Partially Free.
Posted by Carmel Puertollano on Jan 18, '08 7:06 AM for everyone

As the political situation has worsened and the moral ascendancy of our "leaders" has become questionable, the country was relegated to "partially free".

Why wouldn't it be?

The government has freed a criminal who hasn't served his time, the sheer volume of corruption charges has inflated, the number of political killings has risen, and what course of action does the government take? They shrug it all off and act as if nothing is happening. They only prefer to look at the good side of things but that doesn't change the fact that people are suffering and that their rights are being violated. They only care about themselves and their reputation but they do not realize that their followers aren't at all content. If they ever try to act as if they care, it doesn't really manifest (or I'm just apathetic). In extreme cases, it's as if they drugged people and make them blindly follow. With a government such as ours, they only care for what they can reap from their relationship with the greater powers, like the US.
My litelec professor told me yesterday that I should be in the government because I'm more of a dove rather than a hawk. A statement I found, well, hard to take in. I know for one that I'm not the most diplomatic person in the world, nor have I ever attempted to do so. There are just things that I find unacceptable like Catholics (like my family), who discriminate against other religions. I guess that's why I never was firm with my beliefs -- I find my background leaning towards unhealthy fundamentalism which results into various misconceptions about religions that breed chaos (and that is why the Philippines is so damn f-ed up). What I'm trying to say is, we have to see things in different perspectives and that we should learn to respect how they are. We can't always expect them to do some things out of the goodness of their hearts all the time, nor can we expect them to believe in what we believe.

People have convictions that they fight for, and that's something we can never change about human nature. We can never have things go our way.

This is a moment in history that Martin Luther King would've been very proud of. This is Martin Luther King's Dream.

For the first time in the history of the United States, an African-American was elected as the commander-in-chief. Barack Obama captured the position with 338 electoral votes against John McCain's 163, as of November 5, 2008, 11:06PM (HK Time). The Dems have also captured majority in the Senate and in the House.

Barack Obama speaks in front of his supporters in Chicago after being declared winner of the highly contested US Elections, citing that "Change has come to America". Read full transcript here.

For the first time, John McCain is not too negative towards his opponent as he concedes. McCain calls for unity with the Obama camp as the nation prepares to welcome its new leader. Full transcript here.

Personally, I feel that this is the first election where America has proved to have deviated from its dark past of having fought civil wars after the eras of slavery and racial discrimination. While there's still so much to work on -- reviving an economy that has fallen so gravely and a war that has been fought without reason in Iraq (and a host of other issues such as health care and energy), I think that Obama's administration can handle these pressures well. Or at least it has to do what it has promised.

This is not just a victory for Americans but of the world too. Change has come. Please do not disappoint us.

McCain finally sells his soul to the devil for this lame attempt at comedy.

My goodness, he's terrible.