The grievances are obvious and justified morally, politically, and economically. Sufficiently informed citizens (who are in the 99%) would have no problem choosing the side of OWS. Calling it a no-brainer is an understatement. In fact, in the U.S. alone, in a recent TIME Magazine poll, a whopping 54% of Americans are in favor of the OWS protests. As Glenn Greenwald said:
“Anyone who expressed difficulty seeing or understanding what motivates these protests revealed many things about themselves. None is flattering. The only thing that’s surprising is that these protests didn’t happen sooner and that they’re not more widespread and intense.”
No wonder politicians and corporate news media in the U.S. continue to downplay its significance by deriding it as a movement with no specifics. As the old adage goes, “You don’t kill the goose that lays the golden egg.” And Wall Street has been the generous goose. Continue reading >
A humble tribute to a human being who was made of awesome….
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”
“Almost everything–all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure–these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”
P.S. Here’s my wife’s tribute on her Facebook page:
“Holding my iPad and iPhone right now. Can’t believe that the person who invented these is gone. Feel frustrated that Francis wouldn’t be able to see him alive. I thank Steve Jobs for making it easy for me as a parent to teach Francis w/ easy accessibility. At his age, he can manipulate his iPad w/o my help, play those educational games, watch his fave movies, everything that you can’t imagine an 18 month old can do. I’m so lucky that I was able to see you alive Steve Jobs. You are a legend!”
#OccupyWallStreet: FOUR-POINT+ PLAN TO SAVE AMERICA
Those who are subscribed to my blog, Twitter, Google+ and Facebook feeds are probably getting tired of my politically-charged status updates. Maybe some of you have already unsubscribed, blocked, or unfriended me because you didn’t like my tone or you just don’t agree with my political views. I have no problem with that. We’re all free to express our political views and distance ourselves from whoever we don’t agree with. But there’s an inherent danger with the “I’ll block you and unfriend you just because I don’t agree with your political views” attitude. I don’t have to spell it out. I trust that people who are reading this are intelligent enough to understand the risk of echo chambers and drowning in our own narcissistic cognitive biases.
That said, I’d like everyone to know that I’m not really a very political person. Honest. In fact, I grew up despising politics. I came from a country (Philippines) where corruption in politics, government offices, religious institutions, and business establishments are, for lack of a better description, *in-your-face*. One of the reasons I moved to the U.S. is because of my despair with the politics in my country of birth. Back then I understood that corruption is everywhere, but at least in the U.S. I can “tune it out” and just focus on the “American Dream” and my own personal development. Continue reading >
