Quote for the day.
"I have always thought of the earth as a universal human resource. No one has a right to own it."
-Larry Esteva in Bamboo in the Wind
I didn't really like the book at first, but about halfway through, it kinda grew on me, and right now, towards the end, this one line has made Bamboo in the Wind one of the best books I've ever read. It talks about the Marcos dictatorship here in the Philippines back in the 70s and 80s, and it made me feel kinda lucky that even though the country's going through political turnoil right now, at least we didn't experience the cruelty and inhumane treatment from the government and the military back then. God, if you'd just read the descriptions of how the people who had the courage to stand up for what they believed in were punished... Soldiers raping the women who joined the rallies, people shot for no apparent reason, anyone who had so much a said a fucking syllable against those who were in power being tortured and killed, and this description of a woman who was arrested for being active in protests, "Minda's face was swollen almost beyond recognition, the skin discolored with bruises. Her arms, covered in welts, were studded with burns... Connie forced herself to look into Minda's face once more. Something seemed to be wrong with it, and she realized that her nose was broken. Her lips sagged, and pushing up her upper lip gently, she found that Minda had lost most of her teeth... She tried to hold her friend's hand, but found that it was a mess of dried blood... Her vaginal bleeding had left stains on her hospital gown. Her body was blue and swollen all over. Her belly and her chest cavity were distended and black with bruises, and both of her legs were broken." and when a captain in the military killed her... "Minda was hanging from the shower. A stout electric cord was tied around her neck. Her head hung limply to one side, her body supin, her arms dangling at her sides. Her legs showed below her short hospital gown, black and blue with bruises, and the tips of her toes were covered with blood clots where her toenails had been pulled out." that's just gross and inhumane. No one deserves that brutality. How could those people even think of doing it?? Fuck that power-hungry bastard they called the President. Martial Law wouldn't have been necessary if he wasn't a bastard, in the first place. No wonder the country is getting worse and worse; everyone seems intent on getting what he wants without thinking about how it will affect others. Selfish, greedy motherfuckers, going about pretending that they're sooo interested in helping the masses, and of course, the poor, knowing nobody else to help them, believes that these people would pull them out of poverty, but once they're in power, they forget about their promises.
Wow. I actually talked about the country and politics and the Martial Law. Since when did that happen?
-Larry Esteva in Bamboo in the Wind
I didn't really like the book at first, but about halfway through, it kinda grew on me, and right now, towards the end, this one line has made Bamboo in the Wind one of the best books I've ever read. It talks about the Marcos dictatorship here in the Philippines back in the 70s and 80s, and it made me feel kinda lucky that even though the country's going through political turnoil right now, at least we didn't experience the cruelty and inhumane treatment from the government and the military back then. God, if you'd just read the descriptions of how the people who had the courage to stand up for what they believed in were punished... Soldiers raping the women who joined the rallies, people shot for no apparent reason, anyone who had so much a said a fucking syllable against those who were in power being tortured and killed, and this description of a woman who was arrested for being active in protests, "Minda's face was swollen almost beyond recognition, the skin discolored with bruises. Her arms, covered in welts, were studded with burns... Connie forced herself to look into Minda's face once more. Something seemed to be wrong with it, and she realized that her nose was broken. Her lips sagged, and pushing up her upper lip gently, she found that Minda had lost most of her teeth... She tried to hold her friend's hand, but found that it was a mess of dried blood... Her vaginal bleeding had left stains on her hospital gown. Her body was blue and swollen all over. Her belly and her chest cavity were distended and black with bruises, and both of her legs were broken." and when a captain in the military killed her... "Minda was hanging from the shower. A stout electric cord was tied around her neck. Her head hung limply to one side, her body supin, her arms dangling at her sides. Her legs showed below her short hospital gown, black and blue with bruises, and the tips of her toes were covered with blood clots where her toenails had been pulled out." that's just gross and inhumane. No one deserves that brutality. How could those people even think of doing it?? Fuck that power-hungry bastard they called the President. Martial Law wouldn't have been necessary if he wasn't a bastard, in the first place. No wonder the country is getting worse and worse; everyone seems intent on getting what he wants without thinking about how it will affect others. Selfish, greedy motherfuckers, going about pretending that they're sooo interested in helping the masses, and of course, the poor, knowing nobody else to help them, believes that these people would pull them out of poverty, but once they're in power, they forget about their promises.
Wow. I actually talked about the country and politics and the Martial Law. Since when did that happen?