Away from politics for a while. Sometimes when I see too much of the machinations of this government, it sickens me so that I cannot write.

So here’s good news for Cebuanos and the world at large. Some friends of mine put up a portal site that offers news about Cebu, plus other tidbits on real estate properties, personalities, scenes and things happening in and around the "Queen City of the South."

It’s written by Cebuanos for Cebuanos and the world. The site is www.realcebu.com.

News items and articles are welcome as long as they’re about Cebu or interest stories on Ceuanos living in the Philippines or abroad. Check out the site. I’m sure it will be worth your visit.

An anonymous reader asked, "Why do you hate ABS-CBN?"

Whatever gave him/her that idea?

I don’t hate ABS-CBN. What I hate is their –and all TV networks for that matter- exploitation of what is so wrong with our culture. It creates a feeding frenzy so much like sharks feeding on one another after one of them is found wounded and bleeding.

Our country has been bleeding as far as history can recall. We’ve been exploited by the Spanish, the British and the Americans. It was the Americans who introduced corruption and nepotism in Philippine governance. How did they do it? By conniving with the elite. The elite, in turn, used the conquistadors to hold on to their wealth and status.

So it is today that the elite continues to manipulate and influence so that the majority of the country’s wealth would continue to filter to them. The Wowowee stampede was a glaring example. ABS-CBN clearly was exploiting the poor by feeding on our bad cultural trait of looking for dole-outs and the easy life.

They try to cover up the exploitation by saying they just want to make people happy or help the poor. Yet, look at the TV shows they air: gossips, toilet humor, voyeurism, soap operas (Korean and otherwise) and entertainment programs that feature talents who have no talent whatsoever; none of which have any socially-redeeming values. They’re aired to feed people what they want, so they can earn money from the sponsorship. Mao Tse Tung was wrong in saying that "religion is the opiate of the masses." It’s inane TV shows.

GMA-7 fares no better. The only difference is they have has-beens hosting shows. One of them invited people to watch their lunch-time show since there "was no stampede here," thereby treading on the sensibilities of the families of the stampede victims. Their news programs almost gloat at the misfortune of ABS-CBN, yet their TV fare is just the same mishmash but with merely different personalities.

As I had mentioned in previous articles, it’s all about ratings. The higher the ratings, the higher the sponsorship fees. This means they wont air programs that teach, that inculcate values, that encourage hard work and the building of character, because these are not popular.

So ABS-CBN feeds on the desire for junk, while the masses feed on the junk. A feeding frenzy thus ensues. Unless ABS-CBN and the other networks own up to this fact, there will be no lesson learned from the Wowowee stampede.

I have often wondered if Christianity is for Filipinos. Many of us have watched spellbound as Cardinals all over the globe convened in Rome to elect a new Pope. In Rome! All because Catholicism began in the Empire of Rome. So, in effect, Catholicism is a Western religion embraced by Eastern people.

It’s no different with Evangelical Christianity. We have streams of foreign (more often than not, American) preachers descending on our land to preach, again, a Westernized spiritual concept. Then watch as Filipino pastors begin to preach like their American counterparts complete with American idioms and twang.

Many Filipinos like to boast that we are the only Christian nation in Asia. Actually this is an embarassment. To look at it in another way, we are the only nation without an Asian spirituality. Yet we are one of the most corrupt and violent countries in the world. Go figure.

I wonder if there’s any book or reading material on how our forebears worshipped. We might learn a few things about our spirituality and maybe even about ourselves.

Perhaps Christians would dispute me and claim that Christianity is the only way to God. Well, I won’t try to argue a thoroughly subjective subject. But I’ll say this: When we look around us and see our corrupt officials, discombobulated traffic, hypocritical church leaders and half-hearted parishioners, do we see a fulfillment of religion or a lack of it?

Teddy Benigno wrote in his column dated, Feb. 7, 2005:

None of our politicians today even dares to dream as Ninoy did, battle the Fates unflinchingly, pull out the sword, because they have none. And I ask you: How can this country, which bred Ninoy Aquino, which bred Rizal, Bonifacio, Mabini, have produced the sorry, dismal, revolting gaggle of political criminals and damn fools we have today?

The answer is simple, Mr. Benigno. We never teach our children courage. Instead we teach them how to be wimps. Case in point: we place on a pedestal Ninoy’s daughter, Kris, who is the very epitome of cheap, crass, and unrefined womanhood. So who do you think our young Filipinas want to be when they grow up?

Another case in point: we elect dolts like Erap Estrada and then try to correct that wrong by electing FPJ. Still, we never learn. There’s Noli de Castro, Lito Lapid, Jinggoy Estrada, Jamby Madrigal, and a host of actors and actresses in other public offices with nary a qualification than being a screen icon.

We should teach our children courage. To stand up for their ideas, no matter how insignificant they may seem. To uphold values as God-given rights and not as items to be bartered for position, power and a slot to enter Star Circle Quest.

We should teach them what government should be like: an institution built on the foundations of honesty, integrity and compassion, yet with the firm resolve to punish those who would undermine its responsibility to uplift the lives of the people it governs.

Courage is the very lifeblood of character. Without it we breed Dilangalens, Enriles, Brat Packs, and other Congressional clowns who use their influence so they can stay in power and continue to defecate on the very constituents they vowed to serve.

Our heroes, such as the ones Benigno mentioned–Ninoy, Rizal, Bonifacio, Mabini–should not be called heroes because they courageously died for our country. They should be called heroes because they courageously LIVED for our country, but died in the hands of cowards.

Alas, when we don’t courageously live for our fellow Filipinos, we’re just as guilty of murdering our heroes.