Our C-squared

(Competitiveness and Corruption)

Should these two scourges be core subjects in our schools? If it would take nearly two centuries (according to the ADB) for us to attain the living standards of industrialized countries, should we then give the youth the opportunity to be part of their future – and “raise the eager mind to higher station”?

Whether we agree or not, we should at least put the question to the young people themselves? What we can do is for our educators to do the requisite research work; not to tell the youth what to do but to make them aware and inquisitive about these scourges? And make the subject expository as opposed to directive, offering examples from around the world?

Young people are more predisposed to be “citizens of the world” (COWs) given their affinity for the cyberworld. And they are more aware than their elders were at their age (like the writer, to be sure) about the bigger world, that it is in fact a small world. And so they are receptive to materials that are multinational and multicultural in nature – that diversity is enriching. And that ideas can travel or they cannot . . . so that later in life they would develop products and markets globally – that their ideas can overcome challenges, wherever they may come from? We ought not to be an island unto ourselves and on the path to being marginalized, with the haves sharing the Maker’s gifts and an alarming number merely subsisting?

For example, they could be introduced to Fortune 500 and Global 2000 top executives who were athletes in their younger days. That these folks would point to and be proud of their experience in athletic competition, i.e., it had taught them a great deal about discipline, focus, teamwork, camaraderie, fairness, empathy among others and prepared them in more ways than one for responsible leadership. They understood what healthy competition was; and that competiveness was an invaluable asset. It goes without saying that competitiveness renders corruption moot. The ability to focus to them is likewise vital, i.e., to successfully do business globally they must be able to sift through the chaff. And they sharpened their ability to focus from those split second (play) executions inherent in competitive sports.

One of them is a friend of the Philippines, who, by a stroke of fate, had taken some course work at UP; and briefly played commercial basketball at the Rizal Memorial Stadium, representing a local team. He traveled to Asia, which had fascinated him, right after graduating from an Ivy League college. And with no prior plans found himself in Manila, at the invitation of new found Filipinos friends that he had met in Hong Kong.

He is now retired but until his retirement would visit the Philippines as often as he could and vacationed with his family and mother to Palawan, one of the many places in the country that he loves. He also would visit with his Filipino friends in Manila. And did the same in San Francisco, whenever he was in the area; he calls the Bay Area “little Manila”. And calls the Philippines Shangri-la.

Talking to these individuals would give one a sense of how their experience had formed them. They are extremely, super competitive like school kids and equally as naïve about things outside fair play – it is not simply winning, it is how one plays the game . . . winning fair and square. That said it would dawn on us, for instance, that the converse of their experience is not surprising, i.e., we are the least competitive country in the region and are among the most corrupt.