Where is our head?

Should that be the question we must ask Juan de la Cruz if we ever want to move this nation forward?

Can we say, “Enough is enough”? Haven’t we been the regional laggard for the longest time? And that comes with abject poverty. Yet, poverty is a subset of economic development and nation-building. Moreover, poverty in an underdeveloped economy differs from poverty in a developed economy.

For example, the cleaning lady in our US and Europe homes both drive cars. While the maids in the wife’s ancestral home, despite their higher wages from before, can’t aspire to own cars.

How can we visualize that? Recall that the GDP per capita in Singapore is $93,400 against the $8,000 in the Philippines. That explains why we must borrow tens of thousands of US dollars from the World Bank to fund the 4Ps. Alms are not the way out of poverty.

Recall that the blog never tires of raising that Juan de la Cruz generates or earns less than half of his Thai counterpart and not even a third of the Malaysian.

Debating the wisdom of GDP is irrelevant to Juan de la Cruz. We are an underdeveloped economy, so he suffers from abject poverty. How do we figure that out? It’s the distinction between “analysis” and “analytics.” Or “strategic planning” and “strategic thinking.” Or “activity” and “outcome.” Or simply, it is Grade V arithmetic. For example, why are we bragging about a 6%-7% GDP growth over ten years when Juan de la Cruz is the laughingstock of his Thai or Malaysian neighbor?

Did we not give him his farm via the comprehensive agrarian reform and subsistence from the 4Ps? Or even the roof over his shoulder via Gawad Kalinga?

If we establish the above as the predicate, why aren’t we moving away from our inherent paradigm?

Consider: We are parochial and insular. We value hierarchy and paternalism and rely on political patronage and oligarchy; ours is a culture of impunity.

In other words, we can’t ignore where our head is and define and prescribe solutions to our problems as we have always done. To paraphrase Einstein, we can’t solve our problems using the same thinking we used when we created them.

For example, we proudly proclaim our value of family—no problem with that except that we must recognize how to qualify it.

Why do we have nepotism in spades? Why have we perpetuated political lords at the local and national levels?

Consider the Marcos and Duterte families. What happens to all the cases against the Marcos family stemming from their unexplained wealth? Did we elect a president and vice president that will want to protect the interests of their families?

Isn’t Duterte still under the gun from the ICC?

Does corruption pervade our public sector to the nth degree? Will a Marcos-Duterte leadership inspire the public sector to keep their noses clean?

Let’s digress a bit with another anecdote to visualize our dire situation.

A few years ago, when my former assistant (cum translator and driver) was visiting New York – to install AI-driven software on the NY office laptops – I picked him up at the train station in my 2003 Lexus SUV. In jest, he said that if ever I would sell the car, to let him know, and he would ship it to Sofia. And early this year, I remembered the conversation and told him I was ready to sell the car.

Long story short, despite the delays experienced by the shipping industry amid the surge in global commerce as the pandemic waned, the car got from point A to point B with no hitch whatsoever.

To begin with, everything I needed from our local Department of Motor Vehicles was accessible online. And there was no need to notarize any documents. International shipments strained the New York-New Jersey port, so the car had to be transported to Georgia and loaded on a ship to Europe. Rotterdam was the port of entry, and that entailed Custom clearance. Yet, it was a breeze, and my friend received an email to expect the car in Sofia in a week, and in the meantime, he could pay the corresponding local taxes.

It so happened we were in Sofia. When the car arrived, he called me to say that he was inviting us – the wife and me – to dinner. And when he was in front of our apartment building, the wife and I couldn’t help but smile to see our old car picking us up on another continent.

There are different insights from this anecdote. Those familiar with the blog may remember why I bought a Lexus SUV, their first offering in 2003. I was in the focus group that created the first Mercedes Benz SUV, but I chose the Lexus because it looked more like an SUV than the Mercedes. And I followed the story of how Toyota developed its first premium brand.

They disassembled premium German cars to understand their workings, an excellent example of benchmarking. German vehicles have fewer parts to assemble because they come together in different components. Think of the modern math concept of sets and subsets. Moreover, Toyota successfully made Lexus the sturdiest car in the market. That explains why its resell value is the highest and why my friend was still excited despite it being 19 years old.

And then, consider that the example is a global transaction devoid of red tapes. Please think of the hoops we go through dealing with the Philippine Land Transportation Office and the Bureau of Customs.

Then think of how much more productive the rest of the world is than the Philippines. Do we wonder why we are uncompetitive?

We need a “leadership” that will take us from where we are to where we have never been.

That is especially true because of our caste system. We value hierarchy and paternalism.

And that includes us in the Philippine elite and chattering classes. We pull rank or patronize those below us and rely on and lionize those above us.

What is missing in our instincts?

Recall that the blog never ceases discussing the imperative of personal responsibility to pursue the common good – as the foundation of freedom, democracy, and the free market.

We cannot argue against democracy and blame the West for its imperfections. If democracy is a scale, we are extremely low scale-wise. It is not the system that is at fault but us.

Can we ever internalize what self-government is? We are the government. In the case of the Catholic Church, we know that we are the branches.

Indeed, we are “between a rock and a hard place.” But it is not new. Our denial made us sweep it under the carpet – that we relied on and celebrated OFW remittances and call centers.

In other words, our economy rests on the shoulders of Juan de la Cruz, yet we – in the Philippine elite and chattering classes – want to take the credit.

And we still do, given how we define and prescribe solutions to our problems.

How often has the blog spoken to the “mechanics” and “how-to” fallacy? Take Arangkada and the scores of industry road maps we proudly created.

But that merely reflects our narrow fiscal and monetary policy paradigm that we continue to employ to drive the economy.

See above; paraphrasing Einstein. We have succeeded over a decade in attaining the global yardstick of a 6%-7% GDP growth rate yet remained the regional laggard.

Should we stop and ponder?

As the blog points out, our parochialism and insularity are beyond the pale. If we can only look outward and forward, we would learn from our neighbors – as Toyota took pains to learn from German cars. And that means honest-to-goodness “benchmarking.” Yet, we keep reinventing the wheel because of our inward-looking bias. And that also explains why “innovation” is foreign to us.

Recall how Steve Jobs defined “creativity.” It is simply to connect the dots. Yet, without experience, we can’t connect the dots. But that is why we must learn from our neighbors. And because they have decades of experience – from the journey of poverty to prosperity – they keep building on their lead over the Philippines. And in the case of Singapore, it has already overtaken the US.

Take agriculture. Or the jeepney. Or the comprehensive agrarian reform. Or the OFW phenomenon. Or the call centers. Or the over 300 export processing zones.

They all reflect logical yet linear and incremental thinking.

On the other hand, if we had moved up to forward, lateral, and creative thinking, we would have set a North Star for agriculture. For example, if ground zero is the comprehensive agrarian reform program, our vision must be globally competitive in agribusiness. And that means the cycle does not stop on the farm but moves beyond to industry.

And beyond setting up export processing zones, our vision must be globally competitive in the 21st century. For example, why have our neighbors become economic miracles? They begged for Western money and technology.

On the other hand, we have a built-in barrier, our caste system. We can’t fathom Juan de la Cruz is an Asian Tiger. Worse, we see Juan de la Cruz in dire need of the 4Ps – or alms. Unsurprisingly, we value political patronage and oligarchy. And that is why we reflect mediocrity.

But that is why we like road maps and decision trees. They are mechanics or tools. But if we don’t see where we are and want to be, we can’t figure out how we will get there.

And we are also “sabog,” scared to miss crossing the T’s and dotting the I’s. Why? Because of our lack of experience in development, we can only be academic in our approach to problem-solving and decision-making.

For instance, we can’t figure out how Lee Kuan Yew was able to speak to take Singapore from a third-world to a first-world economy. Why? Our caste system blinds us from seeing beyond the confines of our ranks. We can only patronize those below us and rely on those above us.

It explains why Rizal noted that we love tyranny. It is the only explanation for why we submit to it.

Why are we the regional laggard?

Where are we? And where do we want to be? Moreover, how do we get there?

We can’t solve our problems by using the same thinking we used when we created them.

If indeed Mr. Ang of San Miguel can pursue a significant undertaking akin to the Pearl River Delta Economic Zone, what must be our response? Our economic managers must figure out how to make it a platform for a new Philippine nation-building initiative.

If indeed Congress is also on board, they need our think tanks and NEDA to follow the lead.

We must have learned from our missteps in Arangkada and the scores of industry road maps.

We must learn forward, lateral, and creative thinking. We can’t pretend we know how to connect the dots because we don’t.

Once again, I would call on Ciel, Boo, and Tony to keep plugging the Ang initiative. For starters, we must think beyond an international airport. We need an “ecosystem” akin to the photosynthesis phenomenon to get Philippine industrialization off the ground finally.

Where is our head?

Should that be the question we must ask Juan de la Cruz if we ever want to move this nation forward?

Can we say, “Enough is enough”? Haven’t we been the regional laggard for the longest time? And that comes with abject poverty. Yet, poverty is a subset of economic development and nation-building.

Gising bayan!