Purpose
Since humanity appeared in the face of the earth, the earth underwent a massive transformation like any other that happened to it for over four billion years. Humanity’s curiosity transformed rocks to highways, wood to intricate sculptures, minerals to trains, ships, computers and power grids. The emergent order originally imposed by billions of years of natural selection has been replaced by an artificial, intelligent order imposed by the human mind.
A human being’s instinct is to know, to test, to explore. Whether exploring the seas and under it, or staring at the skies and beyond it into space, or travelling deep into tropical forests in order to retrieve an herb (which chemical components one can later discover by observing its cells in a microscope), or detailing the anatomical features of our bodies, or testing the limits of artistic expressions – humanity’s impulse is always to increase its understanding and discover the profundity of the universe, the human psyche, and the subconscious.
For this purpose, we develop tools to one, increase our time spent learning and exploring by efficiently producing what we need for convenient survival (e.g. food, shelter, and leisure); and two, increase our capacity to learn by developing instrumentation and computational tools to aid our process of learning (e.g. microscope, personal computers, the paintbrush). Even as we are connected to the universe, we inevitably transform it in our search for meaning and knowledge. Whether our actuations destroy or preserve the earth, for instance, is subordinated to our unquenchable thirst for understanding and its prerequisite – convenient and harmonious survival. We developed genetic engineering to mass manufacture food; upon learning that it may have adverse effects on health, we also further developed past knowledge on organic agriculture to produce healthy food. We developed hydrocarbons that fuel our four-stroke engines; we also developed ecological restoration techniques to mitigate effects of global warming.
The dynamics of society is always towards further technological development for the purpose of discovering ourselves and the universe. It is an inexorable march towards increasing our understanding of our purpose, our meaning and the meaning of everything else. In the process of technological development and evolution, it is inevitable that the society which supports us all should evolve as well – and with it the value systems, beliefs, ideologies, and social structures. Our tools give us the form with which we interact. As we develop our technology, technology changes us. To paraphrase philosopher of technology Karl Marx – the windmill gave us a feudal lord; the steam-mill, a capitalist.
Activism. Visual Art. Current Events. Music. Film. Football.
Lunes, Mayo 28, 2012
Martes, Mayo 15, 2012
Schrödinger’s Boy
I will put the blame on physics because I’m at the wrong end of quantum decoherence; I’m the one who lost, the one who was forgotten, the one left dead. I am the joke of the universe. The Schrödinger’s boy who was both alive and dead, at one point in time, until now. Beyond this layer of the stars, someone had gotten what I wanted. He was the prestige, I’m the doppleganger who drowned underneath the stage.
I scribble your name on paper, repeat it two hundred times. For every curl of consonants, I summon you in my mind, and my soul ignites like a burning wick on melting wax. Warm sensations creep into every crevice of this landscape of proteins and minerals and dreams. Is this what you call love? Or a play of genetics? Fuck you, evolutionary biology. I always lose in the numbers game. My life lived on calculations, on proportions, on probabilities whose jackpots have eluded me.
I scribble your name on paper, repeat it two hundred times. For every curl of consonants, I summon you in my mind, and my soul ignites like a burning wick on melting wax. Warm sensations creep into every crevice of this landscape of proteins and minerals and dreams. Is this what you call love? Or a play of genetics? Fuck you, evolutionary biology. I always lose in the numbers game. My life lived on calculations, on proportions, on probabilities whose jackpots have eluded me.
Linggo, Mayo 06, 2012
Transforming the 'Southeast Asian Sea' into a 'Shared Regional Area of Essential Commons'
Hence, the Southeast Asian Sea’s strategic mineral and aquatic resources cannot be claimed by just a few and in the name of ancient empires that have long ago disappeared into the library of world history. In the context of today’s global environmental realities, the Southeast Asian Sea must by now be claimed by the many and in the name of a 21st Century world order shared by all of humankind. - Rasti Delizo
TRANSFORMING THE ‘SOUTHEAST ASIAN SEA’ INTO A
‘SHARED REGIONAL AREA OF ESSENTIAL COMMONS’
RASTI DELIZO*
12 April 2012
The regionally contentious body of water predominantly known throughout Asia as the South China Sea can yet be transformed into a more mutually beneficial regional asset. Geographically located in Southeastern Asia, this vastly huge oceanic area is a historically recognized maritime route which expediently acts as a gateway between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. Many governments currently acknowledge its vital importance due to a vast abundance of natural undersea resources with potential wells of alternative energy supplies. And for obvious strategic reasons, this prime bio-diversity spot has long become a regional magnet of attraction to various littoral states and major powers surrounding the area.
As such, China, Taiwan and four ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) member-countries are now contesting certain sections of the South China Sea for these same reasons. These territorial claims have characteristically alerted other powerful states and multilateral organizations to the pending disputes as they certainly have the potential to spark off a future military conflict. Since such a war could further conflagrate the entire Asia-Pacific region and inevitably become a dangerous global threat, this overarching regional issue continues to remain a top priority question begging for an immediate solution.
Fundamentally, such an answer must be part of any longer term comprehensive resolution that aims for a more people-centered developmental agenda rather than a purely state-driven one. This is because the latter is usually focused on the interests of the ruling elites while the former is premised on the social-economic needs and aspirations of the region’s peoples who comprise the social majority. In other words, it is the overall common interests of the area’s collective citizenry that must prevail over any short-sighted and narrow aims of the presently ruling regimes.
This ultimately remains both a crux and a dilemma underlying a strategic regional question confounding theEast Asian region today. With Chinanow playing a very influential and critical role as the region’s preeminent power, most countries of Southeast Asia are in a quandary as to how to balance their individual and joint relations with Beijing without sacrificing any sovereign interests or attracting the latter’s ire. On the other hand, the United States as a global hegemonic power has recently reinserted its geostrategic weight into the regional equation. More than two decades after the Cold War ended in December 1991, and nearly twenty years after US military forces were ousted from their longtime military bases in the Philippines in November 1992 America is once again re-pivoting its might all around Asia in an apparent encircling-containment of China.
At present, the regional environmental situation contains a wide range of economic-political-security issues, concerns and challenges. This broad mix of overlapping interests and multi-pressure points continue to affect the nature and character of the external policy responses of the East Asian countries concerned. Nevertheless, it is the relative positioning of some of the area’s key power centers, specifically China, the US and the ASEAN that tend to influence major events for now.
Hence, any fundamental changes in East Asia’s future regional strategic architecture will have to take into full consideration the directional thrusts of these regional power centers. While both China and the US can be expected to maintain and pursue their respective counter-positional moves against each other for obvious reasons, it is the ASEAN that will have to be the one to initiate and push for an alternative balance in the region. As a regional association whose member-states are all located in Southeast Asia, ASEAN has to strike an independent path from that of Beijing and Washington. And for it to do so, ASEAN will have to secure a more regionally focused position that is fully centered on the genuine aspirations of the peoples of Southeast Asia and not on the tactical and strategic objectives of the Chinese or the Americans.
A ‘SHARED REGIONAL AREA OF ESSENTIAL COMMONS’
Toward this directional setting, the ASEAN should now rethink and reinvent its currently accepted view of, and attitude to, the South China Sea. This has now become fundamentally imperative after no regional unity was reached in terms of a so-called ‘Code of Conduct’ on this question after the recently concluded 20th ASEAN Summit in Phnom Penh last April 2-4, 2012. This latest regional setback is definitely a communal problem which the ASEAN has yet to overcome and soon.
And yet, with the currently brewing confrontation between China and the Philippines over the Scarborough Shoal, this has once again created a new tension point unsettling the area. The present situation is a pressing matter which demands for a positively united response from various parties involved. Given this developing context, a new regional framework has to urgently be asserted by the Southeast Asian organization to push for the area’s peacefully cooperative stability.
For a start, the ASEAN must immediately propose that the area already be declared a ‘Shared Regional Area of Essential Commons’ or SRAEC. In the same manner, this SRAEC entity must also be outlined according to its factually precise and geographic location on the global map. Because it is essentially and practically located within an area bounded by at least seven littoral Southeast Asian states, and all belonging to the ASEAN, it should therefore be renamed as the ‘Southeast Asian Sea’ instead. Only China and Taiwan are the remaining states bordering the Southeast Asian Sea that do not belong to the ASEAN.
In broad strokes, the SRAEC has to be recognized and upheld by all the common stakeholders presently involved in the region’s long term future. These will have to include state and non-state entities, together with various regional organizations and even global institutions. Its basic premise and thrust must be to ensure that all the commonly essential natural maritime resources that are now presently found (and have yet to be discovered) within the parameters of the Southeast Asian Sea have to be collectively shared by all stakeholders, especially the region’s vast humanity and not merely a handful of states and their ruling leaders.
Hence, the Southeast Asian Sea’s strategic mineral and aquatic resources cannot be claimed by just a few and in the name of ancient empires that have long ago disappeared into the library of world history. In the context of today’s global environmental realities, the Southeast Asian Sea must by now be claimed by the many and in the name of a 21st Century world order shared by all of humankind.
AN INDEPENDENTLY NEUTRAL SRAEC
In pursuing the conceptual framework of a Shared Regional Area of Essential Commons, the ASEAN and proponents of a Southeast Asian Sea-based SRAEC will also have to principally ensure its independence and neutrality. That means, the SRAEC should assert from its declared onset that it cannot be absolutely claimed (wholly or partially) by any one state or regional entity, such as China or the ASEAN. And even more so, the SRAEC must not become a conflict zone under the geopolitical maneuverings of any global superpower, specifically the imperialist thrusts of the US.
The greater challenge in this regard remains the need to break free from the reactionary mindset of realpolitik still guiding the key players on the Southeast Asian Sea question. It will certainly not be very easy to change the counter-posed views of both Beijing and Washington in relation to their respective hegemonic agendas over the broader Asia-Pacific region. At the same time, ASEAN is not collectively united in taking a more independently neutral stance toward both China and the US. This is because it is primarily the Philippines, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam that are highly prone to lean on to the US as a counterforce to China and as such, this imbalance inside the ASEAN is now being exploited by Beijing.
In this regard, China continues to strongly push its demands for a more bilateral and regionally-focused solution to the current regional dilemma affecting the Southeast Asian Sea area. In contrast to this, the US is pushing for a more multilateral approach to solve the regional contradiction. In effect, the Chinese want to ensure their clear dominance over their Southeast Asian neighbors without any interference from another superpower rival across the Pacific Ocean. And in an almost similar manner, the Americans also aim to once more intervene within the area by realigning pro-US countries from Southeast Asia behind its imperialist dictation through a geostrategic coalition to contain the Chinese expansionist actions and aimed at enhancing American control over the Southeast Asian region.
At the end of the day, only a progressive direction and an openly participative process within the framework of a Shared Regional Area of Essential Commons for the peoples living around the Southeast Asian Sea can radically alter the balance of power in this highly contentious but vital corner of the world. And maybe perhaps this could become a critically necessary step toward genuinely building a more ‘caring and sharing’ ASEAN common area for all. RTD
*Rasti Delizo is a former head of the Political/Security Affairs Staff of the Macroeconomy and Political Affairs Office (MPO) of the Presidential Management Staff - Office of the President (PMS-OP). He used to teach international politics and Philippine foreign policy.
TRANSFORMING THE ‘SOUTHEAST ASIAN SEA’ INTO A
‘SHARED REGIONAL AREA OF ESSENTIAL COMMONS’
RASTI DELIZO*
12 April 2012
The regionally contentious body of water predominantly known throughout Asia as the South China Sea can yet be transformed into a more mutually beneficial regional asset. Geographically located in Southeastern Asia, this vastly huge oceanic area is a historically recognized maritime route which expediently acts as a gateway between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. Many governments currently acknowledge its vital importance due to a vast abundance of natural undersea resources with potential wells of alternative energy supplies. And for obvious strategic reasons, this prime bio-diversity spot has long become a regional magnet of attraction to various littoral states and major powers surrounding the area.
As such, China, Taiwan and four ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) member-countries are now contesting certain sections of the South China Sea for these same reasons. These territorial claims have characteristically alerted other powerful states and multilateral organizations to the pending disputes as they certainly have the potential to spark off a future military conflict. Since such a war could further conflagrate the entire Asia-Pacific region and inevitably become a dangerous global threat, this overarching regional issue continues to remain a top priority question begging for an immediate solution.
Fundamentally, such an answer must be part of any longer term comprehensive resolution that aims for a more people-centered developmental agenda rather than a purely state-driven one. This is because the latter is usually focused on the interests of the ruling elites while the former is premised on the social-economic needs and aspirations of the region’s peoples who comprise the social majority. In other words, it is the overall common interests of the area’s collective citizenry that must prevail over any short-sighted and narrow aims of the presently ruling regimes.
 |
At present, the regional environmental situation contains a wide range of economic-political-security issues, concerns and challenges. This broad mix of overlapping interests and multi-pressure points continue to affect the nature and character of the external policy responses of the East Asian countries concerned. Nevertheless, it is the relative positioning of some of the area’s key power centers, specifically China, the US and the ASEAN that tend to influence major events for now.
Hence, any fundamental changes in East Asia’s future regional strategic architecture will have to take into full consideration the directional thrusts of these regional power centers. While both China and the US can be expected to maintain and pursue their respective counter-positional moves against each other for obvious reasons, it is the ASEAN that will have to be the one to initiate and push for an alternative balance in the region. As a regional association whose member-states are all located in Southeast Asia, ASEAN has to strike an independent path from that of Beijing and Washington. And for it to do so, ASEAN will have to secure a more regionally focused position that is fully centered on the genuine aspirations of the peoples of Southeast Asia and not on the tactical and strategic objectives of the Chinese or the Americans.
A ‘SHARED REGIONAL AREA OF ESSENTIAL COMMONS’
Toward this directional setting, the ASEAN should now rethink and reinvent its currently accepted view of, and attitude to, the South China Sea. This has now become fundamentally imperative after no regional unity was reached in terms of a so-called ‘Code of Conduct’ on this question after the recently concluded 20th ASEAN Summit in Phnom Penh last April 2-4, 2012. This latest regional setback is definitely a communal problem which the ASEAN has yet to overcome and soon.
 |
| (Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS). ASEAN delegation members attend the concluding session at the 20th ASEAN Summit at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday, April 4, 2012. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith). From here. |
For a start, the ASEAN must immediately propose that the area already be declared a ‘Shared Regional Area of Essential Commons’ or SRAEC. In the same manner, this SRAEC entity must also be outlined according to its factually precise and geographic location on the global map. Because it is essentially and practically located within an area bounded by at least seven littoral Southeast Asian states, and all belonging to the ASEAN, it should therefore be renamed as the ‘Southeast Asian Sea’ instead. Only China and Taiwan are the remaining states bordering the Southeast Asian Sea that do not belong to the ASEAN.
In broad strokes, the SRAEC has to be recognized and upheld by all the common stakeholders presently involved in the region’s long term future. These will have to include state and non-state entities, together with various regional organizations and even global institutions. Its basic premise and thrust must be to ensure that all the commonly essential natural maritime resources that are now presently found (and have yet to be discovered) within the parameters of the Southeast Asian Sea have to be collectively shared by all stakeholders, especially the region’s vast humanity and not merely a handful of states and their ruling leaders.
 |
| (Photo: Reuters) Tanker Yuri Senkevich sails near the Lufeng oil field, 250 kilometers south-east of [Hong Kong] in the South China Sea. Photo from here. |
AN INDEPENDENTLY NEUTRAL SRAEC
In pursuing the conceptual framework of a Shared Regional Area of Essential Commons, the ASEAN and proponents of a Southeast Asian Sea-based SRAEC will also have to principally ensure its independence and neutrality. That means, the SRAEC should assert from its declared onset that it cannot be absolutely claimed (wholly or partially) by any one state or regional entity, such as China or the ASEAN. And even more so, the SRAEC must not become a conflict zone under the geopolitical maneuverings of any global superpower, specifically the imperialist thrusts of the US.
 |
| No to US imperialism, Chinese expansionism! Photo from here. |
In this regard, China continues to strongly push its demands for a more bilateral and regionally-focused solution to the current regional dilemma affecting the Southeast Asian Sea area. In contrast to this, the US is pushing for a more multilateral approach to solve the regional contradiction. In effect, the Chinese want to ensure their clear dominance over their Southeast Asian neighbors without any interference from another superpower rival across the Pacific Ocean. And in an almost similar manner, the Americans also aim to once more intervene within the area by realigning pro-US countries from Southeast Asia behind its imperialist dictation through a geostrategic coalition to contain the Chinese expansionist actions and aimed at enhancing American control over the Southeast Asian region.
 |
| A Caring and Sharing ASEAN. See Cebu declaration here. |
*Rasti Delizo is a former head of the Political/Security Affairs Staff of the Macroeconomy and Political Affairs Office (MPO) of the Presidential Management Staff - Office of the President (PMS-OP). He used to teach international politics and Philippine foreign policy.
Martes, Abril 10, 2012
A Skate Regeneration
Featuring Kilian Martin
Rodney Mullen II or what, I really don't care. This is simply beautiful. Kilian just brought skateboarding to a new level by mixing it with parkour. Check 2:22 and get ready to be blown away.
So, step aside punks and make way, skate is in good hands.
Music: Fireweed by Patrick Watson
Directed by: Brett Novak
Huwebes, Marso 22, 2012
Run Away (Late Night Drive Mixtape)
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"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows." - Bob Dylan
This post is long overdue. I've had this mixtape in mind since the start of the semester and I had been putting it together for months now, but I never really found time to post it. So before my finals lockdown, here goes.
Huwebes, Marso 15, 2012
Uganda be kiddin' me: Kony 2012, Ugandan Oil Boom, and America's Next Bin Laden*
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| A parody pic by a hadtodoittoo posted here. |
Its strategy is simple as well: get as much international support to push the United States (and possibly other states - they are very ambiguous on this) to do its usual thing of saving the world. But an originally all-American movement, the mobilization of support will naturally target the US populace. Its tactic: a year long spectacle of raising awareness, selling campaign paraphernalia, lobbying and leveraging important personalities, and finally, direct action on April - seemingly riding the fad of creative protest actions sparked by of Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party.
Unfortunately for them, Kony 2012, which gained considerable success in its air war - million hits for its videos, #stopkony trending globally, and sparking a global discourse on Africa and the existence of Christian fundamentalist militias (not unlike that created by the joint US and Philippines forces during the late 1980s, but more on this later) - backfired.
Lunes, Oktubre 10, 2011
Too Cool For School (Hell Week Mixtape)
Barely rested from midterms and now finals month is on again. I'd say f*ck school, but then what is the ascendancy of someone who ranted about school for 16 years from pre-school way to college and yet, after graduating, still chose to stick a bit while for five more years in law school, right?
In time for hell month, Occupy Wall Street frenzy and El Che's 44th death anniversary, here's a mixtape for that inner rebel. Perfect for those infinite moments you want to rip your readings apart. Included in this list is my anthem to the youth, Radio Dept.'s Heaven's On Fire. It's rage put into a single. Check it:
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