Bejewelled Myanmar

President Benigno Aquino III was in Myanmar yesterday and spoke before the members of the World Economic Forum, and, together with that country, a.k.a Burma, the Philippines was also posturing as an awakening economy, worth investing in by the rest. In his speech, PNoy stressed that, like Burma, our country also cannot afford to backslide to what it had been under dictatorships.

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Lately, we had been basking in very positive reports or surveys by noted agencies, that have called us an “awakening tiger” and no longer the “sick man of Asia” which is all wonderful to hear, because we actually see a lot of positive developments around us. PNoy also urged member countries to invest in the Philippines especially during his administration, and we hope he got his message across.

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And he better follow up all those invitations, and see to it that Myanmar (I like the sound of Burma better), does not overtake us as far as development is concerned. Although we have similar experiences in going through repressive dictatorships, Burma has treasures it needs only to tap, now that it has shaken off dictatorial rule under the military, that obviously had failed as far as running a country was concerned.

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A friend who recently visited Myanmar, said she was terribly impressed at the pace of development there, and the attention it is getting from wealthy investors worldwide. And it does not have to rely on foreign funds to progress, because it has so many natural resources it could tap, that we do not have, or cannot work on because of protests and fears being raised by some groups. The visitor to Myanmar noted that the country has so many mines that hold precious stones like jade, emeralds and rubies, aside from gold! And we cannot even proceed with mining projects here.

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Meanwhile, one of the things disclosed at the WEF in Myanmar was the expected bid for the presidency of the country’s democracy icon, Aung San Suu Kyi, in 2015. Of course that had always been in her mind, all those years that she endured both persecution and detention in her own country. She has been so single-minded about that, so that, even when her husband died abroad, and the ruling Junta, thinking that they could get rid of her by allowing her to leave the country, got frustrated when she stayed put, even while under house arrest. If only for her tenacity, her people should vote her into office, and let us hope nobody is thinking of doing a Benazzir Bhutto on her.

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Sports leaders and personalities are chafing over the behavior of Hongkongers during the supposedly friendly game between their football team and our Azkals. The local crowd not only insulted the Filipinos, they physically tried to hurt both the players and the Pinoy fans there. I hope those came only from the uncivilized residents, not the educated ones. Reports said they called the Pinoys people from a “country of slaves”. I guess they were referring to the fact that most of their domestic helpers come from our country.

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The Holy Father, Pope Francis, has given out a very practical and reasonable advice: Do not waste food, because doing so is stealing from the poor. Indeed, many people, especially those who are well-off, think nothing of wasting still edible food that could have gone to the starving poor in their communities. When we were students, the nuns at La Consolacion College always reminded us to put on our plates only the amount of food we could consume. Until now, most of my classmates and kin still stick to this rule, and the nuns’ mantra of “Remember the starving millions in India.” Now we have starving millions also in our country.

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I felt sentimental upon seeing the photos of the awarding rites for journalism by the Rotary Club of Manila yesterday. I remembered the times when your DAILY STAR had been the recipient of such prestigious honor, not once, but twice. On both occasions, our co-awardees were such stalwarts in national journalism as the late Max Soliven and Teddy Benigno, and Amando Doronilla and Jessica Soho, who are still around to reminisce with us on the euphoria of those events. Meanwhile, congratulations to the Philippine Star for being named Hall of Famer as Newspaper of the Year. Stars always shine, don’t they?*

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