“Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.” We all know the quote (from the favorite saint of countless) but does our fatalism unwittingly drop the second line – i.e., “bahala na” (loosely translates to ‘que sera, sera’?) comes from “Bathala” or Supreme God?
Beyond the fiasco that is NAIA 3 is the disaster (reports Business World, Apr 18th) that is our airport system – though conspiracy theorists point to Western bullying to explain why our airport has been downgraded? We’ve denuded our forests and upended our ecological system – with Metro Manila, like its airports, at the tail-end in competitive rankings? Our economy is so narrow we have to label livelihood projects as economic development interventions? And major infrastructure projects become the economic panacea trumpeted by every administration yet characterized by influenced peddling and corruption – thus aborted, wasting precious little resources? And then we call on our faith – or is it fatalism that we are invoking? And pushing the envelope we shift to high-gear and wail ideology?
Has our cacique-like culture made our government and economy ungovernable? We put hierarchy – power and authority and the lack of transparency – above all? We’ve prejudged foreign investments as interference, unwittingly indulging in self-flagellation, while the Asian tigers laugh their way to the bank? What can an underdeveloped economy and government do – forced, boxed-in into unsustainable subsidies? It can orchestrate and pave the way for our institutions – if they are committed to nation-building – to attract humongous (not candies to pacify Juan de la Cruz) investments, and harness them towards elevating our technology (and innovation-quotient) to world-class levels and thus the ability to develop world-class talents and products that would win in the global marketplace?
Has our deference to ‘hierarchy’ blurred and confused our aspirations and confidence – and our sense of competitiveness? We don’t have the capacity to compete – that we can’t develop, manufacture and market competitive products beyond our shores? Hierarchy connotes permanence and thus in India successful entrepreneurs do rail against the caste system? Yet even empires don’t have permanence – and ditto for the golden calf? South Korea is giving Japanese cars a run for their money – Japan getting a dose of its own medicine, like they gave the US?
Even the simple peanut which could be bought in the ‘talipapa’ could be raised in value and offered in gourmet shops and the finest hotels of the world? As consumers we know that the supposedly lowly trash bag has raised its value – and welcomed by the Señora – or that even a toilet paper could have a pleasant scent, softness and strength, and raise its value? The writer’s Eastern European friends continue to surprise themselves – moving from a cottage industry to four different business units, doing manufacturing and marketing, from a market of one tiny country to a region many times over. They don’t talk about sunset industries (since even a cell phone unless it moves up to smart phone would be in its sunset as Nokia belated learned) or of being dwarfed and cowed by Western behemoths – i.e., empires are fleeting? They have chosen to compete head-to-head because investments in technology, innovation, talents, products and markets have given them the belief in the human spirit. These are ex-socialists thriving in the 21st century competitive market arena – an amazing story of people who grew up under absolute rule, a system some of us desire?
Isn’t the OFW phenomenon an outcome of cronyism, one of the manifestations of our hierarchical or cacique-like culture – i.e., a major overseas construction project facilitated and won via the crony system? It became convenient because we had earlier raised the walls to ward off investments and technology from the outside – thus haven’t had the industrial base and the critical mass to develop into a robust economy? And our major industry was essentially anchored in a couple of monopolies – commodities, not high value-added products? And today’s reality hurts and blinds?
It is foolhardy to invoke fatalism to raise our competitiveness? And to invoke nationalism cum protectionism following one’s folly – or failure to raise competitiveness – is robbing Peter to pay Paul, undermining the greater good? Competitiveness is a reality that could be attained with hard work or harder work, but not convenience? And it is not about trusting ourselves more than the Maker. It is about being unshackled from the thoughts and the deeds that perpetuate a cacique-like culture and economy – read as hopelessness by the poor, thus turning to fatalism?
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