Yep, that’s me.

I’ve sent off the email to the VMUN Secretariat and registered PA for that conference. I’m not too sure what I’ll have to do as HD — after all, I’m kind of only taking over the position after Dennis… didn’t do much. -_-;;
So uh, if you’re reading this and you can tell me anything about what I need to do, please let me know. I will appreciate any insight.

I’m going to have to figure out exactly who from PA want to attend. And we’re going to have to register pretty soon, since the deadline is Dec. 10.

I have to admit that I’m a little intimidated. They weren’t kidding when they told us that VMUN was really hardcore. I think their only beginner committee is WHO. Aside from that, there’s the Security Council, NATO, a new Disarmament/Int’l Security Committee, and two Councils for North/South Korea. WHOA. O_O I’m not even sure where I fit… they keep saying how you need lots of prior MUN experience for many of these committees.

Their website isn’t very clear, either. I think I preferred the ConnectMUN website. Disregarding the layout and design scheme, the VMUN website barely gives you any information. And I find it a bit strange that there’s only one email address to contact. They also don’t tell us anything about position papers… AIYAH. I wish I knew more. As HD, people are going to be asking me questions, and I won’t be able to answer a lot of them…

Leaders know that brainstorming is a useful and necessary part of a leader’s job to generate ideas and solutions.

I just finished a book called The Medici Effect: What Elephants and Epidemics Can Teach Us About Innovation. Great book… fascinating stuff about innovation. One of the things it talked about was brainstorming.

Innovation can’t happen without ideas, and that’s where the discussion turned to brainstorming. I have been on many teams that have done brainstorming and seen it done many ways, so I found the author’s information quite interesting, because studies showed that results were not what people normally would expect.

The typical brainstorming session is everyone sits around a table or facing the leader, who facilitates the brainstorming session. (Green is for people, blue is the paper listing the ideas.)

Many of us think, “The more the merrier! Surely, with a group of people you will generate a ton more ideas than if I sit by myself!”

However, it turns out that if you have each person go off and generate their own ideas, and then combine them all, you will actually get more ideas than if everyone in the group brainstorms together! In fact, individuals generate about twice as many ideas as the group sitting together. Not only is quantity greater, but it turns out the quality of ideas are better too.

The reason is because in a group situation, only one person can talk at once. If you come up with an idea, you keep it to yourself and it is often lost. Or, you try to remember it and meanwhile opportunity to develop another idea is lost.

So the suggestion is before a meeting ask everyone to put together a list of ideas. I have been at meetings where the leader gave us 5 minutes to write all our ideas down on a paper.

Also, people generate more ideas when you give them a target: “Make a list of 30 ideas.”

Another way to do brainstorming is called brainwriting. Everyone has a sheet of paper and writes one idea and tosses it to the center of the table. Then you pick up a sheet and write another idea that springboards off the one already written on the paper. There is also a suggestion to start with an extra blank sheet of paper in the middle of the table… I guess this is because people brianstorm at different speeds?

The brainstorming material was just a few pages in the book. There is much to ponder in how I as a leader can develop an innovative mindset for ministry. God gave us creativity… it is a gift to be able to use it!

This is a response to the posting by Frances on Moodle – Comments and Reflection on Elluminate Session

Great ideas Frances,

1. Self-organised study groups -

Following CCK08, we have formed the Connectivism Ning Community Network and many of the CCK08 participants have joined it.  Every one in CCK09 are invited to join.  There is also a Connectivism wiki that participants could consider.

2. “Moving on Connectivism” workshop could be organised after CCK09, using various social media. We could use the Connectivism Ning Community Network to organise such workshops, with Elluminate run on a need or regular basis.  

3. We have got distributed networks on Facebook, Twitters (tagged under #CCK09), CCK09 Ning, Diigo #CCK09, Connectivism Research Google Group , Delicious/tag/cck09, Friend Feed, various wiks – wikispaces on PLE/N, WordPress (tagged under #CCK09) for us to consider….

Would a list of the links help? 

Would you mind to include your links in subsequent threads?

That’s my 10 cents worth

What do you think?

Once upon a time, there was a little red hen who owned a wheat field.

“Who will help me harvest the wheat?” she asked.

“Not I,” said the dog. “I’ve never done that before.”

“Not I,” said the cow. “I’ve got way too much to do already.”

“Not I,” said the duck. “That’s not on my job description.”

So the little red hen did it herself.

“Who will help me grind the wheat into flour?” she asked.

“Not I,” said the dog. “You’re so much better at that than I am.”

“Not I,” said the cow. “There’s not enough time to show me how.”

“Not I, “ said the duck. “I would probably just mess it up.”

So the little red hen did it herself.
“Who will help me make some bread?” asked the little red hen.

“Not I,” said the dog.  “I’ve got a deadline to meet.”

“Not I,” said the cow. “I’ve got to leave right at 5:00 p.m.”

“Not I,” said the duck.  “You can’t trust me with something that important.”

So the little red hen did it herself.

When all her guests arrived that evening for the farmyard dinner party, the little red hen had nothing ready to serve except the bread.  Now, it was some fine bread – the best anyone had ever tasted – but it was disappointing as a main course nonetheless.  The little red hen had been so caught up doing everything herself that she didn’t have time to get anything else ready.

Moral of the Story:

Leaders learn how to delegate.  They involve others throughout a project for both the project’s and the team members’ good.  Good leaders challenge their performers to do more than the performers think they can, and good leaders never “chicken out” by doing the whole thing themselves.

Abundance

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  I enjoy the gathering of family and friends and look forward to the feast, especially the leftovers.  More importantly, I love the reason for the day itself.  It is a time to express gratitude for the abundance we have in our lives.

Thanksgiving also is a change manager’s holiday because in my experience, I have found that leaders who maintain feelings of gratitude and abundance are significantly better equipped to manage the challenges of change.

There is a large body of research that has demonstrated that grateful people have higher levels of control of their environment, are better able to cope with difficulties, and more likely to engage others in solving problems.  They also are less likely to try to avoid or deny there is a problem, blame themselves or use other negative coping strategies.  In addition, grateful people are happier, less depressed, less stressed and more satisfied with their lives and social relationships.

An attitude of abundance has a similar impact.  Those who think abundantly understand that there are plenty of resources for everybody.  They have a strong sense of self that is not challenged by the needs, desires, success or acquired resources of others.  They also understand that resistance to change comes from a fear of loss or of a decreased ability to get personal needs met.  They are patient and know if they stay focused on collaborative problem solving, all challenges can be resolved and the needs of all parties can be satisfied.

Gratitude helps leaders adapt to the challenges of change because they see obstacles as opportunities for learning, growth and improved results.  An attitude of abundance helps leaders stay open to the world of possibilities for satisfying the needs of all.  Both take leaders beyond simple respect and courtesy in their interactions and toward the mutual acceptance, appreciation, and understanding required for to engage others in the process of change.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are posting this VivaVierenes entry early on Friday, since we are like the shopping malls tonight: open and ready for business.

On Friday, December 11, Latinos in Social Media = #LATISM will be having its next conference in Washington, DC. And today, we are dedicating this VV blog to them.

For more information about the event, go to LATISM DC. If the NYC and Orlando events are any indication of what Latinos in Social Media can accomplish, then the DC event will not disappoint.

¡Que viva LATISM! ¡Que viva LATISM DC! ¡Que viva viernes!

WORDPRESS.COM/ILUSTRASI

”Kurban” dari bahasa Alquran qurban, terdiri dari kata qurb yang berarti ”dekat” dengan imbuhan an yang mengandung arti ”kesempurnaan”, sehingga berarti kedekatan yang sempurna.

Dalam istilah keagamaan, kata ini mulanya berarti ‘’segala sesuatu yang digunakan mendekatkan diri kepada Allah”, kemudian artinya menyempit, menjadi ”binatang tertentu yang disembelih pada hari raya Idul Adha dan tiga hari sesudahnya dalam rangka mendekatkan diri kepada-Nya”. Dalu, kurban — dalam pengertian keagamaan itu — hampir selalu dikaitkan dengan manusia. Penduduk Meksiko yang menyembah Dewa Matahari, mempersembahkan jantung dan darah manusia, karena mereka berkeyakinan bahwa Dewa tersebut terus-menerus bertempur melawan dewa gelap, demi kesinambungan cahaya kehidupan ini. Untuk itu Sang Dewa harus dibantu dengan darah dan jantung.

Dalam Islam, sejarah disyariatkannya kurban kembali kepada peristiwa yang dialami Nabi Ibrahim dan putranya, Ismail. Kala itu, ada anggapan bahwa manusia terlalu mahal untuk dijadikan kurban demi Tuhan. Lalu lewat Nabi Ibrahim, Allah menjelaskan, tiada sesuatu yang mahal dikurbankan bila panggilan telah datang. Allah SWT lantas memerintahkan Ibrahim agar menyembelih anaknya, sebagai bukti bahwa manusia pun dapat dikurbankan bila panggilan Ilahi tiba.

Allah selalu harus berada di atas segalanya, itu bukti iman sejati. Dan setelah hakikat ini ditegaskan melalui perintah penyembelihan itu, dan Ibrahim pun melaksanakan sesuai kemampuannya, Allah dengan kuasa-Nya menghalangi penyembelihan, untuk membatalkan tradisi pengorbanan manusia.

Namun, yang harus diingat ialah, bukan lantaran manusia terlalu mahal berkurban atau dikurbankan, demi karena Allah. Ia dibatalkan demi kasih sayang Allah kepada manusia. Kurban disyariatkan guna mengingatkan manusia bahwa jalan menuju kebahagiaan, membutuhkan pengurbanan, tapi yang dikurbankan bukan manusia, bukan pula nilai-nilai kemanusiaan. Yang dikurbankan adalah binatang, yang jantan, sempurna umur dan tidak cacat,

Sebagai pertanda bahwa pengorbanan, harus ditunaikan. Dan, yang dikurbankan adalah sifat-sifat kebinatangan dalam diri manusia, seperti rakus, ingin menang sendiri, mengabaikan norma, nilai, dan sebagainya. ”Yang sampai kepada Allah bukan darah atau dagingnya tetapi ketakwaan pelakunya” (Q.S.22:37). Ketakwaan itu tecermin antara lain ketika daging kurban dibagikan kepada yang memerlukan. ahi

Richard Branson’s top 20 Virgin inspirational insights

Richard Branson has always had the reputation for doing things differently, which has reflected in Virgin companies the world over. He has also sprinkled his views on business and life into decades of interviews, books and launches. While most people are familiar with his rallying cry of “screw it, let’s do it”, there are plenty more helpful hints from the smiley man with the beard. Here are our top 20…

via Richard Branson’s top 20 Virgin inspirational insights – Industry Updates – Entrepreneur – Virgin.

The rush is not the answer.

Yes, We Need Funds!
For the University Supreme Student Council (USSC) to serve us better, they need funds to initiate reform programs. The bad news is, the USSC membership fee is not enough for them to do that. Everyone agrees.

Our USSC Constitution and By-Laws (CBL) say that every student needs to pay a minimum of P5.oo per semester to the USSC treasury. This amount is too small for a big student population and university like us. To solve this, the USSC officials proposed to amend the CBL, raising the amount from a minimum of P5.oo to P20.00. By the sound of it, this move appears to be good. But is it, really?

Amendment…What Happens?
There are three ways that we can amend our Constitution. One, the USSC officials can suggest amendments by a 2/3 vote. Second, the whole population can suggest amendments by a petition from 30% of the whole population; and third, is through a Constitutional Convention, where all sectors of the studentry are duly represented.

After amendments are finalized by any of these three, a new constitution needs to be ratified by a plebiscite. Here, all the students cast in their votes: is it a yes or a no? If no, the old constitution remains as is. If yes, the new constitution takes effect.

Once a new constitution takes effect, it has an immunity period or status quo of one (1) year. It means that no amendment can be made within that period—it remains as is. Therefore, if we approve this new amendment that our USSC officials have proposed, the constitution will take effect on January 2010 and this cannot be touched until January 2011. That is too long!

Oops, not so fast!
The USSC officials thought Option Number 1 is a good shortcut to speed up the Membership Fee Increase. Unfortunately, the rush is not the answer.

It is not a wise choice to amend just one little part of our constitution, ratify it, and freeze it for a year. The next set of student leaders and the rest of the studentry will be affected. If the CBL must remain in status quo for a year, then we are not allowed to make new changes to improve our system.

Anyway, we collect our Membership Fees during enrollment (May), not on January!

Moreover, the creation of new colleges: College of Engineering (COE), and College of Management and Economics (CME) will call for changes in the constitution as well.

A Better Way
Remember, our CBL says that the USSC collects a minimum of P5.oo from every student every semester. So it means that they can still collect P20.00 without much fuss, right? Why don’t they do that? Anyway, almost everyone is OK with P20.00. Everyone wants to see good change in VSU.

One important thing, our Constitution is not something that we can easily play with. Whenever we try to make changes, it should be done with much caution, deliberation and soul-searching. The motto “Too Much, Too Soon” is a big-NO-NO.

If we really want to amend our Constitution, let’s do it through the third option—A Constitutional Convention. This way, we can invite representatives from all sectors of the VSU student body so everybody will be heard. When we do this, no one is left behind. The third option is the most democratic way among the three.

We have until the rest of the semester to ratify a new constitution (if we really need to). We don’t need to rush things. Similar to relationships, “Too Much, Too Soon” is not a good motto. We musn’t let things be—we are supposed to have full control of our direction.

In summary:

1. The USSC doesn’t need to amend the CBL to increase its membership fee. All they need to do is make a petition to the appropriate office (Finance).
2. A plebiscite for such an amendment is not appropriate. It musn’t push through. Say NO to it.
3. Ratification will freeze our constitution for one year. We can’t do amendments one at a time. Let’s be thorough and careful.
4. If we really need to amend our CBL, a Constitutional Convention is the best way to do it.

The rush is not the answer.

With today being Thanksgiving in the United States, it makes sense to talk about giving thanks in your company. Giving thanks, and celebrating, go together and should be part of the company rhythm. Here’s what we do to give thanks and celebrate:

• Whenever we close a deal with a new customer, we ring our gong at 5pm that same day and everyone claps
• Every Friday we have a catered lunch for the entire office to spend time together and socialize
• We use an eCrowds Idea Exchange to nominate a hero of the month, voted on by entire team, and then award the winner a $100 bill at our monthly all hands meeting

I recommend every company give thanks and celebrate on a regular basis.

Every company’s brand, is nothing more than the sum total of the individual actions its people take.

- Joseph Michelli

This one is for the Pastors out there. This District. Any district in the Wesleyan Church, or any pastor anywhere.

What is the one thing you need to help you go to the next level in your leadership? Or, what do you think would best help you lead your church from where it is to the next growth point in your vision? Yeah, I know all the spiritual things you need, that’s not what I’m talking about. If your District was going to offer an event, or bring in a speaker, or bring in anything, or invite you to anything…what would that be?

I could be more specific, but I don’t want to influence your decision.

So, this only works if you leave a comment. Most of us don’t comment much on blogs since we’re commenting on Twitter all day. But I’d love to generate a little discussion on this one. Thanks!

So I’ve been thinking a fair bit about possibly the central thing we do as pastors – at least in terms of time spent on any single thing (research, preparation and delivery). We would take a half-day as a preaching team to work through a message, then I would take a day to write it and then about another half day spent marinating on it before delivery. So all up we’re looking at about fifteen hours of preparation and delivery for one message. Which I think is probably about average.

Recently I read Pagan Christianity by Viola and Barna, which was a really good read and instrumental in helping the church move beyond its institutionalization. They claim that preaching was never central to the church until a couple hundred years after Christ and really came into primacy with Luther who claimed it was the central part of the sunday service. He changed the term “priest” to “preacher”. Understandably preaching the word for Luther, who was putting reformed theology into the hands of hungry hordes of protesting catholics departing the catholic church in utter ignorance, was of utmost importance.

Viola claims that preaching in the NT was only done by apostles – church planters/workers in the process of establishing churches and on special occasions (Solomon’s temple etc.). They also claim that the office of Pastor is not an office, but a function and pastors didn’t preach.

I kinda disagree. I think pastors did preach because I believe Timothy was a pastor (Viola suggests he was “apostolic” because he obviously wasn’t an apostle, but his theory about pastors would fall over) and Timothy was urged by Paul to preach. Furthermore in Acts where it says the early disciples met from house to house and in the temple, would suggest it was a weekly occurrence.

Here’s where I get really creative now. Try and keep up.

Public teaching was done in the synagogue for centuries, so was embedded in Jewish culture. Furthermore, rhetoric was one of the most popular of entertainment of the day among the Greeks. Rhetoricians were public speakers who became famous and well paid for speaking eloquently (subject matter was inconsequential). So culturally in Judea, public speaking was the best form of communication and entertainment – infotainment would be a good word to describe it in today’s parlance. So it seems Jesus and his followers were using the best and most modern forms of communication that was most effective for their culture and the people of the day – preaching and teaching.

Translate that into today’s culture which is neither Greek nor Jewish. Preaching like we live in 100 A.D. in Judea simply isn’t cutting it. I even had trouble remembering what I preached the week before let alone thinking anyone else remembered (and I’m a good preacher). Which is why I resorted to The Big Idea which is simply one singular idea that I wanted people to leave the building with (there were other reasons to adopt it, primarily to use a preaching team and being able to keep a multi-site church moving in the same direction). I mean, how many sermons have you heard and actually implemented? It’s a completely modernist idea to think that simply giving people information will change their lives. We all know it doesn’t work like that, yet we continue doing it because it’s part of the consumer contract we have with our congregants (search this blog for consumerism).

Researchers on adult eduction have found that while teaching children “by rote” – in other words, I tell-you listen-you learn works, it doesn’t work with adults. And because preachers have all been to school and know nothing about educating adults, we use the only model we’ve known. Adult education doesn’t work like that. In fact when it comes down to it, experts concede that adult educators can only “facilitate” another adults learning. I won’t go into all the reasons for that. But bottom line, you can’t teach someone anything until they are ready to learn it. Kinda sounds like that old chinese saying “when the student is ready, the master will appear” – except we’re not masters… but you get the point.

The other thing that complicates the issue is that we live in the information age. No-one knows how vast the internet is. It’s not measurable. That’s how much information is out there. I can download the best preachers in the world hours after they deliver the sermon. And they’re way better communicators that you or I. I can download theology, christian books, magazines and blogs. I can even check the lexicons and commentaries while you’re preaching to see if your exegesis and hermeneutics are up to scratch. So that’s what we’re up against. So if we’re going to trade in information, I guarantee you, your congregation can get better information any day of the week.

So where does that leave us? It leaves us reaching for the best communication forms available to us for today’s culture and not simply dishing out information because adults don’t learn like that (and neither do you by the way so don’t be surprised that no-one else does either), but rather facilitating an experience. How’s that for radical? I’ll let you think about that for a bit, and I’ll unpack my conclusions later.

I am not a psychologist, but I have been studying and teaching effective human behavior for nearly 15 years. Today I want to talk about the inner child and what it means when it comes to adult growth and development.

All of us have had the experience of being a child, and most of us have no trouble at all being tender and compassionate toward the children we know. But when adults find themselves feeling or behaving in a childish way, they often react with horror.

It is important to realize that growing up is not a one-way trip. Adults can be childish sometimes, just as children can act very grown up. In fact, people who are totally “adult” can be a bit intimidating, can’t they?

While it is true that growth means trying new things and, in the process, letting go of old things, it doesn’t mean you should despise the self you once were. On the contrary, the child we used to be, and still are in many ways, deserves the same love and compassion we would show any youngster.

It is only when we reject our own past, our inner child so to speak, that the specter of self-hatred begins to raise its head, making it much more difficult to let go and move on. By the way, letting go becomes easy when it is done out of self-love and compassion, and because we are on to something better, rather than because our inner parent says we “have to” for our own good.

I am not a psychologist, but I have been studying and teaching effective human behavior for nearly 40 years. It has been my life’s work. Today I want to talk about the inner child and what it means when it comes to adult growth and development.

All of us have had the experience of being a child, and most of us have no trouble at all being tender and compassionate toward the children we know. But when adults find themselves feeling or behaving in a childish way, they often react with horror.

It is important to realize that growing up is not a one-way trip. Adults can be childish sometimes, just as children can act very grown up. In fact, people who are totally “adult” can be a bit intimidating, can’t they?

While it is true that growth means trying new things and, in the process, letting go of old things, it doesn’t mean you should despise the self you once were. On the contrary, the child we used to be, and still are in many ways, deserves the same love and compassion we would show any youngster.

It is only when we reject our own past, our inner child so to speak, that the specter of self-hatred begins to raise its head, making it much more difficult to let go and move on. By the way, letting go becomes easy when it is done out of self-love and compassion, and because we are on to something better, rather than because our inner parent says we “have to” for our own good.

Notes on the Maguindanao Massacre

These are comments written by Eric Gutierrez, author of The Ties That Bind: A Guide to Family, Business and Other Interests in the Ninth Congress (Manila: PCIJ, 1994). Eric spent a lot of time in Mindanao conducting research for that book and is one of the most knowledgeable people on political clans in the Philippines.

1. Old vs. New

News reports have framed this massacre as warfare between competing political clans. But it is also important to qualify this as deadly competition coming to a head between old royalty and a new, emerging and successful political clan. The Ampatuans are an old, long-established clan, one of few that claims lineage to Sharif Kabungsuan and are therefore regarded as ‘royalty’ in the greater Cotabato region. According to popular myth, Islam was established in the Rio Grande by Sharif Kabungsuan, whose father is an Arab and mother is the daughter of the Sultan of Johore in Malaysia (the Sultans in Malaysia, in turn, claim lineage to the prophet Mohammad). Kabungsuan married some of his converts and founded the Maguindanao sultanate. A complex system of ranking developed from this legend. The sultans, who claim direct descent, typically enjoy higher esteem and ranking. The other ‘royal’ clans in the valley include the Sinsuats and the Masturas. But there are also other ‘nobles’ — rajahs and datus — who while also claiming some form of descent had proved themselves by consolidating their own political and economic power. The Mangudadatus seem to be part of this group of newly-emergent ‘lower’ nobles. What makes them most successful is that they have started to carve out their own political territory out of the current boundaries of Maguindanao and also in Sultan Kudarat, which is predominantly Christian-dominated. My speculation is that the Ampatuans look down on the Mangudadatus as upstarts or ‘probinsiyanos’ from the hinterlands of Cotabato who are now threatening the consolidation of the Ampatuans’ hold of and attempt to monopolize formal state power in what they consider as their private turf.

In the last elections, the current governor Andal Ampatuan Sr ran unopposed. Andal Junior wants to repeat this feat when he runs for his father’s post next year. So Andal Jr warned the Mangudadatus that they won’t even be able to file certificates of candidacy, because the documents need to be brought to the Comelec offices in Sharif Aguak town, which is Ampatuan country. The Ampatuans can do this “lawfully”, simply by putting up checkpoints manned by policemen loyal to the family, who will then disarm any private group entering the town. Rather than risk entering Sharif Aguak unarmed, what Esmael Mangudadatu did was to send his wife — accompanied by women lawyers, other women relatives, and the media — to file his certificate of candidacy. They underestimated the hatred and capacity for violence of the Ampatuans.

2. Unequalled, perhaps, but not unprecedented

Presidential adviser Jess Dureza has been quoted as saying this massacre of civilians is unequalled in recent history. Again, I suggest some qualifications to this statement. Civilian massacres, unfortunately, are common in Cotabato politics. In its troubled history, there have been cycles of violence in the Cotabato region — massacres perpetrated by settlers, locals, Christian, Muslim, etc. What happened may be unequalled in the sense that at least a dozen media persons were victims.

The beheadings and mutilations are also not unprecedented. In fact, the Cotabato region has seen some of the most gruesome acts of violence. Cotabato is after all, the land of the Ilagas and the Barracudas. Kumander Toothpick, a Tiruray who organised the Ilaga after his family was massacred by Maguindanaos identified with the Sinsuats, honed to perfection the art of terrorizing enemies — he cut off ears (to keep as souvenirs) and ate the livers of the Muslims he killed in combat, in the belief that this would give him supernatural powers. In response, Maguindanao politicians formed their own “Barracudas”. The most famous Ilaga figure today is Norberto Manero. It wouldn’t surprise me if some of those involved in the attack on the Mangudadatus were Barracudas.

I am underscoring these gruesome acts to emphasize how violence is essential in keeping and projecting power in the Cotabato region. Manero became a legend and such a powerful figure who can terrorise his enemies because he did the most gruesome acts — like eating the brain of the murdered Italian priest Tullio Favali. Andal Jr seems to be following that path. Andal Jr and his followers may be charged in court, even convicted and jailed. But like Manero, he will continue to strike terror in the hearts of his family’s opponents even when he is jailed. I bet he will also be able to do spectacular capers like what Manero has done — Manero should have an entry in Ripley’s as the only convicted criminal to have gained an audience with two presidents and even shook hands with one (Arroyo), even when he is supposedly locked up in a maximum security prison.

3. Privatised state

I have always asked if the state and its institutions really exist in its proper form in the Cotabato, Sulu and Basilan areas. Many years ago, I interviewed mayors who happen to keep civil registries (birth, marriage, death) and even land registries in their private households. They reasoned that that the safest way to keep those public records is to keep them in their houses, which are typically small fortresses in the capital towns, where the mayor is more secure. There are mayors in the Cotabato region who don’t even set foot in their municipalities, either because the MILF controls that area, or because political opponents are too powerful that they can attack the town hall any time. I think that normal or fully-functional local governments in many of these areas are a myth. What emerges is a privatised state, a privatised bureaucracy, a privatised local government.

I don’t believe Dureza’s call to impose a state of emergency to disarm the various groups will work, for the simple reason that — who will do the disarming? The police can’t do it, because the loyalties of the its members are suspect. The military may be given the job, but they are already stretched out by the war vs the MILF, and besides, they need to keep local strongmen like Andal Jr and Mangudadatu as their allies. A regional force perhaps? I remember a military checkpoint outside Cotabato City, where soldiers stopped a politician’s convoy from entering the city. The soldiers were outnumbered and outgunned, and simply could not enforce that thing called rule of law. The bottom line is, there is no simple, short-term solution to this problem.

A management guru asserts that “One of the scarcest resource is attention.” Especially global attention through global media.

Two months ago, the Philippines got our brief share of global attention because of the destructive typhoons, which linked us to the discourse on climate change.

That was followed by two more global-attention-catching events: The decisive victory of Manny Pacquiao over Sotto, and Efren Penaflorida’s winning the CNN Heroes award.

Both gave us a collective “high” and a sense of pride and hope.

Then came this “downer.”

Amid the many voices, most of them angry, that weighed in on this tragic and appalling event, two postings offer useful perspectives. I share them on this blog to those who may not have read them in other sites.

The first is from Pancho Lara, a good friend, who gave us a briefing on this issue, based on his field work and initial analysis a couple of months back. The second is from Eric Gutierrez, another good friend, who did the initial political clan studies when we worked together at the Institute for Popular Democracy.

The Ruthless Political Entrepreneurs of Muslim Mindanao 
Francisco Lara Jr. is Research Associate at the Crisis States Research Center, Development Studies Institute, London School of Economics. 

The Maguindanao massacre predicts the eruption of wider violence and conflict as the nation heads towards the 2010 elections. Yet to dismiss this incident as “election-related” is to miss the fundamental political and economic implications of this evil deed. The massacre is rooted in the shift in politico-economic sources of violence and conflict in Muslim Mindanao. It signifies the emergence of new-type warlords whose powers depend upon their control of a vast illegal and shadow economy and an ever-growing slice of internal revenue allotments (IRA). Both factors induce a violent addiction to political office. 

Mindanao scholars used to underscore the role of “local strong men” who were an essential component of the central state’s efforts to extend its writ over the region. The elite bargain was built upon the state’s willingness to eschew revenue generation and to grant politico-military dominance to a few Moro elites in exchange for the latter providing political thugs and armed militias to secure far-flung territories, fight the communists and separatists, and extend the administrative reach of the state. 

The economic basis of the elite bargain has changed since then. Political office has become more attractive due to the billions of pesos in IRA remittances that electoral victory provides. The “winner-takes-all” nature of local electoral struggles in Muslim Mindanao also means that competition is costlier and bloodier. Meanwhile, political authority may enable control over the formal economy, but the bigger prize is the power to monopolize or to extort money from those engaged in the lucrative business of illegal drugs, gambling, kidnap-for-ransom, gun-running, and smuggling, among others. The piracy of software, CDs and DVDs, and the smuggling of pearls and other gemstones from China and Thailand are seen as micro and small enterprises. These illegal economies and a small formal sector comprise the “real” economy of Muslim Mindanao. 

The failure to appreciate how this underground economy, coupled with entitlements to massive government-to-government fund transfers, shapes prevailing notions of political legitimacy and authority in the region partly explains the inability of the central State to deal with lawlessness and conflict. 

Political legitimacy in Muslim Mindanao has very little to do with protecting people’s rights or providing basic services. People rarely depend on government for welfare provision, and are consequently averse to paying any taxes. People actually expect local leaders to pocket government resources, and are willing to look the other way so long as their clans dominate and they are given a small slice during elections. Legitimacy is all about providing protection to your fellow clan members by trumping the firepower of your competitors, leaving people alone, and forgetting about taxes. 
There were positive signs in the recent past, especially among the Moro women and youth who bore the brunt of conflict and who sought a different future. But achieving their aspirations depends on their ability to rise above clan structures and the dynamics of hierarchy and collective self-defense that bound its members. This dilemma was painfully exposed in the Maguindanao massacre, where Moro women who usually played a strategic role in negotiating an end to rido became its principal victims. 

The sad thing about the recent massacre is that it could have been avoided. Everyone in Central Mindanao knew about the looming violence between the Ampatuan and Mangudadatu clans as early as March 2009, when the latter’s patriarch Pax Mangudadatu confronted Andal Ampatuan in a public gathering and made known his clan’s intention to challenge the latter’s political hold on Maguindanao. This threat was in turn based on the knowledge that Ampatuan was planning to undermine the Mangudadatus by fielding a challenger against them in Sultan Kudarat. 

In short, the “looming” rido which pundits are predicting today actually started more than six months ago. Yet neither Malacanang nor the COMELEC, PNP, and the AFP made any attempt to monitor their activities, disarm their private security, demobilize their loyalists within the police and military, and ring-fence their camps. 

Why ? 

The answer lies in the newfound role of Muslim Mindanao to national political elites. The region is known for a long history of electoral fraud. The difference today lies in its ability to provide the millions of votes that can overturn the results of national electoral contests, a situation brought about by the creation of a sub-national state (ARMM) and reinforced by the sort of democratic political competition in the post-Marcos era that makes local bosses more powerful and national leaders more beholden to them. This was the case in the presidential elections of 2004 and the senatorial race in 2007. It will serve the same purpose in 2010. Whose purpose is served by arresting Ampatuan in an election year ? Certainly not those of the ruling coalition. 

This partly explains the foot dragging and the lame treatment of principal suspects in the massacre. And to those pressing for limited martial rule in Maguindanao, beware what you wish for. Having a surfeit of troops on the ground can provide a superficial peace at best. At worse, it may facilitate the same type of electoral fraud in 2010, or leverage the firepower of the dominant clan over another. 

In a region where the rebellion-related conflict between the GRP-MILF received all of the national and international community’s attention and aid, NGOs such as International Alert and the Asia Foundation have often decried the ignorance and indifference of the government and donor agencies to community-based inter and intra clan violence. As International Alert asserts, it is time to focus on the confluence between both types and sources of violence and conflict. Indifference will only lead to more death and destruction as the election approaches, when a convergence between rebellion-related, and inter and intra clan conflict occurs as military forces and armed rebels take sides between warring clans and factions. 

Mindanao scholars such as Patricio Abinales, James Putzel, and John Sidel have previously noted how local strong men made Mindanao, and how the region provided an ideal case of the country’s “imperfect democracy” and “political bossism”. More recently, the conflict scholar Stathis Kalyvas called attention to the birth of “ruthless political entrepreneurs” who shape and are shaped by the dynamics between states, clans, and conflict. 

The viciousness of the Maguindanao attack shows how these phenomena resonates here. It demonstrates the weak and narrow reach of the central Philippine state in Muslim Mindanao, and how the continued reliance on local strong men will not end the cycle of violence

Building a great relationship isn’t a matter of an abundance of any one big thing; there is no “magic spell” or “magic bullet” that’s going to instantly put you over the top. But that’s a good thing, because the alternative is creating a mixture of more common, attainable things, and any man can do that, IF he knows what goes into the mix!
 
Before we get started, check out this news article on the current state of divorces, counseling, etc., as influenced by current economic conditions. It’s downright scary to see how many people are unhappily stuck together because they think they can’t afford divorce or even counseling!http://www.makingherhappy.com/. It’s called “THE Man’s Guide to Great Relationships and Marriage,” and from what my readers and I have seen, it has that which will cure what ails your relationship, if you do nothing more than read and apply it. Don’t tell anybody I told you so, but just between us, it’s a whole lot of fun, so get to it now, before you do another thing!

One thing that caught my eye in the article was how these people who seek counseling because of the expense of divorce are looking at $1,000 or more for 10 or more sessions. Most of my readers never need counseling, and the few who opt for it have never required more than a session or two, often only a half-hour. Un-freaking-believable. I was flamed on the Divorce Busters’ web site by some guy who said that he was a counselor and was appalled because I gave specific advice. If it takes others ten sessions to get things on track and it takes me one, I can see why that might upset him.

By the way, in the end he ignored my advice to leave a woman who obviously had no love or respect for him, as evidenced by the way she chronically abused and demeaned him, because he found that by deceiving her, his situation became tolerable, and that in his estimation, deceit was the key to a happy relationship. I didn’t bother responding out of respect for the owner of the web site, Michelle Weiner-Davis, PhD. She tries to help people, while this guy was just looking for validation of his mistakes instead of a solution.

Getting into today’s lesson, as many of you already know, one of my acquired talents and favorite achievements is that of being a chef. The fact is I’m a “very alpha male” and therefore not only a leader, but also a consummate do-it-yourselfer, the most secure route to the independence that every alpha male demands, and a man who loves good food as much as I do needs to be able to create it at will, because unless you live in New York City, there are more places to get an average or bad meal than there are to get a good one.

(As a quick aside, New Yorkers are probably the only people on this planet that I envy as a whole, because in my experience, you just can’t find a bad meal in New York City. I’ve literally had better food from a NYC street vendor’s cart than I’ve had at restaurants in other places. A bad restaurant isn’t going to survive very long in a densely populated city with commercial real estate prices and rental rates as high as they are there. If you love good food, a vacation there is worth the stay just for the food!)

Getting back on topic, I was making omelets for breakfast this morning (“guy omelets,” loaded with pizza sauce, cheese, pepperoni, mushrooms, etc. – use your favorite pizza toppings!), and it hit me how much has to be just right for the eggs to set right, and how that equated to a relationship.

If you add too much water or milk, they don’t hold together and you’ll end up with runny scrambled eggs. If you let the mixture reach too high a temperature by leaving it in the pan too long, the proteins “spasm” and force all the water out of the eggs, giving you rubbery lumps sitting in water. Too much heat quickly will cause them to scorch and burn. Like baking anything that turns into a set foam (omelet, cake, biscuits, etc.), it’s a matter of chemistry and physics, and you have to have the right amount of everything to make it perfect, and getting close will get you something very good.

It’s the same way with relationships. Think about the things required to keep a woman happy:

You need to be sensitive to a woman’s emotional condition and have good communications skills, but if you over apply either you end up being treated like a girlfriend.

You need to project a strong leader-like personality, but if you cross the line and come off as controlling, you’re toast!

You need to have a good sense of humor and know how to have fun and make her laugh, but if you do it too often, you’re an over-aged adolescent clown, not “her dream guy who can be so much fun and makes her laugh when she feels bad.” (She really will get bored with too much comedy.)

You need to project self-respect and groom and dress in a manner that does so, but if you go too far with that, especially if you go “metrosexual,” you become conceited, fussy, spend more on skin and hair care products than she does, and you’re fun to shop with but nothing else (GIRLFRIEND AGAIN!), not to mention getting all the attention that she wants when the two of you go out.

You need to be a friend and companion, but if you take that too far, you become “just friends,” and a “nice guy,” somebody she wants to watch a chick-flick with, not somebody she wants to have come into the house, sweep her off her feet, and ravish her. Just another relationship for her to have to manage, and women manage a lot of relationships, actively. And, regrettably, you’ll also be someone who can’t stand up to her, and hence, in her eyes, someone who can’t stand up FOR her.

There are a lot of people touting a lot of ways to instantly get results, and as men, we tend to try to make each thing we hear about be that one magic thing we’ve been missing to make everything wonderful again. We heard women wanted a man to be “nice” and “sensitive” back in the 1980’s. We gave up on being the men that our fathers taught us to be and started being wimps who cried in front of their women while watching a movie.

What they wanted was for us to be real men, treat them as someone we liked (nice) instead of taking all their money and beating them up and then leaving them for one a little younger, and to be emotionally aware enough know that there would be times when they would be upset for no apparent reason, and other times when they needed to talk to somebody, and that busting through the door yelling “I’m home! Where’s my damned dinner?” wasn’t going to work out very well for anyone involved.

You don’t need to know every little thing there is to know about women, but there are some things that you do need to know if you ever want to be happy with one or more of them. And there again, it’s not just one thing you’ll need to know about, but a mix of things: compatibility, communications, emotions, mentality, needs, wants, and reactions, just to name the big ones. And then you need to throw into that mix everything that makes the women in your life (wife, daughters, sisters, friends, wives of friends, coworkers, wives of coworkers – there are probably a lot more women in your life than you realize) individuals, their idiosyncrasies that will endear you to them if you notice and appreciate.

With all these “mixes” going on, it sounds like you need a HUGE cookbook, doesn’t it?

Well, no, you don’t, and no, I’m not going to drop that “recipe for a happy marriage” cliché on you. However, you do need to learn a few things because there are several aspects of your relationship that you need to master and manage.

But! That’s not to say that you need a dozen books on psychology, several on communication, a few on seduction, a bunch on female physiology and sexual technique, one on women’s history, etc. Yeah, that’s a mixture, too, but it’s a whole lot of overkill, and quite frankly, since a lot of women think they want things that they really respond to quite negatively, it’s also going to be pretty confusing.

There is an answer for you, though. It’s not a freebie, but you can easily afford it, no matter what you’re situation. It’s not a magic pill, but it’s a regimen you can easily swallow. It’s not likely to turn your life upside down overnight, but some of my readers have stopped their divorces cold within less than a week of receiving it, and over the course of several weeks after that put things back on track and then went on to make them better than they’ve ever been.

Some are going more slowly, taking a few months, because sudden change just isn’t in them (you know, the detail-oriented sort who take the time to check and double-check and study everything before taking action), but even if you are one of those people, what’s two or three months compared to extending your marriage as much as thirty or forty years, and making it a great marriage instead of a trap that sucks the life out of you?

Or worse, what are two or three months compared to the years you might continue to be unhappy and/or alone, or stuck with the wrong person, if things continue the way they’re going? Not much, not much at all. Let’s see, three months study and self-improvement for 30 years of happiness. That’s a 12,000% return, and unlike the stock market, you’re in total control of whether that investment pays off, because it’s based on choices you make and actions you take, not the choices and actions of others. And I don’t even want to try to compute the percentage gain if you only have to spend the two to four hours required to read the book and hit the ground running!

Your answer is at

In the meantime, live well, be well, and have a wonderful day!
David Cunningham

Labels: Alpha Male, Communication, Confidence, control, How to Please a Woman, How Women Behave, Leadership, Male Attitude, Projecting Respect, Respecting Women