We, Filipinos have an odd way of commemorating the loss of our dear departed. If one takes a cursory look over the world.wide.web, during the past two days, it would seem that we are the only “Christian” world that spends so much time over lost opportunities.
Nothing can stop now the selfish ambitions of the imperial power
Which the Reptilian Junta and Haribon are loyally implementing—
The most effective way to reap the land’s blessings for the Greedy,
Even if the little creatures be consigned to sink deep in the mud.
The sentiment motivating “I am from Mindanao” is largely antagonistic to the Imperial Manila gaze, under which Mindanao is solely Moro country, and the supposed settlerjacking is in fact a way by which Settlers remind the Moro community of their shared space, and the Settlers’ means of sharing the struggle of anti-terrorism with them. This only becomes truly settlerjacking if the Settlers remain ignorant of the Moro struggles – something which, given how the matter has been foregrounded by the Marawi crisis and the reactions of thinkers like Mangansakan and Braga, seems much less likely, and will only happen if there are active efforts to perpetuate ignorance and division.
In 1945, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UNFAO) declared October 16 as “World Food Day.” Seventy-two years from such declaration, food remains elusive for millions of people worldwide, especially in countries that are colonies and neo-colonies like the Philippines.
A few days ago, I met a very young millennial named Maj who now works for the company of a friend as a marketing executive. She helps the young company grow with her genius ideas.
I saw on television an official of the PCOO distributing slippers and food packs to a poor community somewhere in the national capital region yesterday, and I thought, nothing has really changed. It’s the same old make-believe that we have seen the past administrations had done to show that they “care” for the poor.
I’d like to think that that love springs from, or lies somewhere in the tension between the emotive force of sentimentality and the energetic drive to push for something better. It lies somewhere between hair-raising risk and looking forward to a time when Filipinos no longer have to take any that are unnecessary and unforgiving.
October bears the suffix “-ber” as many of our folks would have it expressed as the Christmas season is fast approaching. In the Christian world, it is a time to enjoy the year-long hard-earned income for a time meant to be spent with family, friends and loved ones; and of course for many others, drinking buddies “beer-days.”
The recent ruckus about Artificial Intelligence (AI) had Facebook shutting down their robots when it started communicating with their own language that the programming experts on Facebook could not understand. This happening with Facebook is not isolated. The AlphaGo incident where the best-known player of the game was beaten by a robot sent alarm to human beings concerned. Lee Se-dol, an 18-time world champion in the game Go, where combinations of moves are said to be as many as the stars in the universe, was defeated by AlphaGo Zero — a software.
Problematizing the Mindanao Settler Identity Secession from Mindanao may be less likely though now that a settler mayor of Davao…
