Coopted already by the reactionary state, the yellow Left has already forgotten how a people’s movement can thrive by relying on the sincere affections and collective struggle of the masses. It mimicked the oppressors’ cynical view of resistance movements and grassroots organizing.
QUESTION EVERYTHING Mong Palatino Bulatlat.com Excuse the dramatic appeal of the headline but I feel it’s necessary to emphasize the life-changing impact of the decision to become an activist. It’s also to quickly refute what activism is not: a deviant behavior that requires a corrective action, a dangerous addiction, a temporary lapse in judgment, a…
QUESTION EVERYTHING Mong Palatino Bulatlat.com Respect for diverse beliefs is one of the prescriptions of political correctness so therefore your decision to become an activist should no longer provoke scandalous reactions. But the menacing tentacles of Red Scare and Philippine-style McCarthyism continue to wield considerable influence in our social institutions. The result is that your…
QUESTION EVERYTHING Mong Palatino Bulatlat.com Philosopher Immanuel Kant, one of the greatest minds in history, taught geography yet his knowledge of the physical world was probably based only on intuition and printed materials since he didn’t travel outside his hometown. This piece of information may be trivial but useful for those who want to debunk…
QUESTION EVERYTHING Mong Palatino Bulatlat.com There is a regular gathering of anti-Marcos activists which briefly unites various shades of the Left. This was impossible to organize in the mid-1990s during the ‘great split’ within the Philippine Left, but today it happens several times a year. Perhaps the passing of time inspired these fierce ideological rivals…
QUESTION EVERYTHING Mong Palatino Bulatlat.com News about the 47th anniversary of the Communist Party highlighted the group’s statement about the growing strength of the New People’s Army (NPA) in Mindanao on one hand and Malacanang’s dismissal of the claim on the other. This is newsworthy but not really new. Supporters and critics of the armed…
QUESTION EVERYTHING Mong Palatino Bulatlat.com 1. In Defence of Politics, Bernard Crick. I disagree with the author’s conservative views and his rejection of communist societies as totalitarian regimes but his treatise on politics, elections, and behavior of political actors allowed me to better understand the worldview of mainstream politicians. 2. The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold.…
QUESTION EVERYTHING Mong Palatino The selfie is both derided and hailed as a popular form of self-expression; but politically-speaking, what does it really signify? The ‘butterfly effect’ reminds us that a flap of a butterfly’s wings can cause a hurricane on the other side of the world. Applied to the taking of selfies, perhaps it…
QUESTION EVERYTHING Mong Palatino Our country is on fire yet we continue to rank our islands based on what tourists want. Should we rejoice when travel magazines list some of our islands as among the must-see places in the world? Yes, of course. But it doesn’t mean we should adopt their standards to measure the…
QUESTION EVERYTHING Mong Palatino *Talumpating binigkas sa Mindanao Human Rights Summit na ginanap sa Philippine Normal University, Taft, Manila noong Nobyembre 12, 2015 Sa susunod na linggo, ipapalabas na ang inaabangang huling installment ng pelikulang Hunger Games. Sa pelikula, lumusob sa Capitol ang mga nakatira sa District 12 at iba pang inaaping distrito ng Panem.…
What they refuse to recognize is that it is mainly the Left which has chosen to embrace the struggle of the Lumad compared to other political forces which sided with foreign capital and big business in the exploitation of our precious resources.