Friedrich Nietzsche, who proclaimed “God is dead,” is required reading for Philosophy 101 in Ateneo. It’s a wonder then how the Jesuit administration of the university can label as heretics its teachers who support the Reproductive Health bill. One would think that overtly atheistic subjects in Ateneo’s core curriculum would raise more clamor than the personal choices of private individuals regarding their own sexuality and reproductive health.
If anything, the Ateneo administration is showing how out of touch it is from the social realities in and outside the university. Perhaps it thinks the RH bill has no benefit because contraceptives are hardly out of reach financially to its well-to-do students. Maybe the “bad reputation” for being promiscuous or the stigma of pregnancy out of wedlock is enough of a deterrent for the scions of our society’s upper crust. All this vehement opposition to the RH bill only perpetuates the university’s elitist tag.
Long before global warming and climate change became buzz-words, I spent a weekend with fisherfolk as part of the Ateneo Immersion Program. I learned then that dwindling stocks and environmental degradation greatly impact the future of this marginalized sector. One can only imagine how much worse things are now. Given this, if only to complete the education of its students, why would Ateneo block its faculty from supporting a measure that could help the poor plan their families better? Whatever happened to the school dictum, “Man for Others”?
The very least an Atenean can do for others is support the RH bill.
—SOLIMAN DELARIARTE,
sdelariarte@yahoo.com