Our power crisis

We have to move past ‘kuro-kuro’ and fix the power crisis, especially in Mindanao? The operative word is crisis, which hopefully still means something in our psyche? Should we try to be more focused? What about responsibility – should we point to the next person to take personal responsibility?

Indeed every now and again people must give themselves a pat in the back for the good things around them – it is healthy! Yet they need to balance that and develop instinctive problem-solving? Simply put, when there is a problem or a potential problem, to roll up their sleeves and fix it? For example, the Indians may not like what they are hearing but some participants to the Commonwealth Games are simply asking: are there problems or potential problems in your preparations for the games? Have you addressed them? They could be defensive, like we were with the Luneta hostage-taking crisis; but the participants are asking a fair question?

We’re not alone in this predicament. Spain wanted to please everybody and pursued a policy of subsidized power; only to learn the obvious, it is unsustainable. The writer’s many years in Eastern Europe have been a constant challenge to share with Eastern Europeans that there is such a thing as a problem-solving culture. It is nice to be spontaneous and happy, but there is the morning after?

And so one of the one-liners they’ve learned to remind them of this challenge is: Keep it simple, stupid!

The writer never tires in sharing with them that the one major difference between a developed nation and an underdeveloped one is infrastructure. But infrastructure is both hard and soft, like hardware and software. It is not all about erecting structures, it starts in the mind?

When one wakes up in the morning and is faced with the same inefficiencies as yesterday and many yesterdays prior, they can’t hide behind resiliency? It is not an asset; it is complacency, thus a liability? Love of country and concern for the poor are not empty rhetoric – they are action-driven? And it takes instinctive problem-solving to get one to roll up their sleeves?

Every president has said, ‘I am the power czar’? But how much have they rolled up their sleeves to demonstrate it? Focus . . . . focus . . . focus! That means the communications team is out there everyday telling media how the power czar is flexing his or her muscle? When there is transparency there is a built-in mechanism to get things done? We’re sophisticated and can intellectualize transparency, but transparency is not up there but down in the gut? Hierarchy and orgullo undermine transparency, if they’re not blinding? And good intentions are not good enough – which was the issue Rizal had with the church? (It appears the Vatican is signaling a move toward transparency: talking to media about the sex abuse scandal. The Vatican Bank is another topic they can address?) Absent transparency, abuses are bound to occur – follow what I preach not what I practice? And it explains why we can’t come close to slaying corruption? And in any economic endeavor hierarchy and orgullo undermine progress; while transparency brings the brightest ideas and the best efforts to percolate? And absent transparency, mediocrity is commonplace, if it does not rule?

Power, water, rice (which to us means food; like bread is in the West) and airports/harbors/roads (i.e., transport system) are the basics. If we can’t focus and prioritize and provide these basic needs, how can we raise economic activity, elevate our GDP and address poverty?

It is nice to be spontaneous and happy, and to please everybody, but there is the morning after?