Good News on an April Fool's Day

Good News on an April Fool’s Day

Headlines: Amidst a Global Recession, Philippines Remains Standing Strong.

Rejoice fellow Filipinos! We’re saved! Hail our beloved president for her shrewdness!!

Joke. Yari ka!

Well, enough of the gags.

This April, we can’t be too happy with the many foolishness our nation is going through in tandem with the global crisis. And the nerve of our government to make us believe lies! (Timely isn’t it? Anyway we’re in April and there’s such holiday as an April Fool’s Day where the American people are alleged to fool around.)

Well it’s no surprise considering the track record of the GMA administration in propagating deceit, half-truths & whole lies.
But what indeed is real?

US Recession & the Sub-Prime Housing Mortgage

USA, being a major player in the world economy & our covetous imperialist master, it’s necessary to understand their economic state for our fate as a country is bound by our relations with them.

After economists have predicted a possibility of a recession even way back 2006, now US is in a full-blown stagnation. This is a result of the series of unpaid loans branching from the ordinary Americans to several minor banks to the few major banks that gravitated to the extent of bankruptcy & billion dollar-deficits of those involved in the Sub-Prime Housing Mortgage.

The said Sub-Prime Housing Mortgage is a housing loan made available to ordinary citizens with improbable ability to pay their debt.

But how could the ordinary American pay such loans when they are stripped of their job? Almost 85,000 Americans today have been laid off from work, replaced by advanced technology in the production line. But should the machineries be to blame? NO, because when you take away a worker & utilize machines, it amounts to more products produced at a lesser maintenance cost. This process amounts to super-profit for the capitalist (whose brains function only for profit & more profit) therefore, they benefit from such loss from the meager workers.

So as a result, American workers who availed housing loans from small minor banks could no longer pay for their debt. In turn, those minor banks aren’t able to pay for their debt from bigger banks, gets bankrupt & closes. Meanwhile those major banks, where several other minor banks loaned from, suffer huge deficits & refrain from lending money to other establishments, institutions even governments for fear of losing more assets.

Yet the capitalists in the banking industry, intent to regain back the billion dollars it lost, are now investing in other markets where they are sure to gain back at all times. With more investors losing trust investing in financial transactions, they now took notice of products with assured return of investments. Now, they’re investing in food, jewelries even oil that are sold in the global market thus the rising of the prices of such products, which are in high demand across the globe.

Vulnerability of GMA’s “strong republic”

When a ship docks and the anchor is thrown out to sea, the chain links go down with it at the sea bottom. If the US is that anchor and Philippines is just among the many chain links bound by its weight, how could Gloria Arroyo declare that our country remains afloat amidst the fact that US is taking a plunge down?

Despite several looming signs of a big storm up ahead, she still boasts of indicators that we can make it through the crisis intact.

One is the strengthening of the peso against the dollar; another is the reported highs in the statistics in relation to her economic performance. But are the surveys really telling the truth? Isn’t it a possibility that Arroyo maybe tampering or even making up these numbers for us to believe her prowess just as she made us believe of her “fair & square” victory during the 2004 elections? Most likely.

If indeed our peso is strengthening, how come its purchasing power is at an all-time low? Our peso, a few years ago, could fare better compared now when it could still afford to buy even a few sweets. Now, it could probably buy a toothpick.

If we’re gaining momentum towards economic stability as GMA so often brag, how come the prices of oil, meat, crops & rice are all hiking? Has the crisis made these products realize that they should be exercising often?

While she wears the slogan, “‘ramdam ko ang pag-asenso,” the prices of all the basic commodities and services are skyrocketing towards a height that not even the aliens would want to reach, nor could Juan afford lest he’d go even lower than below poverty line.

Still her treachery doesn’t end there. With the various scams & frauds she has been linked with, even her neighbors in the elite ranks are disgusted of her ways and wish that she’d take all her kickbacks with her (especially from ZTE-NBN deal) and jump off a jet & be gone.

Still she tries her best to appease her adversaries & the people whom she has long betrayed. Yet how far will she go on to penalize the Filipino masses?

Headlines: GMA Cuts 2% Tariff from Rice Imports, Local Rice Producers cut their wrists.

Headlines: GMA’s 2.3 Billion Peso-grant to Local Rice Producers Gets Planted… in her pockets.

Headlines: GMA Warns Against Rice Hoarders…well, it’s just a warning, right?

Truth is – all the reports are farce. We are already in the heart of a food crisis even long before now and we’re being fooled by our government that the situation is manageable. Every other nation in the world that is tied to the US is spiraling down with it, we’re no exception.

We can never manage an economic boom lest we have that sovereignty to stand & decide for our own benefit. As neo-colonies of the US imperialist, we the Pedros, Juans & Marias, fall under the classification of “slaves” whether we like it or not, while the Arroyos, Aquinos, Cojuangcos are our “slave tenants.”

While we line up all day, through thick or thin, for NFA rice, GMA allows rice cartels to dictate the price of rice across the country.

While we ask for alleviation from our poverty, all we hear are the squabbles of our politicos over who’s righteous enough to get their kickbacks instead of tackling laws beneficiary to the poor.

En sum, we never get anything good from this social system that suffers crisis in its “abundance”. Never mind the millions of people dying in hunger elsewhere in the globe.

As we pay dutifully our taxes & perform our jobs reverently, all we get is “thanks” for our wage increase when we need cash.

And in our poverty, our government leaves us with a very “wais” advice:

Headlines: Government Urges the Public: “EAT HALF LESS.”