two hundred (200) years of Renaissance (Western renaissance for that matter) in order to get the West out of that rut.
Fast forward to the 20th century, the similar pattern of oligarchic machinations created monsters on both camps of the West. Lenin and Trotsky, funded by the financiers, were entrusted with the mission of terminating the Russian tsar and creating the totalitarian dream of the Fabian socialists. Massive inputs of funds and technologies were then secretly infused in creating the industrial-military complex of the Stalinist regime, ready for its forthcoming mission of an apocalytic clash with the fascists.
The same oligarchic cabal then created the monster of fascism, both of Mussolini and Hitler. They funded the industrial-military complex of Germany in particular, and then waited in the wings for the world war II to happen. How could Hitler’s group of black magic occult paupers (see Germanenorden and Vril Society) ever rise to power and create a huge movement and war machine without massive funding from the oligarchs? And that oligarchy included the Vatican by the way.
The very same financier oligarchs created the military-industrial complex of the United States of America. The same oligarchic cabal enjoy, till these days, the privilege of undertaking armaments production without having to pass through bidding procedures. So much rent-seeking takes place in the process, reeking colossal profits for the same oligarchic families.
The same families today control the financial flows of the globe. The British control 34% while Americans (control) 18%, thus bringing to 52% the control by the Anglo-Saxon oligarchs of total financial flows. Add the control by the Dutch, French, German, Venetian and Japanese, and you can see their almost total control of the world’s financial flows. (See derivatives controls in the Bank of International Settlements.)
Being in control of financial flows, it is most appropriate for the greedy financiers to foment frontier wars everywhere. Instant fireworks anywhere in the planet today instantly induce massive cross-border financial flows in that area of the planet. The resultant cross-border flows can then induce synchronic cross-border financial flows in the other continents for that matter.
This is what makes terrorist movements important for the financiers. Through the CIA, MI6 and related intelligence arms, terrorist movements can be constituted, funded, and then launched. The symphonies of terror attacks everywhere across the planet would be the most desired Wagnerian notes of the financiers, whose purses will fatten perpetually just by waging micro-conflicts in different countries.
Even nuclear arms have already been re-tooled and re-engineered by the military-industrial complexes of the oligarchy’s Northern hemisphere to adjust to frontier wars and micro-conflicts. The Balkans were the guinea pigs of the same weaponry arsenal way back in the 1990s yet, and the successes accruing on those experiences have emboldened military-industrial complexes to perfect the same weapons systems for present and future uses.
In my own country, I learned along the way that the insurgent movements here always had the hands of international intelligence units of the North at their very inception. The Maoist New Peoples’ Army had involved the CIA (agent Ninoy Aquino) in its founding and linkaging with the Communist Party of the Philippines (Maoist), and then infused with CIA agents in its hierarchy who maneuvered US arms to be used by them that came straight from the former military bases here. The Muslim insurgencies also involved American spies at their inception, and quid pro quo negotiations with Americans should the insurgents win in the south. The Abu Sayyaf was organized and trained by the CIA to serve as contingent Islam force against the pro-Soviet government of Afghanistan in the 1980s.
Documentations of British intelligence involvement in the formation of the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt are classic case studies of the machinations of the oligarchy in the Arab lands. It is now history that the same brotherhood became the base for forming jihadists and mujahideens of many countries, involving both the Sunni and Shi’ite forces.
No matter what continent we may examine, we are always confronted with the machinations of the financiers in the mounting of wars and terror operations. Wars without end means fattened purses without end. That is how demonic the minds of the financiers are characterzied, purely greedy and demonic.
[Writ 22 June 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
Friday, June 27, 2008
THE PAKISTANI SPECTATOR INTERVIEWS ERLE FRAYNE ARGONZA AS FAST-RISING BLOGGER
By The Pakistani Spectator • Jun 25th, 2008 • Category: Interviews • (2,809 views) • No Responses
Would you please tell us something about you and your site?
Erle: The erleargonza.blogspot.com’s my main site. About relations, wisdom, cosmic awareness, self-development. …I am a sociologist, economist, consultant, yogi, mystic, guru of self-realization, artist, powerlifter. Age 49.
Do you feel that you continue to grow in your writing the longer you write? Why is that important to you?
Erle: Yes. I’m learning to write blog-style. I used to write technical-academic-scientific. I’m learning.
I’m wondering what some of your memorable experiences are with blogging?
Erle: I’m new as a blogger. The most memorable now is the commentary, both positive and antipathetic. I like feedbacks a lot. Among all feedbacks, those from spiritual seekers who seek a guru are the most memorable.
What do you do in order to keep up your communication with other bloggers?Erle: Open the blogs everyday. Begin at 7 a.m. Continue on time availability. Till 9:30 pm I work.
What do you think is the most exciting or most innovative use of technology in politics right now?
Erle: Blogs, cellphones are the coolest. Blogs for internet-based.
Do you think that these new technologies are effective in making people more responsive?
Erle: Very much. Tried & tested even here in Manila.
What do you think sets Your site apart from others?
Erle: I’m a guru and yogi, I can intuit on higher knowledge not knowable to the ordinary, not even to geniuses. Such as the opening of the stargate portal to other star systems, I saw this in my vision.
If you could choose one characteristic you have that brought you success in life, what would it be?
Erle: Big dreamer, far-sighted dreamer.
What was the happiest and gloomiest moment of your life?
Erle: Happiest: release of my 1st book. …Gloomiest? None really, simply sad but not ‘gloomiest’.
Do you think [the use of Twitter and other social networking tools by politicians] is bandwagon jumping or what?
Erle: Of course. But do they have any better choice?
If you could pick a travel destination, anywhere in the world, with no worries about how it’s paid for - what would your top 3 choices be?
Erle: Egypt–Great Pyramid; Glastonbury in England; Maui in Hawaii
What is your favorite book and why?
Erle: Secret Doctrine by Blavatsky. It’s the most advanced lesson in wisdom, mysticism for me.
What’s the first thing you notice about a person (whether you know them or not)?
Erle: Level of intelligence, by looking at their forehead, head configuration, sensing their aura.
Is there anyone from your past that once told you you couldn’t write?
Erle: No, never.
How bloggers can benefit from blogs financially?
Erle: I can’t say much. My blogging is for serving spiritual seekers, hobby, not for money (I’m studying this now).
Is it true that who has a successful blog has an awful lot of time on their hands?
Erle: Not exactly. Even very busy professionals became successful bloggers which is just their hobby.
What are your thoughts on corporate blogs and what do you think the biggest advantages and disadvantages are?
Erle: It’s their choice, not mine to make judgement about. It’s cool, it can reach out to many, can’t say of disadvantages.
What role can bloggers of the world play to make this world more friendlier and less hostile?
Erle: Very much. Blogging is new. But it’s beginning to become the ’salon’ or ‘coffee shop’ of the future where ideas get to shape the world out there.
Who are your top five favourite bloggers?
Erle: I hardly have time to read others’ blogs really, can’t comment.
Is there one observation or column or post that has gotten the most powerful reaction from people?
Erle: Catchy title, non-technical but short.
What is your perception about Pakistan and its people?
Erle: A great people! Nothing can erase that. Pakistan was once part of the seat of Mogul (I was a majarajah there during Akbar’s time, what can I say…)
Have you ever become stunned by the uniqueness of any blogger?
Erle: Not really. Being a sociologist, I expect uniqueness.
What is the most striking difference between a developed country and a developing country?
Erle: Developed: the most strategic industries are in the high-tech industrial sectors. Developing, still mired in low-tech industries such as furniture, garments & textiles, and very big agricultural sector (past 50% of GDP).
What is the future of blogging?
Erle: Very very big! It is the salon of the future! It is where geniuses of the world meet, also the mystics and superhumans of the world. Very big!
You have also got a blogging life, how has it directly affected both your personal and professional life?
I got connected to new contacts, professional friends. Some of them already arranged face-to-face negotiations with me in Manila, inviting me to projects. It began when they read me, and i read their interests.
What are your future plans?
Erle: Become a master of wisdom, travel to other nations as a guru-master. Continue using blogs and open a formal URL.
Any Message you want to give to the readers of The Pakistani Spectator?
Work out to strengthen your nation, unite, bond amid ethnic differences. Don’t succumb to the whims of the global oligarchs who want to fragment Pakistan and then control the mini-states later. You are a great people, believe in your historical grandeur and collective strenth. Allah hu Akbar!
Would you please tell us something about you and your site?
Erle: The erleargonza.blogspot.com’s my main site. About relations, wisdom, cosmic awareness, self-development. …I am a sociologist, economist, consultant, yogi, mystic, guru of self-realization, artist, powerlifter. Age 49.
Do you feel that you continue to grow in your writing the longer you write? Why is that important to you?
Erle: Yes. I’m learning to write blog-style. I used to write technical-academic-scientific. I’m learning.
I’m wondering what some of your memorable experiences are with blogging?
Erle: I’m new as a blogger. The most memorable now is the commentary, both positive and antipathetic. I like feedbacks a lot. Among all feedbacks, those from spiritual seekers who seek a guru are the most memorable.
What do you do in order to keep up your communication with other bloggers?Erle: Open the blogs everyday. Begin at 7 a.m. Continue on time availability. Till 9:30 pm I work.
What do you think is the most exciting or most innovative use of technology in politics right now?
Erle: Blogs, cellphones are the coolest. Blogs for internet-based.
Do you think that these new technologies are effective in making people more responsive?
Erle: Very much. Tried & tested even here in Manila.
What do you think sets Your site apart from others?
Erle: I’m a guru and yogi, I can intuit on higher knowledge not knowable to the ordinary, not even to geniuses. Such as the opening of the stargate portal to other star systems, I saw this in my vision.
If you could choose one characteristic you have that brought you success in life, what would it be?
Erle: Big dreamer, far-sighted dreamer.
What was the happiest and gloomiest moment of your life?
Erle: Happiest: release of my 1st book. …Gloomiest? None really, simply sad but not ‘gloomiest’.
Do you think [the use of Twitter and other social networking tools by politicians] is bandwagon jumping or what?
Erle: Of course. But do they have any better choice?
If you could pick a travel destination, anywhere in the world, with no worries about how it’s paid for - what would your top 3 choices be?
Erle: Egypt–Great Pyramid; Glastonbury in England; Maui in Hawaii
What is your favorite book and why?
Erle: Secret Doctrine by Blavatsky. It’s the most advanced lesson in wisdom, mysticism for me.
What’s the first thing you notice about a person (whether you know them or not)?
Erle: Level of intelligence, by looking at their forehead, head configuration, sensing their aura.
Is there anyone from your past that once told you you couldn’t write?
Erle: No, never.
How bloggers can benefit from blogs financially?
Erle: I can’t say much. My blogging is for serving spiritual seekers, hobby, not for money (I’m studying this now).
Is it true that who has a successful blog has an awful lot of time on their hands?
Erle: Not exactly. Even very busy professionals became successful bloggers which is just their hobby.
What are your thoughts on corporate blogs and what do you think the biggest advantages and disadvantages are?
Erle: It’s their choice, not mine to make judgement about. It’s cool, it can reach out to many, can’t say of disadvantages.
What role can bloggers of the world play to make this world more friendlier and less hostile?
Erle: Very much. Blogging is new. But it’s beginning to become the ’salon’ or ‘coffee shop’ of the future where ideas get to shape the world out there.
Who are your top five favourite bloggers?
Erle: I hardly have time to read others’ blogs really, can’t comment.
Is there one observation or column or post that has gotten the most powerful reaction from people?
Erle: Catchy title, non-technical but short.
What is your perception about Pakistan and its people?
Erle: A great people! Nothing can erase that. Pakistan was once part of the seat of Mogul (I was a majarajah there during Akbar’s time, what can I say…)
Have you ever become stunned by the uniqueness of any blogger?
Erle: Not really. Being a sociologist, I expect uniqueness.
What is the most striking difference between a developed country and a developing country?
Erle: Developed: the most strategic industries are in the high-tech industrial sectors. Developing, still mired in low-tech industries such as furniture, garments & textiles, and very big agricultural sector (past 50% of GDP).
What is the future of blogging?
Erle: Very very big! It is the salon of the future! It is where geniuses of the world meet, also the mystics and superhumans of the world. Very big!
You have also got a blogging life, how has it directly affected both your personal and professional life?
I got connected to new contacts, professional friends. Some of them already arranged face-to-face negotiations with me in Manila, inviting me to projects. It began when they read me, and i read their interests.
What are your future plans?
Erle: Become a master of wisdom, travel to other nations as a guru-master. Continue using blogs and open a formal URL.
Any Message you want to give to the readers of The Pakistani Spectator?
Work out to strengthen your nation, unite, bond amid ethnic differences. Don’t succumb to the whims of the global oligarchs who want to fragment Pakistan and then control the mini-states later. You are a great people, believe in your historical grandeur and collective strenth. Allah hu Akbar!
Thursday, June 26, 2008
NY STOCKS LOSES TOTAL $3 TRILLIONS, AND STILL GOING DOWN
Bro. Erle Frayne Argonza
Since the stock markets began to plunge late last year, downturns that began with the implosion of the housing subprime mortgage bubble, over 2000 points were already shaved off from the Dow Jones index, the prime index of the USA’s stock markets. It’s now down to nearly 11,000 points from its best time total of 13,000+ points last year, representing actually a 20% plunge.
Each point in the Down Jones is worth $1 Billion as the roughest minimum estimate, though this may range up to $1.5 Billion, depending on the season of trading. Using the minimum as the yardstick, a 20% plunge from a total of 13,000+ index represents at least $2 Trillion worth of loses. If we were to add the loses in the other indices notably the Nasdaq, the figure can get us up to $3 Trillions loses.
Do note that the figure of $3 Trillions is only a conservative estimate. If we use the same figure to compute for the Global Portfolio loses, and multiply this with the number 6 (US’ portfolio capital flows represent 16% or 1/6 of total global flows, using BIS index), the operation would yield a total of $18 Trillions worth of portfolio investments gone down the drain.
It should be stressed that those loses are now gone forever. The stock market investors should better think of other options at this moment, since the plunge hasn’t ceased yet. Those loses of theirs will not return, rest assured. The plunge, per my forecast, will take a long time going yet till middle of next year.
The alarm bells are now up for a total global financial meltdown, and so every concerned fellow of the planet must make necessary preparations for the worst, whatever the worst could be. Corporate social responsibility or CSR may now need to do some contingency re-assessment and re-adjustment of goals and strategies, in the light of the continuing plunge.
Likewise should states rethink their goals and options, recheck their fiscal situation and re-adjust targets accordingly. There has been so much knee-jerked reactions by state players, central banks included, that must be re-examined, including pumping too much liquidities, rescuing ailing or bankrupt banks the erroneous way, and re-allocating budgets for populist welfare subsidies that would, in the short run, only lead to serious fiscal problems in the short run.
What is surfacing much clearly is that the old tools being applied—to salve the crisis—don’t seem to work as much as expected. The search for sound options is a tough challenging one, and the expectations from consumers, who have already slowed down consumption generally, are intensifying. Let us watch out for more contingent events.
[Writ 26 June 2008, Quezon City, Manila]
Since the stock markets began to plunge late last year, downturns that began with the implosion of the housing subprime mortgage bubble, over 2000 points were already shaved off from the Dow Jones index, the prime index of the USA’s stock markets. It’s now down to nearly 11,000 points from its best time total of 13,000+ points last year, representing actually a 20% plunge.
Each point in the Down Jones is worth $1 Billion as the roughest minimum estimate, though this may range up to $1.5 Billion, depending on the season of trading. Using the minimum as the yardstick, a 20% plunge from a total of 13,000+ index represents at least $2 Trillion worth of loses. If we were to add the loses in the other indices notably the Nasdaq, the figure can get us up to $3 Trillions loses.
Do note that the figure of $3 Trillions is only a conservative estimate. If we use the same figure to compute for the Global Portfolio loses, and multiply this with the number 6 (US’ portfolio capital flows represent 16% or 1/6 of total global flows, using BIS index), the operation would yield a total of $18 Trillions worth of portfolio investments gone down the drain.
It should be stressed that those loses are now gone forever. The stock market investors should better think of other options at this moment, since the plunge hasn’t ceased yet. Those loses of theirs will not return, rest assured. The plunge, per my forecast, will take a long time going yet till middle of next year.
The alarm bells are now up for a total global financial meltdown, and so every concerned fellow of the planet must make necessary preparations for the worst, whatever the worst could be. Corporate social responsibility or CSR may now need to do some contingency re-assessment and re-adjustment of goals and strategies, in the light of the continuing plunge.
Likewise should states rethink their goals and options, recheck their fiscal situation and re-adjust targets accordingly. There has been so much knee-jerked reactions by state players, central banks included, that must be re-examined, including pumping too much liquidities, rescuing ailing or bankrupt banks the erroneous way, and re-allocating budgets for populist welfare subsidies that would, in the short run, only lead to serious fiscal problems in the short run.
What is surfacing much clearly is that the old tools being applied—to salve the crisis—don’t seem to work as much as expected. The search for sound options is a tough challenging one, and the expectations from consumers, who have already slowed down consumption generally, are intensifying. Let us watch out for more contingent events.
[Writ 26 June 2008, Quezon City, Manila]
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
OIL PRICE HIKES AND MILITARY COUPS: PHILIPPINE CASE
Bro. Erle Frayne Argonza
Kapayapaan! Paz! Pax! Peace!
Oil price hike or OPH can be a precipitating factor behind military coups d etat. Since OPH is among the world’s focal issues today, we may as well reflect on a country case to examine how the OPH precipitated the launching of military coups: the Philippine case.
Before everything else, I hope the difference between military coup and mutiny is clear to the readers. A military coup is an offensive action aimed at a seizure of state power (coup d’etat). A mutiny is a defensive action, sometimes not sufficiently planned but a reaction against perceived injustices, often localized, and isn’t necessarily aimed at a seizure of state power.
In Manila’s experience, there never was a case of a mutiny that was precipitated by the OPH issue. But couples of military coups were launched that began with the OPH issue, and moved on to well organized assaults by an equally well equipped and fairly quantitatively endowed ‘warm bodies’ of an insurgent force within the national army that is backed up by its fraternal cadres within the national police.
The coup events took place in the 1980s yet, and were waged by the RAM-YOU-SFP coalition of army + police officers and enlisted men. RAM stands for Reform the Armed Forces Union, a reformist group of middle officers; YOU, Young Officers Union, a group of militant, radical nationalist junior officers; and, SFP, Soldiers of the Filipino People, a group of officers and personnel professing loyalty to the deposed dictator Ferdinand Marcos. The same coalition signed a peace pact with the Ramos regime in the 1990s, its top leader Col. Honasan had been elected senator of the republic, and is among the insurgent groups that signed a negotiated settlement with the Philippine state.
OPH-precipitated coups have been confined to the 1980s events since then, the recent attempts at seizures of power being anchored on a different set of issues. However, it should be noted that the strategic issues raised by the military insurgents then till now have always been the 3 Cs: corruption, criminality, and communism. With the decline of the Cold War and the decriminalization of membership in communist parties (repeal of Republic Act 1700 or Anti-Subversion Law), communism has become a less palatable factor in the coup formulas.
The event often ran this way (simplified timeline):
· An OPH is officially announced, automatically raising the prices of gasoline, kerosene, diesel, lubricants, and an assorted list of fossil fuel-based downstream commodities. This will then lead to a spiraling of OPHs within days to weeks.
· Perceiving the erosive impact of OPH on the purchasing power of laborers, the Left forces would then wage coordinated trade union protest to bring down oil prices. Middle forces and transport groups join the actions, and major cities become paralyzed. The popular actions would culminate in boycotts and calls for ‘general strike’ orchestrated particularly by the Maoists (e.g BAYAN, KMU).
· The ‘general strike’ option is perceived as a take-over by the Communists of the state. As a pre-emptive strike to save the Philippine state from totalitarian downslide, the military insurgents launch a coup that ought to be as wide-scale in scope as possible. Certain establishments (e.g. state media) are seized, select military camps are bombed and captured, aerial assaults provide air cover, until some event will put a stop to the actions. (e.g. in the 1989 coup, the US Air Force provided ‘persuasion flights’ support to Corazon Aquino to scare away the Tora-Tora planes of the insurgents).
Sadly for the insurgents, and fortunately for the middle classes who would never again support any authoritarian regime in the Philippines, no coup attempt ever succeeded at all. However, this is not to present a fixed idea that no military coup will ever succeed in the future, this is another matter altogether.
Since the coup option has never faded in the minds of the army officers here, analysts and forecasters have to re-open the possibility of the OPH becoming again a precipitating factor in launching one general assault soon. The same thing holds for other countries as well, such as those 40+ countries that saw urban riots took place as protest reactions to ‘grains price hikes’ or GPH. A confluence of OPH-GPH would serve as a very powerful precipitating impetus for waging a coup assault for that matter.
The tall order than is to nip the bud by presenting well-blended policy mixtures and institutional adjustments to the consumers. Incidentally, this is easier said than done. Since the magnitude of OPH is indubitably global, and the causal global factors are so complex, the forced option is to use populist welfare tools such as massive subsidies to food, tax cuts, taking off oil value-added tax or VAT, trimming down import duties, and so on.
Whether such actions will not redound to hyper-inflation and fiscal catastrophe in the short run is something worth observing. In which case, spiraling hyper-inflation can be the precipitating factor, with OPH serving as one factor precipitating it (hyper-inflation). Let us see how the various states, both developed and emerging markets, will respond to the OPH and downward economic spiral of the moment.
Meantime, our jittered state officials will have sleepless nights forthcoming as army insurgents on the loose are busy organizing for their next ‘golpe de estado’ adventure.
[Writ 24 June 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
Kapayapaan! Paz! Pax! Peace!
Oil price hike or OPH can be a precipitating factor behind military coups d etat. Since OPH is among the world’s focal issues today, we may as well reflect on a country case to examine how the OPH precipitated the launching of military coups: the Philippine case.
Before everything else, I hope the difference between military coup and mutiny is clear to the readers. A military coup is an offensive action aimed at a seizure of state power (coup d’etat). A mutiny is a defensive action, sometimes not sufficiently planned but a reaction against perceived injustices, often localized, and isn’t necessarily aimed at a seizure of state power.
In Manila’s experience, there never was a case of a mutiny that was precipitated by the OPH issue. But couples of military coups were launched that began with the OPH issue, and moved on to well organized assaults by an equally well equipped and fairly quantitatively endowed ‘warm bodies’ of an insurgent force within the national army that is backed up by its fraternal cadres within the national police.
The coup events took place in the 1980s yet, and were waged by the RAM-YOU-SFP coalition of army + police officers and enlisted men. RAM stands for Reform the Armed Forces Union, a reformist group of middle officers; YOU, Young Officers Union, a group of militant, radical nationalist junior officers; and, SFP, Soldiers of the Filipino People, a group of officers and personnel professing loyalty to the deposed dictator Ferdinand Marcos. The same coalition signed a peace pact with the Ramos regime in the 1990s, its top leader Col. Honasan had been elected senator of the republic, and is among the insurgent groups that signed a negotiated settlement with the Philippine state.
OPH-precipitated coups have been confined to the 1980s events since then, the recent attempts at seizures of power being anchored on a different set of issues. However, it should be noted that the strategic issues raised by the military insurgents then till now have always been the 3 Cs: corruption, criminality, and communism. With the decline of the Cold War and the decriminalization of membership in communist parties (repeal of Republic Act 1700 or Anti-Subversion Law), communism has become a less palatable factor in the coup formulas.
The event often ran this way (simplified timeline):
· An OPH is officially announced, automatically raising the prices of gasoline, kerosene, diesel, lubricants, and an assorted list of fossil fuel-based downstream commodities. This will then lead to a spiraling of OPHs within days to weeks.
· Perceiving the erosive impact of OPH on the purchasing power of laborers, the Left forces would then wage coordinated trade union protest to bring down oil prices. Middle forces and transport groups join the actions, and major cities become paralyzed. The popular actions would culminate in boycotts and calls for ‘general strike’ orchestrated particularly by the Maoists (e.g BAYAN, KMU).
· The ‘general strike’ option is perceived as a take-over by the Communists of the state. As a pre-emptive strike to save the Philippine state from totalitarian downslide, the military insurgents launch a coup that ought to be as wide-scale in scope as possible. Certain establishments (e.g. state media) are seized, select military camps are bombed and captured, aerial assaults provide air cover, until some event will put a stop to the actions. (e.g. in the 1989 coup, the US Air Force provided ‘persuasion flights’ support to Corazon Aquino to scare away the Tora-Tora planes of the insurgents).
Sadly for the insurgents, and fortunately for the middle classes who would never again support any authoritarian regime in the Philippines, no coup attempt ever succeeded at all. However, this is not to present a fixed idea that no military coup will ever succeed in the future, this is another matter altogether.
Since the coup option has never faded in the minds of the army officers here, analysts and forecasters have to re-open the possibility of the OPH becoming again a precipitating factor in launching one general assault soon. The same thing holds for other countries as well, such as those 40+ countries that saw urban riots took place as protest reactions to ‘grains price hikes’ or GPH. A confluence of OPH-GPH would serve as a very powerful precipitating impetus for waging a coup assault for that matter.
The tall order than is to nip the bud by presenting well-blended policy mixtures and institutional adjustments to the consumers. Incidentally, this is easier said than done. Since the magnitude of OPH is indubitably global, and the causal global factors are so complex, the forced option is to use populist welfare tools such as massive subsidies to food, tax cuts, taking off oil value-added tax or VAT, trimming down import duties, and so on.
Whether such actions will not redound to hyper-inflation and fiscal catastrophe in the short run is something worth observing. In which case, spiraling hyper-inflation can be the precipitating factor, with OPH serving as one factor precipitating it (hyper-inflation). Let us see how the various states, both developed and emerging markets, will respond to the OPH and downward economic spiral of the moment.
Meantime, our jittered state officials will have sleepless nights forthcoming as army insurgents on the loose are busy organizing for their next ‘golpe de estado’ adventure.
[Writ 24 June 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
EUROPE’S TOTALITARIAN SLIDE CHECKED BY IRELAND’S VOTE ON LISBON TREATY
Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago
Good morning!
It is a stormy morning actually as I write this piece, and it seems to coincide with stormy events in the European continent at the moment. The continental storm has got to do with the finalization of the Lisbon treaty that could have effected complete political integration of Europe.
What makes the treaty questionable, in the opinion of many in Europe and across the globe, is that it didn’t pass through the public opinion mills and debates. Engaging Europeans themselves in voting for the measure could have been the most important method to ensure public consent about the unification treaty.
What is scary about the treaty, per analysis from many quarters including the Guardian and Executive Intelligence Review, is that it could pave the way for a central authority that is an undisguised totalitarian regime. A continental police state could have been the result of the full implementation, which is scheduled on January 2009, coinciding with the report to office of a new president in the United States.
Already, certain political personages are salivating for sitting in the throne of European president in case the treaty will be fully enforced. Tony Blair, former premier of the UK, is among those top candidates, and is noted to be very interested in becoming the first president of the political Union. In that case, he will be the first legitimate Emperor Palpatin, who will then sign marching orders for das boots mobilizations and conflagration of a total magnitude that will dwarf what the planet had ever experienced.
If the treaty will be fully implemented, the NATO will become the instant military wing, and the nuclear arsenal of the UK and France will be placed under the direction of Brussels. The NATO will become the command center for an EU-USA hegemonic partnership that will bring warfare to its next level across the planet.
The whole of Europe will suddenly become a police state of nightmarish proportions. The immigrants there today as well as the prison inmates will instantly turn into slave labor for global corporations. The scheme, as it was already tested in the USA, is for greater privatization of prison services. It is but another disguise for slave labor pure and plain.
You may have noticed the massive influx today of immigrants to Europe. This had already been pre-planned before to raise the level of future slave laborers in the new totalitarian continent. They will backstop the prisoners whose numbers will increase by many folds as brutal police forces will be rounding up every suspicious member of a neighborhood supposedly to check on guns, drugs, alcohol drinking binge, sex orgy parties, criminals, and so on.
That totalitarian march of Europe had been checkmated for a while, as Ireland sought its citizens’ vote on the matter. Irish people rejected the treaty, and so this gives Europe some breathing space to re-think about the compass of political economic life. It could in fact be a chance to abolish the European Union altogether, which is really nothing but a central regulatory arm of the Anglo-Dutch-Teutonic oligarchy within its own backyard.
Let us all keep our eyes wide opened, vigilant to the max as events unfold in Europe. We can never again allow a totalitarian regime in that continent, whose spill-over effect would be a rapid resurgence of Japanese militarism in Asia. No, never again can we see a repeat of the fascistic days of the ‘30s & ‘40s.
[Writ 22 June 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
Good morning!
It is a stormy morning actually as I write this piece, and it seems to coincide with stormy events in the European continent at the moment. The continental storm has got to do with the finalization of the Lisbon treaty that could have effected complete political integration of Europe.
What makes the treaty questionable, in the opinion of many in Europe and across the globe, is that it didn’t pass through the public opinion mills and debates. Engaging Europeans themselves in voting for the measure could have been the most important method to ensure public consent about the unification treaty.
What is scary about the treaty, per analysis from many quarters including the Guardian and Executive Intelligence Review, is that it could pave the way for a central authority that is an undisguised totalitarian regime. A continental police state could have been the result of the full implementation, which is scheduled on January 2009, coinciding with the report to office of a new president in the United States.
Already, certain political personages are salivating for sitting in the throne of European president in case the treaty will be fully enforced. Tony Blair, former premier of the UK, is among those top candidates, and is noted to be very interested in becoming the first president of the political Union. In that case, he will be the first legitimate Emperor Palpatin, who will then sign marching orders for das boots mobilizations and conflagration of a total magnitude that will dwarf what the planet had ever experienced.
If the treaty will be fully implemented, the NATO will become the instant military wing, and the nuclear arsenal of the UK and France will be placed under the direction of Brussels. The NATO will become the command center for an EU-USA hegemonic partnership that will bring warfare to its next level across the planet.
The whole of Europe will suddenly become a police state of nightmarish proportions. The immigrants there today as well as the prison inmates will instantly turn into slave labor for global corporations. The scheme, as it was already tested in the USA, is for greater privatization of prison services. It is but another disguise for slave labor pure and plain.
You may have noticed the massive influx today of immigrants to Europe. This had already been pre-planned before to raise the level of future slave laborers in the new totalitarian continent. They will backstop the prisoners whose numbers will increase by many folds as brutal police forces will be rounding up every suspicious member of a neighborhood supposedly to check on guns, drugs, alcohol drinking binge, sex orgy parties, criminals, and so on.
That totalitarian march of Europe had been checkmated for a while, as Ireland sought its citizens’ vote on the matter. Irish people rejected the treaty, and so this gives Europe some breathing space to re-think about the compass of political economic life. It could in fact be a chance to abolish the European Union altogether, which is really nothing but a central regulatory arm of the Anglo-Dutch-Teutonic oligarchy within its own backyard.
Let us all keep our eyes wide opened, vigilant to the max as events unfold in Europe. We can never again allow a totalitarian regime in that continent, whose spill-over effect would be a rapid resurgence of Japanese militarism in Asia. No, never again can we see a repeat of the fascistic days of the ‘30s & ‘40s.
[Writ 22 June 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
Sunday, June 22, 2008
KNOW THYSELF
Bro. Erle Frayne Argonza / Guru Efdargon
Know thyself!
That sounds like a tall order of a command. It really is no command but a task, a lifelong task. It fused together ‘know’ and ‘self’, the task being to ‘know the self’ in its totality.
Self-knowledge is knowledge of a very high order. This we mystics are very much aware of. We regard self-discovery as the last frontier, the frontier of ‘inner space’.
To be able to make adventures in ‘inner space’ and discover truths along the way is the very task of a seeker or knower.
To take it for granted that you already know yourself, or pretend that you know yourself 105%, is pure hubris. On the other hand, to be so disabled from knowing the self, so much that you cannot even think of qualities that indicate your personality and level of psychological integration, is a mark of deep fragmentation and disorder. Both tendencies must be discarded.
It pays to know the self. Today’s gurus of success are very right in their contention that persons who have greater insights about themselves get to become more successful than those who don’t. Robert Kiyosaki and John Maxwell, who are on top of this chain of success gurus, have declared this contention very explicitly and kept on re-echoing it in their various writings.
Know the self well, as this is the way to a more successful future. This is another way of writing the formula. To put it in mathematical language:
Success = fn (self-insight)
Success = A + B X (Self-insight)
Where A = Goals in life
B= Pace of acknowledgement and absorption of self-insight
The Teaching is so filled with methods for self-insight, methods and information that past gurus have already shared to the world. You can go ahead and study them well.
Take a look at astrology and numerology. They are examples of methods for self-analysis and insight devised by masters in antiquity. It pays to study them well. The better if you do the study yourself rather than rely all the time on an external agent (numerologist, astrologer) to do the analysis for you. There are information packages that would be best for you to find out for yourself, as you derive the information intuitively.
As a young yogi in the making, I did study numerology and practice its analytical powers on myself and my former students (1980s, 90s). Numerology, using the combined Pythagorean-Chaldean methods, worked so wondrously that each person done with a reading exclaimed their mighty accuracy of up to 90% most often. The lowest self-assessment I received for efficacy was 80%, with 20% error. The highest was at 95%. That high precision renders numerology into a great scientific tool!
Learn as many methods as you can. Study Jung, Freud, Maslow, Erikson, and other personality psychologists. Study also the methods for examining abnormal psychology, so that you will have an advanced method of self-integration assessment. Nobody is perfect, each one of us has degrees of personal fragmentation that’s why we’re here in the physical plane. So please take pains to study the methods and even undergo psychological tests from time to time. This is for your own good.
The last thing expected of you is to declare that you’re perfect okay and other people are very defective. If you make this self-claim, please see a psychiatrist as you delude yourself with grandiose states. You may need to be locked up in an institution, the better for you. Amen.
[Writ 09 June 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
Know thyself!
That sounds like a tall order of a command. It really is no command but a task, a lifelong task. It fused together ‘know’ and ‘self’, the task being to ‘know the self’ in its totality.
Self-knowledge is knowledge of a very high order. This we mystics are very much aware of. We regard self-discovery as the last frontier, the frontier of ‘inner space’.
To be able to make adventures in ‘inner space’ and discover truths along the way is the very task of a seeker or knower.
To take it for granted that you already know yourself, or pretend that you know yourself 105%, is pure hubris. On the other hand, to be so disabled from knowing the self, so much that you cannot even think of qualities that indicate your personality and level of psychological integration, is a mark of deep fragmentation and disorder. Both tendencies must be discarded.
It pays to know the self. Today’s gurus of success are very right in their contention that persons who have greater insights about themselves get to become more successful than those who don’t. Robert Kiyosaki and John Maxwell, who are on top of this chain of success gurus, have declared this contention very explicitly and kept on re-echoing it in their various writings.
Know the self well, as this is the way to a more successful future. This is another way of writing the formula. To put it in mathematical language:
Success = fn (self-insight)
Success = A + B X (Self-insight)
Where A = Goals in life
B= Pace of acknowledgement and absorption of self-insight
The Teaching is so filled with methods for self-insight, methods and information that past gurus have already shared to the world. You can go ahead and study them well.
Take a look at astrology and numerology. They are examples of methods for self-analysis and insight devised by masters in antiquity. It pays to study them well. The better if you do the study yourself rather than rely all the time on an external agent (numerologist, astrologer) to do the analysis for you. There are information packages that would be best for you to find out for yourself, as you derive the information intuitively.
As a young yogi in the making, I did study numerology and practice its analytical powers on myself and my former students (1980s, 90s). Numerology, using the combined Pythagorean-Chaldean methods, worked so wondrously that each person done with a reading exclaimed their mighty accuracy of up to 90% most often. The lowest self-assessment I received for efficacy was 80%, with 20% error. The highest was at 95%. That high precision renders numerology into a great scientific tool!
Learn as many methods as you can. Study Jung, Freud, Maslow, Erikson, and other personality psychologists. Study also the methods for examining abnormal psychology, so that you will have an advanced method of self-integration assessment. Nobody is perfect, each one of us has degrees of personal fragmentation that’s why we’re here in the physical plane. So please take pains to study the methods and even undergo psychological tests from time to time. This is for your own good.
The last thing expected of you is to declare that you’re perfect okay and other people are very defective. If you make this self-claim, please see a psychiatrist as you delude yourself with grandiose states. You may need to be locked up in an institution, the better for you. Amen.
[Writ 09 June 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
Saturday, June 21, 2008
UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES: HAPPY CENTENNIAL!
Bro. Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago
Happy Centennial Anniversary to my Beloved Alma Mater, the University of the Philippines!
Being a development expert, I wish to highlight in this briefer the developmental side to the premier university of my beloved country. The University or the Philippines or U.P. is foremost of all an indication of the maturity of Filipino education and educators, in that after 100 years of existence, we as a people were able to show to the world the viability of a grand university run by ourselves (Filipinos).
Tertiary education was imported directly from the West, being transplanted here from Europe during the Spanish colonial era (1500s-1800s). Albeit the idea of tertiary institutes run by Filipinos themselves is a fairly recent development. To be exact, it was only after World War II, coherent with our own independence from the USA, that the striving for Filipino-run tertiary educational institutions became one of the greatest challenges in Philippine education.
The University of the Philippines was constituted by the Americans after the conclusion of the Philippine-American War. When that war ended in 1900, there was a period of intense reorganization of the entire society and state, as well as the reconstruction of the economy that was damaged by two (2) consecutive wars (the Philippine revolution against Spain was the first). In 1908 the University of the Philippines was born.
The idea of a premier state university was not, however, an imposition by the USA on the Philippines. During the brief period of Aguinaldo government (1898-2000), the new Philippine state already prioritized the constitution of such a university in consonance with its desire to establish a modern educational program. The pedagogy of that university, had it succeeded, could have been close to those of Spain’s tops, notably the University of Barcelona and University of Madrid.
But the grand vision of the new republic wasn’t fulfilled as the Americans grabbed that opportunity for self-governance by the new state. However, the Americans themselves realized the soundness of the concept, and so they took on the cudgels for constituting a premier state university. The flagship campus was then the Padre Faura campus in Manila, while the branch outside Manila was the UP College Los Banos. The Philippine General Hospital served as the service arm of the new university. Anglo-Saxon pedagogy and philosophy served as the core foundation, following those of the Ivy League universities.
Americans served as the first professors and administrators of the noble institution. Then, gradually their Filipino apprentices joined the faculty, until the time was ripe for Filipinos to serve as top management officials. Note that it took two (2) decades for such a process to take. When the grand statesman Manuel Luis Quezon became President of the commonwealth, Filipinos were already showing their prowess in administering the university, designing and managing academic programs, launching pioneering research programs, and running classrooms as professors.
The commonwealth government was a testing period for self-governance which incidentally found solid support inside the United States congress and executive. By the early 19040s the self-governance prowess of Filipinos in the state university was already established. So when the USA departed from the Philippines in 1946, Filipinos already had the upper hand in running this institution and there was no great need to import experts (professors and consultants) to run the university.
It was a rough ride all along for the state university. No matter how rough it may have seem, when asked for an opinion, I would prefer to stress the victory of Filipinos first of all in showing the capability to run the university ourselves.
Since that time on, the state university had become the bastion of nationalism and critical thinking in the country. During the dark years of Martial Law, the U.P. became the most powerful lamp that lighted the surrounds for the whole nation, and people outside were dying to read the Philippine Collegian and dying to hear U.P. professors and youth leaders speak about the true state of the nation. This libertarian and Enlightenment facets of the U.P. are very much intact till these days.
Furthermore, the Filipinos were already able to veer away from their Anglo-Saxon heritage in U.P. Gradual Filipinization across the decades led to a rediscovery of the Pacific and Asian roots of Philippine culture, and the result was a blending of Western (Anglo-Saxon, Continental) and Eastern (Malayan, Asiatic) philosophy cum pedagogy. The U.P has led efforts at re-engineering the Filipino language from a conversational to an intellectualizing language sufficient for articulating higher level concepts, a re-engineering that continues till these days.
Finally, the U.P. also evolved into the top producer of knowledge and art works for the archipelago. It is the nation’s top think-tank, the bastion of national collective reflection, where we can find the highest concentration of brilliant minds among professors, research scientists, artists and students. All other institutions in the country seek counsel from the U.P. about their core state of affairs, a proof of the maturity and esteem that the U.P had gained across the decades.
Long and arduous will be the route that the state university will traverse yet, but having proved its resiliency and capacity across one century, I am confident that this University will grow and prosper over the next one hundred (100) years of its sojourn. Let us all wish the best of luck for this very noble institution, which may turn out to be the last bastion of freedom for Asia at a time of growing global fascism.
Glory, genius, grandeur!
[20 June 2008, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City, MetroManila]
Happy Centennial Anniversary to my Beloved Alma Mater, the University of the Philippines!
Being a development expert, I wish to highlight in this briefer the developmental side to the premier university of my beloved country. The University or the Philippines or U.P. is foremost of all an indication of the maturity of Filipino education and educators, in that after 100 years of existence, we as a people were able to show to the world the viability of a grand university run by ourselves (Filipinos).
Tertiary education was imported directly from the West, being transplanted here from Europe during the Spanish colonial era (1500s-1800s). Albeit the idea of tertiary institutes run by Filipinos themselves is a fairly recent development. To be exact, it was only after World War II, coherent with our own independence from the USA, that the striving for Filipino-run tertiary educational institutions became one of the greatest challenges in Philippine education.
The University of the Philippines was constituted by the Americans after the conclusion of the Philippine-American War. When that war ended in 1900, there was a period of intense reorganization of the entire society and state, as well as the reconstruction of the economy that was damaged by two (2) consecutive wars (the Philippine revolution against Spain was the first). In 1908 the University of the Philippines was born.
The idea of a premier state university was not, however, an imposition by the USA on the Philippines. During the brief period of Aguinaldo government (1898-2000), the new Philippine state already prioritized the constitution of such a university in consonance with its desire to establish a modern educational program. The pedagogy of that university, had it succeeded, could have been close to those of Spain’s tops, notably the University of Barcelona and University of Madrid.
But the grand vision of the new republic wasn’t fulfilled as the Americans grabbed that opportunity for self-governance by the new state. However, the Americans themselves realized the soundness of the concept, and so they took on the cudgels for constituting a premier state university. The flagship campus was then the Padre Faura campus in Manila, while the branch outside Manila was the UP College Los Banos. The Philippine General Hospital served as the service arm of the new university. Anglo-Saxon pedagogy and philosophy served as the core foundation, following those of the Ivy League universities.
Americans served as the first professors and administrators of the noble institution. Then, gradually their Filipino apprentices joined the faculty, until the time was ripe for Filipinos to serve as top management officials. Note that it took two (2) decades for such a process to take. When the grand statesman Manuel Luis Quezon became President of the commonwealth, Filipinos were already showing their prowess in administering the university, designing and managing academic programs, launching pioneering research programs, and running classrooms as professors.
The commonwealth government was a testing period for self-governance which incidentally found solid support inside the United States congress and executive. By the early 19040s the self-governance prowess of Filipinos in the state university was already established. So when the USA departed from the Philippines in 1946, Filipinos already had the upper hand in running this institution and there was no great need to import experts (professors and consultants) to run the university.
It was a rough ride all along for the state university. No matter how rough it may have seem, when asked for an opinion, I would prefer to stress the victory of Filipinos first of all in showing the capability to run the university ourselves.
Since that time on, the state university had become the bastion of nationalism and critical thinking in the country. During the dark years of Martial Law, the U.P. became the most powerful lamp that lighted the surrounds for the whole nation, and people outside were dying to read the Philippine Collegian and dying to hear U.P. professors and youth leaders speak about the true state of the nation. This libertarian and Enlightenment facets of the U.P. are very much intact till these days.
Furthermore, the Filipinos were already able to veer away from their Anglo-Saxon heritage in U.P. Gradual Filipinization across the decades led to a rediscovery of the Pacific and Asian roots of Philippine culture, and the result was a blending of Western (Anglo-Saxon, Continental) and Eastern (Malayan, Asiatic) philosophy cum pedagogy. The U.P has led efforts at re-engineering the Filipino language from a conversational to an intellectualizing language sufficient for articulating higher level concepts, a re-engineering that continues till these days.
Finally, the U.P. also evolved into the top producer of knowledge and art works for the archipelago. It is the nation’s top think-tank, the bastion of national collective reflection, where we can find the highest concentration of brilliant minds among professors, research scientists, artists and students. All other institutions in the country seek counsel from the U.P. about their core state of affairs, a proof of the maturity and esteem that the U.P had gained across the decades.
Long and arduous will be the route that the state university will traverse yet, but having proved its resiliency and capacity across one century, I am confident that this University will grow and prosper over the next one hundred (100) years of its sojourn. Let us all wish the best of luck for this very noble institution, which may turn out to be the last bastion of freedom for Asia at a time of growing global fascism.
Glory, genius, grandeur!
[20 June 2008, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City, MetroManila]
Thursday, June 19, 2008
RIZAL: MAN FOR ALL SEASONS
Erle Frayne Argonza
Visionary genius, patriot, martyr for Philippine independence, Gat Jose Rizal was a man too far ahead of his own time. So titanic was the luck that came upon this blessed archipelago, the Philippine islands, for the embodiment among its humble people of this encyclopedic mind, Dr. Jose Rizal. He is impeccably a ‘man for all seasons’. And he is the national hero of the Philippine nation.
Most nations declare among their top patriots a warrior or military leader as their ‘national hero’. But for the Philippines, ours’ is a genius, an intellectual giant, a mind capable of engaging in issues so recondite and subjects so diverse that, in so short a span, he was able to pen an enormous variegation of topics that befit, in their totality, an encyclopedia. At the age of 35, he was terminated by the demonic imperial forces of Spain, but he never died in vain. On the contrary, his death continued to inspire libertarian patriots here and in other Asian lands, an inspiration that continues for our youth till these days.
Mystically gifted, little did people know that he was actually transformed into a spiritual guru before his death. His guruship was unique, in that he mentored his fellows on the wisdom of nationhood and patriotism. One of his avowed readers if not disciples, Mohandas Gandhi of India, followed in his steps and became, upon his transformation into a spiritual master, a mentor of nationhood and patriotism just like Rizal.
So mighty a mind Rizal possessed, without doubt, that till these days his works overshadow the combined works of his own fellow patriots, including those who’ve gained double doctorate degrees and published widely in academic circles. Rizal’s following is solid, he need not further articulate nor gesticulate thoughts in the vogue of a desperate social marketing campaign, for even long after his death, youthful and scholarly minds read him, try to follow his ethical precepts, and emulate his exemplary patriotic behavior.
He was the first Filipino. Before his time, the term Filipino was bestowed only on those Spaniards born and raised in the Philipines. The Malayan natives were pejoratively called Indios; Chinese, Sangleys; Aetas and IPs, negritos and montanosas; and Muslims, Moros. With scathing indictment of arrogant racism of Spaniards most especially the friars, Rizal declared, with his mighty pen, that from this day on everybody born and raised in the islands will be called Filipino. That was how we islanders were to be bestowed with the name Filipino, a term that will stick till way into the distant future when a ‘Filipino race’ will evolve from out of a mere nationality today.
In his thoughts he pre-empted the political philosophy of Antonio Gramsci, the eminent Marxist leader of the Italian Left. Rizal mentored his fellow patriots that it will prove unwise to wage an insurrectionary campaign and seize political power, at a time when the ideas of nationhood haven’t permeated the private sphere yet. The most fitting strategy for that long-term goal—of building nationhood—is education. Build the new world’s ideas first till they become hegemonic, after which winning a revolution will be more facile as it was in the French revolution. That’s Rizal, and that’s Gramsci as well, but Rizal preceded Gramsci, let the world be made aware of this fact.
In gender relations, Rizal was no less ahead of his time. He scorned the ‘Old World woman complex’ so deeply that he chose to bury this woman in catacombs of history, which he did by killing Maria Clara, the Old World’s embodiment, in his novels. He advanced the idea of Modern Woman in the figures of the ‘women of Malolos’, even as he championed women who were civic-minded, actively engaged as co-partner in shaping the modern world, intellectually adroit and well-schooled. The Filipino nation he likened to the figure of Sisa in his novels, a nurturing mother who no matter under dire duress will never self-destruct but will stand out firm, tall and well-esteemed by fellows.
Amid Rizal’s liberalism, he never had any fondness for anarchism. Following Zola’s novel-writing tradition (e.g. Germinal), Rizal embodied the anarchist in the young bourgeois creole Ibarra who, at the end of his novel scripts, self-destructed. Anarchism can never be a substitute for prudent authority that should follow the Enlightenment principles of reason, progress, fraternity, and scientific verity. He was a true-blue liberal nationalist, never an anarchist.
We Filipino nationalists will continue to be inspired by Gat Jose Rizal. And his thoughts, the most treasured jewels of Asia during his time, will continue to inspire us, diadems that we magnanimously share to all enthused Fellows of the Planet, thoughts that mentor and serve as balm on the soul, like unto those writ by the most sagely personages. For these are the thoughts of a man no less sagely than the wisest of the days of old, thoughts that long after they are gone will continue to make waves into the minds of men and women of many generations yet to come.
Hail Gat Jose Rizal! Glory, genius, grandeur!
[12 June 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
Visionary genius, patriot, martyr for Philippine independence, Gat Jose Rizal was a man too far ahead of his own time. So titanic was the luck that came upon this blessed archipelago, the Philippine islands, for the embodiment among its humble people of this encyclopedic mind, Dr. Jose Rizal. He is impeccably a ‘man for all seasons’. And he is the national hero of the Philippine nation.
Most nations declare among their top patriots a warrior or military leader as their ‘national hero’. But for the Philippines, ours’ is a genius, an intellectual giant, a mind capable of engaging in issues so recondite and subjects so diverse that, in so short a span, he was able to pen an enormous variegation of topics that befit, in their totality, an encyclopedia. At the age of 35, he was terminated by the demonic imperial forces of Spain, but he never died in vain. On the contrary, his death continued to inspire libertarian patriots here and in other Asian lands, an inspiration that continues for our youth till these days.
Mystically gifted, little did people know that he was actually transformed into a spiritual guru before his death. His guruship was unique, in that he mentored his fellows on the wisdom of nationhood and patriotism. One of his avowed readers if not disciples, Mohandas Gandhi of India, followed in his steps and became, upon his transformation into a spiritual master, a mentor of nationhood and patriotism just like Rizal.
So mighty a mind Rizal possessed, without doubt, that till these days his works overshadow the combined works of his own fellow patriots, including those who’ve gained double doctorate degrees and published widely in academic circles. Rizal’s following is solid, he need not further articulate nor gesticulate thoughts in the vogue of a desperate social marketing campaign, for even long after his death, youthful and scholarly minds read him, try to follow his ethical precepts, and emulate his exemplary patriotic behavior.
He was the first Filipino. Before his time, the term Filipino was bestowed only on those Spaniards born and raised in the Philipines. The Malayan natives were pejoratively called Indios; Chinese, Sangleys; Aetas and IPs, negritos and montanosas; and Muslims, Moros. With scathing indictment of arrogant racism of Spaniards most especially the friars, Rizal declared, with his mighty pen, that from this day on everybody born and raised in the islands will be called Filipino. That was how we islanders were to be bestowed with the name Filipino, a term that will stick till way into the distant future when a ‘Filipino race’ will evolve from out of a mere nationality today.
In his thoughts he pre-empted the political philosophy of Antonio Gramsci, the eminent Marxist leader of the Italian Left. Rizal mentored his fellow patriots that it will prove unwise to wage an insurrectionary campaign and seize political power, at a time when the ideas of nationhood haven’t permeated the private sphere yet. The most fitting strategy for that long-term goal—of building nationhood—is education. Build the new world’s ideas first till they become hegemonic, after which winning a revolution will be more facile as it was in the French revolution. That’s Rizal, and that’s Gramsci as well, but Rizal preceded Gramsci, let the world be made aware of this fact.
In gender relations, Rizal was no less ahead of his time. He scorned the ‘Old World woman complex’ so deeply that he chose to bury this woman in catacombs of history, which he did by killing Maria Clara, the Old World’s embodiment, in his novels. He advanced the idea of Modern Woman in the figures of the ‘women of Malolos’, even as he championed women who were civic-minded, actively engaged as co-partner in shaping the modern world, intellectually adroit and well-schooled. The Filipino nation he likened to the figure of Sisa in his novels, a nurturing mother who no matter under dire duress will never self-destruct but will stand out firm, tall and well-esteemed by fellows.
Amid Rizal’s liberalism, he never had any fondness for anarchism. Following Zola’s novel-writing tradition (e.g. Germinal), Rizal embodied the anarchist in the young bourgeois creole Ibarra who, at the end of his novel scripts, self-destructed. Anarchism can never be a substitute for prudent authority that should follow the Enlightenment principles of reason, progress, fraternity, and scientific verity. He was a true-blue liberal nationalist, never an anarchist.
We Filipino nationalists will continue to be inspired by Gat Jose Rizal. And his thoughts, the most treasured jewels of Asia during his time, will continue to inspire us, diadems that we magnanimously share to all enthused Fellows of the Planet, thoughts that mentor and serve as balm on the soul, like unto those writ by the most sagely personages. For these are the thoughts of a man no less sagely than the wisest of the days of old, thoughts that long after they are gone will continue to make waves into the minds of men and women of many generations yet to come.
Hail Gat Jose Rizal! Glory, genius, grandeur!
[12 June 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
RECESSION STAYS, SPIRAL POINTS TO GLOBAL MELTDOWN
Erle Frayne Argonza
The recession stay, the downward global economic spiral will continue for an indefinite time. This is the pattern that we can now see across the globe.
Stock markets have been crashing, going through a freefall for couples of months now. In Manila, the Philippine stock market is down at 2,500+ points as of this morning, or 800 points short of its best performance of 3,300+ late last year. The pattern is true in other stock markets as well.
One thing is clear: this is a global meltdown going on, and the spiral’s turn-around towards more positive gains in the succeeding months. Trillions of dollars have already gone down the drain, loses that may never be recovered again.
Many pockets are getting badly hurt, both from the fund-rich hedge funds and portfolio financiers to ordinary middle class investors. Just about two (2) years ago, everything was bullish in world stocks, most especially in Asia. That situation had since evaporated.
Unfortunately, the harbingers of liberal dogma are still banking on liberalization policies that have proved to be so bankrupt they are, in fact, the very cause of this global meltdown shaping up. The ‘virtual economy’ unleashed by liberalization resulted to looting sprees by fund managers and hedge fund operators, the same money that they partly utilize for corporate social responsibility.
Now the oil price hikes and currency market volatilities have compounded the recession. It’s just mid-2008 by the way, and there’s still the bombing of Iran that we all await as the non-surprise ‘surprise attack’ from neo-cons and Zionist fascists, which will guarantee higher prices for oil and better dollar leveraging power. This will come sooner or later.
Forecasting has been made simpler by anarchic events at this moment. There is no end in sight to the recession, oil prices will still move up, and the recession will lead to a deeper meltdown of the liberal financial-monetary system of casino-style looting by financier operators.
Better do some belt-tightening if you haven’t done this yet. Let’s continue to watch the horrible unfolding of events. Madness and unparalleled greed have shattered the financial-monetary system, the ‘virtual economy’ of predatory financiers.
[Writ 12 June 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
The recession stay, the downward global economic spiral will continue for an indefinite time. This is the pattern that we can now see across the globe.
Stock markets have been crashing, going through a freefall for couples of months now. In Manila, the Philippine stock market is down at 2,500+ points as of this morning, or 800 points short of its best performance of 3,300+ late last year. The pattern is true in other stock markets as well.
One thing is clear: this is a global meltdown going on, and the spiral’s turn-around towards more positive gains in the succeeding months. Trillions of dollars have already gone down the drain, loses that may never be recovered again.
Many pockets are getting badly hurt, both from the fund-rich hedge funds and portfolio financiers to ordinary middle class investors. Just about two (2) years ago, everything was bullish in world stocks, most especially in Asia. That situation had since evaporated.
Unfortunately, the harbingers of liberal dogma are still banking on liberalization policies that have proved to be so bankrupt they are, in fact, the very cause of this global meltdown shaping up. The ‘virtual economy’ unleashed by liberalization resulted to looting sprees by fund managers and hedge fund operators, the same money that they partly utilize for corporate social responsibility.
Now the oil price hikes and currency market volatilities have compounded the recession. It’s just mid-2008 by the way, and there’s still the bombing of Iran that we all await as the non-surprise ‘surprise attack’ from neo-cons and Zionist fascists, which will guarantee higher prices for oil and better dollar leveraging power. This will come sooner or later.
Forecasting has been made simpler by anarchic events at this moment. There is no end in sight to the recession, oil prices will still move up, and the recession will lead to a deeper meltdown of the liberal financial-monetary system of casino-style looting by financier operators.
Better do some belt-tightening if you haven’t done this yet. Let’s continue to watch the horrible unfolding of events. Madness and unparalleled greed have shattered the financial-monetary system, the ‘virtual economy’ of predatory financiers.
[Writ 12 June 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
DO JIHADIST ABDUCTORS HAVE FUNDS TO BUY PHILIPPINE ARMY’S GUNS?
Bro. Erle Frayne Argonza
Good afternoon from Manila!
The headlines and front pages of the major dailies here are focused (scoop) on the Ces Drilon abduction by the Abu Sayyaf, the CIA-created jihadist group operating in Mindanao (southern Philippines; Ces Drilon is a rated journalist of the oligarchic ABS-CBN). Reports say the P15 Million rock-bottom ransom is out, and that the jihadists have signaled an ultimatum.
As this is happening, the national army is massing up troops and intelligence assets in the area, supposedly as part of the ‘stick tactic’ that could glue the terrorists to the bargaining table. This is old-hat psych-op that belabors on the obvious, which even kindergarten minds are aware about.
The real score in the current ‘abduction game’ as well as in previous ones is that it is an opportunity for rouge military officers to sell armaments to the terrorists. I have already tackled the matter of rouge arms sellers, and factored the USA’s Pentagon neo-cons as the current force behind such abominations within the Philippines’ armed forces or national army.
As discussed in a previous article, terrorist abduction is an amusingly ‘win/win’ situation in an affected area. I also tacked the matter of pricing strategy for ransom and the network of peacekeepers involved in the process. The one bannered on headlines, worth P15 Million, is the rock-bottom price, while the maximum ransom, per estimates leaking to media and experts, shoots up to $5 Million.
The question that comes into mind now is, with the massing up of army operations in the affected area (Indanan, Sulu island province), how would the abduction be handled as a whole from both sides? Aware that rouge elements are inside the army who are up to sell arms to the jihadists, do the terrorists possess the funds for paying the rouge soldiers?
The problem, which finance experts may better reflect on, is that the cash to pay rebels hasn’t been fully forwarded yet. The only cash paid so far was for the release of the camera crewman of Drilon, who is a low-bankable player and in the latest abduction game. Though seemingly a nuisance, the value of the crew is that, while negotiations were in process for his release, the jihadists were able to spy on the connecting threads and linkages of operators and peacekeepers on the “other side” of the table.
Such a situation is precisely what hedge funds are for. Portfolio capital can serve precisely as cash forward to the party involved (jihadists), while the same portfolio operator can likewise hedge the scheduled cash flow inputs of the paying group (Lopez group). As I was saying in a previous article, insurance companies and hedge funds operators have a ‘window of opportunity’ in the context of a ‘force majeure’ event such as terror abduction.
The final question is, in case that no cash forwards will get through to the jihadists, and no guarantees for luscious purchases by the army and designated bagmen operators, will the ‘stick operations’ pursue? Will Drilon finally be released by the jihadists in case that they feel the pressure from the army assault on their lairs?
These types of operations are already routine in Mindanao’s life and hardly make a dent on public attention that is focused on other hard issues like oil price hikes and inflation. What makes the case unique is the person of Drilon who is an asset of the ABS-CBN, a Lopez family firm. The jihadists know the great sins of the Lopez utilities notably the Meralco on the public, which could factor in the dynamics of the abduction.
Needless to say, the Lopez sinners can pay the price of the latest game. Government can also exact a bit of revenge for the beating it got when its board representatives in the MERALCO lose in bidding for chairmanship and juicy posts. Or, perhaps a turn-around that could see the release of Drilon and heavy beating (with high casualties) of the jihadists would happen, thus increasing the palatability of the government control of the MERALCO firm.
The scenario is no determinate one as the situation is fluid. You can make your own guesses about the compass of the abduction. In case you’re following up on the news, better do your own scenario building now while the “soup is hot.”
[Writ 17 June 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
Good afternoon from Manila!
The headlines and front pages of the major dailies here are focused (scoop) on the Ces Drilon abduction by the Abu Sayyaf, the CIA-created jihadist group operating in Mindanao (southern Philippines; Ces Drilon is a rated journalist of the oligarchic ABS-CBN). Reports say the P15 Million rock-bottom ransom is out, and that the jihadists have signaled an ultimatum.
As this is happening, the national army is massing up troops and intelligence assets in the area, supposedly as part of the ‘stick tactic’ that could glue the terrorists to the bargaining table. This is old-hat psych-op that belabors on the obvious, which even kindergarten minds are aware about.
The real score in the current ‘abduction game’ as well as in previous ones is that it is an opportunity for rouge military officers to sell armaments to the terrorists. I have already tackled the matter of rouge arms sellers, and factored the USA’s Pentagon neo-cons as the current force behind such abominations within the Philippines’ armed forces or national army.
As discussed in a previous article, terrorist abduction is an amusingly ‘win/win’ situation in an affected area. I also tacked the matter of pricing strategy for ransom and the network of peacekeepers involved in the process. The one bannered on headlines, worth P15 Million, is the rock-bottom price, while the maximum ransom, per estimates leaking to media and experts, shoots up to $5 Million.
The question that comes into mind now is, with the massing up of army operations in the affected area (Indanan, Sulu island province), how would the abduction be handled as a whole from both sides? Aware that rouge elements are inside the army who are up to sell arms to the jihadists, do the terrorists possess the funds for paying the rouge soldiers?
The problem, which finance experts may better reflect on, is that the cash to pay rebels hasn’t been fully forwarded yet. The only cash paid so far was for the release of the camera crewman of Drilon, who is a low-bankable player and in the latest abduction game. Though seemingly a nuisance, the value of the crew is that, while negotiations were in process for his release, the jihadists were able to spy on the connecting threads and linkages of operators and peacekeepers on the “other side” of the table.
Such a situation is precisely what hedge funds are for. Portfolio capital can serve precisely as cash forward to the party involved (jihadists), while the same portfolio operator can likewise hedge the scheduled cash flow inputs of the paying group (Lopez group). As I was saying in a previous article, insurance companies and hedge funds operators have a ‘window of opportunity’ in the context of a ‘force majeure’ event such as terror abduction.
The final question is, in case that no cash forwards will get through to the jihadists, and no guarantees for luscious purchases by the army and designated bagmen operators, will the ‘stick operations’ pursue? Will Drilon finally be released by the jihadists in case that they feel the pressure from the army assault on their lairs?
These types of operations are already routine in Mindanao’s life and hardly make a dent on public attention that is focused on other hard issues like oil price hikes and inflation. What makes the case unique is the person of Drilon who is an asset of the ABS-CBN, a Lopez family firm. The jihadists know the great sins of the Lopez utilities notably the Meralco on the public, which could factor in the dynamics of the abduction.
Needless to say, the Lopez sinners can pay the price of the latest game. Government can also exact a bit of revenge for the beating it got when its board representatives in the MERALCO lose in bidding for chairmanship and juicy posts. Or, perhaps a turn-around that could see the release of Drilon and heavy beating (with high casualties) of the jihadists would happen, thus increasing the palatability of the government control of the MERALCO firm.
The scenario is no determinate one as the situation is fluid. You can make your own guesses about the compass of the abduction. In case you’re following up on the news, better do your own scenario building now while the “soup is hot.”
[Writ 17 June 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
Monday, June 16, 2008
INTEGRATE INSURGENT ARMY, END COLD WAR
Erle Frayne Argonza
In the beginning were Truman and McCarthy, collectively the ‘Father’ of Cold War. The Father ‘breathed’ out from His inner recesses, and off came a-birthing the new being called the Cold War. Mighty and dreadful, this being unleashed destructive forces of such unparalleled beauty in the eyes of the Father, and so, on the 7th day, the Father slept, fulfilled that his mighty Dragon of destruction has been doing its job well.
So mighty was this Dragon of Destruction that in my beloved nation, the new Philippine republic, everything that looked like a demon (read: patriot) must be staked alive in the town plaza, and upon the expiration of last breath, the demons must be paraded around town. Communists, socialists, nationalists, civil libertarians all appeared as ‘birds of the same feather’ and are, per the Pavlovian stock of knowledge of this hungry dragon, of equal demonic quality as the witches of Salem. Kill them whenever you see them in sight!
Fellows, the Father is long dead, his two heads (Truman, McCarthy) long gone, but many of us still think, both consciously and unconsciously, like the sons and daughters of the Father. We perceive and stigmatize those patriots inside our backyards, whose mindsets remain outside our perceptive perimeters of accepted political forces, as non-human witches worth our termination en masse.
The Cold War mindset has been responsible for the rabid witch-hunt perceptions of insurgent groups. Never mind if the insurgents are not exactly those terrorists that were largely creations of the CIA (Al Quada, Abu Sayyaf) and British Intelligence (Muslim Brotherhood offshoots), insurgents that lay claim to legitimacy of their agenda and relative civility of their methods and tactics. They are sorcerers, they must be hunted and terminated like deadly wolves, show them no mercy, and so name every plethora of denigration and demonization one can think of about any social or political group.
Fellows, when you have patriotic groups around, such as our Muslim and Left rebels here in the Philippines, please treat them as your siblings. Shed off that Cold War mindset, accept them, embrace them, integrate their cadres into the mainstream. And, ipso facto, integrate their armies into your state’s army and national police. Take off that distrust, condescension, arrogance and hubris, period. Accept them without precondition.
The end of Manila’s war with the Moro National Liberation Front or MNLF proves to be a very instructive case. As part of the negotiated settlement, troops of the Bangsa Moro Army or BMA, military wing of the MNLF, must be integrated into the army and national police. 7,000 troops were then screened from the guerilla ranks, received training, re-orientation and indoctrination, and voila! They proved they were equal to the task of being a soldier or cop for the Philippine state!
Please note that we have a history in the islands of deep distrust towards Muslims. The Muslim ethnicities never ever bowed to Western colonial authority for the whole period of 400 years of colonization, they always waged military campaigns against the Spaniards, and were pacified only after bloody integration campaigns by the American forces. “A good Muslim is a dead Muslim,” so goes this rather demented aphorism that I grew up with as a young boy in the 1960s.
Who would ever trust Muslim troops within the army in the 1970s at the peak of the Mindanao war? Or the ceasefire days of the 1980s? No, Sir, nobody could trust Muslims as they fell within the ambit of Cold War discourse and the demented, bigoted perception about them by the majority Westernized peoples.
But the 1990s was a different context. The Philippine state booted out American GIs and re-acquired the U.S. military base lands here, independent foreign policy was championed, the Cold War was eroding fast. The Christian Democrats, who were catapulted to power (President Ramos was among its top leaders), were very open in coalitioning with radical forces, the Left most specially. And so when President Ramos became president, it was among his top agenda to conclude all insurgencies here via the carrot way of negotiated settlement: the ‘win/win’ solution to age-old rebellions.
The military rebels (RAM-YOU, RAM = Reform the Armed Forces, YOU = Young Officers Union or YOU) finally agreed to a settlement and be integrated into the mainstream and the army/police. Likewise did the MNLF agree to a settlement, the top MNLF leaders were elected to the top posts of the Autonomous Region of Mindanao or ARMM, the BMA troops got integrated into the army and national police.
We simply shed off our Cold War mindset right then, and were so euphoric at the fulfilling results of the peace talks. Being a nationalist and socialist, my own Cold War antipathies towards our soldiers and cops eroded, my trust for them quite returned. I had always been under the surveillance of the state intelligence groups here, for nigh three (3) decades, and till these days my dossiers are still in the files of the said groups even if, by 2004-05, I served government as a bureau official.
Albeit I’d reserve my most euphoric moment, with tons of tears of happiness shed, when our other insurgencies will be concluded and their armies likewise integrated into our police and army. Never mind about nauseated rationalizations such as those questions of competency, mental orientation, and other Cold War hubris, they belong to the dirtiest dustbins. Integrate the insurgents at all cost and full acceptance, without preconditions.
[Writ 10 June 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
In the beginning were Truman and McCarthy, collectively the ‘Father’ of Cold War. The Father ‘breathed’ out from His inner recesses, and off came a-birthing the new being called the Cold War. Mighty and dreadful, this being unleashed destructive forces of such unparalleled beauty in the eyes of the Father, and so, on the 7th day, the Father slept, fulfilled that his mighty Dragon of destruction has been doing its job well.
So mighty was this Dragon of Destruction that in my beloved nation, the new Philippine republic, everything that looked like a demon (read: patriot) must be staked alive in the town plaza, and upon the expiration of last breath, the demons must be paraded around town. Communists, socialists, nationalists, civil libertarians all appeared as ‘birds of the same feather’ and are, per the Pavlovian stock of knowledge of this hungry dragon, of equal demonic quality as the witches of Salem. Kill them whenever you see them in sight!
Fellows, the Father is long dead, his two heads (Truman, McCarthy) long gone, but many of us still think, both consciously and unconsciously, like the sons and daughters of the Father. We perceive and stigmatize those patriots inside our backyards, whose mindsets remain outside our perceptive perimeters of accepted political forces, as non-human witches worth our termination en masse.
The Cold War mindset has been responsible for the rabid witch-hunt perceptions of insurgent groups. Never mind if the insurgents are not exactly those terrorists that were largely creations of the CIA (Al Quada, Abu Sayyaf) and British Intelligence (Muslim Brotherhood offshoots), insurgents that lay claim to legitimacy of their agenda and relative civility of their methods and tactics. They are sorcerers, they must be hunted and terminated like deadly wolves, show them no mercy, and so name every plethora of denigration and demonization one can think of about any social or political group.
Fellows, when you have patriotic groups around, such as our Muslim and Left rebels here in the Philippines, please treat them as your siblings. Shed off that Cold War mindset, accept them, embrace them, integrate their cadres into the mainstream. And, ipso facto, integrate their armies into your state’s army and national police. Take off that distrust, condescension, arrogance and hubris, period. Accept them without precondition.
The end of Manila’s war with the Moro National Liberation Front or MNLF proves to be a very instructive case. As part of the negotiated settlement, troops of the Bangsa Moro Army or BMA, military wing of the MNLF, must be integrated into the army and national police. 7,000 troops were then screened from the guerilla ranks, received training, re-orientation and indoctrination, and voila! They proved they were equal to the task of being a soldier or cop for the Philippine state!
Please note that we have a history in the islands of deep distrust towards Muslims. The Muslim ethnicities never ever bowed to Western colonial authority for the whole period of 400 years of colonization, they always waged military campaigns against the Spaniards, and were pacified only after bloody integration campaigns by the American forces. “A good Muslim is a dead Muslim,” so goes this rather demented aphorism that I grew up with as a young boy in the 1960s.
Who would ever trust Muslim troops within the army in the 1970s at the peak of the Mindanao war? Or the ceasefire days of the 1980s? No, Sir, nobody could trust Muslims as they fell within the ambit of Cold War discourse and the demented, bigoted perception about them by the majority Westernized peoples.
But the 1990s was a different context. The Philippine state booted out American GIs and re-acquired the U.S. military base lands here, independent foreign policy was championed, the Cold War was eroding fast. The Christian Democrats, who were catapulted to power (President Ramos was among its top leaders), were very open in coalitioning with radical forces, the Left most specially. And so when President Ramos became president, it was among his top agenda to conclude all insurgencies here via the carrot way of negotiated settlement: the ‘win/win’ solution to age-old rebellions.
The military rebels (RAM-YOU, RAM = Reform the Armed Forces, YOU = Young Officers Union or YOU) finally agreed to a settlement and be integrated into the mainstream and the army/police. Likewise did the MNLF agree to a settlement, the top MNLF leaders were elected to the top posts of the Autonomous Region of Mindanao or ARMM, the BMA troops got integrated into the army and national police.
We simply shed off our Cold War mindset right then, and were so euphoric at the fulfilling results of the peace talks. Being a nationalist and socialist, my own Cold War antipathies towards our soldiers and cops eroded, my trust for them quite returned. I had always been under the surveillance of the state intelligence groups here, for nigh three (3) decades, and till these days my dossiers are still in the files of the said groups even if, by 2004-05, I served government as a bureau official.
Albeit I’d reserve my most euphoric moment, with tons of tears of happiness shed, when our other insurgencies will be concluded and their armies likewise integrated into our police and army. Never mind about nauseated rationalizations such as those questions of competency, mental orientation, and other Cold War hubris, they belong to the dirtiest dustbins. Integrate the insurgents at all cost and full acceptance, without preconditions.
[Writ 10 June 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
Sunday, June 15, 2008
KICKBACKS & PEACEKEEPING, TV JOURNALIST’S ABU SAYYAF ABDUCTION
Bro. Erle Frayne Argonza
Good afternoon from Manila!
As of this moment, Manila is in the heat of coffee shop speculations about the fate of the recently abducted Ces Drilon & crew, personnel of the oligarchic network ABS-CBN, by the Abu Sayyaf. The ‘cara y cruz’ debate is whether the Lopez group will pay for the ransom of Drilon & crew, amounting to $5 Million more or less.
Having observed peacekeeping for some time now, and having had the privilege of being close to peace negotiators on both camps (state and rebel counsels), I know very well about the perks that go with peacekeeping. A favorite popular idiom today, when one is uncertain whether to push through with a work engagement, is “i-career mo na” (make a career out of it). This goes through for peacekeeping.
Let me ping straight to the point: there’s a lot of kickbacks in peacekeeping, that is why it is a great project engagement for any state official to role-play peacekeeper. On the terrorist side, mujahideen work becomes adventure, fun and good life as sweet money would come around every time that abductions and raids would be mounted. Abduction, specifically, is a ‘win/win’ situation (Fidel Ramos favorite idiom).
Here is the value chain of abduction: A group of young terrorists are tasked to abduct any bankable personage or group. Most probably a preliminary assessment had been done about the ‘book value’ of the proposed victims. With all parameters and actions observed (on the backward and forward linkages, inputs and outputs), the group then proceeds to abduct the bankable victim and team members.
The ever ready peacekeepers, actual (those with mandates) and potential (those local and other personages who can do go-between or back-channel tasks), will then quickly respond to the situation. The terrorists are aware of the chain of peacekeepers, and knowing the “10% goes to Boss” S.O.P., they already padded the price of the ransom. A lot of contingency expenses are entailed in the negotiations, a lot of risks too, so all operating expenditures must be covered in the ransom estimate.
The bargaining then begins as soon as the peacekeepers rendezvous with the terrorists or their authorized agents. To show semblance of civility and concern, the peacekeepers would try to strike a bargain, but not rock-bottom please. Nobody wants to come home empty-handed, please understand.
Upon doing the preliminary rendezvous, the terrorist group or T-Group would then re-assess the estimate. They have already done their own counter-espionage about the ‘chain of peacekeepers’, so this dovetails in the decision whether it is sound to scale down or move up the ransom. Factoring along the number of new T-Group recruits who may need immediate ‘glad tidings’ support is also an important decision input here.
The family or firm that is set to pay ransom will make the pronouncement that “there will be no ransom” and the rationale that “we will not and never will negotiate with criminals and terrorists.” This is a mere cover-up by-line, remember, I know this for a fact. Non-payment is too remote from reality, I’m very certain about this.
What is factual is that the family or firm would have to decide quickly to pay more as soon as a bargain had been done via back-channel. Often than not, the paying group must also offer gifts (payola incentives) to the back-channel negotiators. Payment must really be quick and sweeping. Because failure to do so would make the T-Group raise the ransom, and the negotiations after that would be more difficult, hazardous, and the chain of peacekeepers would rise, perhaps following 2-3 chain tracks.
So, what happens upon the conclusion of the deal is that everybody will be happy. Jihadists are awash with funds for operations and payments of assets, locality’s banks are awash with fresh cash that will then circulate back into the local economy, and happiest of all will be the peacekeepers whose purses and secret vaults will bulge with fresh funds. Everybody gets a lot of news exposures, the media personnel abducted will have tons of materials for new write ups and reportage, the paying group will project an angelic mien as philanthropic moguls worth your emulation.
Perhaps the insurance companies should cash in on terror abductions and attacks, and open up ‘terror insurance’ or maybe peg them as ‘force majeure’ with specifications applicable to terror-operated abductions. And, maybe they can even partner with wealthy peacekeepers to study the viability of hedge funds operations for abductions. Isn’t this a fantastic proposal?
[Writ 15 June 2008, Manila, Quezon City]
Good afternoon from Manila!
As of this moment, Manila is in the heat of coffee shop speculations about the fate of the recently abducted Ces Drilon & crew, personnel of the oligarchic network ABS-CBN, by the Abu Sayyaf. The ‘cara y cruz’ debate is whether the Lopez group will pay for the ransom of Drilon & crew, amounting to $5 Million more or less.
Having observed peacekeeping for some time now, and having had the privilege of being close to peace negotiators on both camps (state and rebel counsels), I know very well about the perks that go with peacekeeping. A favorite popular idiom today, when one is uncertain whether to push through with a work engagement, is “i-career mo na” (make a career out of it). This goes through for peacekeeping.
Let me ping straight to the point: there’s a lot of kickbacks in peacekeeping, that is why it is a great project engagement for any state official to role-play peacekeeper. On the terrorist side, mujahideen work becomes adventure, fun and good life as sweet money would come around every time that abductions and raids would be mounted. Abduction, specifically, is a ‘win/win’ situation (Fidel Ramos favorite idiom).
Here is the value chain of abduction: A group of young terrorists are tasked to abduct any bankable personage or group. Most probably a preliminary assessment had been done about the ‘book value’ of the proposed victims. With all parameters and actions observed (on the backward and forward linkages, inputs and outputs), the group then proceeds to abduct the bankable victim and team members.
The ever ready peacekeepers, actual (those with mandates) and potential (those local and other personages who can do go-between or back-channel tasks), will then quickly respond to the situation. The terrorists are aware of the chain of peacekeepers, and knowing the “10% goes to Boss” S.O.P., they already padded the price of the ransom. A lot of contingency expenses are entailed in the negotiations, a lot of risks too, so all operating expenditures must be covered in the ransom estimate.
The bargaining then begins as soon as the peacekeepers rendezvous with the terrorists or their authorized agents. To show semblance of civility and concern, the peacekeepers would try to strike a bargain, but not rock-bottom please. Nobody wants to come home empty-handed, please understand.
Upon doing the preliminary rendezvous, the terrorist group or T-Group would then re-assess the estimate. They have already done their own counter-espionage about the ‘chain of peacekeepers’, so this dovetails in the decision whether it is sound to scale down or move up the ransom. Factoring along the number of new T-Group recruits who may need immediate ‘glad tidings’ support is also an important decision input here.
The family or firm that is set to pay ransom will make the pronouncement that “there will be no ransom” and the rationale that “we will not and never will negotiate with criminals and terrorists.” This is a mere cover-up by-line, remember, I know this for a fact. Non-payment is too remote from reality, I’m very certain about this.
What is factual is that the family or firm would have to decide quickly to pay more as soon as a bargain had been done via back-channel. Often than not, the paying group must also offer gifts (payola incentives) to the back-channel negotiators. Payment must really be quick and sweeping. Because failure to do so would make the T-Group raise the ransom, and the negotiations after that would be more difficult, hazardous, and the chain of peacekeepers would rise, perhaps following 2-3 chain tracks.
So, what happens upon the conclusion of the deal is that everybody will be happy. Jihadists are awash with funds for operations and payments of assets, locality’s banks are awash with fresh cash that will then circulate back into the local economy, and happiest of all will be the peacekeepers whose purses and secret vaults will bulge with fresh funds. Everybody gets a lot of news exposures, the media personnel abducted will have tons of materials for new write ups and reportage, the paying group will project an angelic mien as philanthropic moguls worth your emulation.
Perhaps the insurance companies should cash in on terror abductions and attacks, and open up ‘terror insurance’ or maybe peg them as ‘force majeure’ with specifications applicable to terror-operated abductions. And, maybe they can even partner with wealthy peacekeepers to study the viability of hedge funds operations for abductions. Isn’t this a fantastic proposal?
[Writ 15 June 2008, Manila, Quezon City]
Saturday, June 14, 2008
GURU OF NATIONHOOD
Bro. Erle Frayne Argonza
Good afternoon from Manila!
Is it possible to practice guru for nationhood? Everybody who knows the term ‘guru’ or teacher expects the role of somebody who mentors on the level of the individual psyche, or intervenes on the individual level. Let me shed light about the matter.
There are different levels of consciousness and awareness. Each one of us has an individual aspect to our consciousness, which sociologists call the ‘individual self’ or authentic self. The individual self is the repository of our personality, the totality of our behavior system that allows us to behave in many circumstances in a unique way. The mind of our unique self is called the ‘individual mind’ plain and simple.
As we move up the ladder of sociality, we encounter the ‘collective consciousness’. Sociologists used the terms ‘conscience collective’ (Durkheim), ‘social consciousness’ (Marx), and ‘social self’ (G.H.Mead) to refer to this level of consciousness and type of self. The rules that guide our behavior are deposited in our collective memory and operate through our ‘social self’.
The nation is a cultural being that comprises of a congregation or agglomeration of diverse ethnicities, races, social classes, genders, and other social identities. At the level of nation, collective consciousness operates and congeals as rules, national culture and identity. Nationhood therefore is no fixed thing, born from out of a silver platter, but is rather an entity that has to be collectively constructed.
It is in the task of constructing nationhood that diverse teachers do come to help mold minds of people towards accepting a common culture, identity and normative template as a people. Gurus are indeed sent from time to time, whose missions have to do with galvanizing collective consciousness towards an ‘enlightened society’ rather than focus on individual learning of the Teaching.
Among the various mystics who were sent forth by the Divine Hierarchy to focus on the collective consciousness formation, Jose Rizal and Mahatma Gandhi come to mind as the prototypes for modernity. Rizal, the Philippines’ national hero, practically expended his time and effort teaching his fellow islander Malayans in accepting an identity as ‘Filipino’ and learning the patriotic values and duties that go with practicing citizenship.
Mahatma Gandhi, who read Rizal and must have been aware of the mystic-guru side to the first Filipino, likewise embarked on the noble mission of teaching nationhood for his beloved India. Among the patriotic virtues that he taught, that of ahimsa (peace/non-violence) stands out as the most. He preached nationhood till the last breath of his physical body, and did a lot of punishing self-sacrifices just to prove his point. Even his profession and money pursuits he sacrificed in the last instance.
Both of them eventually lost their lives for the cause. Rizal was executed by the Spanish overlords of his beloved Philippines, while Gandhi was assassinated by a partisan fanatic. During that moment of death, what people don’t realize is that, as their respective souls departed, they made inner commitments to Cosmic Hierarchy that they partly shoulder the collective karma of their nation. In other words, they carried the cross for their nation, in the same way the Jesus carried the cross of the entire planet Earth’s humanity.
In a similar way, gurus who intervene on the level of individual consciousness do take a part of the karma of their respective individual disciples. Some of them suddenly acquire incurable cancer, some would lose their voice partly, while some others could die from absorbing so many vibrations and bad karmas of their disciples. That’s what it means to become a guru: take on the cross for others.
So, Fellows, let us please appreciate the noble works of gurus for nationhood for their selfless dedication to their thankless jobs. They more than deserve accolades for their sacrifices and gargantuan feats. No wonder why some people regard them as worth the cult worship, revere them like gods. They deserve enormous respect, to say the least.
[Writ 09 June 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
Good afternoon from Manila!
Is it possible to practice guru for nationhood? Everybody who knows the term ‘guru’ or teacher expects the role of somebody who mentors on the level of the individual psyche, or intervenes on the individual level. Let me shed light about the matter.
There are different levels of consciousness and awareness. Each one of us has an individual aspect to our consciousness, which sociologists call the ‘individual self’ or authentic self. The individual self is the repository of our personality, the totality of our behavior system that allows us to behave in many circumstances in a unique way. The mind of our unique self is called the ‘individual mind’ plain and simple.
As we move up the ladder of sociality, we encounter the ‘collective consciousness’. Sociologists used the terms ‘conscience collective’ (Durkheim), ‘social consciousness’ (Marx), and ‘social self’ (G.H.Mead) to refer to this level of consciousness and type of self. The rules that guide our behavior are deposited in our collective memory and operate through our ‘social self’.
The nation is a cultural being that comprises of a congregation or agglomeration of diverse ethnicities, races, social classes, genders, and other social identities. At the level of nation, collective consciousness operates and congeals as rules, national culture and identity. Nationhood therefore is no fixed thing, born from out of a silver platter, but is rather an entity that has to be collectively constructed.
It is in the task of constructing nationhood that diverse teachers do come to help mold minds of people towards accepting a common culture, identity and normative template as a people. Gurus are indeed sent from time to time, whose missions have to do with galvanizing collective consciousness towards an ‘enlightened society’ rather than focus on individual learning of the Teaching.
Among the various mystics who were sent forth by the Divine Hierarchy to focus on the collective consciousness formation, Jose Rizal and Mahatma Gandhi come to mind as the prototypes for modernity. Rizal, the Philippines’ national hero, practically expended his time and effort teaching his fellow islander Malayans in accepting an identity as ‘Filipino’ and learning the patriotic values and duties that go with practicing citizenship.
Mahatma Gandhi, who read Rizal and must have been aware of the mystic-guru side to the first Filipino, likewise embarked on the noble mission of teaching nationhood for his beloved India. Among the patriotic virtues that he taught, that of ahimsa (peace/non-violence) stands out as the most. He preached nationhood till the last breath of his physical body, and did a lot of punishing self-sacrifices just to prove his point. Even his profession and money pursuits he sacrificed in the last instance.
Both of them eventually lost their lives for the cause. Rizal was executed by the Spanish overlords of his beloved Philippines, while Gandhi was assassinated by a partisan fanatic. During that moment of death, what people don’t realize is that, as their respective souls departed, they made inner commitments to Cosmic Hierarchy that they partly shoulder the collective karma of their nation. In other words, they carried the cross for their nation, in the same way the Jesus carried the cross of the entire planet Earth’s humanity.
In a similar way, gurus who intervene on the level of individual consciousness do take a part of the karma of their respective individual disciples. Some of them suddenly acquire incurable cancer, some would lose their voice partly, while some others could die from absorbing so many vibrations and bad karmas of their disciples. That’s what it means to become a guru: take on the cross for others.
So, Fellows, let us please appreciate the noble works of gurus for nationhood for their selfless dedication to their thankless jobs. They more than deserve accolades for their sacrifices and gargantuan feats. No wonder why some people regard them as worth the cult worship, revere them like gods. They deserve enormous respect, to say the least.
[Writ 09 June 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
Friday, June 13, 2008
UNFURLING BIGGEST PHILIPPINE FLAG: SIGNIFYING GLOBAL LEADERSHIP DESTINY
Erle Frayne Argonza
Good morning!
As I was moving back to home-base, done with my gym exercise, my eyes caught the news bit in the newsstands about the biggest Philippine flag recently unfurled in Baguio City. So huge was the flag, it weighed over 3 tons.
Whoever may have conceived the idea (a lady), she was acting magnanimously on the behest of her own Guide from Above. The choice of creating and unfurling a big flag, on the occasion of Philippine Independence day, can be perceived as a token of patriotism and love for fellow Filipinos.
On a deeper level, however, the unfurling of a flag so huge goes beyond simple tokenism. There’s more to the flag beyond people coming together and building bridges of Love for peace and world healing, which indeed had been delivered by the flag team at the moment of unfurling. It also goes beyond the hospitality of the Baguio people that was rightly exhibited too at that moment of unfurling.
For one, the size signifies the growth and galvanization of the Filipino identity and weltanschauung that took over 300 years to build. Building that weltanschauung began when the secularization movement was launched during the Spanish Era, and then moved on to the nationalist movement of Rizal’s time, and onwards to the Filipino Renaissance of the 1990s (pre-centennial through post-centennial jubilee). The Renaissance still goes on and may be the next phase of weltanschauung formation that would take probably two (2) centuries to ferment.
The Philippine nation used to be circumscribed within the confines of the archipelago, the same island group that was created by Westphalian-type treaties among world powers. Today, the nation has gone beyond the archipelago’s borders, as Filipinos have been spread across the globe, nearly 100 million strong.
That huge flag signified the strength of the weltanschauung formation galvanizing as identity, psyche, collective taste and temper that now inhere among the equally large population of 100 million. A globalized people and nation must be signified with dignity and honor by an emblem as huge as the world: a 3+ tonner flag. Hugeness means strength, power, potency, global extent. It means there is not any place in the world that we can’t dip our hands into and be part of their reshaping. It means global imprint, global impact.
The year of unfurling is very auspicious: 110th year after the independence declaration. 110 contains the numbers 11 and 10, 11 X 10 equals 110. 11 signifies conquest and leadership in certain domains of planetary life. 10 means 9 + 1, the number of completion that starts with zero (1 is leadership, 9 is martial abilities). Somehow, the Cosmic Hierarchs are heralding to the world, via this huge flag, on this 110th year of Filipinas, that from hereon a new phase of history begins: the phase of global leadership in certain aspects of life.
By the fact that Filipinos were spread across the globe, a feat that can be attributed largely to the Divine Hierarchy in pursuit of a greater Plan (which we 3-dimensional mortals are blind about), already is one cause for wonderment. Hidden Divine Hands are working on these islands, and so the message of the Hierarchy to the Dark Forces who want to destroy our people is for them to ‘make no mistake’, the Divine Plan holds and will hold through. No Dark Force can ever wreck the destiny of the Filipinos, a destiny that has global effects in the future eras to come.
Not even the destruction today of the archipelago through WMD (weapons of mass destruction) and the mass termination of 90 million inhabitants can ever kill Divine Plan. That huge quake that struck China recently, using a Tesla Earthquake Machine or TEM, was already a forewarning by the Dark Forces (Luciferans) of their resolve for destruction and global domination. But they will fail, they can never make Filipinos submit to their dictates, the future Filipino as a distinct sub-race or ‘species race’ will come, no Luciferan abomination can deter or deviate it from happening.
My kudos goes to the team that did this flag project. But most specially, I salute the Cosmic Hierarchy who actually gave the go signal for this event to take place on this year, 2008, the 110th anniversary of our independence.
[Writ 13 June 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
Good morning!
As I was moving back to home-base, done with my gym exercise, my eyes caught the news bit in the newsstands about the biggest Philippine flag recently unfurled in Baguio City. So huge was the flag, it weighed over 3 tons.
Whoever may have conceived the idea (a lady), she was acting magnanimously on the behest of her own Guide from Above. The choice of creating and unfurling a big flag, on the occasion of Philippine Independence day, can be perceived as a token of patriotism and love for fellow Filipinos.
On a deeper level, however, the unfurling of a flag so huge goes beyond simple tokenism. There’s more to the flag beyond people coming together and building bridges of Love for peace and world healing, which indeed had been delivered by the flag team at the moment of unfurling. It also goes beyond the hospitality of the Baguio people that was rightly exhibited too at that moment of unfurling.
For one, the size signifies the growth and galvanization of the Filipino identity and weltanschauung that took over 300 years to build. Building that weltanschauung began when the secularization movement was launched during the Spanish Era, and then moved on to the nationalist movement of Rizal’s time, and onwards to the Filipino Renaissance of the 1990s (pre-centennial through post-centennial jubilee). The Renaissance still goes on and may be the next phase of weltanschauung formation that would take probably two (2) centuries to ferment.
The Philippine nation used to be circumscribed within the confines of the archipelago, the same island group that was created by Westphalian-type treaties among world powers. Today, the nation has gone beyond the archipelago’s borders, as Filipinos have been spread across the globe, nearly 100 million strong.
That huge flag signified the strength of the weltanschauung formation galvanizing as identity, psyche, collective taste and temper that now inhere among the equally large population of 100 million. A globalized people and nation must be signified with dignity and honor by an emblem as huge as the world: a 3+ tonner flag. Hugeness means strength, power, potency, global extent. It means there is not any place in the world that we can’t dip our hands into and be part of their reshaping. It means global imprint, global impact.
The year of unfurling is very auspicious: 110th year after the independence declaration. 110 contains the numbers 11 and 10, 11 X 10 equals 110. 11 signifies conquest and leadership in certain domains of planetary life. 10 means 9 + 1, the number of completion that starts with zero (1 is leadership, 9 is martial abilities). Somehow, the Cosmic Hierarchs are heralding to the world, via this huge flag, on this 110th year of Filipinas, that from hereon a new phase of history begins: the phase of global leadership in certain aspects of life.
By the fact that Filipinos were spread across the globe, a feat that can be attributed largely to the Divine Hierarchy in pursuit of a greater Plan (which we 3-dimensional mortals are blind about), already is one cause for wonderment. Hidden Divine Hands are working on these islands, and so the message of the Hierarchy to the Dark Forces who want to destroy our people is for them to ‘make no mistake’, the Divine Plan holds and will hold through. No Dark Force can ever wreck the destiny of the Filipinos, a destiny that has global effects in the future eras to come.
Not even the destruction today of the archipelago through WMD (weapons of mass destruction) and the mass termination of 90 million inhabitants can ever kill Divine Plan. That huge quake that struck China recently, using a Tesla Earthquake Machine or TEM, was already a forewarning by the Dark Forces (Luciferans) of their resolve for destruction and global domination. But they will fail, they can never make Filipinos submit to their dictates, the future Filipino as a distinct sub-race or ‘species race’ will come, no Luciferan abomination can deter or deviate it from happening.
My kudos goes to the team that did this flag project. But most specially, I salute the Cosmic Hierarchy who actually gave the go signal for this event to take place on this year, 2008, the 110th anniversary of our independence.
[Writ 13 June 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
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