Political Uprising in the Philippines
Hello All,
Thought I'd go ahead and write about this latest piece of activity before I start getting another flood of concerns from my family and friends. It appears that there is some kind of a 'coup' here in the Philippines today. At least that is what the government is telling the press and the press is in turn telling the public.
As far as I can tell everything would otherwise be pretty normal if it wasn't for a few people throwing some rocks at the police. I just came back from buying a new pair of sandals and stopping by a Jolibee fast food restaurant to buy a meal for one of the street kids. Everyone who hasn't heard about the 'coup' is shopping and working as normal.
I would hardly say throwing rocks at a bunch of guys in uniform is any call for calling a national state of Emergency and getting people all worried about what's going to happen next. Let me give you an example and then the translation from someone who walked around outside in Manila today :-) Here is an excerpt from one of the stories:
"The announcement came after the military said a general had been arrested in connection with a coup plot and as people defied a ban on rallying at a shrine of the 1986 revolt that ousted Ferdinand Marcos. Clashes erupted as police tried to disperse the protesters."
Translation: A couple dozen people got together to discuss how they weren't happy with the current president. The current president got scared that something might happen to her presidency as a result, so she made matters worse by putting the police on the matter. The people didn't like being pushed around so a few bad words were exchanged. Things escalated so a few rocks were thrown and now the President continued her first error by calling a state of National Emergency over a few rocks being thrown thereby further escalating the situation. :-)
Here is another article as well:
http://www.channel4.com/news/content/news-storypage.jsp?id=975324
My personal view? As off the rocker as this might sound I think things run a little deeper than what we see in the political and physical. I actually think that there is another reality behind this one. And with a Matix'esk reference for you, all you have to do is pay attention enough to what's going on to see the clues that allow you to almost peel back that reality and peek behind the wizard's curtain.
The seamstress of that giant curtain is trying to weave a reality of worry and fear that leads people to get inwardly focus, self concerned, and ... well, "playing it safe". That's what I heard from one of the Filipinos that I asked. "It's better to play it safe". It's just amazing to me that the enemy has gotten everyone to still buy into that old excuse for worry. What does play it safe mean? From an outer vantage point that seems to mean that everyone stops going outside as much as possible, they stay where they are, the kids stop going to school, if people go to work they're worried about traveling back and forth to work, etc, etc.
Dig a little deeper and it goes back to what I was talking about earlier. In "playing it safe" people focus more and more on their own personal safety; which doesn't sound bad from the surface. They become more focused on the safety of themselves and perhaps the safety of a few of their family or friends. But as with every little breach of a loving concern for others, that breach continues to spiral downward. Many of them start to become suspect of people that 'might' be a part of the rebellion? And, just as I suspected from the beginning I can watch a manifest of something that didn't exist before to 'become' where nothing unsafe had existed before.
Well, with all of that, at least for now everything is safe and most of the things that have been reported in the news are still overstatement. I'm safe, my friends are safe, and I still believe in a power greater than myself that protects me and guides me (if I pay attention) through what I should say and do.
Ma ba'it an Dios,
Thought I'd go ahead and write about this latest piece of activity before I start getting another flood of concerns from my family and friends. It appears that there is some kind of a 'coup' here in the Philippines today. At least that is what the government is telling the press and the press is in turn telling the public.
As far as I can tell everything would otherwise be pretty normal if it wasn't for a few people throwing some rocks at the police. I just came back from buying a new pair of sandals and stopping by a Jolibee fast food restaurant to buy a meal for one of the street kids. Everyone who hasn't heard about the 'coup' is shopping and working as normal.
I would hardly say throwing rocks at a bunch of guys in uniform is any call for calling a national state of Emergency and getting people all worried about what's going to happen next. Let me give you an example and then the translation from someone who walked around outside in Manila today :-) Here is an excerpt from one of the stories:
"The announcement came after the military said a general had been arrested in connection with a coup plot and as people defied a ban on rallying at a shrine of the 1986 revolt that ousted Ferdinand Marcos. Clashes erupted as police tried to disperse the protesters."
Translation: A couple dozen people got together to discuss how they weren't happy with the current president. The current president got scared that something might happen to her presidency as a result, so she made matters worse by putting the police on the matter. The people didn't like being pushed around so a few bad words were exchanged. Things escalated so a few rocks were thrown and now the President continued her first error by calling a state of National Emergency over a few rocks being thrown thereby further escalating the situation. :-)
Here is another article as well:
http://www.channel4.com/news/content/news-storypage.jsp?id=975324
My personal view? As off the rocker as this might sound I think things run a little deeper than what we see in the political and physical. I actually think that there is another reality behind this one. And with a Matix'esk reference for you, all you have to do is pay attention enough to what's going on to see the clues that allow you to almost peel back that reality and peek behind the wizard's curtain.
The seamstress of that giant curtain is trying to weave a reality of worry and fear that leads people to get inwardly focus, self concerned, and ... well, "playing it safe". That's what I heard from one of the Filipinos that I asked. "It's better to play it safe". It's just amazing to me that the enemy has gotten everyone to still buy into that old excuse for worry. What does play it safe mean? From an outer vantage point that seems to mean that everyone stops going outside as much as possible, they stay where they are, the kids stop going to school, if people go to work they're worried about traveling back and forth to work, etc, etc.
Dig a little deeper and it goes back to what I was talking about earlier. In "playing it safe" people focus more and more on their own personal safety; which doesn't sound bad from the surface. They become more focused on the safety of themselves and perhaps the safety of a few of their family or friends. But as with every little breach of a loving concern for others, that breach continues to spiral downward. Many of them start to become suspect of people that 'might' be a part of the rebellion? And, just as I suspected from the beginning I can watch a manifest of something that didn't exist before to 'become' where nothing unsafe had existed before.
Well, with all of that, at least for now everything is safe and most of the things that have been reported in the news are still overstatement. I'm safe, my friends are safe, and I still believe in a power greater than myself that protects me and guides me (if I pay attention) through what I should say and do.
Ma ba'it an Dios,
posted by Timothy at 2/24/2006 05:36:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home