Another journey

Presidential Adviser on Peace Rene Sarmiento will be the main speaker at the "Journey to Peace" forum on Muslim-Christian commonalities to be held at the Philippine Women’s University on Wednesday. The forum is a continuing project of the Center for the Promotion of Peace and Development in Mindanao, with the aim of helping facilitate the healing of centuries-old wounds caused by prejudices and misunderstanding between Muslims and Christians.

Prof. Julkipli Wadi of the Islamic Institute of Studies, University of the Philippines, will speak on Islamic customs and traditions, and ways of life.

"Journey to Peace" is more than dialogues, however. According to Haji Saeed A. Daof, CPPDM director general, after the speakers’ presentations, participants will give suggestions on projects that Muslims and Christians can do together. As Daof says, "Journey to Peace has demonstrated its viability and effectiveness in creating awareness, and in galvanizing interest to pursue a course that could lead to developing projects that could immensely contribute to attaining a lasting peace on the ground."

Thus, among projects that could be developed are community watch, environmental activities like zero waste management including compost-making and tree-planting, backyard fish culture, sports and socials. On a higher plane, such projects may include agricultural crops modernization, micro-financing, energy resource development, tourism, and trade. Next week’s forum will discuss zero waste management to be presented by Elsie de Veyra of YWCA.

Next week’s forum is being staged by the Center for the Promotion of Peace and Development in Mindanao in cooperation with the Young Women’s Christian Association, and Philippine Women’s University and its affiliate schools for men and women.

For inquiries on the forum, call 9283825 and 6311466.

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Ana Margarita "Mayet" G. Tiaoqui is mother to Ana Alessandra, six years old, and three-month-old Ana Mattia. She finished journalism at the University of the Philippines and heads her own commercial modeling agency, Admate. She was recently elected president of the Talent Agencies Organization of the Philippines.

Mayet bewails the state of affairs in the country and expresses anguish at our seeming inability to get out of "nowhere land." She sent me an article which I’d like to share with readers who share her anguish and frustrations.

"I was a pre-teener when the Beatles came up with yet another hit song, ‘Nowhere Man’ which I immediately added to my then list of favorites. I recently heard it played on the radio, and the words set me thinking.

"He’s a real Nowhere Man, sitting in his Nowhere Land, making all his nowhere plans for nobody.

"’Doesn’t he have a point of view, knows not where’s he’s going to, isn’t he a bit like you and me.

"’Nowhere Man, please listen, you don’t know what you’re missing. Nowhere Man, the world is at your command.

"’He’s as blind as he can be, just sees what he wants to see,

"’Nowhere Man can you see me at all?’

"As a people, we can easily identify with Nowhere Man. We move about aimlessly, merely going through the rigors of our daily existence, but ultimately headed for nowhere. Unlike him, however, we do have points of view, so many and so diverse as a matter of fact, that a lot of us probably already find it difficult to make sense of the cacophony of voices and views we’re regularly subjected to.

"The world is at our command, yet we are blind, or choose to be so to what we are capable of achieving in striving for progress. In the latest United Nations-sponsored study on the quality of life in 177 states and territories, we now rank no. 84, behind Malaysia, Thailand and tiny Samoa which edged us out of our no. 83 position last year. To Dr. Arsenio Balisacan, a member of the team that collected data on our country, our ranking is ‘very disappointing, to say the least, considering that we have the basic ingredients and potentially useful resources such as our human capital.’

"Well, our human capital has been making a frenzied dash for other countries to avoid being stuck here. For this state of affairs, Dr. Balisacan and the rest of us will have to point an accusing finger at our leaders – on both sides of the political fence.

The administration wants to lead us in the direction of an improved economy. On the other hand, the various anti-GMA groups that simply want her out, would have us eventually head for wherever it is that their political agenda dictates. This is the messy situation we are in, one to which our democratic system seems unable to provide easy solutions.

"It just might come to a point when gotten tired of the routine, we turn off the machine, let everything go hang and accept our fate of being in a state of perpetual paralysis.

"If we keep this up, in no time, our Nowhere Land will easily take over the bottom ranking of the African nation of Niger in the next study on the quality of life worldwide."

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Recently retired Bangko Sentral Gov. Rafael "Paeng" Buenaventura may have provided some tips on how we can get out of our country’s "Nowhere Land" situation. Paeng was an appointee of former President Erap Estrada, who was with him in the Ateneo High School Class of ’55, this year’s golden jubilarians, the batch that includes Congressman Butz Aquino, Ambassador Doming Siazon, former Energy Secretary Mario Tiaoqui (uncle of Mayet’s husband Alex), ex-Customs head Renato Ampil and public relations man Reli German.

In a recent speech at a joint meeting of the Makati Business Club, financial executives and the Management Association of the Philippines, Paeng said that while the country’s monetary situation is in decent shape, we are at a crossroad where the status could improve or deteriorate (that’s Mayet’s Nowhere Land). However, he pointed out that we are fortunate in that we are in a globally benign financial environment where we have low interest rates, low inflation and we face a "tsunami of liquidity-seeking good yields."

Buenaventura went on to say that our foreign debt situation is not bad, but not good either and most of our foreign borrowings are medium or long term and therefore, there is no bunching of maturities, with the schedule spread out at a manageable rate of many years.

He warned, however, that we may not be able to withstand another major political crisis. "Regardless of who runs the country," he stressed, "like it or not, the Philippines is an inherently volatile place and clearly unpredictable."

He then sounded off some suggestions on what should be done to ensure our country’s financial stability. For a start, he said that we must close our fiscal gap and stop running budget deficits over the next few years. Banking and broader financial reforms have to be made. The domestic capital market must be developed in order to attract foreign investors. For this, he again suggested vital reforms in the government securities market that would include, among others, better protection of investors through proper delivery or securities and full transparency.

"What is needed is decisive political will to get the necessary laws in place at the soonest possible time," the much-respected former BSP head said.

Aha! Political will to get us out of Nowhere Land soonest. Can this be done? Abangan!"

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My e-mail: [email protected]