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 9 May 2008 @ 10:39
This paper echoes the emerging discourse referred to as New Nationalism. Note that various writers have formulated theories anchored on New Nationalism. Their theories out-rightly impact on public policy and development practice, such as the framework articulated by Robert Reich (see The Work of Nations). Here at home, economists such as Emmanuel De Dios have begun to echo themes of harmonizing nationalism and globalization.
The framework base of this paper will be (a) political economy combined with (b) institutionalism. The current approach of comparative political economy had proved to be a very instructive one, this being the most central framework in development studies and public policy studies, with its analytics carried out through cross-national methodology. This approach will also be integrated with the emerging cross-disciplinal trend of institutionalism, a framework that was actually started by sociologists, and is particularly strong in studies on civil society & development, state-society synergy and organization theory.
Being an Asian, this analyst will also liberally subscribe to core tenets of Asian thinkers, notably Mahatma Gandhi’s. New Nationalism should as much as possible integrate the Eastern and Western theoretical streams to be able to find meaningful anchorage in the whole of the Asian continent.
It is hoped that the article will be of use to various end-users for reflective purposes, particularly to advocacy groups and state agencies that are in the process of rethinking paradigms & issues revolving around public policy. More >
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9 May 2008 @ 10:37
Let me expound at this juncture on the building of virtues and what tools it may take to achieve the aim. The building of virtues is of sacrosanct value in the Path, and one can best be described as a person of wisdom if one were to fortify the self with virtues.
The building of virtues can be started with deprogramming of vices or ‘bad behavior (attitudes)’, though erasure of vices need not lead to virtuous behavior. The late great American statesan Abe Lincoln correctly observed that the folks are not exactly bad people (not vicious), but neither do they possess virtues that make them stand out as extraordinary and worth the emulation of the flocks. That’s why they retain the nomenclature of ‘folks’.
Two practical tools can be offered to you dear fellows. One is the prayer method, which you all know, and the other one is meditation which few of you do know in practice. The prayer process that you were taught, however, is very elementary and needs a more advanced refinement. My previous article on candles and incense for enhancing divinity can somehow give you tips on the process, while some other tips will given here. More >
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 8 May 2008 @ 09:09
This is an invitation for everybody to read and review the notes on life and inspiration by the Teacher from Manila, Bro. Erle Frayne Argonza, also known as the Guru Ra. Bro. Erle Frayne is an initiated Fellow of the Great White Lodge, and is currently receiving instruction from the Master J. and his Seraphim Guide, in preparation for his role in spreading the Teaching via multiple venues, including cyberspace. More >
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6 May 2008 @ 12:56
Food wars are coming, prepare for the contingencies! This is now a visible possibility, so all those enthused development stakeholders and peace-builders better insert an extra agendum on their ‘key result areas’.
Given the so many sources of conflict that are natural resources related, the latest ones being the ‘water wars’, it is no longer a remote possibility that food wars will erupt in some ‘hot soup spots’ in the world. Such hot spots are not those ones the world knows today (e.g. Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Korean Peninsula, Taiwan-China strait) that can be potential starting points for great wars. But somehow, the areas and the food wars coming can ‘cross-cut’ the issues involving conflicts in the hot spots we know. More >
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6 May 2008 @ 12:52
You see, if you’re going to beg (panic buy) from any rice trader in Cagayan Valley (northern Philippines) for some rice, accompanied by your melancholic look like as if all rice will disappear from Earth very soon, the stunned trader would most likely say, “you’re asking only for a few rice? By golly we got mountain loads of them here!” “What? You say there’s a shortage of rice? Tell that to the Marines! What a Big Lie, this shortage!”
Development partners, peace builders, this is the latest news update I got on the ground. A structural engineer up north, who contracts projects for the Department of Agriculture, laughed with guffaws about the ‘shortage lie’ as he narrated to me his fresh reportage passed on to him by traders. There’s plenty of rice to last for months, for Christ’s sake!
Look at what the organized chaos had done so far here in Manila and other regions. It had made the poorer more pathetic as they have to line up for supposedly cheap rice, made to believe as they are by public relations Pied Pipers that rice is going to run out soon. We’re almost near to stampedes here already, thanks heavens there’s still some dignity left among our poor folks they won’t stampede for rice alone. They would do that for a Wowowie TV program that promises to turn them into millionaires overnight, but to stampede for 5 kilograms of rice? Hello! Our folks are too civilized to buy that bullet. More >
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4 May 2008 @ 09:30
Fresh graduate, dream and dream big! If success were likened to a mountain, no mountain has ever remained unconquerable, so go and conquer Mount Success! Plant your feet well in it, and defend your planted flag to the hilt. That sacred ground is yours, entitled as you are by the Divine Hierarchy to build your home in it.
As a guru of the Path, who’s had sufficient training and practice in the art and science of management science (most specially development management), I am bound to support the challenging call of today’s stock of gurus of success for everyone else to ‘dream and dream big’. As I already mentioned in an article on the 3rd Ray (art), soul development can be substantially attained if one would also succeed in building a craft (profession, talent, business) and bring the success level to its highest stage as much as possible.
“A man with a dream cannot be denied,” thundered a distributor of Alticor products who is among the leader in his chosen field. Go dream, for it is in the dream (life goal) that you will succeed in life. Dream first, and hopefully you have already learned how to dream (set goals), as there is not a single vocational or bachelor’s degree program that doesn’t train its apprentices (students) in the art of goal-setting. Even at home, you’ve already received training from your own parents, while among peers you’ve had the scrapbook thing and you have that fill-in-the-blank asking for your ‘ambition’. More >
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1 May 2008 @ 23:57
[Writ 28 April 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
We’re having a production-related problem with rice today in the Philippines today, which looks more like an echo problem of a larger global phenomenon of food crisis. Riots have already been experienced in at least 33 countries, and we may expect the frequency to rise in the months ahead.
To single out production factors, and especially to pinpoint flawed land-use patterns as the cause of the crisis, tends to blur the real cause behind much of our peace and development problems in the world today. This crisis is one of the anarchic results of orchestrations done by financial speculators over a stretch of three (3) decades, followed through recently by food cartels’ machinations to heighten up their looting of the public’s resources via the food market.
Let us recall that as early as the 1980s, the move towards liberalizing the food markets and integrate this sector into the evolving ‘virtual economy’—by unleashing speculative practices on agricultural products via instrument of ‘commodities markets’—already crept into our national boundaries. Gradually did the pattern get integrated into a global mesh of transactions involving not only food but a long list of articles of trade and services being transacted via the secondary markets or hedge funds. More >
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27 Apr 2008 @ 09:42
[Writ 14 April 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
Fellows, I will write this time about the topic of ‘enhancing divinity’ and some practical tools that can aid in inducing such a state. The practical tools I have in mind are those that you already have right in your hands: candles, incense, and fine music. I’m sure everybody out there who understands the English language knows what candles, incense and music are, so I need not belabor so much point to demonstrate what they are (smile).
By ‘enhancing divinity’ I refer to preparing your immediate environment, whether this be a temple or home meditation spot, for prayers, meditations, and rituals. The environment must be preferably one where the ‘energy of rest’ (feminine energy) is strong. Some Catholic priests here in Manila have been complaining that holding masses in shopping malls, a regular event now present in practically all large malls here, is a bad practice, to which I concurred in the positive. Shopping malls are predominantly of the ‘energy of motion’ and aren’t appropriate places for meditative, prayer and ritual purposes.
Having established the parameter above, prepare next the enhancers that you may need for your purpose. In some practices, you may need holy water or ‘hyper-energized water’ as we mystics call it. For this particular piece, I will delimit my clarification on the functions of candles, incense and fine music among such tools for enhancement. Ritual tools are particularly so many, so I’d leave that as a standard tool kit for the end user based on his/her spiritual philosophy and group concerned. More >
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24 Apr 2008 @ 09:32
Peace be unto you all, but most specially unto the spiritists whom I will write about today! Spiritism is quite a Path for spiritual seekers, and was prominent in the 1800s. In the North it had supposedly metamorphosed into a new form—as channeling—but to my mind both spiritism and channeling are one and the same.
Spiritism should be executed with care by those seekers who pass through it. It is among the 7th Ray (alchemy) sub-paths, and if done pretty well, it can lead the aspirant towards higher level of awareness. I myself had witnessed at least a couple of seekers in the Philippines who have since mutated into mystics, and became my sister Fellows in the Great White Brotherhood. My esteem for them are high, and that esteem won’t ever change, but they are just but a few exceptions in a large field that is so replete with spiritual quackery.
Before anything else, let it be clarified to the readers out there what spiritism or channeling is all about. It is among the class of phenomena classified in as ‘paranormal’ and it involves mediumistic channeling of messages from the 4th Dimension or ‘spirit world’. No one can become an effective channeler unless one possesses the ability to (a) be a medium or vessel for some trans-physical messangers, and (b) return to a normal state after a channeling session with the person regaining authentic consciousness, i.e. not controlled or ‘possessed’ by the trans-physical entities. More >
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12 Apr 2008 @ 10:04
Let me share more thoughts about contemporary movies, about how they can be effective vehicles to reveal intuitive insights about future worlds. I’d focus this time on the film series Matrix and Terminator.
We can regard the texts of the said cinemas as allegorical, with some fundamental archetypes that can guide the viewer towards a deeper understanding of the script. We can also regard the texts as prophetic revelations about the future worlds, particularly the technotronic or technetronic society that is now shaping up.
As forecast by certain sociologists (e.g. Torraine) and futuristic writers (e.g. Asimov), the forthcoming historical epochs will be marked by the rise to prominence of cybernetic machines. The broader context of the society from which such high-technology innovations will be made possible was tagged by Daniel Bell as the ‘post-industrial society’, while the technology was dubbed as ‘third wave’ by Alvin Toffler.
Cybernetics, the informational-integrative science started by the eminent mathematician Norbert Wiener, will have to pass through its own stages of R&D revolutions before technotronics can be made possible. Eventually, this science must move to that point when the dividing line between human and machine can be effectively erased. With such erasure effected, humans notably the ‘low thinking ability’ class of folks—whom some elites pejoratively dubbed as ‘useless eaters’—can be controlled. More >
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