“I’ve spent the week overlooking a quay in South Devon where the Mayflower paused in 1620 on its way to Cape Cod—and eventually Plymouth. When not admiring the view, I have been watching the Republican National Convention, so that the RNC that nominated Donald Trump and the 102 pilgrims escaping religious persecution have become melded together in my mind. Please bear with me.
“In his book ‘Exit, Voice and Loyalty,’ Albert Hirschman argued that there were three options facing people who found themselves in a situation they could no longer tolerate. His framework applies to disparate subjects, and I find it useful for thinking about the Republican Party under Mr. Trump. Some prominent Republicans who spoke at the 2016 RNC have taken the ‘exit’ option (Paul Ryan, for example). A few have gone down the ‘voice’ route—the group of Republicans organized around the Lincoln Project, which tries to persuade Republicans to vote for Joe Biden, is a good example.
“But the overwhelming choice of the party has been loyalty. It turns out that most people can tolerate an intolerable situation if the alternative is losing a job, influence, power, or a career. Here’s where the pilgrims come in. British pilgrims and their religious cousins, the Puritans, in 1620 faced a higher-stakes choice. Loyalty was impossible: it would put their souls in peril. Voice would inevitably lead to a painful death as a heretic. Therefore, ‘Exit’ became highly attractive relative to the two other options, even given the danger of an Atlantic crossing and the new world’s unsure prospects.
“This is a reminder that each option’s relative danger matters a lot when determining which way someone will jump. Even more, Puritans fled Britain in the 1630s when persecution of their beliefs intensified and when Charles I, the reigning monarch, had an heir. With the succession secured, the Stuart version of High-Church Protestantism looked secure for another generation at least, shifting the calculus even further in favor of ‘exit.’” [Checks and Balance, John Prideaux, US editor, The Economist, 28th Aug 2020]
The above article recalls the young man that showed us how to look in the mirror. “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.”
What to do?
Pass the buck? Why worry, be happy? Do we in the elite class have a choice?
We can enjoy the privileges that come with rank, including dispensing paternalism, but there is no free lunch. Aristocracy, like tyranny, is incompatible to this universe, the spirit of creation.
We are the thought leaders given we are more exposed to the outside world than Juan de la Cruz. And if we are in media – mainstream or social – all the more.
“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]
Consider: We are parochial and insular. We value hierarchy and paternalism that we rely on political patronage and oligarchy that ours is a culture of corruption.
The blog has spoken to why we struggle in both trade and foreign relations. For example, given our instincts, we take “transparency and the rule of law” for granted. And that goes full circle to our culture of impunity.
And our “paki culture” comes to mind. And why “fixers” are a fixture in public sector agencies. Unsurprisingly, we can’t issue vehicle tags and plates, including driver’s licenses, with dispatch.
Worse, when dealing with foreign interests, our inferiority complex is for all to see. We associate foreign interests to bullies – otherwise known as MNCs. We don’t realize we project our static energy and instincts that we assume people, entities, and nations aren’t dynamic that doesn’t move up in human development – from dualism to relativism.
Worse, we don’t embrace metacognition, as in questioning our thinking. And why innovation is Greek to us. Yet, “innovation and global competition” have defined the 21st century.
But then again, we project our beliefs that we have absolute knowledge. And they all come from our caste system, a true blinder if there is one. And why we are the present-day Padre Damaso.
Our value of hierarchy and paternalism explains why Vietnam, for example, can negotiate better trade deals and attract far more FDIs than we do. They see themselves as equals or peers to foreign interests.
And we can go down the list of our neighbors, from the four Asian Tigers – Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan – to Malaysia, China, and Vietnam. They all got tons of FDIs. Then figure out the decades we kept our blinders on.
Consider: We abhor MNCs while our neighbors embrace them. Beg for Western money and technology, said Lee and Mahathir to Deng. And even the Vietnamese listened.
On the other hand, we see building barriers to shut out MNCs as patriotic because we protect Filipino interests.
Let’s hold it right there.
Indeed, we protected Filipino interests that our eight top companies got on the Fortune list – and created Filipino billionaires, to boot.
Forward-think: Where are we? Where do we want to be? How do we get there?
Consider that one MNC – Samsung Vietnam – generates exports far more than the combined revenues of our eight top companies. Because they are higher-margin products, supposedly more impoverished Vietnam broke the poverty line to add insult to injury.
We wail against the West for their greed and income inequality as though we are the paragon of virtues. Over 50 million Filipinos are impoverished, and we are the regional laggard.
And there is more. Between Samsung Vietnam and Apple AirPods Vietnam, Vietnam’s exports will be north of $80 billion. That is much more than our total exports. And when you add their other exports, they are over four times ours. And also, far more than what the drivers of the Philippine economy deliver, i.e., OFW remittances and BPO revenues.
Should we again pause and ponder?
MNCs are so bad that our neighbors embraced them and successfully traversed the road from poverty to prosperity.
What about foreign relations?
That is more vexing even for our neighbors – and among neighbors – e.g., for ASEAN to apply significant multilateral pressure against China in the South China Sea despite the latter’s bullying. The political perspectives of the member countries regarding China and the group’s core interests are not identical.
And in the case of Vietnam, they see the Philippine arbitration win based on the 1982 UN Convention – i.e., the Law of the Sea – as a precedent for the community of nations to be on their side. Unsurprisingly, they have threatened China with litigation over the South China Sea.
Still, like our neighbors, despite the blatant misbehavior of China, we Pinoys can’t make up our minds if we should feel secure with the stand of the community of nations. For example, while we demand unequivocal commitment from the US – which they recently displayed via a show of force in the South China Sea – that an attack on the Philippines is an attack on the US, we are still playing footsies (with China.)
And Vietnam can be on the same boat because the Communist Parties of Vietnam and China see eye-to-eye. That is despite the thousand years that Vietnam fought China. And why despite the war with the US, they embraced the Americans – to get into the WTO. And attract FDIs.
But if — indeed a big “if” given their disparate core interests — the Asians take the position that Asians must come together, the Western community may become outsiders. Memories are short. People forget that despite being geographically in another continent despite Trump’s politics, the US stood by Ukraine.
Human development will spell the difference. Those that value “transparency and the rule of law” will be head and shoulders above the rest. Because to love and submit to tyranny is not compatible with this universe, the spirit of creation. Look at the world’s troubled spots where despots reign.
It explains why, even in the US, the conservatives are divided. The upcoming elections are not merely a progressive versus conservative contest. Trump has demonstrated his instincts that the majority abhor. But then again, the electoral college system can subvert the majority rule – and it may come down to as few as three swing states.
But let’s get back to the Philippines.
Why “worry” be “happy”?
Must we toss GDP as a metric of development?
Despite the pandemic, our economic managers say that we can’t by law raise the requisite funds through borrowing to counter the economic downturn? But let’s get into universal health care? How do we square that circle?
Think of the universal law of cause and effect. Our GDP per person makes us an underdeveloped economy and nation that we can’t fund initiatives and programs that our neighbors do.
Only beating the drum for more government support for populist programs won’t overcome poverty in the Philippines. Nor will seeking happiness.
The writer has firsthand experience representing American business interests to bring investments to our neighbors. They understand that a partnership’s object is a win-win scenario. It is not one-way traffic even if one believes they are the smaller nation.
Every nation has something to offer. Think of more impoverished Vietnam.
Or the poorest country in Europe can create its MNCs. MNCs are not a monopoly of wealthy Western nations.
The West sent the writer to Eastern Europe to show them even poverty is no hindrance to global trade and foreign relations. As an expression of gratitude, they offered him citizenship.
Yet, the credit is theirs. To be born and raised as socialists under Soviet rule and foreign to the free market and profit motive, they demonstrated dynamism – and a quick-learn.
They rapidly moved up in human development, from absolutism or dualism to relativity. That is, from a world that imposed rules to one where principles defined the norms. They unwittingly embraced metacognition and questioned their old-ways of thinking.
Unsurprisingly, they demonstrated the capacity to thrive in the 21st century, satisfying its innovation and global competition demands by quickly acquiring the skills of (1) critical thinking, (2) creativity, (3) collaboration, and (4) communication.
Sadly – and this is where Juan de la Cruz comes in – some cultures aren’t dynamic. And ours appears to be one of them.
The blog – going in its twelfth year – still hopes against hope that a handful will take on the challenge. Recall all it takes is one candle to light the darkness.
There is a world beyond “Que sera, sera,” but it is not “pwede na ‘yan.”
This writer’s generation can learn much from the young man referenced above how to look in the mirror. And then we can toss our blinders and learn from our neighbors.
Or we can paraphrase comic Jim Gaffigan, addressing Trump voters: “If you are still on the fence, I encourage you to vote not for whom I want you to vote for but for who your grandchildren would be proud you voted for.” [Expletive omitted.]
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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