Why peace on earth can’t beat the bullies
Credit to Author: RICARDO SALUDO| Date: Mon, 24 Dec 2018 16:12:15 +0000
Before the headline topic, an urgent warning about rice. With the coming conversion of import volume restrictions into 35 percent duties with no shipment limits, the National Food Authority is said to be stopping rice imports and eventually its subsidized sales of the staple.
Thus, NFA rice would eventually be priced at P35 a kilo, well above the current P27, because, as Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol explained last week, the agency “cannot afford subsidized rice anymore.”
Soon after, however, Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Cynthia Villar insisted that NFA could still sell cheap rice. “President (Rodrigo) Duterte said that even with rice tariffication and liberalization of the rice industry, the NFA shall continue to provide the public, particularly the less fortunate, with rice that is affordable and safe,” she said.
Before this issue gets waylaid in political jousting and media soundbites, to the detriment of millions of poor families, let’s get three imperatives crystal-clear:
First, making sure the poor can buy enough food, including rice, must be the paramount concern here, not NFA finances, which the state can support, if necessary.
That said, the better policy may be work-for-food, increased conditional cash transfer, and other safety-net mechanisms, which do not waste state subsidies on middle-class consumers able to buy commercial rice.
Second, NFA must still stockpile enough rice in strategic locations, so it can flood key markets with P35-a-kilo rice anytime. This would prevent undue profiteering amid calamities or cartel collusion by traders.
The latter was the cause of this year’s rice price spiral. Top-level disagreement over rice imports, and NFA’s stupid and illegal diversion of rice buying funds to debt service led to the depletion of its grain, allowing greedy traders to jack up prices. NFA must never be allowed to let its stocks fall below the level needed to fight profiteering.
Third, more than NFA selling policy, what Secretary Piñol, Senator Villar and other government leaders must define is the comprehensive food production and security program, to boost farm productivity and incomes, and make food affordable for Filipinos.
Economic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia raised agriculture policy concerns last year, prompting a retort from Secretary Piñol. President Duterte must get the two Cabinet members and other relevant agencies, such as the Department of Agrarian Reform, to put their heads together and present this comprehensive agriculture program yesterday. Otherwise, another food crisis will surely erupt again, escalating inflation, eroding public support and giving rebels and terrorists an issue to lure the poor.
Our violence-crazed society
Turning to the headline issue, with the expulsion of the Ateneo Junior High School bully, whose violence went viral online, many Filipinos will heave a sigh of relief, if not a harrumph of serves-him-right vindication. And a good number would think the penalty teaches would-be bullies a lesson.
While the boy’s dismissal may be warranted, rather than scaring bullies, it simply makes other violent kids stay off camera. Rightly, Ateneo plans to take other measures to better prevent, expose and address student violence. Among measures to consider is a mechanism for reporting bullies in confidence.
But the most important effort is still teaching youths that violence is wrong. And if a Catholic school turning 160 next year cannot instill that basic Christian tenet in its students, it doesn’t augur well for the rest of Filipino youth and education.
Not because Ateneo isn’t trying hard enough. Rather, the peace-making message from the classroom and even the Church is drowned out by the worldwide glorification and adulation of violence, power and me-first individualism.
From action movies and violent video games to martial arts mania and intensely competitive, often nasty reality shows, mass and social media sensationalize aggression among our youth, just as the explosion of sex in entertainment and advertising promotes promiscuity.
With all that violence and sex inundating the public consciousness, peace and wholesome family values are crowded out. And it doesn’t help that the weak criminal justice system and lawless groups have made violent force by the state as the main solution to crime, drugs, terrorism and insurgency.
Even some of those appalled by the Ateneo junior high incident have called for beating the Montes kid senseless, and challenging his father to a fight. How will such comments deliver the message that violence is not the solution?
In his Christmas message, Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas said: “Christmas teaches us that killing people who kill people is not human. Killing is the solution offered by jungle justice, not by civilized societies. Herod wanted to kill Goodness and Love. We must be like the angel who led the Child and his parents into safety away from murder. In solving problems by killing, we side with Herod not with Christ.”
So, are victims of violence and injustice supposed to just flee and never fight?
The former Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines president continues: “Christmas is a feast of joy. It must also be a feast of courage — courage to stand up for Jesus and defend what He taught us through the Christmas story. Let us stand up against vulgarity with the powerful innocence of the Christ Child. Let us defend human life by siding with Jesus and not applauding Herod. Let us stand up for womanhood best taught us by the purity of the Virgin Mary.”
Can peace on earth win?
The good archbishop is right. But again he is a lone Jeremiah railing against the violence- and sex-charged entertainment and social media shaping our young minds.
Even the Church and its schools, for all its criticism of drug war killings, says little about violent shows and games, which take up more of the youth’s attention and activity.
So, here’s a dumb idea. If the Church and other peace-loving groups really want to stand up against violence, start by listing violent movies, TV shows, and video games families should not patronize. And plug wholesome entertainment. Do this in all parishes and schools.
Can’t be done? Then the bullies will be back.
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