On Blaming God

People have always said that when something bad happens to them, "it is the will of God." Even if someone points out that it can actually be traced to human fault, they will still believe it to be the "will of God."

This is blasphemous for me. Making every misfortune the will of God is effectively blaming God, and it basically shirks human responsibility. Humans want to pass the buck to someone else. For example, Filipinos blame our country's woes on the corrupt politicians. And why are the politicians there? God's will, they say.

What a load of horsecrap. They're the ones who vote those corrupt politicians into office. They're the ones to blame for their own predicament. If people don't realize that they vote into office the corrupt, then they are dumb. In addition, they do things like give birth to ten children even if don't have the means to feed even one. Thus, dumbness again... and in fact, they deserve to be judged by God for their decisions.

I echo commenter Ben from Antipinoy.com who gave this so-correct view about blaming God:

Everything we do is because we chose to do it, and credit and consequence is man’s. But you have to remember, God gave us the opportunity to do good. If we fail, it is our fault and we displease him. If we succeed, we please him in upholding the mandate he bestowed upon us.
Arguments about giving God credit when good things happen yet cursing or blaming God is bad things happen, are all based on a lack of understanding of that mandate. He gave us free will and he will never take that away. The choices are made by us, so we must always pay all consequences of our actions; good or bad.
But giving thanks giving to God in good is what we are supposed to do. He is our Father who provided all the good in this world. It’s just like our parents. For example, my dad teaches me how to ride a bike. He first bought me that bike, then taught me the skills to ride it. Once I am able to ride on my own with no problem, I thank my dad for teaching me. But if I fall, does that mean I should blame my dad? Is it really his fault I fell? I say NO.
This is something that is missing in the catholic church. They miss out on the relationship between man and God, and has replaced it with religious traditions and culture. Religion is man made and is one of the biggest problems in this country.
Never blame God for our short comings. We chose… We suffer.

If we only understood that people suffer because of the consequences of their actions, and not only God's, then we will be able to understand why there is so much sin in the world and what we should do about it.

Making the Philippines Play Victim Again

A certain conspiracy theorist suddenly came in with a comment attacking Huffington Post journalist Phil Bronstein, whose article was featured on Antipinoy.com. They said that local oligarchs are merely the scapegoat for the country's problems. The real culprit is the U.S. oligarchs (robber barons in their own terms), the World Bank and International Monetary Fund who Bronstein is purportedly silent on. The commenter believed that U.S. policy dominates World Bank and IMF policy, and somehow they imply that such policies had singled out the Philippines in a plan to make it poor!

So the point of this commenter: anyone but Filipinos is to blame.

Seems that conspiracy theories are contagious. I got a conspiracy theory of my own. :)

If this commenter is connected to someone... or is actually that someone... who wants to be this country's foreign affairs sec, I think I get what they'll do upon becoming so. They'll yell and scream at the abovementioned US oligarchs and international organizations that it's their fault the Philippines is sunk and demand some money to be given as aid. This someone probably rejects the idea of foreign investments because they believe that it gives other nations power over us. In other words, this someone is transfixed on anti-foreign nutcase-ism.

It's really stupid to put the blame on other countries and international organizations when the stupidity of our own countrymen is so obvious. I'm not taking just about how they vote. I'm talking about laying down with many women and bearing many children and wondering why life is hard, or wasting out one's entire pay on a fiesta and then crying the next day because of poverty, or making one's children beg on the streets and taking that money from them.

So this is what you want the US oligarchs, WB and IMF to fund?

How undeserving.

And these bogeymen the commenter mentioned, US oligarchs, WB and IMF... the commenter seems to be denying that their policies helped the Philippines in the past. They're basically encouraging the biting of the hands that feed them. I'll not be surprised if this person also reject foreign investments as a solution to our country's problems.

It is a stupid proposition and is clearly based on an anti-foreign bias. Instead of fixing the real problems within the country, the idea is based on just getting money in order to cover up the real issues. For example, one issue is that the protectionist clauses of the constitution inhibits foreign investments and keeps both the quality and number of jobs in the country low.

This commenter is defending Filipino dysfunction as well. Let the drunkards, womanizers, bums and no-good idiots be. Just give them money from the WB and IMF. Serving the victim mentality of lazy Pinoys without making them go to work. Smooth.

But the thing is: once the aid has been delivered to our shores, who'll handle the funds? Likely the local oligarchs, since they're in the government or have influence over it! We'll see money meant for the poor puff up the bank accounts of oligarch businesses. Then the poor will wonder, "what happened to all the IMF/WB assistance?" The oligarchs just laugh all the way to the bank.

This commenter wanted to deflect attention from the idea that the source of the Philippines' poor condition is laziness. It's not just the laziness of the government. It's the laziness of the Filipino race as a whole. Pandering to the masses won't solve their problems; it only makes them more irresponsible, and poorer.

Enough with making the Philippines play victim. It's old and tired... and pointless.

Pointless Anti-Glorianism

I was recently told that the ZTE scam was really because the ZTE company of China actually offered very cheap DSL. It may have been a good plan. But the oligarchs (our local big business owners from prominent families) felt threatened and thus used their puppets in government to make a mess of it. They decided to make up a story that the corruption involved was massive and that ZTE is the greatest evil. I think this is the most likely picture of the ZTE scandal. I don't think corruption was completely absent, but it certainly was exaggerated, and used to cover up the corruption of the oligarchs themselves.

Also, the oligarchs were quick to make an enemy of a foreign entity. They're quick to make enemies of foreign businesses, which have better quality. Oligarchs are afraid of this competition, because it will force them to stop being lazy and will make them improve their businesses... not just in services, but in treatment of employees as well. So they decided to throw off the trail on ZTE to another "blameable" - outgoing president Gloria M. Arroyo.

I don't say GMA's camp is free of corruption. But they are certainly being overrated as the enemy of the country. The oligarchs are the ones. They are making a mess of Philippine politics in order to protect their manipulation of the country. They're leading attention off to GMA so they can work their magic undetected by all but the most vigilant of watchers. They're keeping out foreign investments to make sure that these foreign interests do not break their rule over people's lives here.

All this anti-Glorianism is pointless. Some people believe that getting GMA out of office will be a big step in solving the country's problems. But this is a scapegoat leading off people from the true cause of our poorly performing economy - the protectionist parts of our law that actually inhibit foreign investments, and which prevent good jobs from appearing in our country. Thus, many people are forced to go OFWing for good jobs.

The recent gesture of president-elect Noynoy Aquino to refuse the new Chief Justice as his oath-receiver is what I perceive as an act of hatred and arrogance. The Noynoy camp may accuse its critics of being hate and arrogance-driven, but when you look at the other side, they're the ones who based their campaign on it. It's also aimed only to spite GMA. If this is the first action a newly-elected president will do, then the true issues about our country's problems will be flushed down the crapper.

You are who you vote: An attempt at profiling the electorate

I posted this first at Antipinoy.com, but comments made me realize that this is a very personal article, so I'll post it here:

Following a discussion on the shoutbox in this site, I decided to collect my impressions of presidential candidates for this election and attempt to profile their voters:

(More on Antipinoy)