Imagine an 18-wheel Tanker Truck Full of Blood
Imagine all that blood was shed by order of your president
That would be the Philippines today. President Rodrigo Duterte claims he has never ordered any EJKs (extrajudicial killings) — and indeed, he has never signed any orders saying “kill anyone and everyone that you even suspect of being involved in drugs.” But he says as much in media several times a week. He also promises pardons for killer cops and has decorated and promoted several of the most egregious murder suspects in uniform.
During one recent four-day period, over 100 people were killed, including a seventeen-year-old 11th grader who, to all appearances was never involved in drugs at all. During that time, when reporters asked him about 32 killings in a single community in a twenty-four hour period, he said they were “maganda” — “beautiful.” Think about that in terms of Trump’s hate group dog-whistling.
This is a cautionary tale for American readers. The human body contains from 8–10 pints of blood. Since Filipinos are, on average, smaller than Americans, I’ll go with the eight pint figure. That’s about a gallon per each, so with at least 10,000 killings here so far, that would be about 10,000 gallons of blood spilled — which is approximately the capacity of an 18-wheeler tanker like the ones you see at the gas station.
This blood is shed in vain. The drug problem the killings are supposed to eradicate is getting worse rather than better — but of course, that’s what we already knew would happen, based on the experience of every country that’s ever tried to solve its drug problems by declaring a “war on drugs.” On national television, Duterte recently instructed his policemen to kill human rights workers too, if they attempted to obstruct additional killing. Trump thinks Duterte is doing a “great job” with his drug war.
Trump — who pleads that we should focus on the many “very good people” in neo-Nazi and white supremacist ranks, considers the Confederate cause “heroic” on the same level as the American Revolution and who preaches the hate and division of racism, misogyny and xenophobia — has seen an unprecedented rise in hate crimes, heard without discomfort the steady drum-beat of race-related police killings while encouraging police to “not be so careful” about handling the people they arrest.
Trump, Duterte, Erdogan, Putin and a passel of others, are all members of the early 21st century’s Authoritarians Club — people who subscribe to the archetypal authoritarian aphorism of Chairman Mao that political authority comes “from the barrel of a gun” rather than from the collective “will of the people.” Not surprisingly, those of us who still believe in liberal democracy are not so well armed.
It’s one thing that these authoritarians manage to so effectively distract us daily with outrageous statements and claims. But don’t think for a moment that Trump will scruple at using bloodshed as a distraction — or that he too won’t use his power and privilege with impunity. Philippine democracy is modeled directly on the US Constitution — our American Colonial heritage has seen to that. But from the Asian point of view, the US no longer qualifies as a “city on a hill” to the rest of the world. In fact, it’s the other way around. Thanks to neoliberal globalization, the US is seen as sinking to “third world” status.
If there is no hope for America, there’s certainly no hope for the Philippines — or any other former democracy. Unless we can somehow escape the need for daily resistance to constant, mind boggling distractions — no matter how horrific they may be — long enough to form an effectively unified opposition, then the people with the guns will rule and eventually just keeping those 8–10 pints of blood inside the body, instead of flowing out on the street or floor, will become primary.
Both Trump and Duterte have justified themselves by saying “Because I’m president…and you’re not.” Never doubt that. Police power isn’t that hard to divert from “protect and serve” to “because I say so…” I watch it happening here every day, but “the resistance” here remains fragmented, tribal and self-serving. I hope America, with its putatively “stronger democratic institutions,” can get its opposition together.
Additional reading — check out the link below and the many English language posts in The Kill List Chronicles:
