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Back to basics C.R.O.S.S.R.O.A.D.S Jonathan De la Cruz 03/08/2010

Monday, March 8, 2010


Back to basics


C.R.O.S.S.R.O.A.D.S
Jonathan De la Cruz
03/08/2010

It’s back to basics 24 years after Edsa l. After all the huffing and hewing about how the country was saved from the precipice by the so-called “Yellow Army” of crusaders, the question of whether we are better off than before remains as valid as ever. True, we now have more democractic space and one can write critical pieces against those in power without having to suffer dire consequences. People can speak their minds out and pour out their heartaches against all kinds of evil including those committed by the ruling class without having to fear for one’s life. That is, if one is not is some nook of the country (whether in the urban jungle or in the backwoods), where drugs and gangsters, official or otherwise, reign supreme. I mean we have the formal trappings of a democracy (although the same is being eroded every single day) but do we really enjoy it in its proper form and have the means and the environment to so move as in mature societies? The overwhelming response is NO. Not even the best laid plans of the Yellow Army which converged at the Araneta Coliseum to celebrate the events of long ago could hide the fact that we are a democracy in name only. We remain hostages to the whims and caprices of a ruling elite which hold sway over the country and have majority of the people in peonage. The institutions of democracy are so feeble they can be bent with the right connections. And the sad reality is those who should know better try to perpetuate and even take advantage of the situation to promote their divisive politics instead of uniting the people and instill the proper values to enhance our democratic traditions and practices. Worse, their kind of politics has and will definitely not bring food, clothing, shelter, jobs and a host of other basic needs to the masses of our people who continue to wallow in poverty and destitute surroundings while they throw mud at each other in their quest for power and personal gain.... MORE


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