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FOR PUBLICATION
AHRC-ART-064-2009
November 20, 2009
An Article Series on Human Rights and Culture by the Asian Human Rights Commission
HUMAN RIGHTS & CULTURE - Vol. 2, ISSUE NO. 29
Welcome to Vol. 2, Issue No. 29. In this issue we are pleased that we have another poem from Miriam Wandia Kaloki entitled, Is this it? Next we have a poem which first appeared in our pages a year ago this month: Went to a party Mom. This poem is being circulated by MADD, Mothers against Drunk Drivers. We then continue with our section of Human Rights Quotations. In our Human Rights Defenders section we present an update on the activities of Fr. Roberto Reyes, the Running Priest.
Publications -- We are pleased to announce the release of two publications, the latest issue of Article 2 and Ethics in Action. Details of the two magazines may be found in our publications section.
As always, the AHRC is grateful to all our contributors and we would like to remind our readers that your comments on this issue and contributions for future issues may be sent to ahrc@ahrc.asia.
You may view the previous issues at: http://newsletters.ahrchk.net/hrc/.
******HUMAN RIGHTS & CULTURE******
Is this it?
Miriam Wandia Kaloki
Half a decade
That’s how long I have loved you
Unconditionally and without measure
I call it divine
For I have loved you truly my love
Love and respect
That have given to you
The perfect woman
That’s what your friends say
Then I wonder on my own
Am I really the perfect woman
Am I really the one
Reason for my wonder,
You don’t make me feel that
Not anymore as you used to
A year into our union
My love
What has changed
What has driven you away
Is it anything I have done
Am I loving you enough
What is it my love
Is this it for us?
A love so young
Yet it’s no more
You know my stand
From the very start
That I am a woman of substance
A princess in my world
And a queen to you
But I feel so unappreciated
What changed my love?
Last night
Changes every good memory
Now they do not count at all
I did not know we had come to this
How could you my love
My own dad has never tried that
My skin is filled with marks
Marks that have born scars in my heart
Why my love
It this it for us?
What changed
I will not stop to wonder
But now, you just lost my trust
I cannot come back
Once bitten, the saying goes
This is it my love
Out I go, never coming back.
I loved you
But now, this changes everything
Once my man
Now my enemy
Good bye, is all I can say
For this is it my love
The end of us
The of a divine love
 Miriam Wandia Kaloki (24) is from Kenya and has been interested for quite some time now in becoming a ‘voice’ for women and young children subjected to violence and rape by parents and other family members. This is an issue which Ms. Kaloki has seen firsthand and by her work and involvement she tries to bring hope to the victims of this terrible abuse.
******HUMAN RIGHTS & CULTURE******
Went to a party Mom
Anonymous
(We published this poem one year ago this month and are doing so again as it has been re-circulated, this time by Mothers against Drunk Drivers (MADD). Please read the notification at the bottom.
On the 10th December, 1972 I was the victim of a drink/driving accident; I was the one driving and fortunately I was the only person I hurt. But, my accident was caused by another drink/driver whose passengers weren’t so lucky – JS S).
I went to a party,
And remembered what you said.
You told me not to drink, Mom,
so I had a sprite instead.
I felt proud of myself,
The way you said I would,
that I didn't drink and drive,
though some friends said I should.
I made a healthy choice,
And your advice to me was right.
The party finally ended,
and the kids drove out of sight.
I got into my car,
Sure to get home in one piece.
I never knew what was coming, Mom,
something I expected least.
Now I'm lying on the pavement,
And I hear the policeman say,
the kid that caused this wreck was drunk,
Mom, his voice seems far away.
My own blood's all around me,
As I try hard not to cry.
I can hear the paramedic say,
this girl is going to die.
I'm sure the guy had no idea,
While he was flying high.
Because he chose to drink and drive,
now I would have to die.
So why do people do it, Mom
Knowing that it ruins lives?
And now the pain is cutting me,
like a hundred stabbing knives.
Tell sister not to be afraid, Mom
Tell daddy to be brave.
And when I go to heaven,
put ' Mommy's Girl' on my grave.
Someone should have taught him,
That it's wrong to drink and drive.
Maybe if his parents had,
I'd still be alive.
My breath is getting shorter,
Mom I'm getting really scared
These are my final moments,
and I'm so unprepared.
I wish that you could hold me Mom,
As I lie here and die.
I wish that I could say, 'I love you, Mom!'
So I love you and good-bye.
MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Drivers) IS HOPING TO GET 5,000 SIGNATURES ON THIS, THEN PASS IT ON TO SIGN.
When this petition has reached 5,000, please return it to:
MADD
P.O. Box 54168 8
Dallas , TX 75354-16881-800-GET-MADD (1-800-438-6233)
If you receive this petition and do nothing but delete it, your selfishness knows no bounds. Signing is such a small effort to make. After you have read the poem, please add your name at the bottom. And never forget, DON'T EVER DRINK AND DRIVE, not even once, thinking that it won't matter. IT DEFINITELY WILL MATTER!!!
******HUMAN RIGHTS & CULTURE******
Human Rights Quotations
The only way to make sure people you agree with can speak is to support the rights of people you don't agree with.
Eleanor Holmes Norton
The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to the other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creatures that cannot.
Mark Twain
The basic rule of human nature is that powerful people speak slowly and subservient people quickly --because if they don't speak fast nobody will listen to them.
Michael Caine
******HUMAN RIGHTS & CULTURE******
Human Rights Activists -- Fr. Roberto Reyes -- the Running Priest -- An Update
Last week in this series we introduced Fr. Roberto Reyes – The Running Priest. Shortly following his visit to Hong Kong the week before last Fr. Roberto returned to the Philippines where he and several others undertook a hunger strike to protest the illegal mining condoned by the government of the Philippines on the island of Mindoro. The mining operation is in a critical watershed area of the Mag-asawang Tubig and Bucayao River systems, the largest source of water for the irrigation of about 40,000 hectares of rice lands in Calapan City and the towns of Naujan, Baco, and Victoria.
The Asian Human Rights Commission published this Press Release to announce the hunger strike:
PHILIPPINES: Priests, ethnic minorities go on hunger strike to protest mining operation
(Hong Kong, November 17, 2009) Two Catholic Priests and a group of indigenous people from Mindoro Island have commenced a hunger strike of indefinite length in Manila to protest an impending mining operation by a Norwegian company.
Fr. Roberto Reyes, a staff member of the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), is one of the 25 people who joined the protestors--two of whom are Catholic priests and sixteen of whom are Mangyans; as well as seven others. The group has pledged to go on a hunger strike until their demands are met.
In his statement, Fr. Roberto said of his decision to go on strike: "I go on hunger strike with the Mangyans and the people of Mindoro who hunger for justice and freedom from exploitation and oppression of foreign multinational corporations and their counterparts in the present regime". The full text of his statement can be read below.
The group set up a makeshift tent in front of the headquarters of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in Quezon City, a government agency responsible for issuing permits to mining firms. The group is protesting against the DENR's issuance of a mining permit to Intex Resources - a Norwegian multinational mining company who work to mine ore minerals - despite strong opposition by the local government and the indigenous communities who are affected by their work.
Mindoro Island is the Philippines' seventh largest island and is reported to have the biggest lateritic nickel ores deposit in the world.
Intex Resources, according to a local newspaper, was issued a permit to mine ores covering the areas of about 11,218 hectares, which included the ancestral domain claim of the Alangan and Tadyawan, which are indigenous Mangyan communities. The mining project covers four towns, in Victoria, Pola and Socorro in Oriental Mindoro and Sablayan in Occidental Mindoro. The operation is expected to produce 100 to 120 million tons of ore over a period of 15 to 20 years.
Legal provisions state that before any mining firms are issued work permits, there should be a public consultation and hearing with the communities and villagers who will be affected, in order to obtain their consent. Only after this consultation and willing agreement of the communities, can permits be issued.
However, according to the protestors, the DENR has issued permits to the Intex Resources despite a 'strong and valid opposition' from the affected communities, the local government and the Catholic Church.
FULL TEXT OF THE STATEMENT BY FR. ROBERTO REYES:
On Tuesday, November 17, 2009, I will go on hunger strike with the Mangyans and the people of Mindoro. I will be at the DENR early to put up the Kubol Pagasa, a mobile replica of the tent we pitched at the People Power Monument on July 10, 2005. Since then, the current administration has progressively lost its moral authority and credibility to govern. Corruption, human rights violations, bad governance aggravate what was already a fatal flaw in governance four years ago: the betrayal of public trust.
The present government has systematically corrupted individuals, groups and institutions in order to weaken peaceful and legitimate opposition. Corruption simply means buying loyalty and compliance through the distribution of government funds. Those first to be corrupted are government officials from the highest to the lowest whose loyalty is immediately rewarded through the release of the “Countryside Development Funds” (CDF) or the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA). Outside this not too honorable category of government officials are their business partners, friends and relatives who get priority or undue advantage in government bidding processes for projects. Aside from the “Kaibigan and Kamag-anak” incorporated are the institutional supporters which include media, church, academe, entertainment, etc. Indeed, money flows abundantly towards popular, powerful and influential personalities and institutions which directly or indirectly defend and support the president and her minions.
Corruption has polluted and alienated the Filipino soul. If those in power and those who support them choose to sink in the quicksand of corruption, we cannot allow them to drag the rest of us with them. I fast from food with those who are continually deprived of food, clean water, safe and decent housing, livelihood, education, hospitalization, disability benefits etc. I go on hunger strike with the Mangyans and the people of Mindoro who hunger for justice and freedom from exploitation and oppression of foreign multinational corporations and their counterparts in the present regime. I go on hunger strike that we may still unlearn attitudes and values that pull us down as a people. I fast and that we may start doing the following things:
First, we need to learn how to fight for our rights and those of indigenous peoples and their the environment
Second, we have to begin a process of inner and personal cleansing vis-à-vis an environment of deception, lies, corruption and stealing.
Third, we need to go back in prayer to the real God and reject the gods of politics, entertainment, business and consumerism.
Fourth, we need to re-educate our wills towards greater discipline and self control.
Fifth, we need to learn how to share not only goods but hunger as well in order to form community.
Sixth, we need to learn how to use a different language, beyond words, flashy commercials and noisy speeches. This is the language of silence and hunger, of prayer and self-sacrifice.
Seventh, we need to form through shared hunger, new and deeper bonds of solidarity with those who also desire deep and positive change in our society.
May God use this hunger strike to stop mining which ultimately is a source of funds not for development but for more corruption and exploitation. No to mining!!! Yes to a genuinely pro- environment, pro- people, pro-poor and pro-Filipino government!
Fr. Roberto P. Reyes
Kubol Pagasa
November 16, 2009
While the government has not agreed to all of the demands of the hunger strikers the Department of Environment and Natural Resources has suspended the environmental clearance for the mining operation for a period of 90 days. According to a GMA News report the DENR are seriously concerned by some of the issues raised by the strikers. An investigation is going to be launched to find out how the clearance was issued for a mining operation in a watershed area without an efficient environment impact study being carried out.
******HUMAN RIGHTS & CULTURE******
Publications
 Article 2, Vol.8. No.3 is now available.
Article 2 is a quarterly publication of the Asian Legal Resource Centre
This issue covers selected articles on politics, human rights & the rule of law in South Asia such as Sri Lankan politics, from primary school to kindergarten Basil Fernando, Executive Director, Asian Human Rights Commission & Asian Legal Resource Centre, Hong Kong,
White elephants for India's low caste millions, Bijo Francis, Programme Officer, Asian Legal Resource Centre, Hong Kong, A law to protect only one Bangladeshi family Rater Zonaki, Human Rights Defender, Bangladesh and Thankless tasks: Rights defenders in Sri Lanka & Pakistan Jo Baker, Journalist & Programme Coordinator, Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong Kong
Further information on Article 2 may be found at: www.article2.org
 We are also pleased to announce that the next issue of Ethics in Action is now available. In this issue, Vol. 3 No. 5, we have an article on the appeal to help flood victims in the Philippines; there is a report on the abuse and humiliation of three Pakistani women and how the case casts shame on the country's justice system; and also in Pakistan the issue of love marriages - women and the rule of law. The continuation of the Prevention of Terrorism Act in Sri Lanka is a crime against the country's children and the terrible situation in the Philippines that makes it necessary for the Police to offer guns to journalists at risk are just some of the articles included in this issue.
******HUMAN RIGHTS & CULTURE******
The Asian Human Rights Commission is regularly issuing this article series on Human Rights and Culture in which various cultural expressions, poems, stories, pictures and other forms of cultural expression that are based on the theme of justice, will be published. A pivotal issue in modern literature is justice, particularly the enormous unleashing of injustice under fascist, communist and other authoritarian regime including those that pursue an unbridled market economy have generated responses from created writers. This search for justice is at the very essence of being human. Human beings are part of nature and part of each other. Perhaps the lines of John Donne are most relevant: “... any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde;”
Contemporary mass culture promotes violence and destruction. There are those who are opposed to mass culture and want to reclaim the best traditions of human culture within which justice remains a core issue. This column will provide space for those who wish to share their creative initiatives.
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About AHRC: The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional non-governmental organisation monitoring and lobbying human rights issues in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984.
Posted on 2009-11-20
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