Change is the only certainty in life Henry A.

Wallace, US Vice President 19415 Mahirap ba tayong bansa kaya hindi mahalaga sa atin ang kasaysayan at sariling kultura, o mahirap tayong bansa DAHIL hindi tayo natututo sa nakaraan at hindi natin pinapahalagahan ang ating sariling kultura? Ayon kay Floro Quibuyen sa aklat na A Nation Aborted: Rizal, American Hegemony, and Philippine Nationalism, dito ninais na isakatuparan ni Rizal ang kanyang konsepto ng bansa, na hindi batay sa lahi at dugo kundi sa isang nagkakaisang damdamin, sentimiento nacional na nagsisimula sa pagtutulungan at edukasyon ng isat isa (Quibuyen 1999,163-186). Ditoy isa sa mga kauna-unahang utos ang tunay na pag-ibig sa bayang tinubuan at lubos na pagdadamayan ng isat isa. Ang pangunahing aral ng Katipunan ay hindi lumaban lamang, kundi ang umibig.

Human beings are parts of a body, created from the same essence. When one part is hurt and in pain, the other parts remain restless. If the misery of others leaves you indifferent, you cannot be called a human being. Saadi Shirazi, Persian poet-philosopher For to be free is not merely to cast off ones chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of [Link] Mandela Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom. Albert Einstein Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man cant ride you unless your back is bent. Martin Luther King Jr. If we dont believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we dont believe in it at [Link] Chomsky Nothing can be more abhorrent to democracy than to imprison a person or keep him in prison because he is unpopular. This is really the test of [Link] Churchill

When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall, always. Mahatma Gandhi I have estimated the influence of Reason upon Love and found that it is like that of a raindrop upon the ocean, which makes one little mark upon the waters face and [Link] Shirazi, Persian poet Out beyond our ideas of right-doing and wrong-doing, there is a field. Ill meet you [Link] Jalaluddin Rumi, Persian poet That context is largely shaped by processes in which the key resource in todays world information is generated, distributed, consulted, and exchanged in digital formats. At the center stage of these informational developments, mediaboth conventional and neware the crucial intermediaries between the governed and the governors. This mediascape has important implications for the management and the perception of political realities. It creates both unprecedented forms of access to information and massive overloads of data. It both hampers and facilitates social communication and reshapes power configurations, in both empowering and disempowering ways. The time offers implicitly a strong and convincing argument for the need of media literacy. In complex historical processes and the related protest movements and countermovementsthe larger volume of news stories that is now available through many different vehicles makes the issue of what to believe and what not to believe and how to distinguish propaganda from journalism for media audiences a tall order. Therefore, unless there is a global effort to empower audiences to meet information flows with critical, alert, and discerning minds, the greater availability and greater diversity of information provision could be a massive exercise in futility. We needas recipientsto find ways to deal with a rapidly expanding supply of multiple perspectives. The information multiplicity can make us into detached nonparticipants who want to remain at safe distances from disturbing realities; it can also render us utterly confused and clueless observers, but it can also trigger our sociopolitical activism.

To say that the government can improve on market outcomes at times does not mean that it always will. Public policy is made not by angels but by a political process that is far from perfect. Sometimes policies are designed simply to reward the politically powerful. Sometimes they are made by wellintentioned leaders who are not fully informed. As you study economics, you will become a better judge of when a government policy is justifiable because it promotes efficiency or equality and when it is not.

IF THE U.S. CONGRESS and other national legislatures are serious about the climate, energy and social justice goals they espouse, then they should be realistic as to how they are achieved. What we

have now are major distortions of policy initiatives fuelled by corporate lobbyists and short sighted greed. But special interest pressure and lobbying is obviously no way to make policy which can begin to meet cur- rent challenges. As the interdependent crises of climate change, energy scarcity and gross inequality are reaching critical stages, what is needed is a comprehensive decision-making framework that can meet environmental and social goals as well as create a rational and sustainable energy policy.

The situation we now face is critical and unprecedented. The imminence of global energy scarcity that will occur with peak oil, predictably followed by peak natural gas and peak coal, is coming at the same time that climate change is reaching a potential point of no return.104 In addition, many other global challenges such as soil degradation, water loss, pollution and escalating social and economic inequalities, make it clear that this is a moment in history for the best of human values to guide a cooperative global effort for humanity to survive and thrive. How we produce and consume energy is central to this effort.

Discussions and debate on a sustainable energy future tend to focus on the production side, the technical issues which compare environmental impacts and net energy ratios, as well as economic costs. But the discussions are also highly politicized as evidenced by the ethanol debacle. This is putting a policy priority on an energy source with little if any net energy return, which contributes to climate change rather than alleviating the problem, and which con- tributes to several other serious environmental problems as listed above. It is also having a devastating impact on traditional farm communities and indigenous peoples around the world. None of this unfortunate transition would be possible without massive government subsidies.

The energy consumption side of the discussion has hardly begun, yet it is essential for a just and sustainable future. If oil and natural gas availability are soon likely to decline significantly, and with a decline in coal perhaps only decades behind, it is urgent that all societies acknowledge that the high per capita energy consumption that occurred in developed countries over the last century and a half is about to come to an end. There are no alternative energy sources that have the high net energy return of oil, gas and coal, and when these non-renewable resources reach their peak production and start to decline, everything will change. The realization that these peaks are imminent is too slowly finding its way into public consciousness, and the full impact has not yet set in. We will all be forced to consume less energy; of this there is little doubt. The big question is whether this will be forced on us by the inexorable economic chaos from depletion of our primary non-renewable resources, oil, natural gas and coal, or by our adapting to this inevitability in a thoughtful and organized manner.

The prospect of declining energy availability can arouse considerable fear of economic and social col- lapse, making it difficult to face the realities. Ironically, it is avoiding these energy realities that will give rise to much greater dangers than if we look at the facts and deal with them in a fair and realistic way. Fortunately there are considerable data available which point to the conclusion that human happiness and well-being, objectively measured, do not require the high per capita consumption levels that characterize northern industrial nations. A state of well-being and general contentment is quite possible with about one third of the annual per capita current energy consumption in North America.107 With a variety of renewable energy sources that are relatively benign environmentally, it might just be possible to provide this level of energy consumption for a stable global population. The sooner we embrace this reality and plan for adapting to it, the more likely will we retain a reasonable quality of life for developed nations, as well as be able to assist the majority of poor people to attain similar standards of well-being. The important point is to acknowledge that a lower level of energy consumption is inevitable in any case over the next few decades.

Our current path of frantically seeking more oil and gas exploration, expansion of nuclear power, and subsidies to the wrong renewable sources of energy precisely the path the G8 nations decided to take last year in St. Petersburg will only make the situation worse. A sustainable and just energy future is not possible with such an approach. We desperately require a new framework in which to think about humanitys energy future.

This is not the place for the full development of a comprehensive global framework for choosing energy systems to deal with the global crises identified above, but we can identify three essential requirements for such a comprehensive framework:

First and foremost, our energy systems must be ecologically sustainable. The present climate crisis should make evident the need for maintaining critical global ecosystem services upon which we are dependent. Sustainability across generations is also a justice issue, making this criterion the most basic and vital condition for planning our energy future.

Secondly, social justice demands that we choose energy systems, which if scaled up globally to their sustainable limits, are accessible to everyone. Fair distribution of scarce energy resources should be regarded as a basic human right.

 Finally, we must choose energy systems that meet the first two criteria while providing the highest level of net energy available.

The example of ethanol and other agrofuels high- lights the absurdity of investing in an energy system which at first appears renewable and environmentally benign without comprehensive life cycle analyses of all the environmental and social impacts that go along with that system. Lurching to a solution because it appears to be environmentally friendly, without such life-cycle analyses is simplistic and irresponsible. We have the skill and knowledge to provide life cycle data to test agrofuels against the above criteria. Current data indicate that agrofuels fail each of the above three critical tests. The massive subsidies and investments in agrofuels should there- fore cease, as they are causing more harm than good, and the benefits are concentrated in the hands of those who need them the least, large corporations. The data on agrofuels indicates they have much lower net energy returns than other renewables, as well as more negative environmental impacts. And the social impacts are nothing less than a continuation of a brutal colonialism under the guise of economic globalization. A just and sustainable energy future is possible, but as Einstein pointed out many years ago. We cant solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them. Albert Einstein A new paradigm is required. Not just more engineering but a new way of looking at quality of life. Not just more economic development, but a new sense of genuine global cooperation. Not just pursuing the chimera of nationalistic energy security, but a new paradigm based on social justice, and ecological sustainability non-violence against people and nature. The alternatives are too horrible to contemplate. 23