Stress and frustration

If I were Noynoy Aquino, I would stop accusing China of this and that if there is nothing I can do about it. His constant bellyaching about Chinese bullying in the South China Sea only reminds us painfully of how helpless we are against such bullying.

In Noynoy's latest tirade against China, he accused Beijing of violating a declaration on the conduct of parties with claims in the South China Sea. But in the same breath he went on to say that the declaration is non-binding and therefore there is nothing the Philippines can do about it. What a wimp.

I am not saying that we do a Vietnam. But there is something I admire about how the Vietnamese are facing up to Chinese bullying -- they went on a rampage and forced China to send ships to evacuate hundreds of its citizens living in that country.

And while China and Vietnam have a history of armed conflict over border disputes, this latest flareup is just a few days old, starting with China sending an oil rig into disputed waters off Vietnam, with Vietnam responding by sending ships to within spitting distance from the rig.

China naturally sent its own ships and a "firefight" ensued using water cannons. Of course this had all been very dangerous and could have easily escalated into something far worse. But frankly I do not know how it can be worse than just gritting our teeth as we watch helplessly while China eats away our sovereignty.

But if we indeed are that helpless, then we should make a common effort as a nation to resign ourselves to our ignominious fate and simply turn away and forget anything is even happening in our own backyard. Because the longer we keep watching and not be able to do anything, we will only all die of stress and frustration.

The trouble with us is that we keep looking toward America and to our neighbors for help in solving our own problems. Look, no less than President Obama was here, but despite all the wining and dining and God knows what else, the American leader never gave a categorical commitment to protect us.

The best that Obama left us with was a tongue-in-cheek declaration of adherence to some treaty that, as everyone knows, can only be activated if it is in the best interest of America to do so. But America can no longer pull the trigger against other superpowers, as Vladimir Putin is very clearly demonstrating.

Oh sure, America and its allies can slap economic sanctions. But for how long will the sanctions stay in place without eventually hurting the other economies, including their own. Remember that we now have a global economy dependent on one another. You cannot kick in one leg without bringing down everything.

Besides, the economy of America and its allies are no longer that robust to be able to withstand some hiccup somewhere. Even America itself cannot afford to have the Russian economy collapse as the repercussions of such a collapse can be felt everywhere.

Now Russia is no match for the Chinese economy. America knows that very well. And that is why the best America can do against Chinese bullying is to do what Noynoy is doing -- rant and rant. Economic sanctions? If America cannot kick Russia's leg, it will not be able to bend China's finger.

In a shooting war, China has not reached that point where it can beat America. In a shooting war, America can still blow China to Kingdom Come. But that will also mean wiping out the entire Chinese economy from the face of the earth, right?

So the more America is not willing to go in that direction. America knows its limitations and so does China. And where does that leave us, poor puny and defenseless Philippines? Why, back to where we started with this article, with Noynoy ranting because there is just nothing else.

Oh, we do have a case filed somewhere (let us just say somewhere so as not to embarrass anyone later). But if armed force is out of the question, how will a piece of paper favorable to us change the situation? If we win the case and things remain the same, the sooner we will all die of stress and frustration.