Inhumanity

By Alex P. Vidal

“You don’t have to teach people how to be human. You have to teach them how to stop being inhuman.” – Eldridge Cleaver

HISTORY tells us that 100,000 Filipino civilians perished brutally when Japanese forces invaded Manila and fought against American soldiers in what became known as the Battle of Manila in 1945.

It was man’s act of cruelty or inhumanity against a fellowman, or a savagery inflicted by armed foreign invaders against innocent and non-combatant Filipinos.

The month-long firefight completely devastated the city and was the scene of the worst urban fighting between the Japanese Imperial Army and the US troops.

The carnage had been documented in black and white photos and old reels that can now be accessed on YouTube and other social media platforms.

What happened to Filipinos was repeated in Israel on October 7 when Palestinian terrorist group Hamas invaded southern Israel in a coordinated sea, land, and air attack and slaughtered more than 1,000 civilians and soldiers.

Hamas terrorists also violently abducted scores of Israeli soldiers, civilians, including women and children, and used them as human shields against Israel’s equally brutal counteroffensive.

The bloody carnage had been captured by videos and seen by people around the world.

It was a wholesale slaughter of human beings in that part of the world “advertised” on electronic, social, and mass media for all the universe to see.

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It is hard to imagine if the siege in Israel would happen in the Philippines anew, God forbid, now that there has been ongoing tension between Manila and Beijing in a territorial dispute of West Philippine Sea.

After Russia’s illegal and immoral invasion of Ukraine, which is still ongoing with no immediate ceasefire in sight, there is now the worsening war between Israel and Palestine (history will show they have been in conflict since time immemorial) that threatens to erupt in Armageddon.

It appears the latest violence in the holy land will also escalate like the Ukraine-Russia mayhem.

As of this writing, Israel troops have been pounding hard Gaza Strip killing scores of Palestinian civilians, including mothers, grandmothers, grandfathers, and children. A tit for a tat.

If China will invade Taiwan (experts say it is now a question when and nothing more) and the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, and other Southeast Asian countries also bullied by China in the sea bickering are dragged into the war, it might trigger a third world war. God forbid.

Eldridge Cleaver said, “There is no calamity which a great nation can invite which equals that which follows a supine submission to wrong and injustice and the consequent loss of national self-respect and honor, beneath which are shielded and defended a people’s safety and greatness.”

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Can personnel from the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) “take part” or be in cahoots in the irregularities supposedly committed by some officers and members of the cash-strapped Iloilo City Government Employees Multi-Purpose Cooperative (IGEMPC)?

If all IGEMPC members and officers are City Hall employees, it is mind-boggling how nefarious CDA personnel can be involved in the mess.

In a Daily Guardian report on October 9, CDA Undersecretary Joseph Encabo announced that “aside from an investigation into the city hall cooperative, the CDA will also conduct an independent investigation into the possible participation of its personnel in the regional office on the loan mess.”

“The same time will also conduct an independent investigation into the possible participation of our employees that might have collided with some other issues, to be fair, all will be in the context of due process, at the administrative level,” Encabo was quoted as saying in the report.

We thought CDA’s only “involvement” in the IGEMPC hullabaloo was its regional director’s alleged negligent when it “failed” to respond to several requests from the City Hall to a meeting amid the financial issues hounding the IGEMPC which prompted Mayor Geronimo “Jerry” Treñas to declare CDA-6 regional director Nora Patron as persona non grata.

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MORE SEXUAL EDUCATION AND INFORMATION.

—Over the same period, women who read romance novels tend to have twice as many lovers as those who do not. (Readers Digest).

—According to the Museum of Sex, the vibrator was originally used as a medical treatment for female “hysteria” during the 19th century. The vibrator-induced orgasms helped doctors dissipate hysteria’s anxiety-related symptoms.

—Girls who have a close relationship with their father usually also end up with partners who share many of their father’s traits. (Baby and Familie)

—Staturphilia – sexual attraction to statues.

—IT’S BETTER TO HAVE AN ARMALITE-TALKING MOTHER-IN-LAW THAN…: In the earlier times in Cali, Colombia, a woman allegedly may only have sex with her husband, and the first time this happens her mother must be in the room to witness the act. (Cosmopolitan)

Around 200,000 books are being used to train artificial intelligence systems, according to a recent report. Many authors are outraged as some AI companies continue to allegedly copy the content of their novels without receiving permission or providing compensation. (CNN)

Twenty three-year old Kenyan runner Kelvin Kiptum sets new world record and made history at Chicago Marathon on October 8, becoming the first man to complete a full marathon faster than 2:01:00.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two daily newspapers in Iloilo. —Ed)