May the light shine...

From the Greenpeace Philippines blog

A little more than a dozen candles flicker in the dark wheelhouse of the Rainbow Warrior.

An anti-climatic ending for the Turn the Tide Tour of Southeast Asia that rallied, thousands into action for the past 3 months or so, but nevertheless, the candles stand as a testimony to the life of the few who chose to stand up, to bear witness and to offer up their lives, limbs and liberty for what we believe is the greater good of the planet.

The candles flicker for the life of one whose youth, has been stolen so that real, lasting and meaningful change would be ushered in. The candles shine for Crizel Jane Valencia, a very brave six year old girl from Mabalacat, Pampanga in the Philippines. Read more>>>

The Earth is waiting...

From the Greenpeace Philippines blog

As a musical genre reggae has always been noted for its tradition of lyrical social criticism, which is embodied in songs that talk about life, love , and the quest for identity that is to be found in the pursuit of freedom from the metaphoric ‘Babylon’ of ignorance to deeply rooted relationships of incongruity in society. By nature reggae music’s lyrics stands as an attempt to raise the political consciousness of the audience, such as by criticizing materialism, or by informing the listener about important subjects that includes the environment.

From an Asian standpoint, reggae finds itself at home in countries like the Philippines and Indonesia as the histories of so many Asian countries share the same plight to that of the country that birthed reggae –Jamaica, thus striking a sense of musical solidarity that transcends space, race and time. Read more>>>

Inspiring action...

From the Greenpeace Philippines blog

The movement for change is rich in visions.

All of us seem to have our ideas of the ‘perfect world’, some including detailed economic and political systems, while some simply a glorious dream of peace and love and harmony (or in Greenpeace lingo a ‘greener’ and ‘peaceful’ future).

Both, of course are important.

We need practical ideas of organization, and we need splendid ideas of harmony to inspire us.

Sometimes, though, the visions of our goal seems so far removed from our lives as to be impossible, and disagreements on practical plans split us apart.

Someday, "after the revolution," visions will be attainable. But now they are far away on the other side of that future event, change.

I think we need some sense of connection that exists between the struggles and fragility of our own day-to-day unromantic lives and the ultimate goal, the vision. Read more>>>

Ten years and counting...

From the Greenpeace Philippines blog

Greenpeace Southeast Asia is now turning ten this year.

It’s been ten long years of turning the tide for the environment. And I believe as an organization that is still not in the mainstream consciousness of society we have a lot to be proud about. It's not that I believe in bragging rights, but I mean as far as the Philippine office is concerned I deeply believe that our resilience as an office faced with a lot of challenges and setbacks we deserve a pat on our back for coming up with landmark legislations and outstanding contributions that I would like to believe have cemented our place in the annals of Philippine environmental and social movement history. Read more>>>

The shocking details

Christianity as a religion finds its roots in Judaism which in turn came out of the religions of the Ancient Near East were mostly polytheistic, which I think would again be something that would be shocking for contemporary Christians who are fast to declare that Christianity is: “a monotheistic-Trinitarian faith”. However, serious biblical scholarship has established that Judaism finds its origins in the Canaanite religion which was polytheistic, and in some cases monolatristic. In fact, the compound name El Elyon 'God on High' which is often used as a prefix to a toponym about God finds its origins in the pantheon of Canaanite gods to which Friedman writes:

To be totally honest...

I'm afraid that reading this book might get me in trouble with my local church as Richard Elliott Friedman's Who Wrote the Bible? dares to ask something that which cannot be spoken in conservative Christian traditions that I came from. Basically because the book functions as a contemporary description of what is known in biblical scholarship as the Documentary Hypothesis which holds that the Pentateuch (the Five Books of Moses) was originally taken from independent, parallel and complete narratives, that were subsequently combined into the current form by a series of editors upon which we get the Bible that we have now.

Anchors aweigh!

From the Greenpeace Philippines blog

Yesterday, the Rainbow Warrior has set its course towards the Philippines after wrapping up our the first leg of its Turn the Tide Tour of Southeast Asia early October. The tour, which aims to call on governments to Turn the Tide of dirty development to pave the way for a green and peaceful future, kicked off in Bangkok on September 17.

In Thailand, the Warrior called on the Thai Government to prioritize and support investments which will help put Thailand on a green development pathway, by technological leapfrogging with bold policy innovations and a new solidarity across social classes and generations. While in Thailand the ship travelled from Nakhon Si Thamarrat, Surathani, Koh Samui, Chumphon and Prachuab Kirikhan to promote a common vision of green development as well as to stand in solidarity with the grassroots and the people’s movement that are working in Thailand for the cause of environmental preservation.

While Indonesia is a different story, which started with high hopes that our peaceful campaigning ship would be able to support the Indonesian president's stated aims of ending deforestation in Indonesia. It ended with the Rainbow Warrior being denied vital supplies and being ordered – and escorted – out of Indonesian waters and well into international waters by two navy vessels, in breach of international maritime law.

We can only say that it seems very possible that there are some things that short-sighted political and economic interests did not want us – or you – to see, and that Indonesia's government capitulated to these vested interests.

After stopping for maintenance and supplies in Singapore the Rainbow Warrior is heading North-East towards the Philippines where it will join the clamour for an Energy [R]evolution, in the Philippines a country that has been labelled as among the most vulnerable and least prepared countries when it comes to coping with the impacts of climate change, there we hope to turn the tide by getting President Noynoy Aquino; to live up to the people’s aspirations of change by taking action against the greatest threat that mankind faces today ---climate change.

Read more>>>