Speak truth to power

Let’s start with us in the elite class and speak to ourselves.

We cannot play dumb to the reality that the region, if not the world, left us behind. That explains our continuing concern for poverty. But worry doesn't solve the problem of Juan de la Cruz.

We blew it! That’s the long and the short of it.

We cannot keep looking and pointing away from ourselves.

We are well-traveled and know, for instance, the palaces of Catherine and Peter the Great, and why their subjects revolted. If that is not enough, the Kremlin’s Diamond Museum is nauseating – and gives a quick lesson in avarice and rapacity.

And in the Malacañang Palace, what the Marcos family left behind told a similar story.

New York likes to be proud of its museums, but The Hermitage is stunning, next only to the Louvre in total area. And the Mariinsky Theater preceded the Carnegie Hall by a generation, 31 years.

And we know autocracy created – by conscripted peasants – the magnificent city of St. Petersburg. How did Imelda learn her ways?

The sad news is that Russia remains a developing country to this day. Only taking revenge doesn’t solve a problem either. And Filipinos know that from the “People Power” experience. In the meantime, Marcos’s unexplained wealth remains unexplained.

Sadder still is beyond Marcos, given our culture of impunity, there is more unexplained wealth in our midst. Did we say we are concerned about poverty?

Consider 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. 

Poverty is just the tip of the iceberg. Because of our caste system, we can’t look in the mirror?

“Pray as though everything depended on God; act as though everything depended on you.”

Let’s pause right there.

The mindset that failed Juan de la Cruz in the 20th century cannot succeed in the 21st. Recall Einstein’s “We can’t solve problems by using the same thinking we used when we created them.”

Recall too the skills to thrive in the 21st century: (1) Critical thinking; (2) Creativity; (3) Collaboration; (4) Communication. 

There is no free lunch. To wish comfort and stability for our families, and children won’t come like manna from heaven. That is why the blog often speaks to the banishment from the garden.

When eight – or the top Philippine companies – can’t be better than one, that speaks volumes. We know who the eight are and also the one, i.e., Samsung Vietnam.

Let’s try another one.

When we invoke sovereignty given our parochial and insular prism, we employ the same kind of thinking that gave us Marcos. It speaks volumes. The Vietnamese figured out what hegemony is, embracing America to distance itself from China – whom they fought for a thousand years.

When we applauded the departure of the Marcos family for Hawaii, that was because of hegemony.

It is no different from advanced Western countries that led [the community of] nations and treated us as a pariah – for championing the war on drugs and the EJKs that came with it.

If we can cry American imperialism, so can the Vietnamese? How much bombardment did these people suffer from the US military?

Or recall “The battle for Manila. It was the first and fiercest urban fighting in the entire Pacific War. Few battles in the closing months of World War II exceeded the destruction and brutality of the massacres and savagery of Manila’s fighting.” [Wikipedia] 

Consider: From the Straits Times, 13th Jan 2017, “PM Abe visits President Duterte’s modest Davao home for breakfast, bedroom tour.

Unsurprisingly, cannibals get over their past too.

How can God-fearing Juan de la Cruz even contemplate EJKs? Are we the present-day Padre Damaso?

EJKs are a non-starter. But that is why the nuances between imperialism and hegemony and sovereignty and impunity confound us.

But then again, it’s from our lack of experience in development. We are yet to move up to relativism – from dualism. And precisely because of the lack of experience, we struggle with the concept. [See below; internalizing the distinctions between linear and lateral thinking.]

Recall this article: “ASEAN at 53: Transition and recovery,” Võ Trí Thành, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 8th Aug 2020.

“From a less-developed region, ASEAN has become much more prosperous and dynamic. [W]e have a firm foundation to believe that its central role and position in shaping the wider region’s future would be maintained.”

The writer, representing an American business interest, negotiated a JV with a Vietnamese couple and read them the riot act – aka the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. If you cannot toss this double-bookkeeping practice, this JV is dead.

And with his new Eastern European friends, it was a different version but meant the same thing. If you want me around, there is one rule you must observe. And that is transparency. Otherwise, I’m out the door.

Let’s pause right there.

Beyond family and nation are the community and the common good, including the community of nations. We struggle to look outward and forward because of our inward-looking bias.

Says St. Ignatius, “I consider it an error to trust and hope in any means or efforts in themselves alone, nor do I consider it a safe path to trust the whole matter to God our Lord without desiring to help myself by what he has given me.”

How do we interpret “any means or efforts in themselves alone”? For example, we think Western-style democracy is not suited for Juan de la Cruz? Let’s try socialism or federalism or whatever?

Our caste system makes us look and point away from ourselves? That hierarchy and paternalism is the elixir?

That’s abdication. We have the grace to help ourselves. That’s why the blog often speaks to Juan Tamad and Bondying.

We cannot stay on as a young nation. Nor can we thrive in the 21st century if we take its demands for granted. There is no free lunch.

Even Eden wasn’t to be manna from heaven. No matter how blessed this country is, we can’t take it as manna from heaven.

For example, we talk about climate change yet ignore the reality that we denuded our forests. Why don’t we start there, for example?

Recall the blog spoke to the Swedish tree farming industry – because it is self-sustaining and a great source of their economic wealth because of its global reach. Or the Danish pig industry. We have to stop talking and begin acting.

Vietnam did not merely embrace the Americans, given their experience with China. They replicated the manufacturing marvel of China and why they are now poised to overtake Singapore.

The Americans have been around for decades. Why was it Vietnam that attracted Apple AirPods, not us? The AirPods are on pace to surpass the revenues of the iPods at their peak. 

Between Samsung Vietnam and AirPods Vietnam, they are looking at exports of over $80 billion, much more than we get from OFW remittances and BPO revenues, with a lot higher margins to boot – and why Vietnam has broken the back of poverty.

We talk American imperialism like an adolescent instead of behaving like an adult, as the Vietnamese are doing. And all we can see is the worldwide economic slowdown because of the pandemic.

Aren’t we smarter than supposedly more impoverished Vietnam?

Consider the most recent quarterly earnings call from Apple and why Vietnam played smart in attracting Apple AirPods: “Apple saw a quarter of outstanding results, demonstrating our products’ vital role in our customers’ lives. We set a June (2020) quarter record with revenue of $59.7 billion, up 11% from a year ago.

“Both products and Services set June quarter records and grew double digits, and revenue increased in each of our geographic segments, reflecting the broad base of this success.

“Building on powerful new features built into WatchOS 7 and AirPods Pro announced this quarter, makes us very excited about the many opportunities in front of us for this product category. These strong results helped drive our installed base of active devices to new records across our product categories.” 

Let’s pause once more. 

Where are we? We have CREATE, and 42 industry road maps that we can’t get off the ground?

Where is the disconnect, and why the widening gap with Vietnam?

Firstly, it comes from our very narrow playing field courtesy of our parochialism and insularity. Instead of helping ourselves, we value hierarchy and paternalism. And we rely on political patronage and oligarchy that nets us a culture of impunity.

We must recognize this humongous barrier we created. Then we can practice forward-thinking. And prioritize and leverage Pareto. In other words, we must practice analytics beyond merely doing analysis, and we will appreciate how much the crab mentality gives us a narrow perspective.

For example, given our top exports are in the same product category as Samsung, and how the Vietnamese leveraged Pareto, we must rethink why we are teeing up 42 industry road maps.

It also relates to internalizing the distinctions between linear and lateral thinking. The latter is counter-intuitive, where one plus one is not two but more, as in synergy.

Similarly, focusing on Central Luzon and replicating the Pearl River Delta Economic Zone will leapfrog our economic development efforts.  

Consider what dominates our conversations.

“The industrial protectionists are using the global backlash against China and China-made products in bringing back to their home countries businesses and jobs that their MNCs distributed around the world in the name of globalization. Economic nationalism is on the rise. 

“But is this not an opportunity for the Philippines to also create jobs at home by building up new industries that can produce all the essential goods needed by a ‘quarantined’ population, e.g., health care materials, food packages, home products, and various community needs? After all, this is what several developed and developing countries are now doing.

“For a country that has stumbled very badly in its march towards full industrialization due to bad industrial policies in the past, the Covid-19 pandemic can turn out to be the surprise industrial savior for a de-industrialized Philippines.” [Philippine participation in the GVC system, Rene E. Ofreneo, BusinessMirror, 6th Aug 2020]

What about agriculture?

“The DA is looking already at contributing to economic growth in the next two quarters, an optimism that is scarce during these pandemic times. Perhaps, we should trust our agriculture bureaucrats this time around – because we increasingly realize we have fewer options left.” [No second chances: We have fewer options, Rey Gamboa, BIZLINKS, The Philippine Star, 11th Aug 2020]

Indeed, we have fewer options. Why? See above, while Vietnam continues to step up its forward- and outward-looking world view, we have all but given up except on our knee-jerk fixes. They will all but reinforce our parochialism and insularity while Vietnam conquers the world.

Consider: Vietnam has an excellent export base in Samsung. However, because Samsung does not match the explosive growth trends of Apple, it took on the Apple AirPods.

If we can’t visualize what forward-thinking can be like, that is a great example. The Vietnamese don’t see a world that is shrinking in economic opportunities. Sadly, we never understood the dynamism of the Asian Tigers, then China, now Vietnam. We blew it before. Do we wish to blow it again?

Forward-thinking demands we think outside the box and toss linear thinking. That is why the blog starts with an incremental GDP number of $200 billion that will put us ahead of Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. It is not to tee up 42 industry road maps, which is classic inside the box thinking. But it does not help prioritize and leverage Pareto that will give the biggest bang for the buck.

And that is why the blog zeros in on our top exports, which are in the same product category as Samsung Vietnam and Apple AirPods Vietnam. Because we don’t have the experience like the Vietnamese have, we won’t figure out that beyond Samsung smartphones are the Apple AirPods. And between the two, Vietnam is looking at exports of over $80 billion. That is more than our total 2019 exports of $70.3.

That is why we must do our homework. Beyond the AirPods, what devices and brands are significant global players? For example, are there one or two that can bring us incremental exports of $50 billion? 

Add 50 to 70, and they will give us exports of $120 billion. What about taxes? How do we attract the right FDI and still yield higher tax revenues? 

At $70.3 billion in exports, if taxes are 20%, our take is $14.06 billion. While at $120 billion, even at a lower 18% tax rate, we generate $21.6 billion in revenues.

Recall these simple questions: Where are we? Where do we want to be? How do we get there?

The 6%-6.5% GDP growth rates we celebrated will take a generation to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

We all have the gift to help ourselves. “Pray as though everything depended on God; act as though everything depended on you.”

The mindset that failed Juan de la Cruz in the 20th century cannot succeed in the 21st.

“We can’t solve problems by using the same thinking we used when we created them.”

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]