Who is us? We in the elite class?
“So, what if I don’t want to be a Filipino anymore (?),” Paul David Cruz, YOUNGBLOOD, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 18th Aug 2020; Cruz is 29, works as a communications officer in the IT industry.
“I hate that I was born Filipino. There, I said it. Let’s get this straight: This isn’t that kind of piece where I state negative things after negative things only to flip them on their heads after and come out with a positive message. No, this isn’t a cutesy post.
“Like a lot of Filipinos, I have had it with the unfairness of this country. Take the blatant disregard by its ‘leaders’ for the necessary services their constituents rightly deserve, of the incessant and indefatigable corruption permeating every corner of the rank stench of hopelessness wafting from dead dreams and expectations, caused by the motherland’s very own children.
“I don't want to be a Filipino anymore. And so, what if you disagree?
‘I also don’t care if you’re going to burst into song about why you’re proud to be Pinoy despite everything. Please drop the pretentiousness. You are either from a privileged background with your safety nets to catch you when the ‘crap’ hits the fan, or far worse, a person who’s deluding himself into thinking everything’s okay even when your home is in flames.
“You think it’s okay to continue reading about elected primates guzzling taxpayers’ hard-earned money down the drain, without even the tiniest bit of remorse while doing it? Go ahead.
“You don’t feel anything when the youth and the marginalized take to the streets despite a pandemic to voice their concerns about how we are being exploited, calling out for others like us to join their cause and amplify our collective voice, to stop being apathetic? No problem.
“You would rather all of us continue accepting every morsel and crumb that keeps being thrown at us derisively, mockingly. You don’t think we can criticize elected leaders, because darn it, they’re just human and trying their best and are all good at heart deep down? ‘Okey dokey!’
“Who cares, right? Surely you don’t mind, that’s why you’re still proud to be Filipino.
“I hate to break it to you, but not everyone thinks as you do. Not everyone is as deluded and willfully blind as you are. Not everyone is willing to use the only chance to live just to be bogged down by ineptitude, ignorance, and self-serving agendas.
“So yeah, so what if I don’t want to be a Filipino any longer? It’s not as if the people who should care about this sentiment will.”
The young man reminds the writer of a niece, a millennial, who says that today’s youth are different. They won’t swallow handed down preconceptions hook, line, and sinker.
“Change begins when we finally choose to examine critically and then recalibrate the ill-serving codes and conventions handed down to us, often unquestioned, by the past and its power structures. It is essentially an act of imagination first.” [David Henry Thoreau; American essayist, poet, and philosopher; 1817-1862]
That must be why Rizal said, “The youth is the hope of the fatherland.” Will we, in the elite class, examine critically handed down conventions?
“Why independence, if the slaves of today will be the tyrants of tomorrow? Moreover, 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]
That is why the blog continually raises our instincts, i.e., to challenge them: We are parochial and insular. We value hierarchy and paternalism that we rely on political patronage and oligarchy that ours is a culture of impunity.
Our structures – economic, political, and civic – are dysfunctional compared to our neighbors.
Unsurprisingly, we can’t seem to get a good handle on the critical levers of development. We are all over the board – “sabog” in the vernacular.
It goes back to a fundamental challenge we can’t seem to overcome, the inability to forward-think. When we can’t visualize the road from poverty to prosperity, we will be hard-pressed to prioritize and focus.
And it is a function of our lack of experience in development, as the blog continually raises – like a broken record. It explains why we see poverty as an enormous challenge – i.e., the obvious and the present – that we can’t distinguish between cause and effect. We’re stuck in dualism and are yet to move up to relativism.
And why our world view is inward-looking. And why the nuances between imperialism and hegemony and sovereignty and impunity confound us.
That beyond family and nation are the community and the common good, including the community of nations.
Consider: “It’s indeed likely that most of us have shifted a large part of our usual purchases to informal sellers, with a corresponding reduction in purchases from formal business establishments. My colleague could be right: Much of the measured decline in economic activity might well reflect a widespread shift away from formally recorded transactions in favor of informal ones below the radar.
“It’s not because there was a dramatic decline in our purchases. It’s more because the informal economic activities are not directly recorded, hence largely escape the (gross domestic product) GDP measurement.” [Overstated decline (?), Cielito F. Habito, NO FREE LUNCH, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 18th Aug 2020]
Do we wonder why the young man referenced above is at the end of his rope?
Recall these simple questions the blog continually raises: “Where are we? Where do we want to be? How do we get there?
If we can’t look in the mirror, how do we square the circle on “Where are we”?
“UA&P economist Bernardo Villegas said the country’s long-term fundamentals have remained intact. These include the country’s young and growing English-speaking population. Its location is in the most dynamic economic region in the world, Asia and the Pacific.
“The country’s membership in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is a significant consideration in the country’s long-term prospects. The region is one of the fastest-growing areas of the world.
“The country’s abundant natural resources will ensure its long-term growth and development, especially for tourism.
“And on the administration’s Build, Build, Build (BBB) program, at least two more Presidents will likely sustain them after President Duterte.
“Likewise, the growth corridors outside of the National Capital Region (NCR), where investors could relocate and grow their businesses. Among these is the Bicol region, which has been growing fast, and in terms of provinces, Iloilo and Davao.
“Sunset industries moving forward are agriculture; health and wellness; computers or the technological industries; and education.
“These will allow for a faster and V-shaped recovery for the Philippines.
“However, long-term challenges for the Philippine economy include low agricultural productivity, obstacles to doing business – especially foreign direct investors, e.g., shortage of technical skills. They include high electricity rates, corruption, and poor governance, and a high frequency of natural calamities.” [https://avalanches.com/]
Consider: The above longish list of positives include elements that we have trumpeted for years.
We must then distinguish the “drivers” from the “enablers.”
Why? We must put the drivers front and center, as in the products and services that will give us a quantum leap in exports. Why exports? Our local consumption economy is reasonably large. It is in “exports” that we lag our neighbors.
Think Samsung Vietnam and Apple AirPods Vietnam – and potentially iPhone Vietnam. They are actively lobbying Apple on this.
Forget how we view things for a moment. It is high time we question and challenge our thinking. Recall metacognition. It is how to move up in human development.
We, in the chattering classes, have discussed big data and analytics a few times. And “analytics” must be distinguished from “analysis.” The former demands forward-thinking because the object of the exercise is to create a virtuous circle.
Consider: We have our top exports. The principle of the vital few (or Pareto) says that must be the starting point of our “analytics exercise,” not the 42 industry road maps we’ve been kicking around.
And we cannot fall back on the mindset that failed us in the 20th century. We must challenge our thinking. And the place to start will be our neighbors. For example, Messrs. Dominguez and Ang can replicate the wonder that is Samsung Vietnam. And it demands benchmarking or learning as much as we can from their experience.
What about the enablers? Our membership in the ASEAN is an enabler, but not a driver, given our neighbors are members. We cannot own this “positive” by ourselves. Even abundant natural resources are not unique to us. For instance, we are not dominant in tourism.
The BBB program is a catch-up effort and, again, not a driver. We are decades behind.
Ditto for the growth corridors outside NCR. We continue to entertain the notion of imperial Manila. Recall how we looked at the Davao of Duterte and concluded that it was a model for the nation? What we call imperial Manila falls in the same classification as our economy, the regional laggard amongst the major cities in the region.
If we look outward, China, for example, focused on developing the regions of Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Beijing – all on the eastside – to world-class levels before venturing west.
But we can’t internalize that because the crab mentality is a dominant trait in Juan de la Cruz.
Let’s get back to the enablers: The obstacles to doing business – especially foreign direct investors, e.g., shortage of technical skills – include high electricity rates, corruption, and poor governance.
What to do? We need to pull the enablers together to be a coherent whole and be a subset of the virtuous circle we must create if we are to figure out the road from poverty to prosperity.
The bottom line: We are the regional laggard – because the two drivers of the economy remain OFW remittances and BPO revenues.
We continue to gloss over our failure to industrialize. We are the rookies in the big league dominated by our neighbors – and why our eight most significant enterprises can’t match the output of one Vietnam enterprise.
Try dynamism. And beyond “dynamism,” to forward-think – to see beyond the obvious and the present – and create a virtuous circle.
Here’s a simple test: “Individualistic economic teaching held that economic life is free and independent of public authority. The principle of self-direction governs it, i.e., free competition, while justified and useful – in certain limits – cannot curb itself. Social justice and social charity must govern it firmly and fully.” [Introduction to Catholic Social Teaching, Elfren S. Cruz, BREAKTHROUGH, The Philippine Star, 20th Aug 2020]
And here’s the hypothesis: “Social justice and charity – firmly and fully – demand that we enact a comprehensive agrarian reform program.”
Why is our agribusiness pathetic? We don’t see beyond the obvious and the present, as in a virtuous circle.
Why does the blog continually reference Padre Damaso – and the tribalism that stalled the greatness and exceptionalism of America? Recall the photosynthesis phenomenon.
Let’s try another one. Social justice and charity – firmly and fully – demand that we champion the OFW phenomenon. But that is why we can’t own up our failure to industrialize.
Social justice and charity – firmly and fully – demand that we tee up 42 industry road maps. But that’s why Samsung Vietnam, single-handedly, turned the efforts of our eight top companies into a feeble exercise.
Benchmark. Benchmark. Benchmark.
Until we recognize what is behind the success stories of the Asian Tigers and China, and, more recently, Vietnam, we will always be behind the curve.
Simply put, they figured out and traversed the road from poverty to prosperity.
That is the acid test of social justice.
Poverty in the Philippines is the effect of underdevelopment. Recall it is about teaching how to fish, not giving fish.
But are we more socialist that the writer’s Eastern European friends? In other words, people born and raised as socialists can move up in human development that they are today beyond dualism and into relativism.
See above; we can’t seem to get a good handle on the levers of development. We are all over the place, as in “sabog.”
Or have we given up on a prosperous and wealthy Philippines? Is that why AmBisyon Natin: 2040 about a comfortable and stable life for our families and children? That smacks of static energy. Aren’t we a subset of the spirit of creation?
Is dynamism beyond Juan de la Cruz? Which brings us back to our instincts: We are parochial and insular. We value hierarchy and paternalism that we rely on political patronage and oligarchy that ours is a culture of impunity.
Here’s a quote from a prior posting: “The Economist summarized the critical factors shared by the Best in Class economies: (1) stunning investment and trade levels; (2) higher levels of education and government effectiveness; (3) score highly with exports that are both eclectic and exclusive, as in higher value-added, that few other countries export.
“Among our neighbors, they include (1) Myanmar, (2) Vietnam, (3) China, (4) India, (5) Sri Lanka, (6) Thailand, (7) Malaysia.
“The rest rounding out the top performers are (1) Albania, (2) Romania, (3) Panama, (4) Bulgaria, (5) Poland, (6) Turkey, (7) Hungary, (8) Chile, (9) Iraq.”
Where are we?
We cannot keep to our elite class hubris if we want to understand why there is a chasm between the young man that is the subject of the posting and us.
He has made a call to action.
We cannot be the caricature of Padre Damaso, Juan Tamad, and Bondying rolled into one.
Gising bayan!
“Here is a land in which a few are spectacularly rich while the masses remain abjectly poor. And where freedom and its blessings are a reality for a minority and an illusion for the many. Here is a land consecrated to democracy but run by an entrenched plutocracy, dedicated to equality but mired in an archaic system of caste.
“But the fault was chiefly their own. Filipinos profess the love of country, but love themselves – individually – more.” [Ninoy Aquino, Foreign Affairs magazine, July 1968; Stanley Karnow, New York Times Magazine, “Cory Aquino’s Downhill Slide,” 19th Aug 1990.]
“Why independence, if the slaves of today will be the tyrants of tomorrow? Moreover, 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]
“True social reform has little to do with politics. To unmoor ourselves from the burdens of the past, we must be engaged in the act of continual and conscious self-renewal. All men are partially buried in the grave of custom. Even virtue is no longer such if it is stagnant.
“Change begins when we finally choose to examine critically and then recalibrate the ill-serving codes and conventions handed down to us, often unquestioned, by the past and its power structures. It is essentially an act of imagination first.” [David Henry Thoreau; American essayist, poet, and philosopher; 1817-1862]
“National prosperity is created, not inherited. It does not grow out of a country’s natural endowments, its labor pool, its interest rates, or its currency’s value, as classical economics insists. [A] nation’s competitiveness depends on the capacity of its industry to innovate and upgrade.” [The Competitive Advantage of Nations, Michael E. Porter, Harvard Business Review, March–April 1990]
“You have to have a dream, whether big or small. Then plan, focus, work hard, and be very determined to achieve your goals.” [Henry Sy Sr., Chairman Emeritus and Founder, SM Group (1924 - 2019)]
“Learning and innovation go hand in hand. The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow.” [William Pollard, 1911-1989, physicist-priest, Manhattan Project]
“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]
“Now I know why Paul dared to speak of ‘the curse of the law’ (Galatians 3:13). Law reigns and discernment is unnecessary, which means there is little growth or change in such people. When you do not grow, you remain an infant.” [Faith and Science, Open to Change, Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation, 23rd Oct 2017]
“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]
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