Wall Street, Bolivia, atbp.

23 september 2008

Slept for twelve hours today. Have been sleeping for four hours at the most Mondays and Thursdays since the start of the sem owing to a 7 am class on those days. Thing is that I read and write at night and that having early morning works doesn’t work for me. I can’t do so in the afternoon after my classes so I just devote the time to other office/paper works.
***
It’s been a week since the financial crisis’ peak at New York City. Because the financial and economic system is now more interlocked than ever before, what happens there (or anywhere) has global ramifications. It sent panic not only to the businessmen here but also ordinary people who work or are connected to banks and financial institutions. Poor people who have some savings are now anxious about what will happen next.

The US government’s bailout of AIG helped to calm the atmosphere; though we don’t know the extent of stability it would continue to offer. Now the news is that Bush will release 700 billion US$ to revive their ailing economy. Free market advocates do not like the long-term implications of this move. I just watched at CNN a US legislator’s comment that nationalization of the economy is inherently un-American. Others will say that it is anti-American (i.e., anti-capitalist, anti-profit, anti-freedom?) Many argue that only the government can do something that will reassure market forces and will pave way for the latter’s continued growth. I think that in the same way that the government de facto manages the economy by providing all the advantages for capitalist expansion, a free market in fact accorded by the government’s “non-intervention,” it can—and must—regulate private corporations and organize the economy in a manner that will protect the public. This suggestion concerns a capitalist edict to which our own Philippine economy subscribes to. The wicked thing about this bailout is that it may just help the companies and its workers and the people who have some interests in it as depositors, creditors, etc. while those responsible for its failures will be let off the hook. Government aid must be accompanied by a thorough investigation of those speculators and managers who led us to this mess to begin with, and a restructuring of a system that encourages private accumulation over a generalized condition of beneficence and equality. I’m sorry that I am neither an economist nor a political scientist so this is just a basic proposal.
***
Quite the same government-people vs private greed relation is happening in America’s destitute backyard. Bolivia’s poor is demanding an equal share of income from their more affluent compatriots. The same news program I just watched shows the nation’s elite in an expo show partying while the wretched of the earth are protesting for a socialization of earnings from their country’s wealthy region. We hear their comprador bourgeoisie class appealing for national unity (this same sector is fighting for a secession from their leftist government), the poor articulating the same unity achievable through a redistribution of government income. Evo Morales’ challenge for a richer and more just Bolivia is pushing towards a violent confrontation. When governments such as his lead social revolution—meaning it comes from above—the outcome will be decided by the people themselves who must realize a government working for their needs and desires. Despite countless efforts to topple its leaders both from outside and from within, Cuba’s government stays because the people are not alienated from its ruling. States are after all the arena where one class imposes its rule over all the rest. We might see a renewed reddening of Latin America.
***
Have to study hard in my Spanish lessons. I was passing through it easily in the lower levels. Now that the verb tenses and predications are becoming more difficult, I mix up the verb usages. Unlike my classmates who can converse adequately in Español, each time my teacher asks me, people have to supply the answers so that I can cope with the discussion. My goal’s to have a reading knowledge of the subject so I can pursue my interest in Hispanic literature and history. But it is easier to learn the language by listening well to conversations. More Spanish TV programs, films and music then.
***
One student asked my position on the reproductive health bill. I didn’t say my stand because the paper I require in my Communication 1 class is not yet submitted. I explained to the class that I, like many teachers, do not grade student work based on our own take on the matter but on their own discussion of the subject. This is of course at the level of theory but we can ensure fairness by examining well the sides (not only two) to an issue and criticizing the opposition to each side based on a common subject. You cannot simply raise morality and spirituality against economics and lifestyle without presenting where the two presumably opposing sides meet and contend. By the way El Shaddai’s Bro. Mike Velarde is threatening to run in the 2010 presidential elections in case the bill is approved. At least the Iglesia ni Cristo is approving of the bill’s merits.
***
The activist institution to which I belong, the Amado V. Hernandez Resource Center, conducted a poetry workshop with the Advan (makers of casual shoes) company’s workers last September 13. They are currently on strike to fight for wage increase and prosecution of sexual harassment against the manager. We in the center decided that workshops be held in urban poor worker’s communities so that Amado Hernandez’s poetry and militant labor struggle will be sustained. In the past almost all of the participants in literary workshops and not surprisingly the winners in the Gawad Ka Amado are students and professionals, those who have considerable resources, specially time, for literary activities. Poet Richard Gappi led the workshop and the outcome was good. The workers themselves presented their poem through a dramatic presentation on the night itself. The most humorous part was the practice for the presentation as participants realize the seriousness of their efforts and had become the center of attention that night. Surely the reality of just writing the poem and then transforming into dramatic actions so that what you have just written is transmitted audio-visually to a wide audience made them feel profoundly different. People realize that collective action is greatly achieved by means of artistic work that pulls the senses and the mind. Poet Axel Pinpin of the recently released from prison Tagaytay 5 read his poem.

8:06 am
tuesday, 23 september 2008