The Indian Soul

27 January 2010 at 7:44 pm | In Confessions of a Teacher | 6 Comments
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image An Asian Studies teacher has a lot to deal with. Asia is not a single unit, has hardly any internal coherence, and demands a discipline that is quite different from teaching World (read: European) History. It is misleading to think that we have less content, because from philosophy to the rise of modernity, Asia is all about soul.

When I was starting out, I saw the three content areas this way.

Chinese history appeals to my heart. I am simply in love with the culture, its food, and its movies. My studies there stem from this playful love for the subject matter.

Islamic history appeals to my head. My first encounter with it was during my college days learning Political Science. 9/11 just happened, and hence interest in Islam increased; I was part of that statistic.

But India always appealed to my soul. There is just something so entrancing about the story of the Buddha, so eerie about the Taj Mahal, and for some reason their imperial experience under Britain feels all too familiar. To confront India was always to confront my deepest self, and I could attest to that now that I have actually been there.

The Community Development and Leadership Summit 2009 was really for our students. The teacher chaperone has to do pretty much that – chaperone. “Get them there, and get them out” was pretty much my job description. And yet between the margins I found the time to encounter India in its entirety, though I think it is really impossible to do just that and arrogant to think that that is even possible.

But we sure tried. There were times when some fellow teacher delegates and I excused ourselves from some sessions to steal some time outside the school walls. We affirmed that the Indians do love their tea more than their coffee, that no two saris looks the same (though it can be impossible to tell the Indians themselves apart), and that the colonial experience reaches its way to their comfort rooms – when you enter you can take your pick: toilet or ‘Western’ toilet.

Having taught India from a textbook for the past five years, I was more curious to see whether my readings bore out in reality. Indeed, there were hardly any Buddhists around anymore and so it is no surprise that some have this misconception of Buddhism coming from Thailand or China. I was also sensitive to the caste system, which I had no idea how to bring up. But I had a firsthand experience with a dalit or untouchable.

Though banned in theory, the caste retains deep socio-economic divisions. I had my shoe ‘shined’ inadvertedly; while walking through an underpass in Delhi, a dark skinned man walked up to me and offered a shoe shine. I declined; he insisted. Then he crouched to my shoe to give me no choice; I politely ran away and said I’m being left behind by my companions (which was true). As I exited the underpass, I noticed a light green goo on top of my right shoe. It was monkey poo. I just had an encounter with a con man. I just had an encounter with a man who was trying to make a living.

Back at the school, I asked a sociology teacher how much he could’ve asked a foreigner like me.

“100 rupees?” I guessed. One rupee being almost equal to one peso.

“100? Too much.” The teacher replied. “20 would have been a lot already.”

Twenty rupees for a con job. That’s twenty pesos here. Unbelievable yes, but this was happening every day and in different spots throughout New Delhi.

People speak so easily about change and progress in India. The politicians and economists all talk about a coming Golden Age, and they do have many reasons to be optimistic. What is important is that in their quest for progress, they do not forget the shoe shine guy and many others like him. But thankfully, I am optimistic.

I just have to remember a boy named Mukul.

Throughout the summit, the foreign student delegates were assigned a Modern School student to accompany them and help them through everything they need. We teachers weren’t. But there was Mukul. His small unassuming bespectacled stature betrays his low, deep voice that echoed nothing else but warm, sympathy and concern. He who followed, trailed, and struck a conversation with me whenever he could. At first though, I was a little annoyed since there were moments when I preferred to be alone. And then one night, I received news from Manila that my uncle passed away.

A forum just ended and everyone was heading back to the dormitories. I decided to hang around the auditorium area, use their WiFi, and see how everyone back home was doing. But I couldn’t get a signal and just sat there, frustrated that I couldn’t get in touch. My mother was very concerned about uncle during his last few months, and I was very concerned for my mother whose heart doesn’t easily break but breaks hard when it does. But I only planned to get in touch through the Internet and did not get a local sim for my phone. Now I was regretting it.

Then Mukul arrived. He called on me and asked me to join everyone for dinner back in the dorm. I politely declined and said that I wanted to try the WiFi one last time, so he insisted to stay with me. He then asked if something was wrong; I looked upset, he said.

Not one to just let emotions spill, I assured him that it was nothing I couldn’t deal with. “But enough about me,” I said. “Tell me something about you.” Then we walked back to the dormitories.

During the walk he told me about how he wasn’t accepted as one of the Modern School volunteers for the summit, but will insist that he becomes one just so he can hang around. He found me interesting and funny, like a mentor he could learn a lot from. So as a mentor, I asked him what his dreams were. He said he wanted to be an accountant and he dreamed about earning the big bucks to live a good life. I asked if that was all. “Well, that’s what I can do to help my family.”

As we neared the dorm his phone rang. It was his mother. “I am being summoned home now, sir. It’s my mother.”

“Well, Mukul, if I were you, I’d be a good boy and go home now.”

“Yes, sir. I’ll be on my way then. See you tomorrow, and I hope all will be well.”

* * *

It has been more than two months since I got back from India. Since then my head has been swirling with ideas for my classes and new dreams for myself. I can now speak of India more confidently and more convincingly. I have enough anecdotes to write my own book with.

I readily admit that I haven’t seen everything I would’ve wanted to see in India. I’d like to see Varanasi for myself and witness a burial ritual along the Ganges as other people bathe. But this only gives me reason to return. Maybe then the shoe shine guy won’t be around anymore. And perhaps I’ll drop by Modern School and look for Mukul, just so I can say that all has been well. That evening conversation wasn’t the last I saw of him, but it was then that I realized something I’ve long since known.

India is all about soul.

imageMukul and I at a Concept Paper Discussion

Noynoy Aquino hits a new low

25 January 2010 at 10:09 pm | In Essays and Commentaries | 6 Comments
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Candidates criticized for having no experience — like JFK or Obama — counter this by proving themselves as people with the judgment to be President. Noynoy is facing the same criticism, yet has hardly shown any judgment. His latest ad, while to a lot is just the same cheap gimmickry, is for me the clearest sign of his lack of judgment so far.

His ad shows a lack of judgment for several reasons: it misrepresents who he is, the pandering presentation is not congruent with his call for us to seek our higher selves, and he has resulted to traditional political parlor games, casting him in a light no different — and perhaps even worse — than the most-trapoest-trapo-of-them-all, Villar.

So if I were you, I’d share this video with all those still making up their minds on who to vote for. Help our country by not getting Noynoy Aquino elected in May.

How dare he speak about change after this; the campaign is bringing out the worst in him

1986, Never Again. Say No to Noynoy Aquino.

A Day in the Life of Sir Martin

23 January 2010 at 9:06 pm | In Confessions of a Teacher | 7 Comments
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Dedicated to Batch 2012.

The bell rings.

I wrap up my lecture and bid my class goodbye. I entertain a few questions – this time someone asking me what would happen if the USSR just nuked the Middle East – as I turn off the projector and shut down my laptop. I reply with my characteristic answer — “What do you think would happen?” – as the buzzing of my students steadily stream out of the Seminar Room and into the halls outside.

We finish our conversation – the phrase “World War III” came up several times – and soon it is just me and the timid humming of the LCD projector as it finally cools down and quiets. I coil all the loose cords, replace my laptop and other devices into their respective bags, shut off the airconditioner, and switch off the lights.

Done with my classes for the day, I return to the Faculty Room. But on the way I pass by the Student Services Division to make sure my planned event for February pushes through (it will). Then I drop by the library photocopier lady — “Roxy” as she is affectionately or degradingly called – to check on whether my students have been copying their assigned texts (they are except for one class). Next I pass by the Guidance Office, help myself in, and say “Hi!” to Sir Ed. We catch up on the latest with Batch 2011 (So who asked who from prom?) and I tell him – at least once a week – how much I miss everyone. Then I pass by Ma’am Jeng, the Guidance Counselor of my current batch, and ask whether the kids in my advisory class are all alright (they definitely are).

Halfway back, I pass by the cafeteria. There are hardly any students there at 9am, save for the fortunate few (as they see themselves) who are spared from a Biology class, or the Seniors who fill the lull by catching up on breakfast and other things they need to survive to graduation. I just skip to the cold store and grab myself a bottled ice tea (Real Leaf Lychee being my favorite) for a quick picker up, say “Hi!” to some students along the way, and finally rush back to the Faculty Room.

It is just the 3rd period and so there are hardly any teachers sitting by their desks; often there are just about two or three besides me. One colleague on an afternoon shift arrives early to prepare. I register my cursory surprise at seeing her arrive early as she types away at a keyboard, finalizing her grades and trying to make a dent on the tower of student papers sitting on her desks. Almost always there when I return is Arghs, already checking his e-mail and scratching (more like rubbing) his head over the latest gaffe by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. If not he is worshipping at the altar of Conrado de Quiros, or checking out Wikipedia then checks on me if I already have that latest episode of How I Met Your Mother or The Big Bang Theory, handing me his portable hard disc as he does so. I really should charge him for this service.

For the next hour I check on my e-mail and read up on the news. I reply to some university students asking for my input on their thesis survey, and I draft an invitation to a Congressman for a forum we’re having in February. I then do my rounds of The Daily Beast and Politico, following American politics ten times more closely than I do our own. So I can’t help but muse about how far Noynoy really is from Obama, and how Philippine politics is all too similar to American politics in the 1920’s when it was dominated by the mafia.

Then I hit a wall. My reading for the morning is hampered by the school’s White List – I can’t access a site that isn’t pre-approved by the school’s MIS department – and so I shut down my laptop and instead sift through some papers on my desk – student quizzes, office memos, and my random notes from my many meetings and quick readings.

Arghs and I have lunch pretty early as we try to beat his 10:50 class. I don’t mind this at all because at 10:20 the food is still pretty warm and we have a lot more to choose from. Cafeteria food, after all, is best in its first five minutes of existence.

Often joining us is Liz, a young and superbly upbeat teacher whose optimism always gets the best of you. Currently the Batch Adviser of 2013, she and I can talk for hours planning activities and sharing notes on how to deal with students, parents, and the loveable administration.

Lunch is dominated by a wide variety of topics from the TV shows Arghs and I share, to Liz’s questions on whether I plan to go into politics or not. We talk about our students, school policies, and love lives (or the absence thereof). But it is when Liz drills me on how I’ve gone from an idealist to a realist that I wish our lunch hours don’t end. It is something I think most intensely about every now and then.

The hour starting from 11:00 is what I call my dead hour. After lunch, my productivity is at its lowest. This is why I prefer to meet my AKSIS officers at this time, since being around my officers and discussing our projects really kicks me up a notch. But around 11:50 I am at my most zombified state, and so I head for the Faculty’s hidden couch to grab a power nap. I have mastered that art, and can get myself to wake at exactly 12:30, the end of my official time.

On my way out of the Faculty I grab my course’s textbook and some quizzes I have yet to check. I put them all in my bag as I unzip a side pocket to grab my iPod. I scroll to my 60-song playlist and hit shuffle, but really won’t settle for any first song unless it’s something by The Fray.

Home is a good hour away in Paranaque, and I don’t head for it first. Since January 4, I haven’t missed the gym and so I mentally prepare my route from C5 to Makati.

Driving under the noon sun can be quite the test. The blinding glare and the heat make me fall asleep – hence the power nap before I leave – but I’ve discovered that listening to something loud and bassy can really get me up. Sadly, Staind, Drowning Pool, or all the hard rock acts I grew up with don’t work. But Lady Gaga does. Ra Ra Ah Ah Ah, Roma Roma Ma, Gaga Ooh La La. (In my defense, even Chris Daughtry sings her songs.)

I reach my gym in Makati by 1:30. I stow my car in Parksquare, get out of my leather shoes and into my rubber sandals, put on a cap to keep off the sun, and walk to EDSA corner Pasay Road. I spend a full half hour stretching my body and rotating my hips in anticipation of my Tennis Camp from April to May. Then I jog a full kilometer for warm up. Focusing on cardio work for January, I hit the transport machine for a good half hour clocking in three kilometers by the time I’m done.

As I run on the machines I think about how my day went. Actually, this is when I do all my deep thinking. I review the lecture I delivered today, and reflect on the class discussions we’ve had. I think about what to do for my classes next – Middle East Summit perhaps? – and begin mapping out what our last month will be like. I think about that subtitle for our AKSIS event, and draft a text message I’ll send to my officers once I step off the machines.

Then I think about my life and where I’m headed. I try to define what happiness means and rationalize why I didn’t call back that girl I went out with once (and think about what could have happened if I did). I think about how much longer I’ll be teaching in Pisay and plot what my next step should be if indeed I decide to go into politics. But as I near the end of my run I go back to the here and now. I breathe in, breathe out; I feel the tightening of muscles and pat myself on the back for another good work out.

The I finally head home.

I wonder what mom’s dinner surprise will be. I expect to see my dad on the couch, standing guard over Gibo Teodoro’s Facebook page and fending off anti-Gibo comments with his own snarky defenses. Just before dinner my 13 year-old sister arrives from dance class, and my 20 year-old brother won’t be home until later tonight after his orchestra rehearsal. In the closing hours of the day I finally get some work done. I finish checking quizzes and convert handouts to PDF and upload them on the blog. As I do so I respond to student messages in Yahoo! Messenger while going through my shelf to pick a book for tonight.

By 10pm I shut everything down, and flip open a book to the chapter I left behind the previous night. I go through about half a chapter before my eyes fall and I ultimately catch myself sleeping on a page. So I close the book, slide it down my desk, and I slip into my blanket. I turn off my reading light and soon it is just me and the steady buzzing of cicadas outside.

The next sound I hear is my phone’s alarm at 4:50am. But that just starts a new day.

It is when that bell rings again at 7:25 that my life starts again.

Footnote

21 January 2010 at 9:02 pm | In Following the Way | Leave a Comment
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“You know, folks ask me sometimes why I look so calm. They say, All this stuff coming at you, how come you just seem calm? And I have a confession to make here. There are times where I’m not so calm … There are times when progress seems too slow. There are times when the words that are spoken about me hurt. There are times when the barbs sting. There are times when it feels like all these efforts are for naught, and change is so painfully slow in coming, and I have to confront my own doubts. But let me tell you — during those times, it’s faith that keeps me calm.” – Barack Obama

Cracking my knuckles for the 2010 National Elections

14 January 2010 at 10:04 pm | In Essays and Commentaries | 5 Comments
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I followed the campaign and election of Barack Obama very closely. I woke up every morning to Wolf Blitzer’s Situation Room, tracked the state-by-state delegate count during the Democratic primaries, and caught up with all the media oddities from Sarah Palin to Joe the Plumber.

Since my university days, I’ve always been mystified by the alchemy of elections. I saw it for the political contest that it was, on one hand, and the confluence of media, human behavior, and faux spirituality it also was, on the other.

Last week I finished reading Richard Wolffe’s Renegade, a journalist’s account of the Obama campaign. I am currently in the middle of The Audacity to Win by David Plouffe, Barack Obama’s campaign manager. And soon I’ll be grabbing my copy of Game Change by journalists John Heilemann and Mark Halperin who promised some very juicy revelations about the campaigns behind the scenes.

Having followed the 2008 elections so closely has taught me so many things. While I don’t discount the multitude of differences we have with American politics, I’ve always considered myself a student of human nature – and politics is just one such human (and thus imperfect) act.

I have a lot to say about our upcoming national elections.

I have absolutely no confidence in Noynoy Aquino. Some people are equating him with Obama and are even trying to take a page from his playbook (for instance reducing the upcoming elections to one about change) but they couldn’t be more misinformed. And misleading!

Manny Villar is not to be trusted. He is doing everything a traditional politician has to do in order to win elections in this country. And he’s doing it very, very well.

You could not have worse fortunes than Gibo Teodoro. All things being equal, he is a promising candidate, deftly intelligent, and has good political touch. However, he is running under the worst circumstances possible having been declared the standard bearer of LAKAS-Kampi-CMD, the party of the much despised incumbent, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. His is the most uphill of uphill climbs, and I worry that he is not doing the moves he has to make to stand a decent – though still farfetched – shot.

Besides the candidates I also hope to talk about more philosophical issues such as how much should we consider winnability in making our choice, or whether we vote someone of character or of competence (why not both).

I really hope to write more on the elections, for whatever purpose it may serve. For sure I have gotten very rusty, and my hands don’t glide over these keys as smoothly as before but I’ll get there.

Cracking my knuckles now.

All’s well that ends well.

31 December 2009 at 7:08 pm | In Confessions of a Teacher, Following the Way | 8 Comments
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I was about to begin this entry with the words, “This was my worst year ever.” Then I remembered.

I don’t live along Mayon Volcano. I haven’t set foot in Mindanao, much less Maguindanao. I didn’t get A(H1N1). My family was spared from the wrath of Ondoy. Though it can be difficult to find the silver lining when a young, promising teacher dies, or an estranged uncle passes away, I just pinch myself – I am still here. The cynic in me would quip that nothing really happened in 2009. I disagree. I look back at times that were really good and the following come to mind.

20 February 2009


Sigaw! was AKSIS’s biggest project yet and I am pleased with how it turned out. It wasn’t perfect, of course. We sort of missed our targets to record the winning song (though that can still change) and shop the contest to radio stations for sponsorships and what not, but it was just a huge thing to get our feet wet and feel that this is indeed possible. I am deeply hoping for a sequel of sorts, and I am confident my team this year can cobble something together.

Polarity, 13 March 2009

Mt. Pinatubo, 15 March 2009

I say this now to make it official: School Year 2008 to 2009 was my best school year so far. This is not to diminish all the awesome things I’ve done and incredible people and students I’ve worked with in the past — like Pisay Meets World and the founding of AKSIS in 2007 — but last school year I was given the biggest assignment I’ve had yet.

I really loved every single moment of being the Batch Adviser to 2011. It was just such a different challenge that required me to dig deep and bring out skills I’ve always had but never got to utilize fully. I am thankful for the people I’ve met and the new partnerships I’ve formed. I am just so glad for the opportunity, and given the chance I would have loved to continue on to Third Year and continue serving Batch 2011 as their Adviser, or take in a new Batch, 2012, under my wing. Either would have been excellent, but alas, it was not meant to be. Other teachers deserve their big moments too, and this one was it for me.

As we triumphantly stood overlooking the crater of Mt. Pinatubo, I said, “It couldn’t get any better than this.” Indeed.

7 to 15 November 2009

And then there was India. My first encounter with the country is both familiar and strange. Familiar for I have read and learned so much about the country prior to my trip, but strange because nothing can quite prepare you for India. However, this country begs a sequel and a series of sequels. Our trip was relatively contained, and I wasn’t able to soak in as much of the locality as I hoped.

But the little I did absorb is already tremendously rich, and hence my respect and curiosity for the country has only increased. I will forever remember the sweet hospitality of Aakriti and Tushar, and the hilarity that ensued between Jeff, Terence, and I. It was my privilege learning about education from Debashis Chatterjee, and I am now on a quest to make educationist a real word and profession here in the Philippines.

So why the initial pessimism?

Let me try to articulate why I haven’t been writing as much anymore.

Every time I stare at my computer screen, I ask myself, “Will these words matter?”

Is there really sense in writing down how my day went, or what I really think about school policies, or what new books I got. Will any of that matter?

Perhaps, to one or two individuals it will. Or when I write something controversial it will matter to a whole lot for about two seconds, then it’s back to your regularly scheduled programming.

But does it matter to me?

For lately I’ve been feeling a wider gap between the things I say and the things I do. More and more, I feel myself not being able to live up to the standard I’ve set out for me, and that is to always speak the truth and to be honest in all things I do.

I am not saying that I’ve become a liar, a cheat, or a hack. Far from it.

I simply say this — that I speak of change, yet writing on this blog reminds me of how little things change.

I decry school policies and yet in describing how the system has slighted me, I realize how little I’ve really done. I comment on politics and conclude how lousy our government is while I remain seated, distant, and insulated from the political process.

I’ve always wanted more for myself. And now, after having written on this blog for the better part of the last two years, I now want more from myself.

Not just words anymore.

That is why last school year was so precious to me. For the first time in my adult professional life, there was no gap between words and action, ideas and execution. I believed that I served as Batch Adviser not for myself but for my students, and is so doing I put my career on the line. It worked. It paid off. We triumphed.

What I want more for myself are more moments like that. No, I am not demanding that I become Batch Adviser right here, right now. All I ask is that opportunity to realize those bigger things I’ve always wanted for myself, and if the system will not provide then it falls on me to make my own path.

This is how I’ve always been, I remind myself now. I used to speak about how I don’t believe in a destiny given to me, but that a man does everything he can until his destiny is revealed. (That I picked up from The Last Samurai, if you remember.)

And here’s another favorite from Batman Begins:

“It’s not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me.”

But it’s been a while. Let’s update ourselves with something from The Dark Knight.

“You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”

I’ve been writing less because I began to see myself as the villain in my own story. I’ve placed so much faith in me that when things failed to turn my way, I slipped into apathy and indifference. I became the person I never wanted to be. But perhaps, I should remind myself how in my teaching, I believe in others so easily. If there is one sphere of my life where I place complete faith and trust in others, it would be in my students. (And this is probably why teaching is so important to me.) And yet, if the pictures above would attest, my most triumphant moments were never alone. Something to think about, Martin.

That being said, I still feel ambivalent about continuing to write here. This post has been wonderful; allowing myself more time to think and write more honestly about the past year has helped neutralize the cynicism I’ve felt about the moments that didn’t go too well. If only for catharsis, I can still write and this blog will still be here.

But I feel that everything I write — especially here on the Internet — only glimpses at “who I am underneath.” I am like Clark Kent, ripping open his shirt, and claiming to the world, “I am Superman!” but without the actual ability to fly, bend steel, and shoot fire from his eyes. Or can’t he?

For it is what I do next that will define me.

It is what we do that does.

Happy New Year to all!

Learn something you want to learn today! Visit iTunes U.

7 December 2009 at 8:16 pm | In Recommended Reads, What's Up and Coming | 3 Comments
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I am deeply impressed by iTunes U.

I cyclically grow tired of listening to music (gasp!) so this has given my iPod a second life.

There is something eerily sublime about listening to Quentin Skinner’s lecture on What is Freedom? while working my way through Metro Manila traffic.

Last night while waiting for a concert to begin I listened to a lecture on how to prepare the mind to favor chances. It took the old adage, “Chance favors the prepared mind” to whole new heights and was rife with examples you have to hear to believe.

And last Friday just before my first class, I listened to an inspiring and provocative talk by Denise Clark on “how we are creating a generation of stressed-out, materialistic, and miseducated students.” It was so good that it almost made me send my class off on a free period.

iTunes U is compatible with the way I learn which is highly contextual. I learn in the pursuit of answers to practical questions and problems I encounter in my everyday life. A lot of what I know now of Asian history was built while trying to add value to an aging syllabus and improving the way I handle questions in class. Moreover, I seek out insights into teaching itself and appreciate it when I encounter speakers who can add to what I know about today’s youth and how they interact with technology, and how we teachers can prepare our students for the knowledge economy.

I highly recommend iTunes U to everyone, especially if you have a genuine love of learning that requires no external force to get you going.

You don’t even need an iPod; just a computer with iTunes on it and a healthy Internet connection. I suggest you give it a try and learn something you really want to learn today!

Tomorrow, my classes have their first mock trial in a series of three. The topic is the Sepoy rebellion and to prime myself I am listening to a lecture by Stanford historian David Abernathy on the consolidation of British power in India from the mid-18th century onwards. I don’t even have to open a book; I just enjoy the drive to work.

Why I supported Martial Law at first — and now question it

7 December 2009 at 7:15 pm | In Essays and Commentaries | Leave a Comment
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In matters of national security, I find it prudent to defer to people who know better than me. I am the farthest from a military man, and so I harbor no pretense of telling them what to do.

I understand how the massacre in Maguindanao created a crisis of epic proportions. But in my opinion it went beyond the morality tale that the media has simplified it into — irresponsibly, if I may add — and is now more so a political crisis for the current administration who has been in bed for far too long with these men, and a security crisis where there exists a clear and present danger for violence to break out and disrupt the province in a profound, cataclysmic way.

The only analysis point I would like to offer everyone is this — the situation is by no means a mere case of ‘law enforcement’. The Ampatuans are the law in Maguindanao. Bringing these murderers (say that word with all the righteous indignation you can muster!) to justice was never going to be simple. Last week I read a report of the beleaguered governor’s private army (read: army) surrounding him to protect him from unwarranted arrest. Then I breathed a sigh of relief that the President has declared Martial Law. For me it was a far more gentler alternative to all-out civil war. (Although now it seems like a mere prelude to it.)

A recent report from ABS-CBN’s “Boto-Patrollers” has dug up a precious quote: ““Dalawa lang ang puwedeng pagpilian ng mga kritiko: martial law ng mga Ampatuan o martial law ng gobyerno.” (“The critics have only two choices: martial law under the Ampatuan or martial law under the government.”) Sad when you think about it.

I’m also the farthest from a supporter of Madame President for the simple reason that she has never really resonated with me. However, I am willing to give her the benefit of the doubt that despite all the hanky-panky she has done in the past, she would not declare Martial Law recklessly given our sordid history with the term and with the whole world watching. MLQ3 is right; it is the last post-EDSA taboo she had left to break.

I understand all the conspiracies and doomsday scenarios. However, I am not yet in a position to take them seriously. I am still convinced (and hopeful) that the elections next year will push through no matter what. With the way the political winds are blowing through the world now (Change! Yes, we can!), an unpopular president such as PGMA simply cannot afford to curtail democracy even further by preempting its most sacred ritual. (The leaders of Iran tried to; now their downfall is a matter of time.) Even I, most probably, will be up in arms.

Wait, bad pun.

However, things have changed. After reading Madame President’s report to Congress, I am now skeptical.

Not judging the capability or expertise of our military men and reacting solely to the document that details the premises our President have used to declare Martial Law in Maguindanao, I find the case to be flimsy, speculative, and weak.

The report offers details not too different from what we’ve already seen reported in the media. The only place where we can see the logic (if you can call it that) they used to justify that a rebellion was in the offing is in the 20th of 20 pages, written in a manner that seemingly desperately tries to form a link between their premises and their aims.

Simply, their case is this: a massacre has been committed, the Ampatuans have been implicated, and a cache of weapons and false vehicles have been found. Ergo, a rebellion is in the offing. Yes, they allude to movement of armed and lawless men, and the shutdown of government. But that’s it. No further details. I would have wanted to see more names, details, and flash points.

The last time the world turned on a premise this flimsy was when a country (which we shall not name) justified their attack on Iraq by linking Saddam Hussein with Osama bin Laden.

That said, our government has just declared Martial Law on the basis of non sequitur — at least that is the impression I get from reading the President’s report.

I demand greater transparency. Accountability. I want our President to explain her case not to Congress but to the people. I don’t expect her to resonate with me but I’d appreciate her willingness to try. Otherwise, my voice will join the chorus of those who demand not just that the Supreme Court revokes Martial Law, but that the President steps down.

Because if Martial Law will be imposed on loose sand such as this, then it will be unsustainable.

If she declared it to project an aura of state control and power, she has done so in the short-term but no farther than that. The ejection of the Ampatuan from Maguindanao will leave open a power vacuum which — under Martial Law — government forces will continue to occupy. In the near-term they will have to weed out the armed elements loyal to the Ampatuan and win back civilians who have benefited from their dynastic hegemony. In the long-term they will have to establish institutions that can stand on their own and facilitate a clean transfer of power.

I feel that this will be unsustainable since warlord enclaves exist and flourish in different parts of the Philippines. Martial Law is political poison, and as a tool it cannot become our government’s defining strategy in ousting these warlords and stabilizing regions. We don’t have the ample government resources to stage such a campaign — isn’t that why they went to bed with these warlords in the first place?

The way out of this political impasse is a complicated one, and I would love to share my thoughts in a future entry. Suffice to say, reliance on warlords can be broken by genuine socio-economic development that builds healthy societies from the ground up. But that is a democratic project that will require time, patience, and a virtuous leader who can get things done.

Yet insofar as the declaration of Martial Law goes, I now have serious questions about it. While I am not a big fan of digging up old fears, I am an advocate of being cautious for the future.

PGMA’s Report to Congress on Martial Law in Maguindanao

7 December 2009 at 2:45 pm | In Recommended Reads | 1 Comment
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Saying everything and nothing at the same time

3 December 2009 at 10:17 am | In Essays and Commentaries | 4 Comments
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In his most recent column, Manuel Quezon III (MLQ3), debunks the enthusiasm of some on the Teodoro camp by saying that the ‘mock polls’ conducted through Facebook are precisely that — mock.

He follows an absurd double standard by discrediting the ‘trending’ of the mock poll and suggesting that the number of ‘fans’, ‘followers’, and ‘multiply connections’ are more accurate indices of support. He writes, “Another way to measure commitment to the candidates is by means of Twitter, where people can follow people and candidates they like” (emphasis mine).

I hope he was being sarcastic.

I find no difference between either the mock poll results or the social network connections that these candidates have. Both are phony.

But if we insist, here are some considerations that have to be made in “interpreting” membership in these social networks.

One — economic class. It has been well documented that bulk of Internet users belong to the middle class and higher. I am not surprised by the poor showing of Estrada and Villar in Facebook — or Villar’s stronger showing in Friendster (which undoubtedly has a larger mass base, and which the upper classes have long abandoned for Facebook). Villar’s earlier campaign also included a reach out to Multiply.

Second — longer-term Internet trends. The death of Cory Aquino led to a massive surge in interest in the Aquinos, the color yellow, and Bench T-shirts. There is no doubt that Noynoy Aquino rode this surge, thus giving him a massive media mileage that trumped even the well-moneyed Villar.

Thus the question I want to raise to MLQ3 is this: How much time did Noynoy’s groups have to gestate and grow vis-a-vis the group of a lesser known candidate like Teodoro? How many members in these groups — particularly the 109,349-strong fan page of his — joined in August? September? October? November? Moreover, are these groups truly exclusive of each other? For instance, I joined Noynoy’s last September then Teodoro’s just last night, and I am sure I am not the only one. (I think I’m part of Risa Hontiveros’s too, but not for political reasons.)

Third — the very composition of the groups. Most of my students with a Facebook account have joined the fan groups of at least two candidates — and none of them are of voting age this coming election. Moreover, let’s not pretend we don’t know how these groups work. We know very well how membership in them can be due to fads, image, or peer influence. Following someone on Twitter is not always an act of commitment (which, I take MLQ3 to mean the give-and-take citizen kind of commitment he has always advocated for). Do we have the numbers on how many of this really joined out of conviction and principle? Does that even matter?

For if one will assert that the numbers speak for themselves, or that there are simply too many members in Noynoy’s group to question its legitimacy, then we can use the same flimsy logic to assert that the trends in the Facebook “survey” clearly show a steady rise in Teodoro’s numbers — after all who can question 12% to 63%!

My point is, all of these are unscientific. Let us not over-inflate the importance of these Internet tools. Authentic web platforms and tools can be developed to measure public opinion of course — and I believe that they should — but none of these are that yet. None of these really tell us anything despite the attempt of partisans on both sides to read the tea leaves.

I agree, MLQ3, that there is no Facebook survey, that the results of that Election2010 can be seriously misrepresentative of the true pulse of the people, and that any attempt to draw conclusions from them is severely irresponsible.

But when you pointed out the disparities in Facebook, Twitter, Friendster, and Multiply connections, I was left wondering why you didn’t go into discussing the inconsistencies of their membership or why, despite your command of the Internet and the Philippine blogosphere, you took their numbers at face value. That struck me as a tad irresponsible too.

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