Rooting for President Obama

My Republican friends call me a bleeding heart Democrat supporter. Obama has won the presidency again.  It was a very close contest, initially.  Obama won despite that the US economy is in bad shape, a situation that he stumbled upon shortly after assuming office.  He won despite perceptions that the so called 1% is supporting a change in administration. One very glaring proof of the economic mess is the 8% unemployment rate. It was said that the larger socio – economic class in the US who are not in a position to fund this election campaign will not be able to influence the outcome of the elections.  As it turns out, we are happily surprised. And, we are filled with hope again.

I compiled a few highlights of the Obama Presidency. First, was the inspiring inaugural address which I so relished for its sound bite. With the inauguration of the first black president in the White House, it seemed THE NEW WORLD was apt to refer to the United States again. Since, the first wave of immigrants from the old world, indeed, the face of the Americas has changed.  Obama said in his inaugural address:

….“they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life. For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West, endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth….” (end of quote )

The above remark was in reference to the slave trade from Europe to the Americas and a reference to the plight of his forebears: from slavery to the highest post of the world.  Even as Obama said  “that the celebrations are about us,” the celebration was also about OBAMA and all that he stands for.  

Then the Nobel Peace Prize 2009 went to Barack Obama, the 44^th President of the United States after eight months in office "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples." The Nobel Peace Prize may be awarded to persons or organizations that are in the process of resolving a conflict or creating peace.”  

It was a good time to pause and reflect on world politics and what was happening in the world. What were the images and pictures of the   “unpeace” in the world in 2009?  The United States Army was facing a rebellion in Iraq. We still have no idea how the U.S. will emerge victorious in Afghanistan or in counter terrorism attacks in Pakistan and Somalia.  Iran is building nuclear arms. There is no let-up in the Jewish settlement on Arab land. The Indian embassy was bombed.   There is still an unresolved dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir.  Obama said he was humbled by the Nobel peace prize. One journalist called the award a pre-emptive award. What has Obama achieved to deserve the peace prize? One development expert ( Lawrence Haddad) says, “The replenishment of that crucial ingredient for peace-building: hope”

Obama has been described as akin to a philosopher king, so lofty but not grounded in realpolitik. Obama ran for elections the first time on the theme of change and now he has another four more years to continue that process of change. 

Obama said one function of the US government is to keep Americans safe. One of Obama’s famous line on security was in reference to Israel. He said  "If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I'm going to do everything in my power to stop that, and I would expect Israelis to do the same thing."

Workers in the call center industry have also taken note that Obama is not so much into free trade, he discourages business process outsourcing (BPO) for the United States as he wants these jobs for Americans. In this current campaign, Obama says that there will be no tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas.

Clearly, it was not within the power of President Obama to respond to the  financial crisis the world is facing which according to world economists  is a combination of the many that we've seen in the past, all happening at the same time: e.g. Asian crisis, Russian crisis, Latin American debt crisis, US savings and loan crisis, 1987 crash, etc.,  In this sense, the expectations of the world were so much bigger than Obama. Still, we continue to hope.

In the Philippines, many have noted that the United States is keen on the outcome of the peace agreement between the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.  Of course, it is in the interests of the USA, and for any foreign policy entity for that matter, to be friendly with political entities that can be strategic in geopolitics. 

All these and more are amidst  the challenges of the recent super storm SANDY, amidst global warming, climate change, natural and human made disasters.

For the Philippines & for the ASEAN, Niza Concepcion makes a profound remark & I quote, “Four more years. What does that mean for my country – an abandoned ally grappling for a chance to mean something to the USA again amidst political & economic tensions with China and a weak ASEAN?” 

Photo credit : from the FB page Barack Obama 

 

Hope & President Obama ( vignettes )

The Nobel Peace Prize 2009 went to Barack Obama, the 44^th President of the United States after eight months in office "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."

But what is the Nobel peace prize?  The Nobel Peace Prize  is one of the five Nobel Prizes donated  by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel. Alfred Nobel, among others, invented the dynamite. Today, this  bequest or donation  is estimated to be worth  US $ 186 million dollars and which  has also given birth to an endowment fund worth hundreds of millions of US $ dollars.   As per Alfred Nobel’s will, the peace  prize is to be determined by a committee of five persons to be elected by the Norwegian Parliament. The Nobel Committee says that it could be perhaps because Alfred Nobel noted that  Norway has no militaristic tradition compared to Sweden.  According to the Nobel Foundation,  “unlike the other Nobel Prizes, which recognize completed scientific or literary accomplishment, the Nobel Peace Prize may be awarded to persons or organizations that are in the process of resolving a conflict or creating peace.”  

Anyway,in the context of the peace award and what lies ahead for peace, it is a good time to pause and  reflect on world politics and what is happening in the world. What are the images and pictures of the   “unpeace” in the world? The United States Army is still facing a rebellion in Iraq. We have no idea how the U.S. will emerge victorious in Afghanistan or in counter terrorism attacks in Pakistan and Somalia.  Iran is building nuclear arms. There is no let-up in the Jewish settlement on Arab land. The Indian embassy was bombed last week.  There is still an unresolved dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir.  All these and more, amid the challenges of  global warming, climate change, natural calamities and humanity made disasters.  

 Obama says he is humbled by the Nobel peace prize and will go to Norway in December to receive the award.  One journalist called  the award a pre-emptive award. What has Obama achieved to deserve the peace prize? One development expert ( Lawrence Haddad) says, “  The replenishment of that crucial ingredient for peace-building: hope”   

The audacity of hope indeed!

So, what is hope?  My favorite is by Vaclav Havel, the playright turned President of former Czechoslovakia :

“ Hope is a state of mind, not of the world. Either we have hope or we don't; it is a dimension of the soul, and it's not essentially dependent on some particular observation of the world or estimate of the situation. Hope is not prognostication. It is an orientation of the spirit, and orientation of the heart; it transcends the world that is immediately experienced, and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizons ...Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for success, but rather an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed. The more propitious the situation in which we demonstrate hope, the deeper the hope is. Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.”

Snapshot of the OBAMA Presidency (2009) 

The face of  the United States of America has been changing over time since the old world days. And, more than ever, the term THE NEW WORLD  is apt  to refer to the United States now with the inauguration of  Obama as the first black president in the White House.  

Obama ran for the elections on the theme of change and, of course, it remains to be seen what these changes will be. To be sure, Barack  Obama has already energized American politics. They are saying that the theme Obama had been carrying throughout his campaign has brought a weight of expectation on him to become not just a suitable president but a great president.  Obama’s supporters all over the world envision a president as a new icon  of new Washington politics different from the traditional Washington Politics: untapped new ways of doing things that can be placed at the service of meaningful social change.

A friend of mine joked that except for the color blind, Filipino - Americans  who are fond of whitening creams and dreams of White Christmas, did not vote for Obama.

Seriously, the black movement has nothing to do with pigmentation. One can be yellow and pinkish, brown and still suffer from discrimination. Which is why, women activists  of all kinds  of pigmentation  who identify with this kind of discrimination supported Obama. Our own icon of Filipina entrepreneur,  Loida Nicolas- Lewis, one of the richest women in the world, supported Obama.

Yet, we will have to see how Obama will handle the slaughter in Gaza, given that his election campaign got so much contribution from the Jewish community in the United States and given that the US Congress recently voted to support all the actions of  Israel.  Obama was reportedly heard saying a few months back,   "If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I'm going to do everything in my power to stop that, and I would expect Israelis to do the same thing." For now, he is silent on Israel 's showing this week of the scale of obliteration that speak much of negative  power and evil braggadocio.

Workers in the call center industry have also taken note that Obama is not so much into free trade, he discourages business process outsourcing (BPO) for the United States as he wants these jobs for Americans. Perhaps, he was just courting American votes.

We will have to see how Obama will respond to the  financial crisis the world is facing which according to world economists  is a combination of the many we've seen in the past, all happening at the same time: e.g. Asian crisis, Russian crisis, Latin American debt crisis, US savings and loan crisis, 1987 crash,  etc.,  The financial  depression can be very severe and many are  hoping that with the Obama  presidency,  it will not be too bad for those with little or no cushion for survival, and not too long. In this sense, the expectations of the world are so much bigger than Obama.

Many have noted that the United States was  keen on the outcome of the MOA-AD and  a peace agreement between the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.  Of course, it  is in the interests of the US, and for any foreign policy for that matter,  to be friendly with juridical entities that can be strategic  in geopolitics. 

Pres. Obama’s Inaugural Address

        

The inaugural celebration of President Obama was widely celebrated all over the world  and although I have not seen so many inaugural celebrations, this one will be marked in history as one great iconic event.  The only other inaugural address, that  to my mind, has been widely quoted is the one by President  John F. Kennedy when he urged his citizens to

“…. ask not what your country can do but what you can do for your country….”

Since, the first wave of immigrants from the old world, indeed, the face of the Americas has changed.   Obama  said,  

….“they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life. For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West, endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth….” (end of quote )

 The above remark  was also referring to the slave trade from Europe to the Americas and a reference to the plight of his forebears : from slavery to the highest post of the world. And so, it is said,  that even as Obama says   “that the celebrations are about us,” the celebration was also about OBAMA and all that he stands for.  

This is not lost on our modern day overseas Filipino professionals & workers. The following line from the speech is a tribute to our Overseas Filipino Workers &  Professionals:

….” Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted, for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things — some celebrated, but more often men and women obscure in their labor — who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom….”

But, let me go to the part of the speech that some of my friends in the Muslim world found issue with : 

….”To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who 

seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West: Know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist….”

Some of my friends are asking whether the United States need enemies to be a great nation. And why should an inaugural address single out the Muslims?  For me, its like making Samuel Huntington’s, The Clash of Civilizations, a self fulfilling prophecy.  Furthermore, the lines are out of place, because they presume that there is one homogeneous Muslim world.

To seek a new way forward when referring to the Muslim world is so full of connotations and subtext.  A new way forward, and yet President Obama says, 

….” We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you….” 

In the language of the victim or oppressed, the requirement of unclenched fist is like surrender because the one requiring an unclenched fist is an insuperable strength and an insuperable power, already, to begin with

This is why some are not so hopeful that there will be major changes in the way the United States will lead or bully the world. In this sense, leadership is so overrated.

Who is afraid of the Bangsamoro?

“Islam is the religion or faith (the way of Allah) while Muslims are those who believe in Islam and attempt to practice it. Islam is an issue of theology. However, what Muslims (human fallible people) make of Islam is an arena open to social scientific inquiry. In other words, how human beings understand and apply Islam in their contemporary realities and daily lives is at least an area of debate not only in the present but also throughout the past history of Muslim communities.” -  Ayesha Imam 

I had a Muslim woman as a godmother at baptism. I have devoted more than two decades of my life working in Muslim communities all over Mindanao.
Actually, our work in Muslim communities is national because our reform proposals are addressed to changing national laws. 
Even as we adhere to the notion that not everything done by Muslims are Islamic and that what is Islam is always being reinterpreted and debated, we believe that Quranic teachings are ultimately about justice and equality. 

A survey research was conducted by our center,  PILIPINA Legal Resources Center (PLRC) in the Philippines on the extent of usage, attitudes, aspirations and behavior of Muslim women in relation to the Code of Muslim Personal Laws (CMPL).

It was found out, among others, that majority of the Muslim women were not familiar about their official legal rights. The solution to the problem of lack of legal literacy is easy. The greater problem, as the survey indicated, is that women’s lack of autonomy is largely cultural and justified by invoking customary laws and religious traditions.

This worldview affects the individual’s ability to participate in every level of social life – from decision-making within her home and family, to education, employment and public life.
Our research findings led us to outreach projects to overcome the problems revealed in the understanding of Muslim women concerning their rights under the law in the Philippines.

We did legal literacy work popularizing the Code of Muslim Personal Laws and promoting an alternative formulation in keeping with the gender equality provision of the Philippine Constitution.

We worked with Shari’a court judges, community stakeholders and policymakers and one of the resulting shapes was the creation of a government search committee that appointed judges to the vacancies in the Shari’a courts and the appointment of women judges which is a showcase to the rest of the Muslim world which still believe that women cannot be judges. 

The Code of Muslim Personal Laws (CMPL) remains as law for all Muslims in the Philippines although it is deemed outdated and contradictory to some 1987 Constitutional provisions, the current organic act (R.A. 9054) for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and international laws. Earlier, former Congressman Michael Mastura, one of the authors of the current CMPL suggested test litigation as an alternative track to the process of legal reform that we were advocating. 

Since legal reform proved difficult, our alternative strategy was engagement with the Sharia court judges on current standards under the UN CEDAW.
We published a Benchbook within the framework of UN CEDAW which may guide Shari’a judges in resolving cases involving Muslim women.

When norms and standards are legislated, these become sources of specific rights that are accessible, enforceable and demandable. Thus, human made legislations such as the Code of Muslim Personal Laws need to be revisited and interfaced with current standards, which have universal mandates such as the UN CEDAW. 
That a community of nations shares this standard is an indication that the promotion of equality between women and men cannot be compromised by making reference to an ever-changing culture or human made religious interpretations and practices. 

The UN CEDAW is now thirty years old and have been ratified by one hundred eighty-six (186) states, which is a great majority of all countries in the world. Gender equality and non-discrimination are now principles of international customary law.

The Philippines, to date, has yet NO official policy on reproductive health and family planning and these are parts of our treaty obligation to the UN CEDAW. As was reported recently by Rappler, “the Philippines is one of the best places to be a woman, based on the latest World Economic Forum (WEF) survey released on October 24. In the 2012 Global Gender Gap Index (GGI), the Philippines maintained its ranking in the top ten gender-friendly nations.”

But, to the extent that women have no control over their own bodies, this gender equality index is meaningless for us, women. But, yes, the Bangsamoro community has a fatwa ( or a decree made by an Islamic authority) on family planning.  
So, with some ustajes from the academe and with some members of the Technical Working Group of the Darul Ifta, we worked for the promotion of the fatwa as part of our reproductive rights program.