The NBN-ZTE and CYBER-ED Anomalous Project

The NBN-ZTE
and
CYBER-ED
Anomalous Project



Arnulfo Yu Laniba
Agape Foundation (Agasoft)
October, 2007


A work of concerned for the awakening, emancipation and development of the oppressed people of the Philippines and elsewhere.
Free for circulation or distribution.THE NBN-ZTE & CYBER-ED PROJECTS

The P12 billion worth National Broadband Network (NBN) project bagged by Chinese company ZTE and the P26 billion Cyber-Ed project by another Chinese company reportedly owned by the son of the Chinese president have stirred much controversy that it leaves us no reason why we shouldn’t contribute our piece of thought to help ourselves become more prudent – hopefully.

So, here are our commentaries:

On the NBN project, I understand that it will cover each town. Since there are 1,500 towns in the Philippines, the cost of the project on a per town basis will be P8,000,000.00!

Question: Is that over-pricing or not?

Being among the first batch of the computer graduates in Bohol and among the current practitioners of the internet and having some idea about computerization, I can share my own assessment of the project.

First, allow me to directly say: There is no need to buy new computers for each and every municipal government!

I tell you, there is no municipality (town) nowadays in the Philippines that does not possess one or more computers most of which are of the latest model. As a matter of fact, many of them are already internet-connected!

So, why a completely new broadband internet project? Why not “just an upgrading” project to save billions of pesos?

When you say you want to avail of the broadband feature of the internet, that is, be seen and be heard, and not only be read, you will only resort to upgrading which cost is very minimal.

For the broadband network, we do not need to buy new computers for each of our municipality (town)! As a matter of fact, I observe during my ocular survey or visit as an NGO, that not only that there are more computers than they need, their computers are also underused; in other words, overcapacity! Of the 54-hour week office, I bet they had used the computer half of that time. So, I am tempted to say that they should not have bought two or three more. One is enough for many towns! The secret is wise scheduling of the department works. And also: real good diligent typists, etc. who do not “kill the time”.

I therefore state that THERE IS NO NEED TO BUY NEW COMPUTERS FOR EVERY TOWN TO BE ABLE TO HAVE A BROADBAND INTERNET CONNECTION. There are more computers already available than needed! All we need to do is UPGRADE THE EXISTING COMPUTERS WITH ADDITIONAL SOFTWARE AND SMALL HARDWARE, BUT NOT REPLACE THE COMPUTERS THEMSELVES, save a few exceptions where the computers are old.

I have in my possession a brochure of Smart Broadband Wireless Internet. The systems requirement to go broadband is very minimal and I am pretty sure that many municipal computers exceed the requirement: a Pentium II or higher, 128 MB of RAM or higher, an Ethernet/LAN card, at least 10 GB of hard disk space, and an operating system of Windows 98 or higher or a Linux or Macintosh.

These above-mentioned minimum requirements such as Pentium II are present for 10-year old or older computers. And you know, most municipalities have 2-year old computers and they have Pentium IV! I say, our municipalities exceed already the minimum requirement for internet broadband connection.

The hardware that I referred to needed for upgrading is the Ethernet or LAN card which is very cheap, not more than P2,000.00 to be sure! A friend of mine who owns a computer store once mentioned P 500 as the price. So, why budget P8 million for the shift to broadband?

Another funny fact: Many of our municipalities are already internet connected! So, a shift to broadband – read: “hear and see” features of the internet – is done by merely buying a webcam and a headphone! And how much does each cost? Not more than P2,000.00 as well! I bought my headphone at P300.00. So why budget P8 million for the broadband?

What else do we need for a broadband?

Antenna for wireless? Well, it is free or cheap from the company! It is only a small box or dish to be installed on your rooftop and the cost is only P1,000.00 for Smart broadband, much cheaper than a 20-foot antenna.

You want cable? Still there is no need. We have already telephone lines in every municipal government offices! So, why budget P8 million for the shift to broadband hear-and-see system?

You want fiber optics for a super fast communication?

A fast broadband is needed? Another justification for the NBN project is this: a totally new optic facility is needed for a super fast broadband network!!!

Wow!

Super fast! Sounds like fast craft! That is the first time I heard from this turtle-slow government!

Ask every citizen and you will hear their complaints how unsatisfactorily slow government services are! How many old pensioners have their pensions delayed more than 3 months? How many war veterans continue to wait for the first of their pensions after years of follow-up! How many months or years do we have to go through to have our land titles and how much money they demand to grease their palms and let their pens to sign!

And how many poor small businessmen agonizing the government’s unwillingness settle their accounts with them for some contract already finished?

My friend who is a contractor told me of his experience of the government using his private capital to fund projects that take months or years before being paid by the concerned government agency! It is as if the government has no money and is only using the money of the private businessmen to do their projects and so please their constituents. Or it is as if the mayor or governor concerned is depositing the money at the bank for months to earn them interest in addition to the bribes or kickbacks or commission they received from the contractor.

Where everybody joins in corruption, the nation will speedily fall. “Only righteousness exalts a nation, but sin will be a reproach (source of pagmahay[1]) for any people”.

The laying of fiber optics cables all across the deep seas across the country, if that is what ZTE, PGMA or my brother-in-law means just to achieve a super fast, in-seconds speed communication is very inappropriate for the government to do. Let the private sector do that because they are engaged in money-making activities. It is highly ambitious for the government to such a project with only one little purpose: connect all her towns to the National Government and to each other!?

Or Mrs. President et al., do you want us to suspect that you have greedy businessmen friends who poisoned your mind to use government money and resources to install fiber optics all across the country so that, as a ride on, your friend businessmen can use it for their private telecommunications purposes? And of course, you must be made incorporators to such businesses or at least receive a big commission! Unless that becomes an above board legitimate business transactions between government and private sectors, that is incongruous! That is anomalous and wicked if the proceeds are intended to benefit private pockets using the money of the people! You are here subtly using the hard-earned tax money of the poor masses to capitalize what will become your own businesses once you are out of the government service! Shame on you, if that is the case!

So, better be transparent!

Is there really a need for a fiber optic super fast broadband internet for the government?
Some proponent did say, “Yes, for emergency communication purposes that require speed in seconds, not in minutes!”

And when does that emergency occur? How often? And why will it occur? And for what example?

“Coup d’e-tat!” the government supporter snapped.

Coup d’e-tat? You mean the president will invite all mayors and governors to the Malacañan or Manila when there is a coup? And so the invitation will be done in seconds, right? But what about the ride to Manila? It would take hours, not seconds. So, the gain you made from fast communication is lost from the slow transportation! And here is more to completely kill your excitement about such super fast speed thing: Are you saying that more than ever you are putting the lives and safety of our mayors and governors to the line for something that in more degree than less, it is Manila to be blamed? O, come on!

Do you know what it means? Do you know what it means to gather all your supporters, e.g., officials, in one place during a coup? That is making it super easy for the enemy to completely clean up this nation of all the municipal and provincial tentacles of the National Government in one swoop! By just one stroke! All the enemy will have to do is aim all their fires to Malacañan and the war is won! There will be no more need of hard, long, protracted battles in the countryside which has already taken more than five decades without clear sign of victory. So, if I were CPP-NPA leader Jose Maria Sison, I would move heaven and earth to have this NBN-ZTE project pushed through!

After all, the government is in this way self-destroying!

Now, to more sense. I conclude that there is no valid, wise, prudent, intelligent, practical, or whatever adjective you would use for the word “reason” to justify the project and say that if is feasible and necessary!

The opposite is true: The project is invalid, unwise, imprudent, unnecessary, untimely, impractical, and as what we have just cited, dangerous during a coup d’e-tat! You complete the list! And here is one more for the list: the project seems to come out to be aimed by its proponents to make money for themselves, first, immediately from the commission or bribe, and, in the long term, I suspect, through the usefulness of the government fiber optics to their friends’ telecommunications businesses in which they will surely be given some stakes (co-ownership)! So people’s money used to finance private businesses.

Is super speed necessary? In my daily experience with the internet, speed is fluctuating due to the volume of traffic (users) all over the country and the world. It is like road traffic in downtown Manila. For emergency purposes, I would advice telephone hotline, exclusively assigned to the President and the local chief executives. US President Bush has a hotline number for Russian President Putin. Bilibid prison has a hotline from the President who could call minutes or seconds before a criminal is executed.

I think telephone would be enough.

We have other urgent priorities in this country than to spend for the broadband network project which is presently a luxury to us, and not a basic need.

The basic need is the restoration of all eroded lands and their conversion into productive farms so that we can recall our helpless loved ones suffering in the Middle East and other hostile parts of the world. What is basic is the need to convert our nation into a place able to feed its growing population, and thus prevent another millions or more from leaving our homeland.

For our homeland to be able to feed, clothe and house all her children is a feasible thing. It can be done. That is, if our leaders are wise and they know how. Just look at progressive countries with smaller size of land. Italy, Germany, Belgium, France, England, etc., etc., they do not have big lands. As a matter of fact, they are overpopulated in some cases. The Philippines has very vast space to place her settle her people, vaster than you could imagine especially if we cause our land grabbers to give up their spiritually unlawful landholdings!

See?

See, that is our priority: restoration of our farms and industries.

The government has never been really responsive to the needs of the people. It is exactly like my barangay. The Philippines is exactly like my barangay. Or inversely, my barangay is exactly like the Philippines: unresponsive.

Our government, national or barangay, is not responsive.

MY BARANGAY IS A MIRROR OF THE NATION

Let me tell you my own story.

I am a Kagawad in my barangay since 2000. Right from the start, I sponsored livelihood, employment, education and health as priority projects and programs, but I had been defeated by the majority who voted for the captain’s infrastructure projects.

These projects I proposed are not concrete if you define “concrete” as something that can be touched and seen and displayed like the infrastructure projects such as the basketball court, replacement of the roof of the barangay hall which is not urgent, placing tiles on the floor of the day care center and the barangay hall which is also not urgent, creating new roads and widening of existing ones which I consider fairly necessary, the construction of a barangay hearth which is good, the purchase of so many kitchen utensils as if the barangay is engaged in “restaurant” business, so not so necessary; the flattening of our steep barangay lot for the construction of another barangay hall and stage as future replacement of the existing ones, which is very unnecessary in the face of the hungry jobless, residents; replacement of the fence of the basketball court; and so on and so forth.

What I have just enumerated are the actual projects in my barangay which the present barangay captain had insisted to get constructed during our 2000-2007 stint.

He is an honest, sincere man I must say, but this old man, our present barangay captain, is still old fashioned, to be frank a trapo (traditional politician) as far as his understanding of how to serve our barangay or nation is concerned. As far as I see, he is not involved in corruption, so in this regard he is different from the majority of the trapos. But he is similar to the trapos in their understanding of governance or leadership. They define governance or leadership mainly as “infrastructure projects”!

So, during the seven years of our administration, while those above-listed infrastructures were being done one after the other, other bad things happen: 1) the skills and income of our men, who are the main breadwinner of their families, stagnated and did not experience remarkable improvement or increase that could be considered as poverty-liberating or empowering; if there is an increase of income, only a meager P10 per day. What can P10 do in the face of higher increase of commodities? Their incapacity to send their children to school has remained a problem; 2) promising poor children continue to fail to go to school for lack of parental financial capacity; 3) our people and children become thinner and weaker, signs of malnutrition and increased poverty; 4) hungry or malnourished children are not doing well in school; 5) those teenage and older children we sent to work far away have suffered many set backs because they were not educationally prepared to face the world of work and competition; 6) vices of gambling and drunkenness, etc. are filling the whole barangay because more and more number of men and youth have no work, no jobs; 7) other crimes such as theft are on the rise as the natural result of cash-less people who have needs and wants; 8) debt too are on the rise; and someone already committed suicide because of it, leaving his wife and children with much sufferings because of his death! 9) agricultural output is decreasing because fewer and fewer old people are farming due to old age, sickness and death and as the younger have gone away to work in the cities or abroad, abandoning the farms; 10) there is not an industry that could complement the weakening agriculture; 11) more suffering for the wives and children as poverty and vices worsen; in short, 12) my barangay is not just stagnating, but is actually degenerating in health and body, in mind and intellect, in its economy, and in its morality and spiritual condition.

The newly white-painted barangay hall with its new beautiful tiles seem to cover those 12 (or even more) less visible problems I have just mentioned. But deep inside, it is like a gangrene!!

Since barangay election is a few days to go, what do the people say as their evaluation to our 7-year administration?

Their assessment is summarized in this following statement presently going rounds, to wit: MANY ACCOMPLISHMENTS BUT NONE FOR THE PEOPLE!

That is how I define a NOT RESPONSIVE GOVERNANCE. If you have been looking for the exact or correct definition of a government that is not responsive to its people or constituents, there you have it!

To be more comprehensible, our opponents are using a metaphor which I fear can deliver our TKO! They say: “They are like the father whose children were crying for food for seven years already. And what did this mis-tuned father do? He gave them clothes instead of food!”

So, all our virtues are of no value for our failure to do the basic duty of a truly good official: RESPOND TO THE NEEDS OF YOUR PEOPLE.

It is no wonder why during an afternoon where all of us were walking in the road as a group towards the barangay hall, someone said, “Look, the defeatables!” He meant us whom they plan to replace this coming election.

I beg some personal exception, however. Since the people know that I am the strong proponent of livelihood, employment, education, health, etc., of our constituents, I wish to say that if my pulse is right, they will reelect me. And this time, I am already asking them to add more kagawads who have similar platform to mine. I justified my impotence this way, “Since this is democracy where majority rules during voting, I have to bow down to respect and submit to the decision of the majority to prioritize infrastructures over livelihood, employment, food, education, health and shelter. For my plans and ideas were wise and unrefutable, but the kagawads are personally indebted to the captain, and so they voted to personally please the captain, and not for the welfare of the people. The rich captain always lent them money, you know! So utang na loob (personal indebtedness) prevailed over the common good.”

To succeed in my livelihood agenda, I told them, two things must happen: 1) the next barangay captain must be pro-livelihood; 2) majority of the next kagawads must be also pro-livelihood. If we will fail with the first, I will still see success if we will have a majority in the council who are pro-livelihood. We will outvote the captain. That is democracy which is bad if the majority is bad. Forgive me for saying that harsh truth. DEMOCRACT IS GOOD ONLY IF THE MAJORITY IS GOOD. That is, we are talking of real results. For good ideas cannot be executed by a bad majority.

The other option, namely, that I would run for barangay captain, is not feasible as of this time that I am still concentrating for the stabilization of our small family business for my 5 kids who are still to reach high school and college years before I could devote my time as a full-time barangay captain or what.

So, I need a pro-livelihood captain and kagawads to materialize my vision for an economically prosperous and spiritually strong, healthy, educated, happy populace.

I emphasize the pair-strategy: ECONOMIC PROSPERITY AND SPIRITUAL MATURITY. The first will not have any real value if the second is lacking. As a matter of fact, if there is one to be prioritized, it is SPIRITUAL MATURITY. It is spiritual maturity that is needed for the rich Benefactor to safely pour His blessings and riches. Take note of the word “safely”. For giving riches to a person without spiritual maturity and hence who is vicious, lustful, greedy and proud, is to bring troubles and sufferings in your barangay or nation! In this case, poverty becomes a blessing than prosperity. Material prosperity is only appropriate for people who are spiritually mature, meaning: people who love God above all in the persons of the poor and who love their neighbors as themselves.

Without that character, material riches is dangerous! Very dangerous!

So, what is my barangay looking like is what the nation is like!

* * * * *

And why is the urgency to provide the hear-and-see feature of the internet? Is this kind of communication very necessary to replace the old BLECS Morse code system of the PNP? Or is there a life-or-death need for an LGU-to-LGU or LGU-to-NG communication? I greatly doubt it!

The idea of the President holding an e-conference in her Malacañan office alone but is being seen and participated by all governors and mayors across the country is NICE! But as I said, to reach that level of internet capacity, does not need an P 8 million budget per municipality!!

* * * *

How much really would it be? Just P5,000.00! To cover the cost of the Ethernet or LAN card, the webcam and the headphone! The excess of the amount would be for the snacks of the people who would do the installation and those who would watch in the office!!??

So, for a P5,000.00 per town budget, how much would be the total budget? P5,000.00 x 1,500 towns = P 7,500,000.00! Wow, it’s only P7.5 million! We can save some whooping P 11 billions, 93 millions and 5 hundred thousand pesos, right? It must be right. The total NBN-ZTE project cost P12 billions!

So, is the NBN-ZTE project needed? No! We can do it without ZTE! And also we can do it without financial help from the National Government; for each town can afford the P5,000.00 – read: five thousand pesos only!

So, why the P12 billions for the project?

And we are told that it would be a loan!? So that will be another burden! Mama Gloria, why buy an unnecessary thing for our house? What kind of arithmetic do you have in this time when we are already deep-buried in debts? What kind of financial administrator you are of our family? Father will lose his trust in you. You seem to not to know the basic of budgeting, such as thriftiness.

I had heard you in the past talked about austerity. That is good point. More than any other times, it is time for austerity. What does austerity mean? It means 1) to stop spending for what is unnecessary; 2) to focus on what is necessary or basic; 3) to find better yet cheaper alternative or substitute of what we buy or use in order to cut cost; 4) to see to it that every expense made can be turned into a form of investment, that is, will yield some return.

In short, using our elders’ language: prudence and thriftiness.

With NBN-ZTE, the government is like the poor farming family who does not own more than a hectare and possess no wealth but who decided to buy a luxury car and build a mansion not because they need them, and not because they have the money, but simply because some rich person approach them and offer them a loan!?!

What is worse with the NBN-ZTE deal is the amount our officials can steal out of the national allocation for the said project.

Let us calculate. Assuming we will buy one new computer for the said project. How much does a computer of, to be sure, highest capacity, that is, Pentium IV capacity? Since a new printer will be redundant, that new computer will cost P25,000.00 at most. That’s already a very good kind. As a matter of fact, better than those used in most internet!

So, let us calculate. P25,000.00 x 1,500 towns = P 37,500,000.00 only! Thirty seven millions, five hundred thousand pesos only!

How much is the difference against the P12 billion ZTE price? That’s P11 billions, sixty two millions, five hundred thousands pesos difference. Read: P11,062,500,000.00. Right?

That is the amount they will steal not from our present national coffer (we do not have cash for that), but from the future of our children! Our children will pay more taxes to pay for this unnecessary loan! But in order for them to steal cash, they will borrow first the amount from the Chinese government – in checks or cash! The loan repayments our children will take the burden! But our present corrupt officials would have the cash.

What is bad is the failure of our economist Harvard?-graduate President to know the cheaper yet equally efficient (alternative) way to go broadband without spending P8 million per municipality but only P5,000.00!

I do not have any connection with Smart or Globe or any of our local telecommunication companies. So, I speak not for these companies’ interest, but out of factual knowledge, and for the common good.

I support the option to utilize our already well-established wireless communication companies, such as the Smart, Globe and Sun. They have already their basic facilities such as their numerous “tower” antennas all across our land, in the mountains and in the cities and in the down towns.

So, if there is any need for upgrade, it will surely be not in the tune of billions. And it will surely not be the government who will pay for such expenses! Read: it will not be the government to spend for the fiber optics! Our government municipal offices will just be one of their customers. I am a customer of Smart. At present, I am preparing to connect my Pentium III computer to the internet – home-based. And how much will I spend for that? Only P2,000.00! And with that amount, I will be able to avail or use the much lusted-for “hear-and-see” feature of the broadband technology – that very one which ZTE has tagged at P8 million per municipal government!?? I will not spend P12 billions! Not even P8 millions! Not even P5,000.00!

My brother-in-law mentioned that ZTE will yet to install fiber optics for the said project, which may cost billions!

O come on, that already makes up the sufficient reason why the project should be scrapped! It is not feasible in the first place, very much not feasible in this time of bankrupt national budget, and very much not feasible for a project which has no real value and usefulness, but only something like a wanton daughter’s capricho (caprice)!!!

Since the President cannot do an hourly e-conference with the mayors, I bet that broadband computer will be used most of the time for the state-of-the-art gossiping among our municipal employees, the mayor included! Yes, I have seen that many of our provincial and municipal government employees are using the computers for personal purposes or interest – often during office hours. So, that wastes government resources and adds up to the electricity expenses, etc. and that also wastes “precious” time. Of course, I support the use of computers to give nice music to the office. That is alright. Whatever is within reason and wise, that is alright. But what is already personal and a waste, that should be avoided.

What does the National Government want to accomplish with such expensive project? Why does it want to install fast computers in every municipal office as well as in every school through the twin projects NBN and Cyber-Ed?

There is no other certain purpose but the National Government is desirous to keep the mayors and governors in instant and constant contact so as to ensure unity – read: control of the government, and in the case of the Cyber-Ed project, the government is desirous to keep the young children’s mind well-pruned to serve the government and prevent the children from turning against the government. Is that so? If it is not so, then, the present books and teachers are sufficient. So, why such expensive computerization of “lessons”?

I have advice to the government: If mind control is your purpose for the said project, it will not prosper. You can’t control the mind of the people you oppress or fool. Their minds will have different trend of thoughts composed of disappointment, anger, resentment and the desire to rebel, even if they could not express them for the meantime knowing perhaps the power of the government to suppress any dissent. That is what the communists tried to do or what the capitalist did try to do. That is what the present government is trying to do with its orchestrated killing of the activists. They do not know that the dead activists are more dangerous because they could not be seen and can do more than when they were physically alive! Just watch out the development; see the many misfortunes that will befall this government of suppression. The dead souls who are very much alive will haunt this government so that as the fifth plague is described: the kingdom was plunged in darkness [confusion, panic] (Revelation 16:10).

What the government can do is: Behave. Behave and do not steal. Behave and do not fool the people. Behave and do not betray the people’s trust. Behave and be ashamed of what you are doing before the midday sun. You think your deeds done in secret would not come out and be exposed? You were thinking that you can fool the people and proceed with the anomalous NBN-ZTE project in secret, that you can present the project to be above board. You think that God will not help the poor who are like the helpless lizard being pressed to death by the door jam?

Look at the sad story shown in the recent Maalaala Mo Kaya where a poor landless family lost its two young children due to severe hunger. The story presented two possible causes: (1) the rich who long time ago grabbed by all means the land from the poor and have left thousands of them and their descendants landless to this day; and (2) the vicious father who spent his time in gambling (e.g., the cockfighting arena) or in the store drinking, instead of looking for food for the coming meal.

Life in the sugarcane plantation as a tenant is very hard especially during waiting months, when there is no source of income, while waiting for planting or harvesting season. Life is better in Bohol province, though also poor, but each typical family here has its own small lot which could be cultivated into a corn farm, or a garden, or be planted with bananas. Even if you are not so diligent, here in Bohol, you can not go hungry nor skip meal. The small lot is a great help.
Of course, our burgeoning population has also led to migration, that is, many of our children have gone abroad or to another places to work or find employment.

But we did not have those sad stories which happened in Negros province.

I do recall another recent news about another family, also in Negros, whose man was also a severe drunkard. He became a habitual batterer of his wife. That night was worse. He not only poured hot water on his wife; he also nailed her on the floor. Night passed. And early in the morning, when he was feeling relieved from his drunkenness, he prepared a coffee for his wife. When he approached her, hands and feet still nailed to the floor, she was already dead!

A third reported case also in Negros, and this is very touching. A mother of three, her children aging 7, 5 and 3, if I remember exactly, bound her children to the post of their nipa hut and set the house on fire. She died along with her little children.

An investigation by police and news reporters revealed that that family had been through days without food. The mother could not bear to see further sufferings of her children, and so decided to make an end of it.

Look at the severe absence of compassion among the neighbors and above all among the rich landowners and them who are in the government!

Another case in Cebu was about the father who carried his wounded young son walking many kilometers to reach the city to find a hospital where his son could be treated. Asked why did he walk, “Nobody would give us a free ride, sir!” answered the poor man.

Dear Filipino brethren, there is today a lack of compassion here in this country more severe than hunger! There is an epidemic disease here in this country called apathy more dreadful than AIDS and cancer! It is a disease of the spirit (heart).

Can we put all the blame to the drunken gambler who came home without food to give to his children? Did he not love his wife and children? Ask him and you will find the right answer: “I love them, but what can I do? There is no job available. I have no land to till. Jobs came only in season, that is, during clearing, planting, and harvesting. In between, many of us went without food or skipped many meals just to survive and reach the next working months. Believe me, my church that tolerates gambling made me believe that cockfighting is a viable source of income. So, I threw my luck in it. And if I lost, which usually happened, I became desperate and drank to forget my sorrow and to cover my heart from pain upon reaching home and seeing my children cry from hunger until they sleep. It is a great piercing pain to my heart which only the liquor could shield. So I drank. If only I could be sure that instead of finding luck in the cockpit or in the cards or in the numbers games, I could trust a God who is not only compassionate and generous but also possesses the ability to help, then, I would abandon my unsure habits of gambling. Then, I would not be in despair anymore. And then there would be no more need for me to drink beyond what is moderate. But my church never has led me to such a sure faith, nor to experience such a real God. And so, I trust gambling than my not-so-sure-to-be-real god taught by my religion.”

If we take the pain at looking at the situation in bigger perspective, we will find out that the offense started with land grabbing by the rich. Owning so large tract of lands before the landless impoverished masses is to me UNBIBLICAL AND UNCHRISTIAN. If that is allowed by law or by the system of capitalism, then, I declare without hesitation that I am very very sure that capitalism in that sense is UNBIBLICAL AND UNCHRISTIAN!

Many of my businessmen relatives and friends defend the present system as better than communism. In what way? Because the rightist as they call them believe in God while the leftist, as they call them, do not believe in God!! “There is no freedom of worship in communism,” they warned me. “They are atheist. They do not believe in God.” That is what my well-meaning worried pastor reminded me last Sunday.

And to some extent he is worried with my “left-leaning” sympathy towards the oppressed.

Since I am not yet an NPA or member of the NDF, let us reason out as intelligent Christians.

The communists of Russia et al branded “religion as the opium of the people.” Why?

Analyze what does that mean and why. An opium is used to either satisfy or make the person weak and submissive, that is, put out his resistance, throw his complaint and make himself “satisfied” and servile.

That is what evil men do to the women they kidnapped and made into prostitutes. Drugs is the tool they used to calm down the protest and resistance of who are originally righteous innocent virgins. After they have made their victims hooked to drugs and sex, then there is no more danger of resistance and escape.

In the two novels of Rizal, you will find that the Spanish religion was used as opiate (narcotics) to the people, that is, to narcotized the people and make them submissive to civil government. With her superstitious beliefs to impress fear and cowardice, with her wrong concept of faith which is fatalism, that is, “do less and wait, and God will do the rest” doctrine which has made the people lazy and therefore poor, with her doctrine of hell which caused the people to fear to defy the church and government, with her subtle message to the people that “if God failed you, then you can resort to gambling” which is being re-impressed subtly on the unsuspecting minds especially during fiestas where both holy mass inside the church and gambling in the peria took place at the same time – these and many other inventive spiritual schemes were intended to create fear, cowardice, laziness, weakness among the people!

That is totally different from the results of true Christianity!

In true Christianity, fear, cowardice, laziness and weakness are not found. They are overcome and removed from every person.

The kind of love which true Christianity offers makes a person super diligent! Why? And how? Because he has a great love for God and the poor, and a great love for the neighbor and a great love for his own self and family. Result: super-powerful motivation called love!

True Christianity with its love removes all fear (1 John 4:18). Even the good kind of fear of God that a person initially feels enough to make him obey God, would be removed by the perfecting love. For fear is an inferior motivation to obey compared to love. Love is the best motivation of a person to move him to obey God. If a person obeys God because of his love towards Him, then, he is more perfect than him who obeys God out of fear. The Holy Spirit is not a spirit of cowardice or timidity, but of power and bravery (2 Timothy 1:7). We are brave to advance and pursue the causes of true love. Our bravery does not lie in the propensity to kill or oppress our fellowmen. Our bravery is in our propensity to protect and preserve life, and never to make the lives of others more difficult.

One beautiful saying comes to my mind. I learned it when I was in the Corporate Planning office of my former company. It goes like this: “I have only one wish in my life, namely: that somehow I could make better the life of every one I meet during the course of the day.”

“Make better”, not more difficult.

When the rich and powerful men grabbed the land from the natives, using all means including what they term here on earth as legal processes, what happened then until now? Have these men made the lives of others better? Or have they not made their living more difficult? Are they not partly the reason why their poor brothers go to gambling, simply because they have no land to go to? Are they not the cause why their poor brothers (whom they consider as laborers or slaves) resorted to drunkenness?

You see to that.

For the voice of the Almighty is resounding back and forth giving warning to all, so that when judgment comes, no one can say, “But I did not know that!”

And so, you landed families over there in Negros and all across the land and planet, listen to what the Lord has said, “If anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble [that is, to lose his faith in me due to the bad example of landed or land grabbing Christians], then, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea!” (Matthew 18:6).

Do you know now why our brothers who are now rebels in the mountains lost their faith in God? Do you have now the idea?

Because one of our supposedly Christian brethren grabbed their forefathers’ land! Because our justice system did not give them justice! Because our church tolerated our Christian brothers to victimize these poor fellows! Because they found no justice in our so-described Christian capitalist system! Or because a rich landlord coveted the beautiful young wife of one of his tenants! Or because the son of a rich landlord abused the daughter of the poor family! Because we, as a whole, were indifferent while one of our so-called fellow Catholics coveted the land of another poor farmer!

The vast fertile lands of the second largest continent on earth, Africa, are not presently in the possession of the Africans. The white Christians hold them. These were seized forcefully and deceitfully by these Christ-worshipping white men during the 1800s.

And now you still wonder why our NPA or rebel brothers were offended by these Christians? And why they lost faith of our God? They became atheist because of our bad example of Christianity! We are the very ones who caused their young faith to lose. We were the very cause why these little ones, still weak in their faith, totally lost it! We caused them to stumble! Christians are the very cause of atheism in the world!

The Lord warned, “If anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble [that is, to lose his faith in me due to the bad example of landed or land grabbing Christians], then, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea!” (Matthew 18:6).

In Africa, it was the white Christians: French, Britons, Belgians, Dutch, Germans, Italians, Spaniards, Portuguese who scrambled for the land in Africa in the 1800s! They used deceit, treachery and force. Result: The Africans do not have fertile lands of their own. The African nations are the poorest, not because they do not have lands, but because the large fertile parts of their continent are “owned” by white men!

* * * *

Do you know why we are now being displaced from our motherland and are driven out to suffer in foreign countries? Do you know why this tragedy called OFWism is causing us much pain, killing so many of our loved ones abroad who suffered from the cruel abuses of their merciless employers? Do you know why is this happening in a supposedly Christian country like the Philippines, supposedly under the protection of the Savior?

I have an answer. And this is this: WE ARE JUST REAPING WHAT WE SOWED. What did we sow? Apathy towards our poor defenseless brother natives being driven out and displaced by our military by order of some mighty politician or businessman who was using government to grab the fertile land of the natives!

As a collective force, people, government, and military, and Christ-believers, we drove away the natives from their lands. As so, as we sowed, so we reap. As a Christian people, we gave our approval to such a great crime. We supported the government. And we did not care to verify reports of oppression. We gave deaf ear. We did not make sure our leaders are compassionate. We allow our elected leaders to recruit cruel merciless soldiers. In short, we allowed land grabbing. And our silence over what was and still is happening means “Yes”! We privy and participant to the crime!

And so, as we sowed, so we reap. IF WE SOWED THE SEED OF CRUELTY TOWARDS OUR FELLOW FILIPINOS, THEN, SOMEWHERE SOMETIME SOON WE WILL REAP WHAT WE SOWED.

That is how simple life is!

Stories would abound – reports would crop up – if in the first place, we cared to listen or investigate and do not deaden our senses with the enjoyments of the day and evade the bad news of oppression happening somewhere.

As Christians, we can do not just a lot but more than enough! More than enough to curb land grabbing and other abuses? Well, yes. I believe that if we were not apathetic – read: feeling nothing, feeling no mercy, feeling no pain and sorrows for our oppressed brothers and sisters in Negros, in Africa, etc. - then, the problems of oppression would have been solved long time ago! Why did I say that? I say that because we do not have human power at our disposal – we have the power of the Almighty at our disposal! That problem of land grabbing in Negros and in Africa and elsewhere, do you think that we could not do something enough if we, as God’s beloved children, collectively and individually went to Him for the liberation of those enslaved brethren of ours? Do you think He would not care to act?

We can deduce from Jesus’ parable about the callous judge who gave justice to a widow anyway not because of compassion but because of getting fed up by the woman’s constant complaint and follow-up! Nothing can surpass compassion as a motivation to act in behalf of an oppressed one. And our Father Jehovah is well-known to have the greatest compassion. Or so He told us. So, why not try? We need no guns. But only our sincere hearts.

You see, the attempt of the CARP to equally distribute to the landless the vast lands presently in the possession of the rich and mighty, has failed. Instead of reducing the number of landless families thanks to the handful of successful land distribution (thanks to those few merciful landowners), their number has instead increase! Why? Because while the CARP went through the difficult process of land distribution, facing the guns of the goons of the landowners or the doubtful stand and sincerity of the government, land grabbing in the Philippines has never been easy and that fast! So fast and so easy because it is no longer called land grabbing but with legal names or appearance: 1) militarization after orchestrating a fake conflict on the desired area; 2) rendering lands impotent through the poisons of fertilizers and pesticides, etc., to effect willing abandonment by the former owners, and so, the result will be government takeover (auction); 3) foreclosure of property.

Did not Jehovah forbid the making of a poor person’s main tool or source of livelihood a collateral for a loan? Read Exodus 22:25-27; Deuteronomy 24:6, 10-13; 15:7-11.

Obsolete laws? Not so! Only your understanding regarding God’s Word is obsolete.

In the Law, that is, the five books of Moses which are collectively called Law, only that part classified as prophetic ceremonies became obsolete when they were fulfilled but obsolete only in the physical sense, that is, their physical aspects are no longer commanded to be kept.

For example: the physical circumcision. Physical circumcision lost its (spiritual) importance as soon as the spiritual circumcision of the heart occurred with the help of Christ.

Another example: the Passover feast. During the old testament Passover, a lamb without blemish was to be sacrificed, its blood to be brushed on door posts. It symbolized Jesus Christ being sacrificed like a lamb and His blood used to save the people. When that physical ceremony was fulfilled by Christ, it (that is, that physical ceremony) had thus become no longer necessary. So, we are no longer required to obey the ordinance to go get a lamb and sacrifice it before the altar. But the spiritual meaning continues; it has replaced the physical ceremony. At present up to a very long time in the future, the cleansing of sins by the blood of Christ, our spiritual Passover lamb, will continue to take effect.

So, only of physical aspect was considered the part of the Old Testament that was ended. But not the Ten Commandments and the Statutes, especially in their intent or meaning! As a matter of fact, the Ten Commandments received some boosting from no less than Jesus Christ. They are being reinforced and magnified by the Sermon of the Mount of Jesus Christ in Matthew 5 to 7. Not repelled, but reinforced and deepened! In His conversation with the rich young man, Jesus told Him that keeping the Ten Commandments (of course, aided by Jesus Christ’s grace and forgiveness and the Holy Spirit of love and not half-heartedly like the Pharisees) will mean eternal life as well as perfection (Matthew 19:16-21).

The words or examples in the Old Testament statutes may no longer be applicable today, such as the words “flock,” “threshing floor,” “winepress,” “Egypt,” etc., in Deuteronomy 15:12-18. But the meaning of the statute continues and to the Lord’s disciple of love, the ordinance now means in essence as follows: “After 6 years of faithful and productive service of your employee, help him stand on his own in the 7th year. Provide him the means, or the capital, the tools and the equipment.”

The 7th year may not be the literal year, for 7 signifies complete or the right time. So, it can mean “Help your employees stand on their on when the right time comes.”

Included in the spirit of the law is your effort to educate or make your employees expert in his work – fully skilled. And such loving act will give you the following reward: 1) the employee will love you; and 2) he will double his productivity out of his love and gratitude towards you, hence, 3) more profits for your business or undertaking!; 4) a very fast development or improvement of skills on the part of your employee who is looking forward and preparing and anxious for the incoming time when he shall be ready to strike on his own!

That super motivated worker will inevitably cause his employer’s business to prosper!

So the law of God is powerful, when applied.

Where can we find the place where Deuteronomy 15:12-18 is being applied? Among the Japanese, among the Germans, among the Chinese and recently among the South Koreans! There are other peoples and nations who apply the spirit of Deuteronomy 15:12-18. But the South Korean story is significant.

Let me tell you.

We know of the civil war between democratic South Korea and communist North Korea. It was actually a fight between USA and USSR. The two Koreas were merely the cocks, as in cockfighting.

Anyway, brothers fought against brothers. The casualty was great. The resulting poverty and misery was beyond words to describe.

That saddened the hearts of the South Koreans towards gentleness and compassion. Instead of pride, they took the other way of humility and compassion. To cut the long story short, those who are employers have a purpose, out of their own volition, to save money to help their employees venture successfully elsewhere in Asia or the world. So, we see many South Koreans coming to the Philippines, looking for business, armed with capital and business skill.

South Korea today is booming. That is because people care for one another. They help each other. They apply Deuteronomy 15:12-18, if not strictly in letter but perfectly and more fully in spirit, intent and meaning!

Their Samsung brand, their Hyundai, their Hanjin corporation, etc. etc., the South Koreans are making a mark in the international community of nations!

The Word of God is still in effect today. And there is not favoritism. Any person or nation, pagan or chosen people, can reap the benefits of the way of love that Christ taught first to the Israelites and then, to all peoples.

For the Almighty Jesus vowed, “Not an iota of My Law shall disappear until everything is fulfilled,” that is, obeyed or internalized or habitualized in everyone’s heart.

Not an iota will disappear.

For the Jehovah of the Old Testament is the same Jesus of the New Testament; He is the same person – Read Exodus 3:3:14 of the Old Testament and John 8:58 of the New Testament: the Divine Being who was called Jehovah in the Old Testament is the One who became Jesus the Savior in the New Testament!

Jehovah is the pronunciation of the name of God, YHWH, interpreted as “I am that I am” (hence, Eternal) and “I am who caused” (hence, Father) and the name Jesus means: YHWH saves His people, that is, the Yehovah or the Eternal Father saves. So, the name itself reveals that Jesus is the Jehovah of the Old Testament who came into the flesh so He could die for all men, thus, save them. Jesus means Jehovah is the Savior.

Now, the Scriptures says that Jehovah-Jesus was the same yesterday, today and forever – Hebrews 13:8.

During the Old Testament time, Jehovah said of Himself: “YeHoWaH, YeHoWaH, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. And yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children [that is, allow to suffer the bad consequences] for the sins of the fathers to the third and fourth generation” (Exodus 34:6-7).

So and therefore, as the Old Testament ordinances of Exodus 22:25-27; Deuteronomy 24:6, 10-13 and 15:7-11 protect the borrower’s properties from being sequestered, so it is now in effect!

Still in effect?

Yes, Jesus our Lord is the same yesterday, today and forever. Not an iota of His Word will disappear; to the contrary, He will not cease until every Word of His commandment shall be fulfilled by every man! Read Matthew 5:18; Isaiah 55:10-11; 46:10-11. Full fulfillment includes the letter (act) as well as the spirit (in the thought taking place inside the mind and in the feelings taking place inside the heart). Thus, Jesus said during His sermon of the mount, for example, that not only the act of adultery is sin but also the lustful thought-feeling taking place in the mind and heart already constitute adultery (Matthew 5:27-30). So with Jesus Christ and in the New Covenant and New Testament time, the Ten Commandments did not suffer a deletion or repel but to the contrary, there was a deepening, magnification, reinforcing, a broadening of the meaning and application of the Ten Commandments! Simply read the entire Sermon of the Mount and you will confirm what I have just told you.

How could His ordinances be still in effect today – especially in this evil time? Well, its penalties are ongoing for its violation! If the bad consequences for violation are in effect, then, it means that the law is still effective -- powerful! We are not to look only for the blessings or good results of obedience which is rare, that is, we cannot look for the good results in places where only disobedience abound. Of course, good results for obedience is desired. We prefer to see the good result for obedience. But in places where only disobedience is found, go look at the bad consequences and you will find the same truth, namely: that the Laws of God are actively in motion: giving blessings to those who obey and wreaking havocs to those who disobey!

Do you think that our present troubles are not the penalties – read: consequences – for not loving our poor brother enough not to take his sources of livelihood away from him? And do you think God does not know that the money you lent to him was not yours? That you simply befriended the bank manager who is in possession of the millions of pesos deposited by your fellowmen? That you merely retailed what is not yours? Even if it was yours, still you are not allowed to require collaterals from the poor! As a matter of fact, Jesus-Jehovah expects you to give better treatment to your blood brothers, namely: no interest for your loan (Deuteronomy 23:19-20). Yes, this was first given to the Israelites, but same principle or spirit and intent applies to us! Remember, Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever!


* * *

Now back to the NBN-ZTE project!

The price of the project is too much! Where are our good planners who can do correct analysis in a Project Feasibility Study? Come on, even an ordinary student in Business Management, if assigned to do the study, will not recommend the project. I am sure, he will conclude that the proposed project is NOT COST-EFFECTIVE. Too expensive. Unaffordable. Unwise. Stupid.

Come on, my racial brothers! Among us, Chinese, we are strict with austerity. We are known for our thriftiness. But why are we tempting others, for example the Philippine government, to do the opposite? To hasten their fall and to hasten our rise?

That’s stupid selfishness of the highest degree!!! Do we know that WHAT YOU SOW, YOU WILL REAP? If the Chinese are using two standards, honesty and thriftiness among themselves, but corruption outside of their home or families, do you think such hypocrisy and inconsistency will fare well before God’s immutable lever which is: “Love your neighbor as yourself”? With God there is only one standard, equality applicable to all. He hates double standard. He wants equal treatment – love. The degrees may differ, yet the same love. No one would be hurt or placed to a disadvantage.

Reading the history of nations and biographies of men, I still have to find the nation or the man who proved invulnerable to God’s judgment, or one who was able to prevent God’s hand. No one can escape the fruit of one’s own deeds. No one. For the Almighty God wants that each one would reap what he sowed.

So, we better think more about our future than the quick dirty profits of a deal.

I have an unsolicited advice to the Chinese president, if he is not too proud to accept suggestions from small men, here it is: Since you are now in the position of a benefactor, try, really try to make sure that your “assistance” or loan would benefit the beneficiary and will also give growth to your money. In the NBN and Cyber-Ed projects, we do not see clear benefits to the beneficiaries, who should be, first of all, the people and the future generation in the Philippines. You have secured the objective to earn money from your loan to us, but you have not verified if really that would do good to the Filipino people, especially in the long run. There are other urgent priorities than such capricious broadband project, dear President. I tell you one most urgent need, if you have the propensity to listen to small voices, here it is: THERE IS AN URGENT NEED FOR MILLIONS OF FILIPINOS TO GO HOME FROM THEIR HOSTILE LOCATIONS IN THE WORLD; THEY ARE PRESENTLY MALTREATED IN THEIR FOREIGN EMPLOYERS. ONLY A HANDFUL OF THEM ENJOY SAFE EMPLOYMENT. SECONDLY, THERE IS AN URGENT NEED TO PREVENT ANOTHER BATCH OF MILLIONS FROM LEAVING THE COUNTRY JUST TO SUFFER THE SAME CRUEL FATE!!!

There is a lasting solution to stop this ongoing migration, and here it is: Our farm and industry must be able to feed us, clothe us, shelter us, and educate us.

There is an urgent need of funds and machineries to rebuild our farms, build new farm lots out of the present abandoned lands. There is a need to build stone fences high enough to hold new soil refills. The present land is very much denuded; tons of topsoil has been washed out to the seas via the rivers beds and valleys. There is a need to gather soils to fill every newly constructed soil-less farm lots. The aim is to make our farm able to feed its children once again.

If the Chinese government will lend money and machinery to us to do this farm rehabilitation job, then we will be much more surely happier to pay such a loan, than to use it to the NBN project, which does not offer us a long-term continuous benefit.

It will be agricultural rehabilitation, not any kind of development but rehabilitation.

Besides that, China can help revitalize our industry through loans in the form of simple yet workable technology, practical machineries, etc. . How did China make its people progressive? Perhaps China can lend us help, for some return of course, because China is not yet capable of doing something without return.

All that China can do is to get guided with an old Chinese problem: Give a man a fish and you will have fed him for a day, but teach the man how to fish and you will have fed him and his family for a lifetime.

* * *
But in sympathy to my racial brothers, the Chinese, to ZTE owners in particular, I must say that we, Chinese, do not have the spiritual capacity to be very honest. For we do not fear for our souls. We do not believe a future of hell fire. We even doubt if there is an afterlife. So, we make the most of this life to get as much as we can wrong short cuts included and once we have gotten much, to enjoy as much as possible with some caution of not getting sick.

That is all we are capable of thinking. So, do not entirely blame us if we are a sort of greedy for the material things. Forgive our innocence or lack of spiritual education.

The Christians are partly to be blamed for this. You, Christians, have not shown us, Chinese, by your example nor have you given us convincing speech about the eternal things which could have given us some fear to cheat or fear to exploit our fellowmen! Just the threat of going to hell do not suffice to us. And we think you are not also serious because you, Catholic Filipinos, lead in cheating, score very high in graft and corruption, including accepting bribes from candidates during elections. So how can you expect the pagan Chinese to admire your Christian conduct which is not different from ours?

No wonder that the late Gandhi said, “I like Christ but I dislike His followers!”

It was the Christian British who brought opium in China and introduce drug addiction there. China was at that time in the brink of being converted to Christianity. But the Opium war banished all whites from the land including the white Christian missionaries. It was a bad example of the British.

In one of the books chronicling the history of Africa, an author wrote that the Christian white men used unchristian means such as liquor, guns, deceits to grab large tracts of lands and the rich mines of Africa.

Or you have not given us some better incentives to cause us to stop cheating our wives or our fellowmen in business deals! What hell is your so-called heaven? Is it really true that heaven is the reward for honesty? How sure is that? We, the Chinese, are suspicious because you, Christians, Catholics in particular, are masters of lies and cheatings as well! You are the ones who are the majority in this country. And so, you are the ones who have made this country as the leading corrupt nation in the world! So, how can you encourage pagan people like us, the Chinese, to accept your belief, if not religion, when as a matter of fact, we are the same in deeds, namely: all of us are cheaters?

Come on, resolve the matter for a better future. For conscience’s sake. For God’s sake. For salvation’s sake. Otherwise, you have no moral authority to persecute ZTE and accuse it for corruption. For you are corrupt yourselves. You do not have the moral authority to throw stones at the accused adulteress.

ECONOMIC PERSECUTION

Or is pursuing the case against ZTE not merely an economic-political persecution orchestrated by other foreigners who are envious of the Chinese rise? Corrupt we Chinese are, granted.

But we must also be doing something right that cause our rise! We have now so much savings, trade surplus and more than a trillion dollar of international reserves that we are encouraged to become the new lender to the nations, after Japan had done it far earlier.

Why are you singling out the Chinese products? I admit Chinese products must strictly meet the quality standards especially when it comes to health and safety of people especially the children. So, Made-in-China toys must remove all lead and other dangerous chemicals from those toys. Made-In-China foods must stop using formalin, etc.

But in order to remove our suspicion that it is an ugly ploy of the non-Chinese companies who are angry and threatened of the Chinese surge, I urge the government DTI and other agencies to check other foreign products, and not only the Made-in-China. Without considering from where it came, a product must be proved using the standards that guarantee and safeguard the heath and safety of our people, especially children.

That is the job that government must do more. That is how the government can become more relevant to the people. And not concentrate on managing gambling activities such as casino and the lotto. It sounds ugly for us here in the countryside to hear about the government’s plan to sell all government businesses and properties so the government can concentrate on her GAMBLING BUSINESS!

Shame on you! Woe! And beware: You cannot escape from the ongoing 5th plague which is: Total disability of the human government to solve the innumerable problems besetting the country which will result to total government paralysis, confusion, cram and panic!

You are Christians, right? You believe the Word of God, right? And so, read this quotation from Revelation 16:10: “The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast [seats of power of human government], and his kingdom was plunged in darkness [that is, helplessness, confusion, panic].”

Will those in the government repent and acknowledge God? Not now! And not in the immediate future! For although “men gnawed their tongues in agony, [they] cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores [e.g., cancers – v. 2] and they refused to repent what they had done” (v. 10-11).

That is how stubborn humanity is! Instead of admission of the fault and submission to God’s superior wisdom, what our government leaders including the Christian George Bush and all people do is: Work to defeat Nature’s fury.

For example, instead of recognizing our culpability of today’s weather cataclysms and other miseries, we instead react by inventing “better” ways to undo the damage and minimize future damages without any change of our wrong behavior which brought about the cataclysms.

This is very true in the case of sexual immoralities which are the main cause of AIDS worldwide. God’s will and commandment is clear and simple: Thou shall not commit adultery. In short, one-man woman and one-woman man as far as sex is concerned. Fornication is wrong. Adultery is wrong. Homosexuality is wrong. Lesbianism is wrong. Sex with animals is wrong.

But instead of stopping – instead of repentance – they continue to commit them with new ways to avoid the automatic consequences. They are getting smarter and smarter everyday in escaping the bad consequences. They enjoy doing those evils, only the bad consequences they don’t like. And so they invent many ways, often with the aid of science and medicine, to avoid the consequences or undermine their impact. The use of condom, for example, is their way of minimizing the “impact”, so to speak, of AIDS and STDs!

What does the white race do? Not just many women and many men; they also engage in dirty homosexual acts which are identified to be the main cause of AIDS in America.

In Africa, where AIDS is more spread and common, there are no homosexual activities, but they practice multiple sex partners which act also violates God’s law against adultery. African men use many women for sex. And the inevitable result is: these women do also have more than one man! And so their vaginas would become a melting pot of many sperms hostile to each other. Result: Germs! Read: STDs and AIDS!

And what is stubbornness of mankind is the reaction of the Americans and the Africans: “Use condom. Don’t repent. Don’t change your wrong habits. Just be smarter. Protect your self with condom.”

Aha, we will see how far that condom will take you safely! You are using condom to circumvent God’s way of love. It is not a matter of physical health only. It is also a matter of hurting many fellowmen, especially your wives, for your sexual-spiritual unfaithfulness towards them. It is also hurting and provoking many husbands of the women you grabbed from them. This is hardly brotherly love! This will not escape penalty. Yes, AIDS and STDs are the ongoing penalty. We should not look forward for the future penalty such as hell. That will come, nevertheless. But don’t forget the already present penalty – or more correctly, the self-inflicted penalty, to which God has no participation. It is not God’s wrath; it is man’s foolishness. Mere results of man’s doing. The “penalties’ are more man-made, than God-sent! The apostle John in the book of Revelation seemed to ascribe these plagues to be God’s wrath, but in reality, as we now see them, those cancers (plague No. 1), those environmental destructions (plagues No. 2 – 4), etc, are man-made and self-inflicted. God does not have a hand. He is merely in desperation as a father letting go His wayward and stubborn children who want to do what they want and what they think is right, without giving importance to their Father’s warning of the consequences of committing the mistakes.

Instead of repenting or avoiding the cause (sin), we busy ourselves in curing or undoing the destructive consequences. Instead of stopping the cause (sin), we work hard to stop or avoid the bad consequences.

How far could we succeed in defying God and in evading the consequences of our foolishness? Not too far! The pharmaceuticals are reaching the limit of their powers to delete the evil consequences of humanity’s wrongdoings or sins. The painful consequences insist passed the capacity of doctors and medicine to undo the evil results of those violations! The doctors are at a loss; the diseases are persisting! The germs no longer listen to the medicines! The pests no longer heed the pesticides! They persist!

For a long time, we enjoy sinful activities: consuming fats and blood which Jehovah clearly prohibited in His old book the Leviticus many thousand of years ahead of our present time, eating chemicals including synthetic sugar which we consider food, engaging in sexual immoral activities which we consider enjoyable – how far we enjoy sins? As far as it is enjoyable! So long as we don’t get high blood or stroke or cancer or diabetes, or STDs or AIDS, etc.!

But when the joys subsided and pains (read: diseases) take over and the suffering will fill the long-term after the short-term enjoyments -- when those pains linger and refuse to go away and death seems to evade us -- then, may we finally come to our senses!

* * *

Let’s go back to the broadband issue.

And what is bad is the burden of the people for paying what is not really necessary!?

For China to lend her excess money is a good thing for the poor. But China who is a very old country should exercise love for her neighbors so that how that loans be spent will surely boil down to the common good and in a long-term basis, not like the ZTE deal which will not do good to the future generations of the Filipinos. Old mother China, do not harm the children of your poor neighbor. Do not place them in a difficult future. Do not love yourself more than your neighbor.


CONCLUSION ON THE NBN-ZTE ANOMALY

The complain that the Chinese are being singled out here and that some other foreign or domestic businessmen are envious of the multi-billion dollar deal, should not be given importance here. That complain should be given its right place and at some other time.

For the meantime, let us focus on the NBN-ZTE project itself. Although I sympathize with my fellow Chinese for being subjected to the recent strict quality check by the DTI, the NBN-ZTE project must be declared financially unfeasible and unaffordable, nevertheless.

What should be recommended as feasible is the mere UPGRADING OF THE PRESENT COMPUTER SYSTEMS OF EVERY MUNICIPALITY IN THE COUNTRY. That will save us P12 billions! That will help us prevent our corrupt leaders from becoming nearly P12 billion richer! The richer we make them, the poorer we make ourselves, the greater power we have given them to oppress and impoverish us! For certainly they will use the money to further weaken and exploit us.

So, thimk!

THE CYBER-ED PROJECT

Like the NBN project, this Cyber-Education project must be scratched because this will not solve the main problems of our education which are: (1) malnourished bodies, resulting to; 2) slow minds; 3) degenerating character of our children who (a) love the ugly arts or drawing pictures of evil, (b) love fighting, sex and violence and (c) dislike clean arts, (d) distaste hard and honest work, (e) disrespect the elders, teachers and parents; (f) lovers of money, lies and treachery than lovers of God and truth; and the likes; 4) lack of classrooms; 5) lack of quality teachers; 6) lack of quality books; 7) lack of quality results; 8) lack of vision and directions; 9) lack of love and motivation; 10) lack of power and effectiveness to meet the challenges of the present time and future, such as to overcome poverty, overcome the oppression and discrimination by other nations who consider our education as good for the job of feeding the dogs, cleaning the CR, or serving at the bars!?!

Can the Cyber-Ed’s 20 minutes nationwide broadcast a day remove the problem of malnourished bodies?

Can the Cyber-Ed’s 20 minutes nationwide broadcast a day help address the prevalent problem of “slow minds”? Television? I doubt. As a matter of fact, there have been some authoritative voices that discourage this kind of medium to be used for education because of its absence of interaction. Television, as a matter of fact, is the known cause of why our pupils and students have become duller in schools! So, we better take some pre-caution – read: distrust television. The best education should be by humans, that is, by parents and teachers especially.

Can the Cyber-Ed’s 20 minutes nationwide broadcast a day stop the degenerating character of our children who (a) love the ugly arts or drawing pictures of evil, (b) love fighting, sex and violence and (c) dislike clean arts, (d) distaste hard and honest work, (e) disrespect the elders, teachers and parents; (f) lovers of money, lies and treachery than lovers of God and truth; and the likes?

Can the Cyber-Ed’s 20 minutes nationwide broadcast a day solve the problem of lack of classrooms? No!

Can the Cyber-Ed’s 20 minutes nationwide broadcast a day offset the lack of quality teachers? I greatly doubt!

Can the Cyber-Ed’s 20 minutes nationwide broadcast a day address the lack of quality books? No, not necessarily!

Can the Cyber-Ed’s 20 minutes nationwide broadcast a day guarantee the solution of the lack of quality results? Not as well!

Can the Cyber-Ed’s 20 minutes nationwide broadcast a day solve the problem of lack of vision and directions?

Can the Cyber-Ed’s 20 minutes nationwide broadcast a day restore love and motivation?

Can the Cyber-Ed’s 20 minutes nationwide broadcast a day supply power and effectiveness among our stakeholders to meet the challenges of the present time and future, such as to overcome poverty, overcome the oppression and discrimination by other nations who consider our education as good for the job of feeding the dogs, cleaning the CR, or serving at the bars!?!

In all questions above, the answer is at least “I doubt”!

For those reasons, the Cyber-Ed project which double the cost of NBN should be also scrapped! For this Cyber-Ed’s expected inability to address the basic and more urgent problems of our education – this is also enough reason why it should be discontinued.

PDI senior columnist calls the Cyber Education project as the bigger and more expensive twin of the NBN project. How much does the Cyber-Ed project cost? P 26 billions! More than twice the cost of the NBN project which is P12 billion.

And what will this Cyber-Ed project do to our school children? It will install TV sets in classrooms and broadcast lesson nationwide 20 minutes everyday!

I have a better cheaper idea:

Why not do the nationwide broadcast at 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. for Grades I, II and III, 20 minutes each while the children are still at home, using the existing TVs of our families, and from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. for Grades IV, V and VI when they are at home? It is all the same kind of television! And it will be more personalized and so effective because we have their parents who can assist the children for whatever they might need or be assigned to do during the televised lesson. That will lessen the burden of the teachers, too, since the parents will do the assisting. And that will enable our parents to be more involved in their children’s education.

That is quite interesting, not to mention cost-saving, saving us the cost of P26 billions!

What do you think pare and mare? Is it not the better idea? Is not the idea to save us some P26 billions better than the idea that costs us some P26 billions?

Come on, my fellow turtles and monkeys, let us stop behaving like a naïve turtle whom the treacherous hawk succeeded to smash into the rocks and let us stop being hasty non-thinking monkeys who decided to choose the upper part of the banana tree without thinking.

Foreigners call us monkeys. And they also consider us as turtles, slow-witted and slow-moving. I am not sowing racial hatred here. We already have had enough destruction wrought by both oppression and revenge.

I am actually challenging us all to be finally “wise as a serpent but to remain blameless [un-revengeful] as a dove”. To be very careful about those who come as friends but whose real motive is to actually turn us into milking cows!

Be very careful. And be vigilant!

That is all I beg of you! That’s all I ask of you: Please, let us stop being dumb and apathetic! Please?

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Read my e-book “Towards Becoming a Wise and Compassionate Nation” at www.book4blog-becomingwisencompassionate.blogspot.com
[1] Pagmahay = Visayan word for ‘regret’