“Japan
is still grappling with the fallout from a decade-long, seemingly
unstoppable decline of its electronics sector, once a driver of
growth and a bedrock of its economy.” [NY Times, 28th Dec 2012] . .
. “But for more than a decade, these technology companies have
experienced little growth . . . To blame are plunging prices across
the board for their products, brought about by intense competition
from rivals in South Korea and Taiwan as electronics increasingly
become widely interchangeable. Overstretched and unfocused, Japan’s
tech giants also ceded much of their cutting edge to more innovative
companies like Apple.”
“The
way forward for Japan’s embattled electronics sector, for now, is a
globalization strategy that shifts production and procurement from
high-cost Japan to more competitive locations overseas. As Japan’s
manufacturing giants become truly global, a country that has so
depended on its manufacturers for growth must look to other sources
of jobs and opportunity, like
its nascent entrepreneurs — a
transformation far more easily said than done.”
Globalization,
at the end of the day, came about as a matter of necessity? Why is
the premise important? Development is not static nor can it be
confined within parochial walls. But in the same manner that the US
could not anticipate how globalization would play out, the Japanese
likewise are learning the lesson – that competition can come from
anywhere in the world, for example. And so the key is for a nation to
be equipped to adapt to its challenges. And which is why Einstein,
inquisitive and forward-looking as he was, thus preached: “the
value of education is not the learning of many facts but the training
of the mind to think.”
While
Japan learned from the Americans how to rebuild their economy after
the war, and even writing up their constitution for them, the
Japanese did not surrender the entirety of their culture and
heritage. What they did was take on what was useful. For instance,
they embraced the mantra of American quality guru W. Edwards Deming
and developed their manufacturing prowess that became the envy of the
world. Still, both Japan and the US have to reinvent and
transform themselves. And even China, newly minted as the second
largest economy, has to face the reality of a slowing global economy
that has yet to play itself out. These countries have indeed
demonstrated their strengths but clearly "nobody is perfect.”
In
the Philippines where rank gives many of us privileges, we seem to
have found our nesting place? And we see that as a blessing? But have
we unwittingly confused faith and responsibility and not
surprisingly hierarchy has become preeminent in our value system
over dynamism? Dynamism – the antithesis of “pwede na ‘yan”
– is central to development and competitiveness as the above
countries learned. And so while we are prudently addressing the
global measures of development and competitiveness, we may be
mirroring a pilot going over his preflight routine? But we're not
poised to fly yet while the ecosystem of flying has all been figured
out?
Our economic, political
and belief systems, on the other hand, are a throwback to "our
old jeepney culture": a local lord owns the jeepney that isn't
guaranteed to run the entire shift yet the driver is subservient and
grateful for the opportunity. And he drives on streets that aren't
functional and efficient. And before he knows it a cop stops him for
morning coffee or "after hours" beer? He then suffers a
flat tire and limps back to the garage of the local lord; he
scratches his head with barely enough to cover the rate or "boundary"
for the day. He piles his IOUs and stops by the church to pray on the
way home. [That’s a translation of Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz’s
book, “The Price of Inequality," about rent-seeking – which
we’ve embraced as nationalism and promoting local investment?]
What
are we missing? A community sense to espouse an entirely different
paradigm; it starts not with hierarchy but with "men are
created equal" and thus premised on respecting Juan de la Cruz;
it means creating an economic and a political system that is designed
for the common good . . .
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