By: Juan L. Mercado
THE Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Philippine government signed a wealth-sharing formula Saturday. It’s another step towards turning swords, in a rebellion that killed and maimed thousands and stalled Mindanao’s promise as an island of bounty, into plough-shares. That made the morning papers.
The Supreme Court shredded Eduardo Cojuangco’s claim to more slabs of the coconut levy. Government will sell P14 billion worth of stocks and create a trust fund for coconut farmers. “What does it profit a man if he grabs the levy but in the end have the poor piss on his grave?” That hit the evening newscasts.
These reports can obscure other significant accounts that make for balance. Read the United Nations speech delivered last week by a 16-year-old girl who was shot in the head by the Taliban for promoting education for girls.
On Oct. 9, 2012, a Taliban gunman hit Malala Yousafzai as she rode on a school bus, after taking an exam in Pakistan’s Swat Valley. Two other students were wounded. Ehsanullah Ehsan, Pakistani Taliban spokesman, claimed responsibility for the attack. Yousafzai “is the symbol of the infidels,” he said, adding that if she survived, the Taliban would target her again. Since the Malala ambush, the Taliban has attacked more than 800 schools.
“They thought that the bullets would silence us,” Malala told young leaders from 100 countries at the UN Youth Assembly last week. “But they failed…. And out of that silence came thousands of voices (seeking) to live in peace, to be treated with dignity… to be educated.
“Nothing changed in my life except this: Weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage (were) born. I am the same Malala. My ambitions are the same. My hopes are the same. My dreams are the same.”
Continue Reading…
