All Rhetorics, No Action
We live in a highly complicated world where amidst the tremendous wealth there is so much poverty and gross inequities. This is especially true in the United States, the wealthiest country in the world yet, the wealth of three richest people is greater than what the combined 50% of the population in the bottom have; worse, the wealth of the top one percent is much greater than what the bottom 90% of the population have. As narrated by the number one intellectual in the world, Dr. Noam Chomsky, “Twenty-three percent (23%) in the United States are unemployed and millions are hungry, holders of “food stamps” and one American is committing suicide every thirty minutes. It is the U.S. where there is the highest commission of crime. It is in this context that such gross inequity is described by spiritual leaders as “absolutely immoral,” an offshoot of “bad economics” which is spearheaded by the Modern-Day American Imperialism that is controlling more than one-half of the world’s resources. That imperialist’s mindset is controlling the world’s richest oil reserves in the Middle East and you control the world as the 19 US Oil Companies are earning some 16 trillion dollars annually or 10 million dollars every minute. No way will they lower the 52 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually that is killing Mother Earth.
Indeed, we live in a time of climate emergency that has consigned humanity in survival mode brought about by a global economic system that is based on growth-at-all cost development strategy that has sacrificed the people and the environment to the altar of greed and profit. It has been said that the dominant development paradigm is like an off-balanced giant, so as not to fall, it has to run and in running, it steps on communities, forests, seas, rivers, agricultural lands and even on the people themselves, leaving havoc on its path. This sad truism is so evident in our country where the Modern-Day American Imperialism has transformed our country from being a paradise before into hell now. Worse, it has impoverished our people as that imperialist devil in cahoots with powers-that-be has tremendously exploited our natural resources through extractive economic approach. No way can US imperialism’s greed be moderated whose firm belief is “war is the health of the nation.” When then American President John F. Kennedy stopped the Vietnam War in the Sixties, he was assassinated. As discovered through US Congressional Inquiry, it was not Lee Harvey Oswald who killed Kennedy but through the connivance of CIA, FBI and a powerful corporation manufacturing armaments which was gaining then some 500 billion dollars a year out of the Vietnam War. Worst, the newly elected Republican President Donald Trump is the number one climate change denier in the world, whose priority is the enrichment of the super-rich as he himself is a billionaire. Under his leadership centered on narcissism and egotism, Nostradamus’ prediction of nuclear war may happen in the onset of the 21st century. Hearing the warnings and speeches of activists and spiritual leaders, saving life on earth through aversion of nuclear war or environmental catastrophe is indeed the urgent call of the times.
No less than Mother Earth is now being killed. While the world made tremendous material progress, mankind’s materialistic lifestyle, despite its considerable achievements, has led to environmental destruction. We Filipinos must ask our politicians: growth for whom and for what? Glaringly, development in our country is only for a few oligarchs as negative peace is the order of the times especially in the broken but beautiful island of Mindanao. There is negative peace when people are consigned into the margins of development processes.; where power and greed-driven structures exist; where the constituents have become beholden to the interest of few elite who control the economy. This country reels with this kind of leaders; where corruption and vested interest reign; and where poverty roars its ugly head stripping communities of its human dignity. Negative peace can erupt anytime into armed conflict, trigger by the blindness of egotism by those in control.
Thus, it has become urgently imperative to have a balance between economy and ecology otherwise we will destroy the basis of our lives. Material progress alone cannot reduce our psychic stress, anger and frustration. Indeed, we often hear world leaders saying in their speeches that it is our duty to save the Earth. One such leader was President Hollande of France who declared in his speech when he visited our country a decade or so ago that, “all the people have benefitted from the world’s resources, gaining wealth and prosperity, thus, it Is our duty to save the earth.” That statement was in fact wrong as only a few oligarchs have benefitted in cahoots with powers-that-be, at the expense of millions of Filipinos in our country.
Environmentalists world-wide are serving notice that in the absence of a major change, the global system is now collapsing. They describe the situation as “one minute before midnight’ or the end of life on earth as the “tipping point” has now been reached because of unsustainability of ecology and economy. The unsustainability of ecology is now manifested in worsening climate change, ecological disasters with billions of people now facing unimaginable sufferings, rain forests everywhere on fire, deserts spreading on all continents, icebergs melting and oceans rising. The extinction of species and global warming means hundreds of millions of climate refugees. Are we beyond hope? The unsustainability in the economy is shown in what His Holiness Pope Francis described as “glaring and scandalous social inequities and it bids us all to break the binds of oppression and social injustice.” Indeed, gross social inequities globally is absolutely immoral perpetuated by bad economics through corporate globalization with only a few oligarchs in control in an oligarchically-controlled society, be it socially, economically or politically!
All the pronouncements of world leaders to save Mother Earth are all just rhetorical pronouncements, devoid of concrete actions especially in decreasing greenhouse emissions. Indeed, what a crazy world we have and it seems that the only sensible being is a 15-year-old Greta Thunberg who appeared in Swedish Parliament in Stockholm in August 2018, addressing world leaders at the UN Climate summit in Poland. She spoke with the moral clarity of an entire generation sentenced to a desperate future. She said, “Our civilization is being sacrificed for the opportunity of a very small number of people to continue making enormous amounts of money. Our biosphere is being sacrificed so that rich people can live in luxury. It is the sufferings of the many which pay for the luxuries of a few.” So amazing coming from a young leader, teaching old world leaders to fulfill their duties to save Mother Earth. After that speech, tens of millions in several countries have been conducting weekly mobilization against the inaction of world leaders to urgently debunk the use of fossil fuel and coal but instead to shift to renewable energies. Until now, the 52 billion tons of greenhouse emissions continue with-out let-up through corporate globalization. All rhetorics, no action!
We Filipinos should reflect seriously on the message of Greta before the United Nations summit, amidst tears and in a trembling voice, she flung her anger to politicians across the world: “You have stolen my childhood. You are failing us. People are suffering, people are dying, entire eco-systems are collapsing.” With clenched fist she went on: “We are in the beginning of mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you continue to look away and come here and say you are doing enough when the politics and solutions needed are still nowhere in sight” Religious leaders, please do not just focus on prayers; your ethical actions are needed now with sense of urgency to save Mother Earth! Ethical actions are more important than prayers!
Greta has inspired environmentalists all over the world as her message hits the very core of the problem as all talks of these world leaders are just rhetorics without action. Well, as one of the worst hit countries in the world by climate change where environmental disasters have become the order of the times, Filipinos should now focus on how to liberate our country from ecological catastrophe. It is so puzzling why our politicians are so focused on the drama and trivialities of life and never on ecological issues which if not responded to will certainly spell our doom. It is so evident that many of these politicians are being supported by powerful loggers and miners as narrated by an amazing journalist, Ms. Marites Vitug in her book, “Power from the Forests.” I, myself can attest to that as we took direct actions in the Nineties, staging human barricades to stop illegal logging and illegal mining. In one shipment of logs alone, a logger would earn some 360 million pesos which was not just pocketed by the loggers but shared with their strong cabal of vested interest, i.e., politicians and law enforcers? When we arrested five illegal Chinese miners who were only Tourist Visa holders but well equipped with hundreds of million-peso worth of bulldozers and buck-hoes, not to mention Ak-47 and Armalites found in their campsite in Barangay Tumpagon, Cagayan de Oro, they were just imprisoned for a week and were released, even accompanied back to China by a Kagawad? After one week, our environmental ally, Datu Fausto Orasan known as Datu Sandigan, the brave Chieftain of the Higaonon Tribe in Cagayan de Oro was brutally murdered, apparently by the armed men of these miners but until now no justice has been done.
Filipino voters, wake-up! We must follow what Ms. Greta Thunberg has done to emphatically and categorically ask our politicians on their plans and solution to save Mother Earth? It is so important to know why they had allowed the establishment of seven coal-fired power plants in Mindanao? Coal-fired power plants are disallowed in other countries as burning coal is the highest source of greenhouse emissions, and are causing all kinds of diseases. Thus, coal-fired power plants are being closed. But not in Mindanao. So outrageous! Why? Is it because we are afraid to confront the powerful oligarchs and their cabal of vested interest in cahoots with powers-that-be? Ethical action is the call of the times and a peaceful revolution of compassion to save Mother Earth, the source of all life! Our outrage should be loud enough to be heard! MAHALIN PO NATIN ANG ATING INANG KALIKASAN KUNG SAAN GALING ANG LAHAT NG BUHAY – All for God’s greater glory!
