Reina Mae and baby River’s story shows us otherwise. For people with no big names and for activists, human rights are never served on a silver platter. These should always be asserted against the establishment and must be defended for recognition, respect, and protection.
Teachers are demanded to grade objectively. Students are commanded to deliver. And while this seems to be the most efficient way to identify who “passes” and who “fails”, it disregards the human aspect of education. In fact, it is this obsession with efficiency and production that reveals how misplaced the priority of our education system is.
Every year in October, anesthesiologists celebrate or commemorate Anesthesia Week. I will write this time about the anesthesiologist as victims and victors. My column got its inspiration from Roger Water’s (or Pink Floyd’s) song “Comfortably Numb.”
In an agricultural country like ours, the biggest budget must be allotted to the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Agrarian Reform. Right now, for every P100 budget, only P2.00 is allotted for agriculture and production. For every P1.00 budget for agriculture, there is P4.00 for the police and military.
It is supremely dissonant that, on what is supposedly Indigenous Peoples’ Month in the Philippines, the local police of the province of Kalinga proposes to demolish the monument to three historical figures to the Indigenous struggles of the Cordillera region.
Just why are public officials so obsessed with superficial beautification than, say, making spaces more inclusive?
Martial Law would have been imposed in the entire province of Sulu after the “twin bombings” that happened on August 24. But due to the clamor of the people, the local government, civil society and human rights groups, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) and even legislators, Philippine Army Chief Lt. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana withdrew his recommendation for it. Fifteen people were killed in the bombings including soldiers, policemen and civilians, with 75 others injured. Even President Rodrigo Duterte avoided mentioning aobut Martial Law during his visit in Jolo on August 30.
Here I am, writing another piece about a mother. Here I am, writing about the murder of a female human rights activist who was repeatedly threatened and harassed. Here we are mourning the death of another selfless woman who, despite being unjustly incarcerated for almost two years, chose to continue seeking justice for others.
While it is only logical to say that complete educational overhaul can only happen upon the realization of socio-economic reforms, it is equally logical to seize this chance to work on its initiation.
Mother’s milk is, I think, a symbol of compassion. Without mother’s milk we cannot survive, so our first act as a baby together with our mother is sucking milk from our mother, with a feeling of great closeness. At that time, we may not know how to express what love is, what compassion is, but there is a strong feeling of closeness. From the mother’s side also, if there is no strong feeling of closeness toward the baby, her milk may not flow readily. So, mother’s milk is, I think, a symbol of compassion and human affection. -The Dalai Lama
