Poverty of the Mind

The worst kind of poverty is the poverty of the mind. In this God-forsaken country, even the filthy rich are unable to enjoy the wealth of the mind because they have been taught to believe that if they remain poor in spirit – God will always bless them. Thus, the filthy rich and the filthy poor in the Philippines both equally suffer from the worse kind of poverty – the poverty of the mind.
In the meantime, we members of the intellectual community entirely agree with Bertrand Russell: - Happiness is the 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

I am a Filipino

I am an Asian and a Filipino born in the Philippines. Jesus was a Jew born in Israel. What have I anything to do with the Jews – supposedly already God’s Chosen people? And to think that the Philippines is predominantly a Catholic country; Israel is a Jewish State. And to think further that even Jesus Christ himself was not born of Catholic parents or even raised and educated in a Catholic school. Poch Suzara

God Will Provide

In the 1950s, the population of the Philippines was then 15 million Filipinos. We were then a poor country. Today in the year 2006, our population has reached 88 million Filipinos. We are poorer in this decade than we were poor during the past decade. In the meantime, the religious leaders of this God-forsaken country are still preaching to the multitudes not to worry because - God will provide. Poch Suzara

Catechism Class

Bishop Teodoro Bacani, Jr. claims that the voice of people is the voice of God. He wrote: “God does not speak only through His bishops. Often He speaks through His people.”
I ask the good bishop: What about the voice of Adam and Eve as against the voice of the serpent speaking in behalf of the devil? Where was God’s voice then to protect Adam and Eve? Indeed, instead of protection, what instead they experienced in paradise was expulsion. Perhaps Adam and Eve were both guilty of sin. But our politicians in government as elected by the voice of God are not only guilty of sins against God, but also guilty of crimes against the State.
What have the bishops got to do with matters of the material State? Aren’t they responsible with matters concerning only the spiritual church? Indeed, if the voice of the people were the voice of God, what need is there for the voice of the bishops to speak to God for the people?
I dare challenge you bishops to be among the first to resign to remedy the ills that’s keeping this only Christian country in Asia poor religiously, backward morally, and insane socially. Poch Suzara

Happy Filipinos

Filipinos are the happiest people in Asia despite crises, - says an Archbishop of the church. What an irresponsible statement to make!
Happiness is an achievement. It is neither a statement nor an opinion. Thus far, however, due to our traditional belief that God will provide, we Filipinos have only achieved more of the same nothing as a people and have achieved more of the same nothing as a nation.
In the meantime, the poverty epidemic in the Philippines has many population-related causes, especially lack of nutrition, lack of medical care, lack of proper hygiene and sanitation, lack of clean water supplies, and indeed lack of housing and school buildings. We do, however, have plenty of politicians and theologians who are the “haves” enjoying prosperity, while the rest of us are the ‘have-nots” enjoying poverty. Poch Suzara

The Filipino

Happily, there are approximately ten million Filipinos living like decent people today working for the foreigners in more than 160 foreign countries around the world.
Unhappily, however, there are about the forty million Filipinos left behind still existing under poor conditions, without sense of pride and dignity as citizens of the Republic of the Philippines.
The real fortunate ones, however, are the very few rich Filipinos. They are most grateful to the one and only foreigner who arrived here some five centuries ago. His name is Jesus – the Son of God. Jesus has answered favorably their prayers. Without having to go foreign countries, they all feel blessed by the Lord to enjoy wealth, power, and glory here in the Philippines. Poch Suzara

Only in the Philippines

The rich gets richer and the poor gets poorer. As poverty of the worst kind, however, is the poverty of the mind and heart, both the rich and the poor alike comprising our sick society mutually enjoy poverty equally, especially for the glory of divinity.
In the meantime, in this poor and backward country, each time we are faced with harsh reality, we just either pray or play or worse – crack a joke about it. In a circus, we are the clowns laughing at our own perpetual stupidity. Poch Suzara

Wealth of the Church

The assets and properties and other commercial enterprises owned and controlled by the church including schools, colleges, and universities in the Philippines are worth in the trillions of tax-free pesos. In the meantime, from the 16th century up to the 21st century, millions upon millions of spiritually impoverished Filipinos continue buying what, for centuries, the church has been selling: eternal salvation in the next world with Jesus. And to think that millions of so-called college educated men and women of this country today still swallow hook, line, and sinker that holy baloney. Poch Suzara

Lenten Season

During the Lenten season, it is a sin to eat meat on Fridays. During the rest of the year, however, it is not a sin to live like pigs or to think like cows.
In the meantime, millions of Filipinos still believe what they have been taught from infancy to believe - that God will always provide.
Is it any wonder that our bishops can easily proclaim that: The Filipinos, despite the economic crises, are the happiest people of Asia! Poch Suzara

Presidential Elections

Massive cheating was endemic during the last presidential elections. No candidate, however, was caught; except the winner – GMA. This is the same president who openly disclosed that “God put me here” and that “God has plans for me.” Imagine God - cheating with her!
It has been suggested that all of the candidates who cheated in last elections should be hanged. Since there are not enough ropes to hang them with – it has been further suggested that they should all volunteer and jump into the Pasig River. And to think that even our own Pasig river has already died of corruption decades ago. Poch Suzara

Fear Of the Lord

If you wish to be a happy person enjoying self-respect and dignity, do not live a life of fear. Do not fear anything. Do not even fear the Lord. Let the Lord, instead, fear you. After all, in sending you to hell, the Lord needs the help of another supernatural coward – the silly devil to carry out the task behind your back. Look at the Lord and his devil – they do not even have the mutual decency to introduce themselves to you face to face. How can they? They do not exist. In the meantime, where’s heaven as God’s residence located? Or, where’s hell as Satan’s home situated? Even the brightest among the Jesuit theologians have not the foggiest.
Poch Suzara

Thank you Lord

Lord, thank you for my eyes to see, ears to hear, nose to smell, tongue to taste, and for my skin to feel. But Lord, could you please kindly remove totally the more than 2,000,000,000 different kinds of germs, assorted viruses, and deadly bacteria existing happily inside the human body as their housing facilities? Really Lord, those nasty little creatures will eventually kill not only me but also kill your disciples and followers even if they believe in free will. By the way Lord, could you also please clarify this issue: After we are dead and our bodies begin to rot, how may we still enjoy eternal happiness with you in heaven without eyes to see, without ears to hear, without nose to smell, without tongue to taste, without skin to feel, without brains to think, and without our sex organs to fuck 72 year old virgins? Poch Suzara

Raising The Dead

Dear Jesus, if you had raised not dead bodies, but raised instead only dead minds in your community, your followers and disciples then would have been among the first to be not deadly in the ways of believing, but more so lively in the ways of thinking. Poch Suzara

Walked On Water

If Jesus had only explored and discovered the wealth found under water, and not just walked on top of it, he could have multiplied not only fish for the health of his community, but also distributed a wealth of information for everybody globally. Poch Suzara

The Burning Bush

During ancient times, God in the shape of a burning bush, appeared to Moses. What a treat that must have been for Moses. But was it true? Perhaps, Moses who was really more into magic than he was into logic was just being dramatic. He was just hallucinating as he was a lunatic. Indeed, in the bible, Moses managed to described the nature of his own death and burial. In the scientific term, Moses was a psycho-ceramic. In the layman’s language, he was a crackpot. And to think that this biblical hero was one of the characters who was responsible for the success of the Christian religion. Poch Suzara

God’s Creation

Let’s assume God is perfect and that man is the evidence of his creation. The real question is what was God’s motive? Why would a perfect God bother to create an imperfect man in his own image and likeness? Free Will? What force has human free will against the power of divine will? In the meantime, if God could create heaven without pain and suffering, what was so hard for God to have created also a planet earth without pain and suffering? Poch Suzara

Adam and Eve

Adam or Eve wrote not a single verse in the bible. No report whatsoever about their unique personal relationship with God Himself. What was it like to experience communicating directly with God? Did He speak authoritatively or affectionately? In what language? Was God really that involved with human hopes and dreams and education? What about the Tree of Knowledge then existing? Did God inspire both Adam and Eve to discover and to learn from that tree of Knowledge? Enough to add new and fresh ideas on top it and to pass on to their children and grandchildren? And what happened to that Tree of Knowledge? How come it miraculously vanished into thin air? Perhaps, Eve asked God to have it replanted elsewhere. Did Adam cut it down as it turned out to be a worthless tree of stupidity. At any rate, where is that Tree of Knowledge to be found existing anywhere today? My dear reader, would you believe that even the millions of college-educated Filipinos - the most well-informed men and women in all of Asia today know not where that Tree of Knowledge is to be found? All they know is that God has it revealed as one of the Revealed Truths of God in the Holy Bible. Poch Suzara

The Talking Serpent

According to Genesis in the bible, it was the serpent who tempted Eve to eat off the fruit of the Tree of Good and Evil. After she did so, she got pregnant. Since Eve’s son Cain turned out to be evil who, over nothing, murdered his only brother Abel, it must have been the serpent who sired Cain with Eve under that Tree of Good and Evil. Poch Suzara

Weapons of Mass Destruction

Insanity is far more destructive than the Weapons of Mass Destruction. After all, insanity produced such weapons. Not surprisingly, however, even far more destructive than human insanity is the American insanity. Indeed, we Americans have yet to retool our basic industries from war economy to peace economy and start entertaining the idea that being loved and at peace with the rest of the world is a much more lucrative business than being hated and at war with the rest of the human race. In the meantime, anti-terrorism is no excuse for imperialism. Poch Suzara

Science

Someday, thanks to science, health will spread faster than disease. In fact, even more fantastic, one day science will make our dream of human immortality a reality. These miracles in the future could have been made possible during the past centuries had not stupid religion stood in the way always fighting against the progress of science. Indeed, fighting science as an engine generating the power of human knowledge to improve the human conditions on this earth.
In the centuries to come, not religion, but science will be mankind’s only savior. If, however, science fails to work, what we will be needed is not less, but precisely more science. In this world, indeed, in all of nature, there is absolutely nothing quite like science. Poch Suzara