Understanding needs effort, not blind docility

Trying to understand the world and the people around me is not always easy. It's a bit of a struggle every now and then. Sometimes I wonder what the world would be without people? Silly thought of course. Can you imagine a world without people? When you try you must realize that it is still you, as one of the people, who's imagining. People make the world go round and maybe ultimately we will destroy it, isn't it? Or is it money? But then again money is an invention of people. In the end, it's all about us, it's about our goals and motives, about our values and believes. About 'Why'!

For example, I thought that peace talks were part, most of the time at the end, of a war. I wonder who has noticed a war between the Government of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) or the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in recent years? Both movements are dying if not already dead. We are talking about a few thousand people on a population of 103 million. Anything that can be compared to a very little bit of a real war is fought by the Abu Sayyaf Group. But they are (also a small group of) terrorists and we don't negotiate with terrorists do we? (For an interesting assessment of the situation in the Philippines see: https://csis-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/publication/160119_Green_AsiaPacificRebalance2025_Web_0.pdf . Read from page 73)

The National People's Army  too was considered to be a terrorist movement by the Aquino government and the Americans, but not even a year later they are - barely fighting - freedom fighters and political prisoners. Of course there was some historical injustice done in Mindanao that has to be repaired. But are we really repairing that injustice by releasing killers and building up a movement whose only aim is to overthrow democracy and establish a one party socialist/communist state?

"I urge the Filipino youth to continue all their efforts to unite the people for the overthrow of the semicolonial and semifeudal system through a people's war and for the completion of the national democratic revolution", said Jose Maria Sison in an interview published in Liberation International (April-June 2016). (see: www.ndfp.org/liberation international for the whole enlightening interview)

So, at least the NDFP doesn't make a secret out of what it's real and ultimate goal is.

I also tried to understand why the word 'Democratic' appears in the name NDFP and my conclusion is that it has only been used to deceive, to mislead us. Have you ever seen a one-party socialist or communist state being democratic? The NDFP is pointing to countries like China, North-Korea, Cuba, Iran, Russia and Venezuela as desirable new partners for the Philippines. When I have a closer look at those countries I don't fancy to live there (although Cuba and China are nice), do you? North-Korea is led by an idiot who threatens world peace, Venezuela is under martial law and there is no food. Certainly shining examples the Philippines should follow!

Sison and his comrades have never got free from the old Mao-istic ideology. One thing I made my own quite some years ago is the perception that every -ism is dangerous. -Isms have a tendency to become dogmatic and to try and impose their dogmas upon people who prefer to keep on thinking for themselves. Where dogmas rule their can be no democracy. Mao's Great Leap Forward and his Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution caused the death of somewhere between 40 and 70 million of his countrymen, all for the sake of fighting the imperialists and counter-revolutionists inside and outside the country. Since then China fortunately has made some progress. Since Deng Xiaoping (it doesn't matter whether the cat is black or white as long as it catches mice), who in the eyes of Sison is a counter-revolutionary hundreds of millions of Chinese have been lifted from starvation and poverty. A really remarkable achievement of capitalistic communism.

Like communism capitalism is an -ism, invented by mankind. The dogmas of capitalism rule most parts of the world nowadays. Without any doubt they contributed to a better life for many people. But I think we came of the right path somehow somewhere. We have until now not succeeded in distributing, in sharing wealth equally. In fact inequality grows day by day. And there is no reason to assume that those who have most will voluntarily change their ways. That is where Sison and his comrades still have a point. So maybe it would be wise to adjust the course before it is too late. Killing the opposite site however is not going to bring any course correction or solution any closer. We can kill each other, but we cannot kill ideas. We only kill out of fear, not out of force or strength. The killers in fact are the weak ones. Discussion, dialogue and persuasion are better means to rediscover the right path to a sustainable future for all of us. Dogmas will not be very helpful in this quest. Maybe we should just try to find a way to a capitalism for the many and not for the few as Robert Reich suggested.

My struggle to understand will continue. In fact I like and enjoy it!

Muizen in de Tweede Kamer

Het januarinummer van Filosofie Magazine heeft als thema ‘Hoe Chinezen denken?’ We zijn dus al wat opgeschoten sinds Kishore Mahbubani in 1998 zijn boek ‘Can Asians think?’ publiceerde. Het gaat gelukkig niet meer om de vraag of ze kunnen denken, maar om hoe ze dat doen en waarom ze het zo doen als ze het doen. Confucius, Lao Zi, Boeddha, Marx, Mao en zelfs Jezus leveren in het huidige China een wonderbaarlijk mengelmoes aan gedachten en overpeinzingen op. Van de allesoverheersende rol van de familie tot plat materialisme. Van het belang van hiërarchie tot feng shui. Vanuit onze westerse arrogantie hebben wij jarenlang gedacht dat zij niet denken konden. Iedereen die niet doet wat wij doen moet wel achterlijk zijn. Van de weeromstuit zijn de Chinezen een aantal dingen gaan doen die ze van ons afgekeken hebben. En verdomd, ze doen die dingen nog beter dan wij het ooit gedaan hebben. Gelukkig maar, want daarom kunnen en moeten ze ons nu te hulp schieten.

Toch moet ervan uitgegaan worden dat er al weldenkende Chinezen waren toen wij nog in bomen leefden. Ons past derhalve wat meer bescheidenheid en, zoals Confucius al adviseerde, voorzichtigheid met woorden. Dat geldt eens te meer voor ons Nederlanders, de Chinezen van Europa. Hoe denken wij? Kunnen wij denken? Wat houdt ons bezig? Waar maken wij ons druk over?

Ik word bepaald niet vrolijk van wat onze gemoederen voornamelijk lijkt te bewegen. De hoofdbedekking van de majesteiten , een satirisch filmpje bij DWDD met majesteitelijke hoofden gemonteerd op blote lichamen, een dappere majesteit die een steile loopplank weet te bedwingen of de muizenplaag in de Tweede kamer. Muizen! Gevaarlijke beesten! Het Chinese dorp Lishui kende ooit een plaag van witte muizen. Duizenden. Ze werden gevangen, in zakken gestopt en opgeruimd. Op het eiland Gough in de Zuid - Atlantische oceaan zijn de aanwezige muizen drie tot vier keer zo groot geworden dan normaal en hebben zich tot carnivoren ontwikkeld. Ze vallen in groepen vogels aan en peuzelen die met huid en haar op. Ze mogen wel uitkijken daar in de Tweede Kamer. Westminster Palace had in 2008 ook last van de beestjes. Gif, vallen en katten boden een oplossing. Maar katten mogen in Nederland niet van de Partij voor de Dieren, gif is helemaal uit den boze en in vallen moeten de beestjes levend gevangen worden. Wie moet voor zo’n muizenvangende kat zorgen? En misschien vangen die katten wel helemaal geen muizen meer omdat ze zo goed verzorgd worden. Want Nederlandse katten zijn net als Nederlandse mensen. Ze hoeven niet meer voor zichzelf te zorgen, er wordt voor ze gezorgd. Het wachten is op een voorstel om de kat stemrecht te geven. Zou er in China ook kattenvoer te koop zijn? Misschien valt er voor ons nog wat te leren van hoe de Chinezen denken. Deng Xiaoping wist immers al dat het niet uitmaakt of de kat zwart of wit is, als hij maar muizen vangt!