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While there has been a lot of media focus on school for the students around the globe for missing learning because of pandemic , there has been not much attention on further education learners missing out and particularly for the learners at the Jails/prisons in the Philippines . From K-12 to students enrolled in higher education, the pandemic has affective the way students are getting their education including the People deprived Liberty( PDL).Just like traditional Colleges, education programs for people inside Jail and DAPECOL have had to make some changes in the wake of the pandemic. Our team at the College Education Behind Bars programs inside Davao City Jail and DAPECOL  campus have been working around the clock preparing  paper based modules of learning which PDLs can then complete , College Education Behind Bars has transitioned to a correspondence course model until its safe return to in person learning but mean time to continue developing their skills and getting their education for when we all return to normal face to face education. While this ensures that PDLs are able to continue to access their learning, we know that nothing can substitute for face-to-face learning, which is designed to rehabilitate PDLs . Although we don’t expect education to look the same as it did before the pandemic. However, we  don’t want to return simply to business as usual. This is a potentially exciting opportunity to look at the more effective and varied ways of delivering education and other activities .This is particularly important since PDLs currently spend so much time in their cells. In March we were able to flip students at College Education Behind Bars inside the Davao city jail into model paper based learning. Continue reading →

The early February military coup in Myanmar is a clear sign that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members cannot stick to their principle of non-interference and avoid reputational damage at the same time, especially when Myanmar continues to be the major thorn in the side of the of the more than fifty-year old organization. There is no doubt that the military coup in the former Burma country will have an impact on ASEAN members and regional security, especially on its member states. The question is how can we expect ASEAN to respond to the recent Myanmar coup? With the arrest of Myanmar’s Ms. Suu Kyi, President Win Myint, and other leaders of the National League for Democracy (NLD) the members already have been divided about how to response to the takeover; Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia have expressed concern over the power seizure, calling for restraint and a peaceful resolution of the matter, while the Philippines and other members have maintained that the issue was strictly an internal affair. Nevertheless, on Twitter, foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin, Jr. blamed the Myanmar coup on Western institutions.” The last people I will listen to is a white face in this issue . I am really angry that they destroyed a great thing,” he said. Regardless of the member states responses, the coup d’etat has had consequences. The displacement of the thousands of Muslim Rohingyans fleeing from their homes in Myanmar has put ASEAN in a bad situation with world leaders, the United Nations, and rights groups, among other activitists, accusing it of lacking leadership and failing to generate an effective response to the matter. If ASEAN member states ignore the problem in Myanmar, it can worsen the Rohingya Muslims’ situation and cause more people to flee to other countries. Minorities’ problems, in particular the Rohingya Muslims, have not been resolved, and the country has also inherited problems that were not settled during the six-year de facto leadership of Aung San Suu Kyi, who had received the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize during her fifteen years of detention. Seen as a champion of human rights, she also failed to deal with the crisis of the Rohingya minority. Continue reading →

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) knows very well what the Chinese government is doing to Uyghur Muslims, but it does not seem to want to talk about this. Many Muslim countries are the biggest violators of human rights, but China is hiding the reality of its treatment internationally. For example, the leaders will routinely bring up the Palestinian issue, the Kashmir issue, and the Karabakh issue, but when it comes to the Uyghurs, they close their eyes and enforce China’s policy. This is clearly a double standard, but more troublesome, it is a shame.At the same time, many Muslims in general do not like America and consider America as the enemy of Islam, chanting “Death to America” and burning the American flag. But US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared that China is committing ongoing “genocide” against the Uyghur Muslims and other ethnic and religious minority groups in the Xinjiang province, including the arbitrary imprisonment or other severe deprivation of the physical liberty of more than one million civilians, forced sterilization, torture of a large number of them, capricious detainment, forced labor, and the imposition of draconian restrictions on freedom of religion or belief, freedom of expression, and freedom of movement. The world is witnessing the Chinese government’s systematic attempt to destroy the Uyghurs. As a result, America imposed economic sanctions on senior officials of the Chinese Communist party in retaliation for the mistreatment of Uyghurs, which on the face of it should be a source of deep embarrassment for the Muslim leaders and even more for the one billion Muslims around the world. After all, the leading advocate of Muslim rights in China was the Trump administration, which Muslim countries such as Iran, considered an enemy of Islam, as mentioned above. The OIC consists of fifty-seven Muslim majority nations, frequently taking up cases in which it believes that Muslims are mistreated, criticizing Israel for its occupation of Palestinian territories, and, at Iran’s behest, speaking against the Israeli government. Continue reading →

Free speech and the freedom to protest provide the necessary oxygen for democracy. But   American democracy suffered a gut punch on Capitol Hill this week. Public trust in America’s democratic institutions has been destroyed. The United States of America hit the bottom and its charisma, influence, and leadership have been expulsed; no longer does freedom emanate from it. This event and the resultant divisions will forever opacify the beacon of democracy and detract from the beautiful Founding Father rhetoric of “City upon a Hill.” There is no excuse for the riots that happened at the Capitol. All those who stormed the Capitol building should be lawfully punished as should have happened to the Antifa rioters in 2020. Violence is not the answer. The leftist mobs in 2020 burned police stations and destroyed shopping districts in a rampage against supposed systematic racism, in the process killing innocent bystanders and law enforcement officers, destroying American symbols, burning flags, and topplingstatues. The liberals believe that that the system is rigged against African-Americans, women, specific minorities, and everyone identifying as other than the binary genders. The conservatives argue that tech oligarchs in Silicon Valley have gained control over communications and have rigged the system against middle income Americans who hold to traditional values. Getting rid of Trump will not fix America’s broken Democracy. Because, the rioting , burning, killing, and other criminal activity are taken place in longtime Democratic controlled cities in mostly democratic states. The left is planning to destroy the Constitution by curtailing free speech, canceling the Second Amendment, packing the courts and much more. Democrat party assisted by a hopelessly compromised national media deliberately put the country through four years of a false Russian collusion narrative followed by a phony impeachment. After refusing to recognize the results of the 2016 election and trying to outs the duly elected president they now play blame everything on President Trump Continue reading →

Wise men have warned us throughout human history about the danger of plutocracy. In Plato’s Republic, Socrates warned of the dangers of choosing captains of ships by their wealth. Despite these warnings, the United States of America has gone from a democracy towards becoming a plutocracy, for all practical purposes , moving away from a government of the people, by the people, and for the people to a government of the rich, the 1% of the people. A plutocracy is a system of rule by people of wealth; the ruling class derive their power from their wealth. The rich are not satisfied, however, with having more wealth. They are also seizing political wealth. President-elect Joe Biden’s choice for Treasury secretary is Janet L. Yellen, who over the past two years collected more than $7 million in speaking fees from major corporations, big tech and corporate interests, and Wall Street banks that have a keen interest in financial policies. Joe Biden’s choice for secretary of state, Antony J. Blinken, was paid nearly 1.2 million by a consulting firm he helped found, WestExec Advisors, where he advised a range of corporations including Facebook, Boeing, and Blackstone as well as Lazard (a private equity giant  and an asset management firm, respectively). He is also a partner in a private equity firm Pine Island Capital Partners. Joe Biden picked Avril Haines for Director of National Intelligence; she was paid $180,000 to consult for Palantir, a data mining company. Yellen, Blinken, and Haines may have an ethical conflict of interest because the window between their involvement in these financial ventures and their government position would be less than a year. Continue reading →

Dr. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the father of the Iran’s nuclear weapons and missile programs, was assassinated near Tehran on Friday, November 27. He was attacked by unknown killers in Damavand, Tehran Province, during an armed conflict with his bodyguards. But this was not the first time that someone had tried to assassinate him. Fakhrizadeh had survived an assassination attempt in 2008, when assailants on a motorcycle attached an explosive gadget to his car. But he survived that plot. In 2014, the New York Times even compared Fakhrizadeh to J. Robert Oppenheimer, the American physicist and “father of the atomic bomb.” No doubt Fakhrizadeh’s killing will set Iran back because he was the core source of authority, knowledge, and organization of the nuclear program. No one has claimed responsibility for the killing of Dr. Mohsen Fakriazadeh.  Tel Aviv, Mossad, the White House, the Pentagon, the US State Department, and the CIA have all remained silent about this event, as has Biden’s transition team. But, if it were indeed the work of the Mossad, a scenario which may never be confirmed or proven, it would indicate the presence of an extensive clandestine network of agents planted in Iran which may have enlisted local anti-regime elements for the operation. Therefore, this killing may never be officially acknowledged, any more than its precedents. Continue reading →

Why are Muslim countries silent about the treatment of the Uyghur Muslims in China? Saudi Arabia’s King Salman opened the G20 summit Saturday in a first for an Arab country with the virtual forum dominated by the questions of how to tackle the distribution of the coronavirus vaccines and the worst global recession. Some of the countries wanted to boycott the G20 summit under Saudi Arabia’s presidency, because they questioned Saudi Arabia’s human rights record. But none even bothered to question China’s genocide against millions of Uyghur Muslims. It is all too easy to blame Donald Trump for the crisis in global affairs, but for decades China has taken advantage of America and the western countries by refusing to contribute its share. The President of the United States revealed that China is a highly visible threat to international order. The ultimate goal of China is not to become part of the free and fair society, but it is to destroy that democratic society. China has already wrecked America’s prized intellectual property and trade secrets, causing the loss of millions of jobs all across America. It sucked supply chains away from around the globe and then made slave labor to produce the products. The world biggest supply chains are located in China; that is why during the pandemic countries like Japan paid a huge price when China locked down. Continue reading →

I am not concerned about the prospect of Joe Biden’s winning the Presidency, nor am I concerned about President Trump‘s not being re-elected. What I am concerned about is that there is no leader during this crucial time to guide the world. What I am concerned about is that Russia has taken charge of events in the Middle East and world affairs from Syria to Afghanistan and Libya; China is resolved to solve the question regarding Taiwan; North Korea is determined to have nuclear ballistic capability; and Iran has sought control in the Middle East, Africa, and Central Asia. Joe Biden envisions a return to global environmental treaties that are bad for American businesses through a Green New Deal that will make American taxpayers pay for China, India, and the world’s other most polluted countries. China is not being honest about the Corona virus, not mention the downturn in the American economy resulting from the pandemic. My concern is that this election represents one of the biggest American gambles in its history. Sadly, many American voters have not had the chance to think carefully about the issues mentioned above. As expected, the leftist media is exploiting the pandemic, the lockdowns, and the riots that have ravaged the American economy in order to smear the President and label him as a complete failure. The Democratic campaign timely weaponized the Corona virus in America as a to help Joe Biden politically to become America’s 46^th President. Continue reading →

(August 2020)  Schools across the Philippines have encountered challenges during the statewide lockdown. Those same challenges were also faced by College Education Behind Bars inside the Davao City Jail and the Davao Prison and Penal Farm because COVID-19 safety measures stopped face-to-face educational services. However, College Behind Bars educators turned to communication, cooperation, and innovation to achieve rehabilitative education goals. With limited technology in the facility, we moved to paper correspondence amid the pandemic. No essentials were suspended altogether, such as physical education among the other programs.The benefits of College Education Behind Bars are well documented. Studies show that postsecondary programs can reduce recidivism while improving morale and safety in facilities and increasing post-incarceration job prospects. In the past jails and prisons have been warehouses with their limited space and minimal disinfectants allowing diseases to spread widely in facilities with insufficient health care and a high prevalence of underlying conditions. Because the Davao Prison and Penal Farm superintendent devised and implemented hygienic and safety measures, these ill effects  mitigated the spread of diseases, so that the facility was COVID-19 free. Continue reading →