It’s called “insanity”

That has reference to “We’re still ‘kulelat,’ Cielito F. Habito, NO FREE LUNCH, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 10th Aug 2018.” We quote Einstein all the time but have yet to internalize what we mean.

And Ciel’s concluding lines say it all: “All told, we have not gained any ground relative to our neighbors. In some ways, we’re even more kulelat than ever. Yes, we seem to have achieved so much—but, alas, it’s still far from enough.”

Why? We don’t play baseball like we used to, and probably no longer appreciate what “stepping up to the plate” means.

Consider: “I was wrong, totally wrong. I had confidently predicted that the consultative committee would be forward-thinking and liberal in its devolution of a new, modern constitution.

“Then I read the economic section, and my disappointment was vast. The protectionist, isolationist and fearful terms of the 1987 Constitution, of the 1935 Constitution even, were essentially maintained.

“Mass media will be ‘limited to citizens of the Philippines.’ I watch CNN every morning beamed from Atlanta into my house. There are no borders in media anymore. This is a country that supports freedom in an open society and with a free press, so how can it put limits on that? The internet didn’t exist in 1987; it does now. There are no media borders anymore.

“The committee added a modifier — that law can change the capital requirement. But why should that be necessary? We need to send a message in the Constitution that this is an open, welcoming society, not one scared that foreigners might dominate industries. Believe me, after 44 years here, I know that they can’t. Filipinos can match anybody without need of artificial protection.

“Making it worse, if a foreign business is allowed by law, a Filipino must manage the business. Why? Do we have enough managers with the requisite specific experience? For startups, we don’t. I, as a foreigner, came here to build a factory after eight years of training and experience in the industry. How could a Filipino without that experience have done it?

“It’s the same narrow thinking for public utilities, an area we all recognize as needing massive capital and innovative technology, if for no other reason than to accelerate the administration’s ‘Build, build, build’ program. What is the committee afraid of? Even the major Filipino companies in public utilities do not object. So who are they protecting?” [They didn’t understand, Peter Wallace, LIKE IT IS, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 9th Aug 2018] 

Does it remind us of the jeepney? And why the blog constantly raises that it reflects our mindset: lacking in foresight, unable to change and backwardness. Why? “So who are they protecting?”

A culture of impunity, that is what. And why the blog never tires of calling out our “culture” or way of life: “We are parochial and insular. We value hierarchy and the paternalism it brings. And we rely on political patronage and oligarchy given the spoils they bestow. That when all is said and done, we bite the bullet – aka a culture of impunity.”

The real challenge we have lies in our perceptive judgement, where there is a body of knowledge that says: It takes personal experience – in development, for example – to train the mind from dualism or either/or thinking as in ideology to multi-dimensional thinking and finally relativism. Think Einstein’s theory of special relativity (while Newton’s laws assume that gravity is an innate force of an object that can act over a distance) not our knee-jerk of impugning morality upon hearing the word relativism. And it explains why we have repeatedly failed to demonstrate foresight and forward-thinking. And likewise, to be outward-looking.

Put simply, we cannot learn innovation and global competitiveness until we start doing it – think Nike or Nancy Reagan – via an industrialization initiative. We can’t simply be opining about AI when we lack the personal experience. It applies to our backwardness in infrastructure development. That’s why we’re reduced to “puro daldal, satsat, sitsit.” Note it has nothing to do with age but personal experience and why tots are more adept with digital devices.

And Bill Gates found that out too with kids in India. Give them a computer and even with no training nor formal education, simply because they just do it, they rapidly become tech savvy. Gates must have sensed how it would play out being a college dropout. Think of Jobs and Zuckerberg too.

Surprise? Consider: The blog has pointed out our bias toward expertise – confined to a discipline – which is consistent with our hierarchical instincts as in certain callings rank higher. And so it has argued that we need to learn from critical and creative thinking: no one perspective can win against an array of perspectives.

The history of Western or American industry says it all. Following World War II manufacturing was preeminent as a discipline. The world needed goods to rebuild and those that were involved in producing war-related products had a leg up. As it was in Japan, Germany and the UK, for example.

And General Motors was the model, a copy of the armed forces’ “command and control” culture. It was how the world understood leadership. Not surprisingly, Eisenhower, the “victorious supreme allied commander in Europe in WWII,” was elected US president in November 1952.

But then Procter & Gamble saw the limitations and the bureaucracy inherent in a command and control system. And created Brand Management and tapped the Harvard Business School to fine tune the new discipline. And hence brand managers became general managers of their brands bypassing the bureaucracy of the GM model.

Dynamic tension of course occurred between the disciplines of manufacturing and brand management. But then the economic cycle is another reality enterprise had to deal with, enter the finance discipline. And it had its own hiccups. From mandating across-the-board cuts in expenses, for instance, it moved to zero-based budgeting. And then to reclaim its preeminence, the finance discipline led the efforts to restructure companies. Beyond the economic cycle was the emergence of Japan Inc that turned Western enterprises second rates quality-wise. And so quality management took center stage.

Then information technology arrived. And the US was able to overtake Japan – whose once dominant electronics brands also fell behind those of South Korea. And the coming of the digital age made the global competitive arena even more daunting.

That meant pulling the different disciplines together to be on the same page and not working at cross purposes ... Still progress aka change kept coming which is best exemplified by Moore’s Law ... that since 2016 we’ve had 10 nanometer chips, just about the limits of miniaturization ... until the next innovation.

And unsurprisingly, the Western educational system has lagged behind. Think perceptive judgment – that is derived from personal experience. And it explains why in the region, Philippine education is the regional laggard too – magnified by our parochialism and insularity. For example, Singapore has collaborations with Duke and Yale universities. 

Collaboration, brainstorming, design thinking, teamwork … are words we know. And the blog has discussed that Edison pioneered the modern-day team-oriented R&D to drive home the point. 

But in the Philippines whenever we talk of a major undertaking as in constitution-writing or economic development, we think expertise in law or economics. And why the blog often speaks to design thinking, the model that captures the innovation magic of Silicon Valley. Clearly, it is counterintuitive.

Even the then young Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak that started the partnership behind Apple had a falling out. Because Wozniak – the real techie being the engineer, akin to our experts in constitution-writing and economy development – could not imagine and visualize an undertaking beyond the obvious, as in creating a great personal computer. But to Jobs Apple was more than a great personal computer. And that is where visionary leadership comes in. 

Visionary leaders are few and far between; and in the Philippines it is what we must be searching for, not make do with “pwede na rin ang trapos” as in the case of Marcos, Estrada, Macapagal-Arroyo or even Duterte. If we struggle to figure out the jeepney analogy, is it because we can’t connect the dots and imagine and visualize an ecosystem? It takes an ecosystem to leapfrog from the jeepney to an efficient public transportation system. And it will take visionary leadership to connect the dots and leapfrog PH from third-world to first-world.

And the lack of personal experience in development will weigh down even more on major undertakings we pursue ... Until we learn to follow the footsteps of our neighbors and cease reinventing the wheel. That is why there are best practice models. Smart enterprises “steal them shamelessly.” And that is a quality-management lingo, not something to be ashamed of.

And so it will get worse before it gets better if we don’t step up to the plate. Yes … We’re still “kulelat.”

“The sad fact is that, today, we remain very much the kulelat; in some indicators, we now lag even farther behind. Let’s look at a few indicators to see what I mean.

“Up until about 10 years ago, Indonesia had a lower average income (GDP per capita) than we did, making it last, and us fourth, among the Asean 5 in average income. Last year, Indonesia was already 12 ranks (113th) ahead of us in the World Bank listing of 184 countries …

“In 2005, we had the lowest export earnings among the Asean 5 with $41 billion, trailing Indonesia, which earned $86 billion (Thailand had $110 billion, Malaysia $141 billion, and tiny Singapore, $230 billion). We still did better than Vietnam’s $32 billion then. Last year, 12 years later, our $69 billion from exports trailed behind Indonesia’s $169 billion, with the gap having more than doubled to $100 billion from just $45 billion in 2005.

“Vietnam had already overtaken Indonesia with $214 billion in exports, having grown its exports nearly seven times in the last 12 years. Our total trade was deep in deficit last year, with imports exceeding exports by $27.4 billion. But the rest of the Asean 5 saw trade surpluses, from Indonesia’s $11.8 billion to Singapore’s $45.5 billion.

“We had $10.1 billion in net foreign direct investments last year, slightly edging Thailand and Malaysia’s $9.1 billion each—but well behind Vietnam’s $14.1 billion, Indonesia’s $22.1 billion, and Singapore’s $63.6 billion.

“We had the worst annual inflation (4.8 percent) as of the second quarter this year, as our neighbors ranged from Singapore’s 0.2 percent to Vietnam’s 3.8 percent. We also had the highest joblessness last year at 5.7 percent, versus Thailand’s 1.2 percent, Singapore and Vietnam’s 2.2 percent, Malaysia’s 3.4 percent, and Indonesia’s 5.6 percent.” [Habito, op. cit.]

Yet … what is the national agenda that we’ve embraced for decades? It’s called insanity.

Gising bayan!

“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]