Losers who won big

A well known image model of the "Opposition" confirmed to me that he was certain to run as a candidate for Senator in the 2007 election. He was sure of his motives, he was confident of his qualifications, and his partymates would undoubtedly back him all the way.

Yet in spite of the certainty of victory, his greatest fear is losing.

Given the arrogant declarations of a young administration candidate that the "Opposition" does not have the government machinery, does not control the COMELEC, does not control the Military, does not have the money and funding that government has, and does not control local politicians as part of the "EQUITY OF THE INCUMBENT", it is understandable that defeat is a very real concern.

Nonetheless I gave my friend a historical and philosophical reminder that many "losers" in human history eventually went on to greater victories.

Take for instance Abraham Lincoln who made several attempts at being elected to public office. As I recall honest Abe must have lost the vote on 4 different occasions. Given such a defeat you would think the guy would know better. He did.

Lincoln set his sights on the Presidency of the United States and ultimately achieved things that were far more important and went beyond managing the nation’s affairs.

Lincoln started the trickle down effect of fighting corruption which led to the Whistleblowers Act. But even bigger than that was Lincoln’s moral war against slavery. The many times loser won one of the biggest battles ever fought in human history... The Battle for Freedom and an end to Slavery.

Moses the biblical figure began life cast out by his own mother to save his life. Much later he went from murderer to deliverer of the Jews. Imagine a guy who had a speech defect and a criminal record actually parted the Red Sea!

US President Jimmy Carter was more known as the peanut farmer during his incumbency, given little respect and just as little support by the US media and the US public. When the terrorists held US hostages on Carter’s final month, it seemed like Carter would forever be blemished by the hostage incident.

Yet much later in his career Jimmy Carter slowly crept into the public radar or consciousness through his humble efforts and services as a "carpenter" building homes for the poor and underprivileged. To this day Carter holds that honorable distinction.

Richard Nixon fought his critics, pounded his enemies, and refused to cooperate with investigators, ultimately had to resign as President of the United States. He spent some time in the dark world of rejection and betrayal, yet when the opportunity presented itself, Nixon did not hesitate to be an ambassador of reconciliation and international cooperation.

From the dark pit of Dishonor, Richard Nixon climbed back to the stage of international relations and is remembered for the good he did and not the mistakes he made.

Nelson Mandela spent a lifetime as a political prisoner, just another name in the struggle against apartheid. The world almost lived with the idea since it was not spelled as SLAVERY. Strange how a complex name prolonged brutal oppression. But that did not crush Mandela’s spirit in spite of years of imprisonment, in spite of being divorced from his wife. Now he basks in well deserved respect and glory.

Ronald Reagan was ridiculed for his many attempts at public office, for being just an actor, for his weird ideas of a Star wars like anti-missile defense system, especially for Reaganomics. Yet when he died American media sent him off as the guy who destroyed communism in the western world.

The most relevant example I can give my friend would be Al Gore.

Al Gore had all the right reasons to win the US presidency. He had the track record, he had vision, he was the administration candidate, he was the best looking of the lot. If anybody looked like a US President, Al Gore did.

But he lost.

Gore said " that was a hard blow..... but what do you do?.... you make the most of it." "It brought into CLEAR FOCUS the mission I had been pursuing all this years."

Al Gore went back on the campaign trail. But this time he did not campaign for the Presidency of a country. He campaigned for the welfare of all countries in the world. He campaigned for the preservation and protection of PLANET EARTH. He continues to campaign for the well being, good health and survival of generations of human beings not for four years but for several lifetimes.

How big is that?

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Speaking of the environment, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources or DENR is planning to secure several billion peso loan to implement an idea I had suggested to the former DENR secretary Heherson Sonny Alvarez many years ago.

The idea was to replace all the "SURPLUS" diesel engines in public transportation vehicles in order to drastically cut down the gas emissions or air pollution.

Being a newbie environmentalist it seemed such a novel idea back then, but after watching the documentary movie "An Inconvenient truth", I realized that the suggestion was very short sighted.

The solution would have been good only for three or four years, long enough to clear the air and then the problem would start all over again since the new engines would have begun to deteriorate from extended use.

If the DENR wants real solutions it would simply have to bite the bullet and not try to come up with a politically correct solution. Trains or mass transit systems would be the more logical solution specially for the long term.

As for the DENR, we certainly need to campaign that this bureaucratic GOLIATH be slain and cut up into more effective modules. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo would actually benefit from cutting up the DENR into specialist units such as a separate Environmental Protection Agency, a separate unit for Land based, marine based resources, etc.

This would cut down the politics and graft, this would remove political usage of what should essentially be a protection, regulation, and service entity. In the end the President has more pies to give out for deserving competent people.