From CBC News,
Former Philippines President Corazon Aquino, whose “people power” revolt in 1986 ended the repressive 20-year regime of dictator Ferdinand Marcos, has died. She was 76.
She and her supporters picked yellow in 1986 and tried to make a difference. She may not have been as successful as she and her supporters had hoped but I believe she tried. And at the end of the days, thats what fair minded citizens can ask their elected-politicians to do – try to do their best and try to make a difference.
May she rest in peace. Here is an AP report.
P.S. I don’t know if I have ever talked about this but the letter “R” in the logo “ideas Revolution” uses the same yellow as the Philippines did in 1986 (I sampled the “yellow” from a photo of Aquino taken at the time).
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2 Aug, 2009 Update: Here is an insightful observation from WSJ,
When Corazon Aquino addressed a joint session of the U.S. Congress in 1986, she could have crowed over her role in the Phillipines’ remarkable and peaceful transition to democracy after years of authoritarian rule. Instead she summed up the event this way: “Last year, in an excess of arrogance, the dictatorship called for its doom in a snap election. The people obliged. With over a million signatures they drafted me to challenge the dictatorship. And I obliged.”
Aquino, who died Saturday at age 76 from colon cancer, was a self-described “plain housewife” who never aspired to enter politics. Yet she always believed in that most powerful of political truths: that personal freedom is a moral right.
UK Telegraph obituaries.
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