A couple of months ago, Serbian friends visited our Institute and shared their researches and insights on peaceful protests and revolutions. A couple of weeks after they returned to Serbia, violence broke out. Kosovo, one of its regions, was so decided to break free from the nation.

This morning, as I was keeping track of some developments on Russian international relations (one of my personal interests), I happened to read the post of Peace and Freedom 08. The post contains an AFP report on the reaction of Georgia against Russia’s military intervention plan in case war breaks out in the former. Medyo kaya under threat ngonyan an Georgia dahil sa plano kan duwang rehiyon kaini, an Abkhazia and South Ossetia, na magsiblag sa nasambit na nasyon. Arog kan Kosovo sa Servia. Arog man kan Mindanao digdi sa Pilipinas.

As I was pondering on this in relation to the ideas of globalism and global village, I remembered the presentation of Prof. Fred Cabuang of the Defenders of Indigenous Languages and Minorities (DILA) during the RTD and Workshop on Decentralization and Federalism. According to Prof. Cabuang, almost all of the wars in the world has ethno-linguistic roots. To end as well as prevent these wars, a careful look into, and a keen understanding of, ethno-linguism is necessary.

I remembered the 1992 internal war in Czechoslovakia. The Czechs and the Slovaks both clamored for autonomy that other countries were drawn to intervene. Finally, the government was forced to draw the lines that in 1993 two new republics were born — the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic. The same with East Timor which was once a part of Indonesia. After a series of struggles, a United Nations’ resolution was passed and Indonesia finally relinquished its control over the area in 1999.

Similarly, the Philippines has the Muslim Mindanao which also clamors for independence. Dai pa nangyayari an pagsuway kan nasambit na lugar kaya dagos-dagos pa an kariribokan. Initially, may punto si Prof. Cabuang dahil rooted man sa ethno-linguism an ipinaglalaban kan mga muslim.

In a softer level, yon man an mga Bisaya. An mga Cebuano, halimbawa, ipinag-translate na sa Bisaya na an  national anthem asin ini an saindang kinakanta uru-aldaw. Diit pang sabrit siguro, magsisiblag na man sinda.

Maray sana ta an Bikolandia, maski pirang dekada na pinabayaan kan gobyerno dahil sa pagigi daang opposition country, dai pa nakakakaisip. Kun sabagay, noted man an mga Bikolano sa pagiging persevering, and for having an ability to adjust to whatever conditions. Pero pira an arog sa mga Bikolano? To note, there are already  floating concepts of Ilocoslovakia and Ilonggo Republic.

Though it may be true that globalism is here to stay,  the issue of self-determination goes well with it. One thing is, tama kaya an lesson na tinao ni Napoleon: Assimilation is a failure. What the proper thinking should be is “unity in diversity” and not “unity in uniformity”.

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