Ensconced in our echo chamber

The period 1970-73 would resurface as the writer figured out the genesis of the OFW phenomenon – beyond the Jose de Venecia coup in the Middle East. Yet like today, up until the impact of martial law hit, the GDP growth rate (%) then was on an uptick: 1970 = 3.765; 1971 = 5.429; 1972 = 5.447; 1973 = 8.921. [And in 1974 it was, of course, down – to 3.558, slower than 1970; and by 1983 we were in a debt crisis that gave birth to the Binondo Central Bank for government to intervene in the forex black market. Thanks to the Chinoys who today dominate PH economy.]

Not surprisingly, given those GDP numbers – despite being a relatively new entrant (1968) to industry and a lazy student and voted least likely to succeed by his high school class to boot – his career got a boost. It was during this period that he had his third to fifth jobs, averaging 13 months from the first to the fourth. Millennials would cheer that!

And it was in this timeframe that he met Dr. Edward de Bono who was invited by his mentor, the late Anacleto del Rosario (the PH first marketing consultant) to share his work with the local advertising and marketing community. And was also invited by a retired former boss to his new office, he had turned headhunter. And because he and his partner were ex-Caltex, through their network, they were able to win the Aramco (of Saudi Arabia) account, where the engagement moved beyond executive recruiting, to OFW recruiting.

And Dr. de Bono? Reads an Ateneo Graduate School conference announcement, “Critical and Creative Thinking and More … Using the Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats; Conference Dates: May 9-11, 2011. 

Thinking of de Bono influenced the title of this posting, “ensconced in our echo chamber.” Consider: in the 1970s we were already ripe for the OFW phenomenon – despite the above-quoted GDP growth rates – and we remain so today. “The Philippines proved to be a bonanza for Aramco recruiters. In the Philippines recruiters found large numbers of well-educated professional and technical people, almost all of them fluent in English, and nearly all willing to work for wages much lower than those required by their counterparts in Western countries.

“In just three years, Filipinos became the largest expatriate group in Aramco. The first Filipinos were hired in 1977. By the end of 1979 there were 3,820 Filipinos on the payroll, surpassing North Americans, who had been the largest expatriate group in Aramco since the founding of the company.” [www.saudiaramco.com]

Decades later and despite over 10 million OFWs, PH still ranks the worst in the region in unemployment. And, of course it follows, poverty. Add food security when the poorest of the poor find rice prices too high – and would rather indulge in “shabu”? Ergo? The war on drugs has turned into the war against the poor aka EJKs. 

In a previous posting the blog pointed out that beyond unemployment, we suffer in GDP per capita, FDIs, exports, among others, making us the regional laggard. 

More to the point, what current initiatives in both the public and private sectors will yield (a) better employment conditions than that enjoyed by over 10 million OFWs that (b) drive our consumption economy and (c) make our local economy bigger than that of our neighbors? Yet we’ve stayed underdeveloped and poor – and that’s where the rub is!

Of course, we in the opining business have been advocating fly swatters to swat away the pests that have bugged us for decades. Sadly, foresight isn’t well-developed in the modern man – a recent finding in the social science – and explains why the world appears to have turned upside-down.

And in our case, we’re ensconced in our echo chamber … that we are amplifying and reinforcing our beliefs. Where do jobs come from and why is PH poverty so tenacious? Are we reading too much US media that we are aping their mantra? Poverty in a well-developed economy cannot be compared with poverty in underdeveloped Philippines.

Misery loves company and so we are conflating the problems of the world with our own. The writer’s Eastern European friends are exploiting AI via robotics to raise productivity in the factory and thus margins – and be more competitive to generate greater income and wealth. 

The caveat: they have 15 years under their belt learning and relearning innovation and global competitiveness that is founded on outward-looking marketing. One that is constantly responding to ever changing human needs while tapping state-of-the-art technology wherever they may be. [Enterprises like nations must create an ecosystem to mirror the dynamism of creation. And approximate “good” because it is where humans thrive. Yet we Pinoys take being parochial and insular for granted, i.e., it undermines transparency and accountability – which the Vatican is also learning – as well as keeps us out of the loop re the interdependence of creation – and why we haven’t learned to create, mirror and leverage an ecosystem.]

We can exploit technology as well like AI if we are to aggressively pursue industrialization – and create a bigger economic pie to support our needs, including social ones. 

In fairness, if we’re not the business-type or an economist, the dots won’t connect as easily as it sounds.

On the other hand, no amount of MSME rhetoric from our Trade people can match the economic impact of over 10 million OFWs given our economic profile and fundamentals – and why we remain uncompetitive in exports, for example. Notwithstanding the grandstanding of our economic managers that we are doing great, thank you very much! News item: “DOF: Drop in competitiveness ranking both wake-up call and false alarm.”

As the blog has pointed out, we are managing the P&L but not the economy. And why Vietnam is well on its way to push us farther down the abyss. 

In other words, winners don’t think the way we do – and why we’ve been losers for decades.

The Six Thinking Hats of Edward de Bono isn’t confined within the Ateneo campus. We in the elite class can use it too. Because there are more perspectives beyond the ones that we embrace and share collectively – as in our instincts.

We’ve turned into an ideology aka tribalism. Think of the last 50-70 years. Not only Vietnam is shaming us – of course the Asia Tigers already did – when we consider what Indonesia was like not that long ago.

But ensconced in our echo chamber, we see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil. What a disservice to Juan de la Cruz. Rizal must be turning in his grave – he who rightly predicted that we love tyranny.

“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]

“Now I know why Paul dared to speak of ‘the curse of the law’ (Galatians 3:13). Law reigns and discernment is unnecessary, which means there is little growth or change in such people. When you do not grow, you remain an infant.” [Faith and Science, Open to Change, Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation, 23rd Oct 2017]

“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]

“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, as classical economics insists . . . A nation’s competitiveness depends on the capacity of its industry to innovate and upgrade.” [The Competitive Advantage of Nations, Michael E. Porter, Harvard Business Review, March–April 1990]

“Learning and innovation go hand in hand. The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow.” [William Pollard, 1911-1989, physicist-priest, Manhattan Project]

“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]