Stopping STL operations won't stop jueteng!

The so-called Small Town Lottery (STL) or Loteria ng Bayan will soon be removed and hopefully not replaced according to Pres. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino, III. We have already written it in this corner that the STL has become nothing but a front for jueteng operators because it is easy enough for them to show they are selling STL when authorities are around. But when authorities leave, it is jueteng that these unscrupulous operators sell to the willing public. So it is not true that the STL as designed would replace jueteng.

While I concur with the decision of PNoy to remove the STL, it shouldn’t stop him from pursuing those jueteng operators who are using the STLs as their legal front to sell jueteng. As I’ve already pointed out, these jueteng operators are so smart; they took advantage of our naïve government officials and took in many STL operations so they could actually increase their jueteng operations. Removing the STL will certainly force these jueteng operators to look for ways to go on with their jueteng operations.

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I did not make any comments about the wave of anti-American protests that has engulfed at least 20 Muslim nations because of a video posted in YouTube that was seen as offensive and sacrilegious to the Prophet Muhammad until I was able to see it. I saw it the other day and to be totally honest about it… that video was not even worth watching. The quality, the directing and the acting was the poorest quality I have ever seen that it could only be shown in YouTube. Yet it caused world wide anger.

Federal officials apparently arrested Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, who is a convicted felon involved in a bank fraud in the US. He apparently used many aliases to do his nefarious activities. The actresses involved in that video did not even know what were the plots… they were only told to act out their respective scenes. Of course, Nakaoula denies being the producer of the video. So from obscurity, now Nakaoula has elevated himself into new heights of popularity, causing a wave of anger amongst Muslims world wide. He is the Salman Rushdie of this new video generation as Rushdie was into books.

In case you have already forgotten, Sir Salman Rushdie is a British Indian novelist who wrote the book “Satanic Verses” in 1988 that triggered violent protests in the Muslim world, where the Ayatollah Khomeini, the Supreme Leader of Iran, issued a Fatwa against him. He has been in hiding since because of the assassins sent to kill him. In 2007, Queen Elizabeth II of England knighted him for his services to literature.

But then again, it takes even a poorly done video to trigger a wave of anti-American violence, which should give us an idea how much the Muslim world hate Americans or at least its government. Now, whether this violence would continue to escalate or wither, my guess is as good as yours. At this point, I would like to believe that it is about time that Americans rethink their foreign policy. In their effort to be the world’s policeman, they have become hated especially by Muslims.

Meanwhile, here in Asia, there is also a massive turmoil on the streets of China when an angry Chinese mob overturned Japanese cars and burned them on the streets. Japanese restaurants shut down and Japanese companies having a manufacturing plant in China like Mazda, Honda and Panasonic voluntarily had to shut down operations. All this because of trouble in the Senkaku Islands, which the Chinese call Diaoyu Islands. Supposedly, as a way to solve this problem, Japan bought these islands from its owners, but instead it triggered only anger from the Chinese.

These incidents are not much different from our troubles with China on the Scarborough or Panatag Shoal, where Chinese Naval ships have all but stopped Filipino fishermen from fishing around this shoal. But the huge difference in these island disputes is that, Japan’s self-defense forces are stronger or if not at par with the Chinese Navy, while the Chinese Navy can literally kick our Philippine Navy around. While we have no history of bad memories between us and the Chinese, however in the case of Japan, their invasion of Manchuria exactly 81 years ago, on Sept.19, 1931, evoked bitter memories. This incident preceded Japan’s eventual invasion of China.

I certainly hope that these incidents will not escalate into another war. For as long as Chinese and Japanese diplomats remain cool headed, these demonstrations will eventually die down. Surely, China or Japan or we in the Philippines would not shed our blood over these far-flung islands inhabited only by birds and other wildlife. But we will never know what would be the outcome of these small incidents. Let’s hope it won’t lead to war. Meanwhile, it is time for the Philippines to court these Japanese manufacturers to perhaps move their manufacturing operations in the Philippines.

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