Why 1,575 haikus? Because my darlingest Annelies Marie Frank lived 15.75 years in this world.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

OUR Dragonboat Team


You guys are first class!
Let me just say that - flat out -
you guys represent!

Our Dragonboat Team.
Gold. World-Class. Skill. But not here?
Now ask yourself why.

I really
feel ashamed.
---<--@

It's all about the "politics" -

I always hear the word "politics" being used like it were a salve meant to relieve the shame that most Filipinos feel about our own Country's refusal to recognize our victorious Dragonboat Team.

It's like there's something out there in our national politics that escapes the understanding of us, common folk; something completely out of our control, something beyond the people, something dirty...

I certainly feel this sense of national shame. But I can see clear through the "something". Politics is not a dirty word, you know. Politics is a means. It is a channel. It is a polarity. It is a tool.

The problem is when politics fall into the wrong hands. And a lot of that have been happening of late, and not just in this nation, mind you.

Politics is the preserve of the Responsible State. (You may review the relationships between the three elements of Country on Citizenship with Fidelity.)

It is therefore, a means (not an end) employed by the servants of the nation to carry out and complete the mandate entrusted to them by we, the people.

When the politics of our Republic (meant to prosper and ennoble the people and advance our Country in its ages in time) become hi-jacked by puny, fractious, selfish ambitions and the hard-won ideals of proven popular governance become soiled by the narrow interests of the few, OUR politics become "something".

We feel ashamed because we are a part of it...

Hey, we're not so helpless after all.