Damn, damn, damn the insurrectos(formerly "damn the Filipinos")! / Cross-eyed kakiac ladrones(thieves)! / Underneath the starry flag, civilize 'em with a Krag, / And return us to our own beloved homes.
-Military Order of the Carabao, The Army and Navy Club, 901 17th NW, Farragut Square, Washington DC 9001-2503. Should we inundate them?
Email forward referring to this article in the Village Voice:
PLEASE FEEL FREE TO FORWARD TO EVERY SINGLE CARABAO-LOVING PINOY IN CYBERSPACE!
And thanks to brilliant poet Jean Gier for conspiring, um, facilitating the notion...
Eileen Tabios
========
FROM WINEPOETICS (A BLOG BY EILEEN TABIOS:
Wednesday, January 29, 2003 DECOLONIZE THE CARABAO!
Carabao.org offers more information about the "Military Order of the Carabao," one of the subjects of my prior post. Here is a description from its site:
"The Military Order of the Carabao is one of the most unique organizations associated with our nation's military history. It was founded in 1900 to counter and satirize the very pompous Order of the Dragon, which was founded by those who had defeated the very short-lived Boxer uprising in China. This idea for a lampoon was conceived by several Army officers one night at the Army-Navy Club in Manila during the Philippine Insurrection. As with most jests, it contained a serious ingredient which gradually surfaced to eclipse the initial joke. While the original spoof was real enough, the Carabao Order came to epitomize the camaraderie that grows among members of the armed forces who face the dangers and privations of extensive military service far from home. By the way, the effete Order of the Dragon was disbanded many years ago."
I offer an OPEN LETTER to the organization's Executive Committee:
A carabao, as you know, is a water buffalo from the Philippines. The carabao is one of my most treasured memories from my childhood. As a young(er) poet, I even once wrote this poem which appears in my first book, Beyond Life Sentences (Anvil, Manila, 1998):
CARABAO
I shared him with tiny black flies
who sneered at my waving hands
before diving deeper
into the folds of his old, cracked skin.
Still, I relished my throne,
the back of my grandfather's water buffalo,
while the beast provided a lumbering tour
of my kingdom whose borders
my six-year-old-eyes could not see.
*****
You also know that the reason your "Military Order" references my beloved "Carabao'" is because of a specific war that is one of the most ignominious ever fought by the U.S. military: the Philippine-American War through which you colonized the Philippines.
Thus, while there may be merit in your described desire to set up an organization "to epitomize the camaraderie that grows among members of the armed forces who face the dangers and privations of extensive military service far from home," please amend your organization's name.
Once, you renamed the Order of the Dragon which you describe as "very pompous" and "effete." Well, to describe your organization after the "Carabao" is worse by de facto instituting an homage to colonialism.
And, by the way, how has your Military Order worked on behalf of the disgraceful plight of Filipino war veterans who served the U.S. and yet have been denied such rights as the military pensions?
The carabaos have asked me, Babaylan, to speak on their behalf: Release the "Carabao" from your Military Order!
This Open Letter is directed to the White House, the U.S. Department of Defense, and last but not least, the Military Order's "Executive Committee" revealed on its site to be:
Grand Patriarch of the Herd (First Vice Cmdr.) - LTG MARVIN L. MCNICKLE
USAFGrand Concillior of the Herd (Second Vice Cmdr.) - LT. COL OLIVER GASCH
USAGrand Jefe de los Amigos (Third Vice Cmdr.) - LT. COL ROGER HB. DAVIS, USAF
Jefe de Vaqueros - HOMER C. SAUNDERS
Consejero General - COL. JAMES L. FOWLER, USMC
Grand Padre de los Carabaos - LT. COL. KARL A. CHIMIAK, USAF
Director de Artistes - SSGT. ROBERT L. GEORGE, USA
Historiador - R.ADM. RALPH M. GHORMLEY, USN
Grand Paramount Carabao - GEN. CHARLES G. BOYD, USAF
Grand Lead and Wheel Carabao - CAPT. WILLIAM W. HARRIS JR., USAF
Lead and Wheel Carabao - COL. JOHN S. ROOSMA, JR., USAF
Grand Lead and Swing - C.W.O. GORDON F. Heim, USM,
Lead and Swing - R. ADM. JOHN N. FAIGLE, USCG
Director del Banquets - CAPT. I.C. KIDD III, USN
Auxiliar - SGT. RAYMOND F. DUBOIS, JR., USA
Producer de Is Fiesta - COL. JOHN R. BOURGEOIS, USMC
Winders of the Horn - COL- JEROME E. EILER, USAFLCOL ROBERT J. WACHTER, USAFLT. WILLIAM 0. RITTER, USNCOL. DAVIS T. MOORHEAD, USA
Director de Musica - LT. COL. TIMOTHY W. FOLEY, USMC
Auxiliars - MAJ. DENNIS R. BURIAN, USMCC.W.O. JOSEPH M. HURLEY, USMC
Gamboling Carabaos - MR. RANDELL G. COOKMGYSGT. CHARLES V. CORRADO, USMCLCDR. CARL V. COSTANZO, USNMGYSGT. MICHAEL S. RYAN,
USMCSGT. ERNEST SULT, USA
Compositor Lirico - SGT. ALVIN SPIVAK, USAF
**********
I know that deleting "carabao" from your Military Order's name will require you to delete such fanciful designations as "Grand Patriarch of the Herd," "Grand Paramount Carabao," "Winders of the Horn," or "Gamboling Carabaos." But if you change your name, I promise to offer my advice on similarly fanciful appellations -- an offer you should value (have I mentioned I am an award-winning poet?)
Let my carabaos go -- which is to say: Let My People Go!
Or the waters of the rivers shall turn into lambanog (96-proof) and the carabaos shall run amok...!
Eileen Tabios
P.S. Your site also notes that your "Grand Paramount" is "formally sworn in at the Annual Wallow, which is held each year on the Saturday closest to February 4, the date of the Philippine Insurrection."
Wallow in this: READ MY LIPS: It was NOT a Philippine "Insurrection." It was an appropriate Philippine defensive response to U.S. invasion! It was not an "insurrection" for that word implies that the U.S. armed forces then represented either civil authority or an established government against which the people were rebelling. No, sweethearts: the Americans were invading. Now Repeat After Me (And Amend Your Childrens' Schoolbooks): It was NOT a ….!
