Sacrificing Pawns to Gain a Queen

I've always believed in diplomacy from my teenage years and explains why I'm often diplomatic about my relations with people. But I think not anymore. Not with the new type of diplomacy used by the Philippines on China which I compare to how pawns are sacrificed in hopes of gaining a queen--but a queen which turns out to side with the enemy. [Image above by Randy Fath, Unsplash].

I thought diplomacy in foreign relations is the skill of gently and wisely bargaining for better deals or terms for your country and its good relations with other countries. That's how I've always understood it and why I've always admired diplomats, my grandpa being once the ambassador to Paris when I was a kid. But this recent NCoV crisis was an eyeopener. Not all diplomacy is for the country. There's one which a client state nurtures for a hegemonic state.

Like how the Philippine government was reluctant at first to issue a travel ban on all flights coming from China at the height of the Coronavirus outbreak there for fear of offending that country. And some government officials saw this as diplomacy. Here's how Health Secretary Francisco Duque III put it: "If we do this, then the concerned country – China in this case – might question why we’re not doing the same for all other countries that have reported cases of the new coronavirus. It’s very tricky… but we commit to take this into consideration."

And to think that the Department of Foreign Affairs was dependent on what the DOH thought of the issue for its "diplomatic responses." Teddy Locsin, Jr. put it this way: "The Department of Foreign Affairs will take its direction regarding diplomatic responses to the coronavirus from Health Secretary Duque. Only." So the diplomatic approach is now dependent on how China feels about what we do to protect our country from dangers coming from them.

In short, they're scared of hurting China's feelings. That's the diplomatic stance now. No more thoughts about our welfare as Filipinos in our own backyard. It doesn't matter what happens to us as long as they make China happy.

It's nothing new really because this subservient or puppet diplomacy was what racked Aguinaldo's cabinet in the Fil-Am War and which General Antonio Luna fought hard against--that of pleasing a benefactor country to the disadvantage of their own countrymen.

Don't Panic?

Calling your government's attention to its inaction is not panic, especially when even the World Health Organization had already declared the NCoV affair a global emergency. You realize what a "global emergency" is? Especially when other countries were starting to bar incoming flights from China or closing their borders with the same. And then you see your own government just welcoming mainland Chinese tourists like everything's okay, like they're really on top of the situation.

But then you remember the Dengvaxia fiasco where all they did was point fingers at each other while kid-victims were helplessly dying. Like, you see your child about to be run over and you just act there nonchalant like nothing's about to go wrong. You're not being calm. You're an idiot.

I've seen rabid Duterte supporters tell people not to panic and stay clear of "fake news" on the virus. And by "fake news" they mean the deadly nature of nCoV which they take lightly. They laugh at those too concerned about it and question why the "over-reaction" and the insistence for a total travel ban? I saw a post on FB asking why we didn't ban travel from the US in 2018-2019 when thousands died of the flu virus there. Here's how CDC reported it:

"CDC estimates that the burden of illness during the 2018–2019 season included an estimated 35.5 million people getting sick with influenza, 16.5 million people going to a health care provider for their illness, 490,600 hospitalizations, and 34,200 deaths from influenza (Table 1). The number of influenza-associated illnesses that occurred last season was similar to the estimated number of influenza-associated illnesses during the 2012–2013 influenza season when an estimated 34 million people had symptomatic influenza illness6."

The FB post asked why no flights from the US were banned from entering the country? And I ask the same thing--yeah, why didn't our authorities ban flights from the US then? They should have. They missed taking that health threat seriously--which could have been fatal to us--and it was just God's grace and mercy that we were spared then. Thank God!

But that doesn't mean we take all global health threats carelessly just because we were spared the first time. That's another silly conclusion to make. Just because the danger missed hitting us then, doesn't mean we should rely heavily on our good luck from then on. It's like missing a holdup incident on a crime-prone road. You missed it by just a minute. Another guy who was there one minute earlier was victimized.

So what do you do the next time around? Travel the same crime-prone road because anyway you were lucky the first time? Nope, you take another route. The time you were spared should serve as a lesson for you. Thank God you were spared the first time, but you should know better than go careless again. God wants you smarter this time around. You cannot be negligent again and hope to get lucky once more.

What the guy wanted the authorities to do (the guy who posted on FB) was probably treat the nCoV crisis with the same carelessness they did during the 2018-2019 flu virus in the US. "We did nothing the first time and we were lucky. Why do anything now?" That seems to be his line of thinking.

Some taint it with racism. When the health threat comes from the US, we don't issue travel bans. But when it comes from China, we do. We're discriminating against China, they conclude. It amazes me how they could still think of China this way and worry more about discrimination when Filipino lives are at serious risk of a deadly outbreak.

Other people ask, what if the disease started with us and China issues the same ban against us? Wouldn't we be hurt? Hurt by what? You really think we have friendly relations with China and China sees us as friend? Wake up!

Well, I wouldn't be surprised if China would issue a travel ban against us. That's the sensible thing their government should do--protect their people first. And I'm sure China will not think twice to do it. They're smart.

Another issue is the plight of the OFWs. What do we do with the OFWs in China who want to come home? I don't know why anyoen would ask this. We're talking strictly of Chinese folks coming from mainland China. That's the context of the total travel ban we seek to impose and which anyone with common sense would readily see (except if you play dumb--or are really dumb). OFWs can go home anytime but they need to undergo the arduous 14-day quarantine process.

And that's exactly what Duterte did--a ban on all incoming flights from China, except Filipinos in that country who wanted to go home. See? If you have common sense, that's what total travel ban means.

Racism?

But mainland Chinese folks going here? No way. It should be total ban without compromise. It has nothing to do with racism (another issue floated around) or hatred for the Chinese. We're not fighting the Chinese here but the deadly virus which unfortunately originated in China.

Another stupid issue is giving it political color. They say total ban is the idea of the Yellowtards who just wanted to put Duterte in a bad light. I haven't seen anyone as dumb and blind as these smart Alecks are.

As per bible instructions, I support Philippine presidents, even Duterte, but NOT their bad policies. Peter and the apostles said they'd rather obey God than the authorities when the latter were wrong. And while Paul urged believers to submit to the authorities, he nonetheless kept preaching the Gospel even if it was forbidden to do so. It's balanced with common sense.

Don't Criticize?

Some who imagine themselves spiritual always tell you never to criticize. "Just pray for it," they say, "God is in control." They're another kind of diplomats who are as lost as puppet diplomats. They even demonize criticism and quote verses on submitting to the authorities. Well, Jesus criticized the religious order of his time, calling the Pharisees hypocrites and brood of vipers.

The prophets of Israel in the Old Testament were so critical of the existing government when it was wrong. They never kept mum and just prayed for it. But neither were they political. They remained being representatives of God's Kingdom. They criticized what was wrong and went against misleading policies.

In Daily Life

And yup, that self-serving diplomacy is alive in daily life, too. Some folks offer to be your "diplomat" or "ambassador of goodwill" but actually sell you to the enemy. They're supposed to protect you but do nothing except tell you how to please your oppressors and go along with them, pretending that all they want is your peace of mind. Others are just mindless diplomats merely chanting "peace" regardless of the issue. They think that is spiritual.

Sometimes, no matter how spiritual or prayerful you seem to be, peace is not possible until you root out the the wrong. Jehu said, "How can there be peace as long as all the idolatry and witchcraft of your mother Jezebel abound?" So God anointed him to destroy the house of Ahab and Jezebel. God didn't say just pray for it. Somebody had to uproot it. And mind you, God never changes.