A Man of God

By:  Jonathan Edwards J. Olabre
As lifted from his original  FB post entitled Good Christians.

Days before he (Pope Francis) came here, I had an acrimonious discussion with another Facebook friend. My point was that how come the pope was not issuing anything stronger about Islamic Terrorism after the Paris terrorist attacks. His message was that he condemns violence. That was ambiguous for me. As a leader of the largest Christian denomination, I expected something stronger. I perceived it as weakness and an inability to protect Christendom. After that heated exchange, I offered my apologies and just kept silent. . . . . Although a few of my correspondences with others continued. I resolved to be more circumspect in deference to many of my countrymen whom I have no aim of slighting in any way. That it is just a matter of doctrine and dogma that makes the difference.

WE SHOULD BE CRYING BECAUSE OF OUR APATHY.

We should all be crying because we are all to blame! During that exchange, there were those who cannot condone the course of action that I advocated even though they were my natural allies. In the end I just told them that after the victory against the Muslim Heathens, they can just hold their War Crimes trial and indict me and those like me during the conduct of the war of extermination and annihilation of another civilization. My main point was that nobody cares now what the Romans did to Carthage and our civilization is a result of that. It was one civilization over the other.

So I kept silent and thought about it more. I have no love for liberal agendas and I realized that as I grew older, I tended to be more conservative in my views. A product of learning and experience. And as I reflected some more, I thought about what kind of civilization that I was defending.

The answer came in three stages. When Pope Francis spoke in Malacanang, he made a sweeping condemnation of corruption. No political party was singled out. It was a statement that all those who are in positions of authority have a responsibility not to be corrupt. That they are all equally guilty of allowing a system that takes away from the poor. That a system such as that is not only immoral but an obscenity before the eyes of God and Man. He did not do it in a combative way. No fire and brimstone sermon but what makes it strong is on the manner how he delivered it. It was like an old school teacher, knowing all the tricks of students, aware of styles and manners and methods and say that “You cannot fool God” . Buking ko kayo!

The second stage was on Saturday. Going to Tacloban. He went there inspite of the risks because of the weather. I know how it is like to fly in airpockets and even had on occasion took a flight fleeing from a storm. That was in 1997 coming from Boracay. But this Pope, knew a storm was coming. He knew that danger lies ahead. He knew that the people there were the real reason he came here. He must be here. As he said “Am a little bit late. But I am here” . He deliberately flew into the teeth of the storm. He did not make great statements after hearing the hurts and pains of the survivors. Instead, with a show of great humility, he just kept silent. He knew that none of his words will be enough. He chose to keep all of it and suffer their plight in his heart. He was not after votes and approval. He was there to be able to share the feelings of suffering and despair. He had to learn how it was. As he said, the trip was for him. He discovered that he had to partake of the contents of the cup. He had to be there. A truncated trip because of exigencies and situations beyond anyone’s control, he apologized for leaving early. Many would not appreciate the fact that when the airplane took off at 1:00 P.M., the storm was just 50 kilometers away. Like the distance from Manila to Tagaytay or Dau, Pampanga. At 3:00 P.M. the storm made landfall. It was that close. But there was no bravado involved. I realized that inspite of my idea that he was “ soft”, he had a backbone of steel. He had courage and bravery not seen in the world for many years. It was courage and bravery not borne out of temporal or worldly power but a strength based on faith. If Josef Stalin were alive today, he cannot utter “ how many divisions does the Pope have?”. Josef Stalin cannot fly into the teeth of a storm and leave with its jaws biting at his heels. Mao Zedong cannot say “Power goes out from the barrel of a gun” in the teeth of a storm. It was bravery and courage borne on faith.

The 3rd Stage was when he was at UST. Of hearing the words of Glydell, of a question on why God would allow children to be victimized by prostitution and drugs. I was choking in order to prevent tears. I lit a cigarette and went out the door. My chest felt like it was being held in a vise. Glydell made the unanswerable question. It was a question that I have made myself and heard others who scoff at the thought of a God allowing such things to happen. It was an existentialist question. He could have answered using tracts in the Bible, instances of miracles and even divert the issue. He chose to meet it head on. He said it was a question, not even expressed through words but conveyed by tears. It was a question he has no answer. Again, he showed that he was human and not all knowing. By doing that, he showed that he was not unlike all of us who have such questions with regards to the faith.

But I realized that he actually gave the answer. His answer of “If we don’t learn how to cry, we can never be good Christians.” . As I understand it, it was more than a cry of pity for Glydell and the unfortunate and downtrodden, as I realized, we must cry for ourselves. It is not God who allows such a state of affairs, it is us who allows such. We do it by being apathetic. We do it by selling our votes. We do it for working for a system that creates such iniquities. But most importantly, those in power, economic and political must learn how to cry. Those in government, regardless of political affiliation must cry. The captains of Industry must cry. Crying in this case goes beyond Corporate Social Responsibility. Crying in this case is more than giving scholarship foundations and medical outreach activities. Those who are in power must cry to be able to understand the plight of those who are in despair. Crying entails that they take stock on what they have and what it means to have much in a land where there is want and need for many. Crying for them must mean that they transform themselves not only as agents of change but agents of re-distribution. That they cry because they can afford to eat more than 3 times a day. That they have cars, boats and planes when so many have no shoes. He does not have to directly attack the injustices of this world, attack by naming names. He did it by just showing up. By being an example. He did not say "look at me, look at me and how simple I am" . The bar for faith and leadership has just got a notch higher. Pope Francis sure showed them! No better and louder shout of rebuke and condemnation than the silence of example.They must cry for themselves because whatever they have done, they cannot be good Christians.

That is what it meant to me these past few days. I kept silent and reflected. Not a Vicar of Christ in my belief but Definitely a Man of God.

(The writer claims that he is a Protestant who don't believe in apostolic succession but gave an interesting reflection on the Pope's visit.)

You may also like reading related post:  What a God Loving and Believing Nation Really Is?

Economic Development Through Good Governance and Active Social Involvement

By Gilbert M. Forbes

Through the years, many parts of the country particularly the rural areas are and have remained poor.  Though, could not fully blamed on the national government but still, it has something to do with bias and unequal economic policy which give less and less focus on agriculture beneath the fact that it is the life-blood of the majority of the poor—at least 70% of them.

Considering that Agriculture is a least economic priority, it is not
surprising that most of the poorest of the poor are coconut farmers.
 (Photo sourced out from www.filamnation.com)

Experts are saying that in order for the current economic policy to have an impact on the poor, economic growth should at least post a record of 7.5% in a continuing basis for more than a decade like that of our neighboring countries.  China and Vietnam are the best example.

But it’s not the case for the country.  Its growth is erratic.  Furthermore, growth is concentrated in the service sector, government or public spending and consumer increase purchases made alive by OFW remittances which has reached more than $20 Billion!  Agriculture roughly reaches more than 2% which is just the population growth equivalent.  If only, growth in this sector could the country’s average, or let say, growth is inclusive, the impact would really be great.  Because of the slow growth in Agriculture, production isn’t that much thus, food is quite high in the country compared to other ASEAN countries like Thailand who’s Agriculture has known to have been in full swing in the 90’s and has continued since then.

In a broader perspective, aside from individual biases, beliefs, and treatment towards gainful living and occupation, local governance has something to do also with economic development.  Economic planning and implementation is top to bottom.  And even with such set-up, still, many of the good programs that the national government intends to implement end up a failure once it reach the community level units after sometime due to lack of sustainability.  There simply is no meeting of great minds from the national down to the local government particularly at the barangay level.  It is not surprising because majority of the leadership at the barangay level lack the necessary leadership and transformational management skills and capabilities that will encourage popular sustainable public support that will steer economic development in their respective areas.

Although many local government units at the municipal level are bent on training barangay chief executives, as observed and experienced in some quite a number of meetings, level of commitment is too weak.  This is very evident particularly in the implementation of priority programs like for instance on the protection of women and children, basic clean and green projects, and livelihoods programs.  For instance swine raising and pig dispersal as a livelihood program most commonly end up to nothingness.  The same with credit facility being offered to start a cooperative.

This could be attributed to lack or very low level of accountability on these elected officials and man forms of dependence on their municipal leaders up to the national level and vice versa .  As one municipal employee once quoted, “ang hirap-hirap namang pasunurin ng mga kapitan, kapag may pamiting ka, hindi lahat nakiki-cooperate.”  It is not surprising, because why are they into these positions in the first place?  There could still be many whose intentions are pure but their incapacity have put them at a loss.  Some on the other hand are just after the position as a source of livelihood, additional source of income for others and connection to further their business interests.  Failon Ngayon, of ABS-CBN Channel 2 has validated this assumption continuously through a series of segments tackling our leaders inefficiency.

At the outset, aside from the national government reviewing its economic policies to make it more effective, local government should also be doing the best thing they could do to improve the living condition of their people.  Individual citizens too must work hard particularly those who already have the means to move out of poverty.  The rich and the middle class however, should extend their hands to their lowly brethren.  They must help invest in their education and in agriculture even when little returns or no returns at all are expected instead of getting drowned in materialism, craze and fads which characterize many of the middle class and rich urban dwellers.

In this time, that our country is being bullied by rich and powerful countries just because we are poor and weak, the challenge and need to get out of poverty, and be wealthy is timely.  Its only when every citizens of our country progress and become financially independent that our country becomes economically and militarily strong because we already have the money and resources.  But until majority of our people are poor so our country is.

Getting out of poverty is not only a challenge for everybody who is poor. Achieving good governance by learning to have better choices among decent. righteous and God-loving political candidates.  Most importantly the topmost social, moral and spiritual responsibility of the bourgeois and elite groups is invest their money wisely and to help others get out of poverty.

Indeed for economic development to occur, active social involvement of every body in achieving good governance is important for only good governance could level the playing field.

(Apart from working in the government as an educator.  The writer has been active in the social movement working for social transformation as a former member of Alyansa ng mga Kristiyanong Mag-aaral.  He holds a Bachelor and MA in Educational Management (CAR) at the Philippine Normal University)

You may also like the following under Politics and Good Governance:

The Philippines, Our Only Home 
Tired of Corruption? We Can Do Something About It 

To all who already have a source of income on a regular basis, you may like the articles under Financial Literacy or Personal Finance