(“creative politics” image[1] from Politics.co.uk)
The phrasemaker did not define, so I have to: “Creative politics is the pursuit of power for the good of the people, not only the pursuer.” I offer a new term in contrast: “Creature politics is the pursuit of power for the good of a few people, especially the pursuer’s group.” What we have prevailing right now all over the world is creature politics.
I’m sorry to say but one activist I admired ages ago, Walden Bello (above image), I now have to label a “creature politician.” He is currently a PH congressman, representing the activist group Akbayan Partylist. This essay has been triggered by his Facebook sharing Thursday, 09 September 2021:
The Horror…
Can the media please stop reducing politics to a duel between Digong and Dicky? The country should be spared the horror of the likely ending to this supermacho struggle: two exhibitionists competing to show us who has the longer-range rifle and, worse, firing at each other. Alam naman natin wala sila sa kalingkingan ni Clint Eastwood. (My free translation: We know they cannot even match the ability of Clint Eastwood’s index finger.)
It’s “My politician is better than yours!”
“Digong” (President Rodrigo Duterte) and “Dicky” (Senator Richard Gordon): What Mr Bello is pointing at is the intramurals, the pursuit of gross personal unhappiness for target people, not the pursuit of Gross National Happiness for the Filipino people!
Mr Bello is trying to be funny at the expense of public education. I expected more from him because, among other things, he is a graduate of Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines and Princeton University of the USA[2]; and he is a Professor of Sociology and Public Administration at the University of the Philippines. He won the prestigious alternate-Nobel Right Livelihood Award in 2003, “for his outstanding efforts in educating civil society about the effects of corporate globalization, and how alternatives to it can be implemented[3]” (Rightlivelihood.org).
Instead, the mouth of Mr Bello should be like the mouth-media of ideal journalists, which I have already called THiNK Journalism. The mouth-media should be spewing the
Truth that is at the same time the
Helpful that is at the same time the
Inspiring that is at the same time the
Necessary that is at the same time the
Kind.
THiNK!
(You can read more about it in my blog, “THiNK Journalism[4],” blogspot.com.)
Creature politics is what our media are playing, especially Rappler of Nobel-Peace-Prize-winner Maria Ressa.
On the current PH Presidential Race, we need to get our acts together literally and figuratively. We need a hundred people pursuing creative politics in media; we have to discourage all those hundreds of people, politicians and journalists included, who are pursuing creature politics. Remember:
Creative Politics – aimed at Gross National Happiness.
Creature Politics – aimed at Gross Personal Happiness!@517
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