“IN OUR TIME, NONE OF THE 195 COUNTRIES IN THE U.N. – NOT THE US, NOT CHINA, NOT JAPAN, NOT GERMANY, NOT THE PHILIPPINES, OR EVEN A GROUP OF COUNTRIES LIKE THE E.U. – CAN CONSIDER ITSELF SELF-SUFFICIENT ENOUGH THAT IT CAN PURSUE A TRULY “INDEPENDENT FOREIGN POLICY”. [All caps font from original article: “Global special forces and our interdependent world,” Former Philippine President Fidel V. Ramos, Manila Bulletin, 17th Sept 2016.]
How would the above square with (a) our threat to leave the UN that comes with (b) the elevated approval rating of President Duterte? “President Duterte’s approval rating was recently a historic 91%, and he is seen by fans and foes alike as decisive and effective, promising sweeping reforms and bringing about the surrender of tens of thousands of drug users and . . . dealers before they can be killed.” [This Is Why Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte Will Get Away With Murder, Miguel Syjuco, Time, 16th Aug 2016]
At the end of every posting – to keep our eye on the North Star – the blog recycles the following quote: “Development [is informed by a people’s] worldview, cognitive capacity, values, moral development, self-identity, spirituality, and leadership . . .” [Frederic Laloux, Reinventing organizations, Nelson Parker, 2014]
Development must be our North Star. And clearly it is not a cakewalk. And it is not one dimensional. It is like leadership. That is to say, when all leadership has is a “hammer” everything looks like a nail. Think ecosystem. To decipher development and leadership we can then posit: the right leadership has a repertoire of skills and the capacity to imagine and visualize the dynamics of the critical elements of development.
Where are we as a nation or as an economy or an enterprise? Why are we the regional laggard unable to break away from the jaws of underdevelopment? And the worsening traffic congestion in Metro Manila – if not in other metro areas too is more than a daily burden given its negative impact on productivity and the health of people – is just the tip of the iceberg.
And how do we imagine being relevant – and innovative and competitive – in the 21st century when our worldview appears out of sync and out of left field? Do we suffer from victimhood, another way of saying, do we carry a chip on the shoulder?
When all is said and done, winners are separated from losers – like the men are separated from the boys.
Winners look forward. We like to look back, but how far? Are we reliving the days before Enlightenment ideals that shaped modern nations – uprooting absolute monarchy and the feudal system – and showed the world the power inherent in the will of the people? Rizal must be turning in his grave!
What is reality? People lived in caves before civilization set in. It is about growth and development. Organisms grow and develop otherwise they go extinct. Sadly, what we’re demonstrating to the rest of the world is that growth and development is still a mystery to Juan de la Cruz? That we don’t have a good handle on what it takes to lift us up from underdevelopment, caught in a vicious circle.
Think of the overthrow of Marcos and then the administrations that followed: did they live up to the uprightness and good governance that we assumed would descend upon us? In fairness, the Duterte administration wants to institute long-term economic planning in order to override the 6-year presidential election cycles.
Yet development goes beyond the mechanics. Everything starts in the mind. We must first figure out how to develop a growth mindset – and it demands overcoming our fixed mindset – if we are to ever have a prayer and make PHL a developed economy. That is founded on a body of knowledge discussed in prior postings.
Likewise, we must step up to the reality of what and who we are. Our future is in our hands, but it does not mean being an island unto ourselves! We don't like being questioned and critiqued which is not surprising given ours is a parochial – and insular and hierarchical – culture.
The price we pay? Underdeveloped (a) communication, (b) team-building and (c) critical thinking skills. Which is not the end of the world since they mirror the shortcomings of US higher education. But we better raise our consciousness otherwise we will continue to lag more progressive nations.
We would wonder why communication is an issue? How do we communicate to the rest of the world? We don’t say we’re parochial and insular yet that is what we expose when we say: “This land is my land; you have no right to lecture me, to lecture us.”
“Pinoy abilidad” does not exempt us from the phenomenon that humans are irrational, susceptible to “decision-making biases”. Again, not an opinion but derived through academic rigor discussed in a prior posting.
And why we don’t have the keenness to benchmark and learn from others. It is where our crab mentality comes from – and why community and the common good is alien to us. As well as our inability to pull together – and share a common vision and a sense of purpose. Instead we say we’re the happiest people and full of hope, to boot.
But what is our reality? We can’t attract FDIs to the levels that Asian tigers do. Beyond our archaic infrastructure is an equally archaic economic model. How long has the BOI been driving efforts to attract investments via incentives? The good news is we’re looking at other dimensions like power, tax reforms and infrastructure – and leveraging foreign expertise.
Still, we can’t be a running car with its gas tank leaking. We must think, beyond ecosystem, creativity or connecting the dots as well and the accounting concept of “net worth” before any premature celebrations.
And as though we haven’t suffered enough, we’re borrowing practices from police states pre the collapse of the Berlin Wall, if not Russia or Syria or North Korea – and are on a slippery slope.
We may think Bondying is a myth. But why are we about persistent and pervasive corruption – aka a culture of impunity? And where does he come from? The blog has time and again called out Juan de la Cruz given our parochialism – and insularity . . . hierarchy . . . paternalism . . . patronage . . . oligarchy . . . culture of impunity – and it goes full circle to underdevelopment.
We can’t keep pointing at others when we are the problem – and throwing a tantrum a la Bondying?
But let’s continue with President Ramos. “MANKIND’S UPLIFTMENT AND SURVIVAL TOTALLY DEPEND ON OUR INTERDEPENDENCE IN FIGHTING . . . UNIVERSAL THREATS . . .
“OF THE 195 MEMBER-NATIONS OF THE U.N., AT LEAST 73 COUNTRIES MAINTAIN SPECIAL FORCES UNITS, THE PHILIPPINES INCLUDED. THE SPECIAL FORCES . . . ARE PRODUCTS OF THE INTERDEPENDENCE OF TODAY’S GLOBALIZED 21ST CENTURY WORLD.”
“DEEPER ECONOMIC INTEGRATION, CLOSER SECURITY COOPERATION AND WIDER PEOPLE-TO-PEOPLE LINKAGES – NOT ISOLATION – ARE THE KEYS TO THE ATTAINMENT . . . OF THE U.N.’S 17 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS, AND ARE . . . ESSENTIAL IN AN INTERDEPENDENT . . . PLANET EARTH.”
It is the hope of this writer that our social scientists would edify us on the latest developments in psychology and neuroscience. For example, that humans are fundamentally irrational. And we see it in spades – from the Iraq war to the Great Recession to the Brexit to Trump, and from the Tea Party to the US government shutdown to the specter of fascism.
And thank God Francis came because religions aren’t exempt from irrationality?
Yet “Pinoy abilidad” is us – the yardstick we use to measure and test the rest of the world – free to engender a culture of impunity not the rule of law? No wonder we want out of the community of nations forgetting that we are – wittingly or not – embracing the exclusive and the evil domain of despots. “Tell me who your friends are and I will tell you who you are.”
It is not about taking sides but about the values we hold. And our lack of conviction reflects our stunted development. One simple test that we won’t satisfy is the value of transparency. Which explains our subservience and the whys of our underdevelopment?
In the meantime, Juan de la Cruz pays the heavy price of underdevelopment, poverty and lawlessness, and has all but lost his will and spirit, vulnerable to despotism.
But are we in the chattering class falling into the trap of condescension – adding insult to injury – while howling “inclusion” given that our ecosystem puts it beyond the reach of Juan de la Cruz?
And . . . given our reality where community and the common good isn't instinctive – and where rank has its privileges and hierarchy rules – how would we muster a response to the higher demands of interdependence President Ramos speaks to?
“Why independence, if the slaves of today will be the tyrants of tomorrow? And that they will be such is not to be doubted, for he who submits to tyranny loves it.” [We are ruled by Rizal’s ‘tyrants of tomorrow,’ Editorial, The Manila Times, 29th Dec 2015]
“As a major component for the education and reorientation of our people, mainstream media – their reporters, writers, photographers, columnists and editors – have an obligation to this country . . .” [Era of documented irrelevance: Mainstream media, critics and protesters, Homobono A. Adaza, The Manila Times, 25th Nov 2015]
“Development [is informed by a people’s] worldview, cognitive capacity, values, moral development, self-identity, spirituality, and leadership . . .” [Frederic Laloux, Reinventing organizations, Nelson Parker, 2014]
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