on America's Elite

(This column appears in today's edition of the Leyte-Samar Daily Express)

Hi there! It’s another week and it happened again, I mean the same question comes to mind each time the first two days of November come around: Why do people in many (urban) areas commemorate their dear departed on All Saints’ Day and not on All Souls’ Day? Force of habit?And the news is what else but the U.S. election. More on that later.

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(The newspaper edition of this column contains part of my PR about Mayor Mel Sarmiento's trip to China which I featured in this blog last Friday. For the complete text, please check this link)

Mayor Mel Sarmiento was invited by UN Habitat to moderate two events during the Fourth Session of the World Urban Forum which will be held in Nanjing, China on November 3 - 6, 2008. These events are the “Mayors’ Roundtable” and “Land Markets, Social Inclusion and the right to the City”, a high-level panel discussion on the difficulties of socially and physically integrating the urban poor into cities.

18 Mayors or officials have confirmed their participation Mayors' Roundtable which will be held today. Participants will include the Mayors of Stuttgart, Germany; Kabul, Afghanistan; Grenoble, France; Antsirabe, Madagascar; Sfax, Tunisia; Treichville, Côte d’Ivoire; and the Governor of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, among others.

On Wednesday, November 5, 2008, Mayor Sarmiento will moderate “Land Markets, Social Inclusion and the right to the City”, the high-level panel discussion on the difficulties of socially and physically integrating the urban poor into cities. Panelists in this event are: Hon. Lindiw Sisulu, Minister of Housing, South Africa; Hon. Kumari Selja, Minister of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation, India; Teresa Surita Juca, Ministry of Cities, Brazil; Maria Rosario Alonso Ibañez, Ministry of Housing, Spain(for more details, please check this link)

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So, what’s with today’s title? It’s my take on the U.S. Election (at least based on what I learned form my Soc Sci Professor at U.P.). I understand the election is characterized by the popular votes and the electoral votes. So what about it? My lesson in (elementary) Social Studies told me that democracy is America’s greatest to the Filipinos; and that America is the bastion of democracy. I always have second thoughts about it each time they elect a President in the U.S. I never took the trouble checking on how their electoral system works, but I believe in what my professor told us in one of our session (and that idea stuck) that the Electoral College was put in place to ensure that the election of the American President remains in the hands of America’s elite. Yun lang.

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This is it for now. Have a nice week everyone!