Tuesday, January 3, 2017

We don’t have winter in the Philippines

Except that we have yet to wake up to spring? “On August 19, 1991, CNN was providing nonstop live coverage of an attempted coup against Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev . . . The coup leaders had no popular support . . . and their attempt to put a halt to reforms they feared might lead to the breakup of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was doomed.

“The coup attempt not only failed, but it accelerated the demise of the Soviet Union by presenting the people of the USSR a clear choice. Dissolution and an independent future was a little frightening, yes, but it could not be worse than the totalitarian present.

“And so it shocks the imagination that eight years later, on December 31, 1999, a former lieutenant colonel of the KGB became the president of Russia. The country’s nascent democratic reforms were halted and steadily rolled back.

“There had been no process of purification, no trials for the butchers, and no destruction of the KGB machine . . . Jump forward to the beginning of 2015 and Putin is still in the Kremlin. Russian Forces have attacked Ukraine and annexed Crimea, six years after invading another neighbor, the Republic of Georgia.

“A metaphorical mafia state with Putin as the capo di tutti capi (boss of all bosses) has moved from being an ideological agnostic kleptocracy to using blatant fascist propaganda and tactics.

“Nations that value individual liberty now control the greater part of the world’s resources as well its military power . . . The goal should not be to build new walls to isolate the millions of people living under authoritarian rule, but to provide them with hope and the prospect of a brighter future.

“Like many Russians, I was troubled by the little-known Putin’s KGB background and his sudden rise to power by overseeing the brutal 1999 war to pacify the Russian region of Chechnya. But along with my countrymen, at the start I was grudgingly willing to give Putin a chance . . .

“[A]nd I confess that I was one of those who thought at the time that sacrificing some of the integrity of the democratic process was the lesser evil if it was required to keep the hated Communists from regaining power. Such trade-offs are nearly always a mistake, and it was in this case, as it paved the way for a more ruthless individual to exploit the weakened system.

“As Russian oligarchs spread their wealth and Putin’s political influence around the globe, Western companies returned the favor by investing in Russia . . . Human rights in Russia were the least of Western corporations’ concerns.

“Like most dictators, Putin has good animal instincts when it comes to evaluating his rivals, and he knew he would face no real opposition from other world leaders. And, also like all dictators, Putin grew bolder with every successful step.

“One need not be a student of history to recognize this pattern, nor to see how it led to war in Ukraine . . . It is a shame that today Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin have become caricatures, as if they are mythological beasts representing an ancient evil vanquished long ago . . . Like a weed, evil can be cut back but never entirely uprooted. It waits for its chance to spread through the cracks in our vigilance.

“Communism did not disappear when the Wall came down. Nearly 1.5 billion human beings still live in Communist dictatorships today, and another billion and a half live in unfree states of different stripes, including, of course, much of the former Soviet Union. The desire of men to exploit and to rule over others by diktat, and by force, did not disappear when the Wall fell. 

“The Cold War was won not just by military or economic superiority, but on values I, a former Soviet citizen, unironically call traditional American values, ones that the Western Bloc adopted as well. We cannot resolve the problems of globalization with the same legal and economic tools that created it.

“We need new, morality-based frameworks to confront the dictatorships in Russia and China now that they have so thoroughly become a part of our globalized world. We need new alliances to combat the stateless terror networks that use our technology against us. These frameworks and alliances must be based on moral principles, the only weapon the enemies of democracy cannot match.” [Winter is coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the enemies of the free world must be stopped; Introduction, Garry Kasparov, Public Affairs, New York, 2015]

The writer wanted to copy and paste the entire book of Kasparov for this posting several times over. Because he has internalized the words of Kasparov, living and working in Eastern Europe for most of the last 14 years – and becoming friends with ex-socialists, including twenty-two year olds who embrace and champion democracy. Yet born and raised under Communist rule.

“I experienced a rebirth of my own. In 2005, I retired from twenty years on top of the professional chess world to join the fledgling Russian prodemocracy movement. I had become world champion in 1985 at the age of twenty-two and had achieved everything I could want to achieve at the chessboard. I have always wanted to make a difference in the world and felt that my time in professional chess was over. I wanted my children to be able to grow up in a free Russia.” [Kasparov, op. cit.]

Should we Pinoys be looking at the mirror, proud of our democratic ideals? How do we square that when ours is an oligarchic economy? We couldn’t be a Singapore or a Malaysia or a Thailand or a Taiwan or a Vietnam – because we’re a freedom loving people?

We’re neither here nor there? That we deserve the leadership that we get – in Marcos and now Duterte, and tomorrow another Marcos? [“There had been no process of purification . . .” a la USSR?]

And Du30 believes he knows what communism is? A little knowledge is dangerous?

Like Kasparov, the writer’s friends won’t sacrifice the integrity of the democratic process. Today, they’re amongst a handful of progressive Bulgarian enterprises outside the oligarchic umbrella [2 of the 3 carryovers from the transition to free market failed; while corruption remains a major concern] competing fair and square in both the local and global arenas. Political patronage doesn’t figure in their business model. They’re about innovation and global competition.

They know that there’s no free lunch. And not surprisingly the Soviet system collapsed. These young people can’t stop recalling how they had to hustle their way to the front of the queue for their daily rations of bread only to find out that there was none. “Everything in the local stores was affordable, sold at the equivalent of today’s 50 euro cents, but they weren’t truly fit for human consumption. You get what they give, no questions ask.”

But did these young people even imagine that four of them would evolve from a small outsourcing startup into a global software company and attract a US partner? “Progress Software Buys Telerik for $262.5M.” [techcrunch.com/2014/10/22/progress-software-buys-telerik-for-262-5m].

“Telerik, which develops components for user interfaces and software modules for Microsoft's .NET platform, has grown from a small [family owned-like company] into an organization described by its founders as “absolutely global” . . . In 2002 Svetozar Georgiev, Vassil Terziev, Hristo Kosev and Boyko Iaramov found themselves at a crossroads. They had to make a decision: should they go on developing the outsourcing business they had just started or [move up] to [be] a software company?” [Absolutely Global - Telerik's Cover Story, Alexandra Mechkova, Forbes Magazine Bulgaria, 1st Feb 2013]

And in the Philippines love of country demands supporting EJK because it is a building block in nation building – and the pursuit of national prosperity?

“National prosperity is created, not inherited. It does not grow out of a country’s natural endowments, its labor pool, its interest rates, or its currency’s value . . . A nation’s competitiveness depends on the capacity of its industry to innovate and upgrade. Companies gain advantage against the world’s best competitors because of pressure and challenge. They benefit from having strong domestic rivals, aggressive home-based suppliers, and demanding local customers.” [[The Competitive Advantage of Nations, Michael E. Porter, Harvard Business Review, March–April 1990]

“[A]nd I confess that I was one of those who thought at the time that sacrificing some of the integrity of the democratic process was the lesser evil if it was required to keep the hated Communists from regaining power. Such trade-offs are nearly always a mistake, and it was in this case, as it paved the way for a more ruthless individual to exploit the weakened system.

“We need new, morality-based frameworks to confront . . . dictatorships . . . We need new alliances . . . These frameworks and alliances must be based on moral principles, the only weapon the enemies of democracy cannot match.

“Nations that value individual liberty now control the greater part of the world’s resources as well its military power . . . The goal should not be to build new walls to isolate the millions of people living under authoritarian rule, but to provide them with hope and the prospect of a brighter future.” [Kasparov, op. cit.]

But we insist on our sovereignty and want outsiders to leave us alone? Not surprising given: (a) we have yet to internalize freedom and democracy; conversely, (b) we truly value parochialism and insularity?

Are we seeing history repeat itself? Are we playing with fire?

Winter, is it alien to us? But so is spring?

“Why independence, if the slaves of today will be the tyrants of tomorrow? And that they will be such is not to be doubted, for he who submits to tyranny loves it.” [We are ruled by Rizal’s ‘tyrants of tomorrow,’ Editorial, The Manila Times, 29th Dec 2015]

“As a major component for the education and reorientation of our people, mainstream media – their reporters, writers, photographers, columnists and editors – have an obligation to this country . . .” [Era of documented irrelevance: Mainstream media, critics and protesters, Homobono A. Adaza, The Manila Times, 25th Nov 2015]

“Development [is informed by a people’s] worldview, cognitive capacity, values, moral development, self-identity, spirituality, and leadership . . .” [Frederic Laloux, Reinventing organizations, Nelson Parker, 2014]

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