We kicked up a perfect storm!

That means us in the Philippine elite class. 

But how?

Have we ever asked how our instincts stand up against our professed faith?

Consider: “To whom much is given, much will be required.” [Luke 12:48]. 

Then think of all the major initiatives that we championed; they were all to address the poverty of Juan de la Cruz.

But that is not a surprise given our instincts: We are parochial and insular. We value hierarchy and paternalism and rely on political patronage and oligarchy that ours is a culture of impunity.

Sadly, when we go full circle, Juan de la Cruz is mired in abject poverty.

But why?

The house is burning – aka “learned helplessness” – yet we like to highlight our good “deeds” even when they reveal our values of hierarchy and paternalism.

Here’s a quote from a 2015 posting: “When I listen to individuals who feel trapped and stressed, unable to muster the energy to facilitate change, I think about Martin Seligman’s concept of ‘learned helplessness.’ It captures the belief that ‘regardless of what I do, nothing really will change, so why even exert effort to change.’ Once a feeling of learned helplessness begins to dominate one’s mindset, most difficult situations elicit feelings of resignation, defeatism, and stress.” [Stressed Out or Stress Hardy (?), Robert Brooks, Ph.D., http://www.drrobertbrooks.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/1999/04/Stressed-Out-or-Stress-Hardy-Part-1.pdf]

Recall also my old MNC-company. “The company drew a restructuring plan that called for selling over a hundred brands – almost all of them. And to ensure the few brands left can make up for lost revenues, the mindset of the enterprise had to change – totally and completely. And so, New York instructed the top ten subsidiaries to hire ‘change agents.’ And I was one of them.”

Am I surprised that the blog has fallen on deaf ears – despite being around a dozen years and a book that summarized earlier blog postings?

Consider: Juan de la Cruz is the poster boy of the “status quo.” And with a bit of help from us in the Philippine elite class, that’s how we kicked up a perfect storm – and why we’re the regional laggard.

And it will persist: “The average Filipino student has an average Intelligence Quotient (IQ) of 86 compared to an IQ of 108 for the average Singaporean, South Korean, or Hongkonger. Filipino children have the lowest IQ in ASEAN, below that of Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia. It’s safe to say that our youth are among the least future-ready on the planet.

“Most worrying is that a whopping 69% of Filipino students believe that their level of intelligence is a given. Only 31% believe they can improve if they work hard.” [“Plummeting education standards: A national emergency,” Andrew J. Masigan, Numbers Don’t Lie, BusinessWorld 9th May 2021]

We need to put our noses on the grinding stone instead of unceasingly patting ourselves in the back.

But we must pause and ponder.

For instance, should we refine our sense of Juan de la Cruz’s future? It is beyond “AmBisyon Natin 2040. By 2040, Filipinos enjoy a strongly rooted, comfortable, and secure life. In 2040, we will all enjoy a stable and comfortable lifestyle, secure in the knowledge that we have enough for our daily needs and unexpected expenses, that we can plan and prepare for our own and our children’s future. Our family lives together in a place of our own, and we have the freedom to go where we desire, protected and enabled by a clean, efficient, and fair government.”

That will not occur if we don’t traverse poverty to prosperity.

And so, that must be our “way forward,” i.e., it is beyond addressing Juan de la Cruz’s poverty.

That is why the blog challenged the object of CREATE and SIPP.

We cannot celebrate granting enterprises tax breaks per se because the biggest beneficiaries will be our top eight companies. They have not earned industry laurels for the Philippines to be sitting pretty.

The object of these two significant initiatives must be to raise our GDP by $200 billion – i.e., we must benchmark against our neighbors and seek state-of-the-art; otherwise, we shall remain the regional laggard.

But because we grew up reading GDP as a growth metric, we can’t turn things on their heads. 

Yet, when prodded, we will concede that we don’t live in a one-dimensional world. Recall Daniel Kahneman’s treatise of the brain’s two operating systems, (1) automatic and (2) conscious.

For example, it is not enough to celebrate generating more FDI than before – we must seek a quantum leap in our economic output. And where is the disconnect? 

We can’t figure out that the tax revenues we want to farm out to the LGUs are a function of PHL’s economic output. It’s nice if all we must measure is “happiness” with no regard to what we generate as an economy.

That is why we must learn to prioritize – as in the Pareto principle – while assembling and pulling several elements together. And that starts with our economic managers, legislators, the private sector, and the rest of the public sector.

It is more than a road map as we know it. We must distinguish between “activity” and “outcome.”

In other words, we must fight and overcome our crab mentality.

But why the crab mentality? Aside from an inward- if not selfish-looking bias, it comes from linear and incremental thinking. Given our lack of development experience – and why we’ve been a developing economy for the longest time – to forward-think is not in our repertoire.

Recall Stephen Covey’s seven habits of highly effective people; for example, to “begin with the end in mind” is not second nature to us. The evidence?

How many years did we celebrate 6%-7% GDP growth rates – yet we remain the regional laggard? 

Or think of how we trumpeted the OFW phenomenon as our answer to an export-driven industrial economy. We assumed we were smart every time there was a regional if not global economic upheaval.

Yet, we nonchalantly rationalized our parochialism and insularity. But at what price? We developed neither our “technology” or “innovation” quotient (“IQ”).

To be sure, we must develop R&D in the Philippines. But we’re in the 21st century. We must walk and chew gum simultaneously because the world will not wait for us. Think again of how the Asian Tigers leapfrogged technology development, i.e., by “begging for Western money and technology.”

Sadly, we can’t break from the vise of “learned helplessness.”

How do we upend our perfect storm? 

Like we do with the future of Juan de la Cruz, we must redefine our perception of Christianity — being central to our psyche — to one that will reflect the imperative of democracy.

Democracy is the mirror image of Christianity, i.e., the imperative of personal responsibility to pursue the common good.

Recall that the blog speaks to the law of divine oneness. It manifests in this universe – characterized by dynamism and interdependence. It brings to mind the photosynthesis phenomenon – and the interdependence of nations.

We must traverse poverty to prosperity and recognize the shortcomings of parochialism – i.e., it is one-dimensional. And we will not overcome these shortcomings if we don’t strive to move up beyond binary thinking.

But then again, this is where our Christian perspective is suspect.

Consider: “Vatican Warns U.S. Bishops About Denying Communion To Supporters Of Abortion Rights,” SYLVIA POGGIOLI, NPR, 11th May 2021.

“The Vatican’s top enforcer of doctrine has sent a warning to U.S. bishops about a potential proposal by some conservative clergy to deny communion to Catholic elected officials who support legislation allowing abortion.

“In a letter dated 7th May, Cardinal Luis Ladaria, the head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), told the bishops that any such policy requires dialogue first among bishops themselves. And then between bishops and Catholic politicians who support abortion rights — whom the cardinal specifically identified as ‘pro-choice.’

“Ladaria said it would be misleading to present abortion and euthanasia as ‘the only grave matters of Catholic moral and social teaching that demand the fullest accountability on the part of Catholics.’

“And he warned that if U.S. church leaders fail to reach a unanimous decision, a national policy, ‘given its contentious nature,’ could become a source of discord within the American Church.

“Biden’s election was welcomed by the Vatican – which made no mention of his support for abortion rights. And the Holy See was annoyed by a U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishop’s statement on Inauguration Day. It lamented, 'our new president has pledged to pursue certain policies that would advance moral evils and threaten human life and dignity, most seriously in the areas of abortion, contraception, marriage, and gender.' That statement added that 'for the nation’s bishops, the continued injustice of abortion remains the preeminent priority.’

“An unnamed senior Vatican official told America that the Inauguration Day statement ‘is most unfortunate and is likely to create even greater divisions within the Church in the United States.’”

In other words, the Christian faith is not one-dimensional: “It would be misleading to present abortion and euthanasia as ‘the only grave matters of Catholic moral and social teaching that demand the fullest accountability on the part of Catholics.’”

And that stands foursquare to human development, i.e., that humankind moves up to relativism beyond binary or dualistic thinking. Why? Humankind is equipped beyond dualism to thrive in this dynamic universe. And the Church goes as far as saying that we are both human and divine.

Put another way; democracy is the mirror image of Christianity, i.e., the imperative of personal responsibility to pursue the common good.

And here’s an effort to define the “common good.”

“A Call to American Renewal. This ‘common-sense coalition’ seeks to catalyze the reform of the Republican Party and its recommitment to truth, founding ideals, and decency or, if unsuccessful, lay the foundation for an alternative.

“The group set out a list of principles, emphasizing (1) democracy, (2) constitutional order, (3) truth, (4) ethical government, (5) conservation (‘stewardship of America’s resources — natural, environmental and financial’), (6) pluralism (rejecting the notion that America is about race, religion or birthplace) and (7) rejection of ‘all forms of bigotry.’

“Some of the stated principles hint at stances on current issues. In declaring they ‘oppose disenfranchisement of voters,’ for example, the signatories position themselves as opponents of the voter suppression laws growing like weeds around the country.

“Other statements avoid specific positions, such as their support for ‘policies that further public safety, health, and defense as required for national sovereignty and prosperity.’ Noteworthy is the absence of issues such as abortion or gay rights, suggesting the members of the group have agreed to disagree on some topics that are not central to its aim of restoring democracy.” [“The stampede away from the GOP begins,” Jennifer Rubin, The Washington Post 13th May 2021]

Does it sound like this wing of the Republican Party has moved up beyond dualism or binary thinking – to relativism?

But let’s get back to the Philippines.

We have our work cut out for us. More of the same — including massive charity giving — as in the status quo will not cut it.

Does it bring Fr. George Gorospe to mind?

“No human formulation of reality, no philosophical explanation of human experience can say: ‘I have grasped the whole of ‘reality and crystallized it in an expression or system that exhausts all its meaning.’ Reality is too rich and continuously changing; it can’t fall under a set of categories.” [Christian renewal of Filipino values, Vitaliano R. Gorospe; Philippine Studies vol. 14, no. 2, 1966, Ateneo de Manila University]

Should we in the Philippine elite class show the way?

Gising bayan!