The ZEYO Frontier

Abalos resigned: Is it really an authentic submission of Power?

Posted on 3:44 AM comments (5)

Last monday, Commissioner Benjamin Abalos resigned from his position as the Commisioner of the COMELEC. Many viewed his resignation as a good move for his part and for the administration whose credibility is being test by scandals after scandals and different issues concerning how they govern the public. But is the resignation really authentic? I'm using the word authentic because we are questioning the intentions and the credibility of his resignation. Resigning in the midst of the investigation of the ZTE Broadband deal may be a good move for others, but we should examine first other possibilities for his resignation.

First, why would he resign without ever giving us a concrete explanation why his name was dragged on the controversy at the first place? Being the commissioner of the COMELEC has nothing to do with a Broadband deal anyway. Instead, he should have been promoting the computerization of the elections, and other electoral reforms needed to have at least a clean and moral-wise credible election in the upcoming years. Second, is this his way of getting out of the controversy? Or rather acquitting himself of mistakes and controversy he will further face if the impeachment procedure would go on to remove him from his post? If he did resign for the sole-purpose of protecting or hide his other mistakes or possible controversy from investigation made by the legislative bodies, then his resignation is not we Filipinos should be happy about. And last, as usually done by previous administrations as well as the current one, does his resignation been baptized by the president? PGMA is the worst president in terms of public trust ratings and maybe she doesn't want to negate her ratings and silently ordered Abalos to resigned and after a few months after the controversy had died, he will be named as new secretary or head of a department in the government.

You see, there are lot of different speculations on whether he resigned out of the public clamor or he obediently did it to protect his name, family whatsoever. But the fact that he was involved in the ZTE controversy makes him accountable to the public because public welfare as well as public funds are at stake at the broadband deal in which many flaws and overpricing were found out. We should be vigilant concerning the fact that they will try to push it after the people forgot the controversy and maybe, change the name of the deal to make the public a laughingstock for them to laugh at....

Building another TBMD in Europe

Posted on 4:35 AM No Comments

My last blog was about Iran's nuclear-program that renews the tensions between Europe, US and Russia regarding Nuclear Non-Proliferation policies and security dilemmas that these superpowers faced during the height of the cold war. The pentagon is putting up a missile defense system in Poland to counter the nuclear missile threat of Iran against continental Europe. But Russia criticized this move because it could undermine Russia's nuclear deterrence with its vast nuclear arsenal being intercept by this new missile defense system.

This is why international relations prove to be very difficult to manage. Anarchy in International Relations is very evident and ignoring it could prove futile and disastrous. Iran's current move is not only creating tensions in the M.E but also renewing the tensions brought by the previous cold war in which nuclear weapons were the ace weapons in which both sides built enormous amount of it resulting into massive stockpile and proliferation of it especially after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

However, the latest military action by the Pentagon had different mix of opinions by different countries and interest groups. Russia obviously is annoyed by the creation of that missile system, as well as citizens of Poland whose public uproar made the government rethink about it's commitment in the missile system. Of course other European nations or perhaps the E.U is happy because it gave them a deterrent against Russia's repositioning of its nuclear missile force targeting key cities and installations across Europe. But the overall sentiment about this system is the sincerity of the installation of this system sticking with the reason focusing on Iran's possible nuke attacks and not any other reason, which includes upsetting Russia with it.

So how will Pentagon respond with this? Will Russia position its nuclear force against Europe? Will Iran really live to the expectations of a possible Nuke attack? Or it's only an imaginary situation created by US to justify the installation of the system? We will find the answers within the next few days...

Unfolding the new Iron Curtain

Posted on 4:42 AM comments (2)

Recently, France, US, and Russia are caught in the mix on how to deal with Iran's nuclear-research program. The recent visit of Iranian President Mahmood Ahmadinejad in New York to address the United Nations General Assembly and to make sure that Iran's nuclear programs are for peaceful purposes only.

But France, who was an enduring ally of Iran during the majority of former President Chirac's regime, is taking a tough stance over Iran's nuclear program. President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, voiced out his disappointment over Iran's nuclear program and even asked the international community to impose stronger sanctions against Iran. He's also urging French oil companies not to invest in Iran as a form of economic sanction against them. But President Ahmadinejad is not intimidated by these actions and instead boasted that they don't need Nuclear weapons because they have defended Iran for 28 years against it's enemies attack.

But still, I can't help wondering why will Iran, engage itself in an ambitious Nuclear-research program if they don't need any single one of those nukes as their President is arrogantly saying? If he is saying that they have defended Iran for 28 years and what can they call the countless lives that have been lost during the Iran-Iraq war of the 80's? Many Iranian civilians were mercilessly killed by Iraq under Saddam Hussein and the war proved not favoring their cause because they are trying to divert their attention to who is really their enemy? Khomeini Ayatollah ruled Iran starting from 1979 after the fall of the Shah.. he then changed their International Relations with the U.S after that infamous U.S embassy incident. Since then they were engaged in war with Iraq but with a government trying to feed it's citizens with lies or somehow facts about U.S and changing how their people view U.S who were once their staunchest ally..

If Iran is really sincere in it's actions and words about their nuclear-programs, I think they should let the IAEA have a regular inspection and they should open communications with other countries, especially their neighboring countries in the M.E. and with the Allied powers of US, France, Britain and Germany. For Russia, keeping their economic interest in Iran is still a big problem for other countries who are concern over Iran's nuclear program because Russia is their main supplier of materials and personnel in their nuclear research program.

Clearly, if things and events are not checked to counter their threats, a new Iron curtain and a mini-war, war for oil, war for security whatsoever can unfold with Iran being strike down like what US did with Iraq. This really shows how International Relations is Anarchical in nature.

The Political Culture of the Philippines

Posted on 4:44 AM comments (4)

Our neighbor developed country, Japan will be having it's election for the vacant seat of the Prime Minister after Shinzo Abe's resignation last Wednesday. Abe's tenure was rocked by major issues about mishandling of public funds by his cabinet officials and his alleged mishandling of a bookkeeping matter about Japan's National Pension Program in which many voters reacted furiously especially the senior citizens because of their status of rapidly aging country with a declining birth-rate among their population which might threatens their population size. Abe did not answered the allegations that were accused he did but he immediately resigned after these allegations were thrown at him. What could be the reason behind his resignation? Did he really accept his mistakes obediently? What is the connection of his move with the political culture of the Philippines?

One reason why Abe resigned in the context of the history of Japan is the ancient tradition of "Seppuku" or a samurai trying to regain his lost honor and dignity through death. In other words Abe resigned because of the shame he faced during the scandals that rocked his administration. Other explanation maybe that he did not want to face the trial or legal matters at hand for some reasons. But I would like to focus on the reason that Abe resigned because of the shame that he received which triggered the doubts and anxiety over his administration. Previous Prime Ministers of Japan, like Abe resigned due to the connection of the allegations of corruption and inefficiency in their work. Why do they resign so quickly after being accused of corruptions and inefficiency? Why do our own politicians, despite countless allegations of corruption, inefficiency, abuse of power and other misconducts of being a public official still remains in power and instead of explaining WHY, they resort to pointing out the blame to other people or striking back against their critics and ignores the clamor of people to explain Why are they involved in these scandals or misconducts? Japanese Prime Ministers with the exception of Abe explained their side to the public about their involvement with the allegations that were thrown at them. After that they resigned with the reason of guilt and honor, and their failure to lead and serve well the welfare of the public that they have been serving. You see, their culture has something to do with their political attitudes. They really value their honor and dignity given that they held something so sensitive like power in public offices, that once their honor has been tainted or has been stained with doubt and scandals, they are willing to step down and turn over their position to someone else and explain why are these allegations have been point at them. The culture that they were accountable to the people that they are serving or leading is a very crucial one in the development of their political norms and social concepts as well. This practice of preserving their honor is also manifested in their business world. Failure or bankruptcy triggers people or persons who believe that they were the one's responsible for the failure of their company, resigns or commit suicide to atone for their failures.

But here in the Philippines what do the people do in the face of scandals and intrigues? They are trying to point the blame to others or worse, dragging other people in the scandals or allegations that they face resulting to conflicts which in turn becomes really personal due to the fact that more and more people are drag into the confusion instead of the people that were accused explaining what they need to explain to the public or to their stakeholders, the people in which they were held responsible. One factor of this attitude might be that we Filipinos are not really accustomed to being responsible or being held liable for our actions. Maybe it's not really part of our culture that we try to answer each moves or actions that we made that undermine the greater population and instead point to others the blame or shame or even neglect the need to answer those allegations of our incapability to do the required or the expected things out of us. So if this is part of our culture, can we assume that money and power are the reason that in light of the scandals and intrigues that people in public office face, they still cling on to their respective positions and instead enhance their grip to power due to the fear of any kind of threat to them loosing grip of their power and authority?

That's my challenge for all of my readers in my blog. Are we really that kind of people that really does not care anymore of our honor and dignity just to remain in power? Because if we are really like that, the greatest threat to our existence in this chaotic world is our incapability to acknowledge the fact that we could be strip off our powers and status due to the mistakes that we did. Although it's not really practical anymore to follow the seppuku code of ethics by the ancient samurai warriors of Japan, but we could simplify it's meaning through admittance of our mistakes and explaining what must be explain to the people that were expecting you to do your respective duties.

I hope that the readers would give their reactions and comments. But please be sure to be responsible and mature enough with your comments because we are trying to resolve issues that are relevant in our everyday life in our society, not create disputes regarding our comments that sometimes without us knowing it are hurting other people's feelings.

-Rek-

The seeds of a Good Vision

Posted on 5:45 AM comments (1)
Labels: start, the flame, the plan and operations

Vision and Leisure! The name of my blog says it all. Actually, basketball was my first choice of topic that I would like to feature on my blog. But I think that basketball is not right for me, the fact that I only excel at computer simulated games and not the real one. So I decided that I would focus my articles on vision (ideas about current political and social issues based on my opinions and facts about the situation) and leisure (anything under the sun most notable Music, Toys and gadgets). Since I’m just starting this blog, I’d like to clarify certain things about the articles that I would post here. Here’s a sneak peek for what you can expect to read form the Zeyo Frontier:

A weekly review of different issues and news within that week and give certain insights about it.

A section of the blog is dedicated for reviews of different gadgets, music and toys.

A special feature in which the author would put a topic and let the readers comment on it and then study the comments to formulate an analysis about the topic and it’s significance.

A Yahoo-Group network of frequent visitors of my blog and other people that are interested with the current political and social issues that are affecting our country and society.

A special feature about a specific topic that we will try to study its relevance to society’s development.

Of course daily updates with my articles are always updated daily. Leaving comments in the articles is a must because the comments are needed to study the content analysis and we can conclude or generalize some of our topics if comments are made so different sides and insights are assimilated for content study.

And a very good issue to start with is the on going drama behind former President Estrada’s conviction in which I would make it my first article. I hope you’ll be a frequent visitor of my blog and share with me your insights as well as ideas on how we can find our issues that we’ll be talking about more significant to our daily lives.