As the new year turns January 4, 2007
AGENCE France-Presse had an interesting item about the fate of dictators, which appeared on our front page last Sunday. It included a whole bunch of people, not the least of them Saddam Hussein who was hanged by the Iraqis but with obvious American approval the day before.
The list included our very own Ferdinand Marcos. The part about him read: “Ousted in February 1986 after a 20-year rule, the Philippine dictator went into exile in Hawaii where he died on Sept. 28, 1989, at the age of 72.” That has to be qualified a bit. Marcos ruled legitimately for close to seven years before he became a dictator for less than 14 years after declaring martial law.
The dictators are classified into four categories: those who died in office, in exile, were executed, and are facing justice. Many names are familiar: Adolf Hitler (committed suicide in a bunker in April 1945), Pol Pot (died in exile in April 1998), Benito Mussolini (shot to death by partisans in April 1945 while fleeing for Switzerland with his mistress), Saddam Hussein, Augusto Pinochet (died in December 2006 of a heart attack while facing charges of mass murder), Slobodan Milosevic (died in prison in the Hague in March 2006 while on trial for war crimes).
It’s a cautionary tale on the whole for would-be dictators. Only rarely do they manage to stay in office and die of old age in a state of grace or serenity. Some do; unfortunately life isn’t always fair. It’s an interesting story, the AFP item, but quite an incomplete one -- apart from a controversial one (some will protest violently the inclusion of people like Mao Zedong). I myself have three more entries to add to that list.
One, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Came to power in January 2001 on the wings of people power. Stole the elections in 2004 with the connivance of an official of the Commission on Elections and has since used force to stay in power. Has caused the wholesale murder of political activists and provincial journalists, apart from the wholesale murder of democracy and decency. Remains in office, but is everywhere hounded by the writing on the wall.
Two, Richard Nixon. (It is a testament to the narrowness of the American viewpoint that it is able to espy dictators elsewhere but not under its nose. If a dictator is a self-appointed leader who tyrannizes his constituents, then surely a self-anointed leader who tyrannizes the world constitutes an even bigger dictator?) Escalated the Vietnam War by bombing Cambodia and Laos. Along with Henry Kissinger, he instigated the coup in Chile which led to the massacre of more than 3,000 Chileans. Why only Pinochet had to face justice afterward and not Nixon and Kissinger, well, that is the world order as we know it. Nixon further ushered in the US policy of supporting tyrants all over the Third Word, not least Marcos, with the unstated motto, “We don’t mind that he’s an SOB, so long as he’s our SOB,” which led to the slaughter of tens of thousands of people in poor countries.
He died in April 1994 from a stroke while preparing to have dinner. His last words apparently were calling out to a maid for help. It is not known if his maid was Vietnamese, but he did not survive the episode.
George W. Bush. Stole the vote in Florida from Al Gore. Deliberately lied to the American people about Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction and, despite the loud protestations of the UN and pretty nearly all the world, with the exception of leaders like those of Britain and Australia who think American and European lives are worth more than Iraqi and Arab ones, bombed Iraq to submission. Meanwhile, Osama bin Laden, who authored 9/11 but whose family has business dealings with Bush’s own family, remains scot-free.
Until recently, Bush, who has added whole new meanings to mediocrity and pettiness, apart from viciousness and murderousness, has been free to contemplate carving the world into his image and likeness -- a chilling thought given his image and likeness physically, never mind mentally. Indeed, until recently, he and his bunch have been free to have their way with America, like Daniel Smith and his bunch with “Nicole.”
They’ve already hanged Saddam Hussein. When the hell are they going to hang him?
* * *
Sunday night wasn’t so bad. The din lasted for only about half an hour where I live. And the smoke wasn’t as thick as in previous years, though my throat still felt raw next day, a hangover from my asthmatic days as a kid. But I still minded the pyrotechnics in light of one thing: Surely all that money that went up in smoke, completely literally, could have gone to feeding the hungry and putting a roof over the heads of the storm-ravaged people of the Bicol region?
I know exploding firecrackers on New Year’s Eve is tradition, but tradition, as Tevye in “Fiddler on the Roof” learned, can always be changed. We also have a tradition of “bayanihan” [communal self-help], as far as I can recall, and I cannot understand why we’ve allowed that to drift away like shifting sand.
The tradition, I know, says that if you make that much ruckus on New Year’s Eve, you will drive the demons away. Frankly, I find that incomprehensible. I don’t know how the belief began, but surely demons are more likely to thrive in that madness than be scared by it? In any case, I’ve always thought there was a surer way to drive out the demon of hunger that stalks Bicolandia and the eastern seaboard of the Visayas today, and that is by giving food and clothing to the victims in lieu of burning things, and uttering a silent prayer to go along with it.
Indeed, I’ve always thought there was a surer way to drive out the other and far more vicious demons in our midst, a way we discovered some time ago and have since turned into hallowed tradition. It’s called people power.
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view_article.php?article_id=41472
The list included our very own Ferdinand Marcos. The part about him read: “Ousted in February 1986 after a 20-year rule, the Philippine dictator went into exile in Hawaii where he died on Sept. 28, 1989, at the age of 72.” That has to be qualified a bit. Marcos ruled legitimately for close to seven years before he became a dictator for less than 14 years after declaring martial law.
The dictators are classified into four categories: those who died in office, in exile, were executed, and are facing justice. Many names are familiar: Adolf Hitler (committed suicide in a bunker in April 1945), Pol Pot (died in exile in April 1998), Benito Mussolini (shot to death by partisans in April 1945 while fleeing for Switzerland with his mistress), Saddam Hussein, Augusto Pinochet (died in December 2006 of a heart attack while facing charges of mass murder), Slobodan Milosevic (died in prison in the Hague in March 2006 while on trial for war crimes).
It’s a cautionary tale on the whole for would-be dictators. Only rarely do they manage to stay in office and die of old age in a state of grace or serenity. Some do; unfortunately life isn’t always fair. It’s an interesting story, the AFP item, but quite an incomplete one -- apart from a controversial one (some will protest violently the inclusion of people like Mao Zedong). I myself have three more entries to add to that list.
One, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Came to power in January 2001 on the wings of people power. Stole the elections in 2004 with the connivance of an official of the Commission on Elections and has since used force to stay in power. Has caused the wholesale murder of political activists and provincial journalists, apart from the wholesale murder of democracy and decency. Remains in office, but is everywhere hounded by the writing on the wall.
Two, Richard Nixon. (It is a testament to the narrowness of the American viewpoint that it is able to espy dictators elsewhere but not under its nose. If a dictator is a self-appointed leader who tyrannizes his constituents, then surely a self-anointed leader who tyrannizes the world constitutes an even bigger dictator?) Escalated the Vietnam War by bombing Cambodia and Laos. Along with Henry Kissinger, he instigated the coup in Chile which led to the massacre of more than 3,000 Chileans. Why only Pinochet had to face justice afterward and not Nixon and Kissinger, well, that is the world order as we know it. Nixon further ushered in the US policy of supporting tyrants all over the Third Word, not least Marcos, with the unstated motto, “We don’t mind that he’s an SOB, so long as he’s our SOB,” which led to the slaughter of tens of thousands of people in poor countries.
He died in April 1994 from a stroke while preparing to have dinner. His last words apparently were calling out to a maid for help. It is not known if his maid was Vietnamese, but he did not survive the episode.
George W. Bush. Stole the vote in Florida from Al Gore. Deliberately lied to the American people about Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction and, despite the loud protestations of the UN and pretty nearly all the world, with the exception of leaders like those of Britain and Australia who think American and European lives are worth more than Iraqi and Arab ones, bombed Iraq to submission. Meanwhile, Osama bin Laden, who authored 9/11 but whose family has business dealings with Bush’s own family, remains scot-free.
Until recently, Bush, who has added whole new meanings to mediocrity and pettiness, apart from viciousness and murderousness, has been free to contemplate carving the world into his image and likeness -- a chilling thought given his image and likeness physically, never mind mentally. Indeed, until recently, he and his bunch have been free to have their way with America, like Daniel Smith and his bunch with “Nicole.”
They’ve already hanged Saddam Hussein. When the hell are they going to hang him?
* * *
Sunday night wasn’t so bad. The din lasted for only about half an hour where I live. And the smoke wasn’t as thick as in previous years, though my throat still felt raw next day, a hangover from my asthmatic days as a kid. But I still minded the pyrotechnics in light of one thing: Surely all that money that went up in smoke, completely literally, could have gone to feeding the hungry and putting a roof over the heads of the storm-ravaged people of the Bicol region?
I know exploding firecrackers on New Year’s Eve is tradition, but tradition, as Tevye in “Fiddler on the Roof” learned, can always be changed. We also have a tradition of “bayanihan” [communal self-help], as far as I can recall, and I cannot understand why we’ve allowed that to drift away like shifting sand.
The tradition, I know, says that if you make that much ruckus on New Year’s Eve, you will drive the demons away. Frankly, I find that incomprehensible. I don’t know how the belief began, but surely demons are more likely to thrive in that madness than be scared by it? In any case, I’ve always thought there was a surer way to drive out the demon of hunger that stalks Bicolandia and the eastern seaboard of the Visayas today, and that is by giving food and clothing to the victims in lieu of burning things, and uttering a silent prayer to go along with it.
Indeed, I’ve always thought there was a surer way to drive out the other and far more vicious demons in our midst, a way we discovered some time ago and have since turned into hallowed tradition. It’s called people power.
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view_article.php?article_id=41472
posted by dqfan06 @ 9:50 AM
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