Tuesday, April 30, 2013
IT was written seven decades ago but that one poem of a poet
laureate from India, Rabindranath Tagore still reverberates until now . .
.”Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high, Where
knowledge is free, Where the world is not broken down by narrow domestic
walls, In that heaven of freedom my Father, LET MY PEOPLE AWAKE!”
Although the call to awaken the Indian people was one of liberation
against the British Colonial Rule, it is still very relevant today. This
time, the call is for us to be conscious of the contemporary issues
believing that an awakened people can craft their own destiny based on
the truism that the people united can never be defeated. Today, we
strongly advocate:
Let my people awake to the painful reality that, according to
scientists and environmentalists, the “current degradation of the
environment and the massive loss of species are evidence that we are
facing our own extinction and that “in the absence of a major change,
the world system will collapse in less than a hundred years.”
Let my people awake that fundamental changes are now sweeping Africa,
Latin America and now going to Asia and centuries-old beliefs and
convictions are crashing down like the twin tower of the world trade
center in New York. Among these are, the belief that nature is
inexhaustible and this belief has lead to massive exploitation of our
resources. The belief that the “Darwin’s Theory of natural selection to
society is that by fittest means the strongest and the most aggressive.
That is a gross mistake in principle. By fittest, it really means most
cooperative, most adaptive and most caring.” That is why, we must
advance cooperativism, the collective quest to make life better for the
people rather than the individual quest for self aggrandizement and
wealth.
Let my people awake on the unsustainability of the global economic
system that is anchored on a dominant paradigm that pursues
growth-at-all-cost development strategy. That unbridled consumerism and
materialism where there is over-eating and obesity in the North while
billions are hungry in the South; the gross inequities are very glaring
as the combined wealth of the world’s billionaires equals the income of
three billion people.
Let my people awake that social transformation has been so elusive
all these years as the structures that breed poverty have remained as
formidable as ever; that our country is not a capitalist country but one
that follows block capitalism where only 300 families control the
economy through cartels; that democratizing wealth and power cannot be
had because those in control cannot moderate their greed.
Let my people awake that political exercises have proven to be
exercises in futility in effecting social change because those running
are voted not because they are for social re-structuring but because
they are movie stars or good speakers or popular or because of their
names, or because they have so much money as they are funded by vested
interest groups or cartels to perpetuate their control over the economy.
Let my people awake that the Filipinos are poor not because they are
lazy or lack resources (the truth is, our country is oozing with
ecological resources) but because they are powerless to have access and
control over their resources which are fast slipping through their
fingers.
Let my people awake that poverty is the consequence of putting power
where it does not belong, that is, to the politicians who are cornering
gargantuan funds through massive corruptions (that is res ipsa
loquitor), to the cartels that exploit our resources at the expense of
the people and the environment, to institutions that are mouthing moral
issues and social change but are only successful in enriching themselves
and to TNCs that have made our country dumping grounds of finished
products while extracting so much raw materials and natural resources at
the expense of our ecosystems (this again, is res ipsa loquitor).
Let my people awake that we now must work for social change, for
paradigm shifts. Debunk conventional agriculture because it is just
successful in impoverishing the peasantry and in polluting our
environment. Stop those who are exploiting our natural resources with
utter disregard for nature and the welfare of the coming generations.
Stop those cartels that all these years are depriving the people of
their ownership of utilities.
Let my people awake to stop political dynasties (which is prohibited
in the 1987 Constitution); to stop vote-buying and to elect only those
who are subservient to the interest of the people and not to those who
are advancing the interest of a few elite.
Only when the people have awakened that we can bring this country to
“that heaven of Freedom” where the people are free from hunger and
poverty!
