“A religious sister stayed for a few weeks in an urban poor community. With each scene of abject poverty she encountered, she would inevitably say, “Kawawa naman!” (What a pity!), writes Roberto E. N. Rivera, S.J. in the Daily Inquirer, Mar 27th. The Filipino mindset is centered on compassion? The bishops are introducing to both clergy and laity “a novel analytical tool that involves looking first at the prevailing ‘ideas’ or mindsets which allow certain sectors to be marginalized within society. It entails examining ‘resources’ to see how the presence or absence of material goods and control over them can aggravate or alleviate poverty. It also requires looking at ‘intelligibility,’ i.e., the whole area of culture, to see how cultural presuppositions reinforce prevailing patterns of marginalization. Finally, the framework recommends an examination of ‘shifts,’ of the possibilities of changing configurations of ideas, resources and intelligibility in doable ways so as to effect societal change.”
While ex-NEDA chief, Dr. Sixto K. Rojas, says: “. . . given the development track that the Philippine economy has treaded in the past 40 to 50 years, there is now no more room for resorting to old and tried and tested policies that only make matters worse.” (Business Mirror, Nov 28, 2010)
Taking the path of least resistance is the safest and most convenient – it is human nature? “For many years, our nation’s government has lived beyond its means. We have promised ourselves both low taxes and a generous social safety net. But we have not faced the hard reality of budget arithmetic,” writes N. Gregory Mankiw, a professor of economics at Harvard, in the New York Times, Mar 26, 2011, It’s 2026, and the Debt Is Due: A presidential address to the nation — to be delivered in March 2026.
Our bishops are challenging the clergy and the laity to effect societal change – while talking about resources and culture. For many years given our culture that promotes power and authority, we’ve unwittingly perpetuated an oligarchic economy where power resides in the few? And worse, we’ve kept to our parochial bias? We want foreign investments but are putting up all imaginable hurdles – because “they would take advantage of us and our workers”? Yet 10 million OFWs who keep our economy afloat rely on foreign employers?
Raising our standard of living is a major enterprise. And the bishops are saying: we need to shift our frame of mind and approach to the enterprise? “Pinoy kasi” has not worked for us. To embrace a new mindset requires “unfreezing” old beliefs and assumptions – i.e., biases elbow out new thinking? To be intractable whether due to history, culture, tradition or whatever dooms the effort from the get-go? For example, the US Catholic Church found out that compassion for errant priests was wrong – sexual abuse went unabated given a “culture that promoted power and authority”, says a priest. [New York magazine, Mar 28th] Put another way: take transparency for granted at our peril? [And why the Vatican wants the Vatican Bank to look at transparency?]
In a major undertaking one needs a well- but simply-defined endpoint? And the challenge to us, Filipinos, is how to overcome our instinct of inclusion and compassion – and learn to focus? Man is not smart enough to juggle numerous balls – and pet projects that could compromise and diminish the undertaking ought to be eliminated? The enterprise won’t be perfect but the reality is ‘perfection is the enemy of excellence and innovation’ – whether in the world’s largest economies or in private enterprise, e.g., the US, China, Apple products, etc.? Something we, Filipinos, have to come to grips with? Thus, it is not unexpected if the Aquino administration would fumble the ball in pursuit of its investment-led economic growth efforts. What it needs is resolve – it took Hong Kong 30 years to eliminate corruption, says the Indonesian BOI chairman, who clearly does his homework; but the key is they worked hard to succeed! [To nitpick is expected, especially from past administrations – what a comic relief to hear their shtick! Babe Ruth hit a career .342, and only the 10th best, yet an icon; he hit a homerun at the Rizal ball park, and only after Lou Gehrig.]
To simply be hopeful and compassionate won’t be enough – we need to effect societal change? We were not ready to pursue industrialization in 1945; “Kawawa naman” if after two generations we still can’t attract foreign investments – and are not ready, willing and able to pursue private-public partnership and fight corruption?
No comments:
Post a Comment