Beware the Ides of March

In the ancient Roman calendar, the 15th of March, May and October were the ides of those months. Julius Caesar was supposed to have been warned to beware of the ides of March shortly before his assassination. When the ides of March came, Julius Caesar was supposed to have mockingly told the soothsayer who warned him, "The ides of March are come." The soothsayer’s reply was, "Yes, but they are not gone."

Now comes the warning of no less a person than Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople that the United Nations weapons inspectors will submit their report on Iraq to the UN Security Council on March 15. War could break out on that very day or a few days following. So this coming Ides of March may be a day that the whole world will have to reckon with.

Actually we don’t even have to wait for the Ides of March. We have had no real peace for years now and the recent bombings at the Davao City International Airport are definitely not a prelude to coming peace. We belong to the generation that lived through the war that was supposed to end all wars. And today, if anything, peace seems to be a bigger problem than ever. During those days war was between nations. Today there is internal disorder almost worldwide. Metro Manila is now under red alert.

The sad part is that the world today is in reality a global village. That is why what happens anywhere affects all. And we are entering the so-called Information Revolution. Never has it been so easy to get in touch with any person anywhere in the world or to get any type of information from one’s own home through the Internet. Yet we can’t seem to communicate with each other. We agree, for instance, with Senate President Franklin Drilon’s statement in Davao City that lack of education is the root cause of the Moro uprising in Mindanao. A survey conducted by a group commissioned by the Philippine Business for Social Progress showed that Mindanao Muslims had the lowest functional literacy rates in the whole country. We have always maintained that true freedom has to start with freedom from ignorance. What use is freedom of speech to a person who cannot read or write? We must make sure that our Muslim sector in Mindanao gets the very best education and we mean a Muslim education where they are taught the teachings of Muhammad. If Christians and Muslims follow the teachings of Christ and Muhammad, they will live in peace. All great religions teach their faithful to love all men.

The root cause of the unrest everywhere is ignorance and poverty. That is the problem the whole world has to address. Terrorism just aggravates these problems. As I repeatedly say, when we have a problem, we must all be part of the solution. If we are not part of the solution, then, we automatically become part of the problem itself.