Bring in the New Year with HAPPY SMILES!!!

The rationale and the risks that make us want to welcome the new year with the bang are all controversial, to say the least. But we can share the happy feeling, founded on hopefulnessm, in the coming of tthe new year by showing our happy smile to one and all. Let's make that a "magnetic field" of really deepseated happiness in our hearts. Bring in the New Year with HAPPY SMILES!!!

Here's one way to do this really well and really happily:
1. read my poem below (written way back in May 1999)
2. choose which reason for smiling you like best; feel and remember the reality of that reason in your own life.
3. send the photo of your "smilingest"face, with some sort of explanation why you like the line that you like best in the poem, and send to your facebook friends or via your emails.
4. Smile at yourself in the mirror.
5. Smile at whatever feedback you'd get. Most people would simply smile back! Smile at that, too!

Now here's that poem...

Smile…

for health, the synergy
. of all dynamic systems
. of the body,

for symbiosis, the life-sustaining
. synergy of all living bodies,

for integrity, the synergy of one’s
. thoughts, words and deeds,

for friendship, the synergy of lives
. that deeply touch one another,

for marriage, the synergy of lives
. vowed to be intertwined till the end,

for ‘kapatiran’ or siblinghood,
. the synergy of bondings that last,
. as ‘fellow-cuttings’ from the same
. womb, branch out and grow apart,

for family, the synergy of marriage,
. parent-child love, and siblinghood,
. born and nurtured in the warm
. embrace of home,

for teamwork and healthy organizations,
. the synergy of common and diverse
. mental, spiritual and physical
. capabilities for the same aims,

for earnest conversations, the synergy
. of information, views and feelings
. that are shared with honest humility
. and heeded with genuine respect

for ‘bayanihan’ and the cooperatives,
. the synergy of community resources
. and efforts for the common good,

for nationhood, the synergy of people
. sharing blood, domain and heritage,

for planethood, the “Earth Synergy”
. of all nations and races, of all species,
. of all land, air and water,
. and of all their energies,

for collective wisdom,
. the synergy of diverse learnings
. of diverse minds,
.
for the Universe, the synergy of all
. that exist, known and unknown,
.
for the great and glorious
. Cosmic Consciousness,
. the loving Creator
. and Synergy of ALL synergies…

Smile for the synergy of all our smiles,
. happy and proud to be part of it all.

'wishpering' towards the yearend

wishpers

deeply-felt wishes
my heart whispers
draw silent smiles
from deep within
many other hearts,
for these, after all,
have long been
their very own
whispered
wishes,
our common
wishpers.

by Ding Reyes
written in Quezon City in April 30, 2007,
this was the "theme poem" of the mini-book,
Ding Reyes writes 30... Wishpers ...Poems and More
published in May 2007.

For list of titles of 30 poems 'and more,' please click at link below:
http://bookmakers-phils.8m.net/shelf-2.htm#Wishpers

TASYO: Kaya Ba Nating Harapin Ang Hamon?

May magandang balita po tayo sa mga kasapi ng Kamalaysayan Solidarity on Sense of History at ng Balik-Bayanihan Campaign Network at ng mga Cause group sa Facebook ng dalawang samahang ito. Ang ikalawang novelette ni Ed Aurelio C. Reyes, na pinamagatang TASYO: Ngayon ng na ang Bukas sa Habilin ng Pantas? Ay halos tapos nang maimprenta at handa nang maipamahagi sa ilang book outlets sa loob ng ilang araw mula ngayon. Nasimulan na ang pag-iimprenta ay pinilit pa rin ng sumulat nito na maghabol sa likurang pamagat ng isang mabigat na hamon sa lahat ng mga babasa:

. “Mulat sa katotohanan at kahalagahan ng kaisahan ng lahat, sa isip at diwa, sa salita at gawa, magpakatao at makipagkapwa-tao Tayo.

. “Sa dinami-dami ng aking mga nabasa, isang katotohanan ang halos mawaglit na sa aking kama­layan. Ito pala ang pinaka­mahalaga. Na tayo ay nilikha na kawangis ng Lu­mik­­ha. Na ang gayon ay kaloob sa atin ng Lumik­ha, at ang ganap na pagka­kamit ng katangiang ito ay dapat namang ikaloob natin sa Kaniya. Ang gantim­pala ay kaligayahan at kapanatagan sa sari-sarili at sama-sama nating buhay. Madalas nga la­mang mangyari na sa sa­limuot ng araw-araw na mga gawain upang lu­mawig at gumaan ang buhay ay na­wa­waglit sa ating muni ang pinakamaha­lagang ka­totohanan kung bakit nga tayo isinilang at nabu­buhay.”

. NAPAKASIMPLE nga raw ng habilin ng napakatagal nang sumulat nito, na tila raw si “Tasyong Pantas.” Kung gayon, bakit naman ipinagpalagay na di ito mauunawaan ng kanyang mga kapanahon? At bakit kaya pinagdududahan pa ng pamagat nitong aklat na tayo na ngayon ang makakaunawa? Ang tanging sukatan ng sapat na pagkakaunawa ay angkop na pagsasabuhay, di lang sa isip o sa salita kundi sa gawa. Sa mga ugali’t asal ng mga tao ngayon, napakadaling patunayan na hindi pa talaga natin nauunawaan ang “Habilin ng Pantas.” Mayroon kayang sapat na makakikilala sa halaga nito sa kamalayan ng Sangkatauhan sa buong daigdig, at gugugugol tuloy ng tiyaga upang ito’s pag-aralan, isabuhay at ipalaganap?

Ed Aurelio (Ding) Corpus Reyes, may-akda,
TASYO: Ngayon na ba ang Bukas sa Habilin ng Pantas?
MANILA: SanibLakas, 2010

A Gift We Can Give to the World: 'Bayanihan'

To the world's vocabulary and values of consciousness, the Indians contributed karma and everything that it implies, the Romans gave quid pro quo, the Chinese shared their feng sui...

Can we Filipinos, deployed all over the world as we have been, getting along well with all other peoples. offer to the consciousness of Humankind our synergetic bayanihan?

Yes, but we'd have to revive it first in the mainstream of our lives, and then we'd be ready to "preach what we practice."

The term bayanihan necessarily carries an inseparable pair of words: magpakatao, makipagkapwa-tao. Without this pair at its innermost core, it can only be very shallow and fleeting.

Let's ponder this, dream it with enlightened enthusiasm, and... let's do it!

readdingz
subic, zambales
12-23-09

The "Human Magnetic Field" for Oneness

Human Synergetics, as spiritual reality and awareness, materializes "Powerful Oneness" in scientifically-observed magnification of individual and collective strengths, as the latter are magnetically-aligned to be in "Dynamic Unity." Let's all help build a strong culture for synergy, the 'human magnetic field'for this unity. "Balik-Bayanihan"for all Pinoys worldwide, for adoption & enjoyment by all Humans.

subic, zambales
12-22-09

Yearend Musings-- Change; Candidates

The last few days of every year i usually give hours meditating, musing, discerning the year about the end and the years about to storm in. yearend transitions provide a natural context for seeking to detect incremental progress in our long-term advance in individual and collective consciousness evolution. Have we attained significant inches in forward motion to more enlightenment on the reality of the oneness of all? Have i? We were given another full year's trove of direct experiences and shared insights to learn profound lessons on. did we notice and learn? did i?

the christmas season comes around and ends in a few weeks as culturally scheduled, and practically no one expects any change to come with its annual coming. election season gas also come and will linger much longer before ending at the coming midyear. elections carry a different appeal because they claim to carry a hope for change to come in our lives. the hope for change is understandably expressed by the people, but they are joined in this clamor by candidates who claim to carry a real hope for much better times. most of these candidates are of the mold legitimately discredited as conservative or anti-change in the real sense. voters are now urgently advised to take these policians' promises with sacks of salt.

our best bet for real change is not in any choice for the most credibly "winnable" -- change for the people's empowerment can only be an earnest effort for the people's own direct collective self-empowerment, starting with the people building a consensus behind our own desirable and doable dream. What kind of Philippines are these candidates dreaming of? Are their dreams worth adopting at all as our very own?

In our earlier research work, we came upon a dreamed Philippines with description specific enough for giving us some direction in our own dreaming. Are we about to consider uniting with candidates whose dreams are, quite credibly, very similar to our own?

our best bet for real change is not in any choice for the most credibly "winnable" candidate -- change for the people's empowerment can only be an earnest effort for the people's own direct collective self-empowerment, starting with the people building a consensus behind our own desirable and doable dream. What kind of Philippines are these candidates dreaming of? Are their dreams worth adopting at all as our very own?

In its on-line library (uploaded in http://lambat-liwanag.8m.net/), the Lambat-Liwanag Network for Empowering Paradigms provides all viewers with a sample of a dream, a vision. The Kamalaysayan Solidarity on Sense of History will soon upload its dedicated website for its project “Doable Dreams for a Dozen Years” for which its project director, established Filipino futurist Guillermo Santos, will very soon be soliciting presentations from candidates (for president, senators, local positions, etc.) and other people, like students, opinion leaders and movements, presentations of their respective dreams accompanies by indicators of high doability.

To guide us in our yearend musings, in the coming days and well beyond, I suggest that we view this sample of a dream, a Vision for Philippine Politics and Politicians, as lifted from an interview published by the Manila Bulletin many months ago. Click here: http://lambat-liwanag.8m.net/5.htm) Then, make your own (what is your dream for the Philippines to attain?) and circulate it widely as your part in the effort for voters’ education.

It would be surely worth the effort, than just campaigning for specific candidates without much basis other than winnability or business or personal considerations.

Christmas Love, Valentine Love

Christmas love can afford to be fully generous, and there are no protocols to observe (except, perhaps, sincerity). valentine love can be judged as improper and its very expression is so very vulnerable to be resented as, ironically, an act of aggression or of impropriety.

Let us learn to offer on another year-round Christmas love, a.k.a. 'agape,' rooted in the 'soulhug,' the felt oneness of all humans, especially those most conscious of such fact of oneness.

Let's all celebrate -- live! -- this love, this reality. Christmas cheers and loving joy to you all, and to all through you!

readdingz
12-19-09

Coming Big Day for FEEEELing the Oneness

'tis now just about a week before we climax the season of agape love and unconditional goodwill. later on it will no longer be limited to a mere season, when Humankind attains 'SYCONE' (pronounced as 'seek one') -- synergy in conscious oneness.

Let's all help one another to move consiously forward to it. That will be the real gift of Joy to the World!

12-17-09

Mabuhay SA ATIN si Gat Andres

Nob. 30 / ika-146 Kaarawan ni Andres Bonifacio

Mabuhay! Mabuhay sa ating kalooban ang dakilang diwang mapagkaisa at mapagpalaya ni Gat Andres de Castro Bonifacio Maypag-asa, Pangulo ng Haring Bayang Katagalugan na kauna-unahang estado ng mga Pilipino na sumasaklaw sa buong kapuluan!

Ang Katipunan (KKK ng mga ANB) ang siyang nag-TIPON sa hiwa-hiwalay nating mga pamayanan sa kapuluan upang mabuo at maisilang ang ating pagkabansa.
Ngunit hanggang ngayon, si Bonifacio ay di pa ganap na nakikilala ng ating mga kababayan o kahit natin mismong nagsasabing humahanga sa kanya.

At nilalapastangan pa nga ngayon, sa ngalan ng negosyo at ng ‘public convenience,’ ang kanyang Monumento.

Samantala, ang monumentong spiritwal ng Diwa ng Katipunan at ang Kartilya nito.

Ang pagtitipon nang ibayong mahigpit sa ating mga kababayan upang mapalakas at mapatatag ang ating pagkabansa ay itinataguyod ngayon ng kampanyang Balik-Bayanihan. Pagtulung-tulungan po natin ito.

Kilalanin pa si Bonifacio—
> basahin ang mga nakasaad sa:
http://filipinos4life.faithweb.com/Regcols.htm#kabayanihan
> sukatin ang malinaw pa lamang nating nalalaman ukol kay Ka Andres ngayon. Gawin ang self-test na ito:
http://filipinos4life.faithweb.com/Boniquiz.htm

Kilalanin, ISABUHAY at ipalaganap ang Kartilya ng Katipunan:
http://kartilya.8m.net
Itaguyod and kampanyang Balik-Bayanihan:
http://apps.facebook.com/causes/345195

Itaguyod ang kampanyang Sagip-Monumento:
http://readdingz.blogspot.com/2009/10/rizals-knights-defend-bonifacios.html
http://apps.facebook.com/causes/345195

Why i say rep. risa is a "blessed heroine" (ATTN: Erik V.)

FOR ERIK VILLANUEVA (and other friends):It’s taking me too long to finish my answer to you about my description of ms. risa hontiveros. Laging may kulang sa naisusulat ko na; I don’t find my descriptions so far doing her justice, kaya I can’t post it yet as my full answer to you. Pero I would like immediately to at least partially quench your curiosity about the binomial term I have been using to describe her: “Blessed Heroine,” kaya heto na muna:

1. Her being a heroine in my view comes from her consistent predisposition to take the cudgels for the marginalized sectors in our society, to be firm and even fierce (albeit non-violently so) to promote and protect their (our?) interests and rights, willing to face great inconveniences, politician insults, and even truncheons and water cannons. And as I understand it, her love for the least of our brethren, the marginalized Filipinos, is the concrete expression of her great love for our Inang Bayan.

2. About her being “blessed,” She has long been blessed with spiritual maturity, manifested in her equanimity, humility and very approachable nature, it would take so much to get her angry (unless it’s the people’s interests being jeopardized) and her being very forgiving and broadminded.

Some people who have been privileged to get to know her better than I ever can should think seriously about helping write a book about her. It would be a great book mainly because of the subject herself and her attributes. And it would also be a very precious inspirational book for Filipinos and non-Filipinos alike for very educational reading and very challenging emulation.
cheers!
ed/ding reyes
subic, zambales

Pre-Human Stage of Evolution

Along the path of human evolution, wars are the proof that we are still in the pre-human stage, where the peace we still have to work for is still just a series of precarious ceasefires, where the logic of force prevails over the force of logic, and where antagonism and conflict are presumed until unity is proven and made stable.
november 22, 2009

PAHAYAG NG KAPASYAHAN AT PANAWAGAN NG MGA TAGAPAGSULONG NG

(orihinal na teksto ng pahayag sa wikang Pilipino)

Kaming mga mamamayan at mga samahang nakalagda sa ibaba – na pawang may dangal, kagandahang-loob at lakas ng loob upang talagang isagawa ang lahat ng mga maingat na ipinapasya, at may dangal ding tuparin ang lahat ng mga ipinahahayag sa kapwa – ay malaya, malinaw at matatag ngayong nagpapanata na malaliman at masinsinang pag-aaralan upang makasanayang isabuhay ang Simulaing Bayanihan, isang yamang pamana ng aming mga ninuno.

Tutuklasin at pag-aaralan namin ang lahat ng larangan ng pagsisikap na mapaglalapatan ng Simulaing Bayanihan, hindi lamang sa mga kalagayan ng kagipitan at kalamidad, kundi sa pang-araw-araw na pagpapakatao at pakikipagkapwa-tao sa kasalukuyan, at palagiang isasabuhay ang simulaing ito upang makamit na ng aming Inang Bayan ang palagiang kaligtasan, karampatang mga kakayahan, ganap na kalayaan, at lalawig na kaginhawahan.

Iaambag pa namin sa Sangkatauhan ang Simulaing Bayanihan upang magamit ito sa matagumpay na pagharap sa mabibigat ng suliranin sa buong mundo ukol sa kapaligiraran, kabuhayan, at kapayapaan.

Gabayan at kasihan nawa kami ng Bathalang Maykapal at samahan ng karamihan sa aming mga kababayan upang ang kabuuan ng aming Pagbabalik-Bayanihan ay malalimang mapag-aralan at mapag-isipan, malinaw at malawakang mapag-usapan, na ganap na naming maipagtagumpay, sa kasalukuyang panahong kami pa ay nabubuhay!

Hindi sasapat ang hiwa-hiwalay na lakas ng paisa-isang Pilipino;
Ang kailangang iharap sa malalaking patong-patong na suliranin
Ay magkakasama at magkakasanib na lakas ng maraming bayani!
Simulaing Bayanihan, ibalik na sa araw-araw nating pamumuhay!

ISULONG NATING LAHAT ANG BALIK-BAYANIHAN!

Nobyembre 20, 2009, at matapos nito

(ihinanda ni Ding Reyes, pasimuno ng Balik-Bayanihan, upang pag-aralan, pagpasyahan at lagdaan ng nakikiisang mga indibidwal na mamamayan at mga samahan.)

“BALIK-BAYANIHAN” ADVOCACY AND COMMITMENT

(This is the English translation of “Pahayag ng Kapasyahan at Panawagan ng mga Tagapagsulong ng BALIK-BAYANIHAN,” prepared for signing by individuals and organizations on November 20, 2009 or afterwards.)

The undersigned citizens and organizations – all invoking our honor, goodwill and self-trust to do everything that we carefully decide to do, and also our honor to fulfill everything that we promise – now freely, clearly and firmly commit to diligently and deeply study for skillfull and consistent practice the Bayanihan Principle which is a valuable endowment from our heroic ancestors.

We shall seek out and test all fields of endeavor where we can appropriately apply the Bayanihan Principle, not only during periods of emergency and calamity but also in our contemporary daily lives of developing and actualizing ourselves as individual humans and as harmoniously interacting humans.

We shall bring back the Bayanihan Principle of trust-based synergetics to our social mainstream in order to ensure for our Mother Nation her continuing safety, all the needed capabilities, her full enjoyment of sovereignty and freedom, and her attainment of sustainable well-being.

We shall also contribute the Bayanihan Principle to the collective wisdom of the broader Humanity, so that the international community could consciously apply it in effectively addressing the crisis of planetary climate and ecology, the global crisis of economic mismanagement and on the challenge of building real and lasting world peace.

May we be guided and aided by Bathalang Maykapal and joined by many of our compatriots, so we can fully succeed in all our efforts to bring back the Bayanihan Principle to our social mainstream. We therefore commit, individually and together, to study diligently, deeply, and comprehensively, and to popularize the Bayanihan Principle, in order that this historic task be completely accomplished within our lifetime.

Separate strengths and efforts of individual Filipinos can never suffice; the gigantic pile-up of problems can be defeated only by the synergy of efforts of numerous heroic servants of our national community. Let us synergize our capabilities and bring back the Bayanihan Principle to the mainstream of our life as a nation! MagsanibLakas, Pilipinas!

Prepared and posted by Ding Reyes, Nov. 16, 2009

A Gift of Effort for our Country

(Texted to my friends on the first few letters in my alphabetical cellphone directory. Texting is still going on; finished A-E so far.)

Hi! On my birthday next year, May 10, Election Day next year, I’m asking all my friends to join me in giving our beloved Inang Bayan a special gift: a blessed heroine for the Senate – Ms. Risa Hontiveros, a tried & tested servant of the people, beloved heroine of the “least of our brethren,” one the system cannot change to coopt.

Please help me bring on the fulfillment of this dream gift that I really want to give our country on my next birthday, my 58th, which might turn out to be among my last dozen or so birthdays before I go.

And I thank you all even now and wish you a loving Christmas and a hopeful new year well in advance!

Please pass this message on to all your friends who also know me.

ding reyes
subic, zambales

Nov.1: Undergrads Honor the Glorious Graduates

First Day of November. This is at the center of a season when we who are still currently taking up the Earth Life Practicum Course of Soul Growth pay grateful homage to those who have Gloriously Graduated to further levels of progression, by visiting areas where now rest the physical remains of their erstwhile physical vehicles. Their non-physical remains are in their diaries, and in the grateful hearts of all the people whose lives they had touched one way or another.

We are grateful to them because when we were physiscally together in shared and mutually-witnessed intimate experiences, they taught us how to live and how not to live in order to learn well the lessons for soul maturity, like unconditional love, unconditional peace, unconditional goodwill and the underpinning consciousness of all these: consciousness of the oneness of all.

It is a time for pondering our own mortality, the finiteness of our enrollment in this round of the practicum. It is a time for pondering which adventures in our own respective growth paths deserve to be remembered well and deeply thank one another for. It is a good time to contemplate the miracle of Life Experience.

It is also an apt time to ponder attachments, closures, letting-go, the full healing of the pain of "permanent separation," and welcoming of deeply-felt permanent togetherness in the soulhug of all.

We are all saints, in our own respective unique paths and stages of development as saints. Today is our day, as is every day.

November 1, 2009

ding reyes
of subic, zambales
(now in makati)

Realizing the Oneness of Humanity to Meet Global Challenges

The "Power of One" is in the sharpness of focus of its oneness. This is why laser beams can slice through hard solids. Filipinos can share with the world our Revived Bayanihan culture to help Humanity meet the challenge of global climate change; the challenge of global financial crises; and the elusiveness of real lasting world peace. Let the big and small gains in our "Balik-Bayanihan" campaign create real lasting solutions to a whole lot of solutions to many of our collective problems.
We all have to learn fully well the profound lesson articulated by our youthful Filipino revolutionary sage, Emilio Jacinto: "The Humanity of all is one."
ding reyes
October 27, 2009
Tagaytay City

ONENESS OF HUMANTY

When We Have Evolved Enough
To Really Live Our Oneness,
T h e n W e S h a l l H a v e B e c o m e
F u l l y H u m a n !

When we have learned to view the world, with both eyes , then we can finally learn to respect, value and combine a plurality of varied viewpoints. With only one viewpoint, we see the world flat, but with both eyes seeing differently we see the world in its three-dimensional beauty.

When we have finally learned to emulate the native Americans -- and other people of the earth -- then we might humbly desist from claiming to know another's life until after we have walked a mile in that one's moccasins. We can expand human capability to learn from one another's life experience, including our capability for full compassion and wisdom about life on earth. In that way we might be able to make decisions beneficial to the lives of our fellow humans.

When we have finally discovered that our individual selves go well beyond our skin, we can finally discern as "at least possible" our deep unconditional connectedness, and we will draw ever closer to knowing fully well our oneness in spirit.

When we have finally started heeding the Prophet Isaiah's call to "beat (our) swords into ploughshares and (our) spears into pruning hooks," we can finally see human society evolved past the violent hunting stage of development that was centered on weapons, and well into the peaceful stage of agriculture where ploughshares mattered much more. Then we can move on to validate with enough collective maturity all our technologies and knowledge and make them fully useful in the service of the human and other species.

When we have finally learned to strongly uphold the discernment that warriors on both contending sides are really on one side, multitudes will no longer goad their respective chosen sides to hate the other side, or even allow themselves to do the same. We will thus stop energizing wars, violence, and hatred with the separative passions transmitted together from within our hearts.

When we have finally ceased all mind-sets and practices that restrict human development and erect walls of division among people, we can finally begin to experience and enjoy full human development and real human harmony, where human development results in more human harmony, and where human harmony spurs more human development.

When we have finally discovered our oneness in receiving our sustenance from the unified Lifeweb of Nature, we can at last shatter the powerful illusions of scarcity from which all greed ultimately comes, and start enjoying together the reality of abundance

for every single one's need.

When we have finally learned to stand together as one human race before the rest of the bio-diverse citizens and elements of our living planet Gaia, to take full responsibility for past and present environmental destruction, and to lovingly commit a conscious synergy of efforts, we can actually rescue and heal, conserve and exalt, our planet and insure our collective survival.

Today, October 24, 2007, the 62nd anniversary of the United Nations, we of Sycone International, pursuing the attainment of Synergy in Conscious Oneness ("sycone"), solemnly salute the United Nations with all its conferential bodies and service instrumentalities, the United Religions Initiative with all its coordinative bodies and cooperating circles around the world, Byakko and all the participants in its symphonies of prayers for peace, the Humanist Movement all over the world, as well as all of the spiritually-unified multitudes of other similar international, national and local organizations, instrumentalities and actions of all groupings and individuals of humans performing their respective roles of choice and ability in moving Humankind forward to the next stage of evolution, the stage of Conscious Oneness

and Real Peace.

We also seek help from all willing hearts and hands in various continents, countries and localities to help us sow far and wide the seeds of light of Sycone, for the current imperative of Human Evolution – the attainment of the collective state of Conscious Oneness, knowing and living the truth that "The Humanity of All is One."



(Sgd.) Ed Aurelio C. Reyes, Philippines, and
(Sgd.) Donald D. Goertzen U.S.A.,

Initiators and Spokespersons, Sycone Humanity

Makati, Philippines

October 24, 2007

( 62nd Founding Anniversary of the United Nations )


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Please send us feedback through saniblakas.foundation@yahoo.com

If you are interested to join the Sycone email list group, please send a blank email message to sycone-international-subscribe@yahoogroups.com


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[ SYCONE International's lead initiator, Prof. Ed Aurelio C. Reyes of the Philippines, is a writer, educator and active advocate on many themes of the people, author of over 24 books on various topics (these are catalogued in http://bookmakers-phils.8m.net), including Biped on the Blue Ball (http://love-life.faithweb.com/biped.htm), which first came out on Earth Day 1990, and copies of which were distributed among delegates from some 60 countries at the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992. His poem/prayer for Earth Synergy, titled, A Giant Leap for Humankind (read in http://love-life.faithweb.com/poem-eng.htm), written in 1999 was translated into 15 various languages of Asia, Europe and America by the time of Earth Day 2000, and various versions of a solemn ceremony he created around this poem, titled “Handshakes & Hugs for Earth Synergy” were reported to have been held in at least six countries in just its first year (2000). Ding Reyes has headed the UN-mandated World Environment Day-Philippines network since 2000, and currently holds the position of Secretary-General. He is scheduled to speak next week at the United Nations Development Programme regional workshop conference on good practices in the pursuit of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals to be held in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Ding’s close-in partner in the Sycone International project is Don Goertzen, an American citizen and long-term resident of the Philippines, who is an educational administrator, writer, and former development worker. A third team player is Rev. Olof Lindstroem, a Swedish pastor who is deeply involved in social development projects in various parts of the Philippines and has kept himself intimately in touch with the personal lives of many Filipinos. As of November 1, 2007, Indonesian development worker Abdurrahman Syebubakar, who works with UNDP, joined the Sycone International core team. ]

"They shall beat their swords into ploughshares,
and their spears into pruning-hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more."

Isaiah II (King James Version)

Balik-Bayanihan: Napakahirap Pero Hindi Naman Imposible

May mga kaibigan ko na nagsabing napakahirap pero mabuti ang pagsisikap na ito... na ibalik ang bayanihan sa normal nating pamumuhay bilang mga Pilipino.

Mahirap na kung mahirap! Basta't hindi imposible, mapapangahasan at mapagtiyatiyagaan pa rin natin iyan!

Ang mga nakakakitang mahihirapan nga tayo ay hihingan ko ngayon ng sagot dito-- aling mga hakbang na ating mapagsisimulan ang pinakamahirap at bakit pinakamahirap? Sa pagsagot n'yo rito ay tumutulong na kayo! May pag-asa talagang magtatagumpay tayo, o kahit man lang makakapag-umpisa na tayo, at hindi naman tayo magmamadali nang dahil sa pagiging mainipin, di ba? Sige na po, sabihin n'yo, ano ang dapat naging gawin? Una, sali muna kayo sa Cause Group na Balik-Bayanihan. Pumindot dito: http://apps.facebook.com/causes/345195/79002286?m=611088da

Tapos, i-post n’yo ang mga sagot n’yo. O kaya'y i-post n'yo bilanf comments sa blog na ito. Mag-imbita rin sana ng maraming kaibigan na sumali rin sa Cause Group para dumami tayong mga mag-iisip at magsusumikap na maibalik nga ang Bayanihan! Makasaysayang pagsisikap ito! SALI NA! Palakasin natin ito! Salamat sa inyong lahat!

Rizal's Knights Defend Bonifacio's Monument

KAMALAYSAYAN
KAISAHAN SA KAMALAYAN SA KASAYSAYAN
(Solidarity on Sense of History)

PRESS STATEMENT
October 10, 2009

KAMALAYSAYAN LAUDS KNIGHTS OF RIZAL PROTEST VS.DESECRATION OF BONIFACIO MONUMENT

The KAMALAYSAYAN Solidarity on Sense of History salutes the Knights of Rizal for its recent resolution “informing the concerned government authorities about, and strongly protesting against, the desecration of the Bonifacio Monument in Caloocan City with the construction of MRT structures very close to the Monumento in that City.”

This historic resolution represents a significant move by top followers of Jose Rizal in uniting with followers of Andres Bonifacio by taking the cudgels to defend the dignity of the latter’s grand monument at the northern gateway of the Metropolitan Manila area, the most major work of National Artist for Sculpture Guillermo Tolentino.

The Knights’ move is a noble gesture contributory to the unification of the followers of the two most prominent Philippine heroes, who have been the subject of an artificial competition scheme imposed on them by ill-advised history scholars and aficionados. KAMALAYSAYAN has long been campaigning for the Filipino people to resist the ill-advised tendency promoted by divisive elements of our society to pit Rizal and Bonifacio against each other.

As a plenary speaker during the Knights’ International Assembly held in Calamba City, Laguna last February, I had reason to choose this KAMALAYSAYAN call as the central theme of my talk. If that talk of mine in the City Hall of Calamba last February had anything to do with this resolution of the Supreme Council of the Knights of Rizal, then it proves that Rizal and his official followers are not to be identified only with ideas and ideals but also with action. Conversely, we all ought to realize by now that Bonifacio should not be limited to decisive actions because his decision to start the revolutionary Katipunan in July 1892 the day after Rizal’s arrest for exile in Dapitan was not at all a precipitate knee-jerk move, as proven by the fact that the Katipunan first took four long years to prepare the people morally and ideologically for Revolution before starting the “Unang Sigaw” in August 1896. KKK’s armed struggle was almost completely victorious across the entire archipelago before another two year were over.

The Order of the Knights of Rizal, which was created by Republic Act 646, protested that the ongoing construction work and the expected finished product of the extension of the Metropolitan Light Rail Transit from its North Avenue station in Quezon City, to interlink with the Light Rail Transit Line 1 (LRT-1) at the Monumento station” at Grace Park in Caloocan “would have the effect of denigrating the grandiose prominence and profound solemnity intended to surround the 75-year-old Bonifacio-Katipunan in Grace Park in that City).”
The KOR resolution was signed last on October 6 by Sir Virgilio Esguerra, KGCR, Supreme Commander, and Samuel Samuela, KGOR, Supreme Pursuivant, and a copy was sent to Kamalaysayan by fax to me at the International Academy of Management and Economics (IAME) in Makati where I have been teaching Philippine History and the Rizal Course.

KALAMALAYSAYAN congratulates Rolando Ocampo, initiator and pointperson of the Caloocan based community group calling on all Filipinos anywhere they are in the world to come to the defense of the sacred monument that memorializes not only Bonifacio but the entire Katipunan and the heroes of the Filipino people as well as the entire process of the birth of the nation in the 1896 Revolution of which all Filipinos have reason to be proud.”

It was the impassioned work of Ocampo, himself a KAMALAYSAYAN member, that has has drawn some action from the respective offices of Sens. Manuel Roxas III and Loren Legarda as well as of the Heritage Conservation Society led by Miss Gemma Cruz-Araneta. Rollie’s work also gave me some materials for my Calamba speech last February and he delivered a moving presentation some months ago before a meeting of the Supreme Council of the Knights of Rizal at the order’s Intramuros headquarters, after which the Council members decided to pass this resolution that KAMALAYSAYAN is now celebrating as a one of profound historical value. Let all other hero-specific civic organizations follow the Knights’ example to unify our belief in the Filipino people’s collective heroism.

In the name of KAMALAYSAYAN and our incumbent chairman, Prof. Bernard L.M. Karganilla of the University of the Philippines Manila, I also seek to join Ocampo in his call for the major political and cause-oriented groups in the country, notably the Bagong Alyansang Bayan (BAYAN) and the Akbayan Citizens’ Action Party, to include the defense of the Monumento’s dignity (against a growing culture focused on profit and convenience) among these groups’ urgent concerns. To ignore this issue would be to send an unfortunate signal to the people that developing a keen sense of history and national honor is not among their respective sets of priorities. KAMALAYSAYAN also seeks to invite all interested parties to a short meeting on Sunday, October 18, at one of the chain food shops in the Araneta Square beside the Monumento itself in Caloocan City.

Prof. Ed Aurelio C. Reyes
Lead Founder and National Spokesperson
Kalalaysayan Solidarity on Sense of History
October 9, 2009


To read more information on the Monumento,
please click http://demands-dignity.8m.net/karganilla.htm

Consequential Dreaming

Looking at the same glass of water, the optimist would see it as half-full, while the pessimist would see it as half-empty.

In place of that glass of water, let’s have that word, “dreaming” and instantly we form similarly opposing observers. One group would bw seeing in dreaming an exercise in futility, a clear waste of time in unproductive idleness, (Take that song popularized decades ago by the Everly Brothers, carrying lines that say “I can make you mine, taste your lips of wine anytime, night or day. Only trouble is, gee whiz! I’m dreamin’ my life away!”)

The other would perceive it as the motivating drive behind all inventions ever made in the entire history of human science and technology. But dreaming can be a starting stage that leads to another, the stage of accomplishing, which is crucial in giving all that dreaming any consequentiality that it can possibly attain.

How about a qualified concept of dreaming, like “consequential dreaming”?

The most vicious foe of this concept is probably the mutually exclusionary “either-or” mindset as applied to the relationship between dreaming and action.

Action is not possible in many cases if it were not for the dreaming that had gone on before, pointing out the need for such action, or providing the passion factor that gave the strong determination that pushed the continuation of the action past the seemingly insurmountable difficulties and obstacles.

But only action can make the dreaming consequential. If you just dream and dream without even planning to translate the dream into reality, or if after dreaming you just waited endlessly for it, or parts of it, to come true, chances are nothing of it will.

It was Leon Joseph Cardinal Suenens (Archbishop of Malines-Brussels 1904-1996) who gave us this classic quote: “Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true.” The price? Prudent and passionate effort. Prudence involves making wise decisions that involves careful planning that seeks and prepares for difficulties and obstacles, the better to make it a certain that you would overcome them.

If you passionately want to succeed in pursuing your dream and translate it to reality, or the benefit of the person or of the people you really care for, you wouldn’t gamble by half-guessing what plans would almost-definitely work in contrast to one that just might. The price pay? Do some homework. Do your homework. Think it; do it! Otherwise, you would probably use up all the time later on, guessing what you really ought to do.

(to be continued)

Makati City, Philippines

October 1, 2009

Buhay pa ang Bayanihan (sa mga Kalamidad)!

Si ‘Ondoy’ ay may ibinabalita,
Na atin ngayong sukat ikatuwa:
Bayanihang buo nating inakala,
Wala nang nalalabing buhay pa,
Lumilitaw pa rin sa tuwi-tuwina
‘Pag may kalamidad ang madla.
Sa araw-araw na pamumuhay
Ay maibalik pa natin, harinawa!

NAGPAGUNITA at nanawagan ang tunay na mga namumuno sa bayan: ibalik natin ang diwa ng Bayanihan! At malamang na natuwa sila sa kanilang namasdan – mula sa mayayaman at mahihirap ay umagos na parang malaking baha ang mga tulong at ang mga aksyon ng pagtulong. May iilang di nakadama ng diwang ito at gumawa pa ng hindi maganda sa kapwa; at sila ay kinagalitan ng mga kaibigan, kamag-anak, kasambahay, kapitbahay – mas marami ang nakadama na kailangan ang diwa ng pagbabayanihan at ipinamalas nila ito sa sari-sarili nilang pagpapagod at pag-aambag ng kung ano ang kanilang maiaambag. Ipinamalas din nila ito sa kanilang galit at pandidiri sa mga kababayang nakaisip pang magsamantala sa kapwa sa harap na nga ng matinding kagipitan, gutom, ginaw at nagpapatuloy pang panganib. Buhay pa ang diwa ng Bayanihan, isa sa labindalawang yaman ng ating lahi na di kayang tapatan ng kwarta!

Ngunit makabubuti ring ilagpas na natin ito sa paminsan-minsang malalaking mga kalamidad at sakuna ng madla, gaya ng lindol, sunog, baha at mga katulad nito.
Marami ang sinag ng Bayanihan na maaaring makagabay sa iba’t ibang kalakaran ng ating pamumuhay sa araw-araw, di na lamang sa mga gawain sa bukid noong naunang mga panahon; di na lamang sa pagsasagipan at pag-aambagan sa harap ng mga kalamidad tulad ng mga lindol, pagputok ng bulkan o malalaking pagbaha, na kinakikitahan ng buhay pang diwa ng Bayanihan sa kasalukuyan.

Nakapagbilang kami ng labinlimang mga larangan ng buhay panlipunan na mapagsisinagan ng liwanag ng Bayanihan sa karaniwan nating pamumuhay at pakikipamuhay sa araw-araw. Kung magagawa lamang natin ang pagpapasinag ng diwa ng Bayanihan sa labinlimang ito, maisasagawa natin nang sama-sama ang minimithi nating tunay na pagbabago ng mga kalakaran sa ating lipunan.

Pag-isipan at pag-usapan natin ang sumusunod:

1. Bayanihan sa tuluy-tuloy na pagsisikap na tayong lahat ay magpakatao at makipagkapwa-tao.

2. Bayanihan sa patutulungan natin sa panngangalaga sa pangkaabuuang kalusugan ng bawat isa.

3. Bayanihan sa pagmamahal, pag-aaruga at pagtatanggol sa likas na kapaligiran.

4. Bayanihan sa sama-samang pagkakamit ng malalim na kamalayan sa kasaysayan.

5. Bayanihan sa pagpapalakas ng diwa at kakayahan natin sa pagiging mabuting mamamayan at sa pamamahala sa sariling malalaki at maliliit na pamayanan

6. Bayanihan sa pagkakalinga sa Kalinangan na sama-samang likha ng pamayanan.

7. Bayanihan sa epektibong pagtuklas, pag-aaral at pag-uunawa sa mga katotohanan sa buhay, lipunan at kalikasan.

8. Bayanihan sa pagpapalakas at pagpapalusog sa mainam na pag-uugnayan ng mga kasarian.

9. Bayanihan sa pagkakamit ng unawaan sa bawat pamayanan sa pagpapairal ng katarungang nagpapahilom at di nakabatay sa pamamarusa.

10. Bayanihan sa makabagong mga anyo ng pagtatangkilikan, pagsasama-sama at pagbabahagian sa mga gawaing kaugnay ng pagpapalago ng kabuhayan ng lahat.

11. Bayanihan sa sama-samang pamumuno upang tunay na mapagkaisa ang lahat sa mihiin, balak, gawain at kapakinabangan.

12. Bayanihan sa pagtutulungan at pagtatangkilikan sa pagpapaunlad ng angkop na teknolohiya batay sa tunay na mga pangangailangan ng mga gumagamit.

13. Bayanihan sa pagitan ng mga pamilya at mga pagkakaisang pangkaibigan.

14. Bayanihan ng lahat ng mga nagtataguyod sa kapayapaan at sa lahat ng mga karapatang pantao.

15. Bayanihan ng mga paglikhang makasining, nang walang paligsahan.

Ang lahat ng mga kaanib ng Balik-Bayanihan cause group ay hinihiling namin ngayon na basahing muli ang 15 Sinag ng Bayanihan na nakalista sa itaas, gayundin ang katapat ng mga ito sa wikang English, na tinatawag na “15 Empowering Paradigm Shifts” na nakahanay at may mga artikulo sa http://lambat-liwanag.8m.net, at piliin mo sana kung aling Sinag ng Bayanihan ang ninanais mong itaguyod bilang sarili mong priyoridad. Sa karamihan ng mga ito ay mayroon nang naitayong samahan upang epektibong ibalik ang diwa ng Bayanihan sa partikular na mga larangang pinag-uukulan.

Kung napili na sana ay pakisabi agad sa amin at sa mga kasama natin dito sa Balik-Bayanihan at sabihin din kung bakit ito ang napili (ano ang kaugnayan nito sa buhay mo?) at kung sa paanong paraan mo naiisip isagawa ito. Ang bawat isa sa mga bumubuo grupong “Balik-Bayanihan” ay magiging desidido sana at kung gayo’y aktibo sa ating mithiin.

Alamin ang kailangang alamin; aralin ang kailangang aralin. Makasaysayang handog natin ito sa sambayanang Pilipino upanh muling makilala at maisabuhay ang Bayanihan nang lagpas sa mga imahinasyon lamang ukol sa sama-samang pagbubuhat ng bahay.

Ibalik natin ang Bayanihan! Tayong lahat ay may-taya rito, at tayo’y magiging mga aktibong may-taya rito!

makati city
09-30-09

A Serious Challenge to Our Would-be Leaders

LEADERSHIP is a word that refers to the function of influencing other people to cooperate in pursuing and achieving clear collective goals. This involves two simultaneous directions of movement-- the forward movement from present reality to the desired reality, and the inward movement of consolidation or “solidification” of all participants into a greater degree of cohesion, teamwork and harmony. This presupposes clarity of goals.

Absent this, the leadership function has to start with encouraging and efficient facilitation of the consensus-building process applied to having collective clarity on the main concerns being addressed, on the general direction of the forward movement, and the specific plans that would include sub-plans and assigned specific roles.

Leadership covers Proposing and Facilitating

In this situation, the leadership function covers the presentation of well-thought-out points of attention and carefully-crafted proposals, or the act of encouraging and efficient facilitation of collective wisdom aforming, or both. Of course, the roles are discussed after the goals. Teams come after the clear syntheses of individual dreams. And finally they assign or self-assign roles to play in the implementation,

Leadership also applies to the person or group of persons actually performing such overall function. Leaderships come in two kinds— one is official leadership composed of persons elected or appointed on the basis of expectations that they would effectively perform the function; the other is natural leadership composed of persons actually performing such invaluable function in any group pursuing its common interests.

When democratic governance is undertaken by the people through elected or selected representatives in various posts of responsibility, the people have to be conscious of goals, roles, plans, obstacles and the overcoming of obstacles. We have to be conscious of our collective dreams.

Otherwise, we mix up applicants for the task of legislation with applicants for execution of laws, we mix up functions of executive functionaries who are supposed to lead in hearing and solving community problems and legislative functionaries who are supposed to consult with us to better represent our voice in making necessary laws. That is, we would only be conscious of the functionaries’ funds for generosity to their personal and narrow interests, and the elected and selected officials would just satisfy the thirst for dole-outs and they can effectively abandon their assigned roles and even make dirty money on the side.

Who have actually become the natural leaders? The civil society leaders and organizations have had to shoulder the official leaders’ functions while all the tax money paid by the people go to the latter’s pockets and bank accounts, whether as salaries or allowances or stolen money.
Meanwhile the people have come to accept as natural that we cannot realistically expect even just the basics of governance from the persons we elected or selected on the basis of generosity for giving dole-outs and job recommendations.

So, many of us have also abandoned the very basic human faculty of even just dreaming for better conditions for ourselves. We have somehow relegated dreaming only to our darkest sleeping hours. The deepest effect of disempowerment is when people no longer dare to dream and be inspired to turn the dreams to realities, and are instead preoccupied with weeping out a flood of tears to wallow in, licking of wounds and gnashing of teeth, and enjoying only the pettiest consuelo de bobo of escalator rides in cooled superstores in our country where there is virtually no production, only stores!

Restore Faith in Consequential Dreaming!

Would-be leaders of our country, in various scopes of constituency, are therefore challenged to lead in restoring our people’s faith in dreaming, in earnest and consequential dreaming. They are seriously challenged now by our heroic history to Dare Declare Your Own Doable Dreams and your Realistic Plans to Set them on the Clear Track to Fulfillment! And be earnest in making sure the people will not be frustrated and betrayed still another time by our official leaders presenting “pipe dreams,” empty promises, and later on blaming the world and even God, but never themselves and their lack of earnest effort, for have all the bitter failure their presented dreams and plans would expectedly result in.

The 18-year -old Kamalaysayan Solidarity on Sense of History launched during the 2nd Annual Pistahang Kamalaysayan a project dubbed as “Talastasan sa mga Pangarap at Balak” (Discourse on Determined Dreams Declarations to be Doable in a Dozen Years) and is now issuing this challenge to all candidates for public office in the 2010 elections. And we are actively seeking partner organizations, like futuristic groups, youth networks, schools and political organizations, in undertaking this project. In a few days, we will upload a website (http:/doable-dreams.8m.net) dedicated to this project.

We dare to challenge the candidates: Do not even file your candidacies for municipal leadership posts, let alone for national positions, if you cannot even prove that you know clearly what you would do for the fulfillment of your constituents’ dreams! Do not wait to “cross the bridge when you come to it” upon electoral victory before thinking of what you intend to do for the people’s future. Dare declare your own dream and prepare to prove that it is realistic – foresee obstacles and propose realistic ways to overcome them, ways that would not have to depend on monetary resources from external sources but on the sheer will power of the teeming hundreds of millions of Filipinos whom your leadership capability can draw in support because your dreams shall have come from them, in the first place. Will precedes the wallet!

On this matter, the late lamented Professor Nito Doria of the University of Sto. Tomas Social Research Center (UST-SRC), left us with this legacy of wisdom:

“If progress is to be shared and enjoyed by all, then it must be the achievement of all, the result of concerted effort of a responsible citizenry to make progress a way of life for the nation; not the result of some singular heroic effort of some excep­tional individual who does not exist except in myth.

“A responsible citizenry, however, is just a con­cert of responsible individual citizens libe­rated, in­formed and empowered, and made res­ponsible for their own welfare, It must ne­cessarily be in that se­quence of development, for one cannot expect to make a responsible citizen out of one who remains un-liberated, un-informed and un-empowered.

“A strategy for national progress must be an exhilarating liberating factor in the nation’s life, one that will free the Filipinos from the disquiet and listlessness generated by failed models of dogmata that have shackled their mind for centuries and in­evitably made them dependent on and beholden to the patronage of oppressive power.
“Such a strategy can be no less than a new conceptual scheme, no less than what Thomas Kuhn in a landmark dissertation, The Structure of Scien­tific Revolutions, refers to as a ‘para­digm shift.’ ”

Our sister-organization, Lambat-Liwanag Network for Empowering Paradigms, has uploaded in its “on-line library” at http://lambat-liwanag.8m.net articles promoting 15 paradigm shifts for as many concerns about human and social development. Together, Prof. Doria’s sharp discussion and Lambat-Liwanag’s empowering paradigm shifts provide possible references for anyone writing out his or her desirable and achievable dream for his or her own constituents’ march to real progress and prosperity.

Challenge: Forward to a Really-Better Future!

We challenge the candidates to declare personal commitments to personally-decided dreams and plans because the political parties in our country have remained like identical personality-centered and resources-centered social clubs, much like identical fraternities except that frat members exhibit more loyalty when they go into rumbles. Party platforms are thus merely ornaments in the highly-personalized politics of this period. Kamalaysayan lauds all who undertake efforts to pursue reforms-oriented change politics and wish them well. They are heroes and heroines and they can all mold themselves into a united force that revives by deed our heroic bayanihan tradition.

We also challenge the real statesmen and stateswomen of this nation, whether incumbent, running for election or reelection, or keeping away from electoral politics, to present declarations of their own doable dreams in order to influence the candidates and the electorate and raise the standards of what we ought to be expecting from those who seek our vote. We have sought sample declarations of dreams from the youth and we are going to upload two pieces from students, and challenge the candidates who are supposed to be more mature to address the concerns of all these very young Filipinos and Filipinas, to present superior declarations. We will also upload a poem asking Filipinos to stop weeping and start dreaming and marching for a better life for us all (see earlier post on this blogsite).

All the viewers of our dedicated website shall be the judge, and part of their judgment will be visible in the pages of this website. The invisible part will remain in their minds or be discussed among their own loosely-linked circles of discourse.

Our sense of history organization has decided to launch and facilitate this discourse project because more than reading, memorizing, and writing about past Philippine History, we want to contribute to the directions being taken and the shape of our society to be enjoyed at least a little bit more proudly by our children and our children’s children.

prof. ding reyes of subic, zambales
lead founder and national spokesperson
Kamalaysayan Solidarity on Sense of History
Makati City, September 28, 2009

See more important info in: http://kamalaysayan.8m.net/doable-dreams.htm

When Can GMA's Govt Finally Stop the Poison Rain?

I came from Zambales yesterday, Sept. 26, and one of my plans was to visit some two dozen Davao farmers where they are camped somewhere in Manila. The rains and the flooding delayed me from reaching my "other home" in Makati where i was to leave my things before the visit. I later learned that the farmers' tent was ruined by the heavy rains. Why are they here, why have they decided to come to Manila and camp away from their families?

The Davao farmers are here to press officialdom to finally grant them relief from poison rain.

The rains I had to brave yesterday came from God and it was water. But the poison rain being endured by Davao farmers contasins toxic pesticides, and a Health Department study has shown that traces of the pesticides have already found their way into the farmers’ bloodstream, causing ailments among the farmers and their children. It has also killed their crops and farm animals.

Aerial spraying being done on the banana plantations in Davao City have ruined lives in the downwind communities. City hall passed an ordinance banning the practice, as LGUs in other areas have done with no negative effects on the banana growing industry in their respective areas, but the powerful banana growers and exporters dared to fight City Hall and lost in the regional trial court. But they found allies in the Court of Appeals. Right after receiving their appeal, the CA issued an injunction against the city's ban on aerial spraying, which immediately resumed. The farmers and their supporters filed a case which now pends in the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, the DoH secretary has still desisted from issuing an order to stop the aerial spraying, after his own personnel had come out with their official report. And the office of the DENR secretary recently claimed to have issued an order to the department’s regional offices to stop aerial spraying in their areas, but the claim was later proved to be just a press release (“jok lang daw”? not funny!).

The lameduck President has not been allowed by the extremely powerful association of banana planters and exporters to get her government’s act together, so she and her underlings all continue to dilly-dally on this issue.

As the issue remained unresolved and the victimized communities, many of us have remained completely ignorant about it. For those of us who still don’t understand this issue, I embed hereunder an excerpt of a privilege speech delivered as early as one year ago by our people’s own representative in the House of Representatives, Akbayan party-list Rep. Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel:

I HAVE MET FARMERS AND PEASANTS, and I have been with their families and communities, and they would be keen to share that the fruits of their labor, the blessings from their lands, bear stories of the dignity of their work. The bananas from Davao sing their stories, too, but they tell stories of human sufferings, of corporate abuse, of emotional pains. They are delicious and plush, but they are made so at the expense of our poor countrymen's health, the destruction of the environment, particularly the air that farmers and farming communities in Davao breathe.

The problem is the unabated spraying of deadly pesticides by banana plantations in Davao City.

These plantations, which are owned by big domestic and multinational corporations, make use of aircrafts in their method of spraying. Through this method, the pesticide drift, reaching as far as three kilometers and making nearby residents, plantation workers and the environment the unwitting recipients of deadly chemicals meant to kill the pests that attack bananas.

They are not bananas but they get sprayed with toxic pesticides. They are not pests, but they are slowly being killed by pesticides. So they waged an initiative to ban aerial spraying of pesticides in Davao City. They have a compelling case for their clamor, Ginoong Speaker, and we should pay heed: pesticides are designed to kill. We usually mistake pesticides as chemicals only limited to kill insects but in fact, pesticides can kill a wide range of living things, including humans.

According to the World Health Organisation, there are at least 3 million pesticide poisoning cases annually worldwide or six (6) persons poisoned every minute. These often occur due to accidental exposure through spillage and insufficient protective clothing while working. The effects of acute poisoning (immediate effects) depend on the toxicity and quantity of pesticides absorbed. These effects are wide ranging from numbness, dizziness, tremors, nausea, blurred vision to difficulty breathing. Death happens in the most severe cases.

Our farmworkers and communities living in and around plantations are subject to chronic or long-term exposure. In the short-term, impaired memory and concentration, confusion, severe depressions, nausea, and speech difficulties have all been reported. Other effects (of chronic exposure to pesticides) may only appear later in life, or even in the next generation. Learning difficulties, behavioural and reproductive effects such as accelerated puberty, infertility, and increased susceptilibility to cancer have been observed in children of parents exposed to pesticides. Numerous types of cancer including liver, skin, prostate and leukaemia have also been associated with pesticide exposure. One study of banana plantation workers in Mindanao found high levels of a fungicide by-product (ETU) correlated with incidence of thyroid gland disorders.

Here in the Philippines, over 30 chemical pesticides that have already been banned in Europe and the United States are still being used by banana plantations. Aerial spraying in particular, or the use of an airplane or helicopter in spraying pesticides, is a serious threat, thus the practice is prohibited in many countries. The spray can drift up to one hundred kilometres, exposing people to pesticides even when they live far from fields and crops that are being sprayed. Yet in many cities and provinces in Mindanao, aerial spraying is a routine practice that has been going on for decades exposing helpless communities to toxic spray with very little intervention from regulatory agencies.

There are alternatives to pesticides that are healthy for humans, the environment and the economy. We know that there are a good number of banana plantations also in the province of Davao that are thriving even without having to resort to aerial spraying of pesticides. Some are even growing them organically. In Cotabato, banana growers continue to exist and do good business despite their laws banning aerial spraying. In Bukidnon where there has been a ban in aerials spraying since 2001, alternatives such as boom, manual and sprinkler spray have reduced the exposure risk to surrounding communities, without affecting productivity. Reduction of pesticide inputs actually leads to an increase in profits.

Another successful alternative to pesticide use is organic farming or zero-use of pesticides. Using various forms of natural pest management, a farming cooperative in Mindanao exports organic bananas to Japan, earning premium price from the increasingly health-conscious Japanese market. The point is that there is definitely a better way of doing agriculture that is not only good for our farmers' pockets, but also results in safer food, healthier bodies and a more nurtured environment.

It is true that aerial spraying, compared with the conventional ground-based methods, is more cost-efficient and profitable. But there are limits that must be recognized by banana plantations that continue to rely on aerial spraying. The pursuit of profit is not without limits. I may be free to spray on my perfume onto myself, but I cannot force my perfume unto my colleagues by forcibly spraying the same on them. I may also flex my tired arms and legs for hours of sessions, but I cannot extend them to the inconvenience and harm of my colleagues – my right has to have a boundary.

Dagohoy Magaway, an affected resident who came to Manila through the help of some NGO's, related to me: "Nagtitinda po ako ng puto sa lugar namin na malapit sa mga taniman ng saging. Kapag dumadaan na po ang eroplanong mag-iispray, nagtatakbuhan at nagkukubli po ang lahat, lalo na po yung mga batang papasok sa mga paaralan. Dahil wala naman po kaming masyadong masilungan, nababasa pa rin po kami ng kemikal sa buong katawan. Nagkakasakit po kaming lahat. At sa aking pagkataranta, madalas po ay nahuhulog sa lupa ang paninda kong puto kaya malimit ay wala akong kita at lagi pang nalulugi. Tinatanong ko pong madalas ang ating Panginoon kung kaming mga mahihirap na apektado ng spraying ay may karapatang mabuhay."

Ginoong Speaker, my honorable colleagues: under the laws of God and our Constitution, who has the right to a real life – Dagohoy Magaway or the banana planters who are only concerned about profits?

(To see more info, please click at this link: http://kamayanforum.8m.net/kfj-89.htm.)

-- ding reyes
of subic, zambales
(now in makati)
09-27-09

one who asks a question...

when we ask "why", it is often followed by an exclamation point instead of a question mark.

we are already angry before we get to find out the actual reason for something we dislike occuring. this often leads to chagrin or embarrassment, admitted or otherwise.

but there is another premature feeling with the asking of the question "why" and i also should remind myself that when one asks the question "why?" it should not be accompanied by tears, or feelings of grief. worrying kills me. for this reccurring sin, i am punished adequately. and my punishment has been to suffer worrying itself.

one who asks a question should have the patience to wait for an answer. things may not be all that bad, after all.

'tis so easy to say these things!

RH Bill is NOT anti-Life!!!

THE REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH BILL has returned to the tables of discourse recently after Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III announced his bid for the Pressidency. Aquino’s detractors wanted to ruin his image of being the candidate of the widest popular support base by bringing in an issue designed to throw a wedge between his Catholic supporters and the Catholic Church hierarchy, and even revived an outright lie: that the RH Bill is seeking to legalize abortion. I don’t remember seeing among the 10 commandments an item equating contraception to abortion, but I remember very clearly that the Eighth Commandment prohibits lying.

Earlier, Rep, Risa Hontiveros, my candidate for a Senate seat in the May 2010 elections, took pains to explain why nothing in the RH Bill legalizes abotion which is murder.

In an interview with the staff of the Manila Bulletin, specifically of its students-oriented section, Rep. Hontiveros said:

“This bill is not about abortion but about RH, information, products and services whether natural or modern, it is a matter of intellectual honesty.

“There’s a provision there that says 'nothing in this Act amends the Revised Penal Code (RPC) under which abortion is a crime and punishable.' Ganon ka-categorical. Under RPC, abortion is a crime and there are penalties and sanctions. And those will be untouched by our bill when it becomes a law.”

She says more to put the issue in a broaded context. And for her other statements, hereunder is the pertinent excerpt from that inerview

(Full text of interview is on http://www.mb.com/articles/199772/rep-risa-hontiverosbaraquel.)

Bulletin: With all the criticisms about the Reproductive Health bill, what frustrates you the most? Is it the fact that some say it’s anti-life?

Rep. Risa: What’s more frustrating for me is what they’re saying that this will legalize abortion. All it takes to know is that this bill is not about abortion but about RH, information, products and services whether natural or modern, it is a matter of intellectual honesty.There’s a provision there that says nothing in this Act amends the Revised Penal Code (RPC) under which abortion is a crime and punishable. Ganon ka-categorical. Under RPC, abortion is a crime and there are penalties and sanctions. And those will be untouched by our bill when it becomes a law.O yung insistence nila na age appropriate adolescent RH education will lead to teen promiscuity. That flies in the face of the experience in other countries, documented. That with an RH education policy and program in the schools, partnering the parents in the homes, in the families, the onset of sexual relations among teens is delayed and multiple partners are discouraged, greater monogamy is observed among young people and certainly yung incidence of HIV, AIDS and other sexual diseases is on the decline. So how can that be negative?

Bulletin: Sinasapawan niyo raw yung right as a Catholic citizen?

Rep. Risa: Ay ang sarap nun! I am Catholic by the way. And I want an RH law and I think government should spend for family planning. I think this is a political issue and the party should include RH in their platform.Yung isang maganda pang side benefit pag naging batas na itong RH bill, is I think we will contribute to breaking the myth of the Catholic vote. Kasi di ba turo ng obispo natin that free will is a grace from God. One of the aims of the Catholic education is the formation of conscience. So pagkatapos nila i-form yung conscience natin bakit ayaw nilang gamiting natin ng malaya?Ultimately it is a secular issue, it’s a matter of public policy, it should be for all Filipinos. Not just Catholics. People of whatever faith or people of no faith. If they say they’re agnostic or atheistic, the law should serve them. Hindi dapat magdikta ang simbahan o estado.

blog posted. 09-23-09

Two Diff'rent Worlds

pity not the poet,
who is happy enough
just loving the moon,
whom he knows well
that he can't reach,
even if only
with his verses

pity, instead, the wolf, who
in baying at that moon,
does so very quietly,
out of real fear that his howls
just might disturb her.

Pity the moon, too,
never knowing how intensely
she is being loved
by so many from afar.

Blame ye only
the yawning chasm
between their worlds.

(9-23-09)

September 21 – Human Peace and the Military Phenomenon

SENSE OF HISTORY makes us remember “historical details”; more importantly, it highlights the underlying storyline of a developing essence.

. Take this date September 21. For Filipinos, this is a date to remember Martial Law and the details of its declaration and the sufferings we endured on our civil liberties (and human dignity) because of it. Other nations and peoples have had their equivalents of it. Many details have varied from country to country but they were under­pinned by the same essence. This same date is the International Day of Peace. To inaugurate the day, the “Peace Bell” is rung at the United Nations headquarters in New York. The bell is casr from coins donated by children from all continents, as a reminder of the human cost of war.

Peace and military dominance should therefore be together as twin themes, the two sides of a coin, whenever the sense of history in the Philippines commemorates September 21. These themes should always be taken together profoundly as the inseparable concerns of War and Peace, not merely the concern for the victims of the logic of war and its “milder” versions like martial law declarations, but more in the context of our inevitable evolution from pre-human consciousness to full human consciousness, as “the universe is unfolding as it should.”

Along this evolutionary path, the incessant preparations for war and the actual occurrence of it are conclusive proof that we are still in the pre-human stage where the peace we are still working for is just still a series of tension-filled ceasefires, where the logic of force prevails over the force of logic, and where antagon­ism is presumed until unity is proven. This context thrives in the control by groups of people over stockpiles of weapons that are used or threatened to be used to eliminate other groups of people and their respective civili­zations from the face of the earth. Threaten to end the life of fellow humans, display your capability to do it, and you get to control their lives effectively. Such is the human evolutionary significance of professional soldiery, dehumanizing the people at the barrel end of the rifles and cannons into maleable slaves and veritable domestic animals, while also dehumanizing the people holding the guns as mere efficient gun-holders and trigger-pullers, no more than “intelligent” robotic parts of the killing machines, as much threatened by its bullets as the intended victims if they as much as start heeding their own consciences and using their own minds. About the only glam­or or “dignity” accord­ed this profession is spun by the magic of Hollywood and the people’s tendency to admire their slave masters and their own torturers. This Stockholm Syndrome works well while, in the long periods of preparation for war, including civil war waged by governments on its own citizenries, tyranny merely dangles the Damocles’ Sword to effectively intimidate people while it is not yet necessarily to eliminate them.

Recalling Martial Law in the Philippines would bring in the name Ferdinand E. Marcos, but such detail is trivial; social realities and levels of consciousness in the world and in the country are more to blame for Proclamation 1081. These same realities and levels have persisted and can very well bring forth many repeats, and if we are not alert to the essence of things, we will fail to prevent it or, worse, even applaud and salute it. Therefore, recalling only the heroics of individuals in the 14-year dramatic struggle to topple that particular dictatorship without seeing the essence and without being being consistent to that essence is to say to one another, we have not learned the lessons, we are ready to repeat the course!

The only real and lasting peace is one which we can describe as synergy of all for the good of all; where the force of logic prevails over the logic of force; where we discern and intuit, as operational reality and overall context, the ONENESS OF ALL. Only a Filipino nation who has fully developed or fully revived a culture actually living in the teamwork and harmony of bayanihan, that banishes separativeness and exploitation, can be a nation at peace with itself and with the world.

May such peace prevail on our planet the soonest, starting with each heart.

Magsanib-lakas, Pilipinas! Ihandog sa mundo ang kaisahang totoo!

The Peace Bell, Quezon City, Philippines
September 21, 2009

Ed Aurelio C. Reyes of Subic, Zambales
Lead Founder and Secretary-General, Pamayanang SanibLakas ng Pilipinas
Lead Founder and National Spokesperson, Kamalaysayan Solidarity on Sense of History

Project: Living Libraries-Museums in Barangays

In the first place, we have to broaden our concept of museums and libraries, expanding from the common notions that we have had. These pertain to large collections of artifacts and books that the community members would not care to visit more than once in their lifetimes. Why the lack of interest? Because the community members usually have to travel far from their village residences to visit the museums and libraries in large buildings in the capital cities. And even when they go and get to cross the intimidating portals, they can hardly find anything in there that relates to their own lives.

How about having community museums and libraries with reading materials that refer to the lives of the very people of these same communities -- the large clans, the large groupings of economic sectors like the farmers, the fisherfolks, the business people, the professionals and government functionaries. We plan to set up a network of such local institutions, each to be called "Bahay-Liwanag."

Leaders and members of youth organizations can be trained to conduct all the necessary interviews with the people, especially the elderly who remember well enough the life patterns of social and economic interactions, of cultural routines of a typical year in the life of the village,, etc., etc. And the best among the youthful functionaries can also be trained on how best to exercise prudent editorial judgment so as to make each item or set of items contribute to unifying the community members on the basis of a shared view of their own history, a shared view of their collective journey as a community of people and not just a cluster of buildings and houses.

A very helpful factor for success in this endeavor is the computer technology, which includes the internet. Add to this the welcoming and inclusionary culture of Wikkipedia, which encourages viewers to post their own comments or their own articles to complete the picture on many subjects, a participatory culure that can be adopted by the With the community library’s set of competent editors standing as moderators, the community itself would in fact be conducting a continuing forum on their living history and on the available options for their current decision-making and direction-setting on how best to pursue their collective stakeholdership in their collective future. This library can also publish single-sheet hard-copy alerts on new contents and new acquisitions.

The current type of museums with artifacts displayed far from touching hands of the viewers can be helped much by the digital video-making technology so the artifacts can be viewed really close-up without ever endangering them to destruction by prying hands, and the background sound can include clear explanations about each artifact’s details, history, and continuing significance.

Enabling Technology: Computers and the Internet

The entire collection of the 'Bahay-Liwanag' can be uploaded onto its own website that can be accessible to all community members – those who are still living there and those who have gone to work and now live in other areas of the country and even overseas. Those who have left the area can still be intimately linked to local goings-on and could therefore be motivated to continue participating in local affairs and contributing to local progress.

And if a substantial number of barangays have this website facility as rooted well in their respective community museums and libraries, all these barangays can interact on-line and achieve a grander on-line bayanihan for shared learnings and mutual progress.
And don’t count out the tourists and foreign scholars, or foreign markets for the communities’ local products, who can all access the websites from wherever they are in the world.
And it can all be rooted in this 'Bahay-Liwanag.'

The barangay community derives its name from the ancient large boats our ancestors used to live in while journeying out at sea. And every current-day community is also traveling in at least two different simultaneous dimensions.
One dimension is physical. The community’s children are continuously traveling out to other areas or other countries, and they could be served well by these community libraries so as not to be cut off completely from their home villages.

The entire barangay is also traveling along their respective paths of development which should never make them forget their collective history and their patrimony. The community library, with its own website, can serve well as a veritable lighthouse to continue guiding these travels. Non-resident community members can be asked to help generate resources for this project possibly through advertising placement solicitations.

Piloting for Launch: Initial Collection, Computerization of Data

For this project's soft-launch within the 16-day period of the 'Pistahang Kamalaysayan,' we are going to start data collection and computerization in at least three barangay communities, two within Metro Manila and one outside. The initial information would consist of summary descriptions of the current patterns of behavior of the community members relative to their cultural, natural and economic resources. Cultural here pertains mainly to common habits and factors for social cohesion, including the arts mainstreamed in community life.

To be added immediately are equivalent descriptions of these same aspects of life about 25 years ago. To these two sets of data will be added a comparison per aspect and an enumeration of factors behind the changes, for better or for worse.

Visualize it as a common reality among this country's barangays within the next half-decade. It can really be done, and done well, to achieve the Filipino people’s effective teamwork and elegant harmony in every local community, for the betterment of our lives! And it shall have all started in the initiating pilot barangays within the remaining two weeks of the ongoing 'Pistahang Kamalaysayan-2.'

Impatience Can Ruin Everything

I woke up this morning with a thought that had come from conversations in the previous days about passions of urgency and reminders of prudence. This came back to mind this mornning and slid quickly into a montage of two distinct metaphors…

The seed has been planted by history as a seed of hope.

Traditional nomination systems that precluded participation of the electorate have resulted in candidates that represented only the elite, as nominated only by members of "political parties" that are only friendship and pooled-resources clubs. Change has long become an imperative. The people have had to shift from being mere pollwatchers (in the broad sense) to being active participants in the entire process. We have been disempowered for so long.

The seed has now germinated across the archipelago.

Upon the sheer will power of the heroic initiators and initial facilitators, as aided by new information and communication technologies, the broadening of the nominations process has started to advance unmistakably. Momentum is building. There is cause for optimism.

The seed has now turned into a fine, handsome sapling which shall hopefully grow into a giant sturdy tree. I would say “certainly, it will,” if it keeps up the momentum.

It is apparently marching to destiny, much like that fine shepherd boy who was destined to be king.

But the sapling is not yet ready for the big killer storms that are coming so soon, it still lacks in sturdiness of trunk, and its roots still need to grow longer and deeper, broader, stronger.

The lad still had to grow into full manhood and had to start flexing his young muscles and allow them to grow. So, he had to have the prudence based on patience. And he was willing to work with the king first until he could grow strong enough to fight, defeat and replace him on the throne. He did not gamble. His earlier slingshot victory over the giant did not expand his head with the hubris of overconfidence and impatience.

He knew that time was on his side.

I was told that some leaders and participants in the PPs process are emphasizing the need to strenghten first at the roots. I think that is prudent. It needs to engage more vigorously in obviously more winnable contests that either have smaller constituencies or have more slots at stake. Successes are crucially important in the growth of the PP process. We did not go into all this effort just to prove for still another time that the elite politicians are manipulators of the public mind and of the public vote. That has long been, repeatedly, “Noted!” with no consequence.

The PP is a phenomenon that deviates from that pattern where the people’s candidates have to explain later on how come they lost. The people expect it all the time. What still needs to be proven is that the PP can win after choosing well its battles, and that later it can also win much bigger ones, all the way up to the big match producing only one winner for the topmost post. Later.

Passion for effecting basic changes in the elite-dominated grossly unfair electoral system is understandable and really laudable. But it has to be coupled with prudence. Otherwise, a daredevil David can turn into the late lamented Don Quixote buried six feet under the ground. ( No, worse, because windmills don’t crush defeated assaillants and the people’s level of confidence is immaterial in that world.)

Let’s plan for victory; choose well our battles and avoid making enemies premaruely or even unnecessarily. Take the long view, and work well every step of the way. The PP processes has started and is growing well. Let’s not nip it in the bud and hunt for who to blame. Nobody listens to losers. Not even the losers.

We are destined to win. Unless impatience wins.

ding reyes
of Subic, Zambales
09-15-09

Labis-Labis na ang Pagluha Mo, Aking Bayan!

(Isang sanib-tula ng Sanib-Sining Movement for Synaesthetics,
iniambag sa Ikalawang Pistahang Kamalaysayan, Set. 13-28, 2009)

Babád nga sa luha, mga mata mo’y lumabo na,
At mga problema’y di matanaw, di maunawa,
Iyo tuloy nalimot na kaytagal mo ngang dakila,
Kaya’t tumahan na, mangarap ka’t humakbang na!

I.
Labis-labis mo na ngang nailuha, Aking Inang Bayan,
ang pagkahahapding mga latay ng iyong kaapihan…
Mga mata mo’y pinalabo na ng pagkakababad sa luha,
isipan mo’y nalito na sa napakahabang pagkadismaya.

Kaya’t lagi’t laging pumupukol sa iilang makasalanan,
Habang naghihintay ng pinunong mapagkakatiwalaan.
Matapos akalaing magliligtas, siya nang kamumuhian.
Kalagaya’y papalubha, palubog sa kumunoy ang lipunan.

Higit sa mga asal, pagkukulang o kahinaan ninuman
ang bigat ng mga tunay na ugat ng iyong karukhaan.
Katotohana’y naibaong kaytagal sa balatkayong salansan:
Wala sa iilan ang buong suliranin o ang buong kalutasan!

Nalimot mo sino kang talaga; di ba’t lahi’y dakila?
Kailangan mong magawang titigan tunay na mahalaga!
Sa pagtitig ay ilinaw ang mga suliranin at ugnayan nila
– mga kalakaran, patakaran, kalagayan at kaugalian pa.

II.
Kalakarang ayon lang sa maka-banyaga, maka-mayaman,
Sumasamba sa dayuhang pautang, kalakal at puhunan
na siyang humihigop at sumasaid sa iyong ani at yaman;
Habang di inaalintana ang kahirapan ng taongbayan.

Patakaran na ang bunga’y pagpapatiwakal ng bansa,
habang gahamang opisyales ay hinahayaang magnakaw
upang buong karalitaan mo’y sa kanila maibintang.
Di ba’t ang sinisisi lamang ay kurakutan sa pamahalaan?

Kalagayan ng habambuhay na papalubhang kahirapan,
pagkasadlak ng mamamayan sa kawalan ng pag-asa,
maliban kung handang iwan ang pamilya at bansa...
At kinabukasan mo, Aking Bayan, ngayo’y nakasanla!

Kaugalian ng paghamak sa sarili, at ng pagkani-kanya,
Ng kagutuman at tuluyang pagtitiis, habang nagtataka.
Sa isip, salita at gawa, bunga ng kaapihan, di na halata
Mga supling ng bayanihan, mga anak ng lahing dakila,

III.
Libu-libong taóng pagkabayani ng mga ninuno ng lahi,
Naipamalas sa bayanihan, higit sa tapang na lumaban;
Pagkilala sa ako’t ikaw, sa ako at tayo, iisang katauhan,
Ginhawa’t kadakilaa’y buháy sa sama-sama lamang.

Mabuti’t nakita, nakabuo ng lakas, pag-unlad ibinunga,
Humabi ng buhay na nanagana nang ilang milenyo nga.
Walang naging tamad na nakatunganga, walang palaasa,
Nagkusa, umuna, umusad nang walang sawa… ginhawa!

Ngayong makilala, lagpasang muli ang mga hadlang
Pagpigil sa nararapat ay sadyang kawalang-muwang!
Sa halip, magbalangkas ng angkop na mga hakbang
Bawiin ang likas na kadakilaan; bawiin ang kabuhayan!

Maibabalik ang dating kaugaliang pagbabayanihan,
Gayundin ang talas na dayuhang layunin ay matuklas:
Karapatdapat lang na makikipag-ugnay nang patas
Ang matanggap; at imbi’y mapalayas kahit marahas!

IV.
Itinuturo ng katwiran, iwaksi na ang pagluha,
Paramihin, patatagin ang mga aktibong may-tayâ
Mangarap, magbalak, humakbang na sa paglaban
Ang lahat mong pagdurusa’y ganap nang wakasan!

Kailangang magsinsin-pagitan sa dalangin at gawâ,
Lahat ng makabayang adhika, kamtin na ng bansâ.
Sa halip na pawang tindahan, kailanga’y paglikha;
Darami ang trabaho, lalaki ang sahod ng gumagawâ.

Mga migranteng obrero ay babalik upang tuluyan
Na nilang makakapiling ang sabik na mga pamilyang
Sa mahabang taggipit ay nangapilitan silang iwan;
Wala nang mga batang mananangis sa lansangan.

Katutubong yaman, sasakamay na ng mamamayan,
Pakikinabangan hanggang ng mga di pa isinisilang.
At unti-unti ring aangkinin at iyo nang patitinuin
Ang isang pamahalaang tunay na sa taongbayan!

-- Sanib-Sining
[Pinagsama-samang pagsisikap nina Herman Caniete, Paul Galang,
Edward Sta. Ana, Pia Montalban, Rex Deveraturda, at Ding Reyes]
Agosto 13 - Setyembre 13, 2009

(Pagtatangka itong lumikha ng isang kontemporaryong ber­syon ng tulang Kung Tuyo na ang Luha Mo, Aking Bayan, isang klasikong akda ng Pambansang Alagad ng Sining na si Ka Amado V. Hernandez. Isa itong pagsasanib-tulaan na ba­hagyang isinulat sa malayang talud­turan. Ito ay pinagsa­ma-samang diwa’t katha ng anim na ka­anib ng Pama­yanang Saniblakas ng Pili­pinas na iniambag sa “Sanib-Tulaan” ng Sanib-Sining Move­ment for Syn­aesthetics sa gusali ng Bantayog ng mga Bayani sa Lung­sod ng Quezon noong Agosto 13, 2009. Iaalay ito ng Sanib-Sining sa, Set­yembre 13, 2009, ika-106 na kaarawan ni Ka Amado, at unang araw din ng ikalawang taunang Pistahang Kama­laysayan. Inaanyayahan ang lahat na talakayin at patoto­hanan ang mga nilalaman at magmungkahi ng mga pagpa­pahusay nito na pagp­apasyahan ng Sanib-Sining bago ang kaarawang muli ni Ka Amado sa Setyembre 2010. Para sa impormasyon buksan ang http://kamalaysayan.8m.net. )