We Filipinos

If we could only begin accept the reality that God does not exist and therefore cannot provide – we Filipinos could begin to provide for ourselves and develop our own country not only to be the happiest and healthiest, but also to be the wealthiest country in Asia today. But then again, what do we really care about the sick condition of our country since we have been taught to believe that there is a better world to come after death with God in the next life? Meanwhile, death is only another filthy manifestation of the absurdity of human existence in the Philippines. Poch Suzara

Pinoys and Pinays

Millions of Pinoys without jobs and without a future are still in the habit of praying to God to “give us this day our daily bread.” In order to contribute also to the population explosion, millions of Pinays too pray daily to God to “lead us not into temptation.”
These are the same college-educated dummies who are more involved with corrupt politics married to corrupt religion that keep the Philippines rotten economically, rotten morally, and rotten socially. Consider the Philippines hopeless in a rotten foreign debt. And yet, it can afford to regularly conduct expensive military exercises together with the US Visiting Forces to be ready to fight its Asian neighbors, but more so to be prepared to kill fellow-Filipinos. Of course, we do not think of those who have already killed as Fellow-Filipinos struggling to survive in the provinces. We give them more dramatic description like “Islamic militants” or “communist insurgents.” Poch Suzara

White Supremacy

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16.
What a crock of biblical lies. If God so loved the world, he would not have begotten a white Son to inspire the US government especially the White House of President George W Bush to keep the world drunk with white supremacy. Poch Suzara

Change the World

No doubt, it is not possible to change the world. It is possible, however, to embarrass those gang of thugs, nay, homicidal maniacs who still have faith that foreign countries endowed with rich natural resources must be liberated for the sake of their freedom and democracy. Poch Suzara

Which God

I am told that: “We inhabit a universe vaster than human comprehension, older than human wanderings, more wondrous than human conception. And in the face of that, we do the natural thing. We ask questions and seek answers. That's not a denial of God. It is evidence of Him.”
I entirely agree. However, I ask: evidence of which God? There are so many of them, not to mention a goddess! In the meantime, the whole of mankind is still in its diapers sucking on a security lollipop called God. For my part, I thank God I am an atheist. Poch Suzara

Believers in the USA

More than half of the American population believe Jesus is in heaven and that he will return to earth 50 years from now. This is a lesser tragedy. The greater tragedy, however, is that the candidates for the US Congress of both houses are derived mostly from these group of faithful believers in Jesus. They call themselves Republicans, or as the case may be - Democrats. Precisely the kind of people who need to believe. They do not care to find out or to know which is the exact opposite. Indeed, the kind of people who want a democracy, but do not care for the real values of liberty. Meanwhile, declare yourself liberated from theism and you could not land a job in the USA. Not even employed as a gofer in the White House. According to President George Bush senior, atheists are not patriots. Hell, they are not even citizens of the United States as America is one nation under God. Which God? Of course, the God known as the Almighty Dollar. Poch Suzara

White God

As a little boy at home and in school I was never taught to believe that God is black or brown or yellow or a red God. No, God is a white God. Jesus, the Son of God, is a white Son. Mary is the white Mother of God and Joseph the white husband of Mary. Even the inspired authors of the bible were all white men. As I alarmingly saw, however, how this world is getting more and more drunk with white supremacy, I slowly began to embrace the values of Atheism – its tranquility, its beauty, and its sanity. Poch Suzara

Jose Rizal

Think of it: If, just before he was executed by the order of Catholic Spanish friars, Rizal retracted from his series of attacks against the abuses of the church, Rizal could have been the first saint the Catholic Philippines ever canonized. After all, in the sainthood roster, virtually all of the saints of the church were first sinners, and then in the end found themselves kneeling down before the power of God, a.k.a. the Roman Catholic Church. For my part, after I am dead and I meet with God, this is what I will say: “God, when will you stop bragging about your supernatural power? Please go and visit the Philippines. Please God, see for yourself just exactly how, during these past five hundred years, Christianity has kept the Filipino mindless as a people still stuck under your divine wisdom; and has kept the Philippines heartless as a nation still stuck under your divine guidance.” In the meantime, we Filipinos could have been 500 years ahead of our time if it hadn't been for the Catholic Church dragging science and human dignity down the drain and executing our best thinkers by musketry like it did our Dr. Jose Rizal. A Filipino who wrote: “be careful, choose well, for this world is full of deceit, and deceivers” - cannot be anything but a great thinker. Rizal, indeed, was the greatest Filipino thinker. He had the courage to introduce social sanity in our society where the Catholic religion has only given birth to social stupidity. Poch Suzara

HISTORY

If we could only learn from history, it need not repeat itself. But since we do not even want to learn from the history of our own country, why should we want to learn from the history of the world? Before he died at the age of 98, struggling for human decency during most of long life, Bertrand Russell admonished: “One must care about the world one will never see.” Poch Suzara

What I love about America

In the present, I have the greatest love for all the cats and dogs in America. In a nuclear war, unfortunately, these house pets will all be reduced into cinders. And to think that no can accuse these animals of terrorism; or, for being a Republican or a Democrat creating not jobs for every American as the primary purpose of the US economy, but creating markets in foreign countries to buy “Made in America” weapons for war, death, and destruction. Only to prove that the USA is the one and only superpower among nations of the world.
Meanwhile, there is no greater crime than to scare mothers and fathers enough to send their sons off to war that need not be waged because there never was no real threat to begin with. To all you US soldiers fighting in Iraq today – you are all better off going home to your wives and children or to your mothers and fathers. Please stop fighting for and in behalf of the homicidal maniacs in charge of our government. It is no longer our government. It has already been stolen away from us – the American people – decades ago. Poch Suzara

Change for the Philippines

It has been suggested that the solution to the problems of our country is to change the Philippines and rename it the Republic of Maharlika. This suggestion, however, is so silly and childish. We have already changed the names of our streets. Nothing happened. In fact, our streets are as filthy and rotting as ever. Thanks to our reckless habits as drivers of imported motor vehicles. We have no respect for traffic rules and regulations that’s hardly enforced anyway. If there were hopes of redirecting the course of Philippines for growth and development as a nation, our women must first be spiritually educated. In this way, as well-informed and educated would-be mothers, they will produce children capable of mental growth and intellectual maturity, and therefore having children capable of developing as wholesome human beings of Asia. Consider Poverty. It is a symptom. Slavery is the disease. Women in the Philippines are not enslaved because they are poor, they are poor because they are enslaved. Indeed, our women suffer the worse kind of slavery – the slavery of the mind and heart. The men behind the church and government continue to have authority over our women’s life dictating to them even as to what to do with their own reproductive system. Our women therefore produce babies without regard to moral or intellectual capacity as to what makes a family happy and united blessed with wanted, needed, and loved children. Thus, the 1.5 million babies born yearly in this country are mostly the product of sexual activity, if not pleasurable debauchery, and not the result of decent family planning or decent birth control measures, Therefore, instead of enhancing social sanity, we only have the cycle of slavery via the population explosion generating perpetual poverty. In the meantime, after centuries of growing and developing, most Asian countries have already reached maturity. The Filipino, however, is still pretty much in its diapers. More in awe than ever with that infinite majesty more childishly known as the holy trinity. Indeed, this traditional business of loving white gods and white saints such as Jesus, Mary and Joseph, and loving other white bible characters such as Moses and David all have to be thrown out the window. Also, the business of believing that there is better white world to come after death in the hereafter is pure white hogwash. This is our country. The only country we have. Let us leave this country one day a better place than we found it. And if there is life with God in the hereafter, it should be our moral obligation to tell God that he should pay more attention to the dire social conditions of the Philippines - still poor and backward due to infantile beliefs in superstitious nonsense otherwise more popularly known as Judeo-Christian religion – the religion of the white race. Poch Suzara

Power of the US Government

If power of the US government were ever tamed, it could only mean peace not only in America, but peace in the world. The greatest contributor to the geo-political and military insanity worldwide has been and still is the US government. The same US government that has been hijacked away from the American people. Indeed, hijacked by the corporate criminals – the homicidal maniacs whose religion is called White Supremacy, and whose God is called the Almighty Dollar. Poch Suzara

War as Big Business

The U.S. government goes to war against foreign countries like in Iraq, and the US soldier faces adversaries with weapons or military technology that’s "Made in the USA." It was the same during the Vietnam War. The widening war on terrorism and accelerating weapons sales to coalition partners will only increase the likelihood of the boomerang effect that will continue to haunt us Americans at home and American citizens living abroad. Meanwhile, the weapons for the War against Terrorism like it was before called the War against Communism - have been and still are profitably “Made in the USA.”Indeed, God Bless America! Poch Suzara

Great Men of America

Jack Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Malcolm X were tall and great leaders of the 20th century America. Each of these great men equally shared the same dream: To transform America into a real land of the free for African Americans; and, to transform America into a real home of the brave for all Americans. Under separate occasions, these great leaders were assassinated by homicidal maniacs working for the industrial-military-university complex. Indeed, the same complex that profits much from death and destruction. Its task is to inspire more hate and spread more violence everywhere to insure the growth and success of its war industry. Poch Suzara

First Refusal

In law, for the sake of fairness, and a matter of priority, there exist such a thing as the “right of the first refusal.”
In global affairs, however, when it comes to a government deciding to bomb other governments, the US government has “the right of the first refusal.” The US government loves war. It loves death and destruction, especially in foreign countries; and if need be, death and destruction right in American cities to justify the declaration of war against other countries in order to please the homicidal maniacs in charge of running the US government. Poch Suzara

Freethinkers

Freethinkers have the impression that stupidity in its infinity can only found in the subject of divinity. They refuse to freely think that stupidity can also be found in every other branch of knowledge, except perhaps in mathematics. Take, for instance, history. I have met freethinkers who take for granted that America is the greatest and wealthiest nation in the world in that people from all over the world want to migrate to America – the land of the free and a home of the brave; and, indeed, God’s country where the pot of gold is always boiling.

Ask, however, the indigenous peoples and the African Americans in America if they will agree with you. As a matter of historical fact, The United States of America was founded and established on two holocausts, that of the indigenous people slaughtered and their land grabbed away from them, and the millions of African people captured and enslaved and robbed of their time and energy to labor for free on such stolen properties eventually called the United States of America. Poch Suzara

American Values

It is a sad reflection of American values when the majority of American citizens do not object to countless billions of dollars spent on strategic air missile defense system that may or not work and even more billions spent on studies that examine why they fail in protecting us from an enemy – who may or may not exist. Yet, many college-educated Americans vehemently object to a study of reparations – something that could specifically identity the injustices heaped upon Black Americans as slaves in these United States for more than 250 years and its after effects for more than 130 years.
In the meantime, the dumbstruck in America, especially those ignorant of what exactly the US government is doing to foreign countries like in Iraq in the present, or in Vietnam in the past, asked: “What has America done to deserve a 9/11? Poch Suzara

Revenge

More than 3,000,000 people, especially women and children, not to mention old men and old women were killed in the Vietnam War. Killed by the French colonizers, then the Japanese invaders, and then the American intruders. After some 30 years of bloody fighting for love of country and love of fellow-citizens, the Vietnamese people finally defeated and threw all invaders, colonizers, and intruders out of Vietnamese soil.
After the Vietnamese people cleaned up the mess created by long years of war, did the Vietnamese government ever called for revenge? To liberate and to start bombing France, Japan, and the United States of America responsible for death and destruction in Vietnam? As a matter of fact, the Vietnamese people are among the most decent and most civilized people on this earth. As an American citizen, I salute the Vietnamese people. They have much to teach the world on how to live as a nation with self-respect and dignity right in their own land and why a people must work for love of country and must work for the sake of its own good future.
In the meantime, intellectual pigmies continue to ask: What has America done to deserve 9/11? They have yet to ask a deeper question: what has Vietnam done to deserve the death and destruction by the US Air Force – bombing not only their farms and schools and hospitals but also destroying Vietnamese cities day after day for years? Indeed, more “Made in America” bombs were dropped in Vietnam than during the entire Second World War bombings in Europe and Southeast Asia put together. It is the same American horror happening today in Iraq while we Americans continue to insist that America is God’s country. Poch Suzara

Open Letter To President Bush

Dear Mr. President

Wars in the past have been waged to end all wars – to make the world “safe for democracy.” Nothing happened except the seeds of hatred and violence only replanted for future wars. In this century of modern weapons for wholesale slaughter, the choice is either Man stops the future of war or war stops the future of Man.

In the past, many people of Vietnam, especially women and children, were killed over nothing. In the present, many people of Iraq, especially women and children, are killed over nothing. Yesterday, it was called war against Communism. Today, it is called war against Terrorism. What’s the difference? Communism and Terrorism are both the black sheep children of Capitalism! Indeed, thanks to Capitalism rich nations get richer, and poor nations get poorer. Meanwhile, If war must be declared against terror, why not fight those terrorists hiding not in Iraq or elsewhere under a periscope, but only those more deadly ones found under a microscope?

The United Nations should help Iraq solve its own problems. The Iraqis should choose for themselves the kind of government that suits them. Iraqis don’t want a Christian democracy. They want a Muslim theocracy. So leave them alone to grow up to confront the evils of their own religion. We too, in America, must also grow up to confront the evils of our own religion. Indeed, no other belief has spread more terror to humanity than the belief that religion comes from divinity. The Christians, Jews, and the Muslims have not ceased hating and cutting each other’s throat in God’s name. Meanwhile, the US government is wasting billions of dollars yearly for its military growth and expansion. To prevent not future violence and degradation, but only to frighten other nations into getting more involved in the welter of organized hatreds and threats of mutual extermination. North Korea recently proved that a nuclear bomb is easy to make and exciting to test. North Korea is now a new member of the family of nuclear-armed States. In the years to come, other nations will also manufacture their own weapons of mass destruction. Meanwhile, the United Nations and its Peacekeeping Forces have yet to dismiss the paradoxical theory that nations can only remain alive and united by preparing to bomb each other.

Sir, as the head of our government, perhaps you could, instead, look into the injustices of freedom and the tragedy of democracy in American history. Your high office should fully support the already established commission to examine the institution of slavery, and subsequently the racial and economic discrimination against African-Americans, and the impact of that discrimination on living African-Americans. Millions of slaves involved may all be dead; however, legal persons remain alive, particularly governments and corporations including universities that benefited from slavery. Despite the passage of time, these beneficiaries of slavery are still among us and should face legal complicity. The US government and other institutions benefited from crimes against humanity. They should be held responsible for damages. The reparation due to Black Americans is not about charity. It is about justice and social sanity. It is about freedom and democracy. It is about human dignity.

I refer you to Raymond A. Winbush’s, editor of: SHOULD AMERICA PAY? Quote: - “Black Africa sacrificed 40 to 100 million men, women, and children to the slave trade; 15 to 25 million survived. Indeed, there is little recorded in human history to compare with the sheer horror of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Human beings were chained together, and then piled on top of each other, where they had to lie and sleep in their own waste as well as that of the person next to them for weeks on end. A vicious cycle of disease ensued as African people huddled together crying, screaming, vomiting, and defecating uncontrollably. Along this human chain of misery, some were dead and some alive, the waft of rotting bodies adding to the stench. There was no escape from disease. The captives suffered from dysentery, diarrhea, eye infections, malaria, malnutrition, scurvy, worms, yaws, and typhoid fever. Slaves also suffered from friction sores, ulcers, injuries and wounds resulting from accidents, fights, and whippings . . . The longer the journey, the more the human cargo was to die in route. One can only imagine the state of mental health for those trapped in this living nightmare. Panic, anxiety, hysteria prevailed. Pure rage alternated with a deep collective depression, manifesting in mutiny and onboard rebellions. For various reasons – too much cargo, too little food, to eliminate evidence of being a slave ship African people were oftentimes thrown out by the crew into shark-infested waters. Long line of chained captives sometimes jumped overboard together, committing group suicide, and mothers threw their babies overboard. The three hundred years of Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade amounted to a system of death and destruction beyond human comprehension and convention unparalleled in the annals of history. Imagine, if not already separated, families were torn apart – husbands from wives, children from their parents and siblings. It was common practice for them to be sold to different plantations in different states, never to be reunited again…It destroyed the lives of millions of innocent black Africans.” Unquote. Of course, nobody called this evil “capitalism.” Instead, everybody called it “freedom and democracy.”

Mr. President, please stop wasting our precious tax dollars to promote the evils of hate and poverty. Your foreign policies are only giving birth to more terrorism to haunt us in the future. The budget for the US military should be reduced considerably for humanitarian purposes. Such as for education and health programs for the African-Americans and millions of other Americans, specially the senior citizens with social security income surviving from hand to mouth existence. The U.S. military adventures overseas contribute nothing to our national security or prosperity or even to global sanity. Bertrand Russell wrote: “You can bomb the world into pieces, but you can’t bomb the world into peace.” Since the end of the Second World War, the United States has manufactured, sold, exported, or given away armaments worth more than a trillion dollars to foreign countries. The Philippines as one recipient country of such armaments got energized not with the science of life and reconstruction, but only with the religion of death and destruction. Meanwhile, for the sake of the Philippine-American friendship, most Filipinos living in hate and in poverty continue to justify the killings of fellow-Filipinos with weapons “Made in America.”

Sir, please give world peace a chance. Please retool and transform our destructive war economy into a constructive peace economy. As the president of the most powerful nation in the world, you can make the sanity and the beauty of peace shine not only throughout the world but also make it brilliantly visible in the hearts and minds of every Black, White, Yellow, Brown, and Red American. As a consequence, we, the American people, should and must be able to utter these words without shame: - “In America, we have justice for all. In America, no one is deprived of life, liberty, security and prosperity. Indeed, in America, without exception, we all enjoy the colorful norms of human dignity.
Yours faithfully
Poch Suzara
Bertrand Russell Society, Philippines
San Lorenzo Village, Makati City
October 22, 2006

Pandora's Box

Was Pandora’s Box opened when Pope John Paul 11 issued a sweeping apology on March 12, 2000, for the errors of the Roman Catholic Church during the previous two thousand years, acknowledging intolerance and injustice towards Jews, women, indigenous peoples, immigrants, and the poor? What about in 1993 when the United States apologized for the participation by its military and diplomats in the illegal overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1893? The United States also apologized for the internment of Japanese American citizens in Arizona during World War 11? What about in 1999, Australia acknowledged the “most blemished chapter in our national history,” and expressed its “deep and sincere regret that indigenous Australians suffered injustices under the practices of past generations, and for the hurt and trauma that many indigenous people continue to feel?
Since some 40 years already, why it is that calls by African Americans for apology and repayment for the years of unpaid labor as slaves and underpaid labor for generations and continuing to this day have been pushed aside? Yet, the reaction of most white Americans is that there was nothing beastly or inhuman when the United States legalized slavery from 1619 to 1865 which was followed by another century of legalized racial discrimination! What white historical nonsense is this? We have yet to ask: What would the United States Constitution look like if it had been drafted to meet the needs of the enslaved Africans and their descendants?
Consider African nations are given loans by Western governments, banks, and international institutions, with no recognition that the wealth that allows the latter to make those loans is partly built on wealth removed from the former during centuries of slavery and colonialism. Indeed, African labor and looted African wealth built strong Western economies. Look at Africa as a continent today! Look are its people – specially its women and children!
Slavery was not romantic; it was evil, ferocious, brutal, and corrupting in all aspects. Within a period of 350 years, it was developed in its greatest degree of degradation in the United States of America responsible for the greatest crime in world history - the Tansatlantic Slave Trade.
For further information, please read one of the greatest books published in the history of book publishing: SHOULD AMERICA PAY? edited by Raymond A. Winbush, Ph.D. Poch Suzara

Nicole

She said: “There is no justice in the Philippines, and it’s the reason criminals are running the place.” The victim of rape by a US Marine while fellow-Marines cheered him at his job, Nicole further said: “The justice department is the top criminal.”
It seems Nicole’s team of prosecutors in court are more on the side of the rapist than on the victim. ( See Manila Standard Today ( Oct. 11, 2006 ).
For my part, I have the greatest respect and admiration for Nicole. What a rarity of a Filipina. She is so courageous and so principled. If only more Filipinos had a mother like a Nicole; had a wife like a Nicole; had a sister like a Nicole; had a daughter like a Nicole; had a niece like a Nicole, and indeed had a teacher in school like a Nicole – the Philippines would be the most decent and the most developed country in Asia today.And to think that most Filipinos, specially those with college education in this country have other more important values and beliefs. Such as in this God-forsaken country, these college educated dummies would rather be waiting for the Second coming of Jesus Christ, if not looking forward to a better life to come in the hereafter after death in the Kingdom of God. Poch Suzara

Slavery in America

It’s an American horror based upon historical facts. White slave owners created wealth using Black slaves, who were, of course, forbidden from creating any wealth themselves. The economic differential that resulted from slavery continues today. Slaves, for the most part, were forbidden from establishing stable families, and the legacy from that deprivation is still seen in African American communities today. . . How does one calculate the cost of inner-city ghettos, of poor education, of the stigma of perceived racial inferiority? The severity of slavery’s injury is far more profound than any cash transfer will be able to reverse.
To my Black American friends, both living and dead, who received no justice for being captured, enslaved, colonized, and discriminated against, your struggles and sufferings will never be forgotten. As a white Asian-American myself, I will never cease to remind my white American friends and relatives of these historical American horror. Poch Suzara

Capitalism

In 1919, twenty years after the invention of the automobile, there were 108 automobile manufacturers in the United States. Ten years later the number had whittled down to the 44 U.S. auto companies. By the end of the fifties it had dropped to 8, and then down to 2 U.S. car makers. Today, the stocks of the biggest and the only 2 American car makers are owned mostly by foreigners. That is the beauty of Capitalism according the U.S. government and its guidelines for the car manufacturing industry. In other words, never mind the jobs lost as long as somebody, anybody, even those who are not American citizens make tons of money.
For further information, please read Michael Moore’s DUDE, WHERE'S MY COUNTRY?
Poch Suzara

The Bible and Astronomy

The bible was written at a time when people believed that the sun moved around a flat earth, and that the earth was located at the center of the universe.
The science of astronomy discovered that earth is round, and it is just one mote of dust, an insignificant particle floating aimlessly in space. The earth is just one of the 400 million planets and stars that comprise the Milky Way galaxy of which is just one of the hundreds of billions of galaxies existing in space and in time called the Cosmos.
It is time to throw your holy bible out the window. It was written by inspired authors who were neither useful nor truthful. Only fearful and dreadful and faithful. Poch Suzara

Existence

Existence is all that there is. We must take existence as a starting point. We cannot step outside of existence. There is nothing outside or beyond existence. We cannot step outside time or space or step outside the universe. We are in it. It is not possible to know of anything that lives outside of existence. We cannot start with a God and then deduce existence. We know nothing of God as God is unknowable. We must first start with what we know, and deduce existence from the already existing universe. In the ultimate analysis, we can only conclude that there is no God to have created existence since existence has already been around way before God entered into the messy picture. Poch Suzara

Peace On Earth

The highest ambition of a Christian is not to go to heaven, but to expect the non-Christians to go to hell. Indeed, if peace on earth and goodwill to all men were to become a reality one day, men must begin to realize that organized religions have always been a disgrace, and not a grace to the whole of the human race. In the ultimate analysis, for the sake of peace in this world, far more precious than the freedom of religion is freedom from religion. Poch Suzara

Security for the Insecurity

The memory of my own suffering has prevented me from being abusive to any one, especially young people. I was myself abused in school as a little boy both physically and emotionally. I found it then hard to accept the beauty of Christian values and beliefs. Happily, I managed to escape. I ended up to be a high-school dropout. I came to the conclusion that it is not only unproductive, but utterly destructive for religion to provide believers with emotional security after having been frightened to believe with the emotional insecurity that it creates.
For my part, I would rather have a developing mind clearly answerable to the here and the now. I have no need of a mediocre soul vaguely answerable later to some one vague called a God existing way out there. I’d rather stand with self-respect and look at my life here and now in this world.Poch Suzara

Reality

Philip K Dick wrote: “Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.” How true. However, here is a ticklish problem: Science admits with all humility and honesty that it understands only 1 per cent of what actually constitutes reality. So, when it comes to reality, what is there really to believe? Poch Suzara

The Truth

The un-examined truth is not worth believing. In fact, in the ultimate analysis, there is no such thing as the truth. There is only the search of the truth. It is man’s greatest and most noble of professions.
Bertrand Russell said it all: “Truth is a shining goddess, always veiled, always distant, never wholly approachable, but worthy of all the devotion of which the human spirit is capable. Poch Suzara

Freed Slaves

When it finally freed the slaves, the United States provided no meaningful compensation to the former slaves for the value of their labor, nor did it provide them with the economic assets needed to compete with the white community in the marketplace. It stand to reason that the transfer of wealth from those who benefited to those who still suffer because their ancestors were oppressed is the only way for a meaningful reconciliation. Indeed, until America’s white ruling class accepts the fact that the book never closes on massive unredressed social wrongs, we Americans can never claim that America is the land of the free and the home of the brave. Moreover, America can have no future as one people.
For further information, please read Randall Robinson’s recent book The Debt: What America Owes the Blacks – the enslavement of Blacks in America from 1619 to 1865 was “far and away the most heinous human rights crime visited upon any group of people in the world over the last five hundred years." He has explained in detail why we must look at the claims of the descendants of slaves as a form of property. Poch Suzara

To My Black American friends

As an Asian white American I stand by you in your struggles for the reparations due you as African Americans. This is a gigantic struggle. Please count me in as one individual in this part of the world rooting for you. I am totally on your side. I can hardly wait for the day when Black Americans will have tremendously decreased evils on American soil not with bombs, death and destruction, but with the power of logic, legal, and historical arguments advancing the brotherhood of man under peace on earth and goodwill to all men.
According to reputable American economists, the sum due for unpaid labor to the Black Americans by white Americans comes to about $1.7 TRILLION DOLLARS. A pittance comparatively.
Consider the African World Reparations and Repatriation Truth Commission meeting in Accra, Ghana, in 1993. Attorneys, economists, and social scientists issued the Accra Declaration, which calculated that enslavement, colonization, the appropriation of land, extraction of raw materials and mining minerals, for example, diamond, gold, silver, oil, mahogany, cocoa, etc, out of Africa by Europe and the United States cost the African continent $777 TRILLION DOLLARS. Poch Suzara

Belief Growing Obsolete

Terrence Mckenna wrote: "What blinds us, or makes historical progress very difficult, is our lack of awareness that our beliefs have grown obsolete and should be put aside.... This is I think much of the problem of the modern dilemma: Direct experience has been discounted, and in its place all kinds of belief systems have been erected.... If you believe something, you are automatically precluded from believing its opposite; which means that a degree of your human freedom has been forfeited in the act of committing yourself to this belief." Now look for example at our committed belief on how great a man was Thomas Jefferson. The man who symbolizes freedom and liberty for all. As one of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America, he actually owned well over 100 slaves and freed only a handful at the time of his death – his own children. Indeed, Thomas Jefferson had sex with a slave girl and had sired several children. A man of enormous power and wealth had sex with his slave black servant Sally Hemings. She was fifteen years old. In most civilized societies, this is called rape. How is that for a committed belief? Care to believe the opposite? Poch Suzara

Rita Rudner

“Someday,” said Rita Rudner, “I want to be rich. Some people get so rich they lose all respect for humanity. That’s how rich I want to be.” See Manila Standard Today ( Sept. 27, 2006 ).
My dear Rita, you don’t have to be rich to lose your self-respect and sense of dignity. It is the easiest thing to do. Besides, why do you want to emulate the lives of our rich Ivy League-educated dummies in the US Senate? Considering from among them will most likely be, again, the next president of the USA. Poch Suzara

Organized Religions

Organized religions provide the peace for the troubles in our world that they themselves create. They then make sure that peace is not long lasting. It is in this way that the Christians, Muslims, and Jews have always been indoctrinated to hate and to kill each other. In the meantime, the munition makers are in it for the money. Indeed, big profits are made in war and in the aftermath especially as the seeds for future wars are planted especially by those in the military-industrial-university complex.Poch Suzara

War

A Kikiyu proverb goes: “It is they who have not died in war, that start it.” Indeed, the rich munition makers in control of the stupid politicians in the government of rich countries are among those who are never killed in any war. In fact, they grow to become not only livelier but also richer. Poch Suzara

Open Letter To Americans

When President Bush attacked Iraq in 1991, claiming that he was acting to end the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait, a group of native Americans in Oregon distributed this biting and ironic thought-provoking Open Letter: “Dear President Bush. Please send your assistance in freeing our small nation from occupation. This foreign force occupied our lands to steal our rich resources. They used biological warfare and deceit, killing thousands of elders, children and women in the process. As they overwhelmed our land, they deposed our leaders and people of our government, and in its place, they installed their own government system that yet today control our daily lives in many ways. As in your own words, the occupation and overthrow of one small nation . . . is one too many. Sincerely, An American Indian.” For further reading, I highly recommend Howard Zinn’s: The People’s History of the United States. It is closer to the truth version of American history. It includes all sides of the story. Left and right. Front and back. Top and below. Triumph and tragedy. Joy and pain. Successes and failures. Rich and poor. White Americans and Black Africans. The native Indians and the Asian-Latin Americans. Masters and slaves. The victorious and defeated in war. The conquered and the conqueror. Indeed, not only his story, but also her story of American history. Poch Suzara

American Presidents

In 1947, Truman ordered 74,000 tons of military equipment to the right-wing government in Athens, including artillery, dive bombers, and stock of napalm. Weapons for death and destruction manufactured and stockpiled in the United States since World War 2.

In 1971 Nixon ordered the US Air Force to drop 800,000 tons of bombs on Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Weapons for death and destruction worth in the Billions of Dollars.

When the Vietnam war ended, Jimmy Carter declined to give aid to Vietnam for reconstruction, despite the fact that the land had been devastated by American bombing. Asked about this at a press meeting, Carter replied that there was no special obligation on the United States to do this because “the destruction was mutual.” As if the United States did not have to cross half the globe with an enormous fleet of bombers and 2 million American soldiers, and after eight years of mission not accomplished, left a tiny nation with over three million dead and its land in ruins.

Bill Clinton continued to supply arms to nations all over the world. While he enjoyed converting the Oval Office into his Oral Office with the consent of a tuti frutie employee in the White House.

By the way, this is the same White House constructed in 1792 that required the influx of African slaves to lay its foundation. The same Africans in slavery and poverty that enriched not only the treasury of the US government at the local, state, and federal levels, but also responsible for the wealth and privilege of quite a few powerful US corporations that manufacture weapons for war, death and destruction in foreign countries.

As the Commander in chief of the US military, President George W Bush has nuclear subs at his disposal. These subs are loaded to the hatches with nuclear warheads that can be targeted to within a centimeter of Osama Bin Ladin’s nose. And yet, with all of that sophisticated technology, the US government, since 2001, could not, with any precision, find Osama Bin Ladin hiding in the mountain caves of Afghanistan for his so-called crime against the destruction of the World Trade Center. And to think that this is the same Osama Bin Ladin who had millions of dollars deposited in various banks in the United States.

The social critic, H. L. Mencken, wrote: “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.” By frightening the American people to the attention of certain governments like Iraq, Iran, Korea, Cuba, or by inventing or exaggerating how dangerous these governments are – the failures of the US government itself could remain hidden or un-exposed. In the meantime, I ask: what value has the utility of freedom if lies and other falsehoods were more politically useful than the simple truth? Poch Suzara

Insane

Ignots Pistachio wrote: "If you want to know if you're insane, ask yourself if you have an unwavering belief, one that you could never disavow no matter what. If you answered yes, then you're insane.” Bertrand Russell himself did recognize that we all have a little corner of insanity inside our brain. For my part, I too am insane. I have an unwavering belief that the greatest threat to the peace of the world is the U.S. government. Look how our high government officials have unwavering beliefs too. Look how they continue to believe that freedom and democracy can be installed in foreign countries such as Vietnam in the past and Iraq in the present with bombs, death, and destruction! Poch Suzara

Old and New Beliefs

Edward O Wilson said, "Old beliefs die hard even when demonstrably false." For my part, I would worry more about new beliefs especially as it is patently false. For example, the new beliefs of U.S. Congress that there is now much room for humanitarian pursuits as a priority of the US government not only in foreign countries, but also in American soil itself with regards to the plight of the native American Indians and the reparations due the Black Americans in this century. Poch Suzara

Prayer

I am told that prayer is not an occasional impulse to which we respond when we are in trouble. It is a lifetime attitude. Prayer is our steering wheel, not our spare tire.
I ask: if God does not listen to the prayers of the dying and the dead, why should God listen to the prayers of the living?
Prayers, indeed, are like magic formulas, mumbled over and over again, with the advertiser’s faith in the law of reiteration. Think of it: if prayer works with the power of God, it should only be said but once, and not to be repeated day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, century after century, millennium after millennium.
In the meantime, you define 0.01% as a "high success rate" when it comes to answered prayers. You consider that to be evidence that prayer works. And you believe that the remaining 99.99% FAILURE was simply the will of God. Poch Suzara

The Guardian of Freedom

The greatest guardian of freedom has always been the diffusion of knowledge. The dumbstruck in governments, especially in the US government, however, still believe that freedom can only be installed, protected, and defended and promoted by the power of the military. Bertrand Russell wrote: “Freedoms cannot effectively be said to exist if they protect only occasional differences about matters which are of small importance.” Poch Suzara

All Men

All men are created equal; unfortunately, equal only in mediocrity as a source of pride especially equal as well in the belief that ignorance is bliss. Poch Suzara

Filipino Lawyers

Top criminal lawyers of the Philippines are very religious too. The statue of Baby Jesus is displayed inside their law office. Well, why not? If the judge himself has religious icons displayed inside his court room, and criminals during trial in court may carry with them the holy bible or the rosary or the little statue of Mama Mary, why not top lawyers also to pray to baby Jesus to be on their side? And to think that in no other school, except in law school, that the the art of cross-examination is taught; specially to ferret out the truth. In the meantime, there remains of the necessity of cross examining the causes of evil keeping us Filipinos frightened as a people and keeping the Philippines misguided as a nation. As a high school expelled student, I have yet to hear from any of our top lawyer with guts or gumption to publicly declare that the only way to remedy the traditional ills of our sick society is to get rid of CHRISTIANITY out of our country. Indeed, to be replaced with nothing but the beauty of science and the power of technology. It simply means in our schools, colleges, and universities - no more childish prayer; no more infantile theology. No more God Bless you hogwash! Poch Suzara

Frightened of Atheism

Atheism frightens most men not because they have no taste to disbelieve in a God, but because they have no taste to be a thinker, especially to be a courageous freethinker. Indeed, it is not possible to be an atheist if one does not develop the habit of the scientific way of thinking. Or, simply, if one refuses to learn to question everything. Poch Suzara

Existence

Millions of years before my birth, I was a nothing. I had no existence. Millions of years after my death, I will be a nothing again. I will have no existence. Now I am told that there is life after death. Of course, there is life after death - the life of my dear loved-ones. I will leave them behind until they too will eventually join with me to rest in peace forever in nothing, over nothing, and for nothing. Really, how could we enjoy a hereafter when none of us ever enjoyed a herebefore?
But then again, there is the First Law, the conservation law. It says that while energy can never be created or destroyed it can only be transformed from one form to another. For my part, I should leave alone the conservation law. Let her decide what she wants to do with our un-bundled energy after death that was once a bundled up energy called - life.
In the meantime, each and every unfolding reality contains not only the seed of its own destruction, but also the embryo of a new reality that will replace it. I think the best we all should do is to face reality courageously – there is no one at the helm on this earth. We are all in charge for our own destinies. Poch Suzara

Love From God

Love makes much for peace on earth and goodwill to all men. I ask: where is love from God that I am told is a loving God? In fact, where is God in our mad world filled with cruelties and hate and violence and war? What keeps Him hiding like the timid atheists always hiding inside the dark closet?
Now my devout friends and relatives tell me that my end is near, and that before it is too late, I should renounce my atheism and repent and make my peace with God. Yes, I should be happy to do so. However, before I proceed, I need to know first if God himself had already smoked the peace-pipe with the devil?
In the meantime, please open your bible. It clearly reads: The dead know not anything, neither have they any more a reward. Eccl. 9:5 Poch Suzara

Knowledge

Knowledge that is not based on scientific observation, but only deduced from some sacred writings or concocted from some wild theological imagination – is knowledge that is not only thoughtless, not only mindless, not only groundless, not only senseless. It is knowledge that’s shamelessly useless and therefore utterly worthless. Poch Suzara

Temple of God

I am told that God created my body; it is a temple of God. How wonderful! What’s not wonderful, however, are the other tiny creatures living inside my body that God created too. They are called germs, bacteria, and viruses. There are about 20 billion of them trying to kill me and eventually will succeed to do so. And to think that those little creatures existing inside human vital organs and blood streams are all at war against the other as they probably hate each other too. In the process, however, sooner or later, whether we like it or not, whether we have free will or not, these little nasty monsters together will decree not only our own death, but will also decree their own extinction. I suppose in God’s name too, if not for His glory in heaven.

In the meantime, our 60 to 70 or 80 years of existence on this erth in relation to God’s eternal existence in heaven, we live, comparatively, but for a split of a second long. As if that were enough time for any of us to be put on trial by the Supreme Being for our petty crimes and silly sins. Poch Suzara

Great Religions

Except perhaps for Buddhism, all the great religions of the world hate each other and would rather be at war than enjoy peace, love, and respect for each other. If we were all atheists, chances are better for each and every one of us to achieve health and wealth and happiness in this world. In the meantime, since even God knows not when, there never was a belief that has done humanity in this world more damage intellectually than the childish belief in the existence of a sick and insane divinity. Poch Suzara Twitter# Facebook# Google#

Terrorism

Sending a powerful message fit the definition of terrorism. Who therefore could be more terroristic than the religious teachers who frightens innocent children to believe in God because if not, they will be punished forever burning in hell? I should know. I was once such a terrorized child myself in grade school at De La Salle University run by the Christian Brothers. They certainly scared me to death to have faith in a lot of religious nonsense. Fortunately for me, however, I was expelled in high school for asking far too many questions. Much to my very pleasant surprise however, I learned eventually through self-study that the whole basis of the subject of philosophy that gave birth to her daughters - the sciences is based on questions asked and not on the answers found. Indeed, even up to this 21st century, terrorism comes not from intelligent questions, but only from the stupid answers! Poch Suzara

Something to Think About

I suppose men and women, especially with college education, love to think about some things sometimes. For my part, I was expelled out of high-school because I never denied myself the joy to think about a lot of things all the time. I still do love to think in my old age. Poch Suzara

Nicole versus the US Marines

We are told that the job of the US Marines is to defend those who are unable to defend themselves.
The least the US Marines could do while visiting the Philippines is to defend women like Nicole from being raped by fellow-Marines.
Isn’t it enough that the US Marines are here to train Filipino soldiers to be more efficient at killing fellow human beings? In the meantime, must they also carry the impression that women of the Philippines are not worthy of love and respect or a decent treatment?
To Nicole: as an American citizen living in the Philippines, I have every wish that you will succeed putting in jail those cowards in US military uniform who raped you. And even if they did not rape you, for treating you like a piece of garbage, they deserve to be thrown out of this country. Poch Suzara

American Political Parties

The Republican Party and the Democratic Party are one and the same old Party. They do not matter except during election. Michael Moore described it as the “Greed Party.” It supports the one and only real religion of America. It’s called Capitalism.
If we truly wish to see the inside of the American economic bubble, we must first puncture it. Each time our president declares happily that “our economy is sound,” he does not acknowledge that it is not at all sound for the 50 to 60 million fellow-Americans who are struggling to survive, although it may be moderately sound for many in the middle class, and extremely sound for the riches 1 per cent of the nation who own 40 per cent of the nation’s wealth. Imagine 40 per cent of 13 Trillion dollars – the GNP of the US annually.
In the meantime, it is not the poor, but the rich who pretty much determine who will be the President of the nation. He is the political leader who says, “let’s have more of the same.” A candidate for president like a Ralph Nader of the Green party never makes it to the White House precisely because he says, “let’s change; let’s have no more of the same rotten politics. Let’s make the world safe for freedom and democracy not with hate and war, but with love and goodwill to all men.” What about the average voter? Well, he has the impression that he plays an important political role casting his ballot as a Republican or, as the case may be, as a Democrat. He votes for his favorite presidential candidate. What he does not know, however, is that it does not matter who wins the election because, to begin with, the two presidential candidates ( hardly a third or a fourth candidate ) have already been picked by the rich and the powerful for ordinary voters to choose from. Normally, the one with the greatest popularity in the achievement of mediocrity or has received more money always makes it to the White House. As an American citizen, I have yet to hear a newly-elected president of the USA proclaim at his inaugural address: “Let us stop all this political-industrial-military-university complex nonsense. For once, let’s begin to really work for world peace. Let’s start right here inside the American home.” Poch Suzara

Capitalism

The economic system which we know as capitalism, or free enterprise, functions admirably, but only if it enhances the beauty of liberty and the sanity of democracy.
Unfortunately, capitalism, especially in America only promotes depravity and corruptibility and stupidity as it functions quite effectively in derailing the American family. Consider 99 per cent of American children. Fathers do not know their children as much as the children do not know their own fathers. How can either know the other since they do not even know what “knowing” means? Poch Suzara

Western Civilization

The men behind the arms industry are all liars. They could not prosper without the help from another industry composed of men who are also expert liars. It’s called the Media. However, the Arms industry together with the media could not last a day without the blessings from another group of liars too – the high officials in government. It is the purpose of the government to serve the interests of the wealthy and the powerful. It includes the high-ranking officials of the military.
No doubt, the government serves the poor; unfortunately, only with more lies though it’s more often called freedom and democracy. And if the un-employed poor were miserable with their lot, there is the armed forces to suppress strikes or public rallies or rebellion. Of course these evils are born and nurtured in our schools, colleges, and universities. They all fall under the inspiration of sacred messages written by Moses some four thousand years ago. It’s known as the Holy Bible.
We are all indoctrinated to believe in lies and falsehoods and political promises. We are even taught to have faith in the so-called values of our Western culture. In the meantime, just as it is impossible to define the word “terrorism,” it is equally as impossible to define the difference between “barbaric East” and the “civilized West.” Poch Suzara

Natural Resources

The Philippines is one of the riches countries in the world in natural resources. We have gold, silver, chrome ore, coal, oil, sugar, coconut, rivers, lakes, etc, name it, we have it; except perhaps diamond. We used to have in abundance rain-forests, but that’s virtually gone now. But we may even have in the Mindanao deep waters more than a TRILLION dollars worth of deuterium – a new energy source. And yet, we Filipinos are among the poorest people in the world.
Ask any college-educated Filipino why this is so, and he will reply that it is due to the Will of God. In the meantime, only the foreigners have taken advantage by exploiting our natural resources for their wealth, power, and glory. They all unanimously agree that God, indeed, has other plans for the Filipinos and for the Philippines. As to exactly what those plans are, not even the Catholic Bishops of the Philippines have the foggiest notion. Poch Suzara

Hate in America and Hate in the Philippines

An American living in the Philippines, wrote: “The safest world I know of is the USA with nukes. God will tell us what to do next.” Obviously, this fellow knows little about the nature of a Nuclear War and its global after effects. I find it incredible, however, to imagine young or old Americans being told by God what to do next? As if it were not enough that President Bush already talks to God and God continues to inspire the Bush Administration to bomb the hell out of poor and innocent people in foreign countries especially as such countries are rich in natural resources. Here’s another famous American, the television anchorman Dan Rather. He declared: “George Bush is the President… Wherever he wants me to line up, just tell me where.” Imagine an adult, a professional Reporter at that, quite conversant with current events, and he does not know where to line up, and he needs our President to tell him where to line up! Hey Dan, shame on you! Have you forgotten James Madison, he said: "If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.” We boasts of our freedom and democracy, our peace and security and money, and yet our government has not ceased selling weapons to dictators, human rights abusers, and to countries at war or at the edge of war (sometimes against each other). Look at the historical conflict, for example, between the Christians and the Muslims in the Philippines. Call them what you like, but these people are actually Filipinos killing each other with weapons supplied by the US government. As an American citizen myself, I say this is madness, a sheer mockery, a depravity, if not a gimcrackery that promotes nothing but world insanity. I ask: what has happened to the beauty of American freedom and to the harmony of American democracy? Have they already become extinct in the land of the free and in the home of the brave? Must America fall apart to pieces because we Americans have forgotten how to live in peace with ourselves and how to live in peace with the rest of the world? Is there no other recourse for us except to prove that, in this universe, there is more American stupidity than there is the certainty of infinity? Let us ask: why are there more people today that hate America? What are the roots of Terrorism against America and our allies? Isn’t it because we do not ourselves practice freedom and democracy right in our own land? Our own government continues to deny freedom and democracy to people in Third World countries whose resources are coveted by our multi-national corporations. The hatred we have sown has come back to haunt us in the form of terrorism. . . Instead of sending our sons and daughters to the Middle East to kill Arabs so that we can have the oil under their sand, we should, instead, be sending them to spread common human decency. Indeed, rebuild their devastated homes and bomb-damaged schools, their infrastructures, supply clean water, and help hospitalize, feed, and educate children in those Arab countries. In short, we should be raising not only their standard of living, but also their standard of thinking. Who would try to stop us? Who would hate us? Who would want to bomb us? But then again, why should our government be offering these services when our own American children are going through a sub-standard system education. Look at the stupid politicians our system of education keeps producing to end up running our government. American communities are decaying and falling apart; and the standard of thinking of our government officials is equal to that of the employees of CNN. Indeed, at CNN nobody reasons why, they do not even do or die. Everybody’s job at CNN is to spread and promote with embellished lies no one’s interests except those of the wealthy and the powerful. Poch Suzara

Atheism

If atheism were a religion, how come we atheists do not have a “Chosen People,” or the “elect,” or the “reprobate,” or a “messiah?” How come we atheists have no miracles to convert others into atheism?
If atheism were a religion, how come we atheists have no sacred writings to make us hate and kill each other? How come we do not imprison, torture, burn to death or execute other atheists for denying the existence of atheism? How come we atheists do not declare war on other atheists? Indeed, if atheism were a religion, then health is a disease; or, heresy is orthodoxy.
No doubt, we atheists have faith; but we have faith in life, not in death. We have no faith in the next life. There isn’t any! We atheists do not believe in the existence of the soul. On contrary, we believe that the individual human mind is not only the most sacred; it is not only the most functional; it is also the most precious beauty in all of nature.
No child is born with a religion, and just like you my dear reader, I too was born without a religion. I am also happy with the thought that one day, I will die without a religion. We atheist are not afraid to live because we are not afraid to die.
In the meantime, eternal salvation in the great beyond is the condition of a dead man who refuses to believe that back on earth he is already dead and buried or cremated reduced to ashes. Poch Suzara

Jesus Said:

“I am the way, truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6. Are not these words proof enough from Jesus Himself that God, His Father, is not omnipresent, not to be found everywhere? And to think that even Jesus Himself also physically vanished out of sight since two thousand years ago. Poch Suzara

Jesus

Jesus stated quite clearly: “But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them for me.” Luke 19:27. And to think that this is the same Jesus who supposedly preached love your enemies, and if need be, die for your enemies. Poch Suzara

Family Relations

I have conveyed to my children that they can blame me for everything that’s wrong in their lives. However, only up to a certain age. When they have grown-up, and they still believe there is something wrong with me - their father, then they only have themselves to blame for neglecting to be involved in the study to expunge lies out of this world. Indeed, lies that comes from of false education, spurious history, and stupid organized religions.

Just as much as children are victims, so were we parents when we were children ourselves too. So were our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents victimized too. The idea is to cut short the vicious circle. It promotes nothing but more human stupidity. Our grandchildren and great-children should be exposed to better ways of thinking instead of more of the same old ways of believing. Especially to stop believing in the demons from heaven and from hell and indeed including the demons on this earth as heads of governments.

There is nothing more sacred than our innate curiosity, our ability to reason, and a determination to search for the truth. Any attempt to hinder the beauty of thought or the power of reason is a crime against self-respect, if not a violation against human dignity. We must always turn to what is truly sacred, the freedom to think and reason and then to let the facts speak for themselves.

Let’s all wake up for the sake of human race down here and to hell with divine disgrace up there! Indeed, let us all leave this world one day a better place than we found it. Otherwise, there would be little reason for our having lived. Poch Suzara

Children

Clarence Darrow said, “Just think of the tragedy of teaching children not to doubt!” I agree; but think of the greater tragedy of millions upon millions of children born neither loved nor wanted by their parents in this world. It’s the root cause of the troubles and conflicts that keep our world not only poor and backward, but also brutal in hate, savage in violence, and deadly in war. Poch Suzara

Skeptic or Bright or Atheist

September 11, 2006 Free Inquiry Magazine, Amherst, New York, USA For: Paul Kurtz and Richard Dawkins Gentlemen: Skeptic or Bright or Atheist. I hardly see any value in identifying myself as a “skeptic” or a “bright.” Why hide inside a dark closet? What value is there for more inquiry after having already discovered the truth? Each and every one of us was born free from religion. Even before sacred books were written by inspired authors of God – babies were already coming out of their mother’s womb not as a Christian or a Jew or a Muslim, but as atheists. In fact, we are all born atheists, not sinners; we are made sinners by religious education. If I am against slave trading and say that slavery should be abolished and the slave traders accuse me of being negative, then so be it. But do I really need to use more proper terms so as not to offend such a gang of criminals - the slave traders? In our world today, the religious traders are the criminals. For the sake of faith peddling, they continue to cut each other’s throats. With weapons of mass destruction today, they are even ready and willing to reduce our planet earth into a lunar landscape! In the meantime, the reinforcement of religion exists everywhere. In schools, colleges, universities, radios, newspapers, magazines, movies, television, billboards, marquees, and currencies, etc. Indeed, the communion of saints integrating, while the communion of atheists disintegrating. Down through the centuries, the religious traders have done much to convert every one to live in guilt, in fear, and in hate of each other. Indeed, from infancy to senility, to promote the belief that evil comes only from those who do not believe in God. It seems to me clear that with the power of knowledge behind us – the superstitious should be the ones retreating, and the atheists not the ones flinching away trying only to find more polite ways of identifying themselves in public. Bertrand Russell wrote: “If we must die, let us die sober, and not drunk with lies.” One such horrible lie is that reason can bow before faith; or, that knowledge can retreat before superstition. Sacred lies and other ecclesiastical falsehoods are over. Thanks to the atheists who walked out of their dark closets. In the meantime, there is nothing at all negative about Atheism other than it deprives the religious traders and faith peddlers of their vast sources of tax-free revenues. As atheists, we have more crucial roles to play in this world. With courage, we must continue to show the way for the minds of men, hearts of women, and the lives of children to learn to live under the direction always towards truthfulness. If this were not the case, it nevertheless remains our task to bring more light into a world of darkness.With all good wishes, Poch Suzara Bertrand Russell Society, Philippines, 8 Zippper st. San Lorenzo Village, Makati City

Galileo and Rizal

Even if Galileo had retracted, how come the earth continued on to rotate on its own axis and continued on to orbit around the sun?
Even if Rizal had retracted, how come the Catholic Church continued on to rotate on its own sacred lies and continued on to orbit on its own ecclesiastical falsehoods?
The Vatican authority had already issued a posthumous public apology to Galileo for its errors in having him arrested and incarcerated. Galileo had published his astronomical findings in a book that proved bible astronomy was purely based upon a silly theology.
There is no posthumous public apology as yet from the Vatican authority to Rizal. He was wrongfully arrested and then publicly executed for exposing the evils that kept the Filipinos poor and the Philippines backward. Indeed, the evils otherwise more popularly known as Christian values and beliefs. Poch Suzara

Only in the Philippines

Our college educated men and women are all intelligent, except when they try to think. And to think that all these college-educated individuals in the government, in the media, and in the church are always quarreling like little boys and silly girls all the time. They often knock each other down over some shallow issue, if not over some infantile disagreement in defense of something not worth defending in this already politically sick, economically poor, religiously insane, historically backward, God-forsaken country of ours. Poch Suzara

Private versus Public school

Sending our children to public school as compared to sending them to private school entails a tremendous savings for parents in this country. Only hundreds of pesos a year are required for expenses if children were enrolled in a public school. However, thousands of pesos a year are required if they were enrolled in a private school.
What is not true, however, is the general impression that rich children are better educated in private school than those poor children who are in public schools. Theoretically, if these were true, how come, in this country, we all have the same immature attitude towards life? How come we are not able to think creatively for ourselves as a people and we are not able to assume constructive responsibilities for ourselves as a nation? Ironically, the vastly unemployed in our poor and backward country are products of both public and private schools. And then, how come a great many of us, poor and rich alike, need also a confused American Pastor from California to reveal to us what the purpose driven life is all about? Poch Suzara

More Criticisms

I point out that if we hope to get a million more tourists to visit the Philippines every single month, we must first clean up the garbage and trash all around us on a minute to minute, hour to hour, day to day - round the clock operation. Now I am told not to be too hard on myself and not to be too hard on the Philippines. That instead of criticizing, I should, instead, offer solutions to problems. In other words, join the bandwagon of the blind. Stop pointing out the garbage and trash all around us. Be positive. Don’t rock the boat. Just look the other way. Let the tourists see and enjoy for themselves not only our tourist attraction, but especially also our more exciting tourist distraction. In the meantime, our tourists have already returned home telling everybody that if you have no taste for health and sanitation, it is worth touring the Philippines. No wonder the members of Republican Party of USA are the only ones who feel at home touring the Philippines. In the meantime, I imagine millions of Filipinos no longer hating each other, instead only loving each other proudly touring each other’s provinces in this country of ours. That would truly be a real WOW PHILIPPINES! Poch Suzara

Mar Patalinjug

Mar Patalinjug out of New York summarized precisely what I have been saying again and again for years: “One reason why poverty persists among Filipinos is that they suffer from the deadly poverty of the mind. And this poverty of the mind is the nefarious result of religious indoctrination.” Thank you sir. You are, indeed, a rare Filipino thinker. No, not the communion of many Filipino saints and sinners, but the communion of the few Filipino thinkers and philosophers have the greatest love and admiration for you! Poch Suzara

Bread

Give a man a loaf of bread and you feed him for a day. Teach him religion and he will starve to death while praying for more bread. The prayer goes like this: “Our Father, give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, and lead us not into temptation, amen.”
Now imagine the poor Filipino in need of bread and at the same time, he also needs to pray to God to lead him not into temptation. And to think that the response from heaven is that on this earth - “Man does not live by bread alone.” In the meantime, imagine again the poor Filipino eating his bread in the streets. He does not even own a table. He was, however, taught to believe his faith in God is the best thing he has as God will provide. Poch Suzara

We Filipinos

We Filipinos are not only born troubled, but also raised and indoctrinated to be selfish, greedy, and insane. Even in death we are taught to look forward to saving only our own souls, and to hell to what we will be leaving behind - our poor and troubled nation.
I imagine our schools, colleges, and universities yearly teaching young Filipinos the virtues of intellectual courage. Then I imagine not the young, but the elderly Filipinos looking forward at the inevitability of death as the only way we can meet and tell the Lord to please trash the cult of mediocrity, to please dump the religion of vulgarity, and to please discard the worship of absurdity more popularly known in the Philippines as “Christianity!” Poch Suzara

The Poorest People on this Earth - the Filipnos

Poverty cannot be measured in pesos and centavos alone. Poverty must be viewed from a larger, deeper, if not a wider perspective: social, political, spiritual, cultural, educational, environmental; and indeed, poverty in science and technology. The poorest people in the world may yet be the Filipino. Filipinos, as a people, do not even own a country. Millions of Filipinos are employees to foreign employers in the Philippines which is mostly owned by the Catholic Church. In the meantime, our congressmen and senators have always bragged openly, if not declared publicly that their great success in health and wealth comes from God. It only proves that God does not exist, and if there is a God, such a God has got to be nothing but a divine Jerk. Poch Suzara

I was Spiritually Abused as a little boy in school

It’s not surprising that abused kids grow up to abuse their own kids. I was once an abused kid myself. For asking too many hard questions, I was often humiliated, if not punished, often thrown out of class by my teachers in school. Happily, I have not acquired a taste to be abusive to anybody. The painful memory of my own suffering under Christian teachings has prevented me from being abusive to kids. I do, however, tremendously enjoy a personal war against the abusive system of education that is still as destructive as ever. In schools today, it is still being taught that what is important in life is not the endless cultivation of the mind and heart for this world, but only the mindless preparation of the salvation of sick souls in the next world. As for my own children and grandchildren and all the children of this world – I have every desire that they will eventually see the light and learn to become not the stupid victim of indoctrination, but become instead the intelligent master of education. Today, my former classmates and schoolmates secretly envy me for my guts in standing up and speaking out against the sick system of education that's been keeping us Filipinos poor as a people and corrupt as a nation. - - - Poch Suzara Google# Facebook# Twitter#

Word of a Televangelist

Before accepting the word of a televangelist, we ought to be guided with the power of reason. Credulity without free enquiry encourages not only religious timidity; it is worst, - it promotes political and social insanity. After 500 years of Christian values and beliefs, look at us Filipinos in this 21st century. We are still stuck in a religious quagmire. We are still waiting for the Second Coming of the Lord to remedy the malady that’s keeping the Philippines poor and backward under the cult of social insanity otherwise more popularly known as Christianity. Poch Suzara

If St. Augustine were alive Today in the Philippines

“St. Augustine,” wrote Bishop Bacani, “would sympathize well with us Filipinos, if he were alive today.” (Manila Standard Today, Aug. 29, 2006). As a matter of fact, if St. Augustine were alive today, he would typically personify the average Filipino with a college education in the Philippines. St. Augustine wrote: “There is another form of temptation, even more fraught with danger. This is the disease of curiosity. . . . It is this which drives us on to try and discover the secrets of nature, those secrets which are beyond our understanding, which can avail us nothing and which men should not wish to learn. . . . In this immense forest, full of pitfalls and perils, I have drawn myself back, and pulled myself away from these thorns. In the midst of all these things which float unceasingly around me in everyday life, I am never surprised at any of them. . . . I no longer dream of the stars.“ The time of Augustine’s death, 430 a.d., marks the beginning of the Dark Ages in Europe. It lasted for a thousand years (5th to the 15th century). Every single man, woman, and child believed and had faith in God. It characterized the Dark Ages. In view, however, of his attitude towards life in general, St. Augustine could even be more than qualified to be appointed Secretary of the Department of Education, Culture, and Sports of the Philippines. Poch Suzara

Education

“Education,” wrote Bertrand Russell, “should fit us for the nearest possible approach to truth, and to do this it must teach truthfulness.”
If only truthfulness were taught in our schools, colleges, and universities, the Philippines could have been the most developed nation in Asia centuries ago. But then again, what can be expected of the millions of college degree holders of this country? They would rather have faith in the Revealed Truth for the sake of the next life rather than have faith by discovering the truth for the sake of this life. Poch Suzara

Death

Death is natural. It is also undeniable, unavoidable, and indeed inevitable. The big question, however, if death is the end, and there is no life after death, and humanity will perish utterly, then all our efforts will eventually come to nothing. As an atheist, I do not agree.
Well, to begin with, I know I will surely die one day. The problem, however, is how would I know that there is life after death in heaven or in hell since I would not even know that back on earth I am already dead and buried or cremated?
Bertrand Russell explained it briefly and, indeed, cheerfully: “Happiness is nonetheless true happiness because it must come to an end, nor do thought and love lose their value because they are not everlasting.” Poch Suzara

Theology

Theology is the study of the good; especially, the good for nothing. Look at the good for nothing theologians. After centuries of studying the existence of God, the one and only thing these so-called religious scholars have learned about God is that His existence is a mystery. No doubt, the theologians have power; but their power comes not from knowledge. It comes only from human ignorance and fear. In fact, in order to keep themselves in power, they only have to repeat and repeat the claim that wisdom for this world is evil with God. Is it possible that God’s mystery is not as serious a matter as it is the study of nothing called theology? Theologians have the gall to tell us that if we do not worship God, we will just end up instead worshipping ourselves. As if that exactly isn’t what we are doing all the time – worshipping the same reflection – the same image and likeness of a silly God in the mirror. Poch Suzara

Oh God

In the spiritual world, God expelled the devil and his demons out of heaven.
In the material world, God expelled Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden.
In the academic world, and for questioning too many biblical nonsense, God also had me expelled out of high School at De La Salle University. Among other pertinent questions:I ask: if God could very well create a lasting happiness in heaven, why could He not also create the same lasting happiness on earth? Poch Suzara

A Belief

A belief always follows the path of the least resistance. It is like shallow water that seeks new grounds no more. It is already satisfied stuck on its own shallow level. Poch Suzara

Freedom of the Mind as the Greatest of Freedoms

Freedom is neither a party celebration nor a pleasurable fecundation. Freedom means work, especially more work in the search of the truth. In brief, if it should make any sense at all, freedom has nothing to do with intellectual poverty; on the contrary, it has mostly to do with experiencing intellectual prosperity. Francis Bacon admonished: “Seek ye first the good things of the mind, and the rest will either be supplied or its loss will not be felt.” Indeed, the truth will not make us rich, but it will make us free... In the meantime, I know only of one freedom worth embracing to the end of my days, and that is the freedom of the mind... Poch Suzara Twitter# Facebook# Google#

The Crime of Silence

The crime of silence arises when the need to protest makes men cowards. Of course cowards do not bother with corruption here, corruption there, and corruption everywhere in our sick and corrupt society; especially corruption in the senate or in Congress. After all, according to the coward's faith in God, there is always that forgiveness of sin and crime and that better life to come in the hereafter after death. Poch Suzara

Freedom of Expression

What value has the freedom of expression if, as children in school, we were never taught to value the free play of free thought in the constructive or creative arena of free ideas? Indeed, what value has the freedom of expression if we were never encouraged to question, for example, the destructive influence of sacred beliefs, sick parental prejudices, frightened school teachers, or even to challenge the validity of ecclesiastical authority? For my part, as long as I am enjoying the freedom to make mistakes, and more especially, to learn from my mistakes, I will always, to the end of my days, embrace the freedom of expression as one of life’s most precious of freedoms. . . Poch Suzara Twitter# Facebook# Google#

Democracy

Compared to a theocracy or a kleptocracy or the government of deviltry, democracy is the best form of government. It is the lesser evil. Democracy has its great values and merits. It has, however, its own inherent defects. The worse of it is that democracy encourages the cult of mediocrity. Indeed, in a democracy, like that of the United States of America, one must first accomplish a reputation for mediocrity before getting elected into high office.
Indeed, I have lived and worked in America for some 17 years. Twelve years in Los Angeles and 5 years in San Francisco There never was a politician in high government office I could intellectually love or respect or be worthy of my confidence, trust or even vote. The one and only time I entered a voting booth was when I voted for Jimmy Carter for president of the United States of America. He won. He turned out
to be good; unfortunately, for the United States and for the world - good for nothing. Poch Suzara

Rich Americans

In the past, rich Americans said to foreigners: “Give me liberty or give me death.” In the present, however, rich Americans say to foreigners: “Give me cheap energy or our military will give you death.” Poch Suzara

Jose Rizal a Heretic not a Catholic

We Filipinos are not winning in the struggle to achieve for ourselves a sane and a healthy society. We only believe what Ninoy Aquino believed that: “the Filipino is worth dying for.” And to think Ninoy died because the Filipino killed him. Unless we reform with the radical reform of humanitarian ideals, we will just carry on dying destructively as a people rather than living creatively as a nation. The Philippines is on the way towards extinction. No, we have not found the power that would destroy us. On the contrary, we have not found the truth that should save us. In 1896 Jose Rizal was put to death. He was executed because he was a heretic. He loved the power of reason. He was always at work to challenge deviltry as he was never comfortable with the promises of theology. He believed that the discovery of truth entails free inquiry and free expression. He wrote the Noli and Fili – two great books about our faith in sacred lies and other ecclesiastical deceptions. The same faith, in fact, that’s keeping the Filipino poor as a people and the Philippines backward as a nation. And to think that those in authority responsible for Rizal’s death are still the very same authority today that continue to dominate the minds and hearts of our children in schools, colleges, and universities. In the meantime, in this 21st century, we Filipinos are still bereft of national identity. We are still victimized to love not our country, but love only divinity. Rizal did not care to believe in the next world to come after death. A rarity as a thinking Filipino that he was, he believed, instead, in a better life for the Filipino living in a better country that needs always to be made better. Especially with the power of knowledge that frightens not, but joyfully enlightens the minds of men, and cheerfully strengthens the hearts of women. Rizal’s enemy was not the Filipino. He was executed by mindless and heartless believers - the real enemy that’s keeping the Philippines still pretty much defeated in the race as a nation to achieve peace and unity, security, social and political and environmental sanity, and indeed, economic prosperity. Rizal cared much for life not after death, but for life after birth. He cared much for the good life - one inspired by love and guided by knowledge. Indeed, Rizal believed in the pursuit of endless education rather than the final preparation for eternal salvation. After all, in the ultimate analysis, eternal salvation is the condition of dead Filipinos who refuses to believe that they are already dead. Poch Suzara

Prayer To Afflict the Comfortable

For Michael Moore: Thank you for writing STUPID WHITE MEN. It is one of the most thought-provoking books I have read. I particularly enjoyed reading page 234-235 – A prayer to Afflict the Comfortable. How stupid of me not to have written that myself. It's a classical piece of thought that provokes thought. With your kind permission, I am publishing same in my blog: Thoughts To Provoke Your Thoughts. A Prayer to Afflict the Comfortable Dear Lord ( God/Yahweh/Buddha/Bob/Nobody): We beseech You, O merciful One, to bring comfort to those who suffer today for whatever reason You, Nature, or the World Bank has deemed appropriate. We realize, O heavenly Father, that You cannot cure all the sick at once – that would surely empty out the hospitals the good nuns have established in Your name. And we accept that You, Omniscient One, cannot eliminate all the evil in the world, for that would surely put Thee out of a job. Rather, dear Lord, we ask that You inflict every member of the House of Representatives with horrible, incurable cancers of the brain, penis, and hand (thought not necessarily in that order). We ask, Our loving Father, that every senator from the South be rendered addicted to drugs and find himself locked away for life. We beseech You to make the children of every senator in the Mountain Time Zone gay – really gay. Put the children of senators from the East in a wheelchair ad the children of the senators from the West in a public school. We implore, Most Merciful One, just as you turned Lot's wife into a pillar of salt, that You turn the rich – all the rich – into paupers and homeless, wiping out their entire savings, assets, and mutual funds. Remove from them their positions of power, and yea, may they walk through the valley and into the darkness of a welfare office. Condemn them to a life of flipping burgers and dodging bill collectors. Let them hear the wailing of the innocents as they sit in the middle seat of row 43 in coach and let them feel the gnashing of teeth that are abscessed and rotted like the 108 million who have no dental coverage. Heavenly Father, we pray that all white leaders (especially the alumni of Bob Jones University) who believe black people have it good these days be risen from their sleep tomorrow morning with the skin as black as a stretch limo so that they may enjoy the riches and reap the bountiful fruits of being black in America. We humbly request that Your anointed ones, the bishops of the holy Roman Catholic Church, be smitten with ovaries and unplanned pregnancies and a pamphlet about the rhythm method. Finally, dear Lord, we call upon You to have Jack Welch swim the Hudson he has polluted, to force Hollywood's executives to sit and watch their own movies over and over and over, to have Jesse Helms kissed on the lips by a man of his own gender, to make Chris Matthews go mute, to let the air – quickly – out of Bill O'Reilly, and turn to ash all who are responsible for those who smoke in my office. Oh, yes, and unleash with a fury a plague of locusts to nest in the toupee of the Senate Minority Leader from the great state of Mississippi. May you hear our prayers and grant them, O King of Kings, Who sit on high and watches over us as best You can, considering what screwups we are. Grant us some relief from our misery and suffering, as we know that the men You shall smite will be swift in their efforts to rid themselves of their misfortune, which in turn may rid us of ours. With this we pray, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit –Who-Used-to-be-a- Ghost. Amen. Poch Suzara Twitter# Facebook# Google#

Love of the USA

One of the most pathetic facts about the United States of America is the teaching of our boys and girls to love America. To prove it, however, they could wear a uniform and kill people in other countries. Look how the US government has profitably monopolized this global business for a long time now. Young Americans in the US Army, Navy, Air force, and the Marine Corps find themselves in some foreign land to be a part not of individual terrorism, but state-sponsored terrorism so that after these poor countries are liberated, these foreigners will begin to love America, especially the American economy under freedom and democracy. In the meantime, there are increasing indications that the economic cost of military power weaken the economy in specific ways and, to that extent, national security. Many jobless Americans, however, are so grateful not only to the Lord, but also to the US Military-Industrial-University-Oil Complex for giving them jobs. Be that as it may,
according to the American economy under freedom and democracy, never mind if more than half of the world’s population is seriously malnourished or struggling to live on a dollar a day income. God Bless America? You better believe it! Poch Suzara

Humanity and Generosity

My friend Victor Murillo, a freethinker, wrote an excellent letter in the PDI. It was published in 7/20/2006. I entirely agree with him, as a freethinker myself, I totally endorse his message:
“It makes one wonder if the Catholic Church, with its vast tax-free wealth accumulated through many centuries, would be willing to match even if only half of the humanity and generosity of Warren Buffet’s $37.4 Billion dollar donations, through Bill Gates’ foundation, for the poor, especially in Third World countries.”
And if I may add, Warren Buffet and Bill Gates are not only billionaires. These men are not poor in spirit. On the contrary, they are very rich in spirit as both men are globally known to be freethinkers too. Poch Suzara

It is Incredible

It is, indeed, incredible how highly educated columnists of this country believe that Rizal did not retract only because they believe. first and foremost, the famous historian/theologian Father Horacio de la Costa, S.J. who claimed to have discovered that Rizal never retracted. Upon what evidence? The Jesuit de la Costa never produced.
For my part, I simply take it from Jose Rizal’s own writings, and from his life and times to prove to me that the great thinker that he was, never regretted or retracted. He was a man of the deepest intellect who struggled against religion that encourages not only spiritual poverty, but also promotes human stupidity. I do not need the opinion of a theologian to tell me anything about Jose Rizal – the scientist who was put to death by a theocracy. After all, it was the Catholic friars themselves who had him executed to protect and defend the lucrative business of the Catholic Church selling Christianity in the Philippines.
In the meantime, in this country, in Catholic universities, roll all the professors of theology and history into one personage they would not equal the intellectual courage of a Jose Rizal. Poch Suzara

Jose Rizal Retraction Lies

Hours before he was executed, in his last poem and testament, Rizal wrote: I am going where faith does not kill. And yet teachers and professors, historians and newspaper columnists of this country all believe that hours just before he was executed, Rizal cried like a little boy, went to confession, heard mass and received communion, had a scapular around his neck and a rosary in his hand and retracted from his writings against Christian values and beliefs. What a childish nonsense to believe about the first scientist and the greatest humanist thinker the Philippines, thus far, has ever produced. I suggest to you religiculous morons to please visit Manila City Hall. There is a blowup photo of Jose Rizal there taken by an American tourist while Rizal was being executed at the Luneta. Yes, I will give l0,000 pesos to your favorite charity if you can find in that photo a scapular around Rizal’s neck or a rosary in Rizal’s hands. Indeed, in this 21st century God-forsaken country, I dare say, our historians and columnists still believe the silly theologians who lied about Rizal’s last few hours of his life on this earth. It is even speculated whether Rizal’s soul went to heaven. In the meantime, we remain as the Sick Man of Asia still clinging with childish faith over a lot of religious hogwash. Poch Suzara

Only In The Philippines

Quite a few of our men in prisons are not necessarily criminals but the victims of criminals; especially by those corrupt to the core otherwise known as “corrupt lawyers,” “corrupt Prosecutors,” and “corrupt Judges,” keeping the judicial system of the Philippines corrupt as ever. These highly corrupt men in the legal profession would connive to handle first the lengthy legal court cases of those who are rich and powerful and famous; but hardly consider with as much attention and speed the legal cases of those who are impoverished without money, influence, fanfare, or publicity. Poch Suzara

Born-Again Christian

The most childish, if not most gullible individuals I have met were not only the confused, but also the misguided Christians. Instead of growing up, they are just proud to be Born-Again!
But then again, I also have devout Christian friends who would, during odd moments, bitterly criticize Christianity in the Philippines. Most of the time, however, they do not know what exactly they are talking about. They only display a shallow emotional drama, if not an infantile medulla oblongata. Their criticisms have neither intellectual basis nor social impact nor historical value in them. There is only that terror of the fear of punishment in hell as against the hope of a reward in heaven.
In the meantime, as a nation, this is our religious motto: “There is victory in surrender when the conqueror is not only Christ, but also Christianity.”
And that is how poor and defeated and backward we are as a nation. Poch Suzara

God Out of the Way

I ask: is it really true that the elimination of the concept of God will result in anxiety, despair, and alienation? Or that if God does not exist, everything is permitted? Or remove God out of this world and it will mean the elimination of the final restraints on human brutality? Well, I say, if God exist, why then, since time immemorial, the human race has been alone and insecure and doomed in this world? The most we decent atheists can do is to face the end of life with love, courage, cheerfulness, especially with dignity and self-respect. Admittedly, there is not much of the promise of liberation from atheism, but certainly there is something even much more profound, and indeed, even much more precious – it is called: - intellectual coherence. Bertrand Russell said it briefly: “If we must die, let us die sober, and not drunk with lies.” The most childish, if not most gullible individuals I have met were not only those confused, but also those misguided Christians. Instead of growing up, they are just proud to be Born-Again! But then again, I also have devout Christian friends who would, during odd moments, bitterly criticize Christianity in the Philippines. Most of the time, however, they do not know what exactly they are talking about. They only display a shallow emotional drama, if not an infantile medulla oblongata. Their criticisms have neither intellectual basis nor social impact nor historical value in them. There is only that terror of the fear of punishment in hell as against the hope of a reward in heaven. In the meantime, as a nation, this seems to be our religious motto: “There is victory in surrender when the conqueror is not only Christ, but also Christianity.” Only In The Philippines - many of our men in prisons are not necessarily criminals but the victims of criminals; especially by those corrupt to the core otherwise known as “corrupt lawyers,” “corrupt Prosecutors,” and “corrupt Judges,” keeping the judicial system of the Philippines as corrupt as ever. These highly corrupt men in the legal profession would connive to handle first the lengthy legal court cases of those who are rich and powerful and famous; but hardly consider with as much attention and speed the legal cases of those who are impoverished without influence, fanfare, money and without publicity. Poch Suzara

Failures

There were, indeed, quite a few failures in this world who eventually enjoyed success. There are examples of Soldiers, Admirals, Judges, Boxers, Farmers, Doctors, Actors, Writers, Lawyers, Scientists, including Women Thinkers.
Unfortunately, there were also failures in the early centuries who are still the same failures in this century: the Theologians. They have yet to succeed in discovering incontrovertible evidences of the existence of God.
For my part, this much I can say: Prove to me that God exists or introduce God to me and I would still be the same atheist as I have been since birth. I would still refuse to love, worship, and adore such a God especially since he is always omni-absent; never omni-present. What is a God for if He is always lazy on the job not even pretending to correct the needless mistakes he committed when he created this world? If I were God I never would have created the Christians, the Jews, and the Muslims - the trouble-makers that have not ceased destroying our home planet earth. Poch Suzara