The Typhoon named Frank

Hundreds of people died in the Philippines because of the wrath of a super typhoon named Frank or Fengshen as its international name. I have seen how sturdy trees knocked down, billboards fell from buildings, flood waters drowning rooftops and destroyed thousands of hectares of rice lands and a ship en route from Manila to Cebu capsized because it was swallowed up by mountain like waves. When you are caught in treacherous storms like this, there's nothing you can think of but destruction, hunger, death.

With typhoon Frank, I would guess that many people who knew me in the Philippines and other parts of the world have associated my name with the typhoon, and if ever they have forgotten my name, they were once again reminded of me. Well, human persons are part of nature and human nature can at times be likened to typhoons. The typhoon's fury was unleashed unexpectedly or perhaps its strength underestimated. Living in the panay island where our local community faces the smaller island of guimaras does make you accustomed to storms, or learned to like to storm. The strong winds test the strength of your house, the big waves wound unearth the lost coins in the sand and the mussels and other sea creatures good for food are washed to the shore.

For us who live in the shores of Panay Island would welcome the coming of southwest moonsoon in the months of June to August. The months when the southwest moonsoon would bring income to the fisherfolks. It's the time when milkfish fry are drawn to the shore by the currents and fisherfolks has something to catch and sell. In the last few decades much have change in milkfish fry catching. Less and less fry are caught because of pollution and environmental degradation. Typhoons are seen as destruction rather than bringing rain to rainfed rice paddies and income for fisherfolks.


Similarly when I saw on tv the destruction brought by storms or hurricanes and tornados in continental US that made houses like cardboard boxes. The sights of totally destroyed houses in the US causes me to think that regardless where you live, whether you are in an upper middle class society or in the developing country like Burma or the Philippines houses are nothing in the eye of the storm. So what kind of houses do we need that can stand the storm? Or what kind of food production technology do we need that can stand the storm? And what kind of society should we have that can anticipate if not is prepared to face the fiercest of storms and earthquakes?

Come to think about these!

Candlelight vigils in Seoul

The hundreds or thousands of unquenchable light from burning candles seem like an ocean of yellow dots arranged in organic artisty can be seen from the birds eye view on the main thoroughfares of downtown Seoul. Burn, burn burn! oh tiny candlelights that can shed light to the darkened souls of the South Korean political leaders who choose to take the side of the profiteers and in the name of economic globalization.

The first candlelight vigil started on May 2 by students airing their concerns on the safety of U.S. beef and it became a continuing protest action even to this day, June the 24th. The main motive of the candlelight vigils was to call for the renegotiation of the beef import deal, but various groups joined the nightly vigils and rallies which started to criticize other policies of President Lee Myung-bak such as privatization of public firms, the inland canal project and many others.

From a small group of students the nightly vigils swelled to hundreds of thousands especially on the night of June 10 that commemorated the historic democracy movement massive protest actions. The big swell in number of protesters on June 10 estimated at 500,000 included church people from the member churches of the National Council of Churches in Korea (NCCK). In a night long vigil pastors and lay leaders from the Protestant churches gave speeches on various social issues that affect the life of society such as the privatization of the national health insurance and other social services. Church leaders who came to the gathering remembered the dark days of military dictatorship. They challenged church people to continue to raise its prophetic witness in the present time now that there is a resurgence of conservative right.

People from all walks of life from students to workers and former activists who fought for democracy 21 years ago joined the rallies, demanding the government to renegotiate the beef deal with the United States made under the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement. Because of this the clarion call for renegotiation the government sent emissaries to the US in an attempt to renegotiate the trade deal on beef importation. The South Korean government will urge the US trade negotiator that only beef from cows less than 30 months old can be imported to the country. Health experts believe that mad cow disease which affected the cattle in the US few years ago may be transmitted to humans through beef from cows older than 30 months.The US negotiator hopefully will reconsider the deal.

Moreover, the candlelight vigils also affected the credibility of the cabinet members of President Lee Myung-bak, where all of the ministers resigned from their post and the president has appointment their replacements. The president's popularity rating has plummeted since his first 100 days in office due credibility issues surrounding ministerial appointees.

The candlelight vigil will go on as long as the government will only serve the its own political and economic interests and the interests of the powers that it serves. In the context of globalization, more and more people will be disadvantaged due to the widening economic gap among people with varying economic capacities and the global economic recession.

Burn, burn burn! Oh candlelights of Seoul.

Beef and mad cow disease

Today June 10 is the anniversary of the pro-democracy demonstration in Seoul, South Korea. It was a huge mobilization of South Koreans that challenged the military dictatorship of Chun Do-Hwan. For the last tow weeks hundreds of thousands of people have been staging protests actions against the importation of U.S. beef to Korea. This has been the bone of contention of political wranglings in the parliament and on the streets. For the last few years the U.S. and South Korea governments have negotiated under the Free Trade Agreement to increase importation of beef.