Comments on: Conference Notes

By: leytenian

leytenian — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 04:09:50 +0000

are we talking about corruption again? LOL.
Corruption is a RESULT. It is not the main problem. The main problem is non transparency and direct accountability of our banking system.Movement of funds are invisible. GDP reporting might have been overstated or actually overstated and yet unemployment rate remains to be at 70% in the provinces. Thanks God to sweet potatos and 7100 islands. Basic needs can be temporarily subsidized. So where’s the money that UN provided to balance supply and demand of Rice? Where is it deposited and who keeps the record?

By: cvj

cvj — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 00:57:14 +0000

mindanaoan, i’d take the same stance as you if i were also trying to sell the status quo.

By: Diego

Diego — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 23:59:10 +0000

@ grd

Oh, cry baby Bencard found a defender in you.

By: grd

grd — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 19:58:40 +0000

btw, to any one: ano ba ang tawag sa taong bukod sa ignorante ay masiado pang mahangin. sobrang kayabangan at pag-bubuhat sa sariling bangko. executive daw at panay ang kain sa Ã¢â‚¬Å“shang-edsaÃ¢â‚¬Â kahalubilo ng mga importanteng tao. hah!

bencard, i think the guy has DID. with his kayabangan, i hope next time a big anti-gloria rally is staged, he’ll have the nerve to cancel his meeting at “shang-edsa” and join the rallyist. then maybe he’ll have the moral right to lambast other people here.

By: mindanaoan

mindanaoan — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 16:22:11 +0000

cvj, to sell a replacement, it’s not convincing to criticize the existing system as an answer to a criticism to your product. you have to answer the criticism, and you have to show why and how it is a better product. on the other hand, i know its brianb’s idea, so i can understand your stance.

By: cvj

cvj — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 15:47:58 +0000

Mindanaoan, so that means that a Congressman is also a populist with respect to his fellow Congressman. That is a worse form of ‘populism’ because it caters to the interest of a smaller group which explains the ‘tayo-tayo’ mentality that has formed among the Congressmen (and to a lesser extent, the Senators).

Brianb, i agree with your last paragraph.

By: mindanaoan

mindanaoan — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 15:27:11 +0000

cvj, it differs greatly. a selfish congressman will quickly find he has no friends to vote for his projects, so it is in his best interest to be fair. a single voter will vote for what benefits him directly because it is also his best interest, since he is not accountable to anyone for his vote.

and also, what makes you think voters don’t sell their votes?

By: Bencard

Bencard — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 15:17:04 +0000

cvj, i don’t care what r. david postulates but you cannot improve the system by gutting it down and replacing it with one that doesn’t work, or with just the same but of a different paint. we have tasted different forms of totalitarianism, both from foreign powers (spain and japan), and fascism from marcos – with results too horrible even to remember. even Jesus Christ’s small band of disciples had a corrupt member who plotted for His death for the price of 30 pieces of silver. in a defective society, experimenting with “direct democracy” is like tinkering with a bomb with everybody’s life, including the players, on the line. i say improve the individual
first, then the society in which he/she is a part of will be better and able to devise an ideal system to govern itself. btw, i think it would be more worth your while to take note of benignO’s list of some of common character flaws of the pinoy, in the preceding thread, for a better understanding of what i’m talking about here.

By: BrianB

BrianB — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 14:43:28 +0000

cvj,

I vote for higher taxes. My proposition to government: Compute how much more in taxes does it need to keep Filipinos eating three square meals a day, impose an increase and by God they better spend it where it’s supposed to be spent, no more excuses.

i think the rates of active participation will just be a fraction of the population with the overwhelming majority content to be lurkers, which is not necessarily a bad thing.

CVJ, this is where the lobbyist will come in. This sort of government will transform the very being of lobbyists. They will resemble educators more than power players. It will be their duty to educate and promote to the people the bills they are supporting. I am assuming there will be contrarian lobbysits too. Lack of participation and interest is just a matter of disillusionment and a lack of trust in the politicians and their propaganda. If you haven’t noticed simple people have ideas about what kinds of rules and laws will work best for them, even the most uneducated ones.

By: cvj

cvj — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 14:20:33 +0000

BTW, what you dismiss as a mere vulnerability is what Randy David (in a column about Among Ed’s victory that Manolo linked to in the next thread) identified as the our problem:

The enemy is the entrenched political system that allows money to purchase public office and to corrupt every institution of governance. It is this that needs to be brought down.

Needless to say i agree with David’s statement of the problem.