| Photo by Milan Cobanov on Unsplash
Part II of “Fourteen Letters to His Holiness Pope Leo XIV” Series
Dear Holy Father:
This is the second “open letter” addressed to your esteemed office.
On December 30, 2020, this column suggested to then-President-elect Joe Biden that a Biden Doctrine Can Reinvent Geopolitics. We said in it: A Biden Doctrine can reinvent geopolitics by addressing worldwide homelessness first and foremost. Why? Two American cities (New York and Los Angeles) are among the Top Five most homeless cities in the world. Secondly, the U.S., the world’s biggest economy and top military power, can use diplomacy and its economic and military aid to meet humanity’s basic needs, like shelter.
India’s Mumbai and the Russian capital of Moscow rank third and fifth in the Top Five of Homelessness, and they devote a vast amount of resources to atomic bombs. President Biden may propose to both (and the other member countries of the International Nuclear Club) to channel their resources instead to address their populations’ essential needs like housing, food, education, jobs, and economic opportunities. And, of course, Climate Change (Global Warming).
Sadly, according to Arcgis.com, the Philippines is the international capital of homelessness, followed by four of the world’s biggest cities.
To read the article in its entirety, please go to this link.
Eventually, this columnist called it the Biden Back-to-Basics (B2B) Doctrine. But apparently, the White House Press Office did not forward to President Biden even the summaries of the column articles, which were published in book format by Amazon Books under the title Mabuhay Writings — Book 4. President Biden did not act or react to the suggestions about forming an international front or consortium to address homelessness.
“Perhaps His Holiness may pick up the cudgels for former President Biden, a devout Catholic, and let the Vatican spearhead the formation of a worldwide consortium of public and private partnerships (PPP). It is further, and most respectfully, suggested that Metropolitan Manila be chosen as the first significant effort to eliminate homelessness by 2030, starting in 2026.”
Perhaps His Holiness may pick up the cudgels for former President Biden, a devout Catholic, and let the Vatican spearhead the formation of a worldwide consortium of public and private partnerships (PPP). It is further, and most respectfully, suggested that Metropolitan Manila be chosen as the first significant effort to eliminate homelessness by 2030, starting in 2026. If, in five years, some 3.5 million homeless people in the nation’s capital region can be provided with decent homes with livelihood opportunities, then the same methods can be adopted as templates for worldwide efforts to end homelessness.
This journalist formed a Facebook Group called FilipinoExodus/Schanctuary Chapter of the OFW/OF Nation in 2013, which your distinguished staff members may browse and summarize for Your Holiness.
“Exodus” means relocating Metro Manila’s squatter families living on shanties in vacant lots or public land, sidewalks, under bridges, or in pushcarts. And moving them back to their respective home provinces or rural towns that will become their real “Promised Land” (not the “land of broken promises” by Filipino politicians and their crony capitalists). The homeless returnees will be aided in doing reforestation that is copied from Israel’s “Memorial Trees” project (which honored the six million Jewish victims of the World War II Holocaust). Between the “memorial trees” will be planted trees that will provide the evacuees food supplies, and eggs and meat from quail and chicken farms. And also dairy products from goat farms. These socioeconomic activities will give them a decent household income, healthcare, education, and other modest needs.
Part III will discuss how to build typhoon-proof and environmentally sound houses, schools, and other needed infrastructures by next Wednesday. It will also suggest viable methods of funding community efforts that use the tenets of Cooperative Economics instead of the present “crony capitalism,” where the rich get richer at the expense of low-income and poor consumers and taxpayers.
God bless you more, Your Holiness Pope Leo XIV, your staff, kin, and the worldwide congregation of faithful Christians.
Very respectfully yours in Jesus Christ,
Roberto (Bobby) M. Reyes
Journalist and Book Author
