As we are approaching, or shall we say teetering, on the doorsteps of the Love month of February, where everybody should be performing love action, in words and in spirit, and with body language, I am reproducing a satirical commentary but changing or tweaking some portion of it, written by Mr. J.B. Baylon for one of the big national dailies, Malaya, entitled “Is Ms. G. Anti-AbsCbn?” We can still afford to be “satirical” since it is still January, right?
“My question must sound silly, because it does seem silly. But if you think deeper about it, I am serious. You see, I know someone or some group to be one of the staunchest champions of the anti-mining advocacy in the Philippines. Anti-mining, mind you, absolute and focused. They are those proponents of the view that “there is NO responsible mining,” that the term “responsible mining” is a myth, that all mining is bad. Maybe they also believe there is no responsible journalism or responsible broadcasting or maybe responsible person or group of persons? I would want to ask them that. But that’s not the reason why I suspect that they are anti-life. Here is why.
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“I would like to suppose that they, in their advocacy to stop mining absolutely and permanently in the Philippines, are so principled that they believe deep in their heart that mining, wherever it is done in the world, is bad. And that, there is NO responsible mining anywhere in the world. I would like to suppose that because I begin from the assumption that they are principled to their core, and this is the conclusion that I reach. So, because they are anti-mining and their principled stance tells themselves there is no responsible mining anywhere in the world, then there lies the root of them being anti-life.
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“You see, if they will have their way and mining is stopped throughout the whole world, in their eyes the sun will shine brighter, the rivers will be cleaner, the forests will be thicker, the air will be fresher.
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“But it will also mean that in five, maybe 10 years, all the companies, especially the, example – the broadcast networks will be a run-down network, its broadcast facilities obsolete, its cameras not working, its air-conditioning non-functional, its building elevators safety traps. Why? Because, without mining, these networks will have nothing to update its facilities with, simply because almost anything and everything it uses in its business is a product or by-product of mining!
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“But, thanks to these anti-mining individuals and groups, global mining would have ground to a halt. An unintended consequence of that is that example – all the these broadcast networks such as ABS-CBN (and of course GMA-7 and ABC-5 as well) would have ground to a halt, too, including all companies that uses all kinds of minerals that comes from the bowels of the earth! And anyone and everyone connected and working with these individuals or groups would be out of job: like Papa Piolo and Sam, Vice and the crew of a popular noontime show, Kabayan and Ka Ted and Ka Karen; Vic de Leon Lima and Ces Drilon and Doris Bigornia and Johnson Manabat; camera men, lighting crew, make-up artists and all. All of them – jobless, because of the global mining shutdown that in turn kills each and every broadcasting facility in the world. In GMA 7, Maki Pulido will be out of job. But so would be Arnold Clavio, Jessica Soho, Mike Enriquez and Mel Tiangco. ABC 5 would be dead. PTV 4 would be (thankfully, some would say) off the air. CNN, BBC, and Al Jazeera, too. And all thanks to the absolutist, single-minded focus of these anti-mining groups to shut down any and all types of mining because, in her eyes, there is NO responsible mining. (Maybe just as there is no responsible broadcasting, yes?)
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“This is what the non-thinking, absolutist anti-mining advocates do not realize, or do not want to realize. Their position, worse than that of the Luddites of the previous century, will cause the world to stop in its tracks and humankind to come to an end far more quickly than North Korea can kill us all. Because it is simplistic to think you can just go around advocating for the end to all mining without understanding the direct and indirect consequences of what you are mouthing. Like a global collapse of hospitals which will no longer have new equipment and supplies. Or a global collapse of transportation because there will be no spare parts or no new equipment like new planes and trains and ships and cars. Or a global collapse of communications….or…I can go on and on and on.
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“Simplistic. And irresponsible. And so, by the year 2025, all these networks like the Abs-Cbn’s beautiful headquarters on Bohol Avenue in Metro Manila will be a rundown center, vines climbing the walls, stink emanating from the bathrooms, lighting fixtures fallen, gates and doors creaking.The network – or whatever is left of it – would have moved to caves, maybe the Tabon Caves in Palawan or those in Bulacan that the revolutionaries in the time of the Spanish-Philippine war used. And from those caves the network – or whatever is left of it – would be desperately sending smoke signals to all its “listeners”, because they would have no broadcast facilities to use: no satellites or repeaters, no amplifiers and microphones, nothing that is the product or by-product of mining.
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“Thanks to the absolutist, single-minded advocacy that says that all mining is bad and there is no responsible mining. (Maybe just as there is no responsible profession or work, like broadcasting?) This is why, if I were a talent of one of that network, I’d pen a beautiful love note to their boss to ask him or her why he or she is advocating that I lose my job. If I were a camera man I would do the same. Or a lighting technician, or a make-up artist. Why do you want to shut down your network forever? Not to mention healthcare and transportation and communication and everything else? Because, folks, that is the ultimate consequence of this type of absolutist framework. A framework that will want to stop progress in its tracks in order to save the world, while putting humanity directly at risk for extinction.
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It’s Panagbenga season when you feel the cold spell. Many of tourists, local and international travellers will soon pack our already jampacked streets. Brace for the excitement for the love of the uniqueness of our place in the highlands. We welcome you all!
