Is That Cannabis Activist A Friend Or Foe?

By Mickey Martin 

May 3, 2013 at 4:20 pm 

We are in a battle for the hearts and minds of our fellow man. This is a real war with real casualties and collateral damage. We have lost innumerable good people to the war on weed and on a larger scale, drugs. This war rages on, even as we see the walls of prohibition crumbling and people calling for an end to these disastrous policies.

In any fight for freedom and justice it is necessary to decipher who are friends and who are foes… and who is unfortunately neutral.

In the cannabis game it is not always such a clear cut line. Sure, there are the weed activists and the drug warriors; the outlaws versus law enforcers. But there are several more layers to the onion in this equation to consider.

On both sides of the battle field there is dissension in the ranks, and double agents playing for both teams. There are weasels all around that have no qualms about selling morals and values down the river for the right paycheck.

We can already see this happening in a lot of the more upfront and regulated markets. Big money folks are working to enact counterproductive policies to ensure their business model has a competitive advantage. A lot of these people who operate in the world of cannabis do not have the skills to compete in a free and open market.

What we see now is companies and individuals who have claimed to be a part of this weed movement working to restrict the market in order to increase their bottom line and hold their oligopoly positioning. It is shameful, and from a business standpoint some of the unfair trade practices being suggested by people in our own movement are appalling.

I often hear a call for “unity” and the suggestion that we cannot afford to confront the hucksters in our own movement because it creates ammunition for the drug warriors. From where I am sitting, this is a HUGE strategic mistake.

As these charlatans invade the Boards of our favorite reform groups and buy their way into positions of power in cannabis reform circles, what we will see is a deterioration of our values and the entire reform process turned over to these business mogul wannabes.

 It is already happening. If you do not see it then you are not paying attention. The real foes of the game moving forward are not the traditional drug warriors, but the wolves in stoner clothing we see infiltrating our back lines.

As we pull out of prohibition into a legal cannabis market, these fiscal powerhouses are positioning themselves to undermine the process and to create an unlevel playing field that benefits the few. You do not have to believe me. That is fine. This will all come to reveal itself rather quickly over the coming months and years. We can have another “I told you so” discussion then.

Right now is the time to begin cleaning house and we should not let the shiny tokens that are being presented distract us from the bigger picture. There are big money interests making plays all over this industry and a lot of the core infrastructure of the movement seems to be up for sale.

 What was once sacred ground is now a plastic and commercialized strip mall of weed businesses that are being hustled for their value by those who could give a shit about cannabis freedom.

Make no mistake… as this thing comes into view, the battle is shifting. It will not be about weed, or the right of humans to consume and produce weed. It will be about money, plain and simple.

So as the money war begins, how prepared will you be? Will you have already been fooled and manipulated by these folks because you did not see it coming?

Will you wake up one day and realize everything has been taken from you and you have been voted off your own island? Will the reward be worth selling out everything you have fought for?

In a battle with so much at stake and a long history of evil and corruption, why would we be surprised to find out that our biggest enemy was within our own ranks? That the assholes who have pretended to be our allies have now used our camraderie and “movement” to advance their own causes and finances, and what we are left with is a bunch of nothingness and despair.

It is happening. Do not be an idiot. Do your homework.

Gayspeak in the Nineties

My most quoted essay so far, "Gayspeak in the Nineties" was mentioned in various articles, journals, studies, reports, essays, theses and blog posts.

Related Links:

http://www.ncca.gov.ph/about-culture-and-arts/articles-on-c-n-a/article.php?i=289&subcat=13
http://courses.nus.edu.sg/course/elcttr/KritikaKultura_TupasRamanathan.pdf
http://www.scribd.com/doc/33341979/The-Expansion-and-Evolution-of-Gay-Language-in-the-Philippines
http://iskwiki.upd.edu.ph/images/4/4c/ERFE_(2011)_Balitang_Troolaloo,_Walang_Halong_Eklavoo.pdf
http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/library/HIV-AIDS/Governance%20of%20HIV%20Responses/Philippines%20Report_Final.pdf
https://digitalcollections.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/8681/1/Suguitan_ASemanticLook2005.pdf

https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/17599110/a-r-e-f-e-r-e-e-d-e-l-e-c-a-r-e-f-e-r-e-e-nus-home/121

Simpleng Taytel, Kumplikadong Kuwento

ni Murphy Red

Synopsis:

Base sa kanyang pamagat, magulo ang storya ng bida at hindi inaasahan ang mga pangyayare sa loob ng kuwento. Ang bida ay isang estudyanteng tumigil sa pagaaral, napa barkada, lageng umiinom at maaaring nalulong sa droga. Siya ay isang lalaking napapaisip kung bakla nga siya. Mayroon siya kaibigan na si Big J, may asawa na ito at kasama niya lage sa lahat ng inuman at kung ano pa. Sweet si Big J sa kanya, may halong pagaalala ang mga ginagawa nito. Isang beses sa inuman, nagkaaminan ang dalawang ito na gusto nila ang isa't isa, sumod sila sa inuman ng kanilang barkada at nakantsawan ng labis na pangaasar ng mga kasama nila. Nang uwian na, naghahalucinate na ang bida at kung ano ano ang naiisip. Nasa isang disyerto ang kanyang pagiisip habang sa katotohanan ay naliligo ito sa basurahang inaakalang oasis. Nang nakasakay siya ng jeep pauwi, tinititigan siya ng mga pasaherong nagiisip kung ang kanilang naririnig ay huni ng tambutso o halakhak niya.

http://tl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladlad:_An_Anthology_of_Philippine_Gay_Writing#Simpleng_Taytel.2C_Kumplikadong_Kuwento_ni_Murphy_Red

Praksis

                                        Kalkal sa estero,

                                        pukpok sa tanso,

                                        kaskas sa pasilyo,

                                        bale sa amo.

                                        Tagpas sa tubo,

                                        Halo ng semento,

                                        tulak sa araro,

                                        bawas sa sweldo.

                                        Kayod ng tutong,

                                        Sabaw sa puswelo,

                                        subo ng dehado,

                                        basyo ang kaldero.

                                        Hugot ng segundo,

                                        hila sa minuto,

                                        oras na binuno,

                                        inabot ng siglo.

                                        Hasa sa sentido,

                                        hatak sa gatilyo,

                                        bulwak ng asero,

                                        kulo ng dugo.

                                        Pawis na tumulo,

                                        luhang natuyo,

                                        igkas ng kamao,

                                        hudyat ng pagkatuto,

                                        Pagsilang ng yugto,

                                        sa baga ng aspalto

                                        gugulong ang ulo,

                                        ng kapitalismo.

                                                                                                                        Katha ni Murphy SC Red

                                                                                                                        murphy_the_red@yahoo.com

                                                                                                              facebook.com/murphy.red
                                                                                                              http://murphyred.blogspot.com

Author, Bukatot, short story in Ilokano about the struggles of tobacco farmers in Ilocos (Gantimplang Ani Grand Prize Winner)

Co-Author, MUOG: Ang Naratibo ng Kanayunan sa Matagalang Digmang Bayan sa Pilipinas (Bukatot)

Co-Author, Bigkis: Mga Piling Akdang Pinarangalan sa Gantimpalang Ani (Bukatot)

Co-Author, LADLAD: An Anthology of Philippine Gay Writings (Simpleng Taytel, Kumplikadong Kwento)

Co-Author, LADLAD II: And Anthology of Philippine Gay Writings (Gayspeak in the 90s)

Writer, Haw-Ang (Before Harvest), an independent film directed by Sigrid Andrea Bernardo.

Dedma

ni Murphy SC Red

(sa mga buhay na tinigpas sa Hacienda Luisita)

                                          Sige lang, dedma lang,
                                          “lupain naman ‘to ng aming angkan,”
                                          uto mo sa sariling gusto mong paniwalaan
                                          maski naming ang akala nyo’y mangmang
                                          gayong malinaw pa sa katanghalian
                                          ng bawat katag-araw na pabuya ‘yan
                                          sa himod n’yo sa tumbong at puwitan
                                          ng mga prayle at gobernador heneral
                                          na sa lupang ninuno ay dantaong kumamkam.

                                          Sige lang, dedma lang,
                                          tutal dugo namin at di inyo ang dilig n’yan
                                          pawis nami’t di inyo ang tumatagas
                                          lakas nami’t di inyo ang pinupuhunang
                                          tumagpas ng tubó at limpak na tubô
                                          na angkan n’yo ang sumasamsam.

LGBT group Kapederasyon signs up against pork

NEWS RELEASE

26 August 2014

REF: Corky Maranan

Mobile#: 0917 726 2553

Gears up to bring people’s initiative signature campaign in the barangays.

Members of Kapederasyon, a national sectoral organization of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders (LGBT) troop to Luneta today to affix their signatures to the peoples’ initiative to abolish all forms of pork barrel and signify their unity with the swelling number of Filipinos dissenting the perpetration of corruption in government.

Waving high its pink and rainbow LGBT flags, Kapederasyon expressed its resistance to the perpetuation of the pork barrel system that its members describe as “lantarang pangmamating sa kaban ng LGBT at sambayanan.”

“The double standard of the Aquino administration is too brazen for it to evade the observation of Filipino LGBTs that the “daang matuwid clique” prosecutes its political adversaries by drumbeating on the PDAF while concealing its own plunders through the DAP,” stated Kapederasyon spokesperson Corky Hope Marañan.

Marañan added that a growing number of LGBTs view both PDAF and DAP the most powerful form of patronage politics and are therefore aware that Malacaňang’s 2015 National Expenditure Program (NEP) retains hundreds of billions of lump-sum discretionary funds concealed in other names but undoubtedly remain the presidential pork barrel.

Our elected officials have not only failed to promote the people’s interests; they have betrayed the public trust by in perpetuating the pork barrel system.

“However the presidential pork barrel is described in the 2015 budget, may it be Bottom-Up Budgeting (BUB) and Grassroots Participatory Budgeting (GPB), these redefinition is but a blatant scheme to perpetuate the pork barrel system and a detestable bid to circumvent the Supreme Court’s ruling on the unconstitutionality of the DAP,” added Maranan.

In an official statement, Kapederasyon described the perpetration of the presidential pork barrel as “a flagrant betrayal of public trust and the time has therefore come for the Filipino people, including us LGBTs, to take matters into our hand and abolish the pork barrel system ourselves.”

Kapederasyon said, “In whatever name it is hooded with, nothing good had the pork barrel delivered to the poor LGBT and Filipino people. Why? Because for us, the perpetuation of the pork barrel system means the perpetuation of the unemployment, denial of the right to education, of the skyrocketing prices of rice, vegetables, and other basic commodities, power rates, transport fares, oil price and other oppressive and unjust systems that the Aquino administration undoubtedly continue to cast a blind eye to.

“The millions of pesos stolen through PDAF have deprived marginalized groups like the LGBT community of funds that should have gone to genuine public service projects that will benefit them like quality health services roads and bridges, school buildings, and public markets, while the billions of peoples’ money plundered through the DAP could have steeply reduced the spread of HIV/AIDS that has locally extended to an epidemic proportion,” Kapederasyon stated further.

“We, LGBTs in Kapederasyon, in unison with LGBTs in the entire country, are launching a massive nationwide signature crusade in the grassroots by bringing the People’s Initiative petition in the barangays”

“Tama na! Sobra na ang pang-eechos at pagmamating sa atin. Kaya mga girl, boy, bakla, tomboy, go go go na tayo sa mga barangay! Push natin ang signature drive para matsugi ang pork barrel to a bonggang bonggang level!

###

https://www.facebook.com/OutrageMag/photos/a.10153399741245654.1073741850.71957435653/10154494886235654/?type=1
http://outragemag.com/lgbt-group-kapederasyon-signs-pork/

Untie (Anti) the Yellow Ribbon

TSONA

(True State of the Nation Address) 

of the LGBT Sector

Other than traditional political rhetorics, recycled innuendos, repetitive scapegoating and diversionary diplomacies, the Filipino lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders (LGBTs) expect nothing new in this year’s SONA of Benigno Simeon Aquino. His expected defense of his administration’s public private partnership (PPP), the fakery of his mother’s CARP and his predecessors’ CARPER, bullying of the Judiciary, double standard on PDAP vis-à-vis DAP being far from the real state of the Filipino nation, there is nothing surer for the  LGBT sector than Noynoy’s evident modus to launch through his rotten speech a fresh set of stratagem to sustain his blood-drenched regime of fooling the LGBTs and the entire Filipino people, systemic deceit and big-time banditry and plunder.

Clinging on the “yellow ribbon” magic

For Noynoy Aquino and his cohorts in the cabinet, the discovery and resultant expose of the DAP was at the wrong time, at the moment when the PDAP scandal was taking its toll on the political foes of his blood-stained yellow regime. To the surprise of the entire nation, the DAP dwarfed PDAP in multifarious magnitudes. In the midst of snowballing criticism on Noynoy’s vehement participation in his cabinet’s syndicated schema, we at Kapederasyon cannot help but trace the roots of his deep faith in the “yellow ribbon” mystique being what he suppose as the most potent amulet in his holDAPper regime’s cunning in its style of plundering the country of its financial resources.

And we conclude that it all started on Noynoy’s mother Cory who capitalized on her husband’s yellow ribbon trademark to snap two decades of Marcos dictatorship and be catapulted to US-backed political power. It is clear that by 1984, a year after Cory’s husband, Noynoy’s father and Marcos’ political rival Benigno “Ninoy” was murdered, influential parts of the US government's foreign policy establishment recognized that the growing people's movement ranged against the US-backed dictator, Ferdinand Marcos, threatened not only Marcos, but the entire edifice of elite democracy. The U.S. consequently sought to divide this popular movement by providing selective support to the more conservative leaders of the uprising, particularly future president Corazon C. Aquino -- which eventually enabled her (and them) to control the state apparatus, while effectively dissipating the power of the people. Yet despite her popularity, Aquino, who was from one of the richest and most powerful families in the country, was far from an adequate representative of the Filipino people, especially those intent on undermining elite domination.

Once grabbing the presidency, Cory signed the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL), but the law had to be extended for more than two decades without being completed. The mill and farm workers of the Cojuangco-owned Hacienda Luisita had to fight for the land they have tilled for generations for two decades, paying for it with their blood before being able to gain it. She also refused to renegotiate even the onerous foreign debts of the Marcos dictatorship, passing the Automatic Appropriation Law instead and likewise implemented the same militarist solution to the armed conflict by “unsheathing the sword of war,” displacing more than a million people in rural areas.

The “yellow ribbon” myth in the post-Cory regime and beyond

After Cory Aquino, power was bequeathed to her favorite general Fidel Ramos who at once embarked on an ambitious development plan dubbed "Philippines 2000". Under the plan, several industries critical to economic development were privatized, such as electricity, telecommunications, banking, domestic shipping, and oil. The taxation system was reformed and the economy took a sharp downturn during the Asian financial crisis of 1997. Its fiscal deficit in 1998 reached P49.981 billion from a surplus of P1.564 billion in 1997. The peso depreciated (fell in value) to P40.89 per U.S. dollar from its previous rate of P29.47 to a dollar.

https://www.facebook.com/notes/kapederasyon/untie-anti-the-yellow-ribbon/1457225951201905

Under Ramos, the Philippines had experienced widespread rotating power outages, threats of a shift to a parliamentary system and the lifting of term limits of public officials, the Philippines became a member of the World Trade Organization which liberalized international trade, the explosion of the Clark Centennial Expo Scandal that exposed massive corruption or misuse of funds, the PEA-Amari scandal where Fidel Ramos was caught with fingers dipped in the PEA-Amari deal amounting to P1.7 billion.

The regimes that followed after Ramos were as scandalous and smeared as the yellow ribbon and the “People Power” myths with thievery and bloodshed, simply sustaining the US-designed development from Marcos to Cory to Ramos to Estrada to Arroyo and now to Noynoy, at the expense of the LGBT and the entire Filipino people.

TSONA (True State of the Nation Address) of the LGBT Sector

Noynoy’s SONA’ political rhetorics, recycled innuendos, repetitive scapegoating and diversionary diplomacies notwithstanding, the state of the Filipino LGBTs never, ever improved four years after of his regime. On the contrary, like the rest of the suffering Filipino people, the LGBT sector is still discriminated against and hurled day-to-day with systemic homophobia, highlighted by the following realities:

No law is in place that shall ensure equal rights for the LGBT and other marginalized sectors.

• No economic or political structure that are suited to the needs and qualities of the LGBTs.
• Lingering heterosexist standards in employment and job promotions.
• Feudal and heterosexist ideals and traditions in sexual relationships, marriage and building of families.
• Absence of institutions that serve persons with disability (PWDs) and senior citizens among the ranks of the Filipino LGBTs.
• Considering Filipino LGBTs as merely reserved labor forces
• Utter neglect of LGBT victims of hate crimes.
• Absence of LGBT representation in the Legislature.
• Downright discrimination and disrespect by government agencies in LGBT initiatives of participation in national elections.
• Absence of formal or non-formal government initiatives for the discussion, promotion and information dissemination on the essence of LGBT and diverse genders that it encompasses.

Untie (ANTI) the yellow ribbon

While Noynoy Aquino and his minions in government busy themselves in their fakery cum thievery, we Filipino LGBTs must smash the myth people power by untying the yellow ribbon and winning our own social, political and economic victories.

Let us participate actively in fighting for opportunity and security in employment and economic occupation, land ownership, moral living standard, national industrialization to improve our lives and the lives of the Filipino people.

The struggle of the LGBT is not distinct and separate from the struggle of the oppressed Filipino people so the LGBT sector can never be victorious over the social problems that it faces if done separately from the fight of the people towards the realization of democratic victories. It is therefore the prerogative of the Filipino LGBTs to organize its ranks as a sector, including our family members, friends and the entire Filipino people.

The LGBTs play a significant role in the Filipino family and society so it is decisive to break the feudal psyche that virtually chain us in the convention that we are weak, separate and without a space in the creation of a free and democratic society. Therefore, we must collectively change the decadent ideas and beliefs about the LGBTs and achieve with the struggling Filipino people a society of intelligent, healthy and free people.

Filipino LGBTs unite! We have the power to decide our future; to realize our cause of decisively ending years of marginalization and discrimination based on our sexual orientation and gender identity.

Expose and oppose DAP and fight to end all forms of corruption in government.

Lahat ng sangkot, DAPat managot!

IMPEACH NOYNOY AQUINO! 

https://www.facebook.com/ADNSundayNews/photos/a.506215049524004.1073741830.440813142730862/506214932857349/?type=1

http://t.co/IZVujHn6wQ

http://outragemag.com/kapederasyon-honors-20th-anniversary-stonewall-manila/

Yesterday, today and tomorrow, our struggle continues.

Marking two decades of militant LGBT fight for human rights and against discrimination.

Statement on the 20th Anniversary of Stonewall Manila

26 June 2014

In June 26, 1994, twenty years ago today, we, lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders, took a firm grip at history, marched and took to the streets our utter discontent and condemnation of the age old discrimination and systemic state-sanctioned homophobia perpetually committed to us by society.

Led by the Progressive Organization of Gays in the Philippines (ProGay Philippines), the breakthrough event was called Stonewall Manila, as it was held to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the historic “Stonewall Uprising” in New York, USA in June 1969, which inspired homosexuals and similar minority groups in various parts of the world to surface in the open and fight discrimination and homophobia and struggle for equal rights. Most significantly, that pivotal LGBT mass action 20 years ago remains symbolic and instrumental in the conduct of annual pride marches in the ensuing years not just in the Philippines but in other Asian countries and key cities such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, at Thailand.

Not only did we shout against discrimination and social intolerance as we marched from EDSA to the Quezon Memorial Circle twenty long years ago. That day and through the years that followed, we also decried tyrannical social impositions such as VAT, low wages, scarcity of employment and income opportunities, demolition of homes, tuition hikes, the national ID system, corruption in government and numerous other oppressive state policies and issuances that doubly jeopardized our human existence and sexuality.

Today, however, twenty years after that first ever LGBT mass action in all of Asia, not a bit has improved in any aspect of Philippine society. On the contrary, the political and economic crises continually deepen, making life harder for the Filipino people and doubly harsher to the Filipino LGBTs. The unjust social structures that prevailed two decades ago persist and, as if to add insult to injury, also evolved into newer forms of afflictions or gave birth to heavier burdens for the Filipino LGBTs to carry on their shoulders.

Most glaring of these are, number one, the recent DOH issuance on mandatory HIV-testing that shall result to nothing better than expose carriers to increased discrimination and consequently worsen the AIDS stigma. Number two, despite the two decades of the local LGBT pride struggle, the LGBT Anti-Discrimination Bill continue to gather dust in both chambers of Philippine Congress and has remained lightyears away from becoming a law. And, most starkly, number three, rampant corruption that has seeped through the minutest fabric of government, a lingering social issue that put pork and bones to bureaucrat capitalism that is now more popularly known as the PDAF scam.

These persist, so still do the painful compulsions that took twenty long years to remain unabated: low wages, scarcity of employment and income opportunities, demolition of homes, tuition hikes, corruption in government and numerous other oppressive state policies and issuances that doubly jeopardized our human existence and sexuality. As such, we remain marginalized. We remain economically, politically, and socially oppressed. We remain discriminated based on our sexual orientation and gender identity. Society remains dominated by the privileged few. The culture of corruption and impunity remains. The current political system remains not genuinely in service of the interests of the broader majority, including the LGBT sector.

For as long as the unjust structures persist, so shall we and our struggles. As a sector essential in nation building and social transformation, the resolve to effect meaningful change in our society remains in our hands. And until essential social changes take shape, we shall not cease taking the same grievances we have started to shout out two decades ago to the streets and, this time, to the august chambers of Philippine legislature.

With the same battlecry twenty years ago, we the Filipino LGBT, honed by years of relentlessness and perseverance, sharpened by double standard and deceit, now stronger as a sector and more resilient to newer forms of oppression and homophobia, collectively with other oppressed and marginalized sectors, vow to carry the militant LGBT struggle for the respect for human dignity regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity, equal rights and against discrimination through to total victory.

So help us God.

https://www.facebook.com/notes/murphy-red/yesterday-today-and-tomorrow-our-struggle-continues/854782257884625
http://outragemag.com/kapederasyon-honors-20th-anniversary-stonewall-manila/
https://scontent-a-lax.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/p180x540/10525633_506214932857349_7094478463857026166_n.jpg?oh=4096553dc1399fa8d322e1ed4190263f&oe=54A40D5D