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... ...Universal Declaration of Human Rights, December 10, 1948 -- "A Cause for Celebration" ... 'Demands of Dignity' 'Demands of Dignity' <DEVELOPING THE DISCOURSE ON OUR DECEMBER 1Oth DECLARATION>
On-Line Edition of the Book by Ed Aurelio C. Reyes Epilogue-- Demands of Dignity |
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CONTENTS OF THIS BOOK:
Response
to the Spanish Response
Response to the American Non-Response Demands of Dignity Developing the Discourse from Our Declaration Let's Run Together, Each on Both Feet EXCERPTS: -o0o- "The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, signed Dec. 10, 1948, has been a cause of celebration, and the Treaty of Paris, signed Dec. 10, 1898, has been a cause for indignation... on the part of ALL HUMANS." -o0o- "The HUMANITY of ALL is ONE! Assaults on the Rights of a human anywhere are assaults on the rights of all humans everywhere." -o0o- "The current Human Evolutionary Imperative is attaining Synergy in Conscious Oneness." -o0o- "We demand apologies not to uphold our national dignity, but to give the offenders the opportunity to uphold theirs." -o0o- "Demands for Human Dignity come from within Human Dignity itself." -o0o- "We seek redress, closure and healing... Since the governments involved and the international organizations that depend on the consent of governments cannot be expected to support these calls or accord them any serious attention, we are calling upon the citizens of these and other nations, on the citizenry of the world." -o0o- "One of the factors underpinning the habit of trying to hide or mangle the truth is the illusion that facts hidden well enough as secrets can stay as such forever. Another is the illusion that you can harm your fellow-humans without harming yourself." -o0o- "Inevitably, eventually and ultimately, all wrongs cry out to be fully acknowledged, regretted, and set aright. Your peace of mind now and in the future demands it. Your very dignity demands it." -o0o- "Smile for Synergy! Seek One Humanity!"
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Epilogue --------------- Demands of Dignity IT
IS NOT this humble author, no more than a mere articulator, nor this
book, that is issuing the demands for the sake of human dignity.
The demands for broader acknowledgment and sincere apologies do
not even ultimately come from the Filipino people whose experiences
across half a millennium do contribute to the treasure trove of bases
from which should emerge a growing measure of collective maturity of the
human race. The
demands for upholding human dignity come from deep within human dignity
itself. They
cry out from deep within our hearts and minds as human
hearts and minds. The most this book could try to achieve was to issue
reminders. If there were no United Nations adopting and promulgating the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, as reminders,
some other group or groups of people with different sets of profiles and
circumstances would have done something like that, anyway. This
is not to diminish the importance of that historic work done by the
people behind the actual crafting and adoption of the UDHR.
This is just to emphasize the incessant energy emanating from deep
within the innermost wisdom of the human that renders
inevitable the unified articulation and, to follow this, the unified
praxis of recognizing human rights appropriate for full enjoyment by all
human beings for the simple unqualified reason that they, we, are
human beings. If the human's "sapiens" claim is to be validated at all, the UDHR was bound to come out sooner or later, in that form or another. 'Running
on One Foot'
One
of the mentioned distinctions of the human species from the members of
the so-called "lower animals" is self-consciousness.
That
human discernment had already evolved enough to attain the capability to
distinguish the self is already remarkable as an achievement.
However, it was apparently just a step of only one foot out of a
pair of steps to be made by a pair of feet.
Since that time, the Human has been running on one foot! We
have learned distinction but we have either not yet learned, or we have
forgotten completely, the supposed twin to complete the consciousness of
distinction. That is full
awareness, full consciousness, of commonality, of oneness.
We have come to develop self-consciousness but only to the very limited
extent of knowing only a very small self, the myself kind
of self. For
whatever we can credit our bodies' individual cells for possession of
intelligence, starting with the DNA that stores the entire histories of
the species and of its predecessors, and knowing how to react to various
stimuli the very first time they encounter these, we don't know of these
cells behaving as if they were separate organisms. While the human brain
has had to grapple with memorized rules of the English grammar and end
up always insisting that the word "ourself" is
wrong, our bodies' cells actually live what can only be a
concept to our brains. Well, we do have to give our brains enough time
to learn this well enough to be instinctive in predisposed and
consistent behavior. This
writer wonders whether our individual bodies' cells would even
"think" of telling lies, playing tricks, putting one over one
another. Or is that kind of behavior suitable only for that
self-proclaimed "sapiens" species that has been "running
on one foot" along this path of evolution? Humans have long had this futile habit of keeping big secrets from one another, confident that "it works." It does not. Wrongs
Have to be Righted
One of the factors underpinning
this habit of trying to mangle and hide the truth is the illusion that
facts hidden well enough as secrets would stay as such. Another is the
illusion that you can harm your fellow-humans without harming yourself. Light
of Truth can never die, even if it is banished for a long time to vanish
in pitch darkness of intended oblivion.
It remains alive to intermittently or incessantly whisper or even
shout out from behind your eardrums, with sparks of light that
inevitably prick to severe discomfort your otherwise peaceful mind.
It even bursts into many rays that refuse to be pushed back and
locked in the darkness of secrecy, denial and oblivion. Widows
cannot forget that they had lost their spouses, and orphans know that
they had lost their parents. Families and communities pass on the facts
and their circumstances to descendants for centuries. Burnt homes leave
not only scars on the ground; they sear much deeper scars in the
"collective soul." And
the soul remembers forever. The
Light of Truth on this continues to forever whisper, at times wail
aloud, deep within your ears, until you decide to forego the
self-defeating momentary convenience of distracting and denying, until
you finally surrender to this truth known well only by all the really
wise: Inevitably,
eventually, and ultimately, all wrongs will have to be fully
acknowledged, regretted, and set aright. Your peace of mind now and in the future demands it; your very
dignity demands it. You
do not dishonor your victims by fooling them, by torturing them, by
killing them -- you dishonor only yourselves, even as you pass on to
your descendants the indelible bloodstains on your hands, that they
would pass on to theirs, until one of them decides to end the passing of
horrible heritage. Will is crucial; it can even overpower the fear of
truth and the arrogance of hypocrisy. While many people have to be reminded not to wallow in their own guilt and be paralyzed by it, many others seek to hide and deny their grave misdeeds, pretending to stand on the moral high ground, assuring themselves that their own "clean" self-image is believed by many just because many have reason to pretend to believe it. Developing the Discourse from our DeclarationThe 1998 Philippine
Declaration deserves deeper and wider discussions on all matters
relevant to our demand for apologies from Spain and the United States.
The author was able to collate very limited data for this book. The
further research and collation, wider disclosure, further discussion and
deeper evaluation of facts are all parts of the needed process. The
disclosure and circulation of more facts, previously published or
otherwise, would be a desired continuation of this process. This discourse will hopefully
cause many conferences to be called, and much new material and
viewpoints to be published as books or pamphlets or as Internet postings
like well-circulated e-mail messages. New
organizations or institutions may even emerge, and existing ones may
decide to undertake, the more energetic encouragement and the more
efficient facilitation of this entire process. Hopefully, at least some
of the grievances will be rightfully redressed. And, of course, consistent with
the human evolution framework upon which this entire proposal is based,
the discourse on the Demands of Dignity, on the content and
applications of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and
its resulting documents, and on the premises, content and consequences
of the Treaty of Paris, should be both fair and
unifying for all peoples in the entire human race. We
could not and still cannot realistically expect the governments of Spain
and the United States to issue the apologies that we legitimately
demand. Much less sincerely offer restitution for the historic debts
they have inherited from their ascendants. So,
our 1998 Declaration issued calls for their respective
citizenries to offer their best equivalents of these as their free and
informed choice on what is in order for them to do. The Spanish and
American citizens all have the right to know what had exactly transpired
in our joint histories. This will be a great help to these peoples to
gradually acquire the determination and capability to compel their
respective governments to do Indelible scars have been wrought by Spanish colonial rule and the continuing American domination on our people and on our land, and the contemporary Filipino people also have the right, even duty, to know these fully, and many actually do know these at least in broad strokes. Such
historical knowledge would be crucial in attaining Kaganapang
Bagumbayan 2021, the full decolonization at least of the
consciousness of the peoples of the Philippines before that year, half a
millennium after the first Spanish attempt to colonize the archipelago. Why
is full disclosure and discussion of the facts necessary for real
redress, closure and healing from our experience of colonization?
Because only in an atmosphere of full disclosure of the truth can
sincere apologies and sincere forgiving possible and significant.
Ignorance is bliss only in the eyes of the blissfully ignorant.
Thus,
the call for full disclosure and discourse is being issued to the
peoples and governments of all nationalities around the world. After
all, attacks on the human rights of the peoples of the Philippines or of
any other peoples of the world are assaults on the dignity of Humanity.
This
entire exercise, this proposed deep and wide-scale discourse on the Demands
of Dignity, as well as all similar undertakings on other similar
matters of continuing historical import, should serve well the Collective
Dignity of Humankind. Collectivity of dignity for all humans
everywhere and everywhen is the very essence of human dignity as a
reality. Well beyond mouthing this, we can actually live it fully. And it has to be lived fully because it is pointless to live it just partially. But we have been doing this, as a passing stage in our path of evolution toward being fully human, where the step to be taken is no longer biological change but a broadening of consciousness — to be human together! Let's Run Together, Each on Both FeetCan
that be achieved? On October 24, 2007, the 62nd founding anniversary of
the United Nations, a Philippine-based organization that was then called
SYCONE-International issued a statement, titled, "When We
Have Evolved Enough to Really Live Our Oneness, Then We Shall Have
Become Fully Human!" Signed
by this author and American teammate Donald Goertzen, both of us being
the initiators and spokespersons of SYCONE, the statement said: "When
we have learned to view the world, with both eyes, then we can finally
learn to respect, value and combine a plurality of varied viewpoints.
With only one viewpoint, we see the world flat, but with both eyes
seeing differently we see the world in its three-dimensional beauty. "When
we have finally learned to emulate the Native Americans — and other
people of the earth — then we might humbly desist from claiming to
know another’s life until after we have walked a mile in that one’s
moccasins. We can expand the human capability to learn from one
another’s life experience, including our capability for full
compassion and wisdom about life on earth. In that way we might be able
to make decisions beneficial to the lives of our fellow humans. "When
we have finally discovered that our individual selves go well beyond our
skin, we can finally discern as “at least possible” our deep
unconditional connectedness, and we will draw ever closer to knowing
fully well our oneness in spirit. "When
we have finally started heeding the Prophet Isaiah’s call to 'beat
(our) swords into ploughshares and (our) spears into pruning hooks,' we
can finally see human society evolved past the violent hunting stage of
development that was centered on weapons, and well into the peaceful
stage of agriculture where ploughshares mattered much more. Then we can
move on to validate with enough collective maturity all our technologies
and knowledge and make them fully useful in the service of the human and
other species. "When
we have finally learned to strongly uphold the discernment that warriors
on both contending sides are really on one side, multitudes will no
longer goad their respective chosen sides to hate the other side, or
even allow themselves to do the same. We will thus stop energizing
wars, violence, and hatred with the separative passions transmitted
together from within our hearts. "When
we have finally ceased all mind-sets and practices that restrict human
development and erect walls of division among people, we can finally
begin to experience and enjoy full human development and real human
harmony, where human development results in more human harmony, and
where human harmony spurs more human development. "When
we have finally discovered our oneness in receiving our sustenance from
the unified Lifeweb of Nature, we can at last shatter the powerful
illusions of scarcity from which all greed ultimately comes, and start
enjoying together the reality of abundance for every single one’s need. "When
we have finally learned to stand together as one human race before the
rest of the bio-diverse citizens and elements of our living planet
Gaia, to take full responsibility for past and present environmental
destruction, and to lovingly commit a conscious synergy of efforts, we
can actually rescue and heal, conserve and exalt, our planet and insure
our collective survival. "Today,
October 24, 2007, the 62nd anniversary of the United Nations, we of
Sycone International, pursuing the attainment of Synergy in Conscious
Oneness (“sycone”), solemnly salute the United Nations with all its
conferential bodies and service instrumentalities, the United Religions
Initiative with all its coordinative bodies and cooperating circles
around the world, Byakko and all the participants in its symphonies of
prayers for peace, the Humanist Movement all over the world, as well as
all of the spiritually-unified multitudes of other similar
international, national and local organizations, instrumentalities and
actions of all groupings and individuals of humans performing their
respective roles of choice and ability in moving Humankind forward to
the next stage of evolution, the stage of Conscious Oneness and Real
Peace. "We also seek help from all willing hearts and hands in various continents, countries and localities to help us sow far and wide the seeds of light of Sycone, for the current imperative of Human Evolution – the attainment of the collective state of Conscious Oneness, knowing and living the truth that 'The Humanity of All is One'." This
message was circulated mainly through the Internet via the e-mails
directory and the website of SYCONE. Hard copies were distributed among
the participants of a regional conference convened a week later in
Colombo, Sri Lanka by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
with this writer as one of the paper presentors. The statement was well
received. This
author prays that this book, Demands of Dignity, would
also be. For the sake of
the cause it seeks to help advance... For the sake of Humanity.
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