I will always remember with fondness how Martin Luther King called for the American black's militancy to be tempered with dignity and discipline.

He said in a famous speech, everybody knows, "In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred."

"We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. we must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force."

I shake my hend in disgust at how low the call for justice against the offensive cartoons has taken.

Archibald Macleish also once rhetorically asked, "How shall freedom be defended? By arms when it is attacked by arms; by truth when it is attacked by lies; by democratic faith when it is attacked by authoritarian dogma. Always, and in the final act, by determination and faith."

Now, we are witnessing a surge in bigotry. I empathize with my Muslim brothers who were grossly offended by the Danish caricatures but I am equally antagonize by the violent reaction by some people. What is happening in Pakistan is terrible. Lahore may not be burning but the part that has had nothing to do with the reason for the upheaval. What was burned? Buses owned by a Korean company?! A shop of Norweigian mobile phones?! A KFC branch?! What else? What's next?

I cry with Martin Luther King as I witness all these misplaced violence. I raise my voice in the same question as Archibald Macleish. And I now wonder how much South Korean, Norway and other countries have given Pakistan in aid to rebuild its earthquake-hit region. 

OFWs Post Record-High Remittances

Remittances by the millions of Filipinos working overseas in 2005 jumped 25 percent to a record $10.7 billion, Bangko Sentral said yesterday.

Remittances in the month of December alone rose 10.7 percent from a year earlier to $962 million, the central bank said in a statement.

"The sustained rise in the level of remittances for 2005 was largely due to the increase in the number of Filipinos working abroad," it said, adding the deployment of more highly-skilled workers earning more also contributed.

The bulk of remittances come from the United States, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Japan, Hong Kong, Britain, the United Arab Emirates and Singapore.

Central Bank governor Amando Tetangco earlier said he expects remittances this year to hit $13.5 billion. In 2004, remittances rose 11.8 percent to $8.5 billion.

The lure of higher-paying jobs overseas has seen about eight million Filipinos go abroad with nearly a million finding work overseas every year.

The money sent home by these workers plays a crucial part in propping up the country's cash-starved economy and the rise in remittances in recent months has helped push the Philippine peso to three-year highs this week.

AFP

Beware of Bahraini Caper

Willie Baun, People's Journal columnist warned in Streetlights on February 16 about a possibe sell out in the tradition of the unequal open-skies policy with the US; only this time, it is with my beloved Bahrain:

GRIPPED by fear of a "sell-out," some leaders of the local airlines industry wonder if the February 16-17 Philippine-Bahrain air talks in Clark Field, Pampanga could be postponed.

Philippine experience in bilateral aviation talks has ended in raw deals with Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates — and the worst at the hands of the United States that bound the country to a lop-sided "open-skies" policy.

And yet, unable or worse unwilling to learn from the string of air policy debacles, the RP panel for the Clark engagement is reported about to wade in for more of the same, that is, to give the six more flights on the four already flown weekly to Manila by the tiny Arab sheikdom's flag carrier.

That would come up to 107,000 air passenger seats in RP-bound Bahraini planes or almost double the present 61,000 seats supposed to be available yearly that, roll down laughing on the aisle if you wish, have yet to be filled to capacity. With just the 30,000 overseas Filipino workers hosted by the sheikdom and a trickle of tourist dollars to offer, the Bahrainis are certainly making a spectacle of so big an appetite for so small a stomach.

Given less than 2,000 Bahraini vacationers coming to Manila yearly, the grossly expansive passenger capacity sought by the sheikdom preposterously promises negligible tourist traffic to the country. On the other hand, it gives ground to suspicion it would be diverted to the vastly larger RP-Saudi Arabia market a short hop from the sheikdom. International aviation, as in fishing, has its share of poachers, right Dennis?

The real big deal, fair and square, is with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, host to roughly a million OFWs and, verifiably, the country's chief trading, economic, and "strategic" partner in the Middle East. Strangely, however, or should it be absurdly, this RP-KSA geopolitical reality is hardly reflected in their bilateral air links — which absolutely must be tightened and, if need be, stonewalled against probable massive dumping of excess air capacity by Bahrain.

It is on this predatory threat that the Philippine aviation officialdom must focus, instantly, even as the RP panel for the Clark talks faces off with the Bahrainis, an engagement that curiously has come close on the heels of the Philippines Airlines decision — reconsidered and intelligently so — to suspend its hugely losing Manila-Riyadh flights on March 2, 2006. PAL cited over-congestion in this route and the 10-year deficits incurred in servicing it as behind the planned back-out.

Moved by massive OFW clamor for their own flag carrier to board homeward and back to Saudi, PAL has obliged and, to cut losses on the overall Manila-Saudi route, urged the Department of Transportation and Communications to initiate talks for "a new Manila-Dubai-Saudi (Jeddah or Riyadh) service, with commercial traffic rights between Saudi and Dubai."

Such a routing, it was pointed out, would give PAL a fresh revenue stream (from the Dubai-Saudi sector) for its losses to be manageable even as it manages to address the needs of OFWs in Saudi and Dubai. "This is perhaps the last chance to save our flag carrier's direct air links to the OFWs in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," PAL president Jaime J. Bautista wrote in his SOS-letter to DoTC Secretary Leandro Mendoza.

It may well be PAL's "last chance," indeed, so here's hoping President Macapagal-Arroyo need not light a fire under Mendoza's seat to get him cracking.

No to demagogues!

I have time and again told my friends that I share my Muslim brothers' contempt for the blasphemous caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad but I do not agree that lex taliones should be used to address the issue. The problem is that many of those who have taken it upon themselves to speak up on the issue are nothing but demagogues. Reason has no space for these people.

In today's GDN, I read a letter from a concerned Bahraini condemning one such demagogue:

Shameful behaviour!

NO country can allow its members of parliament to burn the flag of another nation when, for all intents and purposes, those two nations are not at war.

For MP Mohammed Khalid to be not only condoning but also actively participating in such actions is to suggest to the people of Bahrain that he supports aggressive attacks on the people and property of another nation. To appear in a photograph in the leading English language newspaper of Bahrain participating in these activities is beyond comprehension.

I do not support the publication of the cartoons and neither do I support the violent reactions that have gripped most of the Muslim world in the last few weeks.

Mohammed Khalid - you need to apologise to your government and to the people of Bahrain. You also need to display to this country (and to all other Muslim peoples) that non-violent action is the best way to proceed.

Concerned Bahraini

One More Reason Why I am Proud of Bahrain

In today's edition of the Gulf Daily News:

Making history for 20 minutes!
By Mohammed Al A'ali

Manama: Alice Samaan made history for the second time yesterday when she chaired the Shura Council - for just 20 minutes.

Last April, she became the first woman and the first Christian to chair any Shura or parliamentary session in the Arab or Islamic world.

Ms Samaan took the chair again yesterday, after council chairman Dr Faisal Al Mousawi had to leave early.

Second vice-chairman Mansour Bin Rajab is out of the country and first vice-chairman Abdulrahman Jamsheer stepped down to speak from the chamber floor in a debate on commercial and civil disputes.

Ms Samaan chaired the session for 20 minutes, before handing back the chair to Mr Al Jamsheer.

Last April, Ms Samaan chaired the full afternoon session.

Council rules state that in the absence of the chairman and his two deputies, the oldest member should chair the session - in this case Ms Samaan. "A woman chairing the session and for the second time is a clear example of the democracy we are witnessing here in Bahrain," said Ms Samaan.

 

Lovapalooza 3!

A toothpaste brand has successfully organized the annual kissfest to kick off Valentine's celebrations in the Philippines. This has become a major media event; it is not surprising politicians have joined this year's edition. This is one huge public display of affection for Filipinos.

I am not sure though if really like this to become part of our traditions. I feel there is something gravely wrong here.

But I will not play spoiler. I must admit this is one occassion when Filipinos can also show its resilient spirit. Sana...

Valentine

Who is Valentine and why do we celebrate February 14th?
One legend has it that it began in Rome when the Emperor Claudius II was involved in many bloody and unpopular campaigns. “Claudius the Cruel” was having a difficult time getting soldiers to join his military leagues. Claudius believed that the reason was that Roman men did not want to leave their loved ones. So Claudius cancelled all marriages and engagements in Rome!

Valentine, who was a priest in Rome in the year 269 AD, together with his friend Marius, defied Claudius and performed marriages in secret. When Valentine's actions were discovered, he was sentenced to be beaten to death with clubs and to have his head cut off.

Whilst in prison Valentine fell in love with a young girl who visited him during his confinement. Before his death on the 14th day of February, it is said that he wrote her a letter signed " From your Valentine."

In 496 A.D., Pope Gelasius set aside February 14th to honour Valentine.

Another legend says that Valentine's Day started in ancient Rome, on February 14th, a holiday to honour Juno. Juno was the Queen of the Roman Gods and Goddesses. The Romans also knew her as the Goddess of women and marriage. Then, the following day, February 15th, began the Feast of Lupercalia.

In those days, the lives of young boys and girls were strictly separate. However, on the eve of the festival of Lupercalia, the names of Roman girls were written on slips of paper and placed into jars.

Each young man would draw a girl's name from the jar and would then be partners for the duration of the festival with the girl whom he chose. Sometimes the pairing of the children lasted an entire year, and often, they would fall in love and marry.

Tradition had it that men would give ladies flowers and other gifts on February 14 in remembrance of Valentine who has symbolized love. Valentine cards were a recent invention though. In the United States, Miss Esther Howland is given credit for sending the first valentine card. Commercial valentine cards were introduced in the 1800's.

With the advent of the internet, we have given Valentine's Day a new meaning with electronic cards and long distance affirmation of love and devotion.

Allow me to join the band.

To my beloved, Jenn, I won't greet you a happy Valentine's Day but I give you a commitment that I will love you forever.

Christians and the use of Torture

I was intrigued by this topic on Christianity Today. Read on:

The "War on Terror" has challenged old rules of engagement. While Christian theologians of past centuries debated "just war" theories (assessing international conflicts in light of biblical principles of fairness), modern discussions focus on high-tech weapons that make armies obsolete and religious terrorism that ignores rules regarding non-combatants.

In the new psychological chess match of modern warfare, knowledge is critical. How will it be obtained? Is torture necessary to get insider information? Can we justify dehumanizing some to rehumanize society?