Name: Mary Rose Editha D.

Bote
Course & Sec: AB-Foreign Service-201
Subject: Political and Economic Geography
Professor: Mr. Jumel G. Estrañero
Critique and Position Brief
“The formation of the Youth Patriotism to circumvent Communism”
Event
The Regional Youth Forum is hosted by the International Association of Youth
and Students for Peace Pilipinas (IAYSP) and the National Youth Commission (NYC).
The event was held on May 1, 2021 via zoom and Facebook live group with the theme
"The Role of Patriotic Youth in Nation-Building." This mainly highlights the importance of
patriotism as one of the keys to nation-building. The majority of the participants are
young individuals including students particularly in Region I as the carriers for the future
development of the country. The main purpose of the said event is to recognize the
significant role of the youths in the Philippines who are envisioned to be the future
bringers of peace, loyalty, love, and the dreams of the nation.
Introduction
Patriotism serves as the most basic and universal idea of being patriotic and
dedicated to the ideals of the nation despite the difference in religion and ethnicities. It
shows a sense of love and loyalty not only to the nation itself but most importantly
believing in the people as a whole. The envisioned goals and development for the
country will not be possible without its citizens. Citizens are the action takers of these
goals who will consider their country as their own homes wherein rules are set to be
followed and not ignored, and responsible for their goods. The most potential citizens
are the youths of the country. Youths are the young leaders and the bright future of the
nation. Alongside, the preservation, protection, and acting in its best interest for the
sake of the nation are their supposed roles. On the other hand, youths cannot do this
alone without having common goals with the rest of the citizens, one of which is nation-
building. Youths are expected to contribute to the nation through educating themselves,
an asset to establish nation building.
Body
In term of the technicalities of the program, the host, was good in giving a short
background of the topics to be discussed, the reminders that the participants should
follow, and introduction of the theme and purpose of the forum. However, would have
been better had she slightly memorized the script to maintain rapport and connection
with her audience. With regard to the choice of resource speakers invited, was able to
discuss her topic on national task force to end the local communist armed conflict which
is relevant nowadays. There are data she presented to show the accomplishments of
the National Task Force (NTF). One of these is the organization of local task forces
from the regions up to barangays with the support of the Local Government Unit (LGU)
declaring the CPP-NPA-NDFP as persona non grata, and the establishment of strategic
communication wherein there is an avenue for the indigenous people to be known in the
country. The flow of the presentation is smooth, but the way the resource speaker
delivered the information was too fast-paced. In the same manner, the event’s guest
speakers had a formal approach in terms of sharing their expertise on their topics;
however, it can still be noticed how there is a strong bias in the claim of the speaker in a
sense that there were crucial factors which are seemed to be neglected in the
presentation of facts. For instance, in the first topic entitled "Critique and
Counterproposal to Communism-Introduction" discussed by the first speaker, he shared
the background information of Karl Marx, the father of Communism. Indeed, the speaker
highlighted the negative connotation about communism particularly the studies of Karl
Marx as he justified armed violence for the attainment of its purposes. In comparison to
the ideologies of Father and Mother Moon who believed in peace and cooperation, and
firmly neglected the idea of communism based on their experiences. In this contest, I
strongly believed that yes, cooperation and unity are very important for the maintenance
of peace, however, it should not be recognized that the overall studies of Karl Marx are
negative because what is wrong about his movement is that they are involved in
violence rather than gentleness. In the same light, the second speaker, caught the
audience’ attention by his method of delivery which was done in a lively manner;
however, some of his points in the topic “Dialectical and Historical Materialism and its
Counterproposal” were contradicting and inconsistent in terms of the matter included in
the presentation. One example could be the focus Communist Manifesto which
promotes a violent revolution. The main law of communism is the Phenomenon of
Repulsion, and the secondary is the Law of Give and Take Action. This is certainly
opposed to the idea of Godism because they believed that the Law of Give and Take
Action should come first followed by the Phenomenon of Repulsion. From my
perspective, I do not believe in Godism because there are people who still do well and
cooperate even though they do not have any God, and there are also people who
believe in God but still pursued violence for the attainment of their interests. Therefore,
the main problem of the country is violence itself and not those people who do not
believe in any God, a point which seemed to be taken a blind eye in the discussion. On
the same page, the content of the third topic entitled “Materialistic of Man” presented by
the third speaker, held into the idea that the man’s essence is not because of labor, but
God’s spirit, the desire to love others and committed to its responsibility. The
responsibility to know what should be prioritized as the mind prioritizes the public such
as concerning with other people and the body prioritizes the private needs such as the
basic foods. This could be problematic in a sense that the generalizations were made
hastily—that people have no autonomy in terms of choosing whether or not to become
“political animals”. Overall, the topics are connected to the subject which is Political and
Economic Geography because the speakers mainly emphasized how communism is
considered as a social problem that affects the economic geography of the country such
as massive destruction.
Analysis
This paper will analyze the seminar in terms of technicalities, the content,
relevance to the theme, its relation to the subject, and impact on the students or
audience. To illustrate, the technicalities don’t meet its objective for the reason that
there were unnecessary sounds heard in the seminar, the chat box is continuously
appearing during the discussion of the speaker which is distracting for the participants,
and some of the slides are too blurred to see the information. On a positive note, the
content is informative for there are data presented which believed to be stating facts.
The overall seminar has relevance to the theme even though the discussion mainly
focused on Karl Marx and Engles, the speakers give time to still relate the topic to the
theme of the seminar. Further, the seminar is significantly related to my subject since it
is evident that communism is one of the issues in the context of political and economic
geography. Lastly, it has a huge impact on the audience since they were introduced to
different ideologies that will guide the principles and perspective of the students about
the importance of being a patriotic youth as contributors to nation-building.
Recommendation to the Government and Society as a Whole
One of the recommendations I would like to make is that the government and
society as a whole should not recognize the totality of communism as a negative
concept; although there are harms in this principle, it should be noted that there is no
perfect principle, and thus, all must be tested to prove which one suits a context best.
Second, the importance of peace talks and negotiations as the necessary measure to
solve any conflicts between the government and the people. Third, concrete solutions
targeting the roots of the problem, and not the involved people alone. Fourth, revolt only
if it is urgent and necessary in a moral manner and not in a violent way to acquire
changes in the society. Fifth, cooperation and unity of goals and ideas to achieve the
development of the nation. Lastly, a connection between the government and society in
creating laws for effective collaboration, and an efficient set of rules that are
implemented and followed.
Conclusion
In the webinar, it was mentioned how communism doesn’t bring any good, but
chaos and destruction. The only solution that matters is cooperation and unity for the
maintenance of peace and the sake of the lives of the people. This movement starts
with the youths who are the future leaders of this country with a strong sense of
patriotism in their hearts and minds for nation-building.
Way Ahead
I have a strong faith in the youths of this country who have huge potentials to be
role models of society. The future will be astounding because of the existence of the
youths who are the main contributors to the positive change in society. A forum like this
is one of the instruments to bring the people to a more informed discussion that will
improve their perspective and will have personal development.
Documentation