Our reactive instinct comes from our caste system.

In other words, we are sitting pretty because we are in a good situation – especially us in the Philippine elite class.

But that’s not unique. “Immigrants contribute disproportionately to entrepreneurship. And immigrants aren’t just creating more businesses; they’re creating successful ones. Many of the qualities that would seem to make immigrants more likely to build their businesses are reasons you should consider hiring them to help build yours. Immigrants can bring a growth mindset, adaptation skills, and global readiness to companies that are seeking to grow.” [“Research Shows Immigrants Help Businesses Grow,” Nataly Kelly, Harvard Business Review, 26th Oct 2018]

Does it bring to mind the late Henry Sy, the wealthiest Filipino, until his passing away?

On the other hand, our sheltered upbring comes from hierarchy, i.e., rank has its privileges. Why be proactive if that will upend the status quo?

Here’s a family anecdote. When my MNC-company wanted to transfer the family to New York, the wife had to be wined and dined when we were in New York for a look-see. “You are not accepting this job.”

We moved to our dream house – in one of our desirable gated communities – just a little over a year earlier, and the wife supervised its construction that took all of eight months. I already had a regional cum traveling job while she was assisting a friend in their export business. When the company heard why they responded with an alternative.

“We propose inviting the family over for a year, and then you can return to the Philippines. On the other hand, if you choose to stay, you can stay. You don’t have to touch your home; bring the clothes and whatever else you want.”

The daughter had a sheltered life, i.e., she had a “yaya” like every child in the neighborhood, and you see them at the country club until we were in front of the consular officer at the US embassy in Manila. “We cannot give the ‘yaya’ a visa. A grade six pupil in America will be embarrassed to say she has one. Trust me. She will not want to be mocked by her classmates.”

She turned into a natural leader in the Catholic school near our suburban home. She was surprised that most of her classmates haven’t been to Manhattan while she was a veteran traveler. One day the principal agreed to let her lead a field trip to Central Park. And because they were taking French lessons, she brought them to a French department store – she knew from a trip to Paris – and be immersed in lots of French stuff.

She had turned on a dime – didn’t miss the “yaya.” On the day the family moved to their first US home, she swiftly organized her room as though it’s been there awhile. And a year later, she said to the mother, “Mom, we aren’t leaving for the Philippines.” What mother will deny her daughter?

She became her person. Between Wellesley and Brown – and the mom favored the former – she chose the latter. A family friend on the board of Wellesley was disappointed. She forged ahead. In her sophomore year, she came to me to say she was spending her junior year in Bologna. “Dad, they are in the network for the ‘Study abroad’ program. And there are no extras to pay beyond what Brown charges.”

Again, the mother was aghast and scolded both father and daughter. Mother knows best. It finally dawned on me what she meant when I got scared to leave her alone in Bologna. To allay our fears, the wife took several trips to visit her, accompanying her to experience her typical day, including sitting in her classes.

She wanted to be a museum curator – apt for one that reads and comprehends a libretto and speaks Italian – but ended up being a banker. I called her on the day she interviewed in a bank while overseas, “Dad, they want me to start right away, like today.”

On the other hand, our reactive instinct as Filipinos comes from our caste system. We are sitting pretty because we are in a good situation. And it is a universal phenomenon. But because the family, including the daughter, are immigrants, we overcame the challenge and learned to embrace a growth mindset.

Consider these articles in the local media: (1) Philippines reliance on prolonged lockdowns caused economic deterioration – WB; (2) Treacherous tightrope; (3) A disaster.

“The Philippines relied more on prolonged restrictions on mobility rather than an effective test-based strategy,” the WB report said. “Countries with more significant quarterly growth contraction in 2020 had higher infection rates, imposed more stringent mobility restrictions, had more highly indebted governments, and were more dependent on earnings from tourism.” [“Philippines reliance on prolonged lockdowns caused economic deterioration – WB,” Louise Maureen Simeon, The Philippine Star, 27th Mar 2021]

“Let’s face it: We completely botched handling the pandemic. A year after the first lockdown in the country, we are not just back to square one. According to highly respected former health secretary Esperanza Cabral in a widely circulated post, we are ten steps back from square one.” [“Treacherous tightrope,” Cielito F. Habito, NO FREE LUNCH, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 23rd Mar 2021]

“The result of Duterte’s lockdown has been an unmitigated disaster. It triggered an economic collapse, the deepest in 500 years, with economic production declining a record - 9.5 percent, -11.1 percent in GNI terms, in 2020. The actual negative rate wiped out nearly all the robust ‘economic’ gains of 2019 and 2018.

“About 70 percent of businesses were shut down. Half of the workforce, or more than 20 million workers, went out of work. Poverty and hunger gnawed at 50 percent of the population.” [“A disaster,” Tony Lopez, Virtual Reality, manilastandard.net, 24th Mar 2021]

Twelve years ago, when the blog started, it was already apparent that we in the Philippines would be overtaken by Vietnam, for example. They were already attracting tons of FDI and investing lots more than we did.

And it is not rocket science. We were sitting pretty, given the windfall we were getting from OFW remittances.

I saw how we regressed over a period of almost fifty years. We drew the WB-IMF delegations’ attention, especially when we hosted their meeting in Manila that also saw foreign hotels’ rapid entry.

Yet, to this day, despite the economic miracles demonstrated by our neighbors, ours remains a reactive instinct.

With due respect to our opinion leaders, we are still not taking the extra mile to break the status quo’s back. And we can’t help it because we lag these neighbors in cognitive development. And it is not easy to move from binary thinking to relativism, especially if we are the present-day Padre Damaso.

In the West, they express, “We must walk and chew gum at the same time.”

But we can’t comprehend that because of the crab mentality – aka tribalism that we see today even in wealthy nations.

“Focus on the mission,” Dr. Jun Ynares, THE VIEW FROM RIZAL, Manila Bulletin, 28th Mar 2021. “Many young people usually approach me about a year before elections. They come to ask for advice. Some want counsel on whether or not they should aspire for an elective post. Others ask me how they can win in an election.

"The severe advice I give to them is to learn the lesson of Palm Sunday: Be careful – the crowd who’s cheering for you today could very well be the same people who will later on cry out for your crucifixion.

“Jesus knew that He was about to disappoint that crowd seriously – the palm-waving fans were there to welcome him as a political liberator of sorts. They were dead wrong. That Jesus proceeded to cleanse the Temple of merchants and money traders after that only aggravated the misimpression and misperception.

“He kept his focus on the mission. Jesus came to Jerusalem for one purpose alone, and that was to meet his death.”

In other words, the Paschal mystery. “The liturgy of the church, the celebration of the sacraments, and the seasons of Lent and Easter are particular times when we pay attention to what Jesus Christ has done for us through his passion, death, Resurrection, and Ascension. Yet, these are not the only times when we experience the Paschal Mystery. It is a part of our everyday life; it is the undercurrent of all that we do and all that we are.” [Loyola Press]

Can Juan de la Cruz walk and chew gum at the same time? Not if we can’t unlearn binary thinking.

For example, because we can’t recognize that poverty isn’t our be-all and end-all, we can’t comprehend the imperative to traverse poverty to prosperity. Recall the blog keeps speaking to the photosynthesis phenomenon. We aren’t in this universe to starve to death. The dynamism of the universe demonstrates that we are to thrive in this milieu.

Simply put, Juan de la Cruz is more significant than poverty.

And this is where we can appreciate the failings of higher education even in America. And why the demands of the 21st-century skills of (1) Critical thinking, (2) Creativity, (3) Collaboration, (4) Communication.

And they reinforce the demands of cognitive development.

Still, it is an enigma to Juan de la Cruz. How come our neighbors all learned from each other?

Recall why the blog spoke to the Ph.D. candidate that I assisted in her dissertation. “I will agree to help you if you commit to employing the final product to a real-world challenge.”

Because she shared with me the access to the library of reference materials (for candidates like her), it was apparent to a practitioner like me that even in post-graduate work, the “vital few” must prevail over the “trivial many.” In other words, how many dissertations ever see the light of day – we call the real world? On the other hand, her Western employer saw in her the ability to lead one of the world’s most recognizable brands and promoted her to global marketing director.

Recall why the blog keeps focusing our attention on benchmarking against our neighbors. Vietnam is doing it today, after the Asian Tigers did, as did China. Tomorrow it will be Cambodia and Myanmar.

We must put our best foot forward, including the slew of legislation meant to make us attractive to investment, that we focus on the “vital few” that will leapfrog our income stream. For example, doubling investment in bananas will yield a minuscule output – including tax revenues – compared to getting Apple AirPods to the Philippines.

We need infrastructures like roads and bridges. They are enablers to economic development, but we must rapidly drive our GDP as we go along. In other words, walk and chew gum at the same time.

While elsewhere in this posting is the subject of religion, recall Pope Francis preached against making religion a license for extremism.

“Americans have rejected the institutions of religion, but not the religious urge—including a yearning for moral certainty and communal identity—that churches and synagogues have traditionally catered.

“The right might look more straightforwardly religious. Under Donald Trump, white evangelical Christians, a mainstay of the party for decades, became its most important group. But even if it includes some old-style values voters, this is no longer your father’s moral majority. Most white evangelicals backed Mr. Trump—more zealously than they had any previous Republican—mainly for cultural reasons that had nothing to do with Christianity.

“They were motivated far more by his immigration policies and racially infused law-and-order rhetoric than his judicial nominees. They have since shown little interest in Mr. Biden’s faith. Or in his efforts to restore the civic religion—an age-old idea of America as a nation blessed by God and united in moral purpose—that Mr. Trump disdained. Around a third of white evangelicals subscribe to the QAnon cult. That was apparent in the prominence of large crosses and other Christian paraphernalia among the cultists who stormed the Capitol Building on 6th Jan.

“This pseudo-religious makeover on the right was instigated by lapsed white evangelicals, who backed Mr. Trump in the 2016 Republican primary when observant ones held back. Their continued self-identification as Christians, though they do not attend church, is often a proxy for ethnonationalism.

“Christian leaders, confusing the decline of their congregations with the cultural threat of liberalism, made common cause with Mr. Trump and the pseudo-evangelicals. For partisan reasons, the rest of the Republican coalition followed them. The party has never been more avowedly Christian or more clearly out of line with gospel doctrines.

“The situation on the left is roughly the opposite. The most avowedly secular Democrats—well-educated ‘woke’ liberals—are also the likeliest to moralize. Their Puritanical racial and gender politics sit in a long tradition of progressive Utopianism, rooted in mainstream Protestantism. Barack Obama’s Messianic first presidential campaign was also in that vein. These new Puritans of the left, though (or perhaps because) they are more secular than earlier progressives are far more extreme.

“Woke liberalism is less prevalent than many conservatives claim. The Democrats would not have nominated the pious, grandfatherly Mr. Biden otherwise. His pragmatic espousal of social justice is different in kind from the woke fringe. Therefore, his appeals to America’s better angels went down with white liberals almost as severely as they did with white evangelicals. Yet on the cultural questions that now define American politics, the Puritanical left is often as influential as the zealous right.

“No wonder political compromise has become impossible. Not since the 1850s – when New England’s Puritans embraced the ‘abolitionist’ case, and southern Baptists preached a divine justification for slavery – have politics and religion been so utterly confused. It is not a reassuring parallel.” [“America’s new religious war: Religious fervor is migrating into politics,” The Economist, 27th Mar 2021]

The bottom line: Cognitive development, even in wealthy nations, can suffer decline because of tribalism – aka binary thinking.

Recall that I have no respect for US politics. That also explains what benchmarking is. In benchmarking against our neighbors, including China, we must pick and choose best practices but not embrace those that can undermine the common good.

Democracy is the mirror image of Christianity, i.e., the imperative of personal responsibility for the common good – not to reinforce the status quo because we are sitting pretty in the Philippine elite class.

Gising bayan!

Embrace “dynamism,” not “destiny.”

Why does the blog keep speaking to (a) our caste system and (b) instincts and (c) our inability to internalize social mobility, and (d) not to rely on political patronage and oligarchy?

If it is not apparent yet, the blog relates the concept of sets and subsets in modern math to our reality, being a subset of the universe. In other words, the existence of divine oneness.

And why a growth mindset is in keeping with the dynamic character – i.e., 24/7 – of the universe. The growth mindset isn’t exclusive to Bill Gates though it isn’t surprising he represents the 1-% phenomenon. And why at Microsoft, it is religion. 

And because Gates has internalized its import, he recognizes that we can’t manifest the growth mindset in every facet of our endeavors. For example, he admits that when playing basketball, he doesn’t. Yet, when playing bridge, he does. 

It applies to me too and the wife. I was in the middle of working on our tax organizer — before the accountant can do the taxes — and writing this posting when she needed assistance in the kitchen. And I failed only to see her do it herself. A short time later, when I was getting set to do an errand, she asked to add a stop for something she needed. This time I made a caveat that I’m in between chores but will do so once my mind settles. 

The brain is powerful, yet it has to be managed and directed to deliver its potential. And why the blog distinguishes cognitive development from intelligence. Or that a hardy or robust mindset has 3 Cs: Commitment, Challenge, Control.

For example, we Filipinos must commit to the challenge of turning poverty into prosperity. But to succeed, we must recognize that we control only ourselves. We cannot dictate on others, yet we can leverage situations to our advantage. And it explains why Lee and Mahathir told Deng to “Beg for Western money and technology.”

And in this century, where innovation and global competitiveness are the entry prices, we cannot afford to stick to Pinoy abilidad.

Recall the “The Innovator’s DNA” by Jeffrey H. Dyer, Hal Gregersen, and Clayton M. Christensen, Harvard Business Review, 2009 December. “The ability to successfully connect seemingly unrelated questions, problems, or ideas from different fields, is central to the innovator’s DNA.

Still, can we internalize “dynamism”?

Sadly, we haven’t demonstrated that we can. And it explains why we may be overtaken even by Cambodia and Myanmar sooner than later. On the other hand, we’re into destiny, as in poverty – that we are a poor country, and Juan de la Cruz’s primary need is paternalism.

And it comes down to our instincts: We are parochial and insular. We value hierarchy and paternalism and rely on political patronage and oligarchy that ours is a culture of impunity.

Should we blame Padre Damaso? But aren’t we the present-day Padre Damaso?

In other words, rank has its privileges – RHIP. We in the Philippine elite class will always call the shots. Because we can dispense paternalism – and it is all that keeps Juan de la Cruz on an even keel. And there is the World Bank to lend us tens of millions (USD) for the 4Ps.

We call it destiny – as in we shall be the regional laggard if not the laughingstock of the world.

“As an economist and political analyst, I am painfully aware that the country has two fatal weaknesses which, unless resolved, will consign future generations of Filipinos to a life of poverty and struggle. These weaknesses are our ever-eroding educational system and a fundamentally weak economy.” [“A sensible presidential or vice-presidential choice,” Andrew J. Masigan, THE CORNER ORACLE, The Philippine Star, 17th Mar 2021]

“Even before the pandemic struck, the economy was already standing on shaky ground. Ours is an economy based on consumption, not propelled by production.

“Exacerbating matters is our laws, which is one of the world’s most restrictive to foreign investors. Our “laws” (and our inhospitable business environment) have deprived us of valuable foreign investments, technology transfer, taxes, and jobs. It is why our manufacturing sector has not fully developed and why we will soon be surpassed even by Cambodia.

“On education, a global assessment conducted by the Program of International Student Assessment (PISA) tells the story of the state of Philippine education.

“In reading, or the ability of students to identify the main idea of a moderately long text, Filipino children were dead last among 79 nationalities evaluated. The test showed that none of our students could comprehend lengthy text, deal with abstract concepts, or distinguish between fact and opinion.

“In math, or the ability to interpret mathematics in simple situations (e.g., comparing currencies), Filipino students were second to the last among all nationalities tested. In science, or the ability to recognize basic scientific principles, Filipino students were 71st out of 79. Less than one percent of Filipino students are at the level of their counterparts from Singapore.

“At the rate – our educational system is spiraling – the majority of next-generation Filipinos will be manual laborers or low-cost workers. The need to reform our educational system is dire.”

Here’s a quote from an earlier posting: “How else could we have ended up trailing far behind our neighbors whose pioneer agricultural scientists trained and studied with us at UPLB?

“And this is where I began to see Doctor Javier’s point in saying that ‘we (at UPLB) were part of the problem.’ As he listed six areas of reform UPLB must pursue, his first item immediately resonated with me: UPLB must build strength in the long-undervalued social sciences — economics, sociology, psychology, and anthropology included — and their crucial application to agricultural policy and governance.

“He recalled how the late great Dr. Gelia Castillo, National Scientist in Sociology, had once lamented that social scientists were ‘second-class citizens’ in a world-class university that UPLB is — and he noted that they appear to remain so today. ‘It is about time to recognize [that] the more significant challenges in our agriculture are not so much the agri part but the culture dimension.

“The bigger and more problematic part of our challenges in agriculture had to do with governance and social conflict.” [“Great man, great ideas;” Cielito F. Habito, NO FREE LUNCH, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 9th Mar 2021]

Then consider: The blog often references the failings of American higher education and the ensuing discovery of the 21st-century skills – of (1) Critical Thinking, (B) Creativity, (C) Collaboration, and (D) Communication.

In other words, we have our job cut out for us – in education and the economy.

Let’s pause right there and ponder.

Has the OFW phenomenon exacerbated our brain drain? Teachers – and doctors, nurses, among others – have left for the simple reason that they can’t make both ends meet and accept jobs as caregivers.

Is our underdevelopment the root cause of Juan de la Cruz’s predicament?

That is why Einstein called it “insanity.” The more we invoke “Pinoy abilidad,” the more we sink into the abyss.

Recall our instincts: We are parochial and insular. We value hierarchy and paternalism and rely on political patronage and oligarchy that ours is a culture of impunity.

Let’s get back to Padre Damaso. We won’t touch him with a ten-foot pole, yet we mirror him. Unsurprisingly, Rizal called us out: He who submits to tyranny loves it.

Padre Damaso is the epitome of binary thinking, i.e., dualism instead of relativism, which reflected his cognitive development level.

As the blog asserts, our neighbors are far-advanced in cognitive development and leverage what this world has to offer. “Beg for Western money and technology,” said Lee and Mahathir to Deng.

A couple of them are today ahead of the US in the democracy index. Again, not a surprise because, just like other wealthy nations, right-wing extremism has taken hold in America.

That is why Pope Francis has spoken against taking religion as a license for extremism. And has continued to preach about divine oneness; Christ is about restorative justice, not retributive. In other words, the Creator wants to restore humankind to its character, in his image and likeness.

The Creator is a God of love, as we know from the story of the prodigal Son and Romans 8:31. “What then shall we say of these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”

“We know that God is for us because he sent his one and only Son to die for us and redeem us from the sin and rebellion that once separated us from God. But now, because of Christ, none of these things can separate us from God, because he has proven that he is ‘for us.’”

But why is there evil? Because humankind may opt to reject this unconditional love. On the other hand, the “Good thief” did not.

The Jesuits and Franciscans, for example, continue to echo the teaching. Who are we to take the law into our hands? Padre Damaso did.

Does Padre Damaso explain why we lag our neighbors in cognitive development? Because we still claim we are “holier than thou”?

And we don’t have to go very far. We in the Philippine elite class assume that we can lift Juan de la Cruz from poverty’s bondage. And we have several poverty measures under our belt to reinforce the assumption.

Unfortunately, because of our parochialism and insularity, we can’t see beyond our shores.

I still remember hosting delegations from the WB-IMF at my old Philippine-company facility being a pioneering enterprise. And that was only four years after I had visited the Esso refinery in Singapore. And when I saw this city-state again, I was a guess to their light industry economic zone – a customer of their heavy-duty oil piping valves they produced in partnership with a US company.

And they were already well on their way to becoming a first-world nation. 

In the meantime, we continue to lionize our top companies. Yet, over the span of almost 50 years, our eight top companies can’t even match one Vietnam enterprise’s economic contribution.

That is how we allowed ourselves to regress and why today we remain an underdeveloped economy and nation.

That is not our destiny. Underdevelopment is what we brought upon ourselves.

But we won’t figure out how to overcome our predicament if we don’t learn to look outward to our neighbors and forward – to want to traverse poverty to prosperity.

Padre Damaso won’t let us move up in cognitive development – from binary thinking to relativism. And it explains why even a world-class institution like the UPLB can acknowledge that they were part of the problem.

The challenge of education and the economy is well beyond Juan de la Cruz unless we come to recognize that we are not “holier than thou.” And that especially applies to us in the Philippine elite class.

Why does the blog keep speaking to (a) our caste system and (b) instincts and (c) our inability to internalize social mobility, and (d) not to rely on political patronage and oligarchy?

Gising bayan!

Can we overcome “Pinoy abilidad”?

“We (at UPLB) were part of the problem. UPLB must build strength in the long-undervalued social sciences — economics, sociology, psychology, and anthropology included — and their crucial application to agricultural policy and governance.” [“Great man, great ideas;” Cielito F. Habito, NO FREE LUNCH, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 9th Mar 2021]

In other words, nation-building is not one-dimensional. On the other hand, Pinoy abilidad is. Worse, it is shortsighted yet assumes the primacy of logic.

In fairness, it comes from a reactive instinct. But that is why we need a serious national examination of conscience.

While our neighbors have left us behind, we must recognize why they keep pushing us down the abyss. And social science tells us why. Because of their experience in traversing poverty to prosperity, their cognitive development is far-advanced than ours. They are beyond binary thinking – as in Pinoy abilidad – and into relativism.

Let’s pause right there so that we can dig even more profound.

Recall how the blog keeps raising our instincts: We are parochial and insular. We value hierarchy and paternalism and rely on political patronage and oligarchy that ours is a culture of impunity.

In other words, our caste system can explain a big chunk of our reality.

We call it destiny when it’s the absence of dynamism. And so, we can’t internalize social mobility. Recall how Filipino chess phenom – Wesley So – explains why he left the Philippines and opted to be an American. “I don't have the connection back home. I am from the province.” Translation: America, despite its flaws, offers an even playing field.

On the other hand, think of why the US is sinking in the democracy index. The American caste system has reared its ugly head. That is why a couple of times, the blog raised the “Southern strategy” – a Republican Party electoral strategy to increase political support among white voters in the South by appealing to racism against African Americans. [Wikipedia]

In fairness, both political parties have succumbed to tribalism and no longer recognize the imperative of personal responsibility to pursue the common good. Recall why I have no respect for US politics and, except for the recent presidential election, never exercised the right to vote. It is to protest and demonstrate my rejection of a disaster waiting to happen.

In other words, I don’t have to buy everything American. See above; cognitive development, i.e., the nuances between dualism and relativism.

But let’s get back to the Philippines.

We cannot use the Constitution as a crutch to rationalize our inability to move this nation forward.

Let’s start with political patronage and oligarchy. Disclosure: I worked for eight years in one Philippine oligarchy. It is easy to rationalize that they mean well. But it is clear how much influence they exert – and how they can undermine the rule of law. For example, then-Senator Manny Villar admitted that our failure to eliminate the Constitution’s restrictive economic provisions comes from this influence.

But have we learned the lesson? Why does the blog keep raising that our eight top companies – combined – cannot even match one Vietnam enterprise’s economic contribution? We’re talking about Vietnam, not one of the Asian Tigers.

Yet, our media cannot promote any other subject but these top companies. How parochial and insular can we be?

Sadly, because of political patronage and oligarchy – two sides of the same coin – corruption has morphed into impunity.

How much insanity are we yet to demonstrate? Did we not sing hosanna to elect Duterte? Did he eliminate political patronage and corruption? No one person can do that. It has to come from Juan de la Cruz.

And media is a good starting point. Why is the blog, despite 12 years of falling on deaf ears, still around? Of course, I am ten thousand miles away and freer to speak truth to power. But we have to start somewhere.

And I am delighted of the acknowledgment that “We (at UPLB) were part of the problem.”

Let’s pause once more and ponder.

Because of our value of paternalism, overcoming poverty has become our be-all and end-all. Yet, our track record is dismal. Despite the IRRI being in our backyard, we import rice – that Vietnam is exporting. Again, we’re talking of Vietnam, one of the most impoverished countries until very recently.

Vietnam, unlike the Philippines, can forward-think and visualize traversing poverty to prosperity. And it is not new. The Asian Tigers did it, and so did China.

And the lessons from these neighbors aren’t rocket science. “Beg for Western money and technology,” said Lee and Mahathir to Deng.

And the most recent example is Samsung Vietnam. To add insult to injury, they are adding Apple AirPods.

And our response? A slew of legislation, but they don’t hit the nail on the head.

Prioritize. Prioritize. Prioritize.

Why can’t we? We like to discuss economics, and one very fundamental element of economics is the scarcity of resources. Not even America is exempt from the reality.

But the crab mentality comes hand in glove with our caste system. We value hierarchy on the expectations of paternalism.

In other words, none of the initiatives we proudly pursued contributed to nation-building, from the comprehensive agrarian reform to the coconut subsidies to promoting the OFW phenomenon and the BPO industry.

They smack of Pinoy abilidad – shortsighted yet assumes the primacy of logic.

If Vietnam can rapidly create an economic miracle, why don’t we replicate their Samsung Vietnam initiative, given our exports are in the same product category? That is why the blog has repeatedly discussed winning over Apple AirPods.

And that means we need to fine-tune legislative efforts to ensure we indeed bring Apple AirPods to the Philippines.

Policy-making does not have to be driven by managing averages. That is socialistic. That is why there is Pareto, to get the biggest bang for the buck. We must design incentives to win against our neighbors, not to contain norms. And not be in a race to the bottom as the crab mentality demonstrated to Juan de la Cruz. It’s called suboptimization, not rocket science.

Still, nation-building cannot be one-dimensional. For example, China has the distinction of creating the most successful economic development project in the Pearl River Delta. We must replicate that effort.

We cannot simply be ensconced in our version of an ecozone.

If we continue to look beyond our shores, there is another challenge we must learn to address.

But that is why we need a national examination of conscience. Pinoy abilidad tells us that China is now the biggest economy and must be in bed with them.

Again, that is shortsighted. If we are genuinely freedom-loving people, we want to partner with like people. Think of the “Quad” nations of the US, India, Japan, and Australia.

And these nations can use our location to promote their noble cause in the region. That is why the blog has raised the advantages offered by Subic Bay.

Consider cognitive development again. The “Quad” nations are not declaring war against China. They want to demonstrate that freedom-loving people can come together. On the other hand, they all do business with China. But they won’t accept everything Chinese – as in I don’t buy everything American.

And there are many examples. Vietnam’s communist party and China’s are friends, yet the former chose to partner with America despite the Vietnam war and opened their economy to foreign investment.

Or think of how Hong Kong people are separating themselves from China despite their Chinese blood and heritage. Or why the Ukrainians turned their backs to the Russians and embraced the West.

And just as Singapore and the Asian Tigers did not lose sovereignty in their pursuit of Western money and technology, the Vietnamese moved up from binary thinking to relativism – aka cognitive development.

As those familiar with the blog may recall, I have done business in these countries, and friends shared these sentiments, if not their world views.

But then again, we Filipinos must learn to be self-critical and overcome our instincts: We are parochial and insular. We value hierarchy and paternalism and rely on political patronage and oligarchy that ours is a culture of impunity.

While our neighbors have left us behind, we must recognize why they keep pushing us down the abyss. And social science tells us why. Because of their experience in traversing poverty to prosperity, their cognitive development is far-advanced than ours. They are beyond binary thinking – as in Pinoy abilidad – and into relativism.

Let’s pause right there so that we can dig even more profound.

We cannot embrace “Que sera, sera” any longer. This century moves beyond warp speed, courtesy of the millennials — confirming this universe’s dynamic character. And if we can’t internalize our predicament, Juan de la Cruz’s plight will worsen.

The blog has repeatedly discussed Kurt Lewin’s force field theory. “Force Field Analysis was created by Kurt Lewin in the 1940s. Lewin initially used it in his work as a social psychologist. Today, however, it is also used in business for making and communicating go/no-go decisions.

“The idea behind Force Field Analysis is that situations are outcomes of equilibrium between forces that drive change and others that resist change. For change to happen, exploit the driving forces, or strengthen the restraining forces.” [https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTED_06.htm]

Surprise, surprise; I did not learn the model overseas; I knew it in the Philippines and employed it for decades globally and will explain how I ushered change in my old MNC-company and helped my Eastern European friends.

The blog also speaks to my experience in Big data and analytics. They are the quantitative tools that must come with the social tools. And the range of applications is limitless – from changing the planning and budgeting model of a 200-year-old MNC to embarking on restructuring initiatives to pursuing innovation outside the company’s technology center to becoming a dominant global brand and reaching close to 70 percent global household, never attained by any other consumer-packaged brand to enabling an MSME in the poorest country in Eastern Europe to be recognized by the EU as a model to becoming giant killers in an industry dominated by Western behemoths.

If we apply Lewin’s model to the Philippine predicament, if it is not apparent yet, the forces restraining our development efforts are a product of our instincts – best described by our caste system.

How do we overcome them? Stop relying on political patronage and oligarchy.

But it presupposes tossing parochialism and insularity and the crab mentality. We can then learn to forward-think and recognize that turning poverty into prosperity is not out of this world. It is only so because our world is so minuscule that we defined it as poverty.

And that what we need is paternalism that we can draw from political patronage and oligarchy.

Are we from an ancient world?

Gising bayan!

We built a “barong-barong” – a makeshift dwelling.

In other words, we have a structural problem. Worse, because we have fires to fight incessantly, we are reduced to “Pinoy abilidad,” aka as knee-jerks. In the vernacular, “isang kahig, isang tuka.”

Sadly, we’ve turned oblivious to our plight that it is no longer laughable. And it explains why we’re in a downward spiral, especially with the pandemic. Translation: The pandemic added fuel to the fire, but we’ve lit the fire long before.

“We need a network of solutions to build back better our economy.” [“Closer public-private collaboration,” Senator Sonny Angara, BETTER DAYS, Manila Bulletin, 7th Mar 2021]

“If we can immunize our people expediently and prevent any more COVID-19 infections, then we will survive this pandemic. To emerge more robust and more resilient, we need to think ahead and plant the seeds of our future growth and prosperity today. One of those seeds, I believe, should have economic self-reliance as its fruit.

"If anything, the pandemic has shown us that our consumption-driven, import-heavy economy is not very resilient, especially when faced with a public emergency that restricts our people from roaming freely and spending their money around the country. We need to build up our local capacities to produce more of the things we need and use and an eye on exporting these once we can do so. Not one government agency or private sector initiative can address this issue by itself."

To build on that premise, here’s another quote: “How else could we have ended up trailing far behind our neighbors whose pioneer agricultural scientists trained and studied with us at UPLB?

“And this is where I began to see Doctor Javier’s point in saying that ‘we (at UPLB) were part of the problem.’ As he listed six areas of reform UPLB must pursue, his first item immediately resonated with me: UPLB must build strength in the long-undervalued social sciences — economics, sociology, psychology, and anthropology included — and their crucial application to agricultural policy and governance.

“He recalled how the late great Dr. Gelia Castillo, National Scientist in Sociology, had once lamented that social scientists were ‘second-class citizens’ in a world-class university that UPLB is — and he noted that they appear to remain so today. ‘It is about time to recognize [that] the more significant challenges in our agriculture are not so much the agri part but the culture dimension.

“The bigger and more problematic part of our challenges in agriculture had to do with governance and social conflict.” [“Great man, great ideas;” Cielito F. Habito, NO FREE LUNCH, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 9th Mar 2021]

Indeed, “the bigger and more problematic part of our challenges in agriculture had to do with governance and social conflict.”

In other words, we “must build strength in the long-undervalued social sciences — economics, sociology, psychology, and anthropology included — and their crucial application to agricultural policy and governance.”

"If anything, the pandemic has shown us that our consumption-driven, import-heavy economy is not very resilient, especially when faced with a public emergency that restricts our people from roaming freely and spending their money around the country. We need to build up our local capacities to produce more of the things we need and use and an eye on exporting these once we can do so.  Not one government agency or private sector initiative can address this issue by itself."

There are three elements we can highlight from the above quotes: (1) our governance (and social conflict) problems; (2) our consumption-driven, import-heavy economy is not very resilient; (3) we must build on the strength of the social sciences.

Recall the blog hasn’t failed to raise our instincts: We are parochial and insular. We value hierarchy and paternalism and rely on political patronage and oligarchy that ours is a culture of impunity.

If we can’t distill why ours is a culture of impunity, then a “barong-barong” is all we deserve. We cannot take our instincts as givens and then rely on “Pinoy abilidad” or knee-jerks.

We are deep in the abyss because of our paradigm.

Many of us are familiar with “Ignatian discernment.” And here’s a broad stroke explanation: (a) Use your head, and trust your heart; (b) Choices are not mere rational exercises; (c) Choices come out of who we are – and out of what we think: (d) It is not about what to be, but about who to be.

Recall the blog asserts that democracy is a mirror image of Christianity, i.e., the imperative of personal responsibility to pursue the common good.

The common good is beyond the war on poverty or the reliance on political patronage and oligarchy. The common good is to traverse poverty to prosperity.

“To emerge stronger and more resilient, we need to think ahead and plant the seeds of our future growth and prosperity today.”

Consider: We continue to struggle to open our economy, and it has nothing to do with our Constitution. The Constitution is a product of “who we are and what we think.” In other words, unless we embrace a new paradigm or mindset, we will continue to keep our economy restricted.

How come our neighbors learned from each other while we refuse even to look outward? “Beg for Western money and technology,” said Lee and Mahathir to Deng.

These neighbors’ outward-orientation paved the way for them to forward-think. And they became first-world nations while we’re stuck with our “barong-barong.”

If we can’t forward-think, we cannot have a vision of a prosperous Philippines. But we will never learn to forward-think if we can’t toss the crab mentality. It is the antithesis of the common good.

For example, our neighbors recognized they need Western money and technology to leapfrog prosperity.

And not only Singapore demonstrated the attribute. The rest of the Asian Tigers and then China and most recently Vietnam did.

Consider: “Moody’s Analytics, a subsidiary of Moody’s Corp. that focuses on non-rating activities such as economic research, recently said the Philippines is among the countries in the region well-positioned to benefit from the surge in global consumer electronics demand in the short term, and also from the potential longer-term effects of the ongoing global tech battle and concerns regarding intellectual property theft, particularly in China.” [“Potential growth driver,” EDITORIAL, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 8th Mar 2021]

Why do we have to wait for Moody’s Analytics to tell us what will drive economic growth?

Here’s a quote from an earlier posting: “Over 64% of Philippine exports comes from (a) electrical machinery, equipment, and (b) machinery, including computers. In the next category are fruits and nuts at 3.7%.”

“Even if we double our investment behind fruits and nuts, think coconut, banana, and mango will contribute less than 8% of GDP against the over 64% of our two top exports.

“Tax revenues that we all want to disburse via the LGUs, for example, equitably, will not be boosted by doubling our investment in fruits and nuts.

“Can we pause right there and ask ourselves if we’re coming or going?

“Consider: We will have a windfall if we win over Apple AirPods.”

We need more than a “barong-barong.” And it is no longer a mystery that our neighbors – one after another – figured out how to traverse poverty to prosperity.

We don’t have to reinvent the wheel. All we need is to look outward and benchmark against these neighbors.

Consider: “Agriculture Secretary William Dar had been posting stories from abroad about urban farming. But I wish he will go beyond Facebook and talk to some of our business leaders to invest time and money to try this scheme out.

“Start with property developers like Ayala, SMDC, Megaworld, and the Manny Villar companies. They are known to be furiously land-banking and buying properties for future development. In the meantime, the properties are idle.

“I recently e-mailed Tessie Sy Coson about the Pimeco property that they bought from GSIS. It is 10 hectares and idle. I understand PCGG still has a claim on it as part of Marcos’s ill-gotten wealth. But SMDC or one of its subsidiaries now holds the title.

“There are abandoned buildings there that used to house the manufacturing facilities of Pimeco, a meatpacking plant. And can be converted to urban farms to grow vegetables using the hydroponic method.

“Perhaps my suggestion is not worth the investment from the perspective of a property developer. But it delivers a strong message about utilizing every inch of land we have for food production. It also creates jobs for those who lost jobs during the lockdowns.

“San Miguel Corporation, as always, is ahead of the pack. They just announced they would turn portions of their head office in Mandaluyong City into small urban farms for support staff to grow their food and earn more. They can bring home their harvest or sell the produce at the Malasakit Garden Farmers stall at the complex.

“Converting the grounds now planted to grass to grow lettuce and other vegetables delivers a strong social message about being concerned with having sufficient food supply. Indeed, with recent supply glitches for Baguio vegetables, chicken, and pork, every Filipino must take to heart the importance of food security and learn how to grow their food.

“I don't think Ramon Ang has any illusions about making money on this project, but the social messaging is essential.

“Urban farming is a growing trend abroad. I have read of vertical farms cultivating all sorts of salad vegetables in old warehouses, former steel mills, or other sites in cities abroad.

“An article in Fastcompany.com reports they are now starting to build multistory greenhouses directly inside affordable housing developments.

“They plan to integrate a vertical farm into an existing affordable housing development in Chicago. Inside each building, the ground level will offer community access, while the greenhouse fills the second, third, and fourth floors, covering 70,000 square feet and growing around a million pounds of produce a year.” [“Think new (!),” Boo Chanco, DEMAND AND SUPPLY, The Philippine Star, 8th Mar 2021]

What has the blog raised when it comes to our top companies? Our eight top companies — combined — cannot even match one Vietnam enterprise’s economic contribution, i.e., Samsung Vietnam.

Let’s pause right there. Does that come from our instincts? How much more resounding do we expect to sink as a nation?

Nation-building is beyond the present and noticeable.

“To emerge stronger and more resilient, we need to think ahead and plant the seeds of our future growth and prosperity today.” [Angara, op. cit.]

We have a structural problem. Worse, because we have fires to fight incessantly, we are reduced to “Pinoy abilidad,” aka as knee-jerks. In the vernacular, “isang kahig, isang tuka.”

Sadly, we’ve turned oblivious to our plight that it is no longer laughable. And it explains why we’re in a downward spiral, especially with the pandemic. Translation: The pandemic added fuel to the fire, but we’ve lit the fire long before.

Gising bayan!