Panorama

Media

Part of Panorama

Title: Panorama
Issue Date: Volume XXll (Issue No. 6) June 1970
Year: 1970
Language: English
Rights
extracted text: RJNE, 1970 50 Centavos 'JwtUi omI fellow ydif iMi: PANORAMA needs intelligent readers, off: 1. Informative materials 2. Interesting ideas 3. Enlightening opinions 4. Broadening views 5. Controversial thoughts 6. Critical comments 7. Idealistic suggestions 8. Humorous remarks 9. Serious statements 10. Meditations on life and work. All these are either original productions or selective adap tions and condensations from Philippine and foreign publica tions. Usually brief and compact, lasting from two to ten minutes to read, each article offers a rewarding experience in one’s moments of leisure. Relax with Panorama. We say this to the busy student and the teacher, the lawyer and the physician, the dentist and the engineer, the executive and the farmer, the politician and the preacher, the employer and the employee. PANORAMA is specially designed for Filipinos — young, middle-aged, and old, male and female, housekeeper and houselizard. Special rates on November 1, for new and renewal 1966: subscriptions to begin 1 copy ..................................... 1 year ...................................... 2 years .................................... Foreign rate: .......................... 50 centavos P5.00 P9.00 $3.00 (U, S.) For one year’s subscription of 5 pesos, a person receives the equivalent of 12 compact pocketbooks of lasting value and and varied interest. COMMUNITY PUBLISHERS, INC.' Inverness, (M. Carreon) St., Sta. Ana, Manila, Philippines xx/ll THE PHILIPPINE MAGAZINE OF GOOD READING E«t«r«d aa aacaad elaaa mail mattar at tba Manila Peat Office aa Dae. 7. IMS Dr M Correon cor. A. de los Alos. Sta. Ano, Manila MANILA, PHILIPPINES No. 6 COMPARATIVE FEATURES OF FOUR LIBERAL DEMOCRACIES In the new work of Brogan and Verney entitled Political Patterns in Today's World, a relatively brief but accurate description of four of today’s liberal demo cracies is presented in a way that could arouse interesting and instructive results to our leading citizens who are actually looking towards an important event soon to take place in our midst that will offer us a chance to correct formal defects of our political system and to introduce an effective government and administration for our in‘ependent nation. The characteristics of these four leadng democratic states might open our minds to the strength and the weakness of each of them and might well guide us in adopting a plan of government and ad ministration better fitted in some ways than what we now have for our national development. Their outstanding and distinctive qualities might en able us to see certain principles and practices that we need to follow or to avoid in the formulation of a new or revised constitution for our own country and people. Let us warn ourselves, however, that what is good for them might not necessarily be good for us remembering (Turn to Page 24) ARTICLES ■ Excerpted from the Commencement Speech of Pres ident V. G. Sinco, at Foundation University, Dumaguete City, June 18, 1970. THE EDUCATED INDIVIDUAL IN THE PRESENT CRISIS This is an occasion for serious reflection on the part of the young men and women who have been benefitted with the advantages of a college education. A reflective mood on the present affairs of our country is an im perative attitude all intelligent Filipinos must immediate ly take and apply in action. For it is well known to us that the nation is in the midst of difficult problems affecting its economic and political life and disturbing the social and moral relations of different groups oT our people and in different levels of our national com munity. It is not an exaggeration to say that we are facing a crisis in the economy, the public morality, the public order, and the social peace in our entire national life. The disturbance and confusion they occasion are at times open and at other times hidden; but they are ever present in varied degrees. These conditions present challenges in ways far more formidable than those we experienced during the last War when the country was under enemy occupation. With the invasion of the country then by foreign armies and during the flight of friendly forces and defenders from our shores, we met our foes face to face and recognized them as alien in vaders. We knew them, we identified them, and we expressed openly and covertly our hatred and hostility and contempt against them, against the soldiers in their fighting uniforms and their murderous behavior. But with ail our difficulties and troubles and sufferings we 2 Panorama harbored silently yet bravely an intense hope and an actual expectation of relief and redemption from the cruel burden imposed on us. We felt that within some definite time we could well witness the restoration of our normal way of living and the return of our national peace and public order. But today a state of apprenhension and uncertainty seizes many of our people in a different way. They are disturbed by a feeling of suspicion and disbelief about the announcements and positive acts of our government officials, from the President down to the lowest bureau crat. In their quest for justice and in their appeal for legal protection, they experience a frustration and almost despair. We cannot tell in all frankness and certainty that a chance may soon appear to pqll the country out of what seems to be a bad nightmare in our easy going life as a nation. The cause of this feeling of national frustration seems clear to most of us who are aware of the cir cumstances that have brought it to existence. For it is obvious to many of us that the enemies that threaten to oppress us are right within our own midst; and they are no one else but ourselves. The enemies within are more fearful and more formidable than those from with out. The canker that blights the internal organs of our body politic tends to corrode quickly but stealthily the total structure of our nation. We cannot hope for the arrival of a host of friendly forces from outside to re lieve us of the actual difficulties which are fast mount ing like an avalance that emperils our very survival as a respectable nation under the shadow of a 20th-century civilization. I need not warn you and we need not deceive our selves that within our own people may be found mount ing obstacles to progress and even to survival. The time is fast approaching when an apocalptic doom may be fall us; and if we do not all act now to avert it it may fail to give us an ample opportunity to evade its dangers. June 1970 3 Our political and economic conditions are severely weakening; our social and community life are worsening; and the light of a broad day grows dim and faltering. But the faith of every patriotic Filipino in a higher destiny should be preserved even in this Wretched state in which we find ourselves today. But how long our people could hold on to that faith humbly, silently, and persistently under our present trying conditions is not easy to tell. It deserves gigantic efforts and a sincere exercise in patience and perseverance on the part of all true and decent Filipinos to maintain. This general outline of the desperate situation of our nation may be judged from some well-known parti culars: The government under the present administra tion is in a critical condition. It is not showing much ability and seriousness in performance. It has not shown respectable effort to perform the most fundamental duty of every civilized government, which is to protect the life and property of the people. Crimes are daily, if not hourly, perpetrated with impunity. And in many cases the perpetrators are themselves the very persons in whose hands the powers of government are entrusted. The economy of the country is dangerously unbalanced. Our productive capacity is insufficient to maintain a respect able standard of living. Our national currency is fast running down toward the depreciated value of the Mic key Mouse money of the disgraceful Japanese occupation government. Laws and regulations are at crucial times arbitrarily enforced or suspended. The management of the public funds is handled with inefficiency, and even recklessness. For this fiscal year, 1969-1970, its finan cial position registers a huge deficit of over seven hun dred million pesos (P700,000,000). The taxing power is exercised thoughtlessly to the point of discouraging pro ducers and encouraging wastefulness and bureaucratic in competence. The forests and other natural resources of the nation are freely opened to the rapacious exploitation of politicians and aliens’ mercenaries. Public credit can 4 Panohama barely be maintained to meet public obligations complete ly and on time. A few days ago we were told that with extraordinary effort new loans were secured to maintain our international reserves which had gone down to rockbottom. These newly contracted debts of our nation have reached the fantastic figure of about $250 million which had to be taken from some 27 reluctant American commercial banks. Inflation is going on at a scale which threatens to reduce the buying power of the Philippine peso to no higher than ten or twelve centavos. Politicians and other persons in high government positions are not apparently perturbed in the glory of their seats of prestige and in fluence. Members of Congress have continued to wallow in affluence from high salaries and allowances they have set aside for themselves. Each of them enjoys an ap propriation of about Pl 20,000 a year for activities that hardly do a bit of good to the people they are supposed to represent. Franking privileges and free transportation fare without limitation enhance the joy and comfort of these pampered human beings parading in pomp and circumstance as servants of the people. Private business ventures by privileged politicians have rapidly transformed them into multimillioners. By publishing a newspaper of its own, the government seeks to hamper the free play of public opinion, the chief instrument for the defense of a democratic society. But the day of reckoning is approaching. It may topple down the idols of the market place and the idlerich. It may come first as a moderate breeze; but if the clouds of discontent and discord should continue to darken the skies of our land, the thunder and lightning of an ominous hurricane may come down with violence to sweep out all things on the way. Unfortunately even the in nocent and the good may also be blown down by the tempestuous anger of an enraged population. The facts of history stand as witnesses of similar situations. June 1970 5 An impending event of promising significance might yet give us a chance to save ourselves from the greater evils of a possible bloody revolution or a civil war. If it comes soon enough and, when it comes, it is handled with foresight, with patriotic devotion, with unselfish deli beration, with prudence and wisdom, and with the highest sense of responsibility to the best interests of our peo ple, the Filipino Nation may yet survive to become a distinguished and proud member of the International Community. That one supreme and peerless chance is the Constitutional Convention next year when the Filipi nos will have in their hands the power to remove the barnacles of their Ship of State. Let us not forget, however, that power corrupts as it has corrupted officials, young and old, in our body politic. It is still an indispensable condition that govern mental authority be intrusted to the educated, the honest, the unselfish, the purely patriotic men and women of our country. The laws and the Constitution are not self executing organisms. It is the role of the truly educated and responsible individual that can give life, viability, and force to the law. In the memorable words of Wood row Wilson: “Constitute them how you will, governments are always governments of men, and no part of any gov ernment is better than the men to whom that part is intrusted.*’ ■ Japanese literary figures are fond of leaving the importance of their writings unsaid. JAPAN’S NOBEL PRIZE WINNER Yasunari Kawabata, in October 1968, won the world’s most coveted literary award, the Nobel Prize for Liter ature. He is the first Japanese and the first Asian prose writer to have won it. (The only other Asian 6 Panorama winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature was the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore, in 1913). Many literary critics including many in Japan were surprised when the Swedish Academy chose Kawabata. Said N. J. Nanporia in The Asia Magazine: Some Japanese intellectuals were “slightly dismayed that what is so essentially Japanese should attract such a great deal of uninformed attention. They would have been rather more relieved if someone younger and less traidtional, like Yukio Mishima, had been chosen.” Why were they “slightly dismayed”? Linguists of the world agree that the nuances of the Japanese language are more difficult to translate than the nuances of most languages. And since Kawabata uses more nuances than most Japanese writers, his countrymen felt, perhaps, that too little of Kawabata’s “art” — too few of his nuances — would or could get across to non-Japanese. What are these nuances? This is a difficult question, but we can find some hints towards possible answers in an essay Kawabata wrote specifically for a foreign audi ence — wrote, in fact, with the specific intent of trying to explain his literature and his feelings about art and life to a non-Japanese audience. The essay is his lecture of acceptance of the Nobel Prize, delivered in Stockholm before the Swedish Academy on December 12, 1968. In this essay, which is entitled “Japan, the Beautiful and Myself,” he gives us some hints about his nuances, and about what people mean when they call his writing “so essentially Japanese.” Kawabata began his lecture in Stockholm by quoting two short poems: In the spring, cherry blossoms, in the summer the cuckoo. In autumn the moon, and in winter the snow, clear, cold. This is by the Buddhist priest Dogen (1200-1253). The winter moon comes from the clouds to keep the company. June 1970 7 The wind is piercing, the snow is cold. This is by the Buddhist priest Myoe (1173-1232). After quoting similar poems with nature imagery, Kawabata says: “Dr. Yashiro Yukio, internationally known as a scholar of Botticelli, a man of great learning in the art of the past and the present, of the East and the West, has summed up one of the special characteristics of Japanese art in a single poetic sentence: The tie of the snows, of the moon, of the blossoms — then more than ever we think of our comrades.’ When we see the beauty of the snow, when we see the beauty of the full moon, when in short we brush against and are awakened by the beauty of the four seasons, it is then that we think most of those close to us, and want them to share the pleasure. The excitement of beauty calls forth strong fellow feelings, yearnings for companionship, and the word ‘comrade’ can be taken to mean ’human being.’ ” Already, the imagery of Snow Country (Kawabata’s novel best known outside of Japan) takes on more vibra tions of meaning — the cedar groves, the icicles, the moun tain chasms, the dragonflies, the dandelion floss: The novelist has given us a hint on how we are to link these with the emotions of the characters in the way a Japanese reader would link them. Kawabata’s rich but astringent prose has been said by many critics to have affinities with Japanese haiku poems —those short 17-syllable poems that are laden with intensity of observation, feeling and implication about a given moment. Haiku poems are also full of innuendos, double meanings, suggestion and symbolism. They have been called “open-ended” because so much of their power derives from what is left unsaid. Kawabata’s prose style reminds one of this, and he emphasized this important point in his Stockholm lecture. First he quoted a reli gious poem of Ikkyu (1394-1481): And what is it, the heart? It is the sound of the pine breeze in the ink painting. 8 Panorama He goes on to comment: ‘‘Here we have the spirit of Zen in Oriental painting. The heart of the ink paint ing is in space, abbreviation, what is left undrawn. In the words of the Chinese painter Chin Nung: ‘You paint the branch well, and you hear the sound of the wind.’ ” The ideal reader of Kawabata, then, is one who knows something about Zen — its use of paradox, its relation ship to the arts, its concern with space, emptiness, ab breviation, condensation. Another guideline that helps explain some of the obscurity of Japanese literature in general and of Kawa bata in particular is that a Japanese writer will frequent ly assume the reader has knowledge of the scene or the conditions under which certain lines were written. The full meaning is not possible unless one knows those con ditions. The poem about the winter moon coming from the clouds, for example, was published with a detailed explanation of its origins — about how the poet was in Zen meditation when cold midnight came and he was lonely but then the moon came from behind clouds to light the bright white snow and wolf’s howl brought no more fear. Often the reader can find information about the scene from guidebooks. There is a famous haiku of the great poet Matsuo Basho: In all the rains of May there is one thing not hidden — the bridge at Seta Bay. Here the reader will not fully appreciate the haiku unless he knows that the long bridge at Seta is one of the famous and traditional Eight Views of Lake Omi. The bridge crosses the narrow bay at the southern end of the lake. It is so long that in heavy rains the viewer can see only one end of the bridge — and none of the seven other classic views. But no matter how heavy the rain he can always see that one part of the bridge. The reader who has been to Lake Omi will know — or thinks he knows — the exact spot Basho stood. This also en June 1970 9 hances the meaning and emotions aroused by the poem because of the importance to the Japanese of the idea of sharing the precise pleasures of nature, of fleeting mo ments of natural beauty, with other human beings. At the conclusion of his Stockholm lecture, Kawabata makes a final attempt to interpret some of these difficult concepts to a foreign audience. He quotes from Kikai’s biography of the poet Myoe: “Saigo frequently came and talked of poetry. His own attitude towards poetry, he said, was far from the ordinary. Cherry blossoms, the cuckoo, the moon, snow: Confronted with all the manifold forms of nature, his eyes and his ears were filled with emptiness. And were not all the words that came forth true words? When he sang of the blossoms, the blossoms were not on his mind. When he sang of the moon, he did not think of the moon. As the occasion presented itself, as the urge arose, he wrote poetry. The red rainbow across the sky was as the sky taking on color. The white sunlight was as the sky growing bright. It was not something to take on color. With a spirit like the empty sky he gave color to all manifold scenes, but not a trace remained. In such poetry was the Buddha, the manifestation of the ultimate truth.” And Kawabata comments on the above paragraph: “Here we have the emptiness, the nothingness of the Orient. My own works have been described as works of emptiness, but it is not to be taken for the nihilism of the West. The spiritual foundation would seem to be quite different. Dogen entitled his poem about the sea sons [‘In the spring, cherry blossoms,’ ets.] ‘Innate Real ity,’ and even as he sang of the beauty of the seasons he was deeply immersed in Zen.” These are difficult concepts in any language, and one can imagine the problems of the translators. Kawabata has been fortunate in this respect and generously re marked, on the occasion of his winning the Nobel Prize, that “one half of the honor should go to the translators 10 Panorama of my works.” Not all of the haiku nuances and Zen paradoxes, of course, can survive the strange and rugged journey over the language barrier, but the non-Japanese world is grateful for what it can get. And it is grateful to Yasunari Kawabata for his Stockholm lecture and its helpful hints that aid us in understanding his now worldfamous novels — the importance of knowing something about the scene and the condition of the author when he wrote, the mystical meanings of nature when shared with other human beings, the importance of what is left unsaid, the sound of the breeze in the ink painting. ■ Will the bright hope of the head of the only de mocratic government that the Russians have ever experienced die with the man? KERENSKY AND THE COURSE OF HISTORY Many observers of the communist scene must have thought, upon reading of the death of Alexander Kerensky in New York June 11, "how would the course of history have changed if the former Premier of Russia had been able to thwart the communists' seizure of power in Novem ber, 1917?” As head of the only democratic government that the Russian people have ever known, could he have led Rus sia from czarist despotism into taking its place among the democratic nations of the world? There is, of course, no way to answer these questions. Mr. Kerensky is dead at the age of 89 and his efforts to establish a free government in Russia failed when Bolshevik leader V. I. Lenin seized power. Some things, however, are known. In the eight months that the former Premier held power —from March 1917, June 1970 11 when the czar was overthrown by a democratic revolution until Mr. Kerensky was ousted by Lenin’s armed coup d’etat in November — Russia enjoyed completely unlimited freedom of speech, of the press and of political expres sion. The economic potential for a highly developed indus trial society in Russia was also present. Despite communist statements to the contrary, Russia in 1917 was one of the leading industrial nations in the world. There can be no doubt, too, that Mr. Kerensky enjoyed the overwhelming support of the Russian people. His provisional government contained representatives of the up per and middle classes, moderates, liberals, democratic so cialists and spokesmen for the peasantry. But the provisional government was beset by problems that would have taxed any political leader. The peasants, long under czarist domination, were in revolt and had seized the land. Bread riots had broken out in the towns and cities. Various nationalities within the Russian em pire were seceding. Discipline was deteriorating in the army and the war was going badly as the German armies were nearing the Russian capital of Petrograd (now Leningrad). Playing upon these chaotic conditions by making pro mises of further reforms that have never been kept, the communists were able to muster a sizeable minority group and, on November 7, attacked government headquarters. Mr. Kerensky was forced to flee the country, never to re turn. However, he never lost hope that the Soviet regime be replaced, eventually with a democratic government. In 1967, on the 50th anniversary of his ouster, Mr. Kerensky was pleased to detect signs of liberal dissent in his homeland. Although “still distant,’’ he said, the time when the Russian people “can begin to breathe without fear.. .will come to pass.” — Earl M. Mittleman, IPS 12 Panorama ■ The writer is administrator of the Environmental Health Service, Public Health Service, in the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. In this article, he conveys his uneasiness about the effects of environmental changes throughout the world. SAVING HIS ENVIRONMENT - MAN’S BIGGEST TASK Modern man has achieved, through the miracles of science and technology, benefits for human life that our ancestors could not even have dreamed about. We have stamped out most of the contagious diseases. We have achieved an unparalleled abundance of food and consumer goods for an ever-growing population. In the United States, and in most of the developed countries of the world, people live longer, are healthier, better nourished, better housed, and better off by almost every measure of ease, comfort, convenience and security than ever before in the history of man. It seems almost unbelievable, in view of the progress that science and technology have made possible, that serious scientists should actually be asking themselves today: “How long can man survive in the environment he is creating?” Many scientists are grimly pessimistic about the situa tion. One spokesman at a recent meeting of the Associa tion for the Advancement of Science expressed the view that, if present population trends continue, the world will become uninhabitable in 35 to 100 years. Not many people today are willing to fully accept the most pessimistic views of impending “eco-catastrophe.” But few could deny the basic premise that pollution and des poliation of the environment, profligate waste of natural resources, and heedless manipulation of the ecosystem, if June 1970 13 continued, could ultimately destroy the "life-support sys tems of Spaceship Earth.” In fact, it is not necessary to peer ahead into the future — to visualize the destruction of the planet — to feel uneasy about the effects of environmental changes human life is undergoing today. X Those of us who enjoy the full benefits of our so ciety, and would be loath to give up any of them, find that the pollution, the crowding, the noise, the impersonal ity of modern life, the estrangement from the natural world, is not quite the utopia that the technological age seemed to promise, and we feel ourselves borne along helplessly by forces not of our choosing, which we ourselves have set in motion but seem incapable of controlling. In proportion to the earth’s size, the layer of air which surrounds it is no thicker than the skin on an apple. A shallow crust on the earth’s surface provides a limited sup ply of water and other resources on which all life depends and which is constantly recycled and reused in support of the life process. Yet man has used these resources as though he could heedlessly exploit, contaminate, and alter the world about him without endangering the stability and harmony of the system of which he is a part. In recent history, human population has soared. Ad vances in science and technology have given man a new and awesome power to alter — or even destroy — his en vironment. His skill and ingenuity in manipulating, the environment have produced tremendous benefits to human life. But, more and more, these benefits have been ac companied by frightening, and sometimes irreversible, changes in the ecological system of which he is an integral part. We have wasted precious natural resources, and have devastated much of the earth’s natural bounty. Our waste products have grossly polluted the land, air and water. 14 Panorama In the United States, as in many other nations, streams and lakes are dying before their time. Birds, fish and other wildlife are threatened with extinction. Human life is already affected by the stress of an urbanized industrial environment and by the barrage of microbiological, chemi cal and physiological insults which man has injected into his environment. The survival of future generations is threatened by the seemingly endless buildup of pollutants. We have built an industrial system that has given us an affluence never before seen in the world — and that pollutes the very air and water that give us life. We have landed men on the moon and have not yet figured out what to do with the growing mountains of refuse that litter our countryside. But America is rapidly awakening to the environmental dilemna. In the last few years, landmark legislation has been passed by the Congress to control air and water pollution, radiological hazards, and hazards connected with foods and drugs. Other measures have been aimed at restoring the urban environment, conserving agricultural and forest lands, or preserving the natural areas that are so import ant to the mind and spirit of man. There is no question that these various national programs are helping to slow the progress of environmental degradation. % On January 1, 1970, President Nixon signed into law a bill establishing a national policy to “maintain conditions under which man and nature can exist in productive har mony.’’ Mr. Nixon said “the 1970’s absolutely must be the years when America pays its debt to the past by reclaim ing the purity of its air, its waters, and our living environ ment. It is literally now or never.” In a recent special message to Congress, President Nixon outlined a 37-point program, including 23 major legislative proposals and other actions that might be taken to deal specifically with water and air pollution control, solid waste management, parklands and public recreation. June 1970 15 The saving of our environment will unquestionably become a major challenge of the decade we are now enter ing. The people cannot — and surely w’ould ijot want to — return the earth to its condition on the seventh day of creation. But we can avert environmental catastrophe. And we can, if we use our tremendous scientific and technological skills wisely and well, create the kind of world in which human life will be enriched as never before. — Charles C. Johnson, Jr., in Views Behind the News Vol. I No. 19 ■ Of recent earthquakes. RESULT OF H-TEST? Turkey’s recent earthquake disaster must add fuel to the debate among American scientists about the danger of earthquakes resulting from an underground nuclear test. A test is to be held in the Aleutian Islands shortly, in which the US Atomic Energy Authority will explode a device of between two and three megatons — believed to be the largest ever exploded underground. The test is said to be necessary to the development of the Safeguard anti-missile system, which uses nuclear warheads to inter cept incoming enemy rockets. The chosen site is at a place called Amchitka. A pilot explosion, of only one megaton, was made last autumn at the bottom of a 4,000-foot deep shaft five feet in dia meter. Two other shafts have been bored for 2-3 kiloton tests, of which there will eventually be four or five. The com pleted shafts are 6,000 feet deep and have diameters of eight and 10 feet respectively. This is the deepest that a nuclear device has ever been exploded, and because the shafts go far below the water 16 Panorama table of the Aleutian Islands, there are fears that the test will contaminate water supplies. But the greatest anxiety of critics of the Aleutians pro ject, who are. said to include some of President Nixon’s own advisers, is that the test may trigger off a natural earthquake, which in turn could cause a tidal wave known in the Pacific as a tsunami. The creation of tsunamis makes Aleutian earthquakes greatly feared in the Pacific area. They occur when an earthquake causes the bottom of the ocean to rise or fall. Most tsunamis are about two foot high, but major earthquakes can create a much higher wall of water. Be cause of the shape of the ocean bed off Alaska, tsunamis can reach of 500 miles per hour and travel for thousands of miles. In 1946, 1952, 1957 and 1962 giant tsunamis caused death and destruction in Hawaii, the Japanese is lands and the Pacific coast of North America. The Atomic Energy Authority says it is confident of the safety of the Aleutian test on the basis of its expe rience with underground tests in the Nevada desert. None has produced a major earthquake. But seismo logists say the geological structure of the Aleutians is very different from that of Nevada, and that Amchitka may stand directly above the so-called Aleutian Thrust Fault — a long discontinuity 25 miles beneath the earth’s surface whose exact location has never been fixed. The Thrust Fault causes dozens of small earthquakes each year. It has also been responsible for several major earthquakes in the Alaska area. Prominent among those who fear that the H-test will cause a similar occurrence are two University of California physics professors — Nina Byers and Marvin Chester. Their campaign to call a halt to the tests may receive a boost when the effects of underground tests come up for exami nation by the Muskie congressional subcommittee on Air and Water pollution later this year. — By the Observer June 1970 17 ■ Guiding the guide to pre-schoolers. SHOULD WE TEACH ABC TO FIVE-YEAR-OLDS? Q. Should I teach my 5-year old the ABCs, to write his name, and to count to 100 to prepare him for Grae I? A. Only if your child is ready. Otherwise, don’t! Teaching these skills, if a child is not ready, could prove to be frustrating for both of you. You might end up screaming and spanking him and he ends up hating to go to school or to learn anything. You cannot hope to speed up his mental growth by drilling him for long hours. A young child has limited concentration span. He might be able to absorb some but it will be purely me chanical and will have very little meaning for him. It might even interfere with a good beginning in reading and number skills. There are many other things besides the 3 Rs that you can teach your 5-year old. Among them are: Listening to stories. Singing songs. Reciting verses and rhymes. Listening to records and music. Playing games. Putting toys away. Sharing with other children. Waiting for his turn. Pronouncing words correctly. Using words in complete sentences. Following directions. Recognizing colors. Discriminating sizes, weights, shapes, quantities of ob jects. Drawing and coloring pictures. 18 Panorama Experimenting with paints, play dough or clay, water, sand. Once your child is ready, these skills can be learned as follows: Writing his name — one week. Recognizing the alphabet — two weeks. Learning to read—four weeks. Counting by rote to 100 —two to three weeks. The average age for learning these skills is 5-6 years. Q. How can I help my 5-year old learn to read? Should I get one of the advertised reading kits? A. Unless you are an experienced teacher for begin ning reading, it is better to let your child learn to read in school. There is no hard and fast rule as to how and when to teach a child to read because individuals differ in their readiness and methods are as varied as there are teachers who use them. Some children learn the skill at 4, while others do not learn it even at 9! Right now, instead of considering teaching reading, yourself, do these activities with your child: 1. Read stories aloud to him. This stimulates his desire to read. It also gives him pleasant companionship with you. 2. Take him to places of interest — the zoo, the air port, museums, parks, playgrounds, exhibits, parades, etc. Seeing different things enriches his vocabulary and widens his interests. 3. Don’t force him to sit down for long sessions. 4. Keep him cheerful and relaxed. Build his self confidence. Allow him to experiment and try out dif ferent ways of playing outdoors and indoors. Reading requires not only mental but also physical and emotional maturity. It is preferable to wait before initiating reading than to thrust it before the child is ready. The problems that will result from the pressures could mar the child’s per sonality and extend throughout his adult life. — From The Manila Chronicle, June 29, 1970 June 1970 19 ■ A critique about the world body. WORLD NOT READY FOR U.N. The twenty-fifth anniversary of the United Nations falls on a particularly unprOpitious moment of history. For ironically enough, the' founding of the world organiza tion is being celebrated in the midst of world crises which seem to put its shortcomings in high relief. No solutions are in sight for the Middle East war or for the Vietnam conflict, and the prospects that the disarmament negotiations will progress are dim indeed. These are continuing problems of course, but the point is that in none of these explosive situations is the United Nations involved. This amounts to an indirect admission that the world organization, in the key area of maintaining world peace, can no longer play a central role. The fact is it was founded on a note of high idealism, namely, the belief that the five big Powers would cooperate in policing the peace after the second World War. The Cold War destroyed such hopes and the United Nations has ih con sequence been limping along since then. Where the two superpowers see eye-to-eye on specific problems, or where they gracefully underplay interests not vital to each, only then has the United Nations been able to act decisively. The Suez crisis of 1956 is an excellent example, and so is the Congo conflict which for a time threatened to involve the entire African continent. Such limitations effectively cripple the United Nations in its peace-making role. TVfany view the very limitations as a challenge, and this is in fact responsible for the evolu tion of procedures, such as they are, which the world or ganization has put to admirable use. The utilization of UN forces to police a cease-fire, coupled with traditional 20 Panorama diplomacy, has bailed out the peace, most notably in the Suez crisis. It remains that the United Nations conducts its ac tivities on behalf of peace on the sufferance of the Super powers. The key to restoring the organization to the status envisioned at San Francisco twenty-five years ago is total disarmament, following which the UN can exercise its pro per function as keeper of the peace. Unhappily, disarmament is a Utopian dream. The best that can be hoped for under present circumstances are preventive measures — the effectivity of which are in doubt — such as arms control and arms limitation. It has been proposed that a revision of the organ ization’s Charter would enable it to cope with the prob lems of twentieth century peace. Perhaps it will, in areas not directly concerned with military conflict. Otherwise, a revision of the Charter without the all-important disarma ment measures can have only a peripheral relevance to world peace. In the last analysis, what is wrong with the UN is that the world is not completely ready for it. For it is one of the truly radical ideas of the twentieth century, equivalent almost to the idea of building a City of God under human auspices. But if the future beckons, so does the past enslave us. With the advent of the Cold War, the Powers re verted to the traditional game of Power, each viewing the world, not in whole, but in terms of excessively nar row interests. As long as this narrow view persists, the United Na tions will remain an organization of promise rather than of completed achievement. And so long will man hang over the abyss, perpetually threatened by disaster. — The Manila Chronicle, June 29, 1970 June 1970 21 MEN, HOW DO YOU RATE AS HUSBANDS? Women are constantly undergoing self-examination as wives and mothers to see if they rate Good, Fair or Ex cellent in their various roles in life. I believe that men have been sorely neglected when it comes to printed advice on how to go on trial and always get a verdict of guilty. Therefore, the following quiz for men who should be asking themselves, “Am I a handy-dandy hus band or a louse around the house?” 1 — When your wife asked, “Look Luis, are we go ing through another rainy season with that leak on the roof?” did you answer: (a) No, honey. I’ll cancel my golf game and patch up the hole now! (b) Why can’t you save on the grocery money and get someone to do it? 2 — If your wife suggested you put up a shelf over the stove, did you say: (a) Darling, you do have good ideasl It would be handy as well as decorative! (b) If you’d clean out the cupboards, you wouldn’t need any more space! 3 — If your wife sits beside you as you watch basket ball on television, do you say: (a) Pretend we’re at the stadium where it’s cold — come on, honey, cuddle up! (b) Hey, Marge, go get me a beer, will ya? 4 — She asks if you would mind going to a movie. Do you say: (a) Let’s make it the late show so I can take you to dinner at that little place you like so much! 22 Panorama (b) Spend three bucks EACH when I need a new golf set? 5 — When your wife dons a swishy nightgown and slithers into the living room, do you say: (a) Sweetheart, you’re the reason 1’11 never grow old! (b) For Pete’s sake, sit down! Can’t you see I’m trying to read the news? 6 — The last time you went to a party, did you: (a) Put your arm around her and whisper, "I've been looking at the other girls and when was the last time I told you I’m one lucky guy?” (b) Call to her across the buffet table, “What happened to your diet?” 7 — You come home from work just as she finished cutting the grass. Did you ask: (a) Why did you do that? Don’t you know a sweet little thing like you can’t manage that heavy mower! (b) The hedge along the driveway looks lousy — how come you didn’t trim it? 8 — Dinner is served under the mango tree instead of at the dining room table. Do you say to the children: (a) Mother is always thinking up fun things, isn’t she? Bet your friends wish they lived here! (b) I’ll tell you kids, your mother will NEVER grow up. Where’s the fly swatter? 9 — You brought home flowers: (a) Yesterday, for no reason at all. (b) Last Sunday, on your wedding anniversary. (c) In June, when Sampaguita garlands were plentiful and inexpensive. (d) Oh. Didn’t even get her a dozen of cheap daisies last Easter, did you? June 1970 23 COMPORATIVE FEATURES . . . (Cont. from Page 1) that our historical, demographic, and cultural background existing at present and in the past has some distinctive characteristics of their own. To begin with, let us bear in mind that observation and experience have so far shown a more or less common or ruling practice, namely: Liberal democracy gives great importance to governmental structure. In other words, structure is of primary importance. The political process, such as parties, group organizations, and elections, so im portant in communist states, are only junior appendages or partners in the democratic State. Liberal democracy is chiefly concerned with power; and this too is of first interest to political scientists. Power goes with the organ ization of the government. Where and how it should be placed, what its nature should be, and when and how much it should be exercised are matters to be provided for in the structure and organization of government. CORRECTION This is to correct the numbering of the years of publication of PANORAMA, which, until its May 1970 issue, had been based erroneously on the post-war date of entry as a second-class matter at the Manila Post-Office. Panorama was first pub lished in 1936, and its publication was suspended for some six years only (during the Japanese oc cupation and early post-liberation days). Hence, with this issue, its Volume Number is hereby cor rected, to be Vol. XXVII, instead of Vol. XXII.— (abp). 24 Panorama INFORMATION 'Organized Slums' An Australian home build er has proposed establish ment of “organized slums” as a solution to the squat ters’ problem in the Philip pines. Angus W. Moir, general manager of the New South Wales Permanent Building Society, who studied the housing problem in this country under the auspices of the United Nations Develop ment Program, made the pro posal in a report to the Cen tral Bank. Moir undertook the study from December 1968 to Jan uary. 1969, also in coopera tion with the C.B department of savings and loan associa tions. 34 Danish Firms eye RP Cottage Industries Thirty-four Danish compa nies are interested in hand ling Philippine cottage in dustry products in Denmark. These business firms have been sounded out by the Fi lipino foreign trade promo tion representative in Copen hagen, Fortunato J. Gerardo. He reported that seven of the 34 Danish firms are mainly buying organizations while the rest are wholesalers and importers. Student Volunteers Complete Training Some 80 student-volunteers from seven provinces had ended their one-week orient ation and training recently on growing vegetables con ducted in six experiment sta tions and offices of the bureau of plant industry. Selected by the National Food and Agriculture Coun cil and the BPI with the co operation of the Department of Education last semester, the students will implement the vegetable program for the cultural minorities of the government. After the training, the stu dents will be fielded for three weeks in several bar rios in seven provinces to teach some 2,500 families belonging to the cultural June 1970 25 minority oq the aspects of growing vegetables scientifi cally. They will be aided by some 22 BPI vegetable technicians during their stay in the barrios. NASAC Projects In a memorandum that was aimed to refresh DBP Branch Managers about the Bank’s new thrusts in social development in the provinces as enunciated by Chairman Leonides S. Virata in the re cent Branch Managers’ Con ference, Governor Julio V. Macuja asked the officials to report to the Head Office their participation in socio cultural projects in their respective localities. Imported Form Products An import substitution policy will significantly af fect the price and quality of agricultural products pro tected by such measure, ac cording to Eliseo C. Carandang, director, bureau of plant industry. Commenting on a bill pre pared last year which seeks to ban the importation of most agricultural products and other items as a means to encourage the production of these products locally, Carandang said this will result in an instant increase in prices of commodities pro tected by the ban and poor quality of products due to the absence of foreign com petition. The bill will be considered this year by Congress. Carandang however stress ed that these immediate re sults of the bill are only transitional. Sukarno is Dead Asians — from pedestrians to Prime Ministers — had good words for Sukarno, Sun day, when the flamboyant leader, who rallied Indone sians during a dark era and later brought them to the brink of communism, passed away. “I think he was a great leader,” said Edwin W. Mar tin, consul-general of the American consulate in Hong kong. He said “history will give the verdict” on what Sukarno had done for Indo nesia. In New Delhi, Prime Mi nister Indira Gandhi said the Afro-Asian world had been deprived of “its most senior 26 Panorama and widely known leader. Sukarno’s struggle against co lonialism and imperialism and for freedom of Indone sia is part of history,” Mrs. Gandhi said. Dr. Ismail Bin Abdul Rahman, home affairs minis ter of Malaysia with whom Sukarno’s Indonesia waged a potentially explosive military confrontation in 1963-65, said: ‘‘It was a great tribute to Sukarno to have united the people of so many different islands and so many different languages into one nation with one language. Malaysia’s Deputy Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak sent his ‘‘deepest sympathy” to the bereaved family of the man whom he bitterly attacked in speeches for sending Indonesian guerrillas on forays into Malaysia. The New Minimum Wage The new minimum wage law, which increases the ba sic minimum wage from P6 to P8 for industrial and gov ernment workers, and from P3.50 to P4.75 for agricul tural workers, automatically took effect, insofar as workers in the private sector wer« concerned, the other day af ter the President signed the measure. It is understood its effectivity for government employes and workers will start July 1. Education Bill The House of Representa tives has passed during its current special session H. B. No. 2364, which seeks to re gulate the increase of tuition and other school fees. The bill was submitted by Rep. Aguedo Agbayani, and endorsed by Education Sec retary O. D. Corpuz and Pri vate Schools Director Nar ciso Albarracin. It was for mulated on the basis of the recent hearings of the House committee on education. Salient provisions of the bill are: 1) The secretary of edu cation will have power to regulate tuition and other school fees. 2) Limitation of the net income or annual surplus de rived from school operations to only 12%» of the assets or net worth of the school. 3) Authority for the de partment of education to inspect the books of accounts June 1970 27 of schools and colleges for the purpose of assessing earnings. 4) Establishment of a trust fund, derived from fees other than tuition, to be spent for particular pur poses improving school serv ices. 5) Penalizing violations of the Act by revoking the school’s authority to operate (at the discretion of the sec retary of education), and im posing a fine of P2.000 or imprisonment of six months, or both on violators. The Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities, however, proposed that the limit proposed on net in come be based on dividends and not on the net worth of the school. Rules on Determination of Death The “brain-waves and ce rebral death” committee of the Japan Encephalographical Society has drawn up its final rules for the determi nation of death. The committee found it necessary to determine death anew in view of the nu merous heart transplant ope rations already performed, in which there had always been the vital question as to ex actly when a donor can be really pronounced dead and his heart can be taken out for grafting. The matter has become a pressing one in the case of Dr. Juco Wada, professor at Sapporo Medical College, who performed Japan’s first heart transplant operation. Following the death of the patient, experts have been called in to testify as to whether he was really justi fied in performing the ope ration and whether he had not misjudged the moment at which he pronounced the would be donor dead. The rules adopted by the committee were: —Loss of consciousness. —Light reflexes, corneal reflex, throat and other re flexes are gone. —Tension goes out of bone muscles. —Pupils remain widened. —Involuntary breathing stops. —Blood pressure suddenly goes down (showing that the brain stem functions have ceased). 28 Panorama —Brain-waves wholly gone and do not return for more than 12 hours. The committee said if all these criteria are rigidly ap plied, organ transplants, ex cept a single kidney trans plant, would become impos sible. Drive against Drugs Greater emphasis on edu cation and international “co operative vigilance” among countries could help solve the problems of drugs, ac cording to a United Nations expert. Dr. Olav Braenden leader of a four-man U.N. narco tics team, said the immediate fear was that the illicit use of drugs would continue its spread throughout the world unless international checks were introduced. Japan Renews Treaty With US Japan’s Conservative gov ernment has ignored nation wide leftist demonstrations and approved automatic re newal of the military secur ity treaty with the United States. Prime Minister Eisaku Sa to met with his Cabinet on the eve of the 10th anniver sary of the pact, which had sparked massive demonstra tions leading to cancellation of a scheduled visit by then US President Dwight D. Eisenhower when it was be ing negotiated in 1960. The treaty, which allows the US to maintain air and naval strike forces in Japan for the defense of North east Asia, was binding on both nations for the first de cade but from Tuesday either country can give oneyear notice of withdrawal. Sato has staked his poli tical career on friendship with America. Socialists, communists, housewives, buddhists and students were among the 145,600 the national police headquarters said took part in 236 rallies against the treaty Sunday. The US now keeps 39,200 air force, navy, army and marine personnel in Japan backed up by the nuclear armed Seventh Fleet and Fifth Air Force patrolling the skies and seas off Soviet Siberia and Communist China. June 1970 29 OPINIONS THE FIRST LADY’S TRIP TO EXPO 70 It’s too early to assess the success of Mrs. Imelda R. Marcos’ controversial trip to Japan and more particularly to the Expo '70 where she and her three children presided over the Philippine Day celebration in Osaka City last Monday. She left on a mission of drawing tourists visiting the Expo in Osaka City to make trips to the Philippines and boost our tourist industry. It would take some time before a fair assessment can be made as to whether Mrs. Marcos succeeded in her avowed mission of a tourist broker. For it turned out that the 76 suitcases which came from Japan ahead of the First Lady were not from tourists but were the advance luggage of some of our more privileged Filipino junketeers. Malacanang used the word “successful” in describing Mrs. Marcos’ trip, while President Marcos was more sub tle in his comment to newsmen saying that nobody else “could have done as well” indicating his satisfaction with the First Lady’s performance. Mrs. Marcos, on the other hand, said her trip to the Expo and to other parts of Japan drew a windfall of goodwill. It was to be expected that whenever the President or the First Lady visits a foreign country, either or both could generate a good amount of goodwill. President and Mrs. Marcos did spawn a reservoir of goodwill when they both made a state visit to Japan in 1966. They also struck it rich in Malaysia which they visited in 1967 — a few months before we broke diplomatic relations and almost went into war with the Malaysians over the Sabah terri torial dispute. Mrs. Marcos’ trip was controversial. While Malaca nang was said to have been swamped with telegrams con30 Panorama gratulating the President and the First Lady (or the latter’s Expo visit, four ladies interviewed by a TV announcer on the day Mrs. Marcos arrived, were unanimous in their dissent. All -of them sorrowfully deplored the "heavy drain’’ in the country’s foreign reserves. Prices in Japan are not matinee rates. In fact, Japan is one of the most expensive countries in Asia. It would be interesting to know how much the Phil ippine government was billed for the Expo safari includ ing those who swelled the ranks of the unofficial entourage. Those who did not use dollars from the Central Bank mus.t have cupped from the reparation funds. That was, the reason Reparations Commission Chairman Gregorio Abad, who had long been named and confirmed by the Com mission on Appointments as ambassador in 1967 but is still with the Repacom, was in Japan. He had to help pick up the tabs. From the point of view of Japanese tourism, the Phil ippine Day was a whopping success. — Francisco de Leon, in Manila Chronicle, 29 June 1970 IS ADMINISTRATION DIVIDING PEASANTRY? President Marcos said that he would not disband the Barrio Self-Defense Units. He should not — not because these units, patterned after the Vietnam-type hamlet forces, are doing the government drive against the Huks any good or because their existence is good for the peasantry in Central Luzon. To disband the BSDU now would not only be inhuman to the barrio farmers who have taken up arms against the Huks but it would cause blood baths in that region. The trouble is that the policy of the administration in giving arms to untrained and ill-disciplined barrio far June 1970 31 mers has actually divided the peasantry of Central Luzon into two, right down the middle. Those who bear arms and call themselves BSDUs are for the government, while those who are not would necessarily be against the PC and the military. It is bad enough that the creation of the BSDUs has revealed the helplessness of the military in the anti-Huk campaign so much so that the barrio farmers must now be armed. It’s worse when the admi nistration has to divide the peasantry. Senator Benigno S. Aquino Jr. brought up a very in teresting point in connection with the arming of the BSDUs to protect the peasants from the Huks during the TV 13 MOPC "Press Forum” last Saturday night. According to the Tarlac senator, he considers it odd for the defense department that while it is very strict in the grant of licenses for legitimate holders of firearms since the PC normally scrutinizes the individual’s background, earning capacity and education, the army just goes on arming bar rio farmers. An applicant for a firearms license and per mit to possess even goes through a psychological test. To my mind, it is inconsistent for the administration to be as strict in the grant of firearms licenses to legitimate individuals, while it floods Central Luzon with heavypowered firearms in the hands of barrio farmers who can not be held responsible for their acts. The existence of loose firearms in the possession of private armies and poli tical warlords has wrought havoc on the countryside. This is further aggravated by the escalation of heavy-powered firearms in Central Luzon. — Emil Jurado, Philippines Herald THE ORIENTAL AND THE OCCIDENTAL There is a basic difference in the psychological make up of the Oriental and the Occidental. If a Westerner 32 Panorama has a problem, he will act. The results may be disastrous — as in Vietnam — but he will act. The Oriental will think about it and think about it and think about it and probably never take any action at all. What do we do about our problems? We study them. The Department of Education, for example, is full of surveys and studies. The only problem is that the recommendations are never impleemnted. A new administration steps into the picture and a new survey is ordered. Take the problem in Ilocos Sur. The Crisologos claim that it was Chavit’s men who put two. barrios to the torch. Singson claims that they were Crisologo men. The im portant thing is that neither faction denies that two bar rios were put to the torch by a private army. The gov ernment, therefore, should not waste its time checking to see if they are Crisologo or Singson men. Just apprehend the culprits — whether they are Crisologo men or Singson boys — and prosecute them in court. But we are afraid that this is exactly what is not going to happen. Under our malakas and mahina system, the important thing is whose bata they were. Justice in the Philippines is rationed. For those in the in-group, why, anythng goes. For those in the out-group, the law. In short, the law is something used to club the outside group into subservience. A blindfolded woman has traditionally been a symbol of justice. She is represented blind precisely so that she may not see into the personal circumstances of those who seek justice and thus be able to dispense it more equitably. She also holds a scale in order that everything be weighed properly. The way things are, the traditional scale may as well be replaced with an embudo, because justice here is like a funnel. There is a wide mouth at one end for the in-group and a small hole at the other for the out group. To us, it matters little, if any, which faction was res ponsible for the Ilocos atrocity. The important thing is that the guilty be apprehended and punished. The mere fact that both factions are disowning the atrocity clearly June 1970 33 shows that both know that it is something to be ashamed of and not something to be proud of. The thing is that it happened. It is not to the credit of the Crisologos that such things occur in their province — whether they or their enemies were responsible. According to early reports, the PC command in Ilocos Sur seemed quite indifferent to the shocking incident and reported the case to Manila as if it was just an ordinary incident. One thing is cer tain — such incidents will definitely undermine the people’s faith in the government. Let us not be pretentious about sending civic troops to Vietnam, Laos, or Cambodia. Let us clean our own mess. If the administration cannot even make Ilocano barrios safe from goons, how can we be so hypocritical as to even talk about sending any kind of aid to Cambodia? Some reliable people have also informed us that the Ilocos incident is nothing compared to what is going on in Tarlac and Pampanga. Will the administration act on the Ilocos atrocity? Or will it conduct investigations on whether it was political vendetta, just plain banditry, or personal grudge? Those are details. The important thing is to see that justice is done. When will there be peace in Ilocos? And when we say peace, we don’t mean merely the absence of war and violence, but the presence of justice and order. There will be another great study on the Ilocos situa tion. But will the administration act to establish peace and order in Ilocos Sur? — Alejandro R. Roces, in The Manila Chronicle, 30 May ’70 SUKARNO The death of former President Sukarno of Indonesia the other day removed from the Southeast Asian scene one of its most dramatic and effective fighters in the long struggle against colonialism and imperialism. He 34 Panorama belongs in the company of Nehru and of Ho Chi Minh, one of a handful of Asian nationalists who decisively changed the character of Asia after the second World War. An engineer by trade, he was first and last a de dicated revolutionary. His origins are fairly obscure but it is known that he studied in Holland, the country which ruled old Java, and there began the protracted conspira torial work which was to bear fruit, decades later, in the independence of his country. By the second World War, he had sufficiently grown in prestige in his own country to be recognized as primus inter pares among a group of Indonesian leaders similarly inspired by thoughts of independence from the ruling Dutch. Sukarno declared his country’s independence from the Dutch in 1945, only to plunge his country into one of the great anti-colonial wars of Asia. Four years later, The Hague conference confirmed Indonesia’s in dependence. Sukarno became the new country’s leader — or as he, put it, its voice — and he was to remain the unchallenged idol of his people until his downfall in 1967. Like most leaders whose training was in revolution, Sukarno was an obsessed man. He sought to unite the vast, geographically disparate country, without a historical tradition of unity, into one people. It can be said that in this he largely succeeded at the price of two near-civil wars from which he emerged victorious. A second obsession was the Indonesian “image” which he sought to project on the world stage. On the strength of a vivid personality, he was generally accepted as a leader of international stature, most effective in his role as a rallying point of opinion in the struggle to eliminate the last vestiges of colonialism. At the same time, the Indonesian leader was a power ful voice in the councils of the non-aligned nations, in which he was regarded as a senior statesman. June 1970 35 From the beginning, Sukarno was a controversial figure. Part demagogue, part opportunist, part mixed-up mystic, he was in many ways an unpredictable leader. But there never was any question that he was the father of his country or, that he put his country firmly on the map of the world. In the end, he fell from power. It was not, as com monly believed, Sukarno (or his institutionalized self) who brought ruin upon himself. It was time. His life long training was as a revolutionary, and he found him self ill-equipped, once Indonesian independence had been secured, to face the other revolution — that of building the base for the internal growth of his country. But in death, Sukarno remains a symbol. Though repudiated in his declining years by his own people, he is not likely to be forgotten. Indonesia, which he created, is his living memorial. BATTLE CRY OF DEMONSTRATORS I have noted that in the recent series of demonstra tions the demonstrators who were made up originally of college and university students and professors have been joined by other youth organizations, an army of unemployed laborers, farmers, and labor organizations. The battle cry of these demonstrators is “Down with American Imperialism; Down with Feudalism, Fascism and Capitalism.” I am intrigued by the fact that these demonstrators have omitted another “ism” which is Communism. Could it be possible that the students, the professors, the laborers and the farmers are not against Communism? Are we to believe that the leadership of these activists movement have in fact been infiltrated by the Communists? What is the answer to these questions? I submit that this is food for very serious thought. — Jose Alindogan 36 Panorama RP PRESIDENCY AND THE WRIT The President of the Philippines is more powerful than the President of the United States or the US Con gress with regard to the suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus. The President of the Philippines can suspend the writ — his American counterpart cannot. The power to suspend the writ in the United States be longs to Congress, not to the President. But the suspending power of the US Congress is limited compared to that of the Philippine President. There are only two grounds on which the US Congress can suspend the writ, there are four for the President of the Philip pines. The US Congress can suspend the writ only “when in cases of (1) rebellion or (2) invasion the public safety may require it.” On the other hand, the President of the Philippines can suspend the writ “in case of (1) invasion, (2) insurrection, or (3) rebellion, or (4) imminent danger thereof.” The US Congress cannot suspend the writ on the basis of a mere insurrection which, according to legal authorities, is less grave than a rebellion, but the President of the Phil ippines can. Furthermore, the Philippine President can suspend the writ on the mere imminence of an invasion, insurrection, or rebellion. This means that there need not be an actual invasion, insurrection or rebellion for the President of the Philippines to have a reason to suspend the writ. If, according to his judgment, any of such events is merely imminent, he can exercise his suspending power. The US Congress has very rarely used its suspend ing power. In 1863 it authorized President Lincoln to suspend the writ. But earlier, shortly after the turn of the century, Congress had rejected a request of President Jefferson to suspend it during the alleged conspiracy of former Vice President Aaron Burr. During the constitutional convention in 1934-35, Dele gate Salvador Araneta proposed that the power to sus pend the writ be vested in the legislative body when it June 1970 37 is in session, and with the Presdent with the consent of the majority of the Supreme Court when the legislature is not in session. The proposal was not approved. It is a curious fact that the Philippine Constitution, said to have been patterned after that of the United States, was made dissimilar to its model in regard to the power to suspend the writ. The framers of the Consti tution also deliberately ignored the practice in Britain, where the privilege of the writ originated. There the power to suspend the writ belongs solely to parliament, not to the Crown nor to the prime minister. The British and American reason is that it is safer to entrust such a delicate power to the collective judgment of a whole legis lative body than to the judgment of only one man. When the constitutional convention meets in 1971, it may be wise and even necessary to reconsider the matter. — Gersr V. Mallillin SOME PRIVATE SCHOOLS Private education is not only a business proposition in certain instances in the Philippines. It is also big business to some. In the list of top Philippine corporations released by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the University of the East and Far Eastern University ranked No. 170 and No. 171 in point of “revenues.” The two downtown mills “outsold” several textile, machinery and other in dustrials. U.E. had an income of P17.595.291, a net profit after taxes of P5,476,024, stockholders’ equity of Pl 8,775,059 and surplus of P5,645,309. F.E.U. made about as much “sales” as its downtown neighbor, Pl 7.4 million, and earned considerably less, Pl ,075,416. But it had a hand some surplus of P57.734.885, making it one of the most solvent corporations in the entire country. 38 Panorama Now what happened to those suggestions about turn ing universities into foundations? THE SITUATION TODAY In the kind of society that we are living in today, there are four big weaknesses or contradictions or conflicts. There are the “haves” and the “have-nots” — that is, the very small number of rich and the vast multitudes of the poor. A second conflict is that between the colonials and the imperialists. Then you have the power struggle be tween the imperialists themselves — the Eastern and West ern Imperialists. And, of course, the ongoing cold war between the capitalistic and communistic countries. Not all are aware — especially the young — whose memories do not extend back to and before World War II — that the gradual process has been, and still is, to exploit these four weaknesses. Not to correct them or elimi nate them but to use them to bring about complete chaos and destruction. Strange to say, the procedure used to accomplish this whole process has been laid out long ago and widely published. The astounding thing is that people are just be ginning to wake up to the fact that the plans are being implemented today. — Paul Sheehan, in The Philippines Herald, June 26, 1970 HITTING THE PRESS It is tragic to note that in a democratic society as ours it no longer appears acceptable to allow the wheels of justice to take its course. June 1970 That the Crisologos have been unanimously convicted and condemned by the press is a glaring example of thtr ruthlessness and oppressive power of the press itself. This arbitrary “trial by publicity” does violence to the constitu tional right of a citizen to be presumed innocent until proven otherwise by due process of law. True, the Bantay pillage is in itself a heinous act. This is incontrovertible. And we reserve unqualified con demnation for its perpetrators. Nevertheless, it remains unjustifiable for the press to deliberately slant its stories if only to elicit from the pub lic a negative sentiment. By the cast and mold of its own work — its sloppy and often grossly inaccurate report ing — the press itself has done an excellent job of con demning itself. So biased has been the reporting on the Bantay arson that the public is ready to march Vincent Crisologo to the gallows. One Juanita K. de Castro-Buhay in a letter to the editor was even moved to unfoundedly declate judg ment upon the Crisologos to the point of suggesting “that the entire Crisologo family pull out their stakes in the province and leave it for good for some other place...” Whither now justice in our glorious democracy? — Rosalia Albalos ABUSE OF POWER The greater the powers, the more dangerous the abuse. — Edmund Burke 40 Panorama Panorama Reading Association PANORAMA invites the educated public to join its Association of Readers. PANORAMA READING ASSOCIATION is dedicated to men and women who appreciate the variety and quality of its articles as sources of liberal ideas. PANORAMA READING ASSOCIATION includes stu dents, businessmen, professionals, proprietors, employers, and employees. It is also open to clubs, schools, and other ac credited organizations. PANORAMA has been in existence for over Thirty Years. PANORAMA provides excellent material for classes in history, government, economics, political and social studies, lite rature, and science. It may be adopted for secondary and college use. PANORAMA is not a fly-by-night publication. It was bom in March, 1936. COMMUNITY PUBLISHERS, INC. Inverness, (M. Carreon) St., Sta. Ana, Manila, Philippines Contents Comparative Features of Four Liberal Democracies .... ARTICLES The Educated Individual in the Present Crisis .... Japan's Nobel Prise Winner ............................................. Kerensky and the Course of History .......................... Saving His Environment — Man's Biggest Task . . . Result of H-Test? ................................................................. Should We Teach ABC to Five-Year-Olds? ............ , World Not Ready for U. N....................... .......................... Men, How Do You Rate os Husbands? INFORMATION OPINIONS The First Lady's Trip to Expo '70 ............................. Is Administration Dividing Peasantry? The Oriental and the Occidental .......................... Sukarno .......................................................................... Battle Cry of Demonstrators ....................................... RP Presidency and the Writ Some Private Schools The Situation Today .......................................................... Hitting the Press THE COVER — Shown on Front Cover is the Adm>n: Building of Foundation University of Dumaguete, Filipino University in Negros Oriental.