The 4 Impractical Freedoms. Being A Declaration Of Independence By A Mouse
Frank A. Hilario
June 11, 2007
Manila, it is you who has created a noisy minority in your environs. I realize now, Manila, that your noise is that of a City Mouse and I am a Country Mouse; the City Mouse has always been the privileged cousin of the Country Mouse, echoing silently the fact that the City has never been for the Country. Forever a Country Mouse, my name is Legion.
I am declaring independence from the Manila Agenda as Jose Rizal declared his independence from the Madrid Agenda. The fight, he wrote Ferdinand Blumentritt in 1891, was no longer abroad but in the Country. I am declaring independence from Manila Imperialism as Emilio Aguinaldo declared Philippine independence from Spanish Imperialism June 12 of 1898. The fight, he said, was no longer between the heathen and the civilized but between oppressed and oppressor. I am declaring independence from Imperial Manila.
Manila, you practice imperialism and call it public policy and private polity.
Manila, you want to practice democracy by governing according to the results of opinion polls.
Manila, you impose on the rest of us the leaders who care for their followers only if they are kith, kin – or kind of.
Manila, you harness the power of media to communicate fears, wants, worship of pomp and circumstance – and bad speech.
Manila, you declare the head of state persona non-grata when the head does not satisfy your standards – and you keep changing standards.
Manila, you promise the sky by-and-by; you cultivate the attitude of a beggar.
Manila, I know you´re a bad manager, because you do not want to automate the election process, since modernity will deny you the power to micro-manage elections.
Manila, you are the model for educating children for them not to create opportunities for themselves but to look for jobs and, failing in that, to go abroad.
Manila, you want our lands to continue to be the domain of only those who have the resources. And you want to solve the problem of poverty by reducing the number of poor people.
Manila, you are blind to the national language, Filipino, as the weakest link for the Filipino competing in the global village of the mind, where English is king. And then you grumble that the Philippines is The Sick Man of Asia.
Manila, today I am declaring independence from your conceit of the Four Freedoms that you have long advocated in theory and practice: (1) freedom of speech and expression, (2) freedom of worship, (3) freedom from want, (4) freedom from fear.
Manila, you copied The Four Freedoms from American genius Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who invented and with them charmed the United States´ Congress in January 1941 (libertynet.org). Manila, Roosevelt charmed you too, innocents beguiled; you have never been original.
Manila, today I declare freedom from your freedom. I´ve come to realize that your freedom is not a practical idea: it cannot easily be measured, and therefore not easily monitored, that´s why you have abuses left, right, front, center. In the 1960s, I remember Dean Ricardo Pascual of the University of the Philippines explaining freedom in these beautiful words: ´You are free to swing your arm short of my nose.´ Many have swung ugly arms short of my nose; I´ve forgiven them, but not their freedom.
There is freedom of speech and expression – I see that people are free to pursue the untruth and then do a Pilate, washing their hands.
There is freedom of worship – I see that people are free to worship the gods of power and privilege.
There is freedom from want – I see that people are free to save so that they may not want in the future, and never mind the others.
There is freedom from fear – I see that people are free not to worry about their safety, if the services of the agents of the law can reach them.
Manila, freedom to me is meaningless without access. And so today, I declare myself slightly independent of Your Four Freedoms of Democracy; simultaneously, I declare myself totally dependent of My Four Accesses of Democracy:
Access to the media, more than freedom of speech and expression – for both rich and poor, educated and un-educated. Access is everything. Otherwise, who can exercise their freedom of speech? Only those who have access to print, radio, TV, phone, electronic media.
Access to the Church, more than freedom of worship – for both public and private persons. Access to the highest moral standards is key. Otherwise, if you separate Church from State, you are separating morality from living, separating values from work and play.
Access to the supply, more than freedom from want – for both rich and poor. Access is of the essence. Otherwise, only those who are rich can enjoy food, clothing, shelter, medicine, water, electricity, transportation – the perks of abundance.
Access to security, more than freedom from fear – for leaders and followers, employers and employees, employed and unemployed. Otherwise, those who feel secure are only those who can afford to pay for services under the law: education, justice, insurance, social security.
Manila, with freedom must come access. Freedom does not guarantee freedom, while access guarantees itself and freedom. Freedom curtails, access retails. Access is thinking globally, acting locally. Freedom is the device of the essential individualist; access is the tool of the universal man. Freedom is human rights; access is social rights.
The empires of the future,´ says the British genius William Churchill, ´are the empires of the mind´ (brainyquote.com). Manila, I speak for those who recognize that you are the seat of imperialism of the Filipino mind.
Imperial Manila? We shall overcome!
Copyright 2007 June 12 by Frank A Hilario. Researched for, organized-reorganized, formatted & hyperlinked via Microsoft Word 2003.
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