sikomoro thesis defense

Once again we have (for many) completed this two-day thesis defense, a partial but crucial requirement for graduation.  For the class sikomoro, they can finally breathe a sigh of relief now that the tension filled weeks are over.  It is however my hope that it will not simply end as an academic exercise we are too happy and too eager to get over with.  It is my hope that discussions like this continue.  It is only through exercises like this that we can promote a new kind of politics, a new way of doing things. 

Curiously in many places in Europe markers and even life size statues can be found in coffee houses to mark historic moments in the history of man.  The first ever coffee house supposedly located in Mecca was suppressed by imams because it was a natural gathering place for people to discuss political ideas and change, for that matter.  Since its inception, it has never stopped becoming a magnet for discussions that in so many ways led to a not just to change here and there but even to upheavals. 

Coffee shops are just venues.  It is what they do that make these places significant.  People think, they reflect, they discuss, they exchange views, they debate, they clarify, they hone further their points.  It is in venues like this that change can happen.  So don't just dismiss this as an academic exercise.  Don't say this is just a mental juggling on Nothing, nothing something meant to finish my course in philosophy.  No.  Philosophy is meant to inform and form life.  Who knows this can be the seed from which a new brand of politics in the Philippines can happen.  To those who have passed congratulations.  Arriba.