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| http://interaksyon.com/article/138317/global-interparliamentary-body-to-visit-de-lima-conduct-fact-finding-mission-on-leilas-case
What is the Inter-Parliamentary Union?
The IPU is the international organization of Parliaments (Article 1 of the Statutes of the Inter-Parliamentary Union). It was established in 1889.
The Union is the focal point for world-wide parliamentary dialogue and works for peace and co-operation among peoples and for the firm establishment of representative democracy.
To that end, it:
Sounds like a whole lot of sound and fury signifying nothing. So they foster dialogue between governments in an effort to further the cause of democracy in the world. Their website lists "women in politics", "human rights", "sustainable development", and "education, science, and culture" as a few of their main areas of activity. http://www.ipu.org/iss-e/issues.htm
That is a far cry from the initial reason of its foundation:
The organisation's initial objective was the arbitration of conflicts. The IPU played an important part in setting up the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. Over time, its mission has evolved towards the promotion of democracy and inter-parliamentary dialogue. The IPU has worked for establishment of institutions at the inter-governmental level, including the United Nations, an organization with which it cooperates and with which it has permanent observer status.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inter-Parliamentary_Union
Basically the IPU is just another worthless international governmental body. Human rights and women in government? Members of the IPU include Afghanistan, Egypt, Iran, and Myanmar as members. Those are countries known for their disdain of both human rights and women in government.
Now forgive my ignorance but I have never even heard of this body until today. Not even during my schooldays when studying WW I and the League of Nations did the IPU cross my radar. Why is that? It's because the United Nations does exactly what they do on a much larger scale which makes the IPU even less relevant than the UN. The IPU may have been first but the UN has taken the lead. The IPU has permanent observer status at the UN and the two organisations work together closely. Seems like the IPU might as well be absorbed into the UN somehow.
Here is the document where the IPU recommends inquiring further into De Lima's case. The section concerning her starts on page 33.
I will spare you from having to read the whole thing and tell you that it ends with 11 statements wherein the IPU expresses deep concern, regular concern, wishes for more details, and a request that the case continue to be examined with a visit to the Philippines to meet with the Senate, De Lima, and her lawyers recommended.
In short it's a whole lot of hot air. It's less than sound and fury signifying nothing. It is pure bureaucratic nonsense and gibberish, a thick fustian of bombast, and the most pompous baboonery typical of any government document. These resolutions resolve to do nothing more than to continue gathering facts of which it already has plenty. What more will a visit to the Philippines get them? A good tongue lashing from Duterte no doubt.
What a joke. |
Saturday, April 8, 2017
Here They Come to Save the Day
The call has been heard and now the troops are coming to the aid of Senator Leila De Lima.
Friday, April 7, 2017
This is What Foreign Intervention Looks Like
In 2013 the world was up in arms that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons in his war against the rebels. The world hemmed and hawed and spoke out passionately and said "Something Must be Done" but ultimately did nothing. Two days ago another alleged chemical attack occurred and this time the United States intervened unilaterally.
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| http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/04/06/trump-launches-tomahawk-missile-strikes-after-syria-chemical-attack.html |
Let this be a reminder to Leni Robredo that this is what foreign intervention looks like. You call to them and then they bring out the big guns and shoot you down all in the name of peace and safety and humanity.
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| http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/880967/robredo-slams-drug-war-calls-for-intl-scrutiny-on-crackdown-2 |
Robredo, De Lima, Trillanes, the Conference of Bishops, and everyone else who is appealing to the international community for help had better watch out. They might just get their wish.
The Philippine Basketball Association is an Advertising Gimmick
Basketball is so popular and important to the national consciousness of the Philippines that in 2014 special legislation was passed making NBA player Andray Blatche a Philippine citizen just so he could play on the national team during the FIBA World Cup because having a tall black American on the team would surely guarantee winning the championship.
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| https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2014/05/27/welcome-to-the-philippines-andray-blatche-is-granted-citizenship-to-play-for-countrys-national-basketball-team/
The Philippines did not win the FIBA World Cup.
Nevertheless basketball remains an integral part of Filipino culture. But there is one crucial difference between basketball in the Philippines and basketball in the USA: there are no city-name teams!
In fact all the teams in the Philippines are corporate owned entities that represent a brand. They are a part of the marketing and advertising arm of each corporation. Check out these brands, I mean teams:
Rain or Shine Elastometric Waterproofing Paint
Pure Foods Hot Dogs
Batangas International Port
Alaska Powdered Milk
San Miguel Brewery
“It’s an advertising vehicle first and foremost,” PBA Operations Director Rickie Santos told BusinessWorld in an interview, wherein he discussed the intricacies of owning a PBA franchise. “In the PBA [companies] have advertising mileage. We have the television coverage. We have the radio coverage and the newspapers. On game day itself there are already stories, which we call ‘advancers.’ Then the game stories,” Mr. Santos said. He said that while it takes no small amount of money to maintain a PBA franchise -- P100 million alone for a franchise fee apart from the operational costs -- companies however are not left short-changed. “What teams spend on their operations are already part of their advertising costs,” Mr. Santos said.
An outsider would laugh and scoff at the team names and the whole set up but not Filipinos. In the Philippines the marriage of basketball and advertising is normal.
What do fans think of team names in the PBA? Do they cringe, or at least chuckle, when an announcer introduces the Burger King Whoppers? Hardly: These are just the names of companies and products that pop up in everyday life. Bartholomew, who was introduced to the PBA when doing a Fulbright in the Philippines, says that he found the names to be distractingly amusing at first, but that they have come to seem normal enough. https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/05/philippine-basketball-association-weird-team-names/484733/ Exposure to any situation long enough will lend a semblance of normalcy. While there are pluses about having corporate sports (would there even be professional basketball teams in the Philippines if they weren't owned by corporations?) there is also a big minus. The marriage of basketball and advertising reduces the relationship between the teams and the fans to one that is purely economic. Each corporation has converted the athletes into its paid wage labourers. Each player becomes a salesman when he wears his branded jersey. Athletic ability is cultivated not for its own sake but because winning games translates into sales. The need to be selling its constantly expanding product lines causes each team to frequently change its name with the advent of a new product to sell. With corporate teams there is no rooting for the home team or hometown pride for having a winning team. Rather, the corporations have torn away from basketball its sentimental veil, and have reduced the team-fan relation to a mere money relation.
Is this how Filipinos want to be thought of? As degraded entities whose essential value lies in their function as consumers? To have the game of basketball falsified into a means of consumption? Must everything in this country be a lie?
Filipinos may not care or have even given it much thought but the current PBA system is dehumanising and can only be called sport in the most peripheral way. To quote the PBA Operations Director once more:
“It’s an advertising vehicle first and foremost.”
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Tuesday, April 4, 2017
What does the EU Know?
Here we go again. Disgraced Senator Leila De Lima is calling for her release from prison not because she has proved her innocence but because a foreign government body, the European Parliament, knows the truth and stands behind her.
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| http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2017/04/02/1686967/de-lima-eu-parliament-call-her-release-they-know-truth |
Does the EU really know the truth about De Lima? Did they watch the televised hearings? Did they see De Lima's theatrics? Did they watch her not defend herself but instead accuse her accusers of lying and place herself at God's mercy? Did they watch this brilliant lawyer do everything but make use of the law to refute the charges against her?
No, probably not.
How can the EU know the truth about what is happening in the Philippines when they apparently do not even know what is happening in their front yard?
Does the EU know that Sweden is the rape capital of the world?
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| https://www.rt.com/uk/378164-farage-trump-rape-sweden/ |
Does the EU know that Angela Merkel's immigration policies have helped destroy Europe?
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| http://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/744955/Angela-Merkel-German-EU-destroy-migration-austerity-Brexit-Italy |
Does the EU know that Turkish PM Erdogan has declared that Turks are the future of Europe?
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| https://www.rt.com/news/381166-erdogan-turks-five-children/ |
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| http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/739078/Europol-terror-threat-Isis-germany-uk-belgium |
Does the EU know that there are no-go zones inhabited by Muslims scattered throughout various cites across Europe?
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| http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/europes-no-go-zones-inside-the-lawless-ghettos-that-breed-and-harbour-terrorists |
Does the EU know that Western European culture and heritage is at risk of being destroyed?
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| http://www.express.co.uk/comment/columnists/leo-mckinstry/617147/Mass-immigration-verge-destroying-Europe |
Does the EU know it has forgotten the face of its fathers, despised the blood spilled in the past by Europeans to protect Europe from the Muslims, destroyed its current and future heritage, put its people at risk, and has decided to commit cultural suicide and ethnic genocide? Is the EU so indifferent and blind to the needs of the people of Europe and to the rich cultural heritage of Europe that it would see Europe turn into a caliphate of the Islamic State or as an extension of North Africa and the peoples of Europe be bred out of existence?
How can the EU know anything about what is happening in a tiny island nation 5,000 miles away when it cannot even see or acknowledge the truth of what is happening right in its very front yard?
It is preposterous.
And for De Lima, Robredo, or anyone else to continue to appeal to the effete, weak, and ineffectual EU Parliament as some voice of moral authority when they have wilfully closed their eyes to the destruction their people and culture is the height of blindness and stupidity.
Monday, April 3, 2017
Another Filipino First
Meet Rey Galleon. He is the first Filipino, of what could be hundreds of thousands, to be deported under the Trump administration.
After seven years of living in the US as an undocumented immigrant, Rey Galleon's life in the country came to an abrupt end on March 17.
The former crewman was the first known undocumented Filipino in Southern California arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) since President Donald Trump took office.
From his home, ICE took him to the Homeland Security Office in Long Beach with an ultimatum.
“Pinapili nila ako kung uuwi ba ako or gusto ma detain,” he said.
He was then escorted to Los Angeles International Airport and by 10 p.m. he was on a Philippine-bound plane on a ticket that he paid for himself.
With nowhere to go, Galleon's wife and children followed him home to Zamboanga about a week later.
http://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/03/30/17/first-trump-deported-filipino-speaks-out
Although it's not very clear (this article says he "jumped ship") it seems as if Rey Galleon was a crew member of the US Navy who went AWOL as soon as he landed in San Diego. Never mind the fact that being a part of the Filipino Mafia could eventually lead to obtaining real citizenship.
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| https://www.uscis.gov/news/fact-sheets/naturalization-through-military-service-fact-sheet |
With no, or little, thought of the consequences he ran off into the promised land. No more poor Philippines. Now he is in the rich land of milk and honey and damn anyone who would try and say he has no right to be there. In the process he managed to illegally sneak in his wife.
Actually this story doesn't make any sense. He entered the USA illegally seven years ago. His wife is also illegal. But they have two children who are US citizens (birthright citizenship no doubt). One of those children is nine. So did the wife precede him by two years and overstay her visa? Was she pregnant with his child when she came? Did they plan for two years some way to sneak him into the USA? It's a tangled web that's not really worth unravelling since all that matters is that they are both back in the Philippines.
But reality set in and he was forced to become a TNT (Tago Ng Tago) and remain in hiding. Only he didn't hide so well and ICE eventually caught up with him and gave him the option of self-deportation or being detained.
Now that he is back in his homeland he is whining and moaning that his rights were violated and he is planning on giving speeches to let other illegal Filipinos in the USA know their "rights."
A Filipino who was recently deported from the United States hopes that his story will make undocumented immigrants more aware about their legal options to fight deportation.
http://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/03/30/17/deported-pinoy-hopes-story-serves-as-lesson-to-other-tntsSimply put this is the epitome of everything people hate about Filipinos and especially illegal aliens. The sense of entitlement to what is not theirs. The demand that you cater to them. No consideration of the consequences of their unlawful deeds. Blaming others for the consequences of their actions. Involving their entire family in illegal behaviour and putting their children at great risk of psychological harm. Using their children to elicit sympathy. A total disdain for the law while at the same time demanding you recognise their "rights" under the law. The insistence that "no person is illegal." The assertion that to label illegal aliens as criminals rather than bona fide immigrants is to be bigoted, hateful, and racist.
Men like Rey Galleon do not deserve to live in the USA. He was given a chance at being legitimate when he enlisted in the US Navy and he flubbed it up big time. The Navy took a chance enlisting this foreigner and if he had made it through his contract the reward would have been a pathway to citizenship. He disgraced himself and gave a big middle finger to the USA by going AWOL as soon as he made port. His actions show that he is not worthy to be a United States citizen especially when so many sacrifice so much to do it the right way. It's good he is back in the Philippines. It's where he belongs.
Of course if he did enlist in the Navy it's likely that the Military Police would be involved and Rey would be confined in the brig awaiting court martial. Perhaps he was just a crewman on a cargo ship. As stated previously, none of the news articles are clear on this matter and the details of his story don't add up. Either way the essence of this analysis of his character and behaviour still stands.
Why should anyone have sympathy for the lawful deportation of the illegal alien Rey Galleon? Would Filipinos have sympathy for an alien who overstayed a visa or declined to file the proper paperwork and pay the fees or simply decided to not follow any of the immigration laws of the country? The Philippines Bureau of Immigration certainly would have none.
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| http://nextshark.com/philippines-deporting-1318-illegal-chinese-immigrants/ |
Sunday, April 2, 2017
A Tale of Two Motorcycles
Motorcycles that pass at the intersection and speak each other in passing,
Only a signal shown and a distant voice in the darkness;
So on the ocean of life, we pass and speak one another,
Only a look and a voice, then darkness again and a silence.
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
It was the best of times to go out for a ride with the family,
it was the worst of times in that no one wore a helmet,
it was the age of wisdom in knowing you don’t need to wear a motorcycle helmet,
it was the age of foolishness in carrying your helmet on your arm instead,
it was the epoch of belief that you won’t crash and kill your family,
it was the epoch of incredulity that four people can safely fit on a motorcycle,
it was the season of Light so everyone can see how stupid both these families are,
it was the season of Darkness because everyone thinks this is normal and not dangerous,
it was the spring of hope that no crash would happen and God would protect them,
it was the winter of despair when they crashed and all their children’s heads split open like watermelons.
- Charles Dickens
Saturday, April 1, 2017
Flirty Duterte
On March 31, 2017 Duterte held a day for women at Malacañang Palace.
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| https://www.msn.com/en-ph/news/national/duterte-admits-to-being-a-flirt/ar-BBz7NCz?li=BBr8Mkn |
In front of hundreds of ladies who attended Friday's "Digong Day for Women" at the Malacañang Palace, President Rodrigo Duterte admitted that he was an incorrigible flirt.
Duterte recounted a recent incident, in which he would not let go of a young woman's hand, despite her squirming.
Surely all the women were empowered by hearing this uplifting story. Right?
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| http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/885531/forgive-dutertes-sexist-remarks-palace-tells-women |
At the “Digong’s Day for Women” event in Malacañang, Assistant Communications Secretary Marie Banaag was asked whether the President’s remarks about women, including jokes about extramarital affairs, have been good for their empowerment.
“I don’t want to be defensive about all these, but for women’s month, if we can have a forgiving heart. We voted for a President, we did not vote for a priest, we did not vote for a saint,” Banaag said.
In a sane county the President would not invite women to the Palace for women's day and then make sexist jokes. And if he did he would most certainly apologise and not have his sposkeperson defend his remarks.
What can anyone expect from a man who has acknowledged that he is on the road to perdition? Truly he is no saint.
But if he does declare martial law will they still be defending him and demanding the public forgive him because he is only a man? This is the same excuse De Lima gave for having an affair, her "frailties as a woman."
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