Open Letter to the Knights of Rizal

Open Letter to the Knights of Rizal As the Knights of Rizal, you people should have already settled the issue of the Rizal retraction scandal. The shameful damaging controversy has been going on for more than 111 years now. Rizal was condemned to death as an infidel. He was framed with the crime of rebellion to kill him for brilliantly attacking the Catholic establishment as even the 2005 published Opus Dei book admits. Down Through the years, you Knights of Rizal, historians, biographers, and even a famous lady columnist wrote that it does not matter whether Rizal retracted or not because it is a non-issue. I ask: are you people really that frightened of the truth? And to think that some of you are lawyers by profession. You were trained in the art of cross-examination precisely to ferret out the truth. When has the truth ever been a non-issue in human tragedy? We Filipinos have yet to acknowledge that our hero, Rizal, died truthful to his principles and humanitarian ideals. Indeed, he met his death intellectually sober and not drunk with religious lies. Clearly, the Catholic church in authority found it necessary to put Rizal to death. After all, it is easier to destroy the reputation of a dead man than it is to destroy his truthful writings, especially if he remains alive doing more truthful writings. Rizal advocated the rational way of life and he therefore got to be the notorious enemy of Catholicism. Rizal wanted us to grow up and to stop living in fear and in guilt. Moreover, to stop wasting our time falling on our knees praying daily to a Supreme Being out there to give us this day our daily bread and to lead us not into temptation down here. The Catholic could never allow Rizal’s teachings to revolutionize the Filipino way of thinking: it is always better to think than it is to believe. Unfortunately, faith condemns people not to think. And sadly, with faith, millions believe that Rizal died as a penitent Catholic totally rejecting Rizal‘s message: “Be careful, choose well, for this world is full of deceits and deceivers.” And to think that after he was executed Rizal was not even granted a Catholic burial. It only proves that the Rizal retraction story was pure gimcrackery. It was concocted by the priesthood industry to protect the Catholic church with its vested interest in human misery. In this 21st century, we poor Filipinos are still searching for our identity and prosperity and social sanity which Rizal struggled and gave his precious life for. Oh, you Knights of Rizal, wake up! Rizal is still a vague hero to millions of Filipinos! Only the few know Rizal as a brilliant thinker who was executed for being too brilliant a thinker who catered not to the authority of the church, but served instead his people and the future welfare of his own country! Indeed, thanks to the courage of great thinkers in the stature of a Rizal, the Catholic church today is tearing itself apart externally as it is collapsing internally. I accuse you Knights of Rizal of both errancy and complicity in the second assassination of Rizal’s character and reputation. It is worthless to ignore those who maliciously invented Rizal’s retraction document hours before he was executed. It is more crucial to defend Rizal’s loyalty to veracity, profound sense of common human decency, and unquestionable level of scientific honesty. If we, the Filipino people, continue to suffer under the failure of our social values and religious beliefs, it is simply due to the historical success of Catholicism in the Philippines. Indeed, as products of our Catholic schools, colleges, and universities we have yet to be taught how to emulate our great hero - the rare and brave thinking Filipino that he was - who struggled against those made wealth, power, and glory selling nothing but the gospel of sacred lies and biblical falsehoods in this country since the 16th century. Gentlemen, our chief hero was put to death for being humanistic, scientific, and a heretic. Indeed, the same Rizal, the sane and rational man that he was, with dignity and self-respect - refused to fall on his knees in blind obedience to anything fantastic be it ecclesiastic, apostolic, pontific, or even theologic. Yours in Rizal, Poch Suzara

The Truth Hurts

The Truth hurts. The most stupid thing, however, is when one prefers getting hurt like a coward than facing the truth with courage. Poch Suzara

Senate Minority Leader

Aquilino Pimentel Jr. cautioned the executive branch of government against pressuring the Court of Appeals on the US Marine rapist custody issue.
Pimentel said the Philippine government was “well within its right” to voice its position on the case in view of the cancellation of the Balikatan 2007. But he said the issue “should be taken within the ambit of the case,” now pending before the court.
To allow the executive branch to bamboozle the court, that is something else,” the Senator told the Daily Inquirer.
Pimentel also advised the appellate court not to yield to “external pressure” and “to decide on the case on its legal merits.” “Only in that way will the issue be laid to rest,” he said, adding:
“Like extrajudicial killings, extrajudicial pressure is divisive.” Pimental also said the Philippine government had no reason to complain if the US government cancelled the war games and, eventually, stopped giving aid to the country.
“If the United States, the only superpower in the world, believes that the Balikatan exercises are not that vital for its security and ours, who are we to complain?” he said.
For my part, I admire Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel, Jr. He is a rare Filipino politician in the Philippine government. He has not only the intellect but also the courage to assert self-respect and dignity for his people where a US Marine rapist and his spiritual adviser – Fr. James Reuter have only made a mockery of the status of the women citizens of the Republic of the Philippines.
In the meantime, we have yet to hear from the Visiting Forces Agreement Commanders on the US military proceedings to discharge dishonorably that criminal who raped Nicole in her own land. And to think that the job of the US Marines is to protect and defend those who are unable to defend and protect themselves. Poch Suzara

The Iraqi War

The Iraqi war has done much damage to the capability of the US military. The US government has been spending $9 billion a month and have spent over $300 billion total on this war thus far. The potential antagonists of the USA, including Iran, North Korea, Russia and China, “want and need America in Iraq” because the war is “depleting American financial and human resources.” Imagine $300 Billion dollars. Imagine what that money can do to rebuild communities that have been falling apart in American cities since the end of the Vietnam war in 1975.
Imagine $300 Billion dollars wasted on war and not for peace and global stability. That kind of money can tremendously help America catch up with other advanced European nations, not to mention Japan, New Zealand, Iceland, Australia, and Canada ahead in: adult literacy, health care quality, student reading ability, student mathematics ability, student science ability, women’s rights, infant mortality rate, life expectancy, qualify of life survey, overall currency strength, human development index. In brief, ahead in social and political and economic sanity.
For my part, as an American citizen, I no longer feel free or even proud singing: God Bless America! Poch Suzara

If Atheism were a Religion

If atheism were a religion, then it is the oldest of all religions. Consider the angels who rebelled against God in heaven eons ago even before the days of Adam and Eve on earth. Those angels did not follow God. They did not believe in God. They were atheists, weren’t they? If God, however, was really all that great, all that fair and wonderful, and all that lovable – why would any of his angels in heaven and men on earth disobey or rebel against him? It makes no supernatural sense at all! Poch Suzara

Poor Philippines

We are such a poor country. We neither have a history nor a culture or values to live by. We do not even have national heroes to emulate. Our national heroes have turned out to be not heroes but faithful believers. Before they died or were executed, according to our priests and nuns, they retracted while embracing the teachings of the Catholic Church. One such great Filipino was Jose Rizal. He is now more of a saint of God than he is a hero of the Filipino people. Thus, in this only Christian country in Asia, we continue to experience poverty of the worse kind – the poverty of the mind and heart. We have no great leaders, and no great heroes. We have more bishops down here and more saints up there to love, worship, and adore. In fact, we Filipinos love only Mary, the Virgin Mother of God more than we love our own mother because our mothers have lost their virginity to our fathers. Poch Suzara Twitter# Facebook# Google#

According to Science

The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies all were made in the interior of collapsing stars. We are made of star stuff.
God did not create the universe. To begin with, the creation of the universe is beyond the scope of human understanding. We created God to justify our ignorance and fear. We even made such jusification appear like it is something unquestionably sacred, if not biblically holy. Poch Suzara

Bishop Oscar Cruz

The famous Nicole Rape case got her US Marine rapist sentenced to 40 years in jail. (PDI December 8,2006). Bishop Oscar Cruz stated: “Women, most especially, should be taught that womanhood is precious and noble, so it is not right for them to be flaunting it around . . . they should not make themselves appear cheap and practically inviting to be violated by men.” Wow! One can imagine during her days just how sexually attractive must have been the Virgin Mary flaunting her carnal desires all over the place. God almighty existing here, existing there, and existing everywhere, could not control himself. He was seduced and aroused. He got Mary deflowered and impregnated her with a baby. We do, however, have to give God some credit. He wasn’t really all that sexually reckless. He was responsible enough to practiced family planning and birth control. He had begotten only one Son, didn’t He? Poch Suzara

You are an Atheist too

You say I am an atheist because I do not believe in the existence of your God. Well, you are an atheist too because you do not believe in the existence of my God. Now, who gave you the right to define for me which God I should believe in? In the meantime, if your God were always omni-absent as a nothing, never omni-present as a something, what does it really matter whether I believe or do not believe in the existence of such a supernatural nothing? Poch Suzara

Fr. James Reuter and Our Women

Fr. James Reuter, the spiritual adviser of the American Marines in the Philippines, keeps insisting that Nicole’s US Marine rapist had been innocent all along. It was a matter of consensual sex. Our women, he says, are always flaunting carnal desires each time men are around, especially wearing military uniform.
May I suggest to Fr. Reuter that he attend to more serious troubles of the Catholic Church? More than 75 per cent of all Catholic priests worldwide are gays. These spiritually starved men of the Lord are not only sexually active, they also victimize young boys and girls who have no knowledge of what consensual sex means. Fr. James Reuter, isn’t time for you to enrich the spiritual life of the US marines visiting the Philippines? Golly, if they are here to train the Filipino to kill fellow-Filipinos more efficiently with weapons MADE IN AMERICA, they are here to insult our women! Poch Suzara

How the Gods Bless America

Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad. In the sick and destructive American society, however, even the gods envy the sick politicians in charge of the US government. They are very efficient at being mad at each other. Even the gods envy the way these filthy-rich morons otherwise more known as Republicans or Democrats have been destroying America - a nation of the people, by the people, and for the people. Poch Suzara

Ignorance

We wonder at the ignorance of our grandparents and great-grandparents of things so plain and simple. Well, our grandchildren and great-grandchildren will wonder too at our own ignorance of things so plain and simple. This, in brief, is the evolution of knowledge via the results of the never-ending search of the truth.
To think that in this generation, we, the religiously dumbstruck, do not wonder also what those ignorant and superstitious primitives recorded in the silly bible more than 2,000 years or 80 generations ago. Golly, a great many believers do not even bother to read the bible. We atheists do read the bible and have already submitted reports to the theists about incredible bible contents. Poch Suzara

Tree of Genesis

There is written in Genesis about the existence of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Notice the billions of trees existing everywhere on this earth. Except the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. No one knows where that fantastic Tree is located today. Oh well, according to the same bible, God himself was once a Burning Bush. That Burning Bush, however, has not totally vanished. It evolved and got to be elected president of the United States of America. Poch Suzara

Silly Theologians

The theologians are getting sillier. They are now declaring that atheists too can go to heaven. Excuse me! We atheists don’t care to go to heaven. We do not care to go anywhere after we are dead. We atheists are quite familiar with the silly concept of immortality: it is the condition of a dead man who refuses to believe that he is already dead! Golly, with theologians around, isn’t enough to be fools in this life? Must we also be fools in the next life? And to think there isn’t even any! Poch Suzara

Worthless La Salle Education

In this 21st century, I am not surprised to receive childish, if not infantile email messages from grown-up men and women. Especially from those who have had the benefit of college education in the Philippines or even in the United States. Each time, however, I receive meaningless messages from such college educated individuals, I can’t help but be proud of the fact that some 65 years ago, I managed, somehow, to get myself expelled out of La Salle high school. As a high-school expelled student, I think then as I still do think today that a college education in this country or in the USA represent something like that of a Cathedral: it is a monument to human stupidity. Look at the stupid mess of our world getting messier with each passing year. Look at the world leaders who are all proud of their college education. To think as faithful believers in God and His son Jesus these are the leaders of our rotten and corrupt and insane world. Poch Suzara Twitter# facebook# Google#

Weekdays and Sundays

On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays – I am an agnostic. On Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays – I am an atheist. Now what about Sundays? Well, on Sundays, I am a heretic in the morning; an infidel in the afternoon; and, an unbeliever of the faith in the evening. During the 365 days or twelve months of the year, however, I am a devout humanist. I am always on the side of the human race. I have made it into a habit to struggle daily against the evils of divine disgrace. Poch Suzara

Painful

It is, indeed, painful for me to see the lives of many individuals largely determined not by what is in between their ears, but by what is in between their legs. Devoid of intellect, they fail to see the values of developing the human mind with knowledge and cultivating the human heart with wisdom. Most of these individuals, many of whom are college-educated friends and relatives, would rather enjoy first sexual orgasm. They belittle knowledge, as if it were a sin or a crime to experience intellectual protoplasm. They do not want to know. They only want to believe. In the meantime, there is far more beauty in thinking before believing than there is value in believing without thinking. Poch Suzara

Domestics

“More than 70,000 Filipinos live and work in oil-rich Kuwait, many of them domestics.” Manila Standard Today, Dec. 25, 2006.
Kuwait is not a Christian country. The Kuwaitis are Muslims. They do not believe in the holy bible. They have their own holy Quran – the Word of Allah. And to think the teachers and professors of our schools, colleges, and universities are so proud of each other. Most of the domestic helpers in Kuwait are college-educated men and women from the Philippines.
In the meantime, more than 15 million Filipinos today are living and working in some 150 countries around the world. The officials of our government are so proud of each other as these Overseas Contract Workers remit more than $10 Billion dollars back home yearly to help keep afloat the sinking economy of the Philippines. Indeed, the failure of our values under the Success of Christianity in the Philippines. Poch Suzara

People Who love People

‘People who love people are the luckiest people in the world.’ Unfortunately, people cannot love people unless they love first and foremost - themselves. In America, we do not love each other as a people. We love only the almighty dollar and our government sees to it that we also love our guns, bullets, and bombs. Why not? More people throughout the world hate us more than they love us. It is called terrorism and we have to defend ourselves. Poch Suzara

More Hate in America

Here is a great example of more hate in America. In the History of Jim Crow, author Jerold M. Packard wrote: “Though for decades white supremacists would defend lynching as a safeguard against unpunished rape of white women by black men, rape was not in reality the usual motivation for the lynching. Of the 3,811 African-American men lynched between 1889 and 1941, no more than 641 – 17 per cent – had actually been accused of rape, either attempted or committed. Numerically, other offenses vastly outranked rape. Some of the imagined or real transgressions by African-Americans ending in lynching included attempts to sue a white employer, demanding to be allowed to vote, participating in union activities, exhibiting disrespect to a white or disputing a white, or simply for no reason that ever came to light – the latter perhaps a case of “sassing” or giving a white a “fresh” look (what was in the South sometimes called “reckless eyeballing”) or, most shocking of all, simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time when an “example” was thought by murderous whites to be needed to keep a black community in its “place.” Furthermore, it wasn’t only black males who were lynched. Most black women were murdered, too, including Mary Turner, who was killed by a mob in Chicago while nearly at the point of giving birth to her child, her killers hanging her and setting her body ablaze because she had threatened to disclose the names of the men who had earlier lynched her husband.”
Such is hate in America – the land of the free and the home of the brave. Poch Suzara

Science and Religion

Religion is dying. It is certainty without evidence. Science is growing. It is evidence without certainty. The belief that science and religion can reconcile one day is pure nonsense. To begin with, religion cannot even reconcile with other religions, why would science bother to reconcile with evils more known as silly religions of this world? Poch Suzara

What We Need

What we need is not a new President, but a new form of government. Indeed, a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. What we need is a government to please the Filipino people, not to please the US government and its people specially those who are in the US military. Poch Suzara

It is the Same Old Story

For the New Year’s Eve. We waste about a Billions pesos worth of fireworks. To think the nation has a foreign debt of about a Trillion pesos. We are, indeed, a nation of educated morons, if not fire-cracking idiots. Our economists are silent. They have yet to figure out, however, what a billion pesos worth of fireworks for the new year’s eve celebration got anything to do with progress of the nation. To me, in my simplicity, a billion pesos could buy about 1,000 low cost houses to benefit poor families comprising about 50,000 Filipino men, women, and children. But then again, why should we bother? Why should we care? We have been taught by religious stupid morons that there is always God who will provide! Poch Suzara

What If the Lord

What if the Lord were at best a heretic; or, at worst an atheist who does not believe in any of man's religions? Genesis, 6:6 reads: "It repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart." Well, what if the Lord has ceased to believe in himself? Poch Suzara

It is truly Incredible

Millions of Americans still believe that there is a difference between the Republicans and Democrats in US politics. As if either party does not belong to the same party called “greed party.” As if the US government were truly free and democratic and not under the total control of the richest US corporations manufacturing goods not for world peace but for world war to destroy the enemies of Capitalism. Poch Suzara

Thou Art Dust

The bible says: “From dust thou art, and from dust thou shall return.”
Well, if we came from dust, and unto dust we shall return, and God made man in his own image and likeness, then God must be made of dust too. No wonder, God is everywhere, just like dust is everywhere too. In the meantime, isn’t it rather foolish to pray to a piece of dust for the salvation of dusty souls made of dust
too? Poch Suzara

More Civilization

What worth is there in gaining heavenly salvation by leaving this world in desperate need for more earthly civilization? Poch Suzara

We Pray

We pray for the spirit of the dead. We also pray for the spirit of the living. We do not know the answer to our prayer for the spirit of the dead individually. But for the spirit of the living collectively, the answer seems to be social insanity under our sick society. Poch Suzara

Atheists are Arrogant

Because atheists, they say, ignore the fact that religion is extremely beneficial to society. What a crock of bull. Listen to this famous philosopher, a great mathematician, a logician who gave birth to modern logic, a thinker imprisoned for his pacifist beliefs, and indeed, a publicly declared atheist – Bertrand Russell. He wrote: “If a majority in every civilized country so desired, we could, within 20 years, abolish all abject poverty, quite half the illness in the world, the whole economic slavery which binds down nine tenths of our population; we could fill the world with beauty and joy, and secure the reign of universal peace.”
I, myself, am a proud and a happy atheist; and if you, my dear readers, were shallow-minded enough to believe that I am an arrogant person – thank you. In facing life’s horrors, would you rather I’d be like most people - timid cowards? Poch Suzara

Stupid Sense of Moral Values

Imagine helping the poor not out of concern for suffering people, but doing so because you have been frightened to believe the creator of the universe wants you to do it, will reward you for doing it or will punish you for not doing it? What kind of a creator is that who is stupid enough to have created poor and suffering people? Poch Suzara

A Biographical Tidbit

I have no problem with drugs. I have no problem with alcohol. I have no problem with gambling. I have no problem with women. Most amazing of all, however, is that I have no problem with the greatest evil of all - boredom. Indeed, not to be involved and not to exist amount to the same thing. If I am not busy physically, I am busy intellectually. I have developed the habit of questioning everything. I am therefore always thinking a lot. Thinking helps me to recognize the depths of my own ignorance and in facing such evils I am able to be intellectually honest with myself. I walk a mile each morning around the area where I lived. After breakfast, I write and re-write. After lunch, I take a little nap. Then I go to my blog, facebook, gmail, and Google. These are the little things that make me happy; but my happiness is more based on the fact that I no longer carry a religious burden on my back. I have thrown my superstitious beliefs out the window. I am an atheist. I no longer waste precious time, like millions do, praying daily to a silly God to “give us this day our daily bread,” and to “lead us not into temptation. Things being equal, what’s my problem in life? A lot of my dumbstruck friends and relatives are very disappointed with me. They would rather see me in trouble with a spouse or drunk every night with alcohol or gambling in the casino or even busy womanizing. They think of me as some sort of a weird fellow as I only love to read a lot and write a lot. To enjoy not only the freedom of thought, but also the freedom of expression. Those who are afraid to die are afraid to live. I am not afraid to live. At any rate, if I must die, I am sure to die sober, and not drunk with lies. In the meantime, happiness is not what a man has, but what a man is. Indeed, I do not want millions. I want answers to my questions. I care much for this life as it is the only life I know. I do not care for the next life as I know nothing about the existence of a next life. How can there ever be a hereafter after death when there never was, for any of us, before birth - a herebefore? Poch Suzara

Astronomy

According to the science of astronomy, there are more than 400 billion stars and planets that comprise the Milky Way Galaxy. But there are more than a trillion of such galaxies comprising the cosmos. In this light, the planet earth is like a grain of sand, and we, the people, are like parasites living on the surface of the earth.
According to theology, however, we must pride ourselves into believing that God made man in his own image and likeness. Poch Suzara

Nicole

Unless our women learn from Nicole’s rape case, they will continue to be third class citizens qualified only to be employed in the baby factory of the Philippines. Indeed, we have 1.8 million babies born yearly in our country. Most of them are un-wanted, un-loved, and un-needed even by the morons otherwise more known of the papa of these abandoned children. Poch Suzara

The Greatest Mystery

The greatest mystery, if not also the best kept secret in the world is the Revealed Truth. After all, it has yet to be revealed. Poch Suzara

A Whole Person

My teachers at De La Salle University impressed upon me when I was a grade school student that I was half animal and half man. When I became an atheist, however, I deeply felt the joys of being a whole person. Indeed, I became an atheist when I realized how silly of God to have made me half man and half animal in his own image and likeness. Poch Suzara

Junk Prayers

On earth we get junk mail. In heaven God gets junk prayers. Indeed, on earth as it is in heaven. Poch Suzara

Live Without God

Man cannot live without God? As a matter of fact men have not ceased hating and killing each other because they cannot agree as to which God to believe in, and cannot tolerate each other’s God to live for. Man cannot live without God? Which man? The man who is a speck of dust crawling helplessly on a small and insignificant planet as seen by the astronomers? Or, man as a heap of chemicals put together in some cunning way as seen by the physicists? Perhaps, man as he appears to Hamlet, noble in reason, infinite in faculty? For my part, as an atheist, I have, indeed, been living without a God. As a matter of self-respect, I don't need a God. I admit, however, that I would rather live with the goddess I love, worship, and adore. Her very presence fills my world with so much light and beauty and sanity. She never ceases to remind me of my duty and responsibility to humanity. Poch Suzara

In a Debate

The agreement or disagreement in any debate is a trivial matter compared to the conclusion from either side: what is far more important at the end of any debate is the never-ending search of the truth via our sense of curiosity, if not the promotion of a lively inquiry.
Bertrand Russell was more lucid: “It is recognized quite freely by Socrates that the sum total of what a man knows is vanishing small. What seems in the end more important is that one should pursue knowledge.” Poch Suzara

The Teachings of Jesus

Was Jesus really a kind and a lovable character? Please read Lloyd Graham, author of Deceptions and Myths of the Bible. He wrote:
“Instead of revealing to us our purpose in Creation and responsibility for our world conditions, He tells us to “take no thought” for anything, for your heavenly father knoweth your need before ye ask him” – a perfect example of that “false security” under which we lived. The statement has no literal significance whatsoever. Refuse to take thought for your own welfare and this “heavenly father” will let you starve. Take no thought for health and hygiene and you die of this “heavenly father’s” – murderous parasites. Take no thought for economic justice and you become an industrial slave. Take no thought for political justice and you have a world at war. Caring for these things is precisely our business, and in the present state of the world we see the result of leaving them to God – prayers for peace and incessant wars; wrong on the throne and right on the cross; the virtuous impoverished, the vicious enriched; our benefactors toiling alone, while the wealthy parasites loaf and play – this is “divine providence.” What we need is a little human providence: knowledge and intelligence to right these God-ordained wrongs, and a sense of values that will help our benefactors help us. In these things, God is helpless, and God’s extremity is man’s opportunity.” Poch Suzara

A Muslim and A Christian

Between a Muslim and a Christian, there is only the Muslim who sincerely believes in the existence of Allah and honestly believes in the existence of the hereafter. A Muslim could wrap dynamite around his tummy to blow himself up to kill the infidels around him. He has faith enough to believe that as a dead man, he will immediately proceed to a Muslim heaven where 72 young virgins will be waiting for him.
Oh well, why would a Christian be eager to blow himself up with dynamite to kill the unbelievers too? There is not enough incentive for him to do so. In the Christian heaven, there is only one old Virgin Mary waiting for him? Poch Suzara

Phil-American War

Excerpt from A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES by Howard Zinn:
“The fighting with the rebels began, McKinley said, when the insurrectos attacked American forces. But later, American soldiers testified that the United States had fired the first shot. After the war, an army officer speaking in Boston’s Faneuil Hall said his colonel had given him orders to provoke a conflict with the insurgents.”
“In February 1899, they rose in revolt against American rule, as they had rebelled several times against the Spanish. Emilio Aguinaldo, a Filipino leader, who had earlier been brought back from China by U.S. warships to lead soldiers against Spain, now became a leader of the insurrectos fighting the United States. He proposed Filipino independence within a U.S. protection, but this was rejected.
It took the United States three years to crush the rebellion, using 70,000 troops – four times as many as were landed in Cuba. It was a harsh war. For the Filipinos the death rate was enormous from battle casualties and from disease. . . .
William James, the Harvard philosopher, wrote a letter to the Boston Tanscript about “the cold pot grease of McKingley’s cant at the recent Boston banquet” and said the Philippines operation “reeked of the infernal adroitness of the great department store, which has reached perfect expertness in the art of killing silently, and with no public squalling or commotion, the neighboring small concerns.”
James was part of a movement of prominent American businessmen, politicians, and intellectuals who formed the Anti—Imperialist League in 1898 and carried on a long campaign to educate the American public about the horrors of the Philippine war and the evils of imperialism. It was an odd group (Andrew Carnegie belonged), including anti-labor aristocrats and scholars, united in a common moral courage at what was being done to the Filipino in the name of freedom. Whatever their differences on other matters, they would all agree with William James’s angry statement: “ God damn the U.S. for its vile conduct in the Philippines Isles.” Unquote.
Today in the Philippines, we have famous columnists, such as Emil Jurado of the Manila Standard, who wrote: “Can our government ever modernize the military without American aid? Can we fight terrorism alone? Even now, US soldiers are helping the Armed Forces go against the Abu Sayyaf terrorists. So don’t give us that baloney that we can do without the Americans?”Wow!
Imagine the Filipino in this 21st century still killing fellow-Filipinos and we need the Visiting Forces Agreement to help us do the job with modern weapons Made In America! Poch Suzara

Fidel Castro

I have always admired this great man - a leader of decent men, decent women, and decent children. A rare breed, indeed, among world leaders. Castro never cared for expensive suits and neckties or expensive shoes. Never cared for expensive watch around his wrist or a diamond-studded gold chain around his neck. Never cared for silly daily shave. Never cared for wine, women, and song. Never lived in a palace. Never owned a Roll Royce or a Mercedes Benz. His security men to protect and defend his life were his own people. Far more than being an optimist or a pessimist, he was always a meliorist – one who believes words tend to become better by human action. He never amassed billions of dollars deposited in some secret account in some foreign bank. In fact, Castro cared more for knowledge and education as he was an avid reader, a deep thinker, a profound speaker, and in science and technology – he was a researcher. In religion, Castro was never devoted to the saints of God for the sake of that pie in the sky, by and by; but devoted only to his country and its people for the here and now. With much political sense, Castro reminded the world that the poor countries the US government liberated have only ended up poorer stuck in poverty rather than enjoying the legacy of prosperity. Under America for some 50 years, the Philippines is one great example of what it means to have been liberated by the US military-industrial complex. In 1946 an American president declared: “maintaining and building our preparations for war will be big business in the United States for at least a considerable period ahead.” Castro had the courage to speak out against the imbalance of world trade. He declared: “Never before has humankind had such formidable scientific and technological potential, such extraordinary capacity to produce riches and well-being, but never before have disparity and inequality been so profound in the world. The world economic order works for 20% of the population but leaves out, demeans and degrades the remaining 80%.” Castro echoed the sentiments of a bipolar world where developing countries spend $13 on debt repayment for $1 they receive in grants; have 2.7 billion people living on less than $2 a day; and 800 million people going to bed hungry. Indeed, the freedom of rich countries to get richer, and the democracy of poor countries to get poorer.Plans to kill Castro have often been organized by the CIA with blessings from the White House. They all failed as Castro enjoyed total protection from his own loved ones – the Cuban people. Thus, Castro has outlived 10 US presidents who tried to expunge his world image as a great leader of men, women, and children. To Fidel Castro: we shall never forget you. In the centuries to come, decent people everywhere will continue to have the greatest admiration for you as a great man - one who has had the courage to put beauty into Cuban affairs where the US government has only put the horrors of political creed as inspired by industrial greed. We, decent people throughout the world, salute you con amor y besos y abrazos. Poch Suzara Poch