12-101107
To all of them who are still alive especially those who are involved with the bizarre ZTE and JPEPA imbroglios, they should read a recent blog article of Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz. After reading it, I wish all of them will also go through a sincere examination of conscience in the light of our Archbishop’s prophetic insight. The good prelate by the way has authorized me to make good use of his blog articles, for purposes of this website, under our best discretion. Thus, here it is.
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
ZTE, JPEPA, RP-CHINA Agreement
These are truly trying times in the Philippines. These are really shameful days for the Filipinos. The government continues to occupy a distinct place in the honor roll of corruption in the world. The national leadership remains in a dismal level of the negative approval and trust rating registered by the citizens. Meantime, millions of people are denied decent living; the sick die and the elderly cry for lack of basic social services, children of poor families have no opportunity to go to school.
Meantime, the people watch the spectacle of the present administration attempting to make one scandalous deal after another, with foreign governments. With its foreseen dismissal or demise soon, this administration appears to be in a hurry to make money, to satisfy a much bloated ego—at the expense of the country and its people as a matter of course. This is the classic example of the “I” above and over everybody and everything else.
Many municipalities have no electricity even. There are police stations with but one old typewriter each. Most of the country’s public schools do not even have a computer for their students. And there are students who do not even have pencils. And out of nowhere, there is the grand government project of a National Broadband Network courtesy of ZTE. This can only be the grand idea of a visionary with head in the cloud and feet in the air.
Many places are already loaded with their own garbage. Even Metro Manila is having a very hard time disposing its tons of waste. Many provinces are already suffering from the destruction of their environment. Recently, there were rivers in Central Luzon that have been found out and thus declared among the dirtiest in the world. And there is again this government going for broke in the matter of accepting foreign toxic waste through the JPEPA. Again, only a self-proclaimed visionary with much-inflated self-image can conceive such a betrayal of the people and violation of their land.
Many farmers have no farms to till. And even those who are entitled to have their own farmlands are violently driven away from the little place they till—if not meted the penalty of summary execution, such as the beneficiaries of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). The CARP has become not only hard but also dangerous to actualize. Certain landlords have once more become not only powerful but also harbor hardcore greed. And here comes this government having the RP-CHINA AGREEMENT at heart. It is foreseen to cover not only CARP but even the CARP-able lands. Again, only a visionary without conscience and genuine vision could betray the farmers who have been feeding the people for centuries with their sweat and toil.
ZTE, JPEPA, RP-CHINA Agreement— go away!
+OVCRUZ, DD
3 October 2007
And so why, oh why do our officials today, most of whom are Catholics, NOT SEE anything to apologize for in what Archbishop Cruz and most Filipinos see as terribly shameful. Worse, they even continually boast that considering everything as a whole, this nation should be proud of its supposedly relentless march towards moral and material progress, and true democracy as well!
The answer may be found in another article from ZENIT posted here last October 9 entitled Confession Comeback, wherein Father John Flynn, L.C. quoted Bishop Thomas Wenski of Orlando, Florida who said that “the loss of the sense of sin is the SPIRITUAL CRISIS OF OUR AGE”.
But as far back as 1984, the late great John Paul II recognized this crisis when he initiated a Synod of Bishops to zero in on the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Sacramental Confession), in a global effort “to face the crisis of the sense of sin”.
That crisis still appears to be at its darkest here with us today, particularly among our nation’s Catholic leaders and officials.
Their habitual “intellectual dishonesty”, fueled by a desire to stay by hook or by crook, in or with the established political power structure, while enjoying the corrupting wealth it reaps and the false prestige it brings, inevitably leads to an even more sinister loss of the sense of sin.
For how else can we explain why these officials will deviously and secretly approve, yet publicly defend their approval of a huge OVERPRICE of an UNNECESSARY purchase, ostensibly because the money to pay for the purchase and its hidden pre-paid commission-bribery, will supposedly be lent out by the Supplier-Lender at below market rates of interest?
How else do we explain why soon after canceling this cyberspace boondoggle with its huge bribe-fueled overprice, yet another similar but much bigger boondoggle is being publicly and vigorously endorsed? But this time, with the prior deodorizing assistance of a highflying Catholic Religious priest from academe who also is Board Director of a corporate commercial giant…
How else do we explain why our nation’s spineless negotiators and the President herself, knowingly agreed to enter into a discriminatory, dangerous and unconstitutional Treaty and shamelessly defend it publicly by merely mouthing away its fatal infirmities with its few and shallow advantages?
And can we explain any other way why a congressman could so blithely spout in front of TV cameras motherhood statements about wanting to “look for the truth”, but by means of a deviously and maliciously crafted shallow yet treacherous impeachment complaint?
And why, oh why are our Catholic officials in government who prepared our national budget NOT bothered in conscience by endorsing the expenditure of billions of pesos to prevent life illicitly through condoms and to kill sacred and supernatural soul-infused human embryos through abortifacients? Do they not know or believe the Catholic and Christian article of faith that Christ suffered and died for each and every one such soul-person? And therefore each one of them as they themselves are, is worth MORE THAN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD!
Lord have mercy on us ALL…
I received this timely and appropriate message from friends, courtesy of http://susie1114.com/LiveALife.html. And so I dedicate it to all of us, especially to our Catholic government officials.
What Will Matter
Ready or not,
someday it will all come to an end.
There will be no more sunrises,
no minutes, hours or days.
All the things you collected,
whether treasured or forgotten,
will pass to someone else.
Your wealth,
fame and temporal power
will shrivel to irrelevance.
It will not matter what you owned
or what you were owed.
Your grudges, resentments, frustrations,
and jealousies will finally disappear.
So, too, your hopes, ambitions, plans,
and to-do lists will expire.
The wins and losses
that once seemed so important
will fade away.
It won't matter where you came from,
or on what side of the tracks you lived,
at the end.
It won't matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant.
Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant.
So what will matter?
How will the value of your days be measured?
What will matter is not what you bought,
but what you built;
not what you got,
but what you gave?
What will matter is not your success,
but your significance.
What will matter is not what you learned,
but what you taught.
What will matter is every act of integrity,
compassion,
courage or sacrifice that enriched,
empowered or encouraged others
to emulate your example.
What will matter is not your competence,
but your character.
What will matter is not how many people you knew,
but how many will feel a lasting loss when you're gone.
What will matter is not your memories,
but the memories that live in those who loved you.
What will matter is how long you will be remembered,
by whom and for what.
Living a life that matters doesn't happen by accident.
It's not a matter of circumstance but of choice.
Choose to live a life that matters.
Author Michael Josephson
No comments:
Post a Comment