Friday, March 19, 2021
Never-ending harassment
“If bigots behave like bigots, it's not a huge surprise.”
—Salman Rushdie
By Alex P. Vidal
AFTER hurriedly disembarking from the Queens-bound F subway train in the Delancey Street-Essex Street Station past 2 o’clock in the afternoon March 18, I approached the two New York Police Department (NYPD) cops as they entered the main door of the subway turnstile, used in subway systems and other mass-transit systems to check patrons' tickets.
I told them “I needed help” and narrated I experienced another harassment (my second in six days) from an emotionally distraught man minutes earlier inside the train while on my way to Queens from Brooklyn.
“Are you hurt? Do you need a medical attention?” asked one of them.
“No, I’m OK,” I quickly retorted. “I’m just worried that the man might attack me again if he sees me before I reach my destination.”
I told them the incident happened when the train had just passed by the York Station and there were two other passengers aside from me and the assailant.
I said I wasn’t supposed to be in that station but I needed to avoid the unidentified toughie; my final destination would be at the 74th Station on Roosevelt Avenue, Queens.
“You mean it happened in Brooklyn?” asked the same cop. “I would advise you to stay here (he pointed to the small office outside the turnstile) and wait for the next train. There’s nothing we can do now as we can’t chase him if he’s on the train that left and where you just came from.”
I knew that York Station was part of Brooklyn, but I had no idea that Delancey Street-Essex Street Station was already part of Manhattan.
I waited for about eight to 10 minutes for the next F train and followed the cop’s advice.
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After taking the incoming F train, which had more than 20 passengers, I managed to reach the 74th Station unscathed.
As of this writing, I was planning to write anew NYPD Commissioner Dermot Francis Shea regarding the incident.
On March 12 evening, or several hours after I experienced a scary verbal harassment from an angry man who mistook me for “a Chinese” on board the F train bound for Coney Island in Brooklyn, I e-mailed Commissioner Shea to report what happened.
After several minutes, I received this reply: “Your City of New York Correspondence Number is #1-1-9742727. Thank you for contacting the City of New York. Your message has been forwarded to the appropriate agency for review and handling.”
It seems it’s no longer safe to take the subway train as long as there is a pandemic.
Some ignorant and hateful individuals think the Chinese brought the coronavirus in the United States.
Every now and then, stories of harassment and acts of violence have been reported these past weeks. Most of the victims were Asian Americans, and the hatred toward the “China Virus” has gone from bad to worse that some people seemed no longer interested to openly tackle the subject matter.
The subway system is the main public transportation system in New York. It is one of the oldest and largest public transportation systems in the world (in terms of number of stations).
With some 5.5 million riders on a given weekday, it is one of the primary modes of transportation for the majority of New Yorkers and tourists.
The system is operated by a subsidiary of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).
When will the harassment and bigotry stop? No one knows.
Let’s continue to protect ourselves at all times, as I used to counsel the two prizefighters inside the ring before the bout.
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In the lengthy introductory essay of For the New Intellectual, Ayn Rand argues that America and Western civilization are bankrupt, and that the cause of the bankruptcy is the failure of philosophy: specifically, the failure of philosophers and intellectuals to define and advocate a philosophy of reason.
In the subsequent selections, culled from her novels, Rand presents the outline of her philosophy of reason, which she calls Objectivism.
These excerpts cover major topics in philosophy--from Objectivism’s basic axioms to its new theory of free will to its radical ethics of rational egoism to its moral-philosophic case for laissez-faire capitalism.
For the New Intellectual contains some of Rand’s most important passages on other philosophers, including Aristotle, Plato, Hume, Kant, Hegel and Nietzsche.
Many of its selections also develop Rand’s unprecedented critique of altruism—the notion that our basic moral obligation is to live for others.
Why do Rand’s novels contain often-lengthy philosophic speeches?
Because the speeches are crucial to the story: to advancing its plot and capturing the characters’ motivations.
Rand’s goal as a fiction writer was to present her conception of the ideal man.
But her view of good and evil differed so radically from others that she had to originate her own philosophy.
“I had to do it, because my basic view of man and of existence was in conflict with most of the existing philosophical theories. In order to define, explain and present my concept of man, I had to become a philosopher . . . .”
The speeches are “necessarily condensed summaries, because the full statement of the subjects involved is presented, in each novel, by means of the story. The events are the concretes and the particulars, of which the speeches are the abstract summations.”
Both together are needed to make her vision of the ideal real.
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two dailies in Iloilo)
Thursday, March 18, 2021
I’m ‘luckier’ than those killed
“Toward no crimes have men shown themselves so cold-bloodedly cruel as in punishing differences of belief.”
—James Russell Lowell
By Alex P. Vidal
I STILL consider myself “luckier” compared to those members of Asian community murdered in Atlanta on March 17 in another wave of hate crime perpetrated against Asian Americans amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.
The massacre in Atlanta occurred five days after a lunatic man verbally abused me on F train bound for the Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York City at 11 am on March 12 for being “a Chinese.”
The bloody carnage in Atlanta happened almost a month after another Filipino-American, Noel Quintana, 61, was slashed across the face from cheek to cheek inside the L subway train while on his way to his job in Manhattan.
It’s not safe to be an Asian nowadays while there is still a pandemic. We still need to be extra careful in public and shouldn’t lower our guards down.
Quintana, who had been in a confrontation with another man while the two were riding on the train, claimed the emotionally disturbed man was kicking his backpack and when he asked him to stop, the suspect attacked him and fled when the train stopped at First Avenue and 14th Street.
Unlike Quintana, I wasn’t harmed but was a little bit frightened visibly.
I didn’t react violently and, thank God, I managed to “escape” unscathed physically.
I realized maintaining a calm mind amid difficulties was one way of surviving an imminent danger inside a public transportation.
The New York Police Department (NYPD) has finally beefed up its presence in Asian-American communities in the wake of an Atlanta shooting spree that targeted Asian massage parlors and left several dead.
Mayor Bill de Blasio labeled the attacks an act of “domestic terrorism” on March 17 and said the victims were murdered “simply because of their ethnicity.”
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“Beyond education and beyond speaking out, we also need to use the strength of the NYPD to protect our Asian-American communities,” de Blasio said.
“There is today a major deployment of NYPD counterterrorism forces in communities around the city.”
The suspect in the Atlanta shootings that killed eight people at Atlanta-area spas, Robert Aaron Long, has denied having a racial motive for the attacks and blamed an “addiction to sex.”
Long has been charged with eight counts of murder and one count of aggravated assault.
Cherokee County officials announced on March 17 afternoon that Long, 21, has been charged with four counts of murder and one count of assault in the shooting involving three women and two men at Young's Asian Massage.
He has also been charged with murder in Atlanta, where four other women were killed in two separate attacks.
Police said the suspect has confessed to the crime and told officials about a "temptation for him that he wanted to eliminate."
They said it is too early to determine if he'll be charged with a hate crime.
Six women of Asian descent are among the dead, raising suspicions of a hate crime.
Long claimed race did not play a role in his decision to target the businesses, police said, relaying details from questioning the gunman.
Long is believed to have "frequented these places, and he may have been lashing out," Cherokee County Sheriff Frank Reynolds said, after noting that the suspect indicated to investigators that he has a sexual addiction.
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The group Stop AAPI Hate said it has received nearly 3,800 reports of what it describes as hate incidents—including verbal harassment and physical assault—since the COVID-19 pandemic began last March.
In the aftermath of the Atlanta-area attacks, officials in cities such as New York and Seattle said they would boost law enforcement's presence in Asian American communities.
On March 17, Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta issued a statement saying that although details are still emerging, the broader context of racial tension in the U.S. cannot be ignored.
"While anti-Asian violence is woven throughout our nation's history, the Trump administration's relentless scapegoating of Asians for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has increased" those incidents, said the advocacy group, which is an affiliate of a national organization.
"We're calling on our allies across communities of color to stand with us in grief and solidarity against racist violence in all its forms," said Stephanie Cho, the Atlanta group's executive director.
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two dailies in Iloilo)
Wednesday, March 17, 2021
Can we still have those quality legislators?
“Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.”
-- George Bernard Shaw
By Alex P. Vidal
THE illustrious batch that produced some of the Philippines’ greatest statesmen and brilliant lawmakers like Alejandro D. Almendras, Gaudencio E. Antonino, Magnolia W. Antonino, Benigno S. Aquino, Jr. (Former President Noynoy’s father), Dominador R. Aytona, and the marvelous Jose W. Diokno was the Sixth Congress in 1966-1969 headed by Senate President Arturo M. Tolentino.
It was hailed by political scientists and historians to be “the best-ever Philippine Senate.”
There were also Eva Estrada Kalaw, Maria Kalaw Katigbak, Wenceslao R. Lagumbay, Juan R. Liwag, Genaro F. Magsaysay, Manuel P. Manahan Raul S. Manglapus, and Camilo Osias.
Cebu’s Sergio Osmeña, Jr. was a member of that illustrious batch, along with Emmanuel N. Pelaez, Leonardo P. Perez, Gil J. Puyat, Francisco Soc Rodrigo, Gerardo M. Roxas (Mar’s father), the eminent Jovito R. Salonga, human rights vanguard, the political behemoth Lorenzo M. Tañada, Lorenzo G. Teves, and Tecla San Andres Ziga.
Those were the star-studded members of the Senate when clowns and showbiz stuntmen and comedians couldn’t yet penetrate the elite cast of quality public servants, unlike today.
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The Senate Seventh Congress (1970-1973) led by Senate President Gil J. Puyat also made waves what with the presence of come-backing Ambrosio B. Padilla, team captain of the RP basketball team that placed third in the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
The Olympics cage icon first ran and won as senator when he resigned as solicitor general under President Ramon Magsaysay in 1957.
But Martial Law cut short all the magnificent senators’ tenure in 1972.
President Ferdinand Marcos subsequently phased out the Legislature as the country’s new Constitution transformed the system of government from presidential to parliamentary.
When democracy was restored after EDSA Revolution in 1986, the Senate Eight Congress (1987-1992), led by Senate President Jovito Salonga, produced yet the country’s most dynamic and prolific leaders like Aquilino Pimentel Jr., Rene Saguisag, Edgardo Angara, Wigberto Tanada, Teopisto Guingona Jr., Joey Lina, Orlando Mercado, Heherson Alvarez, and the lone survivor from the opposition, former Martial Law architect Juan Ponce Enrile.
Former Iloilo Gov. Arthur Defensor Sr., father of incumbent Iloilo Governor Arthur Jr., was the lone casualty from the President Cory Aquino-inspired administration senatorial ticket that nearly scored a sweep (Enrile bumped off Defensor for the 24th slot).
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It was in the Senate Ninth Congress (1992-1995) led by Senate President Neptali Gonzalez where movie comedian and action stars like Vicente Sotto III, Ramon Revilla Sr. and Freddie Webb started to make their present felt and rearranged the Senate’s hitherto prestigious reputation.
PBA playing-coach Robert Jaworski and putschist Gringo Honasan followed suit in the Senate 11th Congress (1998-2001) headed by Senate President Marcelo B. Fernan of Cebu.
To add insult, action stars Lito Lapid, Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr., and Jinggoy Estrada completed the Senate 13th Congress (2004-2007) led by Senate President Franklin Drilon.
Another putschist Antonio Trillanes IV made it in the Senate 14th Congress (2007-2010) led by Senate President Manuel Villar.
And finally in the Senate 16th Congress (2013-2016) headed by Senate President Franklin Drilon, Ma. Lourdes “Nancy” Binay stole the limelight.
In the current Senate, now headed as President by Vicente Sotto III, the Filipinos’ worst nightmare occurred: we now have Bong Go, Bato dela Rosa, Manny Pacquiao, to name only a few misfits.
Tralala, one of the three aforementioned lackeys of President Rodrigo Duterte could be our next President in 2021.
When Pericles died in 429 BC, the Greeks mourned the loss of arguably the most prominent and influential statesman, orator and general of Athens during the Golden Age.
When Draco died in 600 BC, the Greeks wept the departure of Ancient Greece’s first recorded legislator who laid down Greece’s first constitution known as Draconion Constitution.
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two dailies in Iloilo)
Tuesday, March 16, 2021
Biggest cemetery in Asia
“A crazy man finishes in the cemetery.”
—Juan Manuel Fangio
By Alex P. Vidal
KILLINGS have become regular events in the Philippines.
News of murders in raids, mis-encounters, and during the serving of warrants of arrest on suspected criminals and terrorists is being reported even in the United States despite the pandemic.
Human rights advocates have been watching with utmost concern the violence and mind-boggling number of murders in the Philippines.
If the dead bodies being dumped in the roadsides and other “killing fields” aren’t those of suspected drug users and drug traffickers, they are drug informants, activists and suspected rebels, notorious criminals, among other law violators.
Other victims of summary execution are lawyers, students, journalists, teachers, peasants, rogue cops, and politicians marked for liquidation for being suspected protectors of illegal drugs, or for being suspected drug traffickers.
It appears like the Philippines has become the biggest cemetery in Asia based on the statistics gathered since the government “sanctioned” the summary executions of those involved in trafficking of illegal drugs.
Even during the pandemic, senseless killings continued in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.
More lawyers have been killed in the five years since President Rodrigo Duterte took office than under any other government in Philippine history, according to our former media colleague and human rights watcher Carlos Conde.
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At least 110 lawyers were killed from 1972 to the present, according to the date of news website Rappler. Sixty-one of those killings have reportedly taken place since 2016.
“Lawyers in the Philippines have been restless, risking contempt, some calling for a strike, to demand stronger actions from the government to address the unprecedented spike in killings of persons in the legal profession,” reported the Rappler.
Charges have been filed in just seven cases in which lawyers were victims, underscoring the lack of accountability for serious crimes in the Philippines since 2004, disclosed Conde.
The Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG), one of two nongovernmental groups that track killings of lawyers, said more than half were work-related.
The National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL), which also monitors attacks, said most of those killed represented either victims of the “war on drugs” or victims of human rights violations.
The NUPL said, “almost all perpetrators have never been brought to the bar of justice.”
Conde said many of the high-profile attacks involved members of the NUPL, which represents leftist activists as well as victims of human rights violations. In 2018, gunmen shot dead Benjamin Ramos in Negros Occidental, a province in the central Philippines that has seen an uptick of violence directed against plantation labor organizers, peasant groups, and rights defenders. Earlier this month, masked men with a screwdriver stabbed Angelo Karlo Guillen, the NUPL’s secretary-general on Panay Island.
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Guillen, an Ilonggo who was critically injured but survived, had handled several rights-related cases, notably the police killing in December of nine members of an Indigenous peoples’ group.
Lawyers in the Philippines have a long history of representing victims of human rights violations, making them targets as well. FLAG was founded in 1974 at the height of the Marcos dictatorship. The majority of cases it handled were political or human rights cases. NUPL was founded in 2007 during rampant rights violations under then-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo; 22 of the 110 lawyers killed in Rappler’s tally were murdered during her presidency, the highest after Duterte.
The targeted killing of Filipinos swept up in the brutal “war on drugs” or taking part in human rights activism is bad enough. The killing of those who defend them or seek to provide their families redress adds immeasurably to the horror.
“The international community led by the United Nations Human Rights Council needs to act more decisively to press the Duterte administration to end the violence,” suggested Conde.
To add insult, the Calbayog Regional Trial Court recently confirmed that it received a request from local police, citing compliance from “higher offices,” of a list of lawyers representing what it called “communist terrorist groups.”
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two dailies in Iloilo)
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