New Filipino President - Dictator?

Politics International Politics
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If that’s not to preserve culture, then it’s hard to argue that it counts for much in the grand scheme of things.

Or is it for science somehow? Archeological sites are being destroyed by ISIS, and I don’t see the UN doing much about that. And wasn’t there some handwringing some years back over the Taliban destroying some Buddha statues?

This sort of thing seems to happen more frequently since the UN was established. That may be coincidence, but it’s hard to argue that the UN is making any real difference for the better.

But it may not even matter. The past is of interest for what it can teach us, but if no one is interested in learning then the past is otherwise irrelevant.

Now as far as cultures go, medievalist savagery is very much on the rise lately. But that’s not natural selection. The UN is giving them cover.

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You have a point about the EU’s accomplishments, but I think the open borders part is an oversimplification. Are passports and visas as we know them today not a modern construction brought about by WWI?

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Whenever someone uses Darwinism to justify something with a completely false understanding of evolution, it scares the crap out of me.

Culture is evolving on its own every single day. So is our languages. If you really understand biology, you’d see natural evolution is random. So if you have an idea of how you want the culture to “evolve in the Darwinian process” you are doing it wrong.

Evolution is not about what’s useful. Features survive just because it can under the current condition. Evolution also often works by teamwork and what determines survival isn’t the best but the most diverse. The same goes with culture.

What you are talking about isn’t Darwinian at all. If you have an idea of what’s not working in our society, and how it should change, that’s all you, don’t force it down other’s throat with “Darwinism”.

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There are more than 1000 registered World Heritage Sites, how many of them were bombed by ISIS or Taliban?

And more frequent after the UN? Seriously? The wars and the imperialism destroyed a million times more of those and ISIS did, and they happened before the UN.

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Gun control meets smart diplomacy meets reality:

[quote]Duterte reiterated that Russia and China had
shown willingness to sell arms to the Philippines, but he would wait to see if his military wanted to continue using U.S. weapons.

"Russia, they are inviting us. China also. China is open, anything you want, they sent me brochure saying we select there, we’ll give you.[/quote]

Moral narcissism makes one blind. You can’t have your world power clout and eat it too.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8H5L3gSJ-KE
fun to watch Agent Smith going to Scarborough Shoal for some rosemary and thyme.

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[quote=“rowland, post:125, topic:89625, full:true”]Moral narcissism makes one blind. You can’t have your world power clout and eat it too.
[/quote]
Duterte’s outbursts invariably illustrate the exact opposite of the point he’s trying to make, viz, Filipinos are smart, resourceful, and can stand on their own foot (the other one having been blown off during an unfortunate shooting incident).

[quote]“Look at these monkeys, the 26,000 firearms we wanted to buy, they don’t want to sell,” Duterte said during a televised speech.

“Son of a bitch, we have many homemade guns here. These American fools.”[/quote]
So, Mr President, one might legitimately ask why you’re not using your “homemade” guns. I mean, aside from the fact that they’re all made by illegal gunsmiths and tend to blow up in one’s face, or (I would guess) not work at all. I certainly wouldn’t trust one of those rusting contraptions toted around by ‘security guards’ that look like they’re made from a length of gas pipe and a bolo handle.

It’s also not a good idea to openly show your contempt for people you wish to buy stuff from, because other people you might wish to buy stuff from will assume you have the same attitudes towards them. The Chinese are probably having a good laugh over brandy and cigars right now and deciding exactly how they’re going to fuck him over.

Rule 0 of any engagement, Mr President: never assume your enemy is an idiot. “Friends” likewise.

Somewhat unrelated, but on the general theme of narcissism: Filipinos re-invented from scratch the entire discipline of psychology, fundamentally misunderstanding what the word means, on the basis that Filipino brains don’t work like everyone else’s brains. I dunno, maybe they’re right. Check it out:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filipino_psychology

In Western terminology, this would probably be termed ‘social anthropology’ or similar, with a focus on one specific culture.

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Filipino psychology seems to be mainly about being respectful to God or something. Actually I think the exact term is ‘God fearing’.

Not sure what means exactly but it’s big over there.

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Seems to be a thing they are all ‘supposed’ to be…

http://www.aureuscorp.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6&Itemid=12

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http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2017/01/31/1667881/duterte-orders-afp-arrest-rogue-cops

Just when you think things couldn’t get any worse…

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In other news, the CUPP is having some trouble.

Chang is the son of CUPP Chairman Chang An-le (張安樂), nicknamed the “White Wolf,” who is the former leader of the Bamboo Union gang and is known for his outspoken views of and support for Beijing.

Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chiu Yi-ying (邱議瑩) cited reports alleging that China gave Chang An-le 5 million yuan (US$753,590) a year and the Bamboo Union 30 million yuan a year to fund their activities in Taiwan.

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I suppose we’ll never know if this is true, but a big part of the country’s general modus operandi is to blame everyone else for the sorry state it’s in. Even if it is true, there must inevitably be a vast clique of Filipinos who enable the importations and get them out to the end users. Trash goes where trash is welcome.

He’s quite right about the extent of corruption and dirty money in low-level politics. Everyone knows about it, though; everyone knows exactly who’s involved, usually because it’s their brother-in-law or cousin. Since government policies deliberately make legitimate business futile, it’s a rational decision to go into organised crime, which isn’t taxed, has a big demand for the product, and doesn’t require endless paperwork.

I can remember Duterte promising that he’d “solve” the drug problem within six (three?) months if elected. If gullibility were a marketable commodity, the Philippines would be the richest country on the planet.

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Second richest… a country still waiting for Mexico to pay for an imaginary wall would still be No. 1 in all things.

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But is it a rational decision to elect such government?

In a democracy, bad government is ultimately the voter’s fault.

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He is a killer and he is old and will be dead before he can be held responsible for his crimes.

His kids have no chance of being shot on the streets. Put them out there and let’s see what happens see if they happen to be involved with drugs.

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In my opinion at first I like him and lucky that I’m not allowed to vote - My old folks didn’t vote to Mr. D. they strongly dislike him from the very beginning. In fact they don’t vote at all as everyone knew from small potato position to larger position of politicians are deep rotten corrupt people.

Few percentage of decent people are still I could say good but majority the “people of the Philippines” are also “not well discipline” they are also corrupted. The people itself need to change, sad reality but it seems it will not happen.

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Al Jazeera did a very good 1 on 1 interview with Duterte. You can hear him speak about many issues directly. About China PRC relations, US relations, South China sea, Drug Policy etc. I thought he was just a raging loon but Actually a lot more level headed than I was led to believe by media headlines and they asked very tough questions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2KtLTXXej8

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Well there is positive and negative side on every story, but you know there’s a lot of important things need to be done to improve this country but as every one can see the news are mostly killing here and there.

How many senators they have ? All are useless human beings.

Most of them are focus in 1 problem.

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When they mentioned that they are going to talk about his past first, Duterte did a very obvious shift indicating discomfort, like he’s bracing for what’s to come. I was wondering what he was anxious to avoid talking about, and got it when they mentioned him being sexually abused by a priest.

Although I have to say, he lost me when he says there’s no law against threatening criminals with death.

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Like all successful politicians, he is well adjusted to a sick society.

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