Left with just speculations.

It has been years since the Iraqi invasion. Much of the country lays in ruins with many communities still without basic necessities and services like water and electricity.

Admittedly, I am quite embarrassed to have known the true reason of the Iraq Invasion only through this class. Embarrassed is what I ultimately felt upon discovery for long has it been since I believed it was because of weapons of mass destruction and oil reserves. Turns out that the reasons – threat posed to the US and its allies by Saddam Hussein’s alleged weapons of mass destruction and possibility of passing these artillery to Al Qaeda have long since been discarded by the overwhelming weight of the evidence, or, more precisely the lack of evidence that such a threat ever was in existence.

On the talk of oil reserves, there should be no doubt in one’s mind the primary reason for the invasion was for such resource. Iraq oil supplies made it a place of great interest to the US and after all, oil is an extremely indispensable requirement for running modern economies.  Not to mention, the invasion was vigorous a display of power. It posed off as a demonstration to the rest of the world as well as potential rivals with emerging markets like Russia, the European Union and China of the US’ ability to hastily conquer and control an oil-rich nation in the Middle East any time it desires.

The reasons given by the Bush administration have obviously been proven after all these years to be false. Although being a Filipino, I highly contend that it is nothing less than criminal, what the Bush administration subjected the people of Iraq and the citizens of America to endure.

It pains me that we may never know the true reason for the invasion of Iraq. However, there is a certainty amidst this whole plan of deceit, someone knows and until they us we are left with just speculations.

Society Defined.

Throughout the course of time, society has had its own way of influencing all ages may it be for the good or bad - festering our minds with lies and aggression or baring out the naked truth. In most societies, the tendencies of its leaders to raise to a certain community to be in uniform with each other are quite apparent and a lot in number. Individuals while growing up are formed to have the same beliefs and etc in the community hence far from being capable of independent thought. In simpler context, it's as if society trains us to be soldiers no different from anyone else and depend entirely on the leaders.

It would be a complete and utter understatement to say that society is just a mere factor in people's thinking. I personally believe that society is not merely a factor but is of great value and vitality on the influence of people's thinking. Cooley (1902) and Mead (1934) stated that self-formation is a reflective process, with the key to self-development being interactions with others. This implies that the key to knowing who we truly are lies in those around us - in society. In this case, what happens is we become part of a looking a glass society wherein images of who people , we look at ourselves through other people's eyes in developing ourselves. We seek approval and confirmation for our specific roles. In a typical society, who we are is rooted from being around others. A concrete example of this would be how interaction with people give us recognition of self, from a recognition of what is to be human.

From my personal experiences and my own judgments, I can say that society is forever evolving and in each society, may it be family, school, group of friends, etc, there are idiosyncrasies unique to that society. Our sense of individuality is highly influenced from living in a social world wherein we share time and experiences with others. As social beings created by God, we cannot separate society from ourselves as ourselves cannot be separated from society because of our intrinsic need to be around others.

Move, Filipinos, let's move.

Greetings. I speak before you, as a student and servant to a nation of patriots.

We share a long heritage of slick talking politicians with verbal savvy and cajoling personalities in a store. Our legislative branches continue to age and whither under the shades of nepotism. Our economy is likened to a thinning, dying, despairing carabao, laboring under the full blast of the heat of the sun. Our military and law enforcing institutions are composed a machismo-laden tissue recently evolved into Homo Sapiens. In some very harsh circles our country is perceived as a lampoon personified. 

In a lighter note, I must impress upon you the urgency of our situation. The cancer Jose Rizal wrote of more than a hundred years ago still prevails. It has existed long enough that its stench carries to this day, the gangrene in a constant state of diffusion. Let it not be said that we have made efforts to assail these problems. All Filipinos carry the same burden for the country. 

Understanding the letter of the law, but understanding its spirit. We must, in our effort to progress as a nation must reconcile with this fact. Embracing the letter of the law, of man and of God does not mean we displace the understanding of its spirit, the very motivation they protect and value. Nothing is absolute and everything is relative. I stress this, my petition that, we must not complicate matters, simple words for a simple request. Let us drop the frippery and the hidden agendas of our actions, allowing them to exist in perfect transparency, in neutral simplicity so no offense or misinterpretation is plausible. All Filipinos bask in the splendor of affectation, be it words or deeds.

Short-term suffering, for long-term gain. Sacrifice is necessary to attain those that we so passionately desire. It is imperative that we learn to deprive ourselves of daily comfort, prizing above all the brighter promise of tomorrow. Forfeit, time, money or personal practices in the name of a superior scale of system. Filipinos have difficulty letting go of everyday treats, thus missing out on the long-awaited banquet.

Life is more a matter of choice than of knowing. I am not clairvoyant, a great percentage of you may very well share my sentiments. We have no way of foreseeing the future. Our progress as a nation is a matter of choice. We are given choice and we decide. Choose and act. The process doesn't conclude with the choice, it is a cycle, the choice constitutes an action, action demands advancement. When people refuse to decide, fate takes the liberty of making the decision for you. Do not fear the risk, or the change, fear the inability to shift, to move. Filipinos must learn to choose well.

Pieces in a puzzle lead to puzzled peace. Filipinos are scattered between a thousand islands. Differentiated by different dialects. Divided by two religions. United under one flag. Challenging us Filipinos from uniting as one is our diversity. This is constant, and one is foolish to see it otherwise. The decisive factor in all this hoopla is to celebrate the difference and utilize it to be a source of emulsion between peoples who are different. Filipinos should learn to speak as one, to think and one and to move as one.

Ardents patriots we must remain. Vigilant protectors of truth and justice. We must not stagnate as merely sheep surveying the dismal miasma that clouds society. Of mind and wisdom, the Filipino is in want. Of patience and of harmony, the Filipino is in want. Of unity the Filipino is in serious want. Of heart, of passion, the Filipino is not in want. 

Move, Filipinos, let's move.

On Agriculture and Free Trade.

The World Trade Organization is an institution that is composed of many member countries that seek to promote more free trade and thereby improving the economies of all member countries. As a global institution, the WTOs laws are universal and not necessarily specific, it is in fact an organization whose propagation is contingent on the ratification of its rules – the GATT. As an institution its seeks to foster a community of countries identified with free trade and thereby establish common identities on the other hand it’s an institution that encourages the pursuit of a niche and that develops a market’s efficiency and capability. It is an organization that practices transparency and responsiveness, ever attune to the political, environmental and social climate of its member nations, it only succeeds however to develop accounts of political events but it fails to an adaptive political system. The institution has rounds of conferences that seek to address the problems of the members, an avenue where their grievances are heard and yet too often it happens that the adaptions they make are too little and too insignificant because they haold dear to the form of the original rules. It is an institution that has its implicit and explicit codes of conduct between actos and it has been successful in penetrating into different strata of society as seen in the repeals of some Philippine laws in the greater accommodation our constitution is being made to confom to, in order to allow ratification into the primary agent of globalization and opening of markets. The Philippine government agencies especially the Department of Agriculture have also seemed to have adopted the mindset of the WTO in the agriculture sector and in so doing sometimes undermine the interests and welfare of common Filipino farmers.

Government as a catalyst.

The government is an institution and in its exercise of economic, political and administrative power, it must act as a catalyst to development and modernization. Good governance is directly correlated to the concept of human development and its goals of reducing poverty, job creation and sustainability, sustainable environment and the promotion of women lead to development and modernization. The state is obliged to create an enabling environment that gives access to resources such as technology and materials thus ushering modernization, it is also obliged to maintain peace and order which can translate to stability that ushers in development. In terms of advancing the interests and welfare of the people especially the poor and women the state must empower these marginalized people by expanding the choices available to them, the state must cooperate though composed of independent structures these must coalesce interdependently in a lateral function, the state must have equity in its activities, giving no place particular preference. The state must also ensure sustainability, so that whatever advancements of the present may translate into the future and to the future generations, as well as ensuring security, a promise of safety economically, politically and socially. The state has a burden to act as an agent of development and modernization simply because as governing the interests of the people these are two plateaus of existence that they must aim to deliver on as they directly affect the quality of life of the people the state encompasses.