Our Human Development Quotient (HDQ)

"I don't care about human rights, believe me," Duterte said in early August. [The Death Toll From Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s War on Drugs Has Exceeded 2,400, Rishi Iyengar, Time, 5th Sept 2016]

“Duterte’s supporters celebrate these killings as necessary comeuppance, while his critics condemn the violence as precarious violations of due process and human rights. Yet the President’s seemingly outrageous actions are merely part of the Philippines’ deeply entrenched culture of impunity. What is frightening is that so few people realize that yet.

“A culture of impunity protects him in the way it does many Philippine politicians. [This Is Why Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte Will Get Away With Murder, Miguel Syjuco, Time, 16th Aug 2016]

“Philippines To Arrest Three Powerful Senators Indicted In A Massive Corruption Scandal,” Mynardo Macaraig, Agence France Presse, 7th Jun 2014.

Did we say it was okay to put a hole in the head of the three senators and that of the alleged mastermind? What about the Marcoses?“Raissa Robles had a 2012 story on how BB ‘had a direct hand in trying to withdraw US$213M from a Swiss bank in 1986.’ Ill-gotten wealth.” [Leni’s slam-dunk, LMB and Plaza Miranda, Rene Saguisag, The Manila Times, 26th Aug 2016]

“UN HIGH Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein of Jordan pointed out that ‘fair and impartial rule of law is the foundation of public confidence and security’ and that ‘empowering police forces to shoot to kill any individual whom they claim to be a suspect of drug crimes, with or without evidence, undermines justice.’” [Top UN exec assails Du30 anew on human rights, Kristine Angeli Sabillo, INQUIRER.net, 15th Sept 2016]

“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 self-confessed dealers before they can be killed.” [Syjuco, op. cit.]

What is our value-system like? Does it explain our being HDQ challenged? There is also the RQ or rationality quotient, except that to be RQ challenged is universal. “A person with a high IQ is about as likely to suffer from ‘dysrationalia’ (irrationality) as a person with a low IQ. Humans are fundamentally irrational . . . susceptible to decision-making biases.” [The Difference Between Rationality and Intelligence, David Z. Hambrick and Alexander P. Burgoyne, Gray Matter, The New York Times, 16th Sept 2016]

Until we get over “Pinoy abilidad,” we can only sink deeper into the abyss. And yelling sovereignty won't be our saving grace!

Let’s get back to the Syjuco piece. “More alarmingly, in what seems an effort to systematically undermine the traditional democratic checks and balances to his authority, Duterte has threatened to shut down the legislature if it hinders his plans, invoked the specter of martial law when criticized by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and insulted concerned foreign ambassadors. He has chipped at the influence of the Catholic Church by emphasizing its corruption. And he has warned that members of the media are not protected from assassination: ‘The Constitution can no longer help you,’ Duterte told reporters, ‘if you disrespect a person.’

“These maneuvers recall those of the infamous despot Ferdinand Marcos, a dictator much respected by Duterte. The similarities shouldgive us pause. While the new President’s predilection toward violence is being justified as necessary, there is little difference between taking the law into one’s own righteous hands and being wrongly above the law. This casts him clearly alongside his political peers, who have always evaded punishment, and who have yet to be targeted in Duterte’s campaign against criminality.

“Take, for example, former President Joseph Estrada, who was sentenced to life in prison for plundering allegedly more than $80 million. Political expediency saw him pardoned by his successor, Gloria Arroyo, and he is now mayor of Manila while his relatives are Senators and Congressmen. Even his mistress now rules as mayor of his traditional bailiwick.

“Similarly, former President Arroyo became linked to a long list of corruption scandals during her nine-year regime, yet she was re-elected to Congress while under house arrest on various charges of corruption. Duterte offered to pardon her a few weeks before the Supreme Court (composed of a majority of her appointees) acquitted her of the charge of plunder. Despite still facing a charge of graft, and thus barred from leaving the country, Arroyo has recently been named Deputy Speaker of Congress. Members of her former Cabinet now comprise the majority of Duterte’s inner circle.”

When underdevelopment persists there is poverty and when poverty persists there is lawlessness – given our parochialism . . . insularity . . . hierarchy . . . paternalism . . . patronage . . . oligarchy . . . culture of impunity – and it goes full circle to underdevelopment.

“Reality check,” Ariel Nepomuceno, Business Mirror, 14th Sept 2016. “The ultimate dilemma of our present government is the fact that we are confronted with many problems that cannot be resolved in six years. Strong political will nor sincerity would not be enough to alter the consequences of gross mismanagement committed by some of our leaders and the fundamental weaknesses in the structure of our politics.

“We constantly hope that mere road discipline and strict enforcement of traffic rules would untangle the monstrous mess in almost all our streets. What we need are long-term engineering solutions that would provide us with world-class elevated roads, dependable mass- transit system, such as conventional or subway trains.

“The economy has shown an encouraging annual growth of 5 percent to 7 percent in terms of GDP. However, we still have to contend with the plight of at least 25 million to 27 million Filipinos who are struggling daily for survival.

“Our agricultural workers or farmers, about 10 million to 12 million according to the latest data, are themselves victims of extreme poverty. Their livelihood is trapped in the perpetual cycle of poor harvest, high cost of fertilizers, bondage to loan sharks and virtually manipulated low market prices.”

And the solution? The war on drugs? “EDITORIAL - Democracy for development,” The Philippine Star, 16th Sept 2016. “The Philippines has taken pride in its democratic tradition. Democracy, however, needs nurturing and strengthening, and works best when its institutions are solid. In this area there is much work to be done in the Philippines. Sustainable development is achieved best in a democratic setting, with an active civil society and a free press that is not threatened with various forms of harassment and murder. The nation must see to it that its democratic institutions are working.”

That’s what we all assume? Yet wittingly or not, we constantly undermine (a) democracy and (b) development. See above re the whys of our underdevelopment.

“The fish stinks from the head,” [is an] ancient Greek saying. ‘Something is stinking in the state of Denmark’ came to Shakespeare's mind when writing ‘Hamlet.’ He chose, however, to have the character Marcellus say, ‘Something is rotten in the state of Denmark’; it was not the way the political situation smelled, but the way it was decaying and becoming corrupt as the result of a secret crime, that was the point being made by that line in ‘Hamlet.’ [Rot at the Top, The New York Times Magazine, 11th Sept 1988]

Is something rotten in the state of the Philippines? “. . . Duterte has also vowed to pardon any police and military involved in the extrajudicial killings, while also pledging to pardon himself. He has ensconced his daughter and son as mayor and vice mayor of the city that he ruled for two decades, while also refusing to fully answer allegations about hidden wealth.” [Syjuco, op. cit.]

We may not like the American experiment, or similar ones in the West, but until there is a better one we better think long and hard what we’re up to. Not many Pinoys live and work with ex-socialists (born and raised under communist rule) like this writer. For example, gulags existed right up to the Gorbachev era. And there are today former Soviet satellites still ruled by despots. And why the EU, if not the rest of the world, applauded – and ruled against the government – when the Bulgarians peacefully took down its corrupt government via months of daily protests marching along major thoroughfares in the capital.

We better be careful what we wish for. Last Sunday a visiting Filipino Jesuit celebrated mass with a group of Pinoys in suburban New York and he explained the parable of the prodigal son. This writer's translation: every extrajudicial killing runs counter to the moral of the story. 

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. – That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

That’s from the US Declaration of Independence which isn’t new to us. Yet do we still relish the dark ages – that rank has its privileges reflected in our culture of impunity – and assume it comes with paternalism? And so our knee jerk is “we aren’t meant for Western-style democracy”? Not surprisingly, (a) we don’t care about human rights; (b) it’s nighttime for Juan de la Cruz – except that his night is longer than the neighbors’ which explains the dark ages we’re living in for decades? 

“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]

Reinventing the wheel . . .

When we have bigger and better things to do. And it starts with community and the common good. Not crab mentality, a product of our insular instincts – that the world has left us behind.

PHL is back to square one, invoking sovereignty and nationalism. This land is my land! What ever happened to entrusted shepherds? How would we do the accounting on the day of reckoning? Why do we say free enterprise like freedom isn’t unfettered? That check-and-balance must be built into the system?

Surprise, surprise! Ours is a culture of impunity – aka as a state of lawlessness?

This writer, then (1982) based in Manila, remembers being perplexed when an expat friend reacted differently following his proud acquiescence to the Marcos mantra of “disiplina ang kailangan.” And the rest, as they say, is history: People Power turned us into the center of the universe.

Today we’re back to square one, invoking sovereignty and nationalism! Where is Vietnam? We can name another country – once poor like we are – with no difficulty? When will we ever learn? Consider the level of – and persistent – poverty we have against what the rest of the world has accomplished.

“Poverty is the starting point for all societies. What is astonishing is how fast it has receded. In 1820, 94% of humanity subsisted on less than $2 a day in modern money. That fell to 37% in 1990 and less than 10% in 2015.” [Better and Better; The state of the world. The Economist, 3rd Sept 2016]

But we’ve yet to appreciate the relevance of underdevelopment . . . to poverty and . . . lawlessness? And that of the rule of law to our stunted development? “But what concerns me even more is the notion that the President was conducting a scholarly inquiry, a symposium, to ‘provoke thought’ about what it means to be human. If that were true, then the reality is even more forbidding.

“If President Duterte or Father Tabora ever ventured a similar thought about, say, the rebel stragglers who continue to rally behind Nur Misuari, or the communist insurgents who look askance at the ongoing peace talks, and called them less than human, imagine the outcry! Will Father Tabora, a staunch environmentalist and antimining advocate, ever find it advisable to ask: ‘Are pro-mining people even human?’ Will the President, perhaps to confound Beijing, ever ask: ‘Are the Chinese truly human?’

“The question is absurd on its face, and an invitation to violence. It is therefore eminently the province of a university to call out the President on this provocation, not to defend it as an exercise in provoking thought. The real-world consequences . . . are measured in lives and opportunities lost.

“My dear Father Tabora’s language about virtue and vice is similarly problematic. ‘Du30’s anger against illegal drug use is a virtue. Not caring is the vice.’ This is a false choice, which academics should be the first to criticize. Not aligning with Mr. Duterte’s self-righteous war does not mean not caring; pointing out that the kill-the-users approach did not work in many other countries does not mean not caring; looking out for the human rights of drug users (we are not talking even of drug pushers or drug lords here, but mere users) does not mean not caring.” [‘Are they human?’ is a dangerous doctrine, John Nery, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 6th Sept 2016]

What would President Duterte and Father Tabora have in common? With due respect, that they know what they are against? And they’re in good company like the Vatican Curia – against this and against that – and Francis is battling them?

“Mature spirituality creates willing people instead of willful people. We slowly unfold in response to love and grace and freedom, rather than in mere reaction to the illusions of others. Without this insight, religion largely creates rigid, unhappy, and judgmental people. When we try to take charge of our own ‘enlightenment,’ when we try to be fully in control of our own ‘purity’ and superiority, our attitude becomes pushing and demanding—ego assertion, even if it looks like religious ego assertion.

“Immature religion creates people who know what they are against, but have a very poor sense of what they are for. They are against sin, always as they narrowly define it; but they are seldom for love or actually for anything except the status quo where they think they are in control. This is indeed ‘the world’ and will never get them very far if they are trapped within it—unless they recognize this same world as pervaded with heaven . . . The world is good in its wholeness, but our little portion of separated parts is never the whole, so we must leave our addiction to the system to discover the Empire of God. We must always let go of full control over the parts to love and accept the whole.” [Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation, 31st Aug 2016]

What are we for? Or do we know where we want to be? Like to be grown and developed as nature meant?

‘Our religions often stand for the very opposite of what their founders stood for,’ notes Brian D. McLaren, a former pastor, in a provocative and powerful new book, ‘The Great Spiritual Migration.’

“Founders are typically bold and charismatic visionaries who inspire with their moral imagination, while their teachings sometimes evolve into ingrown, risk-averse bureaucracies . . . That tension is especially pronounced with Christianity, because Jesus was a radical who challenged the establishment, while Christianity has been so successful that in much of the world it is the establishment.” [What Religion Would Jesus Belong To (?), Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times, 3rd Sept 2016]

And in the case of PHL, the establishment wants to invoke sovereignty and nationalism? And Juan de la Cruz cries “Amen”! When will we ever learn?

Let’s google “fanatic” – “a person filled with excessive and single-minded zeal, especially for an extreme religious or political cause.” And religious fanatics: “zealot, extremist, militant, dogmatist, devotee, sectarian, bigot, chauvinist, partisan, radical, diehard, ultra, activist,apologist, adherent, etc.” And ideologue: “one whose conduct is guided more by the image of perfection than by the real world.”

Could Juan de la Cruz be a fanatic that is subservient to the hierarchy? Does it explain the why of Marcos – and now Duterte? But what if our system is dysfunctional as the Duterte administration claims to justify extra-judicial killings? Precisely, we’re back to square one!

How many times would we want to reinvent the wheel? Not until we internalize community and the common good – and embrace a sense of purpose? And given our subservience, we need a leadership that can edify us? If that leader is yet to be born, after Marcos and Duterte will come another?

“The world is good in its wholeness, but our little portion of separated parts is never the whole, so we must leave our addiction to the system to discover the Empire of God. We must always let go of full control over the parts to love and accept the whole.” [The writer cannot illustrate crab mentality better than that.]

Because if we can’t see the whole, we will be unable to rise above the vicious circle – of reinventing the wheel . . . time and time again!

Of course we’re not alone. Even the West, having shot itself in the foot (aka greed) and still hurting from the Great Recession, appears to be floundering. With a little help from Obama’s perceived weakness, and not to be outdone, from across the pond, the Brexit. Not surprisingly, Russia and China can’t hide their glee, flexing their muscles to taunt Uncle Sam.

And Trump’s blusters raised the specter of fascism which he finds relishing – that the greater the fear he stokes the more he plays to the far right elements, including the KKK. The good news is level-headed Republicans see through his rants via his teeming ignorance reflected in his inability to debate policy or ideology. Indeed, a wheeler-dealer can be a billionaire. But president? God forbid, so says Bloomberg, the mayor – and the bigger billionaire.

Duterte is Trump redux? Or Trump is Duterte redux? We’re not even in the league of our neighbors. For example, as the outgoing CB Governor of India avers, monetary and fiscal policies are not the be-all and end-all in development. Our economy is driven by the over 10 million OFWs – which we want to gloss over. Didn’t the previous administration brag about raising exports to over $100-B? As of last count we had 15 straight months of declining exports. And we’re less than halfway where we must be.

And we don’t want to play with fire. “Nationalism and fascism are very similar . . . to some extent fascism is a revolutionary form of ultra-nationalism. Both stress the importance of cultural and sometimes ethnic traditions . . . The driving force behind fascism: the secular, ultra-nationalist vision of the nation as a unique historical, cultural, racial, ethnic organism which is now sick/degenerate/decadent/weak which is about to be reborn, regenerated in a new post-liberal ‘new order to become strong.’

“Fascism unlike various forms of nationalism idolizes a leader, a leader cult; whereas nationalism idolizes the nation collectively, not individually.” [Clarian Jones, PhD student in Scottish history, University of Edinburgh]

The bottom line: To keep reinventing the wheel is to be stuck like we are development-wise for decades. Organisms grow and develop. That is what we must be for.

Put another way, if we want to be treated like a Singapore, we must first be a Singapore. People go with winners not losers. Consider: Singapore instead of blaming Malaysia could only smile that the joke which was supposed to be on them went the other way. The tiny piece of land bequeathed to them was meant to be unlivable: for something as basic as water they had to beg their neighbor . . . And Marcos would beg Lee not for water but for money? Do we want to be beggars or choosers?

“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]

Stunted development

It is not about the foreign press or media. It is about our human development quotient or HDQ. And as it were, we have for decades been paying a heavy price for our stunted development. What we now call a state of lawlessness is not new. It is an extension of our culture of impunity, in case we have forgotten.

We’re stuck with “Pinoy abilidad” as our ideal, confident that it equates to creativity. Forgetting that benchmarking (aka as looking outward not inward) can open our eyes to where relevant best practices reside. And why we can’t overcome “crab mentality”? But let’s put “Pinoy abilidad” to a test. In a Yale University course on the study of geniuses, Steve Jobs joined the likes of Einstein and Beethoven. And he defined creativity as simply connecting the dots.

When underdevelopment persists there is poverty and when poverty persists there is lawlessness. But where does our underdevelopment come from? For example, we have a one-legged stool for an economy, i.e., services. A three-legged economy would have services, agriculture and industry. But that presupposes a platform – i.e., the building blocks of energy or power, infrastructure and industry.

And to get there we need investment and technology . . . which we have kept out. Why? Let’s keep on connecting the dots: parochial = insular = hierarchical = paternalistic = patronage = oligarchy = impunity = underdevelopment.

We think moralizing or the rule of law is irrelevant? Retrace the dots and the rule of law and the moral high ground are missing! Because community and the common is alien to us?

The bottom line: Connecting the dots will explain why our HDQ is mediocre. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me? Underdevelopment has robbed us of the confidence to make an objective self-assessment? We can’t say one Marcos is one too many? Because we are uncertain of our own maturity, an imperative in the exercise of freedom and democracy?  We have yet to internalize that freedom is not free – it demands personal responsibility?

And so we can’t embrace “To remain silent and indifferent is the greatest sin of all.” “Recently, one of the most influential writers of our time spoke at Cabrini . . . Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor and Nobel Laureate, used his powerful past to inspire future generations.

We Pinoys may not relate to the Holocaust but there are those that lived through martial law. Those who didn’t can do their homework? But that’s neither here nor there given our stunted development? We may not be indulging in ethnic cleansing yet we can’t be proud of our culture of impunity – aka a state of lawlessness.

“Macoy should be kept where he is cherished, not where he can be spat and pooh-poohed on . . . No need though for an epitaph saying HERE A LAWYER LIES STILL or HERE A LAWYER STILL STEALS.

“The time has not yet come. The Marcoses still have to acknowledge the gross human rights violations . . . that occurred in their time, say sorry, and just maybe put up a fund for the treatment and burial of aging ailing victims and scholarships for deserving apos . . . Then, the healing may begin. Meantime, patience, while 75,000 human rights compensation claims are being processed.

“Raissa Robles had a 2012 story on how BB ‘had a direct hand in trying to withdraw US$213M from a Swiss bank in 1986.’ Ill-gotten wealth. BB has the Solid North. He dissembled about his nonexistent degrees from elite British and American universities.” [Leni’s slam-dunk, LMB and Plaza Miranda, Rene Saguisag, The Manila Times, 26th Aug 2016]

So let’s hear from President Duterte: “I have no plan of becoming a dictator. I am a lawyer. My mother is a Yellow Friday leader in Davao. They will say … he will do a Marcos. Far from it. I am just doing my duty . . .” [‘I won’t be another Ferdinand Marcos,’ Leila B. Salaverria, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 1st Sept 2016]

Do we want to split hair and dissect what a hero is or what a dictator is? “Overall, we should never give up the moral high ground by going down to the level of criminals. Else, DECAY. And the Prez should take care also of the innocent widows and orphans of those killed extrajudicially. His vow is to do justice to every man.

“Finally, no need to make Obama listen to him, long a member of the elite, on human rights. Obama belongs to one of the most vilified and persecuted races in history, even today. Some of us Brownies even have the gall to look down on Egots.

“Digong has to abide criticism, even views he may despise. The country is a much bigger pond than Davao City” [Giving up the moral high ground, Rene Saguisag, The Manila Times, 2nd Sep 2016]

And the world is a bigger pond than PHL? But that’s neither here nor there given our stunted development? 

But let’s get back to Wiesel. “We like to say that we have learned from the Holocaust, but since then we have seen genocide, the devastating loss of lives on Sept. 11 and the wars in the Middle East. We humans are still constantly persecuting and killing others . . . ‘To remain silent and indifferent is the greatest sin of all.’

“In society, faith and God are used as scapegoats. People blame God for the misfortunes in their lives. Wiesel, however, has a different take on things. ‘Only human beings can bring us to despair and only human beings can bring hope.’ Wiesel said. [In case we’ve forgotten, man is both human and divine.]

“We are responsible for our own lives and have a moral responsibility to the lives of others. We have to strengthen the voices of the weak and give power to the powerless.” [Amanda Finnegan, 29th Sept 2006, http://www.theloquitur.com/author/amanda-finnegan/#.V8S5jmf6v3h]

Another woman would share her take on Wiesel. “We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” [Maria Popova, https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/12/10/elie-wiesel-nobel-prize-speech/]

“In 1986, at the age of fifty-eight, Romanian-born Jewish-American writer and political activist Elie Wiesel (September 30, 1928–July 2, 2016) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The Nobel committee called him a ‘messenger to mankind.’ [A]s he took the stage at Norway’s Oslo City Hall . . . [he] delivered a spectacular speech on justice, oppression, and our individual responsibility in our shared freedom.

“Three decades later, Wiesel’s words ring with discomfiting timeliness as we are jolted out of our generational hubris, out of the illusion of progress, forced to confront the contemporary realities . . . and other injustice against the human experience. But alongside the reminder of how tragically we have failed . . . is also the promise of possibility . . . what soaring heights of the human spirit we are capable of reaching if we choose to . . .

“Above all, Wiesel issues an assurance that these choices are not grandiose and reserved for those in power but daily and deeply personal, found in the quality of intention with which we each live our lives.

“When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men or women are persecuted . . . that place must — at that moment — become the center of the universe. [It is not about the foreign press or media.]

“Wiesel reminds us that even politically momentous dissent always begins with a personal act — with a single voice refusing to be silenced . . .

“There is so much injustice and suffering crying out for our attention . . . There is much to be done, there is much that can be done. One person, … one person of integrity, can make a difference, a difference of life and death . . .

“We know that every moment is a moment of grace, every hour an offering; not to share them would mean to betray them. Our lives no longer belong to us alone; they belong to all those who need us desperately.”

But are we up to the challenge? Why do we deserve a Marcos – and then a Duterte? “Our biggest problems, bad governance and corruption, are problems about people, not (necessarily) of political structure or political consciousness, not (necessarily) political institutions. They are subjective, not objective, concerns. People will not wake up to a new constitution that will magically confer upon them the ability to govern themselves well or make them less corrupt.” [Federalism, for what (?), Florin T. Hilbay, inquirerdotnet, 8th Aug 2016]

“Every nation gets the kind of government it deserves.” [That’s from] “Joseph de Maistre, the brilliant . . . political thinker . . . From 1803 to 1817 de Maistre served as Sardinian envoy to the court of the Russian tsar Alexander I, and it's at that country that he aimed his aphorism.

“What was true about an absolute monarchy is even truer about a democracy, and truer still about the modern version of it. People cast their votes for parties that tell them something they want to hear. And what people want to hear is greatly affected by the kind of education imposed upon them by the same elite . . . There's a circle there, and it can only be vicious.

“Every nation gets the kind of government it deserves. Keep running inside that circle for a generation or two, and you get not democracy but spivocracy -- the rule of those only out to feather their own nests. If by chance they drop a few feathers into others' nests, then so be it. If not, that's fine too. They are highly specialized creatures, our politicians, designed to do one thing only: get reelected. Bono publico be damned; it's their own bono they pursue.” [Do we really deserve a better government (?), Alexander Boot, Daily Mail, 27th Jan 2016]

To expect paternalism and demand patronage is not a virtue; it is why we get the government that we deserve. Freedom is not free – it demands personal responsibility?

“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]