B4 I 4get: 50 years ago, today - THE MOONWALK

It was the greatest event in the history of humankind…up to that moment in time.

The boarding house was on the 4^th floor of Laperal apartments.

In Marawi City, there was no electricity…sorry, there was, but only for those who could afford it. The light in Marawi, then and now, is an animal that is more often dead than it is alive. When I was young, television was a distant fiction that I saw only in the movies.

I arrived in Manila in 1968.

Our landlady rented two apartments that faced each other. In one apartment, student boarders lived, and in the other, the family lived, which also served as a dining and receiving room, complete with a television.

At 8:00 p.m. on July 19, 1969 (if I remember correctly), all the student boarders huddled together in front of the TV. It was also the first time a global live broadcast of any event took place. It was the dawn of satellite global broadcasting.

By midnight, only half of the original group of about 10 were left. The time of the landing kept changing, and by 6 AM, I was the only one left. When Armstrong finally delivered, “one small step…one giant leap for mankind,” it was past 7 in the morning of July 20, 1969, and I was all alone – a moment I cherish to this day. If it was a hoax, then I was a witness to the greatest hoax in human history.

Fifty years from now…the moon will be a common tourist destination. Human settlers will thrive on Mars, and with my 14-year-old daughter, who is obsessed with astronomy, she will probably make it to the moon and maybe Mars – why not? Technology is no longer a creeper…it is a jumper zooming at the speed of light. Fifty years from now, robots will be exploring the seas of Europa and Enceladus, and maybe they will have found life in those water worlds virtually a stone's throw away from Earth.

If I live long enough to witness the first man walk on Mars, I will sail towards the sunset with a smile on my face.

nk

MIGHT MAKES RIGHT: Philippine vs China

Persian Gulf or Arabian Gulf...West Philippine Sea or South China Sea?

Since the first man walked on these archipelagos, those clusters of rocks and sand sticking out of the sea have been there. Because we have more than 7,100 Islands - those useless rocks and sands so far, far away were not even registered in our consciousness, and for eons of time, it mattered not to us.

...then came China. They started building beautiful structures. They expanded the Islands by reclamation. They bought lands from the Philippines, where they flattened the hills and mountains, bringing the earth to reclaim the Islands.

When we learned what was going on, it was too late to shout foul. It was too late to say, "Stop! These Islands are ours, but who gave us the right to claim them?" Not a single Filipino living there was arrested or deported by China, meaning those tiny Islands were there for the taking.

What proof do we have that those Islands are ours - nothing. Is it because it is closer to us than China? Why does England claim the Falkland Islands when it is laughably closer to Argentina than England? "Might" makes it right.

Why did Spain claim the Philippines as theirs in the not-so-distant past, and call every Filipino an Indio (slave) - "Might" makes right! 

When the United Nations partitioned Palestine and gave half of it to the Jews (the Philippines voted for it), was it right or was it wrong? When the U.N. arbitration in the Hague declared the West Philippine Sea part of the Philippines' exclusive economic zone, was it right or was it wrong? China says...wrong! Is there anything we can do about it? "Might" makes it right. When Trump said I could not punish the King of Saudi Arabia for the murder of Khashoggi because the king was buying from us billions worth of armaments, the world fell silent - again, "Might" makes right.

DU30 is the world's most competent foul-mouthed leader of our time. He knows how to play the game. It is better to be a friend of China than a war dog of the USA.