2012: NEW CHALLENGES AND NEW BEGINNINGS

      As we look back and take stock at the year just passed, we see that its high point was that it was a year of social turmoil and transformation. Overstaying leaders who became tyrants as they forgot their accountability to their own people lost their grip on power, as the masses of the people, took to the streets to face unbridled state power. What an Arab Spring it has been! In many bastions of capitalism, ordinary people who have long been forgotten by capitalist greed, "free markets" and speculative stock markets, occupied financial centers and symbols of capitalism, in what they dubbed as "OCCUPY WALL STREET MOVEMENT". This soon became a global movement, coordinated by social media and cell phones. The momentum of this global movement for change and transformation will continue this year, as more people become unemployed by free markets and liberalization, as inflation hits hard the working class, and as unaccountable leaders try to cling on to power using the coercive power of the state. 

    The past year was also very notable for its tragedies of tsunamic proportions, such as those in northern Japan, shattering the confidence of the people in nuclear technology and nuclear power. Fukushima has become a new household word now akin to nuclear holocaust. On the other hand, we also experienced successive natural disasters which were in fact man-made or the result of capitalist folly, and climate change, exacerbated by greed to destroy the environment for super profits. These should be a wake up call for all of us, and an awareness to be better prepared next time in disaster management and mitigation. As in illnesses, it is still better to approach this problem in a preventive manner, rather than focusing on our reaction when natural disasters happen. 

    As we look back at 2011, we also look forward with hope at the new challenges and new beginnings for 2012. At Yonip.com, we have taken the initiative of opening new pages for a fast rising audience of cyber users. Last year, we surpassed our 5 million visitors and readers of Yonip. Thus, to broaden further our audience of "netizens", we have opened the following sections for Yonip.com:  1. The Online Chit Estella Reader;  2. Wikileaks on the Philippines, which puts together and systematically organizes the wikileaks cables ABOUT the Philippines; and 3. A DOSSIER OF PHILIPPINE POLITICAL DYNASTIES. The latter will provide updates on political clans, political dynasties, and political warlords in the Philippine economy and government.

    We look forward to a year of continuing our crusade of heralding the truth, and empowering the working people.

January 3, 2012

* Article by Roland G Simbulan - For a full professional background of Professor Roland G. Simbulan (Click Here)