Cause and effect . . .

Man (woman) is the true measure of himself (herself)

We’re victims of circumstances – we’re a small, poor country and had been pushed around by foreigners. But we can make do. We’re resilient! We’re victims of circumstances – we’re born in paradise, had everything and should’ve everything. We couldn’t resist partaking of the forbidden fruit! Either way man (woman) finds someone to blame except himself (herself)?

Yet Adam and Eve proved that man (woman) was the true measure of himself (herself). From total disbelief that they lost paradise to showing those that came after that man and woman were endowed with God-given gifts . . . to create their own future!

No one subsidized their “cost-of-living”; no one was tasked or expected to protect them. They had to survive and succeed on their own. And they did . . . and mankind thrived!

Everything we’ve said about our plight has been caused by something – and like Adam and Eve in Eden, we only have ourselves to blame? What we must not fail to do then is to live up to our God-given gifts?

Do we want to behave that we’re victims of circumstances . . . and thus not let our minds seek and create our own future? What we can think we can create; what we can’t think we can’t create? Like our CNN’s Hero of the Year demonstrated! (If the West created a multi-trillion dollar economic hole, and are throwing a multi-trillion dollar solution; shouldn’t we be throwing a hundred billion dollar solution to our hundred billion dollar economic hole?)

Do we want to behave like adolescents, not share our “candies and toys” (to protect our patrimony?) with others? Do we not foresee that others could have better “candies and toys” than we do?

Do we suspect the intentions of every foreign investor, every foreign seat of knowledge, every foreign idea, and every foreign product? Do we believe that our faith is meant for us to be holier than thou – that we’re the chosen few and they’re not, that we must protect our children from them?

Economists have compiled a body of knowledge that low-trust level is more common among underdeveloped countries; conversely, the honor system is more common in the developed world! Low-trust translates into looking over one’s shoulder, bureaucracy and inefficiency, among others. Yet a hierarchical society puts misplaced trust in authority (leader dependence – e.g., we’re putting our future in the hands of Noynoy or whoever when it will take more than a generation to fix our economic woes?) that translates into abuse? The bottom line: underdeveloped countries have unwittingly created a perfect storm: from low-trust level to inefficiency to corruption and thus decline!

On the other hand, the rest of the world are successfully leveraging their shared investments, their shared knowledge and ideas, turning them into much sought after products . . . and are growing wealthy in the process? Where have our assumptions brought us – shut out, confined to our outdated “candies and toys”, and outdated ideas? And we’re among the most corrupt – what happened to our holier than thou?

Do we continue to kick and scream and blame the rest of the world for our plight? Who brought this upon us in the first place? But we still have our God-given gifts – if we focus on using them, not on blaming others?