DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 29 September) — The writing was on the wall for the last several years and you are entitled to my own opinion. For the last decade we have been talking about climate change and that there is a ticking time bomb upon all of us.
Greta Thunberg, the young Swede girl who rocked the world with her fiery speech against the lack of defined and decisive action from world leaders is now facing online attacks from the best and finest men who advocate capitalist consumption.
As a Greta fan who has got a healthy dose of skepticism, I just want to say to those male chauvinistic pigs that she is a child. A child who has placed a dent on inactive leaders.
She is right on one thing, she should not have needed to do what she is doing if the whole human race listened to what has been said a long time ago.
She should have been in school with her lunch bag and books. I couldn’t believe that in this day and age, grown men are allowed to verbally abuse a child for wishing to have a better future and willing to work for it.
While Thunberg is being bullied on every imaginable platform, there are others who have paid dearly for being environmental defenders. I have personally heard Bai Bibyaon, an aged Lumad warrior and female chieftain say that the reason they are protecting Pantaron Range is so that the people of Davao city will be able to enjoy abundant and safe water. And as a sign of gratitude, the ALAMARA has placed her name on a deathlist.
ALAMARA is a paramilitary group formed by our very own Armed Forces of the Philippines.
To Greta. What you are doing places you in a dangerous position. In my country, speaking like that is like a sign-up sheet where you may be imprisoned or dead. That endangers your rights to life and civil liberties. I wish your little heart to be brave, I wish your soul to be sturdy.Wear these abuses as a badge of honour, knowing in other parts of the world a lot of people are extra judicially killed for caring about the environment and children.
So to those grown men who are attacking Greta, go to sleep, grow some balls. The writing is on the wall, your days are numbered, and so are ours. (MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. Bejay Absin is a very seasonal theatre director from Davao city. His last work on stage was Eve Ensler’s ‘Vagina Monologues’ faithfully translated into Cebuano).
