Communal political vocabulary wanted

The weekend saw a lot of speculation concerning the President’s decision to move Neda Director-General Romulo Neri to the Commission on Higher Education, a decision that apparently took Neri himself by surprise. Most of the speculation involved the motives: was it to get Neri out of the way, because he opposed the ZTE broadband deal? Was it part of a purge of Speaker Jose de Venecia’s people in the Palace? The implications of other presidential appointments, too, has been the grist of the political rumor mill: reports like Overhaul in gov’t continues help identify the president’s priorities, and incidentally, feeds discussion on why certain positions are quickly filled (by the usual suspects) and others left vacant.

The Neri transfer has created its own problems, though: So who’s the real education czar?

Education Secretary Jesli Lapus Sunday said there was a need to clarify an executive order designating a presidential assistant as coordinator of the
Department of Education (DepEd), Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).

The executive order was seen in some sectors as tantamount to appointing a de facto education czar.

“There is already an existing presidential assistant for education. And I don’t think you can call a presidential assistant a czar,” Lapus said in a phone interview.

He said he was not consulted about the executive order.

Some however, view the Neri move as a good one, including The Business Mirror editorial:

Finally, officials have seen the irony of the OFWs’ situation: as recently pointed out in a front-page story in this paper, the more dollars they remit home, the bigger the gap that has to be filled in their families’ usual budget – given that with the peso appreciating in the flood of dollars, their dollar earnings here fetch an increasingly lower peso equivalent.

A couple of OFW dependents interviewed for that Associated Press story said that in a matter of a few months, the difference in the peso equivalent of the dollars sent home by their OFW loved ones had reached P3,000 to P5,000. To make up for that decline, some OFWs have thus had to remit more, thus perpetuating the cycle.

We’re talking here of about eight million overseas Filipinos whose aggregate remittances as of April were up 26.08 percent to $4.681 billion.

This editorial reminds me of a rather depressing conversation over the weekend.

It involved an observation someone made, which goes like this. It can’t be denied that for big business, business is pretty damned good. And for some other businesses, involving small and medium scale entrepreneurs, etc., it’s pretty good, too. And the export of our fellow citizens overseas makes our economy pretty much foolproof, regardless of who is in charge of our government.

But, the person making the observation said, think of it. You’re an OFW. You earn a salary, and you remit a big chunk of it home. You send it through a bank owned by big business, which takes a cut. Your family at home takes the money you sent (minus the bank’s cut), and spends it on the following: down payment or rent in a development put up by big business; education, in a school owned by big business; utilities owned by big business; clothing, gadgets, furniture, food, etc. sold in malls owned by big business; whatever is left, you either stick in a pension or some other plan sold to your family by big business, or deposited in the same bank owned by big business…

The point being, the person making the observation said, that the money you make primarily circulates within the subsidiaries of the established big businesses: whatever escapes from that system is, when you think of it, peanuts.

In other news, Basilan quiet but tense after deferred offensive but D-day in Basilan to push through Tuesday. In Newsbreak, a report asks, AFP: Learning from Mistakes?

Angat Dam reduces Metro water supply. Government’s embarked on cloud-seeding operations, but Cloud-seeding fails to raise dam levels. there’s a lot of speculation, too, on government moves concerning power generation. This is because it’s big, big business. Everything related to the energy sector can be big, and controversial news. See Emergency deliveries of coal, fuel oil to keep plants running for example.

Tony Lopez discusses what’s involved in bidding for a power generation facility -and why power generation’s attractive to companies like San Miguel. See Asian Energy Advisors, maintained by Mamutong, for how foreign consultants view the energy sector’s opportunities, too. Now what I want to know is why we don’t have more of these: see Vista Pinas for a picture of Southeast Asia’s largest solar power plant, right here in the Philippines!

There are so many stories emerging -the controversy surrounding Meralco’s raising electric rates, arguments over whether there’s a real, or simulated, power shortage, what sort of deals are being made and who will profit from them- that it’s dizzying. Hopefully some bloggers familiar with the various issues will start posting and dissecting things.

Elsewhere on the economic front, Stock market bull run over - Deutsche Bank (not, the bank says, the government’s doing; bright spot today was GMA-7 stocks shine in trading debut, even as RP bourse falls). You may have noticed the Marcoses are aggressively pursuing ownership of shares and properties in the courts: US papers show Tan was Marcos’ partner.

Trying to expand his options, Villar says More choices for Blue Ribbon head. Playing for time, too: Resolving Senate impasse may take 3 weeks, says Villar.

Overseas, Bangkok is “transfixed” by rumors concerning the Crown Prince’s health: see Rumor Nation. In Japan, Abe Vows to Stay After Losing Japan’s Upper House (his party lost in the upper house; what’s interesting is how an upper house election is understood in Japan as in the nature of a referendum on the sitting administration). In Rorschach and Awe, Katherine Eban looks at how CIA psychologists reverse-engineered training they developed, to help US soldiers resist Communist-style interrogation techniques, and developed today’s “coercive interrogation methods”.

My column for today is Communal political vocabulary wanted.
Amando Doronila and Jarius Bondoc both tackle the ongoing reorganization of the Senate, and the problems it poses for Senate President Villar. Much will hinge, apparently, on who becomes Chairman of the powerful Blue Ribbon committee. The administration wants Joker Arroyo to keep it; some of Villar’s allies in the opposition are threatening to dump him if he gives in. In the House, Efren Danao tackles the so-called “independent” bloc formed by Rep. Garcia.
Quite a thought-provoking column by Conrado de Quiros today.

Also, Rasheed Abou-Alsamh on what TV shows tell us about a certain society.

In the blogosphere, my Inquirer Current entry is Calendar of values. John Nery, in his entry, asks, what was the best political insult?

Torn and Frayed points out the remarkable capacity of Filipinos to remember names and faces, and he tries to explain why this may be so.

Placeholder undertakes a thorough, and valuable, discussion on the automation of elections. He points to a report by Halal Marangal on the May 2007 elections, and its recommendations for a rational automation of elections.

Postcard Headlines gives a summary of the circumstances surrounding the abduction and continued disappearance of Jonas Burgos. See the news report, CA resumes hearing on Burgos disappearance.

[email protected] also gives an enlightening summary of the circumstances that have led the Supreme Court to instruct the armed forces to produce Burgos (a deadline the military didn’t meet). In her blog, Notes of Marichu Lambino, she says what’s left is for those concerned to petition for a whole bunch of subpoenas:

General Bacarro and their other representatives are most likely already in transit to the Court of Appeals. They are expected to deny custody of Jonas Burgos.

Don’t let them get away with it. Subpoena, or move for the issuance of a subpoena ad testificandum and duces tecum for Army chief Lt. Gen. Romeo Tolentino and his intel report; he said that they did a background check on agriculturist Jonas Burgos and claimed he was a member of the New People’s Army “Front Committee 2 based in Bulacan”, and that he has the intel report to show for it (subpoena duces tecum for the intel report).

Parties to an action are entitled to the issuance of processes that would produce the evidence for their case; and if the Court of Appeals denies the Motion for issuance of subpoenas, then the Supreme Court should be able to order the Court of Appeals. This is an evidentiary hearing, or would today turn into an evidentiary hearing, because the Supreme Court had anticipated that the respondents would deny custody; and that was why they had ordered the parties to bring the person of Jonas Burgos to the Court of Appeals.

If those subpoenaed allege that matters of “national security” prevent them from testifying and from producing the documents, they can be given an executive session with the justices and the parties and no one else attending, and the records could be asked to be sealed if the Court thinks that these involve the sensitive matters (like names of agents, etc.). But if they refuse altogether to testify and to bring those reports, the petitioners could move to cite them in contempt. And if in contempt, have them detained. Until they comply with the order to testify and produce the report. I know; if you push this to the legal limits, if the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court use the extent of all the authority that they have, we might have an Armed Forces refusing to obey the writs of the Court. At some point, if the Supreme Court pushed this to the extent of all its authority, you’d have a stand-off. I know. But what else are we to do? Where else would the Burgoses run to?

In his blog, Village Idiot Savant discusses the origin of the “trisikad” used in Davao.

And just for rather odd fun: the Hitler Safety Dance.

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Manuel L. Quezon III.

117 thoughts on “Communal political vocabulary wanted

  1. I think the need for a communal lingo goes deeper than politics. If we hadn’t noticed yet, no real philosophical framework binds Pinoys outside of our “bahala na”, “pwede na yan” and “the lord will provide” mentalities.

    Politics can only be regarded properly and INTELLIGENTLY if a coherent thought/philosophical framework underlies it and serves as a robust context.

    That’s a tall order for a people famous for choosing leaders based on their ocho-ocho skills, who have a penchant for lapping up decades-old political taglines and slogans, whose main claim to fame in terms of contributing to world politics is the claimed invention of a soap-operatic extrajudicial form of street parlimentarianism, and who never fail to be hoodwinked into believing that a “united oppositions” exists every election time.

    How can we expect ourselves to develop a “communal political vocabulary” if we can’t even agree on what it means to be “Filipino”. We seem to be more familiar with what it means to be Ilocano, Cebuano, or Mangyan.

  2. amusing how benigno keeps on nitpicking the pinoy’s social proclivity to perfect their ocho-ocho skills while forgetting that it is this type of masa orientation which ushered in the POLITICAL phenomenon called PEOPLE POWER. do not underestimate the masa. benigs. they do know when to toe the political party lines and when to toe on and party.

  3. “it is this type of masa orientation which ushered in the POLITICAL phenomenon called PEOPLE POWER”

    Precisely my point. If you hadn’t noticed yet, People Power has been all but perverted by Pinoys having done it (or attempted to instigate it) once too many so much so that all we get now from the global community (not to mention the foreign media) is a big YAWN whenever yet another Fiesta Revolution is undertaken. 😉

    There’s only so much that herd mentality can bring upon. The real gains happen when THINKING is applied.

  4. i have no argument with perversion of people power. i was not impressed with edsa 2 myself. edsa 2, btw, was a middle class revolution sparked by ocho-ocho ringtones.

    why the need to define what is a filipino when you can just be? but if this really boggles you, the best authority to define who we are is someone who is not one of us.

  5. Manolo,

    Are you trying to insinuate that big business is inherently evil, for having to charge money for basic goods and services? Should big businesses give these away for free?

  6. When someone deserves it you do not have to say it. Respect will be given. If one does not deserve it people will be cold, even shame him/her. Even in competition even if you do not like the winner if he/she deserves it you have to congratulate him/her or join everybody in praising the victory not only him/her winning but to the success of the competition. We all have to work out not just to determine the winner but also to make sure that we work hard in the process that determines it.

  7. What really sad is that, nobody among our “leaders” in the government, in congress, etc. makes the decision that the allegation is not true or this is very serious and needs to be deeply looked at.

  8. benigs,

    i’ve been to the link you posted in the response thread to john. your posting is so typical of a pinoy loathing, especially among those who have uprooted themselves from the country. which in fact makes you very pinoy.

    russell’s paradox, dude. that’s where you find yourself in.

  9. john limjap: no. personally, i view big business as morally neutral. it is accountable to shareholders. but i do think it’s worth pondering whether or not the beneficiary on the whole ends up big business. there should be plenty for everybody, if government referees matters properly, and the business environment is such that companies large and small all have a piece of the pie. if the whole pie goes to the big players only, that can’t be a good thing.

  10. Hi Manolo! A couple of days ago, in a “group column” in the Inquirer, Fe Zamora reported that whenever she asked her contacts in the military and the police for any information on the whereabouts of Jonas Burgos, they replied, everytime: “Ask Tintoy” , “Tintoy” being the nickname of Army chief Lt. General Romeo Tolentino. Wish we could write about better days. Regards! – marichu

  11. “your posting is so typical of a pinoy loathing, especially among those who have uprooted themselves from the country. which in fact makes you very pinoy”

    What can I say? I am indeed Pinoy. Never denied it. And even what you say is true, my point is: So what?

    Does that change the sad reality that those adjectives I cited ring undisputably true? 😉

  12. Re; Hitler Safety Dance…Was thinking all along that the Jive is one latest and most modern dance. the man did the perfect demo of social jive long before “dancing with the Stars”…

  13. Hi MLQ3,

    Respecting the office of the president while disliking/hating the person occupying it would be very difficult in practice. It would be even more so if the issue is legitimacy which goes much deeper than mere policy disagreement or personal dislike.

    The Thais can afford to have laws against disrespecting the king precisely because over there there is separation of roles between head of state and head of gov’t. It is precisely because the king is a non-partisan head of state that respect can be given to him without much reservation. The Thais can still respect the king while disliking the gov’t. Our political system precludes this desirable scenario precisely because it merges the roles of head of state and head of gov’t. Dislike/hate of the occupant of the presidential office translates into disrepute of the office which in turn translates into the disrepute of the state. Disrepute of the state affects the country and nation of which the state is the political expression.

  14. Manolo, thanks for the link! I’m hoping that the IT and Telecommunications Companies don’t see election automation as just another business opportunity. I’m hoping they put their best minds together towards nation building.

  15. mlq3 asked “Now what I want to know is why we don’t have more of these”

    On average 1000 watts per square meter falls as sunlight power. The most efficient photovoltaic cells has 10% efficiency which means it can only capture 10% of the sunlight power that falls into it.

    The Philippines has an average 7 kw/m2/day of solar radiation. 10% is 700 watts.

    Land area of the Philippines 300,000 km2 = 30,000,000 hectares = 3,000,000,000,000 m2

    How much of it is level land? No more than 1% slope. Lets just say 10%.

    3,000,000,000,000 m2 X 10% = 300,000,000,000 m2

    How much has sunlight the whole year? Let’s just say 10%

    300,000,000,000 m2 X 10% = 30,000,000,000 m2

    Potential electricity from solar power.

    30,000,000,000 m2 X 700 watts = 210,000,000,000 watts = 210,000,000 kw = 210,000 Mw

    3000 km2 of the land area generating 210,000 Mw of electricity for 12 hours. That land area is a little bit bigger than Davao City.

    Now we have to choose between planting rice and generating electricity.

  16. Hey, Manolo, thanks for the link to Vista Pinas! I’m glad you found that solar power plant as enlightening as I did. 🙂

  17. How not to have brownouts:
    1)Install NaS batteries everywhere. A 1.2 megawatt 30-foot-wide by 15-foot-high NaS battery can cost as much as $2.5 M. Meralco can charge the batteries at night when electric rates are lower and use them during the day.
    2)Run all power plants as base power plants. Base power plants run all the time. Peak power plants run only during peak demands. An example is Calaca 1 and 2. Calaca 1 runs as a base power plant and Calaca 2 runs only during peak hours. Same thing for Manila 1 and 2 before being mothballed.

  18. i wish technology could develop wherein we could harness the power of storms for electricity

    then we could sell our excess electricity to other storm-starved countries, wahehe.

    or a device that could turn a politician’s hot-air into electricity. that would solve all our power problems. not to mention that these same guys would finally have some use.

    btw, MLQ3 waxes melancholic abt a generation gone past where politics and their vocabulary still had meaning.
    i guess he’s feeling the crunch of aging and meeting young and younger folks. tehee.

  19. Hello there. 🙂

    Thanks for mentioning my blog post about Jonas.

    About the need or a political language, I think the problem is deeply rooted in the country’s educational system. As was pointed out in the column, its “not economic status, and not educational attainment (the audiences I address are either in, or have finished, college).” It’s the type of education itself that is the problem.

    And this is confounded by a whole bunch of other factors resulting to the creation of today’s generation of young people that generally shuns political discourse. I haven’t really look into this fully (and do not have the capability yet to do so), but I would like to believe that it is the further degeneration of the country’s economic structure that is causing this shift.

    Like, we wouldn’t be needing all those concepts about check and balances and the likes if all we’d be doing is going abroad, working as call center agents in business process outsourcing (BPO) centers or as semi-skilled laborers in special ecozones, or digging up nickel in mines opened up for foreigners, etc.

    I have nothing against all that I’ve just mentioned. I’m even a supporter of the development of the country’s BPO potentionals. But I just think there should be more options. And yes, this was actually one of our many problems back then when I was still active in organizing as a student activist. This lack of a “common political vocabulary” made it harder to mobilize for a cause.

    God Bless! 🙂

  20. Hmmm, the third sentence in my last comment should begin with “About the need FOR A COMMON political language” and not “About the need or a political language.” That’s all.

  21. “why the need to define what is a filipino when you can just be? but if this really boggles you, the best authority to define who we are is someone who is not one of us”

    Amusing how some people are so presumptious as to unilaterally determine who has or who has no right to be considered to be “Filipino” (whatever THAT means). 😉

    And if you see no merit in any effort to define what is a “Filipino”, that’s your prerogative. But if this view reflects the majority view, then it explains a lot about why our society is the way it is.

  22. benigs,

    in no way did i imply who has or hasn’t the right to determine who the pinoy is. i just suggested the best authority is someone who is not one of us. simple math logic dude: A cannot distinguish itself unless there is a contraposition non-A.

    you ask what’s wrong with being pinoy? gee whiz, i thought you were the one making all these fuss about being pinoy. not me. your description of pinoy being non-productive, non-imaginative, etc., can all apply to all cultures. but why rub these in? only to suit your contrived perception?

    you live in australia where being australian has to be defined because there are no marked uniqueness in their cultural traits–it being a multicultural, multi-racial setting. the overaching social and political framework thus becomes an imperative, otherwise you will see a clash of cultures, religious and political beliefs. ditto for u.s.a. if the majority of pinoys do not spend time defining who they are, it is perhaps because they feel no need for it because they already ARE. esse, dude, esse. cogito ergo sum.

  23. that should read overarching, not overaching. which in a way you may be doing.

  24. Now Ms Arroyo has a Partner in Japan PM Abe, both are lame ducks. Although Abe still control the Lower House, which the Leader of the Ruling Party is chosen as PM, Japanese leaders usually take responsibility for their party lose and Resign, but they are learning the Art of the likes of Justice Sec. Gonzales, who blunders every which way, but still sticking like Crazy Glue. Maybe Abe got a call from President Arroyo after the polls?

  25. Inodoro, Speaking of energy consumption, When a person is down, is it proper to kick him so he stays down or would helping him get up be more productive. Both acts consume about the same amount of energy.
    Supreme, do your numbers allow for nimbus clouds that do not produce rain?

  26. mlq3,

    Well that’s why there’s the saying “if you can’t beat them, join them”. Of course that takes you to two possible paths: join their company, or put up a business yourself, hopefully one that will not compete with big business or one that the big businesses will not offer, or one that is peripheral but vital to big business.

    My wife and I are trying that “peripheral” path (we have a small home-based travel agency business) and it’s quite hard, but it’s also quite fulfilling. But my point is there are ways so that small players could get a piece of that pie too. Unfortunately it’s exactly up to them to figure out the *how*.

  27. inodoro,

    Leave benign0 be.

    Detailing how bad and hopeless Pinoys are is his job. The fact that he’s good at it reveals that he is, in fact, very Pinoy, among other things.

    benign0,

    Keep up the good work. 😉

  28. neonate,

    productivity = output/input. the assumption is that both activity [kicking and picking] consume the same amount of energy. by holding this constant, so one is looking at output orientation. my answer: whichever does not trammel the filipino spirit. [*inodoro dances to ocho-ocho, segueing to pinoy-ako*]

  29. looks like we will be having same and same problem if Manny Villar become president. the cycle of compromises and utang na loob continues. Why can he just decide by himself on who should chair the blue ribbon. Heck, if I were him, I ‘ll put Allan Peter in that job. After all he is the only other NP in that all. And Allan Peter has shown so much interest in Getting the heads of teh Arroyos while he was a congressman.

    And yet he is so vocal about Glorias being a lameduck.

    And I saw Chiz on tv saying to point of threatening that the Blue ribbon chair go to opposistion only. Geeeeez if only he and the other 3 or four other “mongrels” according to Lacson just stick with teh opposistion. eh wala sanang problema. Lahat ng chairman ng committe eh sa opposistion sana. sus ginoo!

    Just can’t help but agree with benigno most of the time….

  30. Austero’s column about Neri shows that he does not understand the organizational structure of the Department of Education which was formerly DECS the Department of Education, Culture and Sports.

    DECS was divided into three agencies, the Deped which takes care of all that concerns elementary and high school. CHED (Commission of Higher Education) is responsible for College, Graduate and Post-grads while the TESDA is responsible for vocational and skill training.

    As CHED chairman which has only one year office except when extended for holdover just like Dr. Carlito Puno, it is not enough to overhaul the curricullar offerings of the
    thousands of private universities of the country. State universities have their own charter so they are not under CHED.

    Chairmanship is from what I understand is rotated to the five chairmen who have five years’ tenure.

  31. “When a person is down, is it proper to kick him so he stays down or would helping him get up be more productive. Both acts consume about the same amount of energy”

    neonate, to take my turn I have to ask this first: can the treatment of a person be equated to the treatment of a society?

    By wording your question the way you did, it implies that metaphorically kicking a PERSON when he is down is the ethical equivalent of metaphorically kicking a SOCIETY when it is down.

    I get these questions a bit too often.

    Another comes in this form:

    “Shouldn’t you love your country undconditionally the way you love your mother?”

    It takes a bit of thinking beyond the romanticism Pinoy minds are wired to embrace to see beyond the hypocrisy of statements/challenges like these.

    Surely one’s regard for their country cannot be compared to one’s regard for his/her mother. By the same token, people will tend to have less inclination to kick a PERSON while he is on the ground than, say, dissing an entire society.

    So if we limit the discussion to dissing an entire society which, as Limjap pointed out, I see as my mission in cyberlife, my answer is a resounding YES.

    My job is EASY because the very nature of Pinoy society makes it so. And that’s the sad reality.

  32. “It takes a bit of thinking beyond the romanticism Pinoy minds are wired to embrace to see beyond the hypocrisy of statements/challenges like these.”

    wired to embrace? is that a psychobiological scientific fact applicable only to pinoys? you make it sound conclusive, if not exclusive. anything to suit your perception.

  33. i agree with inodoro’s math. we filipinos, just are. i’ve seen enough of the world to know that this is the case. Moreover, anyone who has a passing familiarity with statistical facts about our country as well as an appreciation of the laws of probability, would realize that exceptionalism (on both sides) is a sign of immaturity and narcissism. In that sense, both benign0’s pinoy bashing and good news pilipinas rose tinted projections are manifestations of the same juvenile trait. we need to navigate between the extremes of cockiness and despair so that we don’t oversell ourselves, or sell ourselves short.

  34. Mlq3, Inodoro, BenignO, thank you all for the insights on Physics, Energy and Philosophy in your blog.The match was exciting.

  35. “i agree with inodoro’s math. we filipinos, just are.”

    As a matter of fact, the above kind of thinking was Square One in the 3000-year journey Western thinking took to reach the astounding level of achievement it enjoys today (from which, might I remind everyone, our hollow-headedly cherished “democracy” was derived).

    The Greek philosophers, and then other great thinkers in the last couple of millenia built upon this primitive axiom to develop what today is an entire thought framework that underpins the achievement of Western civilisation.

    So to be content with such a simpleton’s philosophy as “we simply ARE” (and not even be the least bit curious of what this “are” means) would be the equivalent of imprisoning ourselves wihtin the frame of mind of the average 1000 B.C. schmoe. 😉

  36. Benign0, knowing that we just ‘are’ does not mean lack of self-awareness. It means taking the bad along with the good and getting on with the business of making life better in the spirit of quiet self-confidence. Taking on a consistently pessimistic or optimistic stance contradicts reality and therefore is illogical. As far as Western Philosophy is concerned, try catching up on your C.S. Pierce (‘firstness’, ‘secondness’, ‘thirdness’,), Heidegger (‘throwness’) and Wittgenstein (‘form of life’) to supplement your Socrates (‘Know thyself’) and Descartes (‘I think therefore, i am).

  37. Supremo,

    your argument against solar power farms can be applied to the Zubiri/Arroyo biofuels scam. The end result is the same

    “we have to choose between planting rice and generating electricity.”

  38. MLQ,

    Re: your column – “I’d add, respect for the position, regardless of how one feels about the holder of that position–including whether one believes that position is held legitimately or illegitimately. After all, until someone else occupies it, there’s only one person serving as president.”

    Since Gloria is illegitimate, I think the last three words in the paragraph can to changed to “occupying the presidency”

  39. Big business is doing good simply because we love to spend. Shoemart, Jollibee, Globe, PLDT/Smart, San Miguel, Ayala, JG Summit are growing because of our insatiable appetite to consume. ABS CBN and GMA Network are doing very well because advertisers are competing for our attention. Being the voracios consumers that we are made us the billboard and texting capital of the world.

    So it isn’t exactly the fault of big business if most of the wealth concentrated in their bank accounts. They saw an opportunity and took advantage of it. They know we love to consume so they are very willing to take the risk of making investments and opening up more branches.

    If we don’t spend our money as much as we do, will Jollibee and Shoemart become what they are now? We must learn to save and spend wisely. Big business are doing very well because of what we are as a people. Let us change our spending behavior and chances are business will complain.

  40. “We must learn to save and spend wisely.”

    Sadly, even the motivations of saving (in the traditional way, like putting your money in a bank), isn’t as good as it sounds. the paltry rate at which your money grows in interest scares the hell out of me, and tells me im better off spending my money now than sticking it in a bank jz to watch its value get overtaken by inflation. no siree.

    and investing in health and life insurances aren’t as sound either, as these guys will jz find ways to screw you over. control of the industry sucks, and even gov’t run social security won’t make you feel safe. your money’s only as safe as the next honest politician is. either way, both of you are fucked.

    no wonder a lot of Pinoys look outward for salvation. things jz doesn’t look good. not to me anyway. but a quiet afternoon with Madam might cheer some of you folks. if there is one good quality she have, it is this: she’s a very optimistic person.

    so the glass isn’t half-empty for her. it isn’t even half-full. her optimism is such that she thinks the glass is full. “over-flowingly” full.

    heck, she must try one of these days to be in the shoes of us regular Pinoys and I doubt she’d see it that way.

  41. Bengin0
    “Politics can only be regarded properly and INTELLIGENTLY if a coherent thought/philosophical framework underlies it and serves as a robust context.”

    Sorry I hadn’t read this post earlier.

    Benign0, look in the mirror. Your language is the language of big business: “robust,” “underlies,” “coherent thought.”

    About the OFW vs Big Business. I’ve been saying this a long time but no one will listen. It’s the haciendero mentality. The working classes break their back or their hearts or their spirits while the rich get richer.

    It’s the stupidest thing in the world. The rich can be segregated into a very small minority sector. They should be the api. But Filipinos by their tens of billions are letting these fat asses get away with all the rent-seeking, land-grabbing business mentality of their forefathers.

  42. I’ll say this again. Tax these people. If they wanna leave, then write a law that declares them as traitors so they can never come back. Confiscate all land taken by the Spanish from natives. If you happen to have bough land from the Spanish, then sorry ka nalang. Pag nakaw na motorsiklo binili mo, nakaw pa rin yun.

    The problem of this nation is racism. We never had a proper transition period since the Spanish left. Culturally, we’re still a conquered people. Hell, they don’t even teach democracy in our school system, and the morals and individualistic pride that is inherent in democratic thinking.What do they teach? Discipline and respect for authority. Our government practice social engineering. I went to public schools and we had to scrub floors and plant okra. For crying out loud? Thinking back, this country never sounded like a democracy. And how can we be a democracy ruled by the people when the inheritors of the Kastilas still rule over us?

  43. pinoy,

    Big Business is lazy. They never risk their money for progress. They don’t innovate. The business that makes money are basic necessities: clothing, food, heck even cell phone load.

    Why can’t you people accept the obvious. Walang venture capital na galing sa mga conglomerates. Walang financial support mga imbentor natin at walang innovation dito sa pilipinas – not because we lack innovators (we’re almost 90 million, for God’s sake) but because big business don’t think that risk is part of business. Our conglomerates don’t even operate like real businesses. Look how government bailed out the Lopezes several times.

    Sayang ang panahon at ang talento. I’ve been part of the work force for many years, and I am convinced big businesses do not need talented people. Walang talent sa San Miguel, Ayala Group, Lopez Group, Gokongwei Group at kung anong anong group. Kalilangan ba nila magaling na engineer, na scientist, kailangan nila innovator.

    You bet on an innovation, you get rewarded exponentially. Everyone in the world knows that except the Filipino rich. Ang alam lang nila baka malugi sila.

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