The absolute truths

Then we can't be Singapore. Now we can't be a Vietnam, too. Still, we are optimistic, cautiously though. We will keep our fingers crossed that Cambodia won't be the next.

Because Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia have left us in the dust. Meanwhile, we must talk up our annual GDP growth rate and be silent that OFW remittances drive it.

The writer was cautiously optimistic when P-Noy was elected president. There was Arangkada ready to be presented to the new administration. In other words, we can't remain blind to our failure to industrialize, especially in this era of innovation and global competition when an industrial economy is only the front end of development.

Yet, we don't have to go it alone and why Arangkada was a step in the right direction: (a) a cross-section of society crafted and designed it to attract FDI, drive exports, and generate employment; and (b) all in a significant way, to lift us and be the next tiger economy.

Six years of the previous administration plus three of the present and where we are is on the drawing board – working on 42 industry road maps. As the blog has pointed out, not even a Germany can win in 42 industries.

Major undertakings call for discipline in execution, and it starts with establishing priorities. Unsurprisingly, nine years out, all we can say is we are cautiously optimistic of PH economy.

Still, every after an election, Juan de la Cruz would be hopeful. Hope springs eternal.

Have we ever wondered why the Philippines has remained underdeveloped, poor and the regional laggard? Scanning our media and even going back ten years since the birth of the blog, we have prescriptions for our every ail. It has raised the point by calling out our "kuro-kuro" culture.

Is the reason because we are all coming from a perceived “absolute truth” that we hold dear as in our values? On the other hand, there is no disagreement that ours is a culture of impunity? How can these two live together? Fr. Bulatao calls it our “split-level” Christianity.

The blog has repeatedly raised that perfection is not of this world. The universe is a 24/7 dynamic phenomenon. Given our Christian upbringing, it has referenced Bible stories countless times as well as the laws of physics or nature. In other words, this world is not about perfection but dynamism – i.e., it explains how civilization has evolved.

Does the absence of dynamism in our instincts explain why the Philippines has remained underdeveloped, poor, and the regional laggard?

Recall Eden. Adam and Eve realized they had to fend for themselves after their banishment. The story of creation, indeed, is a compelling, dynamic story.

If it isn't apparent yet, the posting is teeing up "dynamism" against "absolute truths."

The first homo sapiens migrated from Africa, and if archeological finds are accurate, they were then found scattered across different continents. Given the Sahara Desert spans across northern Africa, standing in Morocco and then Egypt gave the writer a sense of how many challenges it must have posed to humankind.

Scientists call the universe “The Runaway Universe – it started with a bang and has been expanding ever since, the space between galaxies increasing with time.” [hubblesite.org]

While here on planet earth, throughout its history, we've had five major ice ages that redrew the configuration of the continents. The Alps and Australia are two examples, and the former today yields object that came from the bottom of the ocean while the latter was once part of Asia's landmass.

Let’s get back to the Bible stories. The scribes and Pharisees battled Jesus with their 611 commandments being the absolute truths. As we now know, he responded with the Two Greatest Commandments. Not surprisingly, they had to crucify him. Today we have “two popes,” whatever happened to Papal infallibility?

Who is a sinner or who is a saint? Padre Damaso is the absolute truth? Why wasn’t the Good Thief consigned to hell?

Recall it was heresy to utter that the planet earth is round. 

How do these absolute truths impact Juan de la Cruz? Consider: We are parochial and insular. We value hierarchy and paternalism, rely on political patronage and oligarchy, that at the end of the day, ours is a culture of impunity?

The blog maintains that these are our absolute truths. Then consider: The US invaded and colonized us. Japan invaded us. With the Americans, can we or can’t we demonstrate dynamic thinking? We probably do and why we trust them more than the Chinese.

Still, the Chinese may have already overrun our country after we opted for the online gaming business. It is classic "pwede na ‘yan," no different from how OFW remittances became our "Dutch disease."

It’s called insanity per Einstein. Industrialization is what we must doggedly seek, not a gambling culture; that we are today a haven for money laundering. Will this be the legacy of Duterte on top of the failed war on drugs?

With the Japanese, we are perhaps more than dynamic and are forward-looking. In other words, how come with the Americans we can't seem to stand like equals?

Western Europeans have leveraged the military power of the US and accepted them as a significant NATO partner, including wealthy Germany. Which is the source of Trump's rant – pay up, or we pull out of NATO. We continue to declare victory for kicking out the US military proudly.

In the meantime, even former Soviet satellite states are hosts to US military bases because they don't want to relive the past when nationalism equated to fascism.

Three characteristics can explain our world view:

(A) Think of American kids that want to declare independence from their parents even when they still can’t fend for themselves. 

(B) Do we have a self-esteem problem? Think of the many nations rich and poor alike that recognize the power of the US military – which the Europeans tapped to subdue Hitler and continued through the creation of the League of Nations and then the UN – a hegemon, if you will, to preempt any more wars.

(C) Where are we in our perceptive judgment, which the blog has discussed? It is the ability to traverse the continuum across the two extremes of dualism and relativism. 

Alternatively, is it all about our instincts – that is, we value hierarchy and paternalism? They are Uncle Sam, and we expect them to demonstrate paternalism. Instead, they were barbarians for subduing and colonizing us.

Conversely, recall how civilization evolved. The humankind lived in caves. We were even cannibals. In other words, America is developing as well despite Trump and the rightist-populists and nationalists.

An elder in Papua New Guinea gave the writer an education while on a business trip: "Your hotel is well-fenced and protected because the outside world assumed, we are still cannibals. We no longer are. We were tribal and still are in more ways than one. We fought and killed one another for a reason. The survival instinct is inherent in us and must be with you too. Still, civilization has made us into a modern-day tribe."

Why are we underdeveloped, poor, and the regional laggard?

To those familiar with the postings, they all end with a series of quotes. For example, “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]

Does it remind us of the Asian Tigers, China, and Vietnam? “Beg for Western money and technology,” so counseled Lee and Mahathir to Deng. We are still into classical economics despite how these neighbors demonstrated to the world how they became economic miracles, one after the other?

What other absolute truths do we hold? Marcos is one that he was behind the golden years of the Philippines? Today it is Duterte?

Why is innovation not identified with Juan de la Cruz? It is an expression of this runaway universe. It is about dynamism, not the status quo.

Has civilization brought us to the wrong place? Who holds the absolute truth to render judgment?

The first homo sapiens lived in caves and were even cannibals because of the survival instincts.

Today the world is confronted with rightist-populism. Moreover, there is a sense of foreboding, and the president of the most powerful nation, Trump, is the poster boy. [Pleasingly, most Americans see Trump as un-American.]

There are two sides to this same coin: (a) civilization is picking up speed given ours is a dynamic universe, and (b) the survival instincts are manifest, and neither is a surprise.

However, survival instincts come in different shapes, including the preservation of tyranny. If history is to learn from and not to live in, we know that tyrants come and go. That despite oppression and tribal-like conflicts, civilization has brought prosperity to humankind.

Still, memories are short. Does a nation want to erect walls because they think they can create a superior race, "Make America Great Again" is the latest example? Hitler was not that long ago. The world recently celebrated the 75th anniversary of D-Day. It reminded everyone why the EU came to be.

The writer has been in Europe for several weeks now and was around during the last EU parliament elections. He asked a few friends why the pro-EU party won in their country. Their responses are captured succinctly by one of them: “The EU is not about nationalism but unity.”

Ours is a dynamic, runaway universe, and we are responding with our survival instincts. Still, they won't equip us to claim the absolute truths. "The humankind is good," meant to thrive not merely survive, if we recall the story of creation.

Today we celebrate Philippine Independence Day. It is the day we must ask, “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]

“You have to have a dream, whether big or small. Then plan, focus, work hard and be very determined to achieve your goals.” [Henry Sy Sr., Chairman Emeritus and Founder, SM Group (1924 - 2019)]

“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]