SOME
people who don't find any sense in being part of social media have to
realize that the world doesn't just revolve in or around them. I am
not a huge follower of electronic gadgets or computer technology
myself but I see a far more sublime reason why some people turn to
Facebook than what non-believers don't see. This is a global
community that, quite logically, isn't just speaking/talking with one
or two sociocultural environment. Other people have other reasons.
Like an open market, grocery store or flea market—or the world
itself—Facebook is replete with negative stuff as well as positive
things. It's your choice—grab one or get out. Get upset and
distracted, get pleased and inspired. Like television, like a book.
Yet
if an individual expects that the universe is all love and Namaste,
and their rationale why they don't do Facebook is it's all
negative—better build a sweet dungeon and stock up on organic
jerkies. For sure, that person will find ways to whine about the
unavailability of sunlight and rainfall in there anyhow. Among other
reasons beyond engagements with bored trolls (which also happens out
there anyways), I do enjoy Facebook for one singular benefit:
Connection with family, relatives, and longtime friends—including
buddies in my youth's neighborhood, grade school and high school
classmates. I am also able to seriously discuss and/or joke around
with ex-college professors and writing mentors/editors and media
colleagues.
My
two most recent “discoveries” were my aunt Concepcion, my dad's
sister, who now lives in Japan with her family, and my cousin Ella,
just few towns away from some of my siblings' house/s in Baguio City,
the family's second home-city, north of the Philippines. Most of my
childhood in Quezon City was spent with Aunt Chit (Concepcion's
nickname) around. She was a teenager when I was a child. The songs
that I share here remind me a lot about people in the past, including
Aunt Chit, because music played a huge part in my upbringing when she
was around.
Ella
was the only child of my (late) Uncle Tony, my mom's brother. They
live/d in a little farming barrio called Balaoan in La Union province
in the north. I used to spend some of my summers there when the rest
of my eight other siblings were enjoying city life on school break. I
enjoyed the quiet escape—meditations on the woods, picnics beside
the river, harvest of escargots on the side of muddy rice plots, easy
naps on bamboo beds, fresh vegetables and the smell of moist grass
after rain. Because I located Ella, I also located other cousins
Nida, Emily, Manuel, and Lito and their families.
Hence,
to me and many other people, Facebook isn't just funny cat videos and
fiery political rants. It's more significant and valuable than a
mundane distraction.
I
HAVE been reading thoughts and discussions/debates from FB page/s of
friends and acquaintances—mostly former professors, writing
mentors, editors and media colleagues, emanating from four corners of
the universe. Facebook, thank you for this one-click wonder...
Interesting, intriguing, endlessly enlightening. I recall those days
of yonder as a zealous youth hungry for knowledge and adventure,
reading up on stuff from Freire to Nietzsche to Thoreau to Sartre to
Camus to Mao to Toffler to Dylan to just about anything that is worth
food for thought, chased down by a bottle or two of scrounged
cerveza. It's always cool to sit down over a drink, whatever drink,
with anyone who knows some—not simply a smartass agitator or
trickster devil's advocate. Even in heated and intense joust, lessons
are harvested. I learned a lot from those...
Meantime,
it is kind of easier now to engage in a discussion since words and
stuff are easily double-checked via google. Yet if a prospective
conversant reasons, “I don't believe in Wikipedia anyways...” or
“I don't google...” and we ask, “So what do you know?” and
get, “I don't need to know...” then what is the point of a talk,
right? I say, what we get in the internet are all 2nd or 3rd or 4th hand data. However, it is a common
progression in knowing stuff and things to follow through—get out,
go to the library, talk with people, visit places. But who wants to
do that these days? Ah! Still though I like talking with someone who
has a baseline info about anything. Where did CD originate, are the
Bee Gees British or Australians, what is Treaty of Paris, how
significant is WTO, who is Sylvie Legere, was Genghis Khan really a
jerk, how dumb was Columbus, how powerful was Isabella I of Castille,
who is Tom Joad, how good was Duane Allman on slide guitar, what
makes Ho Chi Minh a military genius, does fortune cookie exist in
Beijing? But it is sad that today's humanity is generally interested
with cryptic, 3-word lines only—short attention span earthlings who
are so busy yet they haven't left their seats in the last 14 hours.
Anyways...
WHAT's
behind wars? Apparently, these go beyond body counts, avenging
furies, and macho posturings. EXAMPLE (in history): Following the
defeat of Spain to the United States in their war more than a century
ago, the Philippines—along with four other stretegically positioned
countries, previously under Queen Victoria's rule—were ceded to the
US. Treaty of Paris, 10 Dec 1898. Zoom in: The Philippines. This
archipelago of 7,107 islands is nestled right on the heart of South
China Sea, a marginal body of water that is part of the Pacific
Ocean, encompassing an area from the Singapore and Malacca
Straits to the Strait of Taiwan of around
1,400,000 sq miles. This extremely significant sea is the
second most used sea lane in the world, while in terms of
world annual merchant fleet tonnage, over 50 percent passes through
the Strait of Malacca, the Sunda Strait, and the Lombok
Strait. Over million barrels of crude oil a day are shipped
through the Strait of Malacca. The region has
proven oil reserves of around 7.7 billion barrels,
with an estimate of 28 billion barrels in total. Natural
gas reserves are estimated to total around 266 trillion cubic
feet. HUGE SHIT that the world that enjoys drinking oil mojitos and
watching cable TV nonstop surely relish! This, aside from the fact
that the area is a very important defense strait and refuelling base
for the US (and any other superpower) in case of a war.
Hence,
the two huge US bases in the country. (Check as well details behind
the Battle of Bataan and Corregidor, return of Gen. Douglas McArthur
via Australia etc in World War II)... America is an impregnable fort
due to the physical barriers of South China Sea and the bodies of
water that the other countries in the ceding deal—Cuba, Puerto
Rico, parts of the West Indies, and Guam—offer the
Mainland. When whispers of war heave through the air, we ask, WHY?
What's going on..
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