sana hindi n lang tyo pinaglaban ng ating mga bayani!!

[GasJunkie]

edited Don't want to be redundant.

[uls]

Peace, or the absence of violence, is good only to those who have interests to protect.

Like i said earlier, if u have a fairly nice middle class lifestyle (i.e. up to ur neck in credit card bills), the last thing u want is violence and looting and lawless rampage.

the A-B want the status quo. they are the ones who want peace and order coz life is good to them.

Down in the C-D neighborhood, hate and resentment is brewing. And they are waiting for the opportunity to go out into the streets to loot shops and kill and rape...

[niky]

The problem with the class differences is that there's not enough pie to go around. Investments and developments that would help C-D rise up, like agricultural development, rural development, are not prioritized by the government, which, due to its centralized nature, concentrates most of its efforts at infrastructure development in the environs of Manila.

In what other country, for example, do you have to travel four or five hours to Manila to visit the regional office of certain government agencies?

And in what other country do you see unions rising up to destroy businesses and factories that help provide jobs for C-class Filipinos at B-class wages? And just because the Chinese or Japanese who own these factories are different from the Chinese who own most of the "local" businesses?

And why do we have such an American-ish attitude that all poor people are poor because they're f*cking lazy? Hello? There are a lot of C and D class people who scrounge up as much as they can to send their kids to school. Kids who don't have a chance to make it to High School or College to qualify for the "abundant jobs" that they should supposedly be doing instead of being poor.

Hell, the last time I looked, even unskilled labor was going to High School graduates and you needed to be at least 1st year College to do the relatively easy task of sweeping floors at McDo. So where are those jobs the poor people should be doing?

Maybe this is because all we see are the beggars. The people who, out of desperation and the inability to eke out little more than subsistence and slow starvation from our poor soil or from increasingly limited hunting and gathering (and yes, our topsoil resources are very poor) find out that Manila is very rich indeed... and that a Beggar can live like a King in Manila, whereas a beggar in the province is merely someone waiting to die.

A lot of those D-class people are those who are trying to make a living off the land, not an easy prospect, and not made any more palatable by the fact that money earned by beggars and maids in Manila would make them rich at home.

I've had beggars as students at public schools. They don't want to be beggars, but there's no way they can survive and study on the meager income their parents make doing odd jobs. I don't like giving to beggars, because you never know whether that money is going to a syndicate, to rugby or to pimps, but it's hard not to feel sorry for those who are forced to it.

There can be no revolution of the poor, like the "revolution" of the middle class that failed to do anything but open up the circle of power to more and more players... because the poor... the truly poor... are fighting hard enough as it is to stay alive... and some of them are actually fighting to rise above their class. Unfortunately, it's a losing battle.

[uls]

The govt and A-B will always protect their interests. Corruption is allowed by the A-B so those in power are corrupted to a point where they wouldnt want to leave where they are. Tada! Resistance to change is solidified. Status quo preserved.

[niky]

And by the way... if peace only benefits those who have "interests" to protect... who benefits from war? The people caught in the crossfire? The poor? Those destitute and hopeless who stand helplessly by as one warlord after another takes power?

What about a people's revolution? That "revolution" in the cases of Russia and China were shams... shams that sent millions to their death in the name of "social progress". And again, all it achieved was empowerment for the "party" and the oppression of everyone else. Thus, the poor stayed poor, and the middle class joined them.

The status quo sucks, but, like I said in my previous post, upsetting the status quo doesn't help anyone if there's no qualitative change inthe leaders... you can see this in dozens of third world countries.

And any leader aching to achieve change through violence doesn't really have fiscal and economic reforms in mind... only personal aggrandizement and power. A successful regime change nowadays requires military might... such as only the corrupt and lawless may possess. Show me anyone with the power and motivation to overthrow the government who really has the people at heart... who isn't engaged in kidnapping, extortion or blackmail.

Any revolt by the C-D groups usually comes from the dispossesed young males, aggressive, unemployed and usually aching for a fight. We've seen this in the LA riots and in Paris. We saw this last month across the Middle East and Asia with the "Cartoon Riots". This kind of revolt achieves nothing but a lowering of the rights of the underpriveleged, through curfews, arrests and stricter police control.

The poor can do nothing to change a government... except educate themselves. Learn the ways of government, and learn how to vote right.

[oldblue]

i dont self-pity..... i have a very stable and decsent life,i can buy and eat what i want, what do i care? ..........nakakaawa lang talaga ang karamihan sa atin sa pinas...nanghihinayang lang!!!

pag ok ka na. wag na maging negative. we have so much of that already here.

[oldblue]

yes the americans bought the phils from the spaniards but not before they traded cannonfire.

and not before Aguinaldo and his men sneaked at the back of Intramuros Fortified City and while the Spanish were busy exchanging cannonballs with the American invaders from Manila Bay.

taka nga ako what's so glorious about this victory eh.

before that war event, Aguinaldo and some members of the revolutionary movement had a secret meeting with the Americans in Hongkong. not exactly a honorable/heroic act worthy to be credited by history. pero ito ang namana natin, secret meetings/dealings, conspiring

[Flagg]

The govt and A-B will always protect their interests. Corruption is allowed by the A-B so those in power are corrupted to a point where they wouldnt want to leave where they are. Tada! Resistance to change is solidified. Status quo preserved.

AFAIK, EDSA 1 (the only real revolution) started as AB. All the leftists, rent-a-crowds, CDEFG came mga 1-2 days later. Today, according to the CD people I've talked to, the only grudge they have against the AB is that the AB can still afford to ride out today's hardship. They however acknowledge that even the AB are having a hard time.

Is advocating hatred between classes an optimal course to take? Do you really believe it is fun to pay bribes when in fact you are already taxed considerably? How fun is it to be taxed for garbage collection and then pay the basurero P50/day to do his job?

Sir uls, in the search for a better system, some people actually have to work to keep this country going while under the present one. If we have to resort to following the way this system works, so be it. This does not mean that we want to keep it this way.

Btw, yeah my ride is pimped. I work 12-14 hrs a day, 6-7 days a week and saved for 6 yrs to do it (while still financing my mortgage and living expenses). In the same way, one of my men worked 10-12 hrs a day, 6 days a week and saved 3 yrs to buy his scooter. That sir uls, is how you improve. You don't get that chance in hatred and war, now do you?

[oldblue]

Originally Posted by uls
The govt and A-B will always protect their interests. Corruption is allowed by the A-B so those in power are corrupted to a point where they wouldnt want to leave where they are. Tada! Resistance to change is solidified. Status quo preserved.

this is actually a very accurate insight. A-B have perfected the art of monopoly. I very much agree with this.


but with this as a given, what will be our next step as members of the middle and lower class? whining won't do, and being used by a cause with a hidden agenda (like people power/rallies) won't do either.

"it's easier to change oneself, than it is to change another person" - nakalimutan ko nagsabi hehehe

to change oneself - become like them\imitate them then beat them at their own game. yun lang ang solusyon talaga and one must be willing to undergo what they had undergone to reach such a status.

that's the way of the capitalistic world eh ... beat 'em or join 'em.

[uls]

How the A-B allows corruption in govt:

Businessmen avoid paying huge taxes by bribing BIR people.

Contractors wins govt contracts by giving kickbacks to certain govt people.

the bigger the money involved, the higher the level of govt is involved.

to them, its win-win. i scratch ur back, u scratch mine.

Its lucrative for the govt people involved. So lucrative that they can afford lifestyles similar to those who bribe them.

The A-B created this breed of people to protect their own interests.

thats how the system works. its wrong, but its there, firmly rooted, resisitant to change.