Saludo, Secretary of Cerelac, says “Let’s Go, Grow, and Glow!”
June 1, 2007 by mlq3
Filed under Daily Dose
In today’s news: Philippines and Australia sign security agreement.
Still-unidentified people tried to assassinate Namfrel spokesman Atty. Jose Bernas yesterday, but no one can say whether it was due to other pending cases or his Namfrel stint.
Speaking of Namfrel, they’re going to end their counting on June 2. Uh-oh.
Ricky Carandang, it turns out, wrote about his now-famous scoop, and asks four questions:
Was it because there was actually no order at the time they were removing the ERs and that it was issued after the fact in an attempt to cover their asses after the people in the treasurer’s office blew the whistle on them?
Is Sarmiento saying that the ERs were safer in the hands of the so-called Garci boys?
Was he lying or was he just so utterly out of the loop that he didn’t know?
Could it be that the story sabotaged an operation to use those ERs to rig the election for some candidates?
Carandang says he doesn’t know the answers to those questions. Inside PCIJ zeroes in on Commissioner Sarmiento in the context of another controversial election -in Maguindanao. South Cotobato recount reveals 9-1-2 says Ellen Tordesillas; Gabby Claudio: 12-0 was just a slogan. Oh?
On to other matters…
I was talking to a friend who is a manager-entrepreneur, about the economy. He pointed out something I found very interesting. Where is all the money being made, I asked. He said, in real estate. Look at the stock market, he pointed out. The property holdings companies are driving the stock market boom. But there isn’t a corresponding boom in consumption, he added. If there was growth in consumption, he clarified, the stock of Jollibee would be leading the market. And it’s not.
Which goes to show, he said, that OFW money is going into buying property, hence the boom in construction (for developments that may be on the lunatic side, as Walk This Way points out), and thus, the attractiveness of property companies. But it’s not filtering through to increased consumption (hence, only a limited trickle-down effect). And he suggested, this means that in 15 years, the OFW’s investing in property now will be coming home to retire: but the question is, what kind of country will they be retiring to?
The scrimping in health and education made possible tiding over the deficit. But it has further underscored the gulf between those who benefit from the boom and the rest who do not feel the boom in services and the property market.
If you visit the Philippine Stock Exchange website, you’ll see the biggest gainers are in Holding Firms (up 2.2568%), Property (2.2663%), and Services (3.0865%), with Services being the biggest gainer for May 31, 2007. If you look at the list of Active Stocks, you’ll see that Property is top of the heap; the list of Top Gainers (APR, PEP, CEU, etc.) is interesting when compared to the Top Losers (LFM, BKD, SFI). But most of all: these are a relatively small number of companies, all of which are significant players anyway, and the market (according to the PSE person who guested on my show) is composed of about 80,000 players (or investors, and that includes corporate investors) in a nation of 80+ million.
So the boom and success -“Let’s keep the nation surging!” Rick Saludo croons (and is echoed by the Palace propaganda machine) is happening, but it’s a boom and success relative to what? This is the perspective that news like a booming stock market requires: it’s booming for 80,000 players, most of them in the big leagues as it is, and again these are gains that are more likely to end up spent on say, new Mercedes Benzes than in economic activity that will make a serious dent on the living standards of the public. Money Smarts points to where the growth is taking place:
The gross national accounts capture benefits from remittance money as they are transferred here, as they are placed in savings and investment instruments, as they are used by your family to buy things they need to live, as they are used by your beneficiaries here to set up businesses. Your efforts not only bring in the cash, but also keep a lot of local companies afloat.
You might be curious what your money bought. Based on figures from the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB), your money was spent on: food, clothing and footwear, tobacco, fuel, light, and water. These are the items that showed fast increase in growth. Hmm…I wonder what ‘tobacco’ is doing in that list.
The items transportation and communication, household operations, and beverage all exhibited lower growth, so money was still being spent on these items, just not as much as before. Household furnishings however, suffered cutbacks.
Today’s Business Mirror editorial says this kind of growth isn’t enough (Tingog.com gives a homespun example to say something similar, too):
An almost 7-percent growth in GDP for a country with barely a $1,000 per capita GDP is actually quite ordinary.
But let’s drink to that pretty new and higher number, if only because for years now we have been used to being thrashed by the world’s number crunchers, including those from multilateral institutions who kept on telling the international community we “lack global competitiveness,†have “poor infrastructure,†or we have less “economic freedom.â€
But this new number may actually give us a hint that good things could happen if only some elements are present, like higher public spending, to compliment people’s expenditures.
On hindsight, this encouraging figure could actually be just an unusual bleep in the economic screen. We just had a midterm election and, certainly, politicians may have started throwing out money around as early as January to beef up their electoral chances. We have a construction ban on election season; the ruling party may have tried to ratchet up spending to put some spine to its hopelessly limp Senate lineup. That is clearly shown in government’s pump-priming activities that caused a 16.9-percent growth in public construction.
Looking at the rest of the numbers, however, it appears that the numbers do look real. As usual, personal consumption explained much of the growth figures. The people purchased more food, clothes, shoes, tobacco and spent more for fuels and light.
And where did they get the money? As usual, the rising personal spending came from the dollars sent in by overseas Filipinos. The number of deployed workers actually went down, but the money coming in is rising since we are increasingly responding to jobs that require greater skills and brainpower (like engineers and medical professionals).
Exports also maintained their double-digit growth, apparently because of the continuing robust demand for electronics and semiconductors.
Also, despite the super typhoons, the farm sector did look stable, and the increased productivity from the fishery sector may also have helped a lot. Manufacturing also remained stable, while mining recovered.
All these factors translated to more money being transacted through banks, money being spent in malls and sari-sari stores, more cash being burned in cellular phones and Internet games, and more money being used to buy vehicles.
No wonder the services sector grew by more than 9 percent, contributing 4.4 percentage points to the 6.9-percent growth rate. Industry contributed 1.9 percent and the farm sector 0.8 percentage points.
Now that we have praised ourselves with this new growth figure, we need to ask whether or not the service-driven economy is the most desirable growth path for us. Growth per se is good; an expanding pie somehow means that more and more people got the crumbs. But crumbs are crumbs and they are not going to create adequate nourishment for the broader sectors of the economy.
Consider these facts: interest rates are low (read: capital is cheap) and the peso has been “strong†(read: imported machines, technology, packaging products and equipment are cheap). And yet, durable equipment has not been rising. That could be interpreted to mean that business organizations are not investing in new machines and are not refurbishing their offices. Isn’t that a sign of a wait-and-see attitude? If it is, investor confidence, therefore, is not yet fully restored.
The real reason probably lies in the structure of the economy, i.e. its being a service-driven one. Service companies, business-process outsourcing (BPOs) for instance, usually don’t import huge machines, nor do they build factories. That means they are not likely to hire workers en masse the way a factory, requiring thousands of skilled and unskilled workers, would. Do we ever wonder why despite all the decent growth we achieved in the last three years, we can’t seem to address joblessness? That’s the reason.
The counterpoint seems to be that the services economy actually creates jobs fast, since setting up a service company like a BPO doesn’t require so much capital infusion. All that is required is a nice building with reliable broadband Internet connection and voilà ! hundreds of call-center agents or software programmers are hired.
That’s true in the case of the country’s cyberservices industry. But the one thing that is ignored in this debate is the fact that the services sector has the tendency to hire call-center agents, accountants, medical transcribers, lawyers and software engineers first before they get janitors, street sweepers and errand boys. The ideal thing to do is to provide jobs for both accountants and the like, as well as janitors, street sweepers, farmers and factory workers.
And again, keeping Saludo’s purring in context, read yesterday’s editorial of The Business Mirror:
Citing constrained growth in the region and around the world, the DBCC recently adjusted its revenue assumptions for this year after the Asian Development Bank released its growth projection of only 5.4 percent for 2007.
The revised revenue target of the Bureau of Internal Revenue is P718.67 billion, down from the original target of P765.9 billion; and the Bureau of Customs target to P165.12 billion from the original P228.2 billion.
This means the tax collections of the two agencies will be lowered by more than P100 billion from the original target of P994.1 billion. The new tax revenue is expected to hit P890.209 billion, which includes income from other government agencies.
The DBCC had earlier explained that the committee changed its assumptions as a result of the softening prices of oil in the world market, which will translate into lower collectible taxes by the agencies.
Yet, in the view of some independent fiscal experts, there’s more than meets the eye in the downscaling. It signals, they said, that the government’s technical people are not really sure where the money can still be sourced if the original, high assumptions are rammed through.
This only means that people will be squeezed further in the next few months, and instead of payback, we may see more calls for “sacrifice†from the same people who gave us the expanded value-added tax.
Therefore, when Romulo Neri starts muttering darkly about political risks intruding on long-term prospects, and Saludo starts flogging the don’t worry just surge and be happy line, there’s probably a setup somewhere. And the setup is as old as politics itself: passing the buck, away from the President, and towards everyone else. Quickly, just in case things go wrong, with news like this: Gulf states threaten to ban Filipino workers. Now suppose the government mishandles this? Where will the stock market and the Peso go?
On a related note (remittances and the Peso) read, too, John Mangun’s thoughts on a new paradigm for the Peso.
Anyway, compare the performance in past and recent months of Ayala Land, Filinvest Land, Robinson’s Land, Megaworld, to San Miguel Corporation, and Jollibee Corporation, and perhaps do some comparisons of your own, depending on the types of companies you think are interesting/relevant.
Gladstone Cuarteros of the IPD examines how showbiz candidates did in this election.
Inquirer editorial calls Defensor’s concession a “class act.” Marichu Lambino on why she isn’t giving Mike Defensor a medal just yet. Patsada Karajaw and nina bumanglag on why the Comelec ordering a Maguindanao recount is the wrong move.
Blackshama reflects on closer Philippine-Australian defense ties.
Torn & Frayed on women in politics and society. And these two entries are of a piece: Mongster’s Nest on campaigning and Kataspulong with a particularly fine entry on what candidates can do when they win.
Philippine Commentary continues the language debate; A Nagueno in the Blogosphere weighs in.
Technorati Tags: Blogging, elections, ideas, military, philippines, politics, president, Senate, society
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Bencard on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 5:58 am
so what are you trying to prove, mlq3, that everything is a mirage, an illusion? what do i care about your friend manager/entrepreneur’s, or business mirror’s thoughts – have they any special connection with truth and reality? i may not have their “gift” of prophecy (of doom and gloom) but i can think and see for myself the real score.
you always look at the dark side, always trying to convince all and sundry that they are doomed under GMA no matter what. what kind of country will overseas retirees retire to? i think most of us, retirees, are bullish on the Philippines in spite of your dire warnings because we can see for ouselves the right direction the country is heading for. We will come with our wealth of experience, our savings and our pensions and we will support positive governance, not the negativity of the naysayers and bean counters of our land.
Manila Bay Watch on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 6:27 am
Excellent post, Mlq3! You are spot on as usual.
DJB on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 6:56 am
Bencard,
The real naysayers and doom-n-gloomers are those who call the OFWs “toilet bowl cleaners of the world” or deride teachers, nurses and doctors who emigrate or work abroad as traitors and ingrates. Those who think the OFW phenomena is a disaster for families and the economy of hospitals, schools and those left behind. These are usually writers who wring their hands over how terrible it is MOST don’t have what they have: a piece of the rock, a job in Media, a place in one of the established arrangements like universities, newspapers or business. Those whose inheritance was poverty have fled but are often blamed as the cause of the archipelago’s miseries by depriving it of “skilled manpower”.
What MLQ3 offers today is proof to the contrary for all of these pseudonationalists cringing at the sight of the world and its potentials. If OFWs are fueling investments in land and housing, surely their billions of dollars are also funding small sari-sari stores, tricycles, taxicabs; paying for aging parents healthcare, funding younger siblings’ education!
And WHY are Filipinos so successful in the world that their rising tides from distant shores are raising all our boats, even that of the Stock Market? WHY are Filipinos all over the world making their way, gaining acceptance, being hired? It’s not just our looks and good manners you know, but our entire CULTURAL HERITAGE which is a marriage of East and West–the best and worst of both born in us, part of us, defining us!
We are already English-speaking Asiatics. Our culture is Chinese-Malay-Spanish-American. We’ve been in and out of madrassahs and convents and Hollywood. Now we are taking over the world! We are already the First Human Citizens of the Planet Earth. The Filipinos are leading the way to One World for all of humanity, for they see how SMALL nationalism and tribalism are compared to the Future.
We are possessors of the most valuable tools of all: language and communication. Our ENGLISH is our secret weapon in the ECONOMY of the whole world. OFWs and their families should defend this patrimony against the ELITISTS and the ABORIGINALISTS pretending to be nationalists.
What they do not realize is that there is a VIRTUE that is even greater than NATIONALISM. But I have not yet found the word that the 21st Century will use….
Charles Darwin is quoted in Robert Wright’s book NONZERO, The Logic of Human Destiny:
“As man advances in civilization, and small tribes are united into larger communities, the simplest reason would tell each individual that he ought to extend his social instincts and sympathies to all the members of the same nation, though personally unknown to him. This point being once reached, there is only an artificial barrier to prevent his sympathies extending to the men of all nations and races.”
Bafil on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 8:07 am
Whoa! DJB,
you really got going there, huh? I almost hear echoes of Jose Rizal himself in your elated speech. But honestly, I am glad you feel that way and I do share your optimism no matter how idealist it seems. My only wish is more people see it that way too. Let´s bury the nationalism once and for all and be just human!
DJB on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 8:18 am
Bafil–Bury the nationalism? No. Subsume it in something greater, grander! We are no less Filipino for also being Pampango, Ilokano, Cebuano. We can be human beings too, and Filipino. The ascent of Man goes many steps further, in other words, than even Jose Rizal did, though I daresay most have some catching up to do with him. Who was already a GLOBAL MAN by the time he returned from travels in Europe and America (which continent he crossed by train).
Maybe that is the word for the virtue greater than nationalism: globalism.
inodoro ni emilie on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 8:19 am
“The very idiom and vocabulary of modern computer languages at the most critical level of the source code IS English!”
wrong, dean. the very idiom and vocabulary of computer language is based on math language. the language of mathematical logic can be understood by any mind trained in any natural language provided he or she can make deductive or inductive inferences. am sure the source code of japan’s computer program IS NOT english. so is it in china, russia, or france. and i don’t think they’ll find english as “most critical” to run their syntaxes.
here we go again ranting about english’s language monopoly to access of knowledge.
on michael tan’s eloquence of the english language, what’s so surprising about that? no irony there–it only proves that bilingualism is effective. am sure he could have eloquently written the same piece in filipino, but the cebuano speaking readers may not appreciate it. marketing consideration.
news for the day from the english-language paper inq.:
“Spanish may become the new language in call centers”
By Vincent Cabreza
Northern Luzon Bureau
Last updated 07:53pm (Mla time) 05/31/2007
tonio on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 8:25 am
DJB:
wow, your piece is nice and very well thought out. not something to comment on before one has had his morning coffee. i’ll be back later.
Bencard:
Nice to know you guys are still bullish on the Philippines. My aunt and uncle are heading back here too (from Illinois), to retire.
mlq3 on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 9:09 am
bencard, what i’m saying is, to be bullish on the philippines because of the president’s say so is b.s and it is a dangerous kind of b.s. because if people risk their hard-won earnings on a smoke and mirrors act, instead of a sober appreciation of what’s really strong and really not, then don’t boo-hoo later,
and by all means you can thunder you’re bullish on the country and ignore what the business journalists observe and some entrepreneurs think. in the end, it’s your money, and your decision to drink the palace cool aide. may your tribe increase, no one wishes ill to a person in their sunset years.
mlq3 on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 9:12 am
djb, i know quite a few people who work abroad and who don’t, and still can’t, speak much english. their english is on par with their competitors, who are indonesians, sri lankans, etc. not all of whom have any competitive advantage in terms of english, either.
again we are the product of our times, and you may be thinking of a kind of filipino worker overseas that isn’t mainstream anymore.
DJB on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 9:12 am
Inidoro:
The subject of the quotation was “modern computer languages” like Basic, Pascal, C++, Fortran, Java, HTML, Python, etc. There is no emotional payload in the observation, factual and undeniable enough, that the KEYWORDS and COMMANDS which make up these languages, are ALL in English.
English, if I may be so bold to say it, is the MOTHER TONGUE of all modern computer languages. So using even Michael Tan’s logic, I would say, teaching math, science and computers can be taught best in its Mother Tongue!
This has nothing to do with “monopoly of English” in “access to knowledge” or cultural supremacism of any kind. It is mere scientific history of the 20th century.
Now of course it is true that anyone can learn mathematics, even if one starts with Japanese or Korean or Sanskrit, and from there develop and evolve programming languages with keywords and syntax like those that now exist.
But that isn’t what happened in history, is it?
Computer languages are necessary for BOTH the Man and Machine to communicate with each other. One disadvantage of the Men is that they die and their children are not born with their knowledge. Whereas the Machines are all mental clones of one another at the level of the operating system software.
Thus, the Men must constantly re-learn what was already known by other men, through the cumbersome process of educating every single generation. For that they have books, the Machines and the human languages, which are really the only way to get at understanding the mathematics as well.
For whatever it is worth, my observation is simply that the “modern computer languages” are all written by people using English both for the math and the logic, the machine and the human aspects of the enterprise.
I think many people underestimate the stupendous intellectual achievement the creation of computer languages really was. These tools of superb construction that are NOT our grandmothers’ English Composition.
Modern computer code is English poetry so powerful the electrons jump to and fro to their rhythm and rhyme, driven by logic that even the Machines obey their commands without question and in compleat comprehension.
Now here is a strange thing: you can translate English poetry into Japanese and vice versa.
But I challenge anyone to apply the idea of LINGUAL translation to a piece of Basic, Pascal or Python code!
So Inidoro I have bad news for your reasoning. Even the Japanese programmers coding in Basic have to type RUN and PRINT and INPUT in the source code.
Only their non-executable comments are in Katakana or Hiragana.
Haha, even my brand Nikon Cool Pix appears to be running a version of DOS 6.2
I think there is a deeper importance of computer languages: they unite mankind through Mathematics and Science. There is no need for translation because the idea was that computing involves man’s encounter with the universality of numbers, logic and science.
If Filipino is the National Language, modern computer languages are the Global Language.
DJB on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 9:16 am
But English is the Global Vernacular!
Nick on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 9:31 am
I clearly understand the point that Manuel is trying to drive home here.
Here’s the last paragraph of a current blog post I recently wrote,
By the way Manuel, my pingback may still be on your moderation queue..
Bencard on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 10:25 am
we are smarter than you think, mr. explainer, and we don’t appreciate being patronized by a doctrinaire cum historian with an ax to grind. you’re right, its our money but we know a “smoke and mirror act” when we see one, and smell bullshit thousands of miles away without your help, thank you. furthermore, we’ve gone through a lot, lot more than your “readings” of history books, or college degrees, can ever give you. we know a lot about the real world and their imperfections, not the type of world that your kind inhabits in bitterness and despair.
DJB on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 10:38 am
Nick,
I think that “trickle down” is the wrong picture to evoke. While it is true that the Stock Marketeers are lapping up the icing, there IS a real cake being baked by 10 million overseas Filipinos. Their double digit billion dollar annual repatriation is the “rising tide” buoying up all boats, including GMA’s unfortunately. We should nurture and expand overseas employment and global competitiveness of Filipinos so we can be assured of continuing inflows. Then we ought adopt policies friendly to capital formation, investment and aggregation of savings, small and medium entrepreneurship, educational plans and training programs.
Yet who stands up for OFW interests as the exchange rate plummets and their local buying power shrinks? It’s really no skin off their nose of course, because OFWs just buy abroad and send the goods back home to avoid the taxation and inflation here. But that hurts us two ways: loss of commerce and loss of investment potential. OFWs are savvy too: investing in real estate in the homeland.
The “increase in value” of which you speak is really the money sent back to individual families by individual OFWs.
OFWs are our real middle class.
I would leave the government largely out of the process of making something of these repatriations. I am against taxing such returns for example. There should be minimum exclusion credit for income earned through a relative abroad, who already pays taxes in the foreign country.
But the government, particularly Deped, should be doing one thing: making sure that Filipinos are ready for globalization. English, Math and Science cannot possibly hurt.
Nick on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 11:03 am
I definitely agree with not taxing the OFWs, especially in the light of the fact that we can’t even get our own local tax infrastructure and enforcement down pat.
The remittance alone will be reinvested anyway.
I think trickle down is still part of the issue. And this is also why I bring up, in my article post, the following,
Because in a multitude of these instances, the middle class that you speak of, is one health incident or accident away from being dislodged from that class altogether…
So, I think the trickle down issue is still in play until the issue of health, education, and overall government oversight is implemented.
Because in all reality, only the wealthy and the upper middle class of The Philippines can truly feel a sense of safety when it comes to the economy.
DJB on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 11:07 am
MLQ3,
Regarding the people you know who work abroad but “can’t speak much English” — they will surely know MORE of it if they survive and thrive abroad. In other words, it certainly couldn’t hurt them to know another language than Filipino or Hiligaynon.
If we accept that OVERSEAS EMPLOYMENT will be a more or less permanent feature of the Philippine Economy, even as a SAFETY NET, the matter of proficiency in foreign languages cannot be avoided. The Public Schools have a responsibility to make sure Filipinos are well equipt for what seems to be a common “career path”.
Now consider a statistic I read somewhere: over 60% of the OFW contributions are coming from OFWs in America, Canada, Australia, and Hong Kong, yet they constituted less than 30% of the OFWs. I also understand that many of the higher paying jobs in the Middle East are with Western employers.
Since these are English-speaking destinations it behooves us to improve English proficiency among Filipinos.
How can we deny them the advantage?
Language training is just like training in nursing, medicine, etc.
Nick on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 11:08 am
But I definitely agree with the following,
Especially small and medium entrepreneurship!
camry on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 11:09 am
Bencard,
easy lang. yung blood pressure mo. Mahirap ma-stroke sa Pilipinas. I know a family who have spent so much money after their parents had a stroke in RP while vacationing.
Not even one of their grand kids wants to visit RP now after their experience.
realist on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 11:19 am
Assuming that the administration did not fix the numbers(composition of the index or the like), a 6.9% growth rate is great!
To the poor and hungry, however, the question remains: is this growth rate, gma’s claim of glory, as in the past just a meaningless number?
PBF on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 11:56 am
To everyone (especially mlq3)
From the very start your article is already biased. You never acknowledge anything good that is happening in our country, and maybe you will argue that nothing good is happening anyway. You people are very hard to please. When most of us see light you cast shadow on us because just bec your anti-GMA. Do you see a bright future at GO? Only villar can make a difference at GO i think.Maybe u should go elswewhere, let us live here in our beloved country
DJB on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 12:02 pm
Going by total minutes assigned to subjects taught in Filipino under the present Basic Education Curriculum, I can say without fear of contradiction that the PRIMARY medium of instruction in the public schools is NOT English.
The Executive Order assailed by National Artists and other petitioners, would make English the medium of instruction in 70% of the classroom time at the the high school level (up from less than 50% now) to respond to perceived needs of both OFWs and BPO industries.
What the National Artists want the Supreme Court to do is stop the change, and in fact reverse it by having more Filipino and vernacular instruction done even in the Math and Science areas, even if the textbooks and reference works, and qualified translators and teachers are nonexistent. That would be tantamount to Italy’s Deped decreeing that henceforth all Arithmetic shall be done with Roman Numerals, since it is feasible and patriotic. It can be done of course, but why? All simple and serious computation, from Philippine elementary school to NASA, uses the Mother Tongue of Arithmetic: the Arabic numeral system, with its decimal place notation so eminently accomodating of fractions, big numbers, exponents, and even al-jabara (algebra) and childhood pastimes of +, -, *, and /.
What I think the Petitioners are missing is this: the Medium of Instruction for the Math and Science subjects in high school has to be a written language ideally replete with the letters, numbers, symbols, marks as well as the vocabulary of words and grammar to best teach these all-impt subjects. It is not enough that the Medium of Instruction be a spoken language with no standard written forms that everyone is familiar with and capable of using.
Jon Mariano on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 12:10 pm
Generally, real estate investment in the Philippines is good because a house and lot almost never loses it value even during the asian crisis. The value remained but it was just very difficult to move/sell. The caveat is in condomininiums, they lose value over time. Can anybody confirm that?
BKK on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 12:12 pm
So its not the booming stock market, a strong peso and highest GDP growth in 2o years, the real measurement of a strong economy depends on what MLQ3’s friend, a manager-entrepreneur, thinks.
inodoro ni emilie on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 12:39 pm
dean,
the technology english you are referring to is not even prosaic (okay, just my terminology, for lack of the proper linguistic jargon). which means, it can easily be understood if taken in isolation.
here’s source code of mlq3 blog:
href=”http://www.quezon.ph/xmlrpc.php?rsd” />
inodoro ni emilie on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 12:41 pm
here’s source code of mlq3 blog:
href=”http://www.quezon.ph/xmlrpc.php?rsd” />
inodoro ni emilie on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 12:43 pm
why can’t i publish my entire contention here? something is wrong with the comment box.
will get back to you later, dean.
inodoro ni emilie on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 1:19 pm
from where i left off, dean:
the technology english you are referring to is not even prosaic (okay, just my terminology, for lack of the proper linguistic jargon). which means, it can easily be understood if taken in isolation.
here’s source code of mlq3 blog:
href=”http://www.quezon.ph/xmlrpc.php?rsd” />
inodoro ni emilie on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 1:20 pm
i give up on this comment box prob.
inodoro ni emilie on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 1:36 pm
dean,
does this [i.e., the source code] speak to you in english? it appears that many of the words are indeed in english; and for all i care, they could be alien words that appear in english: src, http, type. but the critical thing to think about is is:t what’s the computing logic behind this?
michael tan’s argument is focused on the language of instruction. the operative words are language and instruction. not just language.
can a programmer be instructed to learn the goobledygook i just cut in paste in a language other than english? certainly.
if many of the words that appear in this source code are written in english, so be it. but can one understand the logical syntaxes in those scripts? tan–in the context of instruction–is leading us to think: is english the more effective language to understand the logic behind those english-worded syntaxes?
dean, i throw back this question: for learners with english as second language, are they less effective in learning math and computing language if taught in their mother tongue (and i mean that in the natural language sense of the word, not in your play of syllogism)? if the textbooks are in english, can the textbook stand is isolation of the teacher’s language of instruction? which then is the more effective language of instruction: english? filipino? bilingualism?
i don’t think the advocate of vernacular language instruction are all for shutting out the use of loan words. if these loan words are in english, so be it. [hurray for bilingualism].
but i think the point tan is driving at is that crucial to the language of it is the language of logic, and how effectively this language is taught.
shaman has already pointed out before that much of the cognitive processes that take place in our brain is closely tied to language.
manuelbuencamino on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 1:38 pm
DJB,
I hope you can convince your government to accept ESL certificates as green cards or, at the very least, working permits while we await our membership as a state in your great nation.
Bencard,
I am not against everything Gloria does or has done.
In fact, I praised Gloria to high heavens for withdrawing from Iraq ahead of schedule.
Don’t you agree that was praiseworthy?
manuelbuencamino on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 1:38 pm
MLQ,
CERELAC. …MISMO!!!
inodoro ni emilie on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 1:39 pm
language of it = language of i.t. [let's not get into the language of call center. tomorrow it could be chinese.]
sorry mlq for the series of comments.
Jon Mariano on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 2:07 pm
Numbers seem to point that the economy is doing okay, but how long should an economy do good before it can be considered really okay? 1,2 or 3 years? During FVR’s time, how many years was it before the economy was proclaimed good?
If GMA gets the praise for that, well and good. If it becomes sustainable, more will be happy than sad I guess.
I however buy into MLQ’s argument that this doesn’t answer the issue of GMA’s legitimacy and her being unloved by many.
The same success can be achieved with Villar at the helm for example. And that comes without the issue of legitimacy.
jepo on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 2:21 pm
MLQ3…..this ain’t deep at all….for all your unending demands to GMA to fix this & to fix that….why can’t YOU have your blogsite fixed so it’s not always down? Sheesh! Wouldn’t hurt to start at somethin’ basic you know…
hvrds on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 2:29 pm
The only thing good about the government hyping the GDP growth rate in the abstract realm of constant terms is that a lot of people show that they don’t know they don’t know.
The GDP rate in current terms is slowing down. The tax guys are worried since this is the figure all tax projections are based on. Phils. is a Php 6 trillion + economy is current terms. The growth rate from 05-06 compared to 06-07 is slowing down. You pay indirect and direct taxes on this figure.
Now everyone is arguing on the abstract representative figure of constant measurements taken from the current numbers minus the abstract representative general inflation rate. The effects of growth in constant terms can never be generalized. The effects on the owners of capital, workers (here and abroad) and the government are relative. Most especially in a third world economy. The three listed above are the principal agents in the economy. Now as for the subsistence workers and unemployed the effect is also relative. Off course the government is going to announce that it had accomplished something extraordinary. This country is so full of the lumpen it is not funny. The worst are those who believe that there are only known knowns. It is pathetic
I always marvel at the Pinoy habit of crowding or blocking the doors of the trains of the MRT/LRT in an attempt to get in preventing those who want to get out from doing so.
The Pinoy does not dare do that abroad most especially in New York City or elsewhere as the people who wish to come out will surely trample those who block their way. Pinoys are smart enough to do as the Romans do when in Rome.
In the Phils. It is every man for himself. Hasn’t anyone here heard of anthropological liberalism. The last columnist Mike Royko of a premier Chicago paper once wrote, The idea that the early settlers to the U.S. came here to promote an ideal or principles is a big lie. They came and took over from someone else who owned this place.
That is the basic idea of American culture. Power defines the reality. That is what we learned from the Americans. The last elections are proof positive. If JFK got elected as they say courtesy of Mayor Richard Daley and Sam Giancana who they say organized the stuffing of ballots in the Polish Catholic neighborhoods of Chicago why waste so much more time on the past elections. GMA at a maximum is a de-facto President or at a minimum is a minority President. That is why she has had to grow show her “cojones.” Dinky Soliman tried to grow hers but failed.
So we saw the utter idiocy of trying to hold credible elections in the ARRM and still insist on having counting and canvassing there. Abalos is not the sort of guy who has the balls to declare what most sane and rational people saw. There was an utter failure of elections in that area.
Big Mike and GMA are preparing the largest pork in the history of this country in preparation for the 2010 elections. Infrastructure spending plus the removal of the necessity for approvals by the ICC of NEDA will mean the fast tracking of projects on all levels.
Those guys in Congress are salivating at the almost Php 2T in projected projects ongoing and to be started. The global savings glut makes it all the more tantalizing. Cheap money.
The question is will Manny and Cynthia, Mar and Korina or Kiko and Sharon allow them the playing field. Loren had better hook up with someone soon.
hvrds on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 2:46 pm
Memo to GMA:
If all Filipinos with savings accounts would open brokerage accounts and buy stocks we could also construct a money machine in our stock exchange.
The Chinese money machine. Something in financial history that the world has never seen. The sheer numbers are staggering
From the Daily Reckoning – (A financial adviser)
“Hold on tight…this is one helluva ride!”
“Wow! Maybe it really is a new era. The world has never seen anything like it…at least not on this scale.
Like everyone else, we are standing back in shock and awe.
How much farther can this go? How much longer can it go on?
That is, we wonder -how new is this new era?
We’re talking about the Great Big Bucking Bubble, of course.
Get this: on Memorial Day alone, 455,111 new brokerage accounts were opened in China. That’s as if every man, woman and child in the city of Luxembourg had opened an account, and it’s happening every day.
This puts the number of investment accounts in the People’s Republic at over 100 million. Naturally, the market reflects all this new buying pressure from The People. Stocks in Shanghai have doubled since the spring of 2005…and doubled again. Just look at the chart. Prices have gone parabolic – rising almost straight up. It’s the Peoples’ Own Bull
Market…when the people are enjoying their own precious moment of happy delirium.“It is glorious to get rich,†said Deng Tsaio Ping. And now, millions of Chinese are getting gloriously rich.
We wonder if “easy come, easy go†is an expression in Mandarin. If not, someone might want to translate it. As far as we know, no market has ever gone up so steeply without going down just as steeply later on.
But, hey…dear reader…this is a new era. Anything can happen.
Meanwhile, the Chinese authorities are getting worried. They may not have seen bubbles up close, but they’ve read about them. So, they’ve tried warnings…increasing reserve requirements…tightening credit. Last week, the Education Ministry came out and told students to forget the stock market and stick to their books. Apparently, a lot of college students are standing in line
to open investment accounts, next to the widows and orphans.
They’re neglecting their studies, say the authorities.
But who can blame them? Speculating on stocks, especially
in a bubble, is so much easier than differential calculus.
It is also much more profitable. Why go to the trouble to become an electrical engineer, earning $5,000 a year, when you can borrow,invest in stocks, and earn millions?
But the Education Ministry should relax. We have a feeling
that all these green, young investors are about to get a
valuable lesson.
And back in the 50 states, another kind of speculating frenzy has got a grip on the market. There, the furies have lit up the pros, more than the Moms and Pops.
Merge…acquire…buy…sell…deals, deals, and more deals. This month of May will see more new buyout deals bloom than any month in history. It is like the Chelsea Flower show!
Buyouts so far this month total some $82 billion.
The hottest month of deal making ever.”
“Is deal frenzy nearing end?†asks the Wall Street Journal.”
Mike on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 2:57 pm
I am glad to hear Bencard will “support positive governance” when he comes here to retire. Because there sure isn’t a lot of it here.
That’s actually something that is perhaps even better than the dollars the OFWs remit: having experienced how it is to be governed well, I hope they will not put up the crap that passes for governance, politics, and law and order here. Of course, they may rely on their wealth to insulate them to some degree from it, but maybe, just maybe, they will question why they need to keep losing more and more of it to padulas, pang-kape, arreglo, and kurakot.
Mike on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 3:02 pm
I just forgot: Bencard is a lawyer! So he is really going to have such a grand time here. Who knows, he may even get appointed Secretary of Justice! (Assuming someone can get Raul G to step down–but I don’t see it happening.)
Nik on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 3:21 pm
Nah, not likely. Payload would be too heavy.
I do remember that Nikon (like most other digicam manufacturers) formats the memory cards using an MS-DOS FAT filesystem.
[quote]Haha, even my brand Nikon Cool Pix appears to be running a version of DOS 6.2[/quote]
mlq3 on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 3:43 pm
djb: again, i am all for english, you have the little problem of the constitution and the valid objection, i believe, that the e.o. confuses strengthening english instruction with adopting it as a medium of instruction.
bkk: i think i’ve been careful enough not to deny certain sectors are booming, but i think it’s fair to point out we need to examine what the booms mean, both in the long and short term. again: oodles of money is being made on the stock market, but there are about 80,000 players on that market. isn’t that significant? you’re welcome to dispute my belief some of the current growth is due to election spending -another reader pointed out it’s enrollment season, hence a spike in remittances. and what people on the ground say matters to me: it’s the manager-entrepreneurs who are also building the country, too.
pbf: you are welcome to review my writings. i’ve spent my share of time pointing out the exciting and encouraging things taking place. it’s just i think those good things have little to do with the president. take a look at naga city.
mlq3 on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 3:44 pm
jepo: noted.
mlq3 on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 4:08 pm
incidentally, why is it that criticism of the president is “bias” while defense of her is automatically assumed to be something else? one can be biased for or against the president. there is nothing wrong with either position, it’s a choice, an expression of political partisanship. there is a third course, too, which is to be neither for or against the president.
i am not a believer in “objectivity” simply because i think it’s impossible. what we can do is express ourselves and explain why we think certain things. point to our sources, go through our reasoning, make a proposition: and everyone is welcome to dispute, debunk, etc. now i try to marshal my arguments; i think those with a contrary opinion would do well to marshal theirs: disagree with my views on politics, the economy, culture, history, whatever? that is why this is an open forum: go ahead. but i think those with a contrary opinion would do better if they put some effort into explaining why they disagree and why they have a contrary opinion.
tonio on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 4:23 pm
Mike:
spot on. the one thing the government might not realize by sending out all of these people to work in foreign lands is that they will get a tide of people who have experienced how it is to live in a place where things are run differently. so when these people come back, they might not have such a compliant bunch. and i’m all for this.
after all, how can you know better if this is the only place you know?
benign0 on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 6:08 pm
I think the more succinct way of stating the whole problem with the Pinoy economy is that money is not being channeled into the expansion of the capital base of the economy.
Nothing is actually being built that contributes to improving overall industrial productivity. Everything gets spent on non-durables, real estate, and personal essentials.
OFW funds flow into the Philippine economy, changes hands a few times (which artificially props up economic indicators), and either exits the economy as profits are remitted back to MNC’s head offices, or ends up in landfills (when these funds are converted into Starbucks lattes, cellphone trinkets, and “trendy” clothes by the OFW’s island relatives).
Only a small portion of this capital is converted into permanent factories, better ways of doing things, and new/innovative brands or products. It takes *imagination* to turn money into durable assets that generate *recurring* income.
Unfortunately imagination is not exactly something Pinoys are known to exercise.
cvj on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 7:45 pm
Benign0, aside from the fact that you should be blaming your own kind (i.e. the economic and political elite), and not the average Filipino who can hardly afford to put up his/her own factory, i think you’re correct (albeit in a broad strokes, and simplistic sort of way). In the previous thread, devilsadvc8 pretty much made the same observation that a real-estate or mining driven boom is hardly evidence of sound economic policy. What distinguishes China and India’s growth rates from ours is industrial policy (built up and refined over decades) where their respective governments playing a significant role. In our case, the government is already crowing about something that is potentially destructive in the long run which is the ‘Dutch disease’ that is a result of the OFW remittances.
benign0 on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 7:53 pm
cvj,
The Pinoy-Chinese started out as third class citizens in the Philippines. They built up their capital base by accumulating slowly.
Compare that to Pinoys who are more into instant gratification, payabangan, and pasiklaban than on slow but steady accumulation.
So whilst it is easy to put the burden of building capital on the elite, the truth is, it all begins with every Pinoy.
OFW remittances are indeed, as you said, destructive. They have become an addiction and a heady substitute for smart work. Rather than develop our human capital into a sustainable resource, we are exporting them raw (just like we did with our forests).
So this is just another resource that the unimaginative Pinoy mind is squandering yet again.
In less than a generation we will be left with nothing more than the human equivalent of tree stumps dotting the landscape of our society.
Manila Bay Watch on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 8:05 pm
DJB,
“OFWs are our real middle class.”
But these OFWs aren’t in Pinas – they can’t be YOUR middle class as of yet – I doubt they are middle class where they are either. So how can you say that they are YOUR middle class? Besides, what is your gauge for someone to belong to the Philippine middle class? In my part of the woods, middle class (lower middle class that is) means earning at the very least 36 thousand Euros a year. Any family earning lower than that would be looking for State freebies to keep up with the junior Joneses.
If or when the OFWs decide to go back home, what assurance do they have that they will “remain” YOUR middle class? Will they have jobs back home? Will they earn the same amount of pay they’re earning abroad to qualify as YOUR middle class? Assuming that if or when they return, they have some savings with them, will their savings be enough to sustain YOUR middle-class standard of living?
Technically, OFWs are those workers registered with DoLE and deployed by DoLE. Obviously, many Filipinos have been able to go on their own, land jobs on their own without the DoLE and they are not in your DoLE radar but as we have been hearing lately, there are more OFWs returning home with barely anything in their pocket.
However, there are OFWs who have worked their asses out, i.e., house maids, nannies, drivers, house boys, waiters, in Western countries who are qualified to receive pension from their Western states, i.e., European countries, when they retire after 25 years of employment or at age 60 at least. Of course, their pension will be delivered to them once they retire, whereever they may be. On that score, true, when these qualified OFWs return home, there’s a chance they may indeed qualify as YOUR middle class.
cvj on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 8:10 pm
Regarding the role of innovation, it goes without saying that being innovative is a good thing. However, you have to take into account the fact that the countries that were more successful in their efforts to catch up to the Western economies were largely second movers (aka copy cats). They did not invent or innovate much less imitate and reverse-engineer their way into growth. Only at a later stage did they start coming up with innovative brands and products of their own.
However, i do agree that it is never too early to start supporting home-grown innovations. We need to spend much more in local R&D since it still takes some time (at least a generation) to build up the local pool required to transition between a lower to higher technology driven economy which we will have to do at some point in the future. This is one of the yardsticks with which our government should be measured.
Manila Bay Watch on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 8:10 pm
Caveat: To qualify for State pension, 25 years of employment must be solid, i.e., OFWs must show proof that they pay taxes on their earnings, must show proof that they have paid into the state pension fund scheme, etc. without those solid 25 years of evidence, the OFW in Europe cannot claim pension.
Manila Bay Watch on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 8:14 pm
Cvj,
“We need to spend much more in local R&D since it still takes some time”
To achieve a decent R&D level, the country has to be highly innovative on its education sector too. Capital must be poured in that sector.
cvj on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 8:34 pm
Benign0, aren’t these same Chinese businessmen the ones who are currently heading up the real estate and retail empires that are catering to the Pinoy consumer? Why not criticize them for lacking ‘the imagination’ to put up factories or engage in more productive businesses just like their mainland or Taiwanese counterparts? The gap that i see in your analysis that you give the current holders of capital a free pass for their lack of imagination while you place the burden of putting up factories on those who’s priority is to feed and educate those they left behind. If the best Henry Sy can do is to open up Malls and if all Lucio Tan can do is use to his influence to take over a government airline, what kind of examples are these? On the other hand, you put the burden on the average Pinoy the burden to become captains of industry without the institutional supports and against all previous precedent in other late industrializing countries. Your recommendation has been tried before in the form of Mao’s Great Leap Forward (i.e. a steel mill in every backyard) and we know how well that went. What we need to develop are social policies to free up dead capital (e.g. Land Reform), institutions to channel resources (e.g. Development Banks) and an industrial policy to fundamentally accelerate the growth rate of invested capital.
cvj on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 8:41 pm
MBW, i agree that should be a major part of what government should be doing via its network of State Universities. We cannot expect the multinationals to take the lead in this as most of their R&D takes place in their home countries.
DJB on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 9:03 pm
MBW,
OFWs are our middle class in the sense that they are neither the rich who own and run the land and the businesses, nor the helpless poor. They are “in the middle” in the sense that they are earning much more than the poor, while rivalling many of the rich in earned income, though not in power or resources. They are the middle class in the sense that they can aspire to go to the top while fearing a fall to the bottom. Socially and financially speaking the middle classes are the most mobile. Just because they are not physically present doesn’t mean they are not an integral part of the Philippine economy. They most definitely are. But most of all they are the middle class because they offer the greatest hope of change through self-improvement, competition, daring-do and risk-taking. I daresay, many of our future entrepreneurs are the returning OFWs.
But you can call them anything you want, just not “toilet bowl cleaners of the world”.
DJB on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 9:12 pm
MLQ3: What problem with the Constitution? The EO is well within the declared BILINGUAL official language policy in the Constitution, which by the way applies not only to Deped but to the entire govt.
As for the factual bases of the Petitioner’s plea for less English and not more, the Supreme Court can not try such facts nor evaluate the competing and controversial claims in so fuzzy an area as medium of instruction and early childhood education.
There is, in short, no real question of LAW involved here, but a judgment over educational policy, which even the good Justices may feel out of their depth in.
I predict dismisal via Minute Resolution, or a long cold sleep in the pile of cases never to be passed upon for being simply polemic.
supremo on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 10:00 pm
“can a programmer be instructed to learn the goobledygook i just cut in paste in a language other than english? certainly.â€
My answer is also yes and I’m a computer programmer. The PROBLEM is translating the business process written in English to computer code. You still need to speak or at least understand English to have an accurate translation.
UP n student on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 10:27 pm
cvj: It would not surprise you, would it, that some of the same rich you call lazy also call the “generic middle-class and the masa” as not motivated enough to create wealth?
I probably have read about/seen/been an audience to over two hundred pitches on “… this is where you should put your money” presentations. I have created nearly a dozen business plans — detailed, to the point of a month-by-month cash flow projection. The plans were for my own benefit so I can make better decisions on where to put my money. Just from this experience alone, I am probably right when I tell you that Henry Sy stays with real estate/malls/office buildings because that is where they are good at. I know that if you give me a solid business plan on how to build a job-shop to produce hand-tools or cooking utensils (and that will be able to hire eighty employees within three years), I will still tell you that I’m the wrong one to talk to because the job-shop is not my niche and I will most likely lose money in that venture. Heck, I’ll probably lose money opening a coffee shop, and a coffee shop should be an easier project, won’t you agree?
You should realize that the rich are just as anxious to create wealth as you are, maybe even more so, and those who already have created wealth use “core-competency” as an important reason as to why they do not go into the industries that you say they should go into.
UP n student on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 10:34 pm
Nope… neither Henry Sy, Bill Gates, Lee Kuan Yew nor Michael Jordan are thinking much about how many years they have to work before qualifying for a pension.
UP n student on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 10:41 pm
supremo… and I know that you know this.
The requirements document, the analysis document, the functional document, the Test Plan and Acceptance documents will most likely have extensive English. [The detail design document --- in pseudo-code --- will be the more logic-based gobbleygook, but it will still have do-while or perform-until along with get and put.]
cvj on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 11:12 pm
UPn Student, i agree that Henry Sy and Lucio Tan probably still work on the basis of business plans and core competencies which is probably the reason why they would rather bet on real estate, retail and/or rent-seeking activities. For all their business acumen, they realize that without government support similar to that given to their counterparts in China, Taiwan, India, Japan and Korea, it would be too high a risk. This is why i find Benign0’s exhortations for the average Filipino to go into productive industry, where even the current local tycoons fear to tread ill-focused to say the least. (Not to mention trite.)
cvj on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 11:17 pm
You are of course talking about your experience in English-speaking countries. Other countries use their native languages for these documents.
devilsadvc8 on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 11:34 pm
“but i think those with a contrary opinion would do better if they put some effort into explaining why they disagree and why they have a contrary opinion”
That hit right home MLQ3. That’s why I love forums. It allows for ideas to rise and fall based on their merits.
“In less than a generation we will be left with nothing more than the human equivalent of tree stumps dotting the landscape of our society.”
I have a very vivid image of this: where the Phils will have no one else left living here except society’s dregs and those who flourish on corruption.
The OFW phenom is something. Both good and bad. The social costs of parent-less families is more than what we can afford, I think. The flip side of that is, as Mike and Tonio have pointed out, OFWs having experienced life elsewhere, knows there is a better way to live than what we have here. Which scares me more the most. Not everyone wants to return, and those who do cannot have a guaranteed good life here. Not when every scoundrel out there know you’re a balikbayan and sees you nothing more than but a milking cow. Anyone care to disagree that OFW pensioners get screwed more than the average pensioners who receive their pensions in pesos rather than dollars? Even more so, OFW families get milked a lot by those who know they have someone abroad who sends money here. But back to what scares me the most. As I said, not everyone wants to return, but most want to flee. The danger is not in losing skilled people, the danger lies in not producing enough to replace them. We are not in any danger of “population winter,” but we are in great danger of plunging into an “intellectual wasteland.” We must avoid the time when the middle class that buffers the rich and poor gets fed up so much they will jz up and leave this country, never to return. Who will be left then? That is SCARY.
I love my country, and I don’t want to give it up (in default) to those who never cares for it anyway.
On another note, I agree English is important. But to put that in front of our own language does not make sense. If there is one part of our society where I want Tagalog to supersede English, it is this: LAW. It just doesn’t look good when you have the judges and the lawyers all arguing, objecting, conversing in English, and there in front of all of them, the poor accused (pardon the pun), hardly knowing if what they are saying bodes well or ill for him. By all means, it is better to be bilingual. But for godsakes, cut the hypocrisy trying to speak English when you can’t even communicate clearly what you wanna say.
On globalization being better than nationalism: no country worth its salt ever rose to global standards w/o 1st having that one capital every nation needs. Yes, individuals may brook and go over the barrier. Become a global man (by all means, today’s youth in this aspect doesn’t even need a helping hand). But for our entire nation to be at par with the world, we need to start strong from within. Have our own identity then expand out. Become one with everyone yet retain what is uniquely US. But we cannot do this with our current state now can we? Much has been written and said abt the Filipino diaspora. Are we really lost as a nation? I envy the Japanese. They have so much culture to define them and make them proud. Samurais, bushido, kanji. What do we have? Artifacts and ancient structure destroyed by colonizers, alibata only for the history books, the code of kalantiaw (which some experts think may even have been fabricated)…
All we are is an amalgamation of every culture. But maybe that is why the Filipino is unique. Maybe that is why we thrive everywhere. Maybe we are the TRUE first global people. With no roots to speak of, we are everyone and everywhere all at once. Maybe that is our destiny. To let our country dissolve and spread out all across the globe. A citizen of the world.
But damn, I will miss taho, balot, isaw… (lol. is Filipino food the only thing I’ll miss?)
UP n student on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 11:43 pm
DJB: was it not Conrado DeQuiros who coined that phrase “toilet bowl cleaners of the world”?
supremo on Fri, 1st Jun 2007 11:48 pm
cvj,
“You are of course talking about your experience in English-speaking countries. Other countries use their native languages for these documents.”
I agree that other countries use their native language for these documents but I bet you those documents originated from a business requirement written/discussed in English.
cvj on Sat, 2nd Jun 2007 12:09 am
Supremo, i think it’s more the other way around. The locals get the requirements among themselves and then translate them to English as necessary for us foreign consultants.
cvj on Sat, 2nd Jun 2007 12:14 am
I couldn’t agree more. I remember one of the final scenes in the ‘Last Samurai’ where the Tom Cruise character taught the Emperor just that very lesson, and look at where Japan is now!
camry on Sat, 2nd Jun 2007 12:41 am
devilsadvc8,
About ur latest post. That’s what scares me since I bacame aware of this site.
Paano na ang mga anak natin?
I hope the youth of today will care for the motherland.
But, wait if children of “non-corrupt & less-corrupt” will be feed up on the children of “too corrupt” in the society, what do you think will happen?
watchful eye on Sat, 2nd Jun 2007 1:32 am
I am probably right when I tell you that Henry Sy stays with real estate/malls/office buildings because that is where they are good at.
With a consumption-driven economy owing to OWF remittances 4 or 5 times as much as FDIs, “Henry Sy stays with real estate/malls/office buildings because that is where†his money is safe, the rest of it being securely lent to RP gov’t at guaranteed rates and/or invested in US treasuries or parked in Shanghai. Where is risk-taking here?
When the virtuous cycle stops, “Who will be left then – to buy those condos or shop at the mall? That is SCARY.â€
devil, may i borrow your fork?
supremo on Sat, 2nd Jun 2007 1:40 am
cvj,
“….and then translate them to English as necessary for us foreign consultants.”
which brings us back to DJB’s point
“Our ENGLISH is our secret weapon in the ECONOMY of the whole world.”
watchful eye on Sat, 2nd Jun 2007 2:28 am
“Become one with everyone yet retain what is uniquely US.”
This line made me smirk haha bec it could also be read as “uniquely U.S.” (READ: uniquely little brown joe.
I remember a lawyer in a courtroom asking this cross-examination question: “Then, what did you saw after that?And the judge corrected the counsel: “Did see atty.” Then the witness began to explain: After the incident I see the accused …” The judge was furious and interrupted rudely: “Tang ina mo SAW na ngayon.!!!”
Anyway, eto ang counter coup de grace:”All we are is anamalgation of every culture”. If Pinoys are conscious ofthis now, isn’t it a good starting point to build anew?
cvj on Sat, 2nd Jun 2007 3:16 am
Supremo, yes which is why i believe DJB has been repeatedly committing the fallacy of ignoratio elenchi, i.e. “the logical fallacy of supposing that an argument proving an irrelevant point has proved the point at issue”.
UP n student on Sat, 2nd Jun 2007 3:53 am
watchful eye: On (lack of) risk-taking with real estate. You may not yet have invested in a strip mall or an 8-story office building. I guarantee you that you make 2 wrong steps and half (and most likely all) of your investment will be gone.
manuelbuencamino on Sat, 2nd Jun 2007 4:07 am
“Our ENGLISH is our secret weapon in the ECONOMY of the whole world.â€
Spoken or written?
watchful eye on Sat, 2nd Jun 2007 4:19 am
On (lack of) risk-taking with real estate. You may not yet have invested in a strip mall or an 8-story office building. I guarantee you that you make 2 wrong steps and half (and most likely all) of your investment will be gone.
First of all, make sure the stair has full landings not half steps. Second of all, don’t rent out the place at half the going price and require tenants to bring their own elevators. And third of all, be patient and don’t panic when the going gets rough. Buildings have no feet, you know. They won’t go away or perish lake taho, balut, isaw . . .hehehe. If you are insured you are safe. And lastly, don’t sell yet even if Trillanes and gang help themselves inside temporarily. Ok?
cvj on Sat, 2nd Jun 2007 4:51 am
And then there’s the well-timed fire which i remember has become a periodic occurence in some malls along the San Juan-Mandaluyong area.
DJB on Sat, 2nd Jun 2007 8:05 am
When all is said and done, an outstanding FACT cannot be denied. The English Language is a BIGGER part of the modern Filipino cultural heritage than Filipino aka Tagalog is. Or any other vernacular dialect. It is the language of the Law, of government, politics, business, telecommunications, and all higher education.
English also happens to be the MOTHER TONGUE
DJB on Sat, 2nd Jun 2007 8:13 am
When all is said and done, an outstanding FACT cannot be denied. The English Language is a BIGGER part of the modern Filipino cultural and intellectual heritage than Filipino aka Tagalog is! Or any other vernacular dialect. I don’t see why we cannot be just as proud of it as Pampango or Ilokano or more.
It is the language of the Law, of government, politics, business, telecommunications, and all higher education. Has been for a century! Longer than Mahoma ruled! English is an ineradicable and indispensable part of Philippine society. We are the third largest English speaking country in the world ferchrissakes, although India and China will soon overtake us in sheer numbers. I don’t see how we can deny this heritage, this history, this intimate connection!
English also happens to be the MOTHER TONGUE of all the math and science subjects, which need not only a spoken tongue, but a written, formal medium of instruction. Lucky for us! It is the basis of our future success in the world.
And I daresay, no one here could dispense with their English proficiency, even just to argue with me, much less survive wherever in the world you are.
If that is irrelevant to you, so be it. But National Artist Petitioners are just being silly elitists and aboriginalists.
DJB on Sat, 2nd Jun 2007 8:30 am
MB,
Of course the Medium of Instruction should be a WRITTEN language in addition to being commonly comprehensible to the students. How do we teach math and science without symbols, numerals, letters, expressions?
But who are the authorities on the written forms of Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilokano and the other dialects? How could we seriously consider them for use as media of instruction in all but the most rudimentary and informal way at the earliest levels?
Notice that National Artists want even the teaching of Math and Science to be done in Filipino or the vernacular, just because it is theoretically feasible to do so. I think it is perverse.
Yes of course we could make textbooks on arithmetic, algebra and trig in Tagalog or Lilibuagan (Michael Tan’s example). But one practical problem is how do we decide what is correct and what is wrong in Tagalog or Lilibuagonon trigonometry, or even punctuation! There is no community or authority higher than individual experts and authors in both trig and these languages.
Stripping away hurt feelings, one finds that Filipino aka Tagalog leaves much to be desired as a Medium of Instruction in math and science subjects because its formal symbolic aspects are so lacking.
It’s just a practical choice. You use Arabic numerals and not Roman numerals for arithmetic right?
DJB on Sat, 2nd Jun 2007 8:40 am
ROMANTIC ABORIGINALISTS have their heads so far up in the academic clouds they really have no idea what the 20 million kids in Basic Education need.
They need classrooms, computers, teachers and textbooks, but all they really get is teachers who get paid a nice salary which is now equivalent to the pay of a starting police officer.
So, do we have enough teachers? Here is the scoop. We have a terrible shortage in qualified Math, Science and English teachers, but a surplus in the Filipino and Makabayan areas.
The classroom shortage will be worse this year than last, with 10,000 units short of projected enrollment demand.
Why? Because we spend 110 billion out of 130 billion budget on salaries…60% of which goes to Filipino and Makabayan subject areas because of the curriculum.
I claim the money for all the classrooms, computers and textbooks needed is in the UNNECESSARY subjects within the curriculum, mostly within the Makabayan supersubject area.
Francis on Sat, 2nd Jun 2007 8:41 am
GDP growth is still too small compared to our population growth rate, and with growth comes inflation.
The rate we are converting our farm lands into commerce is too frightening to even think about how were going to feed our population in the next decade. I guess we better ship them(populace) off to far away lands.
Being a service driven economy is nice if we can educate majority of our populace and make NCR not the center of everything we do.(One of GMAs goal that is unfolding)
We need tons of infrastructure to support such economy and it seems that’s the least of path resistance for every investor for this decade.
If we can exploit our mineral deposits(we have billions of them) [mining industry] and not destroy our environment at the same time we can be right up next to Australia as largest commodity economy in south east Asia.
DJB on Sat, 2nd Jun 2007 8:53 am
Example: in the 2007 Deped Budget, I estimate that the allocation for teaching EKAWP (Values Education, religion in disguise) is about 5 billion pesos per year. That is FIVE TIMES the allocation for the School Building Program(P1B for 2007)!
Hey but try to take away even a small fraction of that humongous Sacred Cow Steak from the biggest Labor Union in the Philippines to build classrooms instead and you’d get your hand chewed off with some rat-rat about how impt every subject in the curriculusm is, and besides it would only go to the DPWH.
Susmaryosep!
hvrds on Sat, 2nd Jun 2007 10:57 am
Where’s the money going to come from for capital expenditures in public goods and investments for human capital? No funds no schooling whether it be in Filipino or English.
Please note that Moody’s makes a distinction between investments for capital formation and portfolio invesments. For a lot of the unintitated capital goods invesment is key to industrial capitalism. A distressing picture is emerging. This vital sector is still in the doldrums. It seems the narrow base of the economy could be further narrowing.
Let’s see what the credit rating agencies have to say. They make their money by crunching the economic fiscal numbers of countries and corporations as financial institutions pay them for their analysis as they need quantitative picture to assist in selling financial products. They (credit rating agencies) a part of the underwriting fees.
http://business.inquirer.net/money/topstories/view_article.php?article_id=69126
“The Philippines’ public sector debt ratios have receded from their historic peak, but remain relatively high compared with the country’s rating peers,†Moody’s said in its latest sovereign report, released Friday.”
“The government’s revenue base cannot yet support spending to meet major needs in public infrastructure … because of large interest payments on debt,†it added.
The ratio of the Philippine government’s debt to GDP was 66 percent in 2006, higher than those of similarly B1-rated Indonesia, Pakistan, Mongolia and Ukraine.
Moody’s said support for the Philippine balance of payments — an account of the country’s foreign exchange transactions with the rest of the world — was provided by a flexible exchange rate policy, a stable export production base — in which foreign companies play a large role — and sizeable money remittances from overseas workers.
Moody’s added that overall weakness in the country’s investment climate were reflected in lagging fixed capital formation which, as a share of domestic output, had declined to one of the lowest levels among emerging market economies.
“Philippine economic policy has yet to translate its initial successes in fiscal consolidation to improved underlying performance in the economy,†the report said.
Nevertheless, unresolved political and social discontent could become disruptive to economic stability at some point in the future,†it warned.
From my favorite Queen of Spin – Monsod
She who has said repeatedly – GMA may have cheated to win but she won anyway.
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view_article.php?article_id=69111
“First of all, the 6.9 percent GDP growth in the economy does not mean that every single sector and sub-sector in the economy has grown at that rate. There are huge disparities that are hidden by that average. For example, the real growth rate in nickel mining was 120 percent while the real growth in tobacco manufacturing was negative (it contracted by 34 percent). The growth rate for beverages manufacturing was also negative at -5 percent. (I call attention to the “contraction†in beverages and manufacturing because these figures are belied by the 8 percent and 7 percent growth in consumption expenditures on these two products respectively. The inconsistency suggests underreporting of production on the part of some firms, which calls for action on the part of the Bureau of Internal Revenue.)”
“Second, while growth is a necessary condition for the increase in well-being of the people, it is not sufficient. That is why there is a distinction between economic growth and human development. The quality of that growth is important. The UNDP Human Development Report warns about jobless, ruthless, voiceless, rootless and futureless growth. The acid test is whether the growth we are experiencing is the right kind.”
inodoro ni emilie on Sat, 2nd Jun 2007 10:58 am
“My answer is also yes and I’m a computer programmer. The PROBLEM is translating the business process written in English to computer code. You still need to speak or at least understand English to have an accurate translation.”
supremo, i wouldn’t worry much about that because i expect that programmers–given their sophisticated level of logical thinking–shall have mustered a parallel level of english proficiency by the time they practice their profession.
we are talking here of language of instruction basically for math and science (so dean, filipino is not quite the PRIMARY language of instruction because english still detracts our incipient learning in the basic r’s. Sus mio, tell me how effective is the concept of place value by counting eleven instead of labing-isa?). we can learn all the englishes we want in english AS A subject in the appropriate grade level (3 and up). that i think bilingualism should go–pretty much like the european model.
dean,
“English also happens to be the MOTHER TONGUE”
u.s. based filipino writer eric gamalinda succinctly translates this phrase as:
“ang inglis ay tongue ng ina mo!”
http://www.philpost.com/0103pages/english%20(1)0103.html)
rego on Sat, 2nd Jun 2007 12:48 pm
“i am not a believer in “objectivity†simply because i think it’s impossible. what we can do is express ourselves and explain why we think certain things. point to our sources, go through our reasoning, make a proposition: ”
Manolo,
My impression is that you are actually objective in your writings. Your object is Gloria and her enemy, the opposition. You write as everything and anything that will put Gloria in a bad light consequently deodorizing the opposition. And it seems to me that you are so sucessful so far….I just sincerely hope the nation will eventually benefit positively well on your cause.
rego on Sat, 2nd Jun 2007 12:52 pm
DJB,
Ang galing galing noon first comment mo sa thread na to. Im very very impressed!
inodoro ni emilie on Sat, 2nd Jun 2007 12:54 pm
mlq3,
was my comment to djb’s one-line phraser censored? there was nothing offensive in it–the quote borrowed from literary academician gamalinda is pun intended, which am sure djb has the wit to take it.
inodoro ni emilie on Sat, 2nd Jun 2007 12:55 pm
oops, sorry, it’s all there. mea culpa. must be this firefox browser.
devilsadvc8 on Sat, 2nd Jun 2007 2:26 pm
“My impression is that you are actually objective in your writings. Your object is Gloria and her enemy, the opposition.”
Lol. this was funny. And so was this,
“ang inglis ay tongue ng ina mo!â€
manuelbuencamino on Sat, 2nd Jun 2007 2:34 pm
Spoken or written?
“Of course the Medium of Instruction should be a WRITTEN language in addition to being commonly comprehensible to the students.
But one practical problem is how do we decide what is correct and what is wrong in Tagalog or Lilibuagonon trigonometry, or even punctuation! There is no community or authority higher than individual experts and authors in both trig and these languages.”
In elementary, my teacher told me to bing a picture of an Epol to school for show and tell. I couldn’t find the goddam fruit in any encylopedia or botany book anywhere.
I was standing on the corner of 14th and Mass. Ave NW DC. I walked down two blocks and I was on 12th and Mass. NE DC.
In NW, I saw an obese white woman walking down the street. I commented – “She’s fat and that’s bad.” The woman heard me and she was offended.
Two bocks later, in NE, I saw an obese black woman walking down the street. I heard a black man say, “She’s phaaat and that’s baaad.” The woman heard him and thaanked him for the compliment.
And then this letter was forwarded to me –
To Marjie,
I am not surprise or wander why Dennis leave you. Why? What reason you
can think about but you’re very fat body. I’m thought before that Dennis
only use me to his toy but sooner and later I’m realize that he really
can’t not beared or stomached to be with you anymore because at first,
Dennis say he could not stand you’re habit of making pakialam all his
walks and always calling to their house what time he go home or this or
that and then he say he get ashame to met you iether in school or in his
family and then asking you to exercise you’re very, very, very fat body
but you hate it you thoughth you’re the most prettiest girls he know
about what do you think you are “Beautiful Girl” of Jose Mari Chan even
you are beautiful face (to your think) you do not have the rigth to
called me whatsoever or else different name one time or the other for
the real purposed to insults my personality because I’m never call you
names before iether in front of Dennis or in the backs of Dennis, but if
you start already to calling me different name, I’m don’t have any other
choice but to called you other different name to like you are a PIG,
FAT, OBESSED, OVERWIGHT AND UGLY SHAPE girl. Shame to you’re body that is to a BUDING. You can’t not blame Dennis for exchanging you to me
because I’m am the more sexier than you when you look to us in the
mirror. I’m repeat again that you are like Ike Lozada when she is a
girl.
FROM: THE SEXIEST GIRL OF D.M.
Ps. You say that I’m the bad breathe
But who is Dennis want to kissed.
Me or you? You or me?
And the final is me.
So DJB, what english, whose english, do you propose we use as a medium of instruction?
devilsadvc8 on Sat, 2nd Jun 2007 2:53 pm
cvj – yeah, i remember that one.
camry – ur last question doesn’t make sense. There is NO less, more, or too corrupt people. There are only those who do, and those who doesn’t. That is why we never move past that accountability stage. ‘coz some think that there are such things as “acceptable corruption.” We let the little bit slide, until it gets bigger, and ultimately we can’t stop any of them.
“devil, may i borrow your fork?” – ur welcome to it anytime, watchful
“This line made me smirk haha bec it could also be read as ‘uniquely U.S.’ (READ: uniquely little brown joe)”
- yes, the pun wasn’t lost on me when I was posting that. My intention was to emphasize the word US before I noticed it somehow read as U.S.
Bokyo on Sat, 2nd Jun 2007 3:12 pm
“…that will put Gloria in a bad light…”
that’s funnier.
benign0 on Sat, 2nd Jun 2007 5:16 pm
The fact is, Pinoy society does not have an extensive track record of contributing significantly to the collective intelligence of humanity.
Not surprisingly, our languages reflect this pathetic reality.
As such, people who have superior command over English will always be at an advantage over those who find childish comfort in withdrawing to their “native” language. People who are comfortable with English not only have access to an immense wealth of knowledge, they are able to confidently go head-to-head with others of equal calibre.
Therefore it is one of the biggest crimes against Pinoy humanity to be depriving Pinoys of a chance to partake in this wealth of knowledge by imprisoning them in Tagalog-based education.
justice league on Sat, 2nd Jun 2007 7:15 pm
A few days ago, a kid won a spelling contest in America.
What criteria was used for the contest?
Will any other criteria suffice for such a national contest?
watchful eye on Sat, 2nd Jun 2007 11:24 pm
You write as everything and anything that will put Gloria in a bad light.
With GenieMA looking increasingly phaaat, baaad and, hmm, compaact – the stool and platform flip-flops notwithstanding – mlq3 will have to work harder to put her back in a bud light.
baycas on Sat, 2nd Jun 2007 11:27 pm
To Poet Eric Gamalinda*:
Ingles ba, you said, ang tongue ng ina mo?
Filipino naman, I say, ang mother tongue ko.
Sa opinion ko lang…
Hirap to teach ng ilang subject sa mother tongue ko,
Mas easier yata kapag sa tongue ng ina mo!
—–
*isang tulang pigged from past works ni tinio
demosthenes on Sun, 3rd Jun 2007 12:04 am
In all this has anyone bothered to ask those most affected what they think? Regardless of how DepEd fashions the curriculum to favor English, Tagalog or Lilibuagonon, I doubt the children of anyone commenting in this blog will be much affected by it. They’ll still go to private schools and be taught mostly in English. It’s the public schoolchildren’s opinions we should be soliciting, or that of their parents. If they find it easier to be taught in the vernacular, then so be it, they would be the best judge of that. If they seek the advantages that English proficiency allegedly brings, then who are we to deny them?
baycas on Sun, 3rd Jun 2007 12:35 am
A head-to-head comparison between Mother-Tongue MOI and English-As-Second-Language MOI should be done similar to the study done in Hong Kong: Evaluation of the effects of medium of instruction on the science learning of Hong Kong secondary students: Performance on the science achievement test, Bilingual Research Journal, Summer 2003 by Yip, Din Yan, Tsang, Wing Kwong, Cheung, Sin Pui.
If ever this was done here before, I think, the result of a new study would be prudent enough to be applied to our present situation.
Bencard on Sun, 3rd Jun 2007 12:54 am
demosthenes, not to sound like a “naysayer” that i don’t care much about, but if we cater to schoolchildren as to what is “easy” for them, why bother going to school at all? unless all they need is to learn the abakada, write their names, read komiks, or count their fingers and toes for rudimentary ‘rithmetic, then your prescription makes sense. but i’m almost sure, if you ask them, they will opt for the easy road.
vic on Sun, 3rd Jun 2007 2:55 am
These Programs were brought down in 2004 by the current government as a four-year Program for improving the educations of our youth. It will culminate this year at the end of the the Governemnt Mandate and it was detailed in the budget.
The emphasis is on three basics; reading, writing and math.
Note: Education is publicly funded from JK(Junior Kindergarten) to Grade 12 (High School). Colleges and Universities are subsidized only for landed residents and citizens. Foreign students must pay the full school fees. Catholic Schools are also Publicly Funded, other Religious Schools fees are entitled to Tax Credits for Parents and Guardians.
And this is the final year of the program.
Four Year Program as Introduced in the Budget in 2004…
******
Success for Students
* by 2007-08, the government’s investment in Ontario’s schools will increase by $2.1 billion, increasing per-student funding by more than $1,100;
* smaller class sizes phased in over four years, with a cap of 20 children per class for JK to Grade 3;
* increasing from 50 per cent to 75 per cent the target rate for students meeting the provincial standard for reading, writing and math by 2007-08;
* funding training spaces for 1,000 additional teachers in 2005-06;
* training 4,000 new teacher specialists in literacy and numeracy, bringing the total to 8,000; and
* more than doubling the number of schools that receive extra support from turnaround teams.
“Our plan will make public education the best education. It will help our students achieve their true potential – and that is the most important thing we can do to ensure Ontario reaches its full potential,” said the Minister.
*********
My thoughts, the Philippines Government at Present can not afford a 100 % publicly funded Secondary Education, but improvements of what could be done of present conditions should be strived, like additional training for Teachers, Reducing the number of Students per Class and emphasis on Reading, Writing and Math at early stages of Learning, then we can look at how effective the Medium of Instruction as it is used as we improve the quality of our Education. Maybe the Medium of Instruction may not even relevant to the issue.
And then maybe then, a careful study and research and a long term plans have to be done, before attempting the overhaul of the system as to the Introduction of Tagalog or any other vernaculars as the Medium in some courses.
DJB on Sun, 3rd Jun 2007 9:13 am
ERIC GAMALINDA won a Gold Medal and ONE MILLION PESOS in the National Centennial Heritage Prize Literary Contest in 1998 for his entry in the NOVEL category, My Sad Republic.
In ENGLISH!
(I know, coz I was there at the Manila Hotel when Joseph Estrada handed out the prize monies and medals to 30 winners in English and Filipino categories in Novel, Screenplay, Drama, Essay and Poetry.)
DJB on Sun, 3rd Jun 2007 9:31 am
Shameless Plug:
The Bells of Balangiga by DJRB
(Bronze Medal, Epic Poetry in English)
inodoro ni emilie on Sun, 3rd Jun 2007 9:41 am
djb,
as i often harp here: what’s so surprising if gamalinda won for writing his story in english? it only proves that bilingualism works and is effective!
why should there be a heavy demarcation between mother tongue and english? copiuous academic studies (mostly done in canada and hongkong) have shown that in fact multi/bilingualism has cognitive advantage over monolingualism because concepts are being reinforced in two or more languages.
inodoro ni emilie on Sun, 3rd Jun 2007 9:56 am
“MLQ3: What problem with the Constitution? The EO is well within the declared BILINGUAL official language policy in the Constitution, which by the way applies not only to Deped but to the entire govt.”
the bilingual policy suggested by the constitution is aptly termed diglossia. english for official transaction, filipino for the daily grind.
the more sensible bilingualism program in education should be the integration of two languages in the same subject, i.e., one language supporting the other.
DJB on Sun, 3rd Jun 2007 10:18 am
Inidoro:
Don’t you think the teachers and educators know such simple truisms as you espouse? Give them some credit naman! No one is talking about a strict English only or Tagalog only medium of instruction. Of course teachers are allowed to COMMUNICATE with the children. But perhaps you’ve missed the point about Medium of Instruction needing to be a formal, written language as well, so that it isn’t so easy to just use any one. Languages, unlike men, are NOT created equal. Sorry.
And when National Artists and English novelists start telling them to teach Math and Science in Filipino or vernacular without understanding the logistical and practical considerations, not to speak of pedagogy, that’s when the ironies like that involving Eric Gamalinda above, get pointed out by bloggers. I mean c’mon, is he ASHAMED of his accepting a million pesos for writing a novel in English? Of course the lil ditty quoted above and attributed to him with the most famous of Filipino expletives, is what a lot of people here in this thread will remember of him.
No one is talking about an English only or Pilipino only policy. A mix of 70%-30% has been decided upon by Deped and the President. That is their job to do that. It is humorous, but painfully humorous to me, that it is people who make their living using English (whether as novelists or pundits or professors) who are urging a thing they clearly are not qualified to pass upon.
Read the Petition! The Teachers know it’s BUNKO and I know the Supreme Court will dismiss it as another “ANGST case”.
DJB on Sun, 3rd Jun 2007 10:43 am
Section 7. For the purpose of communication and instruction, the official languages of the Philippines are Filipino and, until otherwise provided by law, English.
(Art.IV 1987 Charter)
This is the bilingual policy of the Constitution, which applies to “communication and instruction”–not only in the schools but in all official govt transactions and records. As far as I can see, there is no distinction between the two as official languages. They are co-equal. And it seems to be permanent, for how can the Law ever “provide otherwise,” when every decision of the Supreme Court is rendered in English, and every law passed by Congress also?
Thus if the Supreme Court were to force the Deped to some language policy dictated by the Court, the Court should also comply and at least render its official communications in Tagalog.
Petition will surely be rejected for sheer oblivion to reality.
freewheel on Sun, 3rd Jun 2007 10:51 am
ang madalas na pagkakamali sa mga debate kung ano ang nararapat na lengguwahe ang gagamitin sa pag-aaral ng matematika at siyensya; sa paraan ba ng inglis o sariling wika, ay ang PAGKILALA na ang 2 aralin na ito ay isang uri din ng LENGGUWAHE.
sa mga napalimbag na science journals ng pamantasan ng Kyoto, halimbawa, kapansin-pansin na ang mga tinatanggap na mga teorya at thesis ay hindi lamang sa wikang Inglis, kundi na rin sa wikang Aleman, Pranses at Ruso !
ang mga produkto ng pamantasan ng Vienna, bilang dagdag na halimbawa, na isa sa may pinakamaraming nobel prize na nakamit nuong nakaraang siglo, hindi ba’t kinilala ng komunidad ng mga dalubhasa ang kanilang obra, bagama’t hindi naman ito sa wikang Inglis ?!
sa pagkalusaw ng USSR, ang mga matitinik na siyentipiko’t dalubhasa nito na naging paboritong piratahin ng bansang Aleman at ‘Merika; dahilan ba sa galing nila sa wikang banyaga, o sa husay nila sa LENGGUWAHE ng agham at matematika ??
inodoro ni emilie on Sun, 3rd Jun 2007 12:23 pm
dean,
“Give them some credit naman! No one is talking about a strict English only or Tagalog only medium of instruction.”
hay, dean, i wish. but did you experience going to philippine schools where some teachers (however baluktot their english is) will demand that their students “speak english only”, hampering thus the enlightenment of an inquiring mind who fears that speaking in his/her native crooked tongue will only cause him/her embarrassment in front of the whole class? or that during the linggo ng wika students are penalized for every non-filipino utterance they make? trust me, there are schools who go blindly by the language policies without consideration to their pedagogical impact. and all because they we’ve demarcated the notion of bilingualism as “english for this and filipino for that.” and with an e.o. pushing for english as the primary medium of instruction, this is becoming o.a. (in light of the recent post you’ve made that in fact our constitution has already laid it the co-equality of english and filipino).
“And when National Artists and English novelists start telling them to teach Math and Science in Filipino or vernacular without understanding the logistical and practical considerations, not to speak of pedagogy, that’s when the ironies like that involving Eric Gamalinda above, get pointed out by bloggers.”
ironic, indeed, dean that these fluent and eloquent english users have to make such a call, no? but, really, why are they the ones beating the drums for the teaching of math and science in filipino (but i protest: why filipino, a.k.a tagalog, only?!? ). in fact, dean, i think the irony is not altogether disjunctive. for if indeed they–as we agree–are fluent and eloquent in english, wouldn’t these the very people who would have benefitted fully in the learning of math and science that have all through their schooling years been taught to them in english? [let's not confound the issue just yet by including the right vs left brain dichotomy.]
but these people are saying no. and i suspect they are speaking from experience. and i say, justifiably so. and all because the englishes you find in math and science are actually mostly technical english. which means the english words that pepper these subjects are in fact words that only appear in english! these are precise english technical jargons that, alas!, take on different meanings in the plain english language. technical english that will even befuddle native english language speakers! imagine then how it would be for learners whose english comes only as second or third language.
“Languages, unlike men, are NOT created equal. Sorry.”
science we’ve been taught is not science without the methodology. what one observes in the surrounding is not language bound. and so it is in peeling off the abstractions in math. hence i think the 70%-30% bilingual allocation is actually misplaced. in fact, i think it would be better–if we are to put for english proficiency–to teach all literature and social science-related subjects (including makabayan) in english (at least beginning in the upper years of schooling) as these subjects provide wider venues for the art of articulating and expressing argumentative ideas, rather than in math and science in english, where the BUILDING of ideas should be the prime consideration. [there is no need for elocutory explanations in math and science. a simple written proof will do to make the grade.]
which brings me to your hesitation on the practical and logistical consideration:
i am one in advocating for the use of english loan words in math and science, but we should however make wider room for scientific explanations to be done in the language most comprehensible, which logically points to the use of the mother tongue. and if we are all for the retention of math and science textbooks written in english, this will resolve the logistical problem you have been talking about.
inodoro ni emilie on Sun, 3rd Jun 2007 12:26 pm
“better–if we are to put for english proficiency–to teach all”
put–>push.
manuelbuencamino on Sun, 3rd Jun 2007 5:03 pm
DJB,
“Languages, unlike men, are NOT created equal. Sorry.â€
Languages do not materialize out of thin air.
Think your statement through DJB; it’s culturally biased if not downright racist.
UP n student on Sun, 3rd Jun 2007 8:18 pm
ManuB: That’s a good point : that language – be it Latin, Niponggo, Castillian Spanish or Mexican Spanish, Brooklyn English or Aussie English or the Arrrneow English — is culturally biased. Now racist is a loaded word —- are you suggesting inferiority? Between one Filipino who knows both Tagalog and Mandarin and another who knows Tagalog and French, who is the inferior?
devilsadvc8 on Sun, 3rd Jun 2007 8:58 pm
Allow me to post something I posted previously in another forum.
Is English The Key To Being Globally Competitive?
To be “personally” “globally competitive” the answer is, yes, we need english. Those trying or are going to work abroad would definitely need english to be competitive with other nationals looking for the same work. But for our nation to be “globally competitive?” I don’t think learning english alone can give us that. How long have we had a large percentage of our population able to speak or at least converse in english outranking other country’s percentage of their population? And have we any to show for it?
Meanwhile the Japanese did it without even a hint of Ingrish in them. The Chinese and Koreans? Only now have they desired to learn the language, not to be globally competitive (coz they already have been globally competitive way before they decided to learn it) but bec. they don’t want to be fooled/swindled when they deal in business transactions (that require English to be the medium of transaction) The Chinese even going further to impose their “ignorance” of English to others as to force the Americans to learn Mandarin.
Just look at that! If you can command that respect, you don’t have to learn their language, they learn yours! Or they hire an interpreter. Either way, if you are in demand, language deficiency is not a problem but jz a bump in the road.
As some Chinoys say: if you want to be an employee anywhere in the world, go learn english. But if you want to go into international business and be the boss, go learn fookien and mandarin.
What we need is to learn to love ourselves first before we can even think of going global. It reeks of hypocrisy, wanting to learn a foreign language when you can barely speak fluently in your own tounge. (and yes, I am guilty. More erudite in english than in tagalog. sheesh!)
I’m not saying we erase English in our lives. I’m just saying, maybe it isn’t all the hype we all thought it was.
freewheel on Sun, 3rd Jun 2007 9:26 pm
pagtutuwid:
ang poste sa itaas; unang talata, huling pangungusap ay may baybay dapat na: “… HINDI PAGKILALA na ang 2 aralin na ito, ay isa ding uri ng LENGGUWAHE…”
============
kinikilala ko ang ilang matitingkad na puntos na inihahain ni DJB; bunga ng praktikal na konsiderasyon ang karamihan, at bagama’t malabnaw ang relasyon nito sa usapin malinaw na nangangailangan ito ng tuwirang solusyon.
sa negosyo at industriyang kinapapalooban ko, na kailangan ang sandaang paghahati ng isang milimetro na wastong sukat (hundredth of a millimeter accuracy), hindi matatawaran ang kahalagahan ng komunikasyong ganap ang pagkakaintindihan at walang pag-aalinlangan sa hanay ng mga kumikilos.
ang ‘Pinas bagama’t pumirma sa sanggunian ng mga bansang nagkakaisa sa paggamit ng sistemang metrika; halos lahat simula sa eskwela, media, at kahit karamihan ng negosyo, patuloy na gumagamit ng sistemang panukat na hindi angkop.
dito pa lamang, sa mga banyagang kalakaran ng negosyo’t industriya ang produktong inilalabas ng bansa ay kwestiyonable na kaagad. ang tanong: meron bang kinalaman ang debateng pagpili ng lengguwaheng instruksyon sa matematika at agham sa problemang ito ?
UP n student on Sun, 3rd Jun 2007 9:29 pm
Devilsadvoc8: I think what you are saying is that one’s level of English-proficiency is for that person to ultimately decide. One person who will agree with you is the father of my brother’s wife. He is in Bangkok; he is Thai of Chinese descent (in fact, he was Chinese until he moved to Thailand at age 11). He is now a millionaire a few times over (in US dollars), and all his business dealings were/are in either Chinese or in Thai. He is a practical illiterate in English — can not even ask in English where the bathroom is. He has never needed English for the major goals that he had wanted out of life.
However, his grandson (my nephew) wants a PhD in Electrical Engineering. He does not wants a French- nor a Russian-PhD but a USA PhD, so he has strengthened his English in order to accomplish his goal. No different from the American who learns French so they can better enjoy their vacation in Paris, or one of my friends who is learning Mandarin to have an edge over the competition as she looks for a job in New York City.
To each his own. Every one needs to take responsibility for his own future. If you don’t need English for the goals you’ve set for yourself, then makes sense not to bother, right? If you believe that English provides no advantage for your children for the future that you think they would want, then “hindi na kailangan…okay na kami dito” is okay na rin, di ba?
devilsadvc8 on Mon, 4th Jun 2007 12:19 am
“I think what you are saying is that one’s level of English-proficiency is for that person to ultimately decide.”
That’s part of it, but more. All I’m saying is, yes English is important, but it’s not the end-all, be-all of SUCCESS. Learning english doesn’t translate into instant success. It is merely a portal into the global world. The means, and tools we need to succeed still rely on our brains.
I read here a back and forth argument about english being the mother tounge, the base language of science, math, and computer, etc, etc. What utter rubbish. If we follow that argument as true, then that would mean the birth of these sciences (except computer) started the same time the english language was born. Care to explain how the greeks, egyptians, and other ancient civilizations did their math and science? Same with computer. The commands may have been coded in english, but the computer still recognizes it through binary numbers. Meaning, it doesn’t compute language. That’s why it’s irrelevant to argue computer has a language other than numbers.
As to insisting to teach the basic sciences in english, I have only this to ask: which kid would learn math faster when it is taught in tagalog? an american or a filipino?
the bystander on Mon, 4th Jun 2007 1:00 am
“As a people we have been deprived for centuries of responsibility for our destiny. Under the Spaniards, this deprivation was open. Under the Americans, while we were ostensibly being prepared for self-government, for self-reliance, we were actually being manuevered by means of political and economic pressures to defer to American decisions at the same time that we were being conditioned by our American education to prefer American ways. The result is a people habituated to abdicating control over basic areas of their national life, unaccustomed to coming to grips with reality, prone to escape into fantasies; and a leadership which voluntarily chooses Western solutions for Philippine problems — partly because it is intellectually conditioned to believe in such solutions and partly for personal expediency xxxxx” -Renato Constantino
manuelbuencamino on Mon, 4th Jun 2007 2:20 am
UPn,
“Now racist is a loaded word —- are you suggesting inferiority? Between one Filipino who knows both Tagalog and Mandarin and another who knows Tagalog and French, who is the inferior?”
I don’t think you understood my comment. Let me try to make it clearer.
I said “languages do not materialize out of thin air”.
So when someone sez, “Languages, unlike men, are NOT created equal. Sorry.â€, he is actually saying that men are not created equal.
He is saying there are superior and inferior language; hence superior and inferior men because languages do not materialize out of thin air, they come from man’s brain.
I wish DJB would explain his statement or better yet, take it back.
DJB on Mon, 4th Jun 2007 7:01 am
Take it back?
How can I when the idea comes from Jose Rizal!
The idea that is, that all other conditions of antecedent and history may be unequal, but MEN are created equal in their rights and duties and potentials.
But they do not always START with the same advantages. Some are born rich, some poor. Some smart, some not. Some are born into societies with a wealth of art, and history and language. Without these things, these starting conditions, the equality of men at their creation becomes quickly meaningless in real life.
That is why Rizal wanted SPANISH taught to the Filipinos. Because, contrary to the theories of certain Padres, which ideas and prejudices seem to be alive and well today in this very thread, he believed Filipinos were capable and deserving of that gift of language and therefore knowledge.
Look at the plot of the Noli Me Tangere. Crisostomo Ibarra wants to have a Spanish Language Institute for Filipinos established in the town of San Diego (his and Maria Clara’s hometown)!
Back then it was the frailes and the guardia civil AGAINST Filipinos learning Spanish. Today it is the National Artists and so-called patriots who are against giving the indios the KEYS to freedom and prosperity thru English!
It is you guys who are being racist in believing that Filipinos cannot handle English, cannot understand it, cannot learn it effectively. ALL or MOST of them. Not just the special ones like us and Bien Lumbera and Rio Almario and Eric Gamalinda!
It is a deeply rooted and personally unrecognized ELITISM that drives National Artists and English Prize Winners to adopt this pose, this artifice of seeming patriotism, this insane insistence that most everybody else take a different path than them to success! They are saying, most Filipinos really should just stick to the vernacular. “Don’t do as we do, do as we say.”
Read again the lengthy conversations between C.I. and his newfound friend Pilosopong Tacio. Read again, MB, the beauteous rebuttal Rizal makes of this very point you make!
Who is a racist now MB? You or Me?
inodoro ni emilie on Mon, 4th Jun 2007 7:08 am
“Now racist is a loaded word —- are you suggesting inferiority? Between one Filipino who knows both Tagalog and Mandarin and another who knows Tagalog and French, who is the inferior?”
but oh, upn, it’s not about tagalog and mandarin or french. to english language advocates who proclaim that we are shut out from the intellectual exclusivity of science and math, it’s about filipino or english. the implication being, filipino will lead us back to the jurassic era. [e.g. "As such, people who have superior command over English will always be at an advantage over those who find childish comfort in withdrawing to their “native†language. People who are comfortable with English not only have access to an immense wealth of knowledge, they are able to confidently go head-to-head with others of equal calibre."]
which is rather a lame claim. because, come to think of it, for years we’ve always been boastful of our level of english proficiency [WE ARE THE THIRD LANGUANGE ENGLISH SPEAKING COUNTRY IN THE WORLD!--a mantra we were taught to proclaim back in my grade school current events quiz; won't tell you when that was though, hehe]. be that as it may, where did this position bring us all these years in our ranking of mathematical and scientific knowledge? third at the bottom of 40 countries tested in the 1999 and 2003 timss [trend for international math and science studies]. but we’re not exactly inferior; we’ve topped south africa, another of the largest english-speaking country of the world.
our superiority in english will not necessarily propel us to become masters in math and science [i doubt. considering that math and science remain among the most unpopular college courses.] far from it. our english proficiency is just being taken advantaged by other countries in need of skilled laborers. skilled laborers who–let’s be blunt of this–are not even into the promotion of math and science, but primarily into padding their pockets, which they could not do so at home. and home is the third largest english speaking country in the world, just to remind you.
’nuff of this english or filipino only baloney. time to focus on a genuine bilingual program, which the deped is not looking at seriously.
DJB on Mon, 4th Jun 2007 7:16 am
The Bystander,
It is indeed with Renato Constantino that the intellectual struggle must be fought, because I have not yet found in all my years, anyone with quite so original and powerful a poison for other minds. Everywhere, one finds the echoes of his polemic, so imbued with a self-righteous resentment.
Yet, even Constantino’s anti-Americanism is so … American! (It takes one to know one.)
For he learned it from the US Anti-Imperialist League and the American Communist Party. It was a shock for me to discover that Constantino is not so original after all.
Even his Leftist thinking is a form of colonial mentality!
inodoro ni emilie on Mon, 4th Jun 2007 7:20 am
“Languages, unlike men, are NOT created equal. Sorry.â€
i do tend to agree with you on this, djb. especially when it comes to mathematics.
which means, chances are, english is the inferior language in mathematics.
read this abstract:
======================================================
Mathematical Thinking and Learning
2001, Vol. 3, No. 2&3, Pages 201-220
(doi:10.1207/S15327833MTL0302&3_04)
Chinese and English Mathematics Language: The Relation Between Linguistic Clarity and Mathematics Performance
Chinese and English Mathematics Language: The Relation Between Linguistic Clarity and Mathematics Performance
In Study 1, 48 judges rated the clarity of Chinese, English, and “Chinglish” (Chinese words translated into English) mathematical words-for example, the Chinglish version of the Chinese word for quadrilateral is “four-side-shape.” Native Chinese-speaking judges achieve greater agreement on the relative clarity of Chinese words than do native English-speaking judges on the relative clarity of English words. More Chinese words are rated clear than are English. Chinglish mathematical words tend to be rated more clear than English. The inherent compound word structure of the Chinese language seems well suited to portray mathematical ideas.
In Study 2, we examined the relations among the clarity of Chinese mathematical terms, U.S. urban junior high school students’ Chinese reading ability, and their mathematics performance. There is a strong correlation between Chinese reading ability and performance on test items with mathematics words rated clear by Chinese judges. The relative clarity of mathematical terms in the Chinese language may contribute to Chinese-speaking students’ understanding of mathematics and to superior mathematics performance.
=====================================================
it may also be worth reviewing the language of the countries who topped timss.
DJB on Mon, 4th Jun 2007 8:02 am
devilsadvc8, You said: “As to insisting to teach the basic sciences in english, I have only this to ask: which kid would learn math faster when it is taught in tagalog? an american or a filipino?”
It depends on the kind of Filipino. For example, for the 20 million native Cebuanos, the Filipino language aka Tagalog is just as foreign as to the American. To hear some of them, it is even more foreign than English, with which they have had a long an illustrious history, as proud Filipinos!) Tagalogs practice a hideous form of prejudice when they insist that it should be easy for Cebuano natives and other non-Tagalog speakers to pick up Tagalog because they are “related” languages, and we are all “Filipinos.” Now THAT’s racism.
DJB on Mon, 4th Jun 2007 8:46 am
inidoro,
Charming of you to suggest Chinese vs English as medium of instruction in mathematics for the Public Schools in the Philippines on the grounds that “Chinglish” is inherently “clearer”!
Even if such a proposal is non sequitur and unconstitutional, it shows just how much we miss the comfortable old Cold War, when we could pit the superpowers against one another and achieve the moral cop-out of “A pox on all their houses!”
inodoro ni emilie on Mon, 4th Jun 2007 8:57 am
my point, djb: borrow english loan words, give the meaning in local tongue. be that ceblish or tag-lish.
inodoro ni emilie on Mon, 4th Jun 2007 9:04 am
leave the cold war reminiscing out of this. the article is a well-refereed scientific paper that reveals how language can enhance or hamper learning. throw in this added context: english is our nth language, where n=1, 2,..,x, where x
inodoro ni emilie on Mon, 4th Jun 2007 9:06 am
x is the identified capacity of a polyglot. but am sure the scientific persona in you fully understands what the study implies.
UP n student on Mon, 4th Jun 2007 10:35 am
inidoro: I don’t think that study is as definitive and as conclusive as you make it sound. Do you know of any school district (be it French or Canadian or American) that have made changes to their curriculum based on the study?
inodoro ni emilie on Mon, 4th Jun 2007 11:46 am
up n,
i was trying to be cautious, and tried not to sound definitive; hence, the caveat: “chances are”.
but you can verify what the paper is illustrating by asking any of your chinese friends how efficient their mathematical language is, which inherently captures the very meaning of math concepts in the very words they use.
“Do you know of any school district (be it French or Canadian or American) that have made changes to their curriculum based on the study?”
here:
“Interdependence Revisited: Mathematics Achievement in an Intensified French Immersion Program
This study examines the effect of teaching mathematics in French on mathematics achievement evaluated in English. In this context it analyzes the effect of increased intensity of bilingual education on mathematics achievement. It also analyzes the effects of language of testing in the context of French immersion at the intermediate level. The participants in the study are two cohorts of French immersion pupils followed from Grades 4-7. The treatment group received 80% of the core academic curriculum, including mathematics, in French and 20% in English. The comparison group received 50% of the core academic curriculum in French and 50%, including mathematics, in English. Achievement in mathematics was measured for both groups at the end of Grade 6. Analyses of covariance showed an advantage in mathematics for the 80% French group compared to the 50% French group. These results provide further evidence for Cummins’ threshold hypothesis and interdependence hypothesis.”
cummins, btw, is based ain the university of toronto, where in canada bilingual education is strongly promoted.
my point up n: better to rely on psycholinguistic studies than seeing only red on one’s eyes.
inodoro ni emilie on Mon, 4th Jun 2007 11:51 am
of course, the french study i’ve indicated does not mean schools have adopted them. the “here” was just a lead to provided further support. as to whether such finding was later implemented in schools, i can only surmise.
freewheel on Mon, 4th Jun 2007 12:50 pm
DJB,
hinggil sa komento ninyo, 8:02 am, June 4:
naalala ko ang pananakot ng mga taong tulad nina hilario davide (lider ng Pusyong Bisaya nuong 70’s, at SC), ernesto herrera, ang mga tulad nila; na magtatayo ng sariling republika, bilang tanda ng pagtutol sa proyektong pagbubuo ng sariling wika, at ako man ay sang-ayon sa kanila bilang isang estudyante ng elementarya sa Lahug, Cebu.
dala-dala ko ang ganitong pananaw hanggang sa kolehiyo’t magtapos; pero nitong 10 taon na ang nakalipas, at magpasa hanggang ngayon, ay siyang lubos kong pinagsisihan at tinatalikuran bagamat nakakapagsulat ako sa 3 bersyon ng Bisaya: ang Sugbuaunon, Hiligaynon at Dabawenyo.
ano ang nangyari? sa pag-iikot sa loob at labas ng bansa ang nagpukaw sa akin ng kahalagahan ng isang sariling wikang tatagos sa kahit na anong rehiyunal na grupo, isang gamit komunikasyon na magbibigay linaw sa mga usapin tungo sa pagkamit ng unawaan sa minimum, at pagkakaisa sa maksimum.
halimbawa, ang karamihan ng morong Maguindanaon sa Cotabato ay hindi lubusang nakakaintindi ng Bisaya (kahit na anong bersyon),pero nagiging posible ang pagbubuo ng komunikasyon kung sisimulan ito sa Tagalog.
totoo ang ganitong kalakaran maging sa Jolo, Zamboanga o kahit na sa Marawi !!
ang imahe na sobra ang kiling sa Tagalog ng kasalukuyang sariling wika, ay marapat bigyan ng pansin ng mga iskolar at dalubhasa para ito ay wakasan at i-angkop ang mga mahahalagang bokabularyo na natatagpuan sa iba’t-ibang bernakular ng mga rehiyon.
kaalinsabay sa rekomendasyon ng mga iskolar at dalubhasa na ituturo ang matematika at agham sa wikang angkop para sa kabataan, bingual man o hindi, magiging may saysay LAMANG ito kung ipagpatuloy ang pagbalangkas ng isang komprehensibong programa para sa pagbubuo ng sariling wika, na tutugun sa pangangailangan na may kinalaman sa batas, kultura at kasaysayan.
kung ang Inglis na sa kasalukuyan ay natural na lingua franca ng negosyo’t kalakalan, ipagpapatuloy, wala naman sigurong tutol dito.
gabriela on Mon, 4th Jun 2007 2:15 pm
Are there people who get paid to defend the government in blogs like this? I have noticed that the responses such suspicious people make would take so much of their time that they couldn’t just spend if they have other occupation.
Anyway, iniisip kong mabuti kung ano ang kahulugan ng economic growth sa mga pangkaraniwang empleyado na hindi makaafford na kumain sa labas kasama ng pamilya, bumili ng lahat ng kailangan sa eskuwela, bayaran ang matrikula, bumili ng matinong pagkain, manirahan sa disenteng bahay, magbayad ng kuryente at tubig. Umaayos raw ang ekonomiya pero hindi ko nararamdaman. Kailan kaya kami makakasali sa improvement na ito? Ang pamahalaan ay bayad ng bayad ng air time para sabihin sa mga tao na sila’y nagtatrabaho. ‘Di ba sayang ang pera.
May kakilala ako na may ari ng hospital, accredited ng Phil Health. Ang utang ng PhilHealth sa maliit na pagamutan na ito ay 5 million pesos. Nagbayad lamang ng P700000.00 nitong nakaraang 2 buwan. Pero sabi sa telebisyon ay may pera ang PhiulHealth. Kung may pera bakit may utang?
manuelbuencamino on Mon, 4th Jun 2007 2:27 pm
“The idea that is, that all other conditions of antecedent and history may be unequal, but MEN are created equal in their rights and duties and potentials.
But they do not always START with the same advantages. Some are born rich, some poor. Some smart, some not. Some are born into societies with a wealth of art, and history and language. Without these things, these starting conditions, the equality of men at their creation becomes quickly meaningless in real life.”
So the art of aboriginal australians, their history and their language are inferior to that of the west or chna or india or arabia or any of your so-called civilized cultures?
I thik you conflate dominance with superiority. You need not cite Rizal. Imelda would have been more concise – “Some are marter than others.”
No DJB, art, history and language are all equal. One is not superior to another. And when an outsider judges, it shows his prejudice.
Use another line of argument lest we fall into the White or Yellow or Arab Man’s Burden bullshit again.
The only good argument for you is to say- we have to do it because that’s where the money is. Someday, if some other language dominates and that’s where the money else, then we abandon eglish for that language.
That’s what we did with Spanish, that’s what we need to do with english.
Just cut the crap about superiority. Once upon a time, during Rizal’s heydey, Spain ruled and Spanish was the superior language. When the Romans ruled, Latin was superior.
Empires come and go so do the dominance and “superiority” of languages.
Jon Mariano on Mon, 4th Jun 2007 4:23 pm
Reading this thread is both entertaining and an eye-opener. I hope some of the good stuff in here get to be implemented.
We all have our own thoughts I guess on what is best, but it is those who are in position to implement changes that can actually effect changes. Even those who petitioned the courts against the use of English as medium of instruction remains as mere petitioners. At least they did something out of and because of their stand. Those who strongly feels for something else need to act on them too.
justice league on Mon, 4th Jun 2007 8:17 pm
INE,
That mantra that you were taught with didn’t exactly say that we were proficient.
But did that study say what kind of Chinese was being referred to? Fookien, Mandarin, etc.?
DJB,
Your claim of 20 million native Cebuanos is interesting. Are you using ethnologue’s numbers or another source that unfortunately is using ethnologue as a basis?
Gabriela,
Your argument of how much time a blogger spends on any response can be hurled back to any one on any side of the fence.
the bystander on Mon, 4th Jun 2007 10:37 pm
DJB,
I read RC’s views at face-value, regardless of whether it was original or not or whether he got it from some anti-American / pro-communist group in the United States.
As long as we live in a society with a basically colonial mentality, there will always be activists, leftists and similar-minded individuals ready to challenge the status quo.
UP n student on Tue, 5th Jun 2007 1:28 am
bystander : I don’t know anymore how to explain to my nephew how Filipino demonstrate their colonial mentality. Can you help me?
Obviously, “colonial mentality” is not determined by my street address. So is it language or training? Are you (who is more-skilled-with-English than the average-Pinoy because English is the language in Philippine courts) a practitioner of “colonial mentality”? Is Trillanes (more training on an M16 than an AK47) a practitioner of “colonial mentality”?
Do I point to the magtataho who can only speak Tagalog as one who has been freed from “colonial mentality”?
Is Ana-de-France with worries more about Sarkozy the better than Abe Margallo who worries more about Bush?
I suspect one would say Col/Mental is exhibited by how one thinks. Now thinking can be affected by the textbooks i’ve used, so if the textbooks I have read are from Prentice Hall versus Penguin or Elsevier, do I have “colonial mentality”?
Does torn-and-frayed have colonial mentality from the oppressor-side while cvj has the colonial mentality from the oppressed-side?
inodoro ni emilie on Tue, 5th Jun 2007 7:08 am
“That mantra that you were taught with didn’t exactly say that we were proficient.”
may tama ka! proficiency is not equal to head count. if it were so, that would put us ahead of u.k.!
“But did that study say what kind of Chinese was being referred to? Fookien, Mandarin, etc.?”
mandarin.
inodoro ni emilie on Tue, 5th Jun 2007 7:23 am
“We all have our own thoughts I guess on what is best, but it is those who are in position to implement changes that can actually effect changes. Even those who petitioned the courts against the use of English as medium of instruction remains as mere petitioners. At least they did something out of and because of their stand. Those who strongly feels for something else need to act on them too.”
which in a way, jon, is rather unfortunate, because the issue of medium of instruction in school has become a sociopolitical more than a pedagogical issue. and those in the position to implement them are not even in education! worse, the deped is not thinking of a scientific way to resolve the issue!
even more unfortunate, the scientist in this blog is overwhelmed by the burden of his cultural/political orientation by not taking steps off to assess the issue from a more objective standpoint.
Jon Mariano on Tue, 5th Jun 2007 11:46 am
It’s a big mess and it will take some time to resolve. Whatever the solution our administrators will go by with will not please everybody, that’s for sure.
cvj on Tue, 5th Jun 2007 3:21 pm
Which i suppose also explains his tendency to argue things that are not at even at issue as if they were revealed truth (aka ignoratio elenchi).
justice league on Thu, 7th Jun 2007 8:50 am
INE,
“Mandarin”
Ok.