Cecilia Langlois / Geejay Arriola

An adventure of a lifetime!  Left Golden Mango Inn at 4:45 am to meet the sun at Angkor Wat. It was getting brighter when this picture was taken but it was still very, very dark when we arrived.  Photo taken by our guide Vath Vutha. Left to right, friends from waaaaayyy back high school: Myself, Sherida Luga, Fitz Parale, Jeannie Soriano-de Guzman, Marit Belisario.

The grey-black rocks near the left-side Library on Angkor Wat’s west gate.

Now if you are to get a guide–and I strongly recommend that you do–get Vutha. He not only tells you everything and anything you want to know about Angkor Wat, he also allows you to not listen to him when you’re too tired; he knows enough about photography to take the prettiest pictures of you; he knows where to take the silliest pictures; and he smiles all the time! He is also smart and convincing enough to gently entice you to go inside one of the temples when you’re so sure your legs are too wobbly and achingly tired to go because the photo opportunities are just too beautiful to miss. Where else can you get a guide like that?  Email him, quickly: vuthavath@yahoo.com.

This is where our guide Vath Vutha took us to view the sunrise. It is the Library on the left facing the west gate of Angkor Wat.

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I would like to go beyond emotion and say this: it is now time for all of us to look inward and assess how we have helped lubricate an entire system that breeds and nurtures the culture of violence. We have long been silent, and we have been voting one wrong leader after another into office. The same leaders who we expect to solve our problems are the same leaders who create our problems. We need to have a major paradigm shift, to think and move outside the box. We need to stop being afraid–afraid of changes, afraid of speaking out, afraid of acknowledging this is all wrong. Enough is enough.

Finally, if the perpetrators, and most especially the masterminds behind the evil act are not convicted and jailed, what else is new? After all, once more, we expect the very institutions that have allowed this kind of evil to thrive, to dispense justice. Are we kidding ourselves?

Harvey Cox of Boston Globe wrote a great article entitled “Why fundamentalism will fail: A seemingly unstoppable force is being undone from the inside” (November 8, 2009) .

His premise is that beneath their squawking–abetted and further legitimized by a media who loves violence and paranoid individuals flooding the internet and television with warnings of religious-inspired doomsdays–fundamentalist groups, incapable of providing real solutions to poverty, spiritual thirst, and nationalist or tribal sentiments, will soon perish in the hands of reason and the rising sense of global multiculturalism.

And here below, I list some of the observations and reflections I have of my own country in relation to his thesis:

1.   Already, we have more and more Moslem women in our part of the country wearing the black burkah, a custom adopted from fundamentalist Islam sects in other parts of the world, and certainly not a traditional practice in Mindanao.

In an international women’s conference I recently attended, I learned that the whipping and stoning to death of women (and men) as punishment for adultery are being revived in Indonesia and Iran in the name of Allah and His teachings.

2.   On the Christian front, more and more ordinary people are claiming to be Messiahs or the only son of God or the only true messenger of God, or Jesus’ medium. With enough flair for drama and some media connections, these once unknowns turn into celebrities and millionaires with a massive following in just a few years.

3.   How paradoxical, I think, that the more consumerist our world becomes, the more the longing for divine connection. One can never underestimate the power of the soul to search for its original source even as the human body is intoxicated with the chaos of stocks exchange and the bad-girl, bad-boy subcultures of the paris hiltons and chris browns of the world. Yet perhaps it is the combination of this intoxication and spiritual starvation that makes people vulnerable to mindless devotion, clinging to anything and anyone that provides an ounce of salvation.

4.   Perhaps we now live at a time when the contradictions are even sharper so that while the call for religious fundamentalism is getting louder, the consciousness to adopt a more universal spirituality is becoming more pervasive and popular.

And so it is such a relief to know that there are theories out there saying fundamentalism will not survive. At the same time, the surge of spiritual or religious consciousness of the open-minded, liberal kind is testament to the fact that we are all starting to come full circle and become one, as we, in fact, are.

As Typhoon Ondoy hit Metro Manila and the nearby provinces in Luzon, submerging entire cities in waters so deep Filipinos had to stay on their roofs for up to 12 hours exposed to strong rain and dangers of being swept away before rescue came to them, these political thoughts came to me:

The issues that confront us today are bigger than politics, politicians, and politicking.  Climate change as evidenced not only by typhoon Ondoy but also in intensifying natural disasters around the world; the grave loss of values and virtues as manifested in the prevalence of graft and corruption from the highest government offices down to the blue-collar worker; and the increasing disconnection with the Divine as evidenced by massive idolatry (of showbiz and political personalities) and blind devotion to anything or anyone who proposes material “salvation”—these are the bigger issues that need our urgent attention.  And among all the potential candidates for Presidency, only Nick Perlas has the capacity to work with the Filipino people in a greatly collaborative and democratic way to finding creative solutions to these issues.

by Adolfo Paglinawan

If there is any person worth his salt these days, it is Nick Perlas.

The maturity and wisdom in which he rebutted the phantasm - that is being hardsold by Franklin Drilon of the Liberal Party, the three stooges of Philippine media these days: Boy Montelibano, Billy Esposo and Conrad de Quiros, and with the full force of the oligarchic ABS-CBN - that Noynoy is the political solution to our problems in the Philippines, a reluctant hero and heir to the unfulfilled aspirations of Ninoy and Cory - is the mark that we overseas Filipinos should be looking for.

It is easy panning to sensationalism in the beginning, but this early it seems that the Noynoy option is now losing throttle before it could even reach its full thrust.

Senator Mar Roxas and Governor Ed Panlilio quickly jumped into the opportunity hoping to generate a bandwagon but instead they merely exposed the shallowness of their own presidential ambitions and their raw unpreparedness to handle strategic decisions.

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By Nicanor Perlas
05 September 2009

In the past few days, I have been bombarded with text messages from friends as well as interviews with the media on what I think of the Mar-Noynoy announcements. Will I, like Senator Mar Roxas, also renounce my intention to run as a presidential candidate in the 2010 national elections and support the presidential candidacy of Senator Noynoy Aquino?

The short answer is “No”. I will not renounce my intention to run as a presidential candidate. And “Yes”, I will encourage Noynoy to resign from the Liberal Party, run as an independent presidential candidate, and join the on-going conversation and unification efforts among non-traditional political parties and movements.

Noynoy can stifle the growth of new politics. Or he can enable the new politics that is emerging all throughout the country. Allow me to elaborate.
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Dear Mindanao Artist,

If you happen upon this page, and agree with the statement below, kindly please sign the statement and email to me (geejayarriola@gmail.com).

You may include the nature of your work as an artist, and the organization/s you belong to.

Perlas tayong lahat,
GEEJAY ARRIOLA
music, theater & graphic artist
Treasurer, MINDULANI, Inc.

A Statement by and for Mindanao artists and cultural workers

We cannot just stand by and leave no words to fellow Filipino Artists
on the NAAW Debacle

We are the hundreds of artists and cultural workers from the different regions of Mindanao;

Within our ranks are the indigenous peoples artists of the dozens of indigenous peoples’ societies of Mindanao; the Moro peoples’ artists from the different royal houses of Mindanao; the different settler communities’ practitioners of people’s arts and cultural work from the provinces of Mindanao;

From our ranks, we contributed to the Philippine bodies of works such monumental pieces as Maranatha, Tales of Mindanao; Katakomba, Mga Kuwentong Maranao,  Sinalimba, Lawig Balanghai, Siak sa Duha ka Damgo, Salima, Dula Ta and an unending list of works;

We followed with deep passion the events surrounding the declaration of the National Artist Awards for 2009 because we believe that this honor-giving-event represents a beacon of light that illumines the path of our cultural work to developing Filipinos and their arts and culture;

On the basis of what were written, we refuse to honor as National Artists those four individuals whose selection did not undergo the selection process by the duly constituted committee of peers;

We request the political leadership to respect the process of selection and exercise restraint in using its prerogative in honoring national artists;

We admire the Supreme Court for acting on the complaint by the Concerned Artists of the Philippines together with the community of artists by stopping the conferment of the national arts awards;

We hope that the artists who were added in the list but were not selected by the mandated committee demonstrate the virtue of delicadeza by refusing to receive the conferment, thereby restoring our respect and admiration on them;

We reaffirm our bond with the Filipino artists and cultural workers in and outside of the Philippines in upholding the true spirit of honesty, integrity and excellence.

The closest I could get to Angkor Wat: a kiss on a huge stone statue at the National Museum in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Maybe this is the reason why I am drawn to Angkor Wat—that it’s been a lifelong dream to go there; just as it has been a lifelong dream to go to Machu Picchu, the pyramids of Giza, the Chichen Itza, the Stonehenge, and the Parthenon.

I found this out only today.  This website   http://www.devata.org/ poses the question:  Why do women dominate Angkor Wat, the largest ancient religious monument on Earth?

And I pose another question to myself:  what do all these places have in common?  They have, or are, structures with spiritual / religious significance.

The goddesses are calling.

Meanwhile, here’s an online reference to the book I have just finished reading—a book given to me by my darling Jeff.  (Jeff is into extra-celestials, and so am I.)  But reading Nancy Burson’s “Lineage” made me view ECs in a loving light.  If you have time, do look at the videos (Ask for Us & EC Phenomena).  http://www.nancyburson.com/

I am heartened and excited that someone relatively unknown but highly intelligent, strong, dynamic and with integrity has decided to come out of the shadows of the progressive sector of society, go into the blinding spotlight of politics, and run for President.

Now if only we had a group of people who would start something like what the Times of India did (click for the link in youtube) and encourage brilliant, honest, and progressive people to come out and dare to run for high positions in government, then we wouldn’t have to say that every election is always a vote for the lesser evil.

Please read Nick’s email below to the end.  It’s long, but it’s worth your while.

This is the time. Enough is enough.

Stop complaining, encourage someone like Nick to run for public office.
Stop complaining, volunteer to help put good people in public office.
Stop complaining, run for office!

Spirits,
Geejay Arriola

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