Sunday, March 29, 2009

Manifestos for Political Reform:Those Above

There is an old lie that has been handed down from generation to generation since the time that the Spanish completely dominated the Philippines.
That lie basically tells us that change cannot happen unless "Those Above" decree it.
It used to be God, then it became the Church, and then it became anyone who could wield power by use of force or wealth.
Even the great Jose Rizal could not see change happening unless the power to do so was bestowed by "Those Above".
"Those Above" refer to people or a group of people who control everything in this country by virtue of their position in society as politicians and as controllers of vast stores of wealth.
Consequently, every quest and every struggle for change has been about seizing power from "Those Above". In seizing power, "Those above" are replaced but the situation remains basically the same. The old controllers of power and wealth are replaced by new controllers, yet the relations between "Those Above" and those who are subject to their power remain the same.

2 comments:

better said...

nice post.

allow me to digress a bit and focus on the Spanish connection.

years of being under spanish control has not really been good for the Filipino.

many of our bad habits, traits etc could be traced to Spanish influence.

In a more practical level, our land zoning system with all its flaws is said to be another thing we inherited from the Spaniards.

i read somewhere that Spain really left more problems than good in all the territories it colonized.

Admin said...

Thanks.

Whatever problems we have are, at least for the most part, completely of our own making.

These problems exist because we allow these problems to exist, each of us individually and each of us as part of a larger group.

We rarely trust ourselves and believe in ourselves enough to realize that merely by changing ourselves first, we begin a larger process of change.

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