If you are able to read this newspaper and this column today, you have to raise your eyes to heaven and thank God that the world did not end today as predicted by the Mayan civilization. But on the other hand, it reminds me of that conversation with Julius Caesar and the seer who warned the Roman dictator about the Ides of March. As the Ides of March came… Julius Caesar went to the seer and told him, that the Ides of March have come… that nothing has happened to him. But the seer replied to him saying, “Indeed, the Ides of March have come… but not gone.” As the Americans would say, “It ain’t over till it’s over!”
But looking at life from the eyes of faith, we know that even our Lord Jesus Christ told his disciples that even he doesn’t know the time and date of the end of time. Only the Father knows this. So how could the Mayans predict the end of times so accurately that they even dared mention the final date? Even the famous Nostradamus would refrain from putting dates otherwise nobody would read his books anymore.
Of course the descendants of the Mayans in Guatemala City are proud of their ancestors for coming up with a very sophisticated and precise calendar because of their ability to read the stars. They say that this was a legacy left by the Mayans. The so-called “Long Count” Mayan calendar started 5,000 years ago and ends exactly today. In my book, a greater legacy that the Mayans gave to the world is not this gift of prophecy, but they were the first to cultivate and grow corn, which was their staple 3,000 years ago. Without corn, there would be no fast food industry that we enjoy today.
In case you didn’t know, the Mayan people spoke 36 languages in different regions of what is now Central America. Yet, thanks to the Spanish Conquistadors, their languages totally disappeared… eradicated by their Spanish colonizers. This is something that we Cebuanos ought to be proud of in the sense that after 400 years in the convent under Spain and 50 years of Hollywood under the Americans, we still speak our native tongue.
Of course, it doesn’t help us any that when the Americans gave us our Independence on July 4,1946, we became a colony of the Tagalogan Republic, where Tagalog, which they disguised as Pilipino, is a mandatory subject in our educational system. Why can’t our schools teach us the Cebuano language? Again, language is the tool of colonizers to eradicate our culture and language by imposing their own to the detriment of the native speakers. But then, many Cebuanos love to be under our Tagalog rulers and kowtow to their every whim. But like it or not, we are not Tagalog speakers!
I already wrote in earlier columns that the people of Scotland last January wanted to get out of the United Kingdom because for hundreds of years, they were never comfortable under British rule. We know enough about the great exploits of Sir William Wallace who fought the English until in 1502 James IV of Scotland signed the Treaty of Perpetual Peace with Henry VII of England whose daughter James IV Margaret Tudor later married. But last January, the Scots wanted a referendum to gain their independence from England. This should be an interesting story.
The same is true to Catalonia in Spain, which for many centuries wanted self-determination. But after losing to Generalissimo Franco during the Spanish Civil War, the Catalan language was not allowed to be taught in schools. Last month, the Separatist Party won their seats in Parliament and now they want a referendum to be free from Spain.
If you ask me, we should use Dec.21, 2012 not as the day that the world would end, but rather it should mark the end of the rule of the Tagalogs over us in the Visayas. We Cebuanos are all so proud to say that we could be the next Singapore… but we know too well inside our hearts that this could never happen under the rule of Central Manila.
This brings me back to the issue hounding Gov. Gwen F. Garcia who was suspended, but I already said that she was kicked out over a flimsy administrative case filed by the late Vice-Gov. Greg Sanchez. While DILG Sec. Manuel “Mar” Roxas says that politics have nothing to do with this… he clearly lied that this suspension was prepared by his predecessor the late DILG Sec. Jesse Robredo. If so, why then did the late Jesse Robredo give Gov. Gwen Garcia, not one, but two plaques of appreciation for Good Housekeeping? So is Mar telling us that Jesse Robredo was lying?
There is no question that the principal author of this suspension is Rep. Tomas Osmeña. If you ask me… they just made a terrible mistake because there will be a backlash on this issue in the May 2013 elections. But then as I’ve said… the LP has control of the PCOS machines!
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Email: vsbobita@gmail.com