A lack of ambition, a Cargo Cult culture, and gaming the system
I have a cousin who is rather high up in an American multinational (I think he’s the first Filipino to hold such responsibilities in the organization) and I asked him, once, why it seemed so few Filipinos reached really high positions in firms overseas. While the American bureaucracy, for one, has more than its fair share of Filipinos, and there are multinationals the world over, filled to the gills with mid-level Filipino managers, why are there so few Filipino top bosses? Hardly any, actually.
His answer came quickly, as befits an executive: “a lack of ambition.”
I asked him to elaborate on his opinion.
“We are easily contented,” he explained. “Once many Filipinos reach a certain level of comfort, they’re not inclined to go any higher.”
This was the genesis of my view that most Filipinos possess a bureaucrat’s mentality: and why the civil service seems so (cozily) ideal for many. I myself noticed I am inclined to be this way: I crave security, I want to minimize risks, I want to, most of all, work to live and not live to work. Employment makes this possible: the company health plan, the company union that fights for it, the predictable paycheck and annual bonuses.
Which is not to pass judgment on this mentality as unhealthy or inferior, per se. It can even be argued that it’s a healthier one than Darwinian capitalism taken to extremes. Yet, taken to extremes, too, there’s the danger that the bureaucratic mentality is not a mental framework that values innovation, or which, when you come to think of it, puts a premium on excellence.
The reality is that the mentality is so pervasive as to have nothing to do with education or social status. Some months ago I had a chat with a banker from Hong Kong who’s fond of the Philippines and Filipinos (with the kind of exasperated affection you might hear an ordnung-obsessed German talking about Italians and their dolce vita). His line is wealth management and so he’s intimately aware of the mental framework of the country’s economic movers and shakers.
“You’re an archipelago,” he began, “with this giant moat comprised of the sea, and so your Ayalas and Sys are, ultimately, safe. They have a captive audience and a natural barrier to anyone challenging them from overseas. Why innovate? Why compete? Once you figure out how to make money, it ends up reproducing itself. You don’t have to be particularly good, just well positioned, and so your energies are better used to preserving your preeminent position rather than embarking on taking risks or competing globally. It’s all very tidy, effortless, and really, quite lucrative. They are the envy of other businessmen in other countries who wish they had it so good.”
But I have gotten increasingly convinced that this mentality, while it has its charms, and may actually make for a better quality of life for most of us, is only made possible by a flawed understanding of business. I have been looking for an appropriate analogy, a useful comparison, and I think I’ve found it.
For some time now, I’ve been of the opinion -or perhaps, it’s more accurate to say, I have a sneaking suspicion- that we live in a Cargo Cult society. As this article, The Cargo Cults, explains,
When soldiers and airmen from the United States and other allied countries arrived in the islands with huge war cargoes, it was for the worshipers proof that those who followed the beliefs of a cargo cult were to be rewarded for their faith. Though the natives did not benefit directly from the appearance on their islands of those types of cargo, the cultists believed that their predictions were confirmed and that the cargo-millennium was at hand. A time of plenty had arrived. There was no longer a need to work. Money was unnecessary. Crops could be, and were, neglected. Pigs were randomly slaughtered for feasts. It was a time to celebrate, and the cultists lived it up.
Things didn’t turn out as the cultists expected, but few lost the faith. When goods fail to appear, as in the postwar period, the followers usually assume it is because they have not yet performed the correct ritual, because foreigners have schemed against them, or because the cultists have neglected the gods.
The complexities of the modern world: it is like Darwinian evolution versus Man being made in God’s image. The ferocious debate between science and faith is like the ferocious debate between those approaching society and its problems from an economic perspective, with its focus on increasing value and promoting efficiency, an essentially remorseless and amoral attitude, to those who possess an essentially philosophical perspective, which has, at its heart, moral questions whether based on religious faith or a more secular approach. But just as the seemingly hopeless divide between faith and science can be bridged, perhaps the great divide between those who put a premium on business and those who hold things like democracy and freedom as what should be, properly, the main considerations of human society, can be closed, as well.
Diosdado Macapagal, a lawyer turned economist, once paid tribute to himself by suggesting he held a competitive edge over his peers:
Leadership in the country today requires a knowledge of economics. The vital problems of the nation are economic in character, namely, unemployment, high prices, underproduction, imbalance of payments, currency controls, etc. Public men who have hazy notions of the fundamentals of economic science and whose minds, for lack of background or aptitude, cannot fathom the mysteries of the economic issues involved in important matters of state, are at a disadvantage. They are like men who treat the sick without the knowledge of medicine, who handle a trial without knowledge of law, who fashion a table or chair without knowledge of carpentry. They are like the Pharisees of old who were the “blind guides of blind men. But if a blind man guides a blind man, both fall into a pit.â€Â
He conveniently forgot to point out that a leader imbued with a thorough understanding of “economic science,” but who lacked political gifts, would be at a disadvantage, too: not least because he’d be unable to muster support for his programs. Most of all, as befitted a person with a doctorate, he put a premium on expertise while forgetting that the bedrock of democracy is popular participation by the non-experts, too. To be sure, a non-lawyer involved in legislation is handicapped compared to a lawyer, but not permanently so: among other things, the non-lawyer can bring fresh eyes and common sense to the legislative process; and economists, too, must realize that their science began as “political economy,” which suggests that what once was, must ever be: you cannot divorce the two. Everything is political and in essence, much of what is political predates the sciences and isn’t subject to the scientific method. But Cong Dadong was on to something, and it was something his daughter took to heart.
Though again, the two approaches are not irreconcilable; they are complimentary. Scientific methods and principles, the handling of statistics, are used in gauging public opinion; but it requires a certain dexterity, an instinctive feel and skill, to marshal that opinion, mold it, hold it, wield it. Politics will always have a mystical attribute attached to it, which is why I pointed out that even a pragmatist like the President consults prophesying nuns, her one time ally turned nemesis Jose de Venecia, Jr. pays attention to letters dictated by his dead daughter, and Romulo Neri, Jr. begins his day by consulting the I Ching and a high percentage of officialdom consults geomancers and fortune-tellers.
The difference between officialdom and their constituents is greater familiarity with the formal structures of government, the regulations the officials themselves make -and break- and perhaps, of the true sources of wealth in our country. Yet all belong to the Cargo Cult.
From the four corners of the world, transported in the holds of ships traveling the seven seas, or in the bellies of aircraft, our cargo comes: rich or poor, the balikbayan box is expected, because demanded; how it gets from door to door, is no one’s concern, really.
And this brings us to what makes possible the door to door service: gaming the system.
It may be more accurate to say that Gaming the System, and not really politics, is our national pastime. We’re very good at it and, indeed, we can game practically any system; and engaged in this collective gaming, what, then, is the real advantage or even logic, in reforming the system and making it invulnerable to being gamed? None. No one will admit it, everyone’s secretly content with it. Which is another reason nothing really happens.
In Wikitruth, there’s an entry on Gaming the system:
Gaming the System means, simply, using the rules, policies and procedures of a system against itself for purposes outside what these rules were intended for. Most of the time, a set of rules will be put in place towards a simple goal. The goal might be to prevent innocents from being harassed to preventing wasted time covering well-tread (and decided-upon) ground. Unfortunately, when a system puts too many rules in place, makes them too vague, or otherwise fails to know the consequences of these rules, people who study the rules closely can then use this massive (often contradictory) ruleset to play the “game” their own, unexpected way.
Think, for example, about the dizzying regulations concerning official corruption in our country, which actually fosters the very thing the laws are meant to prevent.
And it concludes with this solution:
Believe it or not, a stronger central authority fixes more of this problem than anything else. This may sound like something against the goals of Wikipedia, but currently Jimbo Wales or Danny will step in and apply rules against the system as they need to: hard, fast rules with no appeal that are permanent. These are called Wikipedia Office Decisions. They make total sense: the people who are running the system get to make choices. But because Wikipedia falsely makes it sound like everyone has a say, these moves look like dictators running roughshod on the People.
Hence, the not-so-secret yearnings of so many Filipinos for a Man on Horseback who will “Hoy, Puñeta!” a fractious and undisciplined population into line. Which, besides being only a temporary solution at best, also causes more problems than it solves.
Which makes this tart piece of advice with which the Wikitruth article ends, apropos to our discussion:
Over time, Wikipedia’s central authority will make rules more hard and fast. But until then, we remind you that the only way to win against a gamed system is not to play.
Which is exactly what hundreds of thousands, even millions, of Filipinos have done. Incidentally, they are among our best and brightest or at least those with a more enterprising bent. It has ever been so: what brought the Malays to what’s now the Philippines in the first place, and led those from one island to move to another, and another, if not dissatisfaction with the status quo, so that there’s one theory that Tagalog is derived from Cebuano? An island peoples are, essentially, a nomadic people, we have wanderlust genetically programmed into us.
Anyway, let me finally get to this photo, which I took some weeks back to illustrate a point I wanted to make.
Typhoons and bad weather are inevitable: and we’ve become used to thinking that power outtages and electrical fires are a predictable consequence of typhoons. But mitigating the reasons typhoons lead to power failures doesn’t occur to anyone: what happens is, energy is devoted to clearing up the mess in the wake of a typhoon and, as soon as that’s done, everything goes back to normal -until the next time a typhoon strikes. The power failures are blamed on trees whose branches are unpruned, mainly, but hardly ever on the truly abominable state of the electric lines, which are a chaotic mass of dangling or tangled wires on leaning posts, with buildings hooked up to them willy-nilly.
Now I’m sure if you ordered Meralco to take responsibility for the chaotic condition of the electrical wires, they’d plead that the effort would bankrupt them. Oddly enough, no order has been made, which might force the creation of some sort of plan: things being less tangled in places like Alabang, you could start with Tatalon. You could even insist, if you were the government, that any new development has to have underground wiring, which would be more typhoon-proof (though there’s the question of flooding!), and where old buildings are razed and new ones erected, underground connections should replace the old-fashioned posts. One reason no order’s been given is that it would bring up the inconvenient reality that local and national governments don’t take zoning particularly seriously, and that the population has swamped the existing infrastructure.
But the individual citizen thinks, do something, anything! But instead, nothing: the problems are so vast, no solution can be contemplated, much less attempted. And so, when the inevitable occurs -the system breaks down- everyone just has to appear busy long enough to patch things back together until the next time it all breaks down. And yet, with the tangled wires in plain sight, people end up shocked by transmission losses! It’s really a failure to even comprehend how electricity gets from point A to point B, what’s involved, how things work, and that electricity isn’t some sort of magical ether.
Never mind how the system’s supposed to work: everyone’s gamed it, anyway. Which is why, as a balikbayan recently told me, “everytime I come home, everything’s slightly more decayed, the people are poorer, life is a little worse, but everyone’s seems so accustomed to it.”
We have abandoned our ambitions, viewing coping as a kind of triumph; and because we have turned to worshipping the little-understood abstractions of the economy, raising it above the political, we fail to see how until and unless we master politics, everything, including progress, will truly be beyond our grasp.
smoke, who has put forward gaming the system quite often as a way to understand what’s going on, though, since hope springs eternal, we still have to strive for the reality she sees-
…far too many Filipinos are still lazy, unimaginative, and mediocre; far too many of our youth are pathologically enamored with consumerism; and we are still a nation run by morons, who are ‘fiscalized’ by idiots, with running commentary from mercenary retards.
Not being a permanent reality in our country (and change is taking place, on a smaller scale, with people groping their way towards trying to build up the momentum to achieve it on a bigger scale). But in the meantime, I have to wholeheartedly agree with the grimness of things, as The Warrior Lawyer sees it, and as {caffeine_sparks} experiences it.
Good piece, mlq3.
Lack of ambition translates to “puwede na” mindset.
Cargo culture is why Sulpicio cargo will be allowed to ply the seas soon.
Gaming the system: is this why Pinoys are addicted to Wowoweee!
I hope the commentaries don’t turn into Pinoy-bashing. We have our nice traits too.
A most excellent reflection on our national character, MLQ3. Let me add some of my own thoughts…
For most Filipinos, “gaming the system” actually means sabotaging it in some subtle but self-serving way, bypassing its crucial safeguards through subterfuge or stealth in order to get away with something it never intended to be attained in that manner. What really matters to gamers of the system is not understanding what really makes it work, but what flaws exist that can be exploited to make it not work as designed. To game the system is to cheat the rules just enough not to break the system but to make it do things it was not meant to do in just that way. The so called “understanding” of systems that we seek to accomplish is often how to defeat them.
I think this attitude arises from an amalgam of native superstitiousness emboldened by Roman Catholic teachings involving miracles and intercessions, which after all are the ultimate means of bypassing the all-encompassing System we Darwinians call “Nature”. In Religion we find the ultimate subterfuge of the natural world with its axiom of supernatural beings and deities that do not have to obey the Laws of Nature, presumably because they made those Laws and can always chacha them for our own benefit under the right conditions of holy incantation and obeisance to the liturgies and local surrogates of the artificers that made the system.
In this sense, I believe that the greatest intellectual struggle we must undertake is to free ourselves of the shackles of Religion. I for one no longer believe it is possible to reconcile Science with Religion, Faith with Reason, because I believe that Modern Science evolved from Ancient Religion, so much so that Modern Science and Modern Religion stand in the same relation to Ancient Religion as men and monkeys do to the Common Ancestor. Yet one cannot say that there is any way to “bridge” the world of men with the world of monkeys. They have lost the ability to blend their genes and memes for common progeny. Even if both evolved from a common sensibility and share many superficial characteristics, their basic postulates and axioms are now radically different, so different that they lead to entirely different conclusions, attitudes and behaviors.
Our old friend William Howard Taft realized this about the Catholic Church in the Philippines and tried to do something about it. But he was defeated by the Men in Skirts who were committed goddess worshippers and knew the Filipino’s weakness much more intimately than he did. They gamed the system he and America sought to establish here, and the result is a bizarre mutation of what might have been.
I see the role of Filipino intellectuals in the present epoch as the duty to complete the enterprise he began of distributing the most precious cargo that they brought to these shores, the light of reason and enlightenment that awoke the sleepers of the centuries by momentarily and valiantly trying to wipe away the sleeping powders and mud of ignorance that covered their eyes. He saw in Jose Rizal proof positive that Filipinos could indeed transcend the Catholic toxin implanted in their brains, without destroying the moral sense and goodness and love that is to be found in every heart. I have become very Dawkinsian of late, but I won’t quote the acerbic Brit, rather the more gentle fellow American with the long but musical verses…
Ye whose hearts are fresh and simple,
Who have faith in God and Nature,
Who believe that in all ages
Every human heart is human,
That in even savage bosoms
There are longings, yearnings, strivings
For the good they comprehend not,
That the feeble hands and helpless,
Groping blindly in the darkness,
Touch God’s right hand in that darkness
And are lifted up and strengthened;-
re: lack of ambition
you should be asking several people MLQ3. An opinion of one does not necessarily reflect the whole. My favorite example is, a branch is not always the tree.
It is not the lack of ambition nor the lack of qualification and training which are the reasons why Filipinos do not reach the top post (if you are referring to
CEO or President because VP is also a top post). It is the politics in the corporate world. Even in the Corporate America, discrimination is the name of the game. It is not only about the race…it is also about gender.
In the MNC where I worked for some months consulting with the VP-a Filipino, the latter resigned when a do-not-know-anything-pretends-to-know-everything expat was assigned as
Acting CEO. And that was when the major problems and kinks were already ironed out by the VP.
cargo cult
In Hong Kong, all buildings are constructed using feng shui. Businessmen use the luck number 8 and avoid the number 4. If you are a businessman from the West and you are meeting with some Asian Businessmen, do not gift them with sharp objects like letter opener, even if the handle is made of gold.
In India, a management and business school made a god-monkey, it’s chairman of the board. It has its own office and a laptop.
During the dot.com era in Silicon Valley, a business strategist consultant
(a very fancy name for a fortune teller) made more money than the venture capitalists. Many of these VC’s and dot.com execs consulted this lady who was a grauuate from a school of fortune telling in Berkeley.
grim predictions and experience
What is grimmer than get shot in the US because a person was suspected of going ahead of the line?
Oil price increase
You do not need a crystal ball and a good analyst to predict that price of oil is going to increase.
The oil producing nations are aware that sooner or later, their oil reserves will be depleted and an alternative source of energy is going to be discovered. So they make hay while the sun shines. Did you see the latest
breath taking infrastructures in the Middle East and the new “Air Force One ” of the sultan of a small oil producing country?
Remember the rich donyas of Philippine movies (even back in LVN and Sampaguita days) would castigate their lessers who dream big in life and in love as “ambisyosa” or “ambisyoso”. The word had been demonized in our culture for G-d knows how long. In corporate culture as I have experienced, giving extra TLC to a rather mundane office task like writing reports and presentations are deemed “nagpapasikat” kasi “ambisyoso”. I say more than the lack of ambition, I find the less ambitious ones lacking imagination in their lives. Before one has ambition he has to dream first. No wonder our landscape has grey tinge in it, right Manolo? Hindi makulay and kanilang buhay!
djb, for your consideration:
http://darwiniana.com/2008/04/29/interview-manque/
and this, too:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/may/26/agnosticaboutatheism
i don’t agree with your view the men in skirts subverted old bill taft, himself a machine politician. the democracy we observed and practiced was a democracy quite contemporary in the early 20th century but soon subjected to challenges and an accelerated evolution in america. our own evolution has taken other directions, but if the pendergast machine, which gave forth truman, and the daley machine, which helped elect kennedy, persisted to the 40s and 60s respectively, it’s no surprise we perfected the same mechanisms from the 30s to to the 60s.
for much of the 20th century the catholic church was kept in check by residual hostility from the era of the revolution. i’d date the rehabilitation of the church, politically, to the decline, politically, of masons, whose influence (and role) in politics was taken over by that american introduction, the college fraternity.
how the system could be gamed is better demonstrated by the decline of masonry as a political and cultural force, and the rise of the fraternity in politics and the professions. it’s no coincidence, to me, that the first time a president dared participate in a religious procession, as president, was magsaysay’s time, when the old heirs of the european enlightenment were passing from the scene, the rectos and laurels, and the new blood, politically, were catholic candidates educated by american jesuits -manglapus, soc rodrigo, etc.
there’s two politico-spiritual threads in filipino catholicism, after all, the patently hispanic, and the aggressively american: the catholic version of this exemplified by manglapus, manahan, rodrigo (all good people), the protestant, exemplified by evangelical christians like bro. eddie villanueva. this in turn has inspired el shaddai among the catholics.
PSI: certainly, this shouldn’t lead to pinoy-bashing. Bashing has no point: we are, as we are; from what we are, will come whatever we set out to be.
cat, for god’s sakes, obviously i;ve asked more than one person. i am merely putting forward the most eloquent of the explanations i got, by means of illustration.
re 1st: those are obstacles all minorities face. yet the curious thing is the relative abundance (or success) of filipinos in mid-level but not upper management positions.
re 2nd: the feng shui has been programmed into construction as psychic insurance, but you really have to wonder if the abruptness of paranormal intervention is as extreme elsewhere as still done here: the letter from beyond the grave jdv was receiving, for example, directly affected his handling of the last impeachment effort.
‘lack of ambition’ has some truth to it. for a good many Pinoys, becoming a US citizen is their ambition. kahit on welfare, basta US citizen na, ok lang!
scalia, how many fil-ams are on welfare? jeez.
i wonder what was the message was…that impeachment would not work? even a normal person would know that considering his “credibility”.
Welfare is given only to people who are physically disable when they are not qualified for the Social Security pension yet or to those who have reached the age of 65 and have not worked to accumulate the 40 quarters’ contributions.
So when you are still able-bodied citizen, you got to work to earn your living.
To ponder about, from New York Times:
”Admissions people felt that all Asians were the same,” he said, ”that they were all pre-med or engineers, and that they all played the piano or the violin.”
For example, he said, many of his colleagues did not know that Filipinos are among the largest subgroups of Asians in the United States, at least by population, yet among the poorest and least educated.
”They were natural candidates for affirmative action,” said Mr. Hu, now a dean at Harvard-Westlake, a private high school in Los Angeles.
http://phoenix.liunet.edu/~uroy/Labor/AffAct/asians2.html
WELL, I’LL BE…
An impassioned analysis but more in the soul-searching variety rather than attempting a truly philosophical viewpoint on Filipino culture.
MLQ, how, for example, do you figure our love for hereos in this unambitious climate? How about all those martyrs abroad who sacrifice “ambition” for the love of their children?
And oh, I almost forgot. The Iglesia ni Kristo founder actually believes he is the chosen one. Is this lack of ambition?
To push past “… lack of ambition” is to send the message that
Hi Manolo, i don’t mean to nitpick, and i know this is probably so off-topic.
just want to correct one comment. the theory that the “malays” populated the philippines is misleading. the austronesian race initially came from taiwan, moved towards the philippines, and from luzon eventually propagated the rest of the islands including malaysia and indonesia. our ancestors were not malay, in fact we could say that modern-day malaysians and indonesians owe their ancestry to early sea-faring filipino tribes.
genetics-wise, we are closer in ancestry to the ami tribes of taiwan. one can even argue that our indigenous tribes are genetically similar to the han chinese. we actually need to rewrite all those history and filipino culture books used in the grade school. but that’s an altogether different topic right there.
otherwise, i do agree with you, lack of ambition is prevalent. borrowing from maslow, we filipinos are far from self-actualizing.
Re: Electrical Posts and tangled wires. Besides from new constructions, most of older transmission of power still utilized the old “ wooden Posts†but to withstand the brutal wind the worst of winter storms can bring they are reinforced with cable support. I also observed that although only mostly one side of the street carries the line, every line of wire connection to every dwelling is wrapped around a Steel Cable for support and anchored in a strong structure usually a solid steel by the rooftop or wall, that even a tree branch fall on the wire the steel cable can still withstand the force to stop to breakage, also the steel cable prevents the wire from sagging or dangling… Not really a very expensive preventive measures, but very effective in avoiding unnecessary outage or disruptions of power every time there are hiccups of Nature.
But don’t you folks understand that it is only chance why someone has become financially better-off than another? The elite speak of “…lack of ambition” as they sneer at those below them. But not all the children of the elite are elite, some fall into the clutches of drug addiction!!
When one analyzes the statistical patterns, one will arrive at the conclusion that it is randomness, chaos theory, a butterfly that flapped its wings 20 years 35 days ago in a field in Peru, plus a morning that because the sun shone at a particular angle, one begins to like the effort-of-making-sipsip and another realizes he detests it, randomness to can explain why some people are in Singapore and some people are riding jeepneys to their job in Ortigas.
And what is that line again… money is root of all evil
Re Lack of Ambition:
It’s also related to the standard of living here in these isles. As you have discussed in a previous post, the cost of living here isn’t lower than what we have abroad, compared to the minimum wage (the comparison of wages of janitors & domestic helpers here, in HK, & in Singapore, versus the price of a kilo of rice in those countries). As such, one would have to work very hard just to reach a comfortable level of lifestyle. Abroad, especially in the US, one could work for a fraction of the time, with a fraction of the level he may have here, and get much more (say a car and a house in less than five years with easy financing). Since one’s pecking order here in the Philippines is directly tied to his salary, his purchasing power, and his access to resources, one has no choice but to kayod his way to the top. On the other hand, since one could get comfortable in the US in five years what one could get here in ten to fifteen, one’s pretty much set.
Re Gaming the System:
Sometimes when you’ve reached the intermediate level in gaming (as opposed to the expert manipulators), you can’t help but think about those novice players who ditched the game early, went abroad, and are earning more than you might have in your level of gaming. You know you can’t be that good a gamer since you’ve been around too long and still haven’t gotten the comforts offered by the master players, but you’re still comfortable enough not to scrounge around for scraps. But for how long?
This makes it worse, that the non-gamers get out, live decent and comfortable lives, send money back home, and the expert gamers ultimately siphon off these earnings and become even more rich. There’s no need to reform the system, the expert gamers have it made!
‘scalia, how many fil-ams are on welfare? jeez.’
Not many. And this is only New York City. I believe Filipinos in California and New Jersy are much better.
‘Census Profile: New York City’s
Filipino American Population
Income
By all measures of income, Filipino New Yorkers surpassed
city residents as a whole. Filipino median household
income was $69,228, far exceeding $38,293 city-wide,
and Filipino median family income of $78,219 was much
higher than $41,887 for the total city population.8 Filipino
per capita income was $27,065, compared with $22,402
city-wide.
Poverty
Poverty rates for Filipinos were considerably lower than for
the total New York City population.
Among all Filipinos in the city, 6 percent (3,897) lived
below the poverty line – less than one-third of the overall
New York City poverty rate of 21 percent. By age
category, 5 percent (684) of the city’s Filipino children
lived in poverty, compared with 30 percent of children
city-wide, while 8 percent (413) of elderly Filipinos
experienced poverty, compared with 18 percent of senior
citizens city-wide.
Nearly half (47 percent, or 307) of Filipino children in
poverty lived in two-parent families, compared with 34
percent of all city children below the poverty line.
Housing
Filipinos were more likely to own their homes than the
general population. According to the census, 62 percent
of Filipinos in the city rented and 38 percent owned their
homes, compared with 70 percent renters and 30 percent
homeowners in the city overall.
Filipino New Yorkers in 2000 had an average household
size of 2.82 people – larger than 2.59 for the general New
York City population.’
anthony scalia,
‘lack of ambition’ has some truth to it. for a good many Pinoys, becoming a US citizen is their ambition. kahit on welfare, basta US citizen na, ok lang!
You probably did not get your daily ration of Fil-American dog shit.
The pinoy word for gaming the system is WAIS.
Sometimes lack of ambition is just another word for indolence. An indolent man would rather game the system than work within it. And so the indolent give grudging admiration to the wais, the successful gamer, the one who gets away with it, the role model for the indolent.
Our society, as an earlier commenter pointed out, is not geared for the ambitious, That’s why in this country the shortest distance between two points is a crooked line. The crooks make it, And fast. And get away with it. All the time.
“Gaming the System means, simply, using the rules, policies and procedures of a system against itself for purposes outside what these rules were intended for”
True but the game our politicians played don’t have no clear rules and regulations. The system do no exist. There is no clarity of job description, skills, education and years of experience required. Rules and Regulations are the framework of how a system will work from finance, accounting, management, human resources, payroll, risk management and quality services . A good example of gaming the system is the RESULT of what the Commission on Election has done. This Commission has no policies. Most KB’s , barangay capitanss, mayor, congressmen, governors and senators have all paid money to buy votes. These people already violated our constitution and yet, comelec do not have no clear rules and regulations of disqualifications and qualifications.
The Philippine don’t have a SYSTEM. The Constitution only holds the codes and the bills pass thru by Congress but the process of implementation – the rules and regulations that should come with it do not exist. A bill to subsidize the farmer is only a bill and yet communication with department of agriculture and departmemt of natural resources for zoning never exist or if there is, there’s no clear rules and regulations. The people that are supposed to work with it with a certain timeframe to accomplish will pay the GAME. These people who plays an easy game and make money that way , will always know how to make money that way. The concept applies to all politicians and all government employees. No exemptions. It is very obvious… The RESULT of collective performance of public officials and employees is making us forever- third world country.
Gaming the system is the middle class version of ‘some are smarter than others’, Marcos’ crony capitalism.
Quote from Imelda “Sometimes you have smart relatives who can make it… My dear, there are always people who are just a little faster, more brilliant, more aggressive.â€Â
pinoy don’t have no ambition?
i will agree with Manolo… the RESULT is obvious…
when one performs well with prayers, of course… the result will be positive. Just like my mother and my ather. Both are poor , but work hard and pray. The danger of Catholic is when people pray everyday but unemployed. They pray that they will find a job to feed their children…
Now whose JOB is that.
out of topic: I am looking a for President who is experienced in human resources. Ability to increase 5% to 10% YEARLY of Country’s employment rate is a must. Pls apply and provide the process of implementation of how and why you will be a good fit to the job.. email… sa kabukiran@wais.com
And “lack of ambition” could also be interpreted in three ways:
1. Level of incompetence (Peter Principle);
2. Level of satisfaction (‘mababaw ang kaligayahan’ ‘happy na ko sa buhay ko’;
3. Level of risk-taking (‘Baka sumama lang’)
Or all of the above.
Related to ambition and success:
CBS Interview of Pinoy Arnel Pineda, new lead singer of the band Journey.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89_2UivtEhs
“We are easily contented,â€Â
Nothing inherently wrong with this as regards to going up the corporate ladder (as opposed to being ‘easily contented’ with shoddy work).
(and incidentally, must we ask more Filipinos to go up to the top just for the sake of having Filipinos on the top?)
Manuel V. Pangilinan himself says he has NOT had a proper vacation in 8 years (or so). Rightfully, he is paid lots for his time.
And there are the rest of us who choose to be content and use up all our 45 days vacation per year…
As an employee of a Multinational and an OFW, i personally don’t see striving for Top Management as being worth it. Above a certain level, it becomes a matter of politics. What i value more is work-life balance. That is not to say that i lack ambition, but i think defining success in terms of rank in a Company (or income) is outdated.
Come to think of it, this is one of my complaints about the literary community. Maybe this has also something to do with the rather oppressive crab culture. It should also confirm my belief that we are still at heart slaves.
it’s hard work not to take a vacation. two reasons: that person don’t work smart or they don’t know how to get there. by midlife, that person is burned out and will continue to work just to live.
Pubic service is doing beyond one’s self interest. It is no longer work for just me, me me but work for humanity, including sacrifice to be a role model to his/her children , his community and his country. The contentment is doing good things and what’s acceptable to our society. For me, life is simply about giving. Nothing else. Contentment is an alibi for those who cannot step forward or for those who can no longer comprehend what’s beyond his/herself. A new environment and a new set of leaders may break the habit of old thinking. Our leaders must take seminars for encouragement, enlightenment combine with business management. CEU’s of 24 hours a year is highly recommended.
For electric wires: underground wiring is a city project or an additional service by realestate developers in residential and commercials.
hoping that the new president will look into two infrastructures: 1. affordable water travel connecting the islands and 2. underground wiring… Now how can the president finance all these projects.? Number 1 is easy…. take over sulpicio’s and remove them from ” Gaming the weak System”
number 2.. may take an outside contractor experience in such technology by way of NGO.
obviously, you mention only your relative. very subjective.
cat, there were several letters, encouraging the father to repent and impeach gma. the father was touched but didn’t want to take such a bold step. there was the contradictory message, you see, of a butterfly, symbol of the daughter, having perched on the president’s dress during the first death anniversary…
this was discussed within political circles but never really reported out of deference to the genuine tragedy experienced by jdv with his daughter’s death… and it was just so… wierd. the president was shown one of the letters and basically reacted, “but.. this.. does… not… compute…”
matches: glad you pointed that out, and added the latest scholarship and more relevant views. it’s by means of exchanges like these that we get to catch up on what’s relevant and what’s obsolete.
PSI: am dumbfounded by the idea fil-ams are generally poorer and less educated than other asian-americans.
brian, the heroes do the fighting, the unambitious do the cheering and bury the heroes. as for those who go abroad, its either for glory or as an economic refugee, the heroism there is the personal kind, the family sort, not the national kind. that and their ambition is precisely, their children, raising them to become professionals if the parent’s were’nt, etc/.
“PSI: am dumbfounded by the idea fil-ams are generally poorer and less educated than other asian-americans. ” – mlq3
Maybe true compared to the Korean-, Chinese-, and Indian (South Asian)-Americans. But coming from a Chinese-American, the observation could be biased.
MLQ,
Point is, our ambition may not be of the material kind. If we had great poets and culturally rich like India, I wonder where we’ll be.
mlq3,
Furthermore, I suppose the relative stature of Filipino-Americans in the U.S. would just reflect the level of progress of RP vis-a-vis the other countries in this part of the world. Sad thing is, the Filipinos were one of the first immgrants in the U.S.
Watch out. Vietnam is rising.
On this topic of fil-ams are generally poorer and less educated than other asian-americans
The sentence requires less anecdotes and more statistics (percentage of Fil-heritage US citizens are college-graduates and corresponding percentage of Vietnam-heritage US citizens; Chinese-heritage US citizens; etcetera. Then percentage in top-20% household and percentage in bottom 20%-household income). Even with the statistics, one will need to look at the geographical distribution. It has always been imagined that Hawaii/lower-West-Coast Fil-Am’s have more of the farmers/blue-collars while rest-of-US (especially Chicago and the Atlanta-to-Boston corridor will have more of white-collar doctors, engineers, Assumptionistas-UE-UST-and-UP grads’s working as secretaries in embassies or at the UN, accountants).
I heard that Fil-Ams make great cooks.
“while rest-of-US (especially Chicago and the Atlanta-to-Boston corridor will have more of white-collar doctors, engineers, Assumptionistas-UE-UST-and-UP grads’s working as secretaries in embassies or at the UN, accountants).” – UP n
True. But remember also that the other nationalities, especially the Koreans, own and run successful businesses. As I said, they reflect the relative progress of the home countries.
now, on “… the relative stature of Filipino-americans in the US”…. somewhere in the blogosphere, I thought I saw benign0 commenting that the organizational skills of Pinoys in US only reach the kababayan-level — Abe Margallo and his co-Iriguenos and similar.
Of course, there is Daly City, California.
Now the stature of some Americans are indeed based on their heritage — e.g. Al Sharpton and Rev J Jackson and their black-American heritage. Unless these 2 people, Pinoy-Americans compete as a US citizen, not as an American with Filipino heritage, mirroring what apparently many others have done like Alberto Gonzales (former Attorney General), Elaine Chao (labor secretary), Colin Powell or Arnold Swarchnegger.
now, on “… the relative stature of Filipino-americans in the US”…. somewhere in the blogosphere, I thought I saw benign0 commenting that the organizational skills of Pinoys in US only reach the kababayan-level — Abe Margallo and his co-Iriguenos and similar.
Of course, there is Daly City, California.
Now the stature of some Americans are indeed based on their heritage — e.g. Al Sharpton and Rev J Jackson and their black-American heritage. Unlike these 2 people, Pinoy-Americans compete as US citizens, not as an American with Filipino heritage, mirroring what apparently many others have done like Alberto Gonzales (former Attorney General), Elaine Chao (labor secretary), Colin Powell or Arnold Swarchnegger.
“…once paid tribute to himself by suggesting he held a competitive edge over his peers.” mlq3.
i don’t know , manolo. what is your beef against diosdado macapagal? i know you hate his daughter with a passion, but do you have to be disdainful of everything that has anything to do with her, including her father who has not done anything to you directly, indirectly or vicariously?
the late president was talking about something particularly important that a “leader” needs to have to be effective. obviously, he wasn’t enumerating all and everything that such a leader must have. he was discussing the importance of economic orientation. he was not claiming that it was the be-all and end-all of an effective presidency. of course, “political gift” is a quality of every president, and would not reach that political pinnacle without that. i believe that was a given when he referred to “leaders” or “leadership” because in our system, political gift is a necessary ingredient of becoming a leader.
and where did “paid tribute to himself” and “suggesting he held a competitive edge over his peers” come from? nothing in your quote indicates that, as far as i can see. just because he may have that particular attribute is not necessarily indicative that he was paying himself a tribute or that he claims to be better than his peers.
gma may be the daughter of his dad but there is no sane reason for blaming one for the perceived shortcomings of the other.
“…once paid tribute to himself by suggesting he held a competitive edge over his peers.” mlq3.
i don’t know , manolo. what is your beef against diosdado macapagal? i know you hate his daughter with a passion, but do you have to be disdainful of everything that has anything to do with her, including her father who has not done anything to you directly, indirectly or vicariously?
the late president was talking about something particularly important that a “leader” needs to have to be effective. obviously, he wasn’t enumerating all and everything that such a leader must have. he was discussing the importance of economic orientation. he was not claiming that it was the be-all and end-all of an effective presidency. of course, “political gift” is a quality of every president, and would not reach that political pinnacle without that. i believe that was a given when he referred to “leaders” or “leadership” because in our system, political gift is a necessary ingredient of becoming a leader.
and where did “paid tribute to himself” and “suggesting he held a competitive edge over his peers” come from? nothing in your quote indicates that, as far as i can see. just because he may have that particular attribute is not necessarily indicative that he was paying himself a tribute or that he claims to be better than his peers.
gma may be the daughter of his dad but there is no sane reason for blaming one for the perceived shortcomings of the other.
Read page 15 and 17 instead of speculating about the status of Filipino-Americans. I think I already said this before but I have to say it again ‘Don’t worry about us’.
http://www.census.gov/prod/2007pubs/acs-05.pdf
sorry for the double post. a little glitz on my computer.
the political gift that the people should have enjoyed did not come with a colorful gift wrap, a ribbon, and the actual gift itself but instead an empty box filled with empty promises… randam na randam niyo ba?
to PSI and your comment about “…..the other nationalities, especially the Koreans, own and run successful businesses. As I said, they reflect the relative progress of the home countries.”
My understanding is that it is even simpler — even more basic — than that. You’ve seen the movie-snippets where suddenly the actor screams “…. holy shit, I am behaving like my father!!!!” It really appears to be like that. You are your father.
the adult of 40 begins to mirror the mores and behavior (idiosyncracies, attitude towards “making sipsip”, attitudes towards the dichotomy “…good home life” versus “up-the-corporate-ladder”, attitude towards citizenry, the community, civic-action, volunteerism).
And even the continuum-breaks are predictable, namely the parents in regular white-collar or blue-collar jobs in support of a son or daughter who somehow got this flash of inspiration to become a medical doctor, dentist, engineer, systems analyst, politician, etcetera.
So take a hundred newly-landed immigrants into USA who came from lower-middle-class in Pinas. Twenty years later, the odds are that they are in the lower-middle-class of USA strata (with cars, High-definition TV’s, etcetera) but in same income-strata as where they were when in Pinas.
Tell me about d0d0ng and give me twenty d0d0ng’s and I will predict the income-strata of 18 of these d0d0ng’s twenty-years from now. Their children, too.
Which is why I say … Tell the children/encourage the children/push the children. The children’s job is to exceed their parents.
The reason why very few Pinoys in USA get to corporate upper-strata?
Very few Pinoys in Pinas get to the corporate upper-strata. [worse in Pinas, much worse in Pinas about getting to corporate upper-strata]
———————
[my opinion.......]
‘True. But remember also that the other nationalities, especially the Koreans, own and run successful businesses. As I said, they reflect the relative progress of the home countries.’
Wrong. Never been to California?
“I thought I saw benign0 commenting that the organizational skills of Pinoys in US only reach the kababayan-level  Abe Margallo and his co-Iriguenos and similar”
no wonder benigno made a generalization that pinoy are vacuous and organizational skills of US pinoys only reach the kababayan level because
obviously Benigno belongs to this category. the kababayan level with a vacuous mind… this is too funny and ironic.
leytenean, the politcal “gift”, as used in my (and i believe mlq3′s) comments above is in the context of talent or natural aptitude. it is not the literal usage as in christmas gift. look before you leap. too fast on the keyboard or is it brain malfunction?
i think as a general rule, filipinos are not risk-takers and if they ever take risk at all, it is in the spirit of bahala na, without a serious consideration of the odds. many are seguristas to their own detriment. the usual pattern is to work for one company, hold the job till retirement, and be content with token raises or promotions along the way.
i once had a prospective client who complained about being discriminated against after being rejected for employment despite multiple degrees, over ten years experience, loyalty, and devoted service to her last employer. it turned out that she was not hired because of her apparent lack of courage to move on, try new ways of doing things, take calculated risks. i politely declined to take her case.
mlq3,
i think that GMA’s greatest flaw is the lack of noble ambition because of an excess of expertise in gaming the system, the latter making the former unnecessary for success. An orig supporter of hers and close confidante even now once told me that her greatest ambition was just to be a “good” president and not a “great” one. In greater men this would be an admirable modesty. In her, it merely reveals the real limits of what we can expect, as there really isn’t anything there in her which History will consider great or ennobling. I think this is painfully true and accounts for her inability to inspire the best in Filipinos, other than how to best game the system, which truly brings out the worst in them.
Bencard: Ahhhh, Boston. Next time it happens, have your client first get transferred to metro-DC area, and for her to get residence inside Washington DC. Then, she files the case.
Leytenian,
when you refer to Benign0 sa dinami dami ng sinabi nya bakit vacuous lang ang dumikit sa utak mo?
==============================================
some people who are not contended resigns and then resigns hanggang walang makuhang permanente.
on exceeding the parents,if you can’t beat them,try then if still cannot, then join them.
I tried doing that by exceeding my dad’s educational background he only was at college level .kahit di nya nakumpleto mba nya,yet he approves most of the theses of those trying to graduate at the national defence college. When his friends want to talk to The DPWH sec,DOE sec sya nilalapitan dahil madiskarte daw sya at sya pinahinaharap at binibigyan ng instant consultancy job.Even a former congressman clasmate who co-authored the procurement law is having problems with procurement in the real world, sa kanya pinapaayos.
I gave up on trying to exceed him years ago dahil I could never match his achievements and diskarte sa buhay.wala dahil di makuntento sa trabaho resign ng resign. Ngayon sino kasama ko;if you can’t beat them,join them.,join them.
bencard,
i would recommend for your client to hire a career advisor to do all the work for her. it’s expensive but worth it. A career advisor is a firm that keep databases of employment directly from companies before these jobs are even communicated to recruiters or advertisers.
employers will not just look on education and years of experience but how one skills and talent can be transferred to the new industry. Skills, team oriented and proven track of success are keys. Failure and burning bridges with previous employment can hurt one’s credibility.
on political gift.. i agree of course.. the actual gift did not come with the right talent and skills. the result of one’s political gift is poor. it’s not extraordinary.
djb, don’t you think it’s a little premature to judge what will be. i mean your sweeping statement that there “isn’t anything there in her which history will consider great or ennobling”. one can try to be a “good” president by doing the best that he/she thinks is good, as his/her maker has given him/her the wisdom to know it. but he/she can only be “great” in the estimation of his/her fellow men. i don’t think abe lincoln INTENDED to become a great president. he just did the “right” thing and let history took its course.
upn, right, or it could have been the bronx (where i’m also licensed to practice law). lol.
I see here a pinoy PHD in physics who is a vp in silicon valley.btw djb di ba physicist ka din?
http://www.timog.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-3096.html
In the semiconductor company that I work for here in Silicon Valley, The VP of Quality Systems is a Pinoy. He handles all the QA departments of our company around the world.
So American, German, Israeli, Taiwanese, Chinese, and Filipino directors and managers are his subordinates. He has a PhD in… I believe it’s in Physics.
By the way, he chose to live in the Philippines, instead of moving over here, so that he could manage his own businesses over there. He works in our company every 2 weeks per month, then go back to the facility in the Philippines to do some more work. Very busy guy. The company is the one who spend for his air fares. I don’t know why, they probably think that it’s worth it with respect to the work that he does for the company.
most of the comments in timog.com post also question the ambition of the pinoy.
“why are there so few Filipino top bosses? Hardly any, actually.”
That depends on once orientation. The Filipino top bosses rarely announce themselves to the public in the same manner as the politicos. But they do exist but not as visible as their counterpart in the government. They are younger too and very talented. In addition, they keep low profile to avoid being the target of bad elements (kidnapping, identity theft, etc)
Example, my highschool classmate was the VP of Unilab, then SC Johnson, now VP in Unilever. He won’t stop until he will be the president, that I am sure. My supervisor a long time ago in the Philippines is now the VP in Kraft Foods in Thailand. He sent his kids to Singapore for schooling (most rich Asian families are doing this for security reason and recognized eligibility when moving to UK or US for college). Recently, his daughter got full scholarship in a US University. During my son’s (in middle school) robotics tournament and tour of aerospace facility, I met a very young Filipina engineer who happened to be the VP in design/production of aircraft surveillance program. I’m impressed she is in late 20s. Filipino top bosses are getting younger.
Last year and this year I attended 2 middle schools graduation (private school) with high white students population and their valedictorian – Filipinos. Last month, when a Filipino couple told us that they are moving their son to public school we check the public schools in the area and found out that Filipino students are highly welcome due to their high grades in English and Math which help pull the records of the school. Public schools compile grades by races, Whites and Filipinos are on the top. Filipinos have separate category than other Asians.
Lack of ambition is a matter of perspective and territorial.
supremo,
“You probably did not get your daily ration of Fil-American dog shit.”
speaking from your experience eh?
quezon,
“scalia, how many fil-ams are on welfare? jeez.”
i dont know. jeez
from the same comment thread on the site I mentioned.
….marami tayong bigatin na mga Pinoy sa investment world:
1. head ng structured finance sa Commerzbank
2. vice president at isang senior vice president sa Citigroup
3. vice presdient sa team leader sa Morgan Stanley
4. vice president sa Lehmann
5. executive director sa UBS-Japan
6. managing consultant sa PWC-Japan
7. IT manager sa RBS
at marami pang iba
at mayroon ding Pinoy na isang principal ngayon sa isang international school, director ng UN Stat office sa Tokyo, senior officer sa UNU at I am sure marami pang iba……
Bencard,
GMA is no Abe Lincoln! Mentioning them in the same breath is well, intellectual halitosis. Who knows of course what History will think. But remember that history begins in current events and much as I have tried to give her the benefit of the doubt, it’s been one great disappointment after another with her. We keep touching bottom hoping to find deeper water, only to find the shallow cuteness of a kiddie pool in a gaming room. If it weren’t for puppeteers like FVR, Ed Ermita, Puno et al, there really wouldn’t be anything to Gloria even worth criticizing or thinking about. The only thing I respect about her is the Office she holds. But that’s just my personal opinion, which I don’t claim counts for any more or any thing less.
MLQ3,
GMA is the pinnacle of the Roman Catholic victory over the secularism America tried to implant in us. Either Soc Rodrigo or Raul Manglapus would actually have been far better for us and unsatisfactory to the Goddess Worshippers. But in her, the Bishops have found the perfect good Catholic maiden with just enough smarts to become President, but no real mind to wrap around the Constitution and absorb its true and deepest meaning. She was the lever they always wanted by which to control everything remotely yet compleatly. She is the Blessed Virgin Mother incarnated with political power by which they have gamed the system. It actually began with Roco and abolition of Science at the Grades One and Two level (still absent in the curriculum!). They have made monkeys of the Filipinos by starting them out young in a simian culture of superstitious beliefs in miracles, intercession and all the paradigms of a mendicant existence dependent on priests, saints, and politicians. We are educating whole new generations of reverent idiots filled with nationalistic resentments and religious nonsense. Even so called mass media that proclaims their dedication to the search for the truth and the public’s right to know are complicit in the abominable agenda of the Catholic Church to keep the Filipinos stupid. And before anybody starts talking about how the private schools do teach science, just ask yourselves how many articles are published by the professoriate of DLSU, Ateneo, UST, etc. in ANY peer-reviewed scientific journal every year. ZERO!
Missing in the discussion with regard to the Filipinos abroad is the fact and reality of large numbers and proportionality.
Many like to point to the US because many, many Filipinos live there. But how exactly does “many†translate to taking total population of the country?
For Filipinos in the US, not much. Last census data pegged total Asian Americans at 4.3% of population, or about 12 million people. Taking the very generous estimate that Filipinos in the US number 4 million, that’s a 3rd of 4.3%, or less than 1.5% of the total population.
Any count or estimate of the number of Filipinos in topmost or upper level management positions has to take that into account, over and beyond just anecdotal representation. Add to that other constraining factors that first generation Filipino immigrants may encounter in the adopted country, like the very crucial factor of age.
Since Daly City was mentioned, it is where the presence and concentration of large numbers to a large extent count toward Filipino employment successes. A FilAm continues to take his turn on the highest executive position in the city. The same could be said of similarly-populated cities like Hercules, Vallejo, or Union City.
The very subjective criterion of ambition has to be fleshed out or taken in conjunction with more measurable quantities and qualities.
It is my belief that the Filipino is no more ambitious, or no lazier, than any member of any ethnic group. Just provide him with the right environment and orientation.
djb, you not not only mention your name with rizal but use it, and you are NO rizal. is that also within the ambit of your “intellectual halitosis”? and who cares about your “disappointments”" are they supposed to affect my own assessment of gma’s presidency? how presumptuous of you to think that your evaluation of her quality as president is the same as that of the entire filipino nation? you can have your personal opinion but don’t, even for a moment, assume that everybody else follows your line of thinking.
Historically, the Catholic Church ran a politicalized theocracy here powered by Simony, much as the Taliban did in Afghanistan. Some might even wish to draw parallels between the opium-based wealth of the Taliban and the opiate-based simony of the RCC in the PHilippines. Now that they have captured the State, they don’t really have to sell stampitas and scapulars anymore. Simony has been replaced by “PAGCORY”. Cory Aquino was similarly a willing puppet. The Church hated Marcos in the end for the same reasons that Joma did: he wouldn’t share power with them. Gloria however is another matter. CBCP News is far better leading indicator of what Malacanang will be doing than PIA. The Men in Skirts cover for the sins of the Woman who wears the pants in this family, even as they occasionally tsk-tsk at government just to impress the Filipinos with their supposedly superior wisdom.
Until their Religion is debunked, we shall sink deeper into the ranks of the unfit. Now, most especially, when scientific understanding of such important issues as fuel, food, the environment and education has become absolutely necessary for the survival of nations, I can think of no worse influence towards disaster than the Catholic Church with its goodie-two-shoes moralistic disguises and support for unbridled multiplication like rats and rabbits. They are absolutely responsible for overpopulation and the crime, poverty, deprivation and hopelessness that has wrought.
Most depressing of all, NOBODY stands up to them. Not even the Supreme Court, not the Press, not academe. Nobody! It is a situation that suits them just fine, because now they can preach their plan for salvation untrammeled and unquestioned by the Dumb.
filipinos ambition in the Philippines is simple. they just want a job. Ask the majority . It has nothing to do with religion.
the government has an active role to provide opportunities for those in need.
KG,
pero bilib ako sa mga indians. the CEOs of Accenture, Pepsi, Citigroup, McKinsey & Co., to name a few, are all indians
trivia on Accenture – it has more employees in India than in the US!
The Ca t,
compliance just seals the ambition
It was alleged that in Stonehill’s black book “Doberman” was none other than president DM. Then Secretary of Justice Diokno was fired and Stonehill was deported before facing charges. Diokno would have pushed a complete invesdtigation on the Stonehill fiasco.
History teaches us that DM was the first Philippine President to apply for an IMF credit card with all its concomittant conditionalities. Foremost of which was giving up fiscal and monetary policy then to the U.S. naturally on orders of the IMF he started the Decontrol process. The poor sap (DM) did not know the difference then between land reform and asset reform. Asset reform in the agricultural sector is revolutionary in nature. It is a political act of state.
In spite of Magsaysay’s and Garcia’s efforts to end American domination of the Philippne economy then, DM reversed the policy framework and put the country on the road to permanent economic servitude.
For a country that was then a major exporter of gold that was a major blunder when the world was still on the de facto gold standard.
How could a country run out of foreign exchange when the world then was on the de facto gold standard?
Simple—- all our bureaucrats both in public and private service all were trained as employees and not employers. Accountants, lawyers and bankers. Economic discipline is schools and universities were forbidden to teach political economy (it was tainted with Marxism they said then) very much like in the U.S. So you got basic neo-keynesian Samuelson economic theory. That became the bible till Cory’s time then we shifted to Friedman’s book on economic dogma.
The International Energy Agency has announced recently that world is facing an energy crisis similar to 1973 and 1978.
This time the crunch will probably be more intense.
The transition from easy oil to tough oil to unconventional sources of energy, the dollar crisis vis a vis the Euro, credit and banking crisis in the U.S. and put in the Usama factor (instability in the M.E. ) where a large amount of oil will be coming from.
Most of the emrging markets have opened their financial systems to the dollar reserve system. They are getting squeezed from a dollar that is loosing its value to rising oil and energy prices.
All outside the control of central bankers in the emerging markets.
All the Philippines has today is IMF credit card (direct and indirect) propped up by income from foreign pinoy workers.
President DM was the first President who applied and got an IMF credit card. His daughter is notable in that she has become the most avid user of the credit card.
The Republic (as one major conditionality of the IMF credit card) is the guarantee to all foreign investors to access of foreign exchange if they invest in the Philippines.
The Phiulippine state guarantees risk for all foreign investors.
Thanks for the info Anthony. nakakaibilib nga sila (indians)
balik tayo sa pinoy at pinas ;you mentioned accenture my wife works there as a database administrator and she asked the CEO of their client washington gas ;should the democrats win ,what will happen to outsourcing? ang sagot sa kanya a contract is a contract,don’t worry.
muntik na nga maasign sa tate misis ko almost two years ago kaya lang nabuntis sya with our first and only child.
annecdotal na naman ito kaya pasensya na sa mga nagrerely sa satistics
madaming nagreresign sa accenture dito sa pinas, dahil sa singapore lumilipat at hanggang ngayon ang sisipag ng mga headhunter for the singapore companies.
It is a good thing(for me and my kid) my wife chose to stay here instead.
========================================
CVJ, is there space left in singapore, bakit aggressive ang recruitment? 1990 pa kasi visit ko sa singapore ,congested na tingin ko ,maybe sa tingin ko lang yon tulad ng tingin ko sa congestion sa manila.
I saw this post yesterday afternoon and decided to do a little experiment: I wondered it benign0 would show up and regale us with the usual. But deep inside, despite his assholery, I believed benny still had a bit of class. My hypothesis then was that benny would just nod approvingly at the post and not post a comment. It’s 10:28 am Manila time and still he hasnt. Well done, benign0.
(The experiment of course assumes he checks MLQ3′s blog regularly.)
bencard, perhaps you protest too much. you surely recall how dm did as i put it -point to his being an economist as giving himself an edge, and you know he was very proud of his doctorate in economics. and if you have any doubt about what i wrote above, please consult “a stone for the edifice,” his autobiography and apologia for his presidency.
DJB Rizalist on, “Most depressing of all, NOBODY stands up to them. Not even the Supreme Court, not the Press, not academe. Nobody! It is a situation that suits them just fine, because now they can preach their plan for salvation untrammeled and unquestioned by the Dumb.”
Seems nothing significant had changed from the bad old days where the political leaders, the military generals, the justices and the bishops have common appreciation of each other roles preserving their own status quo and the governed majority waiting for mercy and miracles to happen.
Malas talaga!
So horrible, that even the Sulpicio tragedy is blamed on the passengers who did not know how to swim – gospel of the dumb (di alam, di patay). The country’s leaders are doing a great job. Literally yes, when majority just accept whatever given by their leaders unquestioned -from rice to salvation.
djb, nod. this is what i’ve called her failure of the imagination.
Karl, Singapore’s ability to sustain economic growth has always been dependent on the growth of factor inputs (land, labor and capital). As economist Paul Krugman argued way back, Lee Kuan Yew’s economic strategy for Singapore is pretty much patterned after Stalin’s Soviet Union:
http://www.pkarchive.org/trade/myth.html
One of LKY’s strategic mistakes is its population control policy in the 70′s which resulted in too few local Singaporeans to sustain such a strategy. We Filipinos (among other nationals) are here to compensate for that mistake and are part of their strategy to increase the labor component. I read that they plan to grow their population by an additional 2 million (from the present 6 million) by 2010.
Jeg, i think Benign0 was busy rebutting Abe over at FV.
PSI on, “Filipinos are among the largest subgroups of Asians in the United States, at least by population, yet among the poorest and least educated. But coming from a Chinese-American Hu, the observation could be biased.”
Supremo’s link.
http://www.census.gov/prod/2007pubs/acs-05.pdf
Dang!
Filipinos median household income is second highest.
Filipinos poverty rate is the lowest at 5.2 while 13 percent or higher with Chinese, Vietnamese and Koreans.
Sabi nga ba….
Good work, Supremo.
DJB,
Have to look at motive too, don’t you think? What is the Church’s motive. I’m kind of at a loss, have been for many years, regarding the Inquisition. The Church wanted to save souls and the body is in the way of saving souls, hence…
The biggest problem I see in the Church is that they always look at things a priori, and therefore they do not really listen to anyone except those in the hierarchy. They engage in dialogue but they act more like lawyers to the faith rather than approach problems with any open-mindedness. But how can you question their motive? Anyone have an answer?
MLQ, stop calling it failure of the imagination. This statement is a failure of imagination. Call it a lack of imagination, rather. You’re not saying we tried and failed to imagine?
And the reason why Filipinos don’t reach pinnacles is simple… In their home country, the social structure stunts them. Abroad, it may be racial discrimination or the problem is the Filipinos’ own self-worth. Filipinos are racist, correct? They think their race is inferior. These could be the causes. Another thing is the rearing culture. We love our children and want to keep them forever. Italians aren’t exactly go-getters too you know.
“Lack of ambition is a matter of perspective and territorial.” – Dodong
——————————————–
I totally agree.
BTW I believe that whatever negative traits that the Filipinos have can be changed for the better. And all the commenters in these blog can be a very good agent for that change.
And I know a couple of Ateneo grads working abroad who have Harvard MBAs under them, and they don’t have post-graduate degrees, just the BAs (BSs sound wrong).
brian, i was responding to djb’s analysis of the president. she’s the one, i said, who suffers from a failure of the imagination, not filipinos as a whole.
re: your point on the social structure, self-worth, racism, nod. except i’d add that unfortunately what may be more commonly the case is that whites are viewed as superior and other non-whites are then viewed as inferior. and nod at co-dependent culture with kids.
djb,
i disagree with going head-to-head with the church because what non-catholics fail to realize is you are essentially calling on catholics to commit apostasy. no reasonable person should demand this of someone who belongs to a religion. it is like calling on secularists to commit treason.
since we are already half way there by having an official separation of church and state, meaning not a regime of state hostility to churches, but rather, a prohibition on any church enjoying state support, then the objective becomes ensuring the prohibition is correctly understood and applied. this is where non-catholic voters should be of help except in some cases they’d go even further in blurring the distinctions between church and state than catholics, who have to be historically conscious of the inquisition and the spanish era here, are prepared to do.
” i politely declined to take her case.” So you’re not a risk-taker, too, Bencard.
Rego – a person can only be an agent of change if he can empower himself and then others to change. That is what the OFWs are doing in terms of living. So in turn they financed educations of younger relatives who can relate to the benefits of change and set their ambitions. Hopefully, another top managers (of change).
Brian B – church motive is divine salvation and not physical realities. Enduring suffering is closer to divinity. It does not make sense at all if you are one of the dozen children in a family and fight for food on the table.
@ Supremo
Thanks for the link.
I looked at page 17 as you said, and the education part of Hu’s observation is quite true with Filipinos trailing Indians (South Asian), Chinese, and Koreans in terms of attainment of bachelor’s degree.
mlq3, nice to see you’re embracing certain ideas that appeal to Yours Truly.
This is a letter sent to me way back by a Pinoy living in the US (having read my book, you’re probably familiar with it):
Obviously too, an aspiration to EXCELLENCE, is what underpins ACHIEVEMENT.
Unfortunately we’d be hard-pressed to find such levels of aspiration in our society. It might have something to do with the intellectual bankruptcy described above.
By the way, don’t mind “The Cat”. Her style of limited thinking goes way back (refer to the following ‘insight’).
http://www.apmforum.com/columns/orientseas47.htm
Happy reading! Ms. Madcat, stidi ka lang diyan.
Oh, man, benny!
…but rather, a prohibition on any church enjoying state support, then the objective becomes ensuring the prohibition is correctly understood and applied.
I suppose this doesnt count, eh?
Benigno
you are resurrecting the dead. This writer has long been forgotten. My blog is enjoying thousands of viewers without self-promotion but yours need a lot of controversies to create traffic.
i am not ashamed to have battled this guy who proclaimed himself to be the father of offshore business in the Philippines. Never heard. Isn’t he the cause of PEX meltdown when he threatened me to “make sumbong” to Zobel so I can be banned from that forum. Very funny. Two guys, benigno and one self-proclaimed expat, afraid of one woman. hahaha
Didn’t you just did that again to MLQ3 recently and sassy and other known bloggers that you were banned from their blogs?
DJB,
The Catholic Church of the Philippine is the root of all evil?
Thanks for the article cvj,digressing a bit;
I think singapore can be the testing ground for vertical farming, I know it is not a new idea, but I saw it again on cnn; as a proposed solution for the distance of farmlands to the city(fuel /transpo costs).But until further notice,I think it is cheaper to import veggies from China and rice from its neighbors.
for our country, vertical farming would be difficult to sell.
on oil I don’t see an immediate solution even with the vertical farming to resolve the food vs bio fuel issue(bilyon piso siguro ito para ma implement).Too late for the long term contracts and huge inventories. Shell moved out its refineries because of municipal tax issues in Batangas.
some suggest lumot for ethanol san mo kukunin sa dagat,o gagawa ka ng artificial lake at gawin mong lumot, another land use issue.
cocodiesel, isang bagyo lang sa bicol region or northern luzon sira na naman ang mga coconut at it take years of recover.
maybe it is time to look for the scientist who has the “Formula” ala the Marlon Brando film.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080754/
benign0, i’ve always said much as you’ve perfected having an abrasive persona, you do raise good points. it may be that what you practice is “tough love” and this what gets the goat of so many people. but also, i suspect you can’t get away from insisting that change must come with a value judgment that i’m not sure is necessary or even productive, specially if you’re dealing with an entire people and your views on society, when we have to keep breaking down that society into its component parts. also, you are certain about certain observations when they’re not necessarily up to date, because of your distance from the scene.
your obsession with the “ocho-ocho” for example is so 80′s and not the way things are done anymore. no one goes to miting de avances anymore, the electorate can’t be bothered to listen to stump speeches -on the local level, candidates are back to campaigning door-to-door. on the national level, the population is so large and there are so many large urban areas and the areas that are vote-rich are themselves changing (what’s happened to the “solid north”? ilocandia’s relatively depopulated and the old ethnic blocs, in a sense, are breaking up, it’s been argued, just as the old command vote institutions are finding their discipline waning) that candidates must focus on battling it out on the airwaves.
a valid criticism can be made that the collapse of the old going-on-the-stump political culture was accelerated by media and the wealthiest politicians conspiring to promote advertising as the end-all and be-all of campaigning. oodles of money to be made down the line for the big tv networks and the radio stations. not much of an incentive to push more than one or two issues, perhaps, and since you’re going for the least common denominator political advertising may not necessarily be particularly edifying.
life is increasingly becoming more complex, we filipinos are becoming more complex, and so i disagree with you most with regards to your “it’s simple, really” mantra. some problems may be simple, some solutions, too, and in some respects we may be over-complicating things. but in other matters over-simplifcation is precisely the problem and distinguishing between the two may be more helpful.
Karl, thanks for the heads up on vertical farming. Nothwithstanding my advocacy for land reform, I think vertical farming is also worth a look as it is in keeping with the basic thrust of food sovereignty.
The Catholic Church of the Philippine is the root of all evil?
Apparently, it’s so evil that even the Muslim Filipinos are undergoing “unbridled multiplication like rats and rabbits”.
mlq3, I don’t think Pinoys are getting more complex.
Just because there are more things going on doesn’t necessarily make a system more complex. For example, the brain is made up of a number of cells that do pretty much the same thing (tansmit and receive electrical impulses from one another). Likewise, the liver also has a similar number of cells and may even have a greater number of types of cells than the brain. However, the way the brains cells are structured and the multitude of ways that they are related to one another vastly dwarfs that of the liver.
Kung baga, it is the way brain cells are structured and networked that give it its complexity and its intelligence. The liver, on the other hand, is pretty much limited to some basic filtering and secretion of bile. Kind of a very close analogy to the bigger picture we are talking about, aint it?
The way I see Pinoy society, not much in the way of structure has been created in the last 50 years. So whilst there is a PERCEPTION that more complexity has been created, this perception may be due more to the increased number of players in the system and an increase in dynamism (which is DIFFERENT from the quality of complexity) and not really due to any new structure created or developed further in our society.
In that sense, the FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES in Pinoy society remain, as I continue to assert, simple.
So yes, dude. It remains simple. Really.
Ms. Cat, as I said, stidi ka lang diyan. To give you a bit of credit, you’ve graduated from grandstanding about your personal credentials to grandstanding about your blog’s traffic.
Very classy indeed, my feline pal.
No prob CVJ,
no matter how it is over used I refer you to the handy dandy wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical_farming
======================
On catholicism,
DJB,
I might have said that the catholic church is the strongest lobby group against population control.
Even Rizal would not have said that the church is the root of all evil.
although padre damaso and salvi were glaring bad examples, to say that they are the root of all evi,l for lack of a better term is so over.(sosyal)
One thing I have learned in a long life: that all our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike — and yet it is the most precious thing we have.
– Albert Einstein, echoing Robert Green Ingersoll (“I admit that reason is a small and feeble flame, a flickering torch by stumblers carried in the star-less night, — blown and flared by passion’s storm, — and yet, it is the only light. Extinguish that, and nought remains.” from the Field-Ingersoll Debate), quoted from PhysLink.com
I believe in Spinoza’s God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings.
– Albert Einstein, following his wife’s advice in responding to Rabbi Herbert Goldstein of the International Synagogue in New York, who had sent Einstein a cablegram bluntly demanding “Do you believe in God?” Quoted from and citation notes derived from Victor J Stenger, Has Science Found God? (draft: 2001), chapter 3
“Both deism and traditional Judeo-Christian-Islamic theism must also be contrasted with pantheism, the notion attributed to Baruch Spinoza (d. 1677) that the deity is associated with the order of nature or the universe itself. This also crudely summarizes the Hindu view and that of many indigenous religions around the world. When modern scientists such as Einstein and Stephen Hawking mention ‘God’ in their writings, this is what they seem to mean: that God is Nature.”
– Victor J Stenger, Has Science Found God? (2001), chapter 3
I have been following your blog for almost three years , I remember you said that your mom was a catholic and your old man a protestant.
I can also understand that you are a physicist by profession,so I won’t bother your belief system and I am not asking you to stop bothering ours.
its a belief system nga eh.that was just an opinion, no more no less.
yep.. echoing the idea of KG..
your hatred for religion is what is keeping you from having an open mind DJB.
even in this highly-modern world, we need both the empiricism of science and the faith that religion offers.
if we are yet to discover the absolute truth in things; let us, for the meantime, suffice ourselves with the ready explanations that religion provides while also continuing to pursue the search for knowledge that will help us explain life’s realities.
despite the apparent inflexibilities of all the religions of the world, i pray that you do not forget that it was the same church who now accepts the general theories in science as not against the fundamental dogmas of the church, like evolution, when only about 200 years ago, that same church would have placed you in a compromising position even if you just hold a leaflet on the topic.
from what i understand and what history tells me, killing religion requires a long span of time to accomplish. to effectively kill one, it takes generations of disproof on dogma, not an outright revolution of your idea. for a revolution oft entails even more loss than what could be gained. even if you gain the supremacy of your belief, the energy required to dissolve a long-standing idea, could have been used instead to forward to further improve and find explanations that would justify the new belief.
the world has a way of peacefully sorting things out and discarding things that is no longer relevant through time.
FWIW, i don’t think lack of ambition is our problem. The fact that you have millions uprooting themselves either from their home provinces to seek a better life in the city, coupled with the millions who have left the country to work elsewhere is proof that we, as a people, possess ambition.
Our statistics on entrepreneurship also show the same drive. The Philippines has among the highest rates of entrepreneurship, almost five times higher than Singapore. Most of the entrepreneurial activity also comes from the low income Class D and E sectors so you also cannot blame the poor for lack of initiative.
Blaming lack of ambition for our present poverty and inequality is like blaming the victims of the recent Sulpicio ferry disaster for not wanting to swim to shore.
FWIW, i don’t think lack of ambition is our problem. The fact that you have millions uprooting themselves either from their home provinces to seek a better life in the city, coupled with the millions who have left the country to work elsewhere is proof that we, as a people, possess ambition.
Our statistics on entrepreneurship also show the same drive. The Philippines has among the highest rates of entrepreneurship, almost five times higher than Singapore. Most of the entrepreneurial activity also comes from the low income Class D and E sectors so you also cannot blame the poor for lack of initiative.
Blaming lack of ambition for our present poverty and inequality is like blaming the victims of the recent Sulpicio ferry disaster for not wanting to swim to shore…
cjv, i think you misunderstand the observation on lack of ambition. it doesn’t mean there isn’t a drive to be better -as you point out, the drive to be better is tremendous. and to be a mid-level manager requires a certain amount of ambition. but, the point of the comment was, there isn’t, perhaps, a corresponding drive to be best. there is a difference between wanting to be better and wanting to be best.
Manolo, i agree that there is a difference between wanting to be better and wanting to be the best. (Jim Collins did write, in the context of business enterprises that ‘Good is the enemy of Great’.) Achieving greatness requires a certain single-mindedness that most Filipinos don’t possess since we’re more multidimensional and aim for balance. (Trillanes and Faeldon are exceptions in this regard.) However, even if true, i fail to see why that would be a big deal since our problem at this stage of our development is that the even the efforts of people to become better is being blocked by an elitist minority. We haven’t yet reached the stage where we have to worry about the difference between trying to be better and trying to be the best.
Actually on that note, there IS something to be said about the way the market continued to patronise the services of a company with such a deadly track record of operation…
This is the kind of thinking that infests Pinoy society — that one’s prospects for prosperity are dependent on whether an elite sector of society opens or closes doors to opportunities for all.
If Henry Sy thought the way you do, cvj, then he’d still be the Third Class citizen that him and his peers started out as in the Philippines.
hvrds, too bad you are a “hit n run” commenter, so i’ll not engage you re dm or gma. go on with your ideological soliloquy.
mlq3, what’s wrong with having a doctorate in economics? no other among his peers had/has one except, i think, his own daughter. and what politician doesn’t shout to the whole world his qualifications for the position he is holding or aspiring for? a simple analogy would be myself displaying my law school diploma and bar admission certificates in my office to assure clients that i am what i purport to be.
but its neither here nor there. what i was protesting “too much” is your apparent fetish against the macapagals.
brianB, you are quite right. i don’t take just any kind of risk but most of the time i take “calculated” risk. in law practice, in particular, the stakes are usually high (which could include your license or prestige).
Ah Benigno, I adopted the habit of not feeding the squirrel and the troll in the internet but sometimes I have to throw them some morsel.
You criticized MLQ3 for linking blogs, articles and websites. In your old website(honest, I’ve not been to your website for years now), you published articles of columnists. (did you ask for permission)? I believe not because you wanted them to believe that you are one of the writers. When pexers asked you if you’re Teddy Benigno, you ignored the query.
For years now, you remain faceless. No profile. No background. For the former pexers, you are still the OFW who has a lot of baggage. One who has a lot of alternicks to defend himself in the forum or comment boxes. Sheesh.
Tsk tsk, Cat. I’m quite flattered that you continue to speculate on my personal circumstances after all these years.
Keep on guessing!
Jeg, i hope you’ll not consider it an absurd misinterpretion if i ascribe to Benign0 what
i mistakenly ascribed to you in the previous thread (re: blaming the victims).
Using the Sulpicio analogy, Henry Sy is one of those who managed to swim to shore. But what is the point of glorifying the few who are able to do so and condeming those who remain trapped in the ship’s hull?
because those who, this Christmas, will board the ferry that leaves, Manila to Cebu, may want to take drownproof lessons now, and also maybe think of paying the extra pesos to be above-deck… or to buy their own mini-life-vest.
And now, the Information Asymmetry issue kicks in… how do we share some of the paragraphs from Q3-blogsite blog discussions of Princess Stars to ferry passengers for this Christmas and for next-year typhoon season.
Will the following advertising program work?
Take swimming lessons!!! Only P500.00. Meet friends (flash a picture of gorgeous babes and hunks
)
Learn a skill (flash a picture of a woman who looks like a principal)
And the final “hook” — the life you save may be your own.
[Show either the Superferry14 image or the PrincessStars image... both sank within 3 kilometers of shore if I remember right. ]
PSI,
‘I looked at page 17 as you said, and the education part of Hu’s observation is quite true with Filipinos trailing Indians (South Asian), Chinese, and Koreans in terms of attainment of bachelor’s degree.’
The Chinese and Koreans are only slightly ahead in education compared to the Filipinos. You should also consider that Filipinos are way ahead in the ‘High School or more’ category which means that some Filipinos go to trade schools instead of the university. Did you know that mechanics here usually charge $75 an hour?
You also failed to mention that Japanese and Vietnamese trail Filipinos in the bachelors degree category. Should they also be natural candidates for affirmative action?
The Ultimate Lesson is Not to Sail when typhoon is coming regardless of strength.
Up N.. you have to remove the principal picture. She will ruin the advertising. LOL. the ad must be on TV paid by Sulpicio.
CVJ. I like the vertical farming idea. Very innovative in your part. Manila residences need that. The provinces are self sufficient.
Leytenian, thanks but that was Karl’s (KG’s) idea.
For business executives and professionals who wish to grow food but don’t have the time to travel to the mini- or rent-a-farms in Batangas and Laguna, a good alternative is hydroponics:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroponics
it’s a tough choice whom to dislike the most.. Cat or Benigs.
but i guess if you ignore their faults, they both have a point
so- what the heck?
re lack of ambition, there’s enough proof that Filipino’s are devoid of that. even Manolo’s distinction between simple ambition to be “good” and to be the “best,” doesn’t hold.
Filipinos do have the ambition to be the best. it isn’t so much as a lack of ambition but more of having a low threshold of contentment and happiness.
we also cannot attribute the lack of top Filipino CEOs and managers in multinational companies as gauge that we lack the drive for excellence. as cvj has said, it may have something to do with Filipino’s definition of excellence.
cvj mentioned a balanced life as his definition of excellence. i, on the other hand, define excellence as having a life worth living, being happy and contented.
9 out of 10, i’m sure that those top CEOs in multinational companies are unhappy, overworked, and have lousy family life. sure, they’re top dogs, oozing with money. but wtf is money compared with a happier life.
i’d be more willing to bet that those Filipino mid-level managers in multinationals are the ones who have achieved my definition of excellence.
you see, there’s a certain point when we have to choose between more money and higher rank against spending more time with your family, or getting enough rest. my bet is, those who stuck being mid-level managers have found that balance.
i can’t say the same for those who chose to stay in the rat race.
Along the honest response of CVJs (i value more is work-life balance), there is strong resonance of the question, what is the relevance of gaining the world if you lost your family in the process. We glamorize success and rank the ladder in terms of dollar amount. There is however price to pay.
In my previous company, our CEO was 3 times divorced. The bright side he claimed you are getting a younger aggressive wife (his last one wrote a book to include their sexual journey) every time. The downside, your bonus pays the lawyer, alimony and child support.
A slight miscalculation can be fatal too. The board removed him (not of his tryst in the empty boardroom) because of his costly expansion during weak earnings. A month after, he died of heart attack.
While MLQ3 articulated on Filipinos lack of ambitions, the driving point is really our own personal ambition.
the vertical gardening thing beat me to a point i wanted to raise at some future date. but i was thinking along the lines of victory gardens.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_garden
“let us, for the meantime, suffice ourselves with the ready explanations that religion provides..”
What a load of utter BS.
mlq3,
Well, waddyounow, you could be a first blogger-farmer .
Seriously, the middle class is concerned about the rising inflation (almost 12 percent) in the country. Anything to economize. Hope this results to effective measures like car-pooling, etc.
But our bigger problem are the poor people. IMF warned today of upheavals if the rise in prices of food, fuel, and other basic necessities remain unabated.
Mlq3 (at 12:45 am), the Victory Garden concept resembles the household/backyard plots allocated by the Vietnamese government that helped the Vietnamese peasants to survive the quarter century of failed experiments with Collective farming. Yields in these family cultivated plots were on the average three times higher than on Collective farms.
mlq3 on, “i was thinking along the lines of victory gardens.”
This should be encourage in every household. I have noticed that most first generation Filipinos in the US have backyard plots despite the abundance of crops and vegetables on the market. My mother in law planted in her backyard corn, squash, tomatoes, guava, peach, lemoncito, etc.
Recently when tomatoes were dumped from the market shelves due to salamonella scare in the US, we still enjoy homegrown tomatoes sprinkled with lemon pared to fried tilapia.
Self-sufficiency begins at home.
cjv, yeah it’s an elementary response to hard times. roxas plowed up part of the malacanan gardens and planted vegetables himself to set an example, and the experiment lasted throughout his presidency -discovered he had a green thumb.
d0d0ng, yes i’ve met many filipinos in the states who had amazing agricultural experiments going (constantly amazed what tropic veggies and fruits can be coazed into growing even in temperate climates!).
then of course the next, necessary experiment, on the chinese model, is turning “night soil” into compost -or even into the means to produce biogas. considering metro manila lacks what, something like 5-8 million toilets, the potential is vast.
‘i’ve met many filipinos in the states who had amazing agricultural experiments’
‘first generation Filipinos in the US have backyard plots despite the abundance of crops and vegetables on the market.’
I did not have a vegetable garden until my parents came over 2 years ago. Now it’s a yearly ritual.
mlq3, that’s a lot of shit, if i may say so myself. mbuencamino would be delighted, i’m sure. (lol).
just highlighting a sentence from mlq3: …..until and unless we master politics, everything, including progress, will truly be beyond our grasp.
Above dramatic sentence has a lot of truth. The filipinos-in-America will not attain the maximum that America can provide to a population-sharing-a-heritage unless the Filipinos-in-America master politicking. [Translation: above the baranggay-community level.]
This is true on the individual level, too. Even cvj alluded to what one may lose when one does only part of the rough-and-tumble of politicking. cvj’s words: i personally don’t see striving for Top Management as being worth it. Above a certain level, it becomes a matter of politics.
Politicking is a skill. As a skill, it can be learned. But others by the time they are 30 are functioning-A’s because of osmosis — living in a household where politicking is practiced every day.
The politicking skill among oligarchs [handed from parent to chld] is similar to wealth-generation ['watching the pennies' skill and deal-making skills : handed from parent to child] is similar to dentistry or database adminisration[the "skill"l, handed from teacher to student].
UPNS
knowing how to swim may be nice;but……have you ever been capsized in a banka?
have you ever been to the beach on a stormy day?
I experienced both, and knowing how to swim will almost disappear on panic mode.If not for a certain fisherman wala na ako at mga kasama ko.
on stormy weather ang lakas pumalo ng alon,you heard news that those who did not hold tight simply disappeared and now one of those recovered.
kaya naka survive yung mga nasa raft me mga kasama silang seaman.
akala mo ba yung mga surfer di takot mag surf pag malakas ang bagyo,sure pag medyo ambon lang at malakas ang alon they would dare but pag bumabagyo?
madamai na ang nagkamali mag beach kahit malakas ang alon.Our (mine,cvj’s)former school president and djb’s principal bro rafe donato knew how to swim but failed to survive because malakas ang alon.
Higher positions have higher responsibility and gets fired quicker.
when you are ceo,bihira na yung three strikes,matinding politics na yan pag di pa natanggal yan after three strikes. pwera na lang pag lahat ng board members mo nasa senior management at yung mga independent directors ceo nagpasok at wala naman talagang pakialam sa kumpanya.
On household farming
dito sa tinitirhan ko nung bata pa si erpat at nung medyo sinisipag pa ako at madami pang tutulong gianagawa namin yan pero ang liit ng lupa na natira sa property namin puro bahay sa bakanteng lote namin ginawa, dumating yung me ari ng lupa wala pang isang taon, ayos.
sa mga nakikita ko karmihan bakanteng lote din ang ginanagamit and if i may speculate di rin sa kanila yung lote na yun ;dahil di naman tayo back yard front yard types.
KG: Good point and I am sorry to hear about DLSU school president who perished a drowning victim. Being a swimmer is like knowing how to count cards. Your odds have improved, but guarantee to win on a specific draw of cards? Not there at all. [And yes, I've been caught in an undertow off Ocean City, New Jersey. As you said, the first order of business is to control the panic to get to the objective -- not to drown.]
In Hawaii (Kauai) I got to ask a 1/4-Pinoy-surfer what they do when pushed all the way to the ocean floor as the waves crash. He said “fight the panic”, “don’t drink the salt water”, and work hard to get the odds in your favor. The objective is to get to the surface where there is air to breathe, the waters probably calmer and theere will be others looking for him. Survive long enough to when the waters get calm again and search/rescue discovers you.
Different folks, different strokes. Folks disagree on “… is it really worth persevering and politicking to be a three-hundred-thousand a-year CEO or division-chief” or whatever. I just wanted to point to, but I am not surprised by the disagreement on the worth of drownproof lessons.
Check out this visual statement that encapsulates the state of affairs in Philippine Shipping:
http://www.getrealphilippines.com/images/shipping_skulls.gif
-
education on technique to prevent and avoid panic attack during an emergency situation remains to be effective and helpful. It’s cheap and the odds of survival is higher. always believe in prevention thru awareness and education. It allows one’s mind to be ready in any situation. There are lots of technique out . Sulpicio line should hand out brochure to every passenger. The government must implement this program as a requirement. Liabilities can be minimize if education and prior notice are given. This is an example of social responsibility.
Just like the airlines, the flight stewardess are required to do their pre flight demo. the shipping lines must do the same but with an additional Panic prevention and technique brochure.
cvj: Jeg, i hope you’ll not consider it an absurd misinterpretion if i ascribe to Benign0 what i mistakenly ascribed to you in the previous thread (re: blaming the victims
By all means, seeing that my hypothesis about our pal benny has been soundly refuted by empirical evidence…
Thanks Jeg.
@Karl, Mlq3 and Leytenian, I believe that the logic of Vertical Farming (suggested by Karl and endorsed by Leytenian), Victory Gardens (introduced by Manolo) and Household Farming (as implemented in Vietnam and discussed by Manolo and Supremo in the context of the United States Fil-Ams) is the same logic on why we need Land Reform. Grant the rural folk a few hundred (or thousand) square meters of land to produce food for their family and pocket the income from selling their surplus to the market, to help them escape the long emergency of rural poverty.
In the future, when technology finally makes household power generation technologies efficient and cost effective, the same logic can be implemented to allow households to sell their surplus electric power back to the grid.
devilsadvc8 and dodong’s post on 11.42 and 12.44, respectively, is a precise example of what manolo is trying to point out with respect of the trait “lack of ambition”, although i am a bit hesitant to apply that phrase to the trait portrayed.
to echo other posters, it is, i think, the filipino concept of security, for both himself/herself and his/her family. majority of high school graduates still have their parents choose their college education, and most of those who graduate in college, choose jobs for the welfare of the family and only after consulting or hearing the advice of the family.
those who have the opportunity to become ofws or entertainers(do they still exist?) have this pressing burden thrust in them in an even higher extent.
case 1:
i for one am in that situation several months ago, when i quit my seemingly unprogressing job as a SEO/web content writer in davao, i was given the opportunity to work for a national government office along a river in manila, but as government bureaucracy works(which takes a really really long time, by the way), my application lost steam and i decided to apply elswewhere and found a company willing to hire me as a SEO/web content writer for a considerably higher salary than what i could earn if i were to work for the government. i was about to start the job, when guess who calls, and i was into a dilemma; though my chance of succeeding in a career working for the private company was probably higher than the chance i have in a coterminus government position, it was the notion of security that a government job offered that was always played against me both by my family and my peers. so here i am now.. a government employee..
case 2:
my tito is working as an assistant to the chief cook in a foreign oceangoing cargo vessel, his company fleet expands, and he was given the opportunity to be the chief cook in another ship. although trained and experienced in terms of cooking for a multinational crew for the past two years, he rejects the job and opts to remain assistant instead, arguing that he lacks the capacity and training, AND saying its too risky and might endanger the security he now enjoys with his current job.
this chronic lack of confidence brought about by a preference to comfort and security, is what is keeping us from realizing our true potentials.
Liam, i think you have it the other way around. The presence of security is what allows proportionally more people to take more risks. The preference for security is a consequence of a Society which lacks safety and where failure means going hungry.
When i was in high school, i used to take the School Bus going home. One time, the bus driver announced that the brakes were failing so that he would have to drive more slowly than usual. That shows that Safety Nets are like brakes, you normally wouldn’t dare to drive faster if they don’t work properly.
there is some truth into it cvj..
but our willingness to take risks only goes up to a certain extent..
if it is anything peculiar, i believe our average threshold for risk is lower than what other people have..
to Liam Tinio: Our approach nowadays is NOT to offer a promotion to an employee (who is extremely qualified for a position that has more responsibility/more pay) but to wait for the employees to apply for it. If they do not apply, then they do not get the promotion.
An open job-post never remains open that long, so obviously soon enough we get the post filled. Since we need to be sure that the functions of the position get done, we provide training and even mentoring if appropriate to get the newly-hired up to speed.
Thw top two reasons we have seen why folks do not want to apply for more challenging jobs are (1) family (e.g. the employee’s kids are settling into high school and do not want to relocate, or the employee’s spouse not able to relocate for career reasons); (2) retirement — the employee does not want risk of getting laid off and is fearful that being only a few months in a new post makes him/her more vulnerable should there be a re-organization. I suppose #2 also relates to a sense of stability. Some folks want to remain resident-experts so they do not leave their current post-assignments where they have obtained the ‘expert’ status.
Then, there are those who take advantage of “the Peter Principle”.
@ cvj, liam tinio
The risk return tradeoff is a fundamental aspect of life. Now having security/safety net is not actually risk taking, yes?
Risk with security is called insurance.
Even casinos offer this to hedge your bets.
PSI, how then do you explain Insurance? Isn’t that a safety net as well? Having a security/safety net is what turns a foolish risk into a calculated one.
One of the main reasons of people coming together to form civilized Society is to insulate ourselves from the risk of found outside civilization (e.g. getting eaten by wild animals, getting murdered or raped by bandits) so that we can focus on more productive activities (which also entails risks but hopefully with less tragic consequences.)
PSI, doesn’t your comment at 12:32 pm (which i only saw after submitting my comment above) answer your own question at 12:20 pm?
Off-topic but related to success, if its alright with mlq3
This year is the 100th anniversary of the University of the Philippines. To all whose higher education was subsidized by the people, please renew or double your pledges. Especially those doing well in the United States and abroad.
Somehow you owe your success to U.P. Whether you like this government or not, its payback time.
So UP n , ante up.
Liam Tinio on, “devilsadvc8 and dodong’s post on 11.42 and 12.44, respectively, is a precise example of what manolo is trying to point out with respect of the trait “lack of ambitionâ€Â.”
Patawa….
Unlike you, I am certified calculated risk taker and definitely earned my position fighting my own corporate war game. Todate, I survive 3 white VPs (gone for good) who understimated (and thought they can bullshit) a deftly skilled Filipino polished in acquired experiences in various MNCs in Philippines and abroad. Corporate game is a battlefield and I chose my team and alliances well. You should watch Donald Trump as starter. This is my 3rd US company doing business globally. I am in the top management, my division (is the envy of other US and European divisions in the company due to high profitability) is overseeing operation in 3 major countries or business units. The position is not for the faint of heart or you will be out before you can blink. I am far ambitious than you can probably think. It comes with territory and it becomes second in nature.
And to think I grew up in Mindanao, planted rice at 5 and walked 2 kilometers to school, almost unrecognizable to where I am now.
we filpinos in general are family oriented but I don’t think it will stop one from being ambitious. Knowing our personality type is crucial. Corporation nowadays build their team according to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).
“Thinkers, the Upside: Business and organizations are populated by Thinkers. They base their decisions on logic, fairness, and business outcomes. They can make the tough decisions that are often critical in organizations.
Thinkers, the Downside: Thinkers can be quite unaware of the feelings of staff and customers. When they are aware of feelings, they can consider them irrelevant–too messy and time-consuming. They can miss subtleties in social situations and alienate people who are critical to their own success. They may be indifferent in some situations to the impact of their own behaviors.”
http://www.mbticlub.com/mbti_execs.asp
dodong…
are you an ENTJ? or ENTP .sounds like you are… i was very ambitious since grade one.. from riding the carabao of my grandfather to getting the ride i want…
@dodong
i find your enmity towards me odd as i was nowhere near ridiculing you..
i was only citing your post as an example of the trait in subject..
and you did not even read the entirety of my post..
you’re too eager to flame..
if you would look closely i was not referring to you, per se, but the subject on both your posts..
and i was not even downgrading/belittling it..
here’s the entirety of my post.. pls care to read..
devilsadvc8 and dodong’s post on 11.42 and 12.44, respectively, is a precise example of what manolo is trying to point out with respect of the trait “lack of ambitionâ€Â, although i am a bit hesitant to apply that phrase to the trait portrayed.
oh and btw..
donald trump < niccolo machiavelli
to PSI: Yes, I agree with your message.
To all whose higher education was subsidized by the people, please renew or double your pledges</b. Especially those doing well in the United States and abroad, please renew or double your pledges</b.
The Philippines has contributed to your success. This is as good a time as any for payback-time to share fortune with the university and the younger-generation iskolars ng bayan.
Question;
what is the difference between the Peter Principle and the Dilbert Principle?
ambition, of course, is measured by what one has already achieved in comparison from say 20 years ago (d0d0ng now in the States being unrecognizable to his kababayan’s who may still remember a 5-year old planting rice in Mindanao) versus a Jamby Madrigal (with the “silver spoon” at birth).
The word “easily” in “We are easily contented†is a judgment-call. The middle-level manager (having obtained the director- or VP-title) who then says “this is as far as I go re the corporate rat-race” may reflect “normal ambition” (masaya na ako dito — it is time to relax and have more vacation-time with my kids!), frustration (what they say is not what they feel because they did desire, but just can’t be the full-package to obtain the fame and $$$ of CEO-rank) or it may reflect re-directed ambition (pagkatapos nito, iba naman (say to work to get elected into public office — for the power, not the money).
Dilbert is damage-control. What to do with employees you can’t fire. Wikipedia says :
The Dilbert Principle refers to a 1990s satirical observation by Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams stating that companies tend to systematically promote their least-competent employees to management (generally middle management), in order to limit the amount of damage they’re capable of doing.
Peter Principle is what happens to competent employees who stays in the same company for many years. Wikipedia, for Peter: The principle holds that in a hierarchy members are promoted so long as they work competently. Sooner or later they are promoted to a position at which they are no longer competent (their “level of incompetence”), and there they remain. Peter’s Corollary states that “in time, every post tends to be occupied by an employee who is incompetent to carry out his duties” and adds that “work is accomplished by those employees who have not yet reached their level of incompetence”.
When I mentioned “…. taking advantage of the Peter Principle”, I refer to leapfrogging. Having achieved 90%-expert at current position, one applies for a better position (even if one is only currently 75%-capable for the new position) in expectation that the competition are “Peter-ed” out and are only at 85% or less. One gets the job (75% plus younger/more savvy/more ambitious/willing to work weekends trumps 85%-smooth-sailing-and-probably-unhappy), and after 3 years or less…. do it again.
Companies do promote employees who are working competently, and they will promote you into a position which is different from the one where you are competent at. The “ambition”-part is wanting the more challenging position AND running the risk of rejection. A number of folks say “… I don’t want to apply. Baka hindi ako tanggapin.”
Of course, there is also the risk that your DNA-composition-for-hard-work fails to match your bravado should you get the new job (and that your unit’s performance gets worse, not better). Then you use the 3-envelope game plan.
first envelope — blame previous admin; 2nd-envelope — blame the overall economy and say you and entire office are working weekends; 3rd-envelope — look for next job.
We have our own share of bold, unabashed risk takers: the army special forces. Mottos of various elite forces:
United Kingdom and commonwealth countries: Who dares wins
United States of America: Liberate the oppressed
Philippine Army Special Forces: Strike anywhere
Need you doubt?
upn, your “dilbert principle” reminds me of the joke about a 3d grade class which elected their officers. the best and the brightest was elected as sargeant-at-arms (because he was good at enforcing rules). the dullest and least articulate was chosen president.
bencard: machiavelli sergeant-at-arms can get a 3rd-grade class moving for sure.
happy 4th!
Most pinoy are introverted and use “feeling” at the work place. The tend to keep issue to themselves. Meaning, they just want to comply and complicate the issue. Americans and the others love us for that. Indians are just good n marketing themselves but trust me, my american friends prefer to talk to us on customer service matter. Indians are too mean with lots of RRRRRRR.
I wish to echo UPn.
To all U.S.-based commenters, Happy Fourth of July!
But don’t forget the Philippines, aka payback time.
Manolo,
Your dissertation on the MERALCO poles are well and good but given the current penchant of MERALCO in placing electrical meters on poles practically 3 floors up themselves; might indicate that underground wiring by itself won’t insulate against power failures from typhoons with regards to poles.
Along the Metropolis, one might note the increasing number of MERALCO poles housing the electrical meters of consumers in that particular area even in seemingly residential areas.
Formerly, the usual occurrence was that electrical meters were placed on the structures of consumers themselves like on buildings, houses, etc… For reasons the Devil knows, the power firm has digressed from this.
Given the nature of electricity, there should still be a connection between any underground wiring and the electrical meter several floors up. Anything that happens to that pole itself could still trip power to a big area.
At any rate, this MERALCO penchant appears to be contradictory to the Magna Carta for “Residential” Electricity Consumers. Based on it, a residential costumer has the right to a meter that is easily accessible and visible for reading by both utility personnel and the costumer and that electrical meters are to be installed between 1.5 to 3 meters up from a surface from where one would stand to repair or inspect a meter (unless there are justifiable reasons).
Since ordinary “residents” don’t own one of those elevating scaffoldings like MERALCO, I take it to mean from the ground floor. Those electrical meters placed several floors up would tend to abridge a consumer’s right to inspect one’s own meter.
It is now as if only MERALCO personnel have the right to read your meter. A consumer is going to need binoculars and the need for an ability to read from an angle and I’m not even sure if that will work.
Maybe things would be fine if MERALCO is a heavenly angel.
Unfortunately I’m not inclined to think so.
Insightful observation, JL.
Its basically the state-of-play of business in most sectors in the Philippines. The public is left to swallow the “take-it-or-leave it” positioning of dominant companies. In a similar manner, the universal (?) banks are basically a cartel in the country not contributing to overall progress, but parking captive, low-interest deposits in government securities. What a rip-off!
Its also why we’re getting trash from cable companies (subject of Nash’ comment in the other thread) and the expensive and anomalous take-or-pay power from the IPPs.
This situation has pervaded because of weak regulation on the one hand, and the lengthy public hearings that must be done to correct the situation. And Congressional ‘oversight’ is of no help either.
As Benign0 says, ‘wawa naman tayo.” Oh well.
And of course, Sulpicio Lines’ market dominance of the lower cost (?) Manila-Cebu passenger traffic, has been fatal.
I don’t know what to say.
I also get the impression that the “limited ambition” among filipinos especially in Pinas is the lack of heroes.
Has the media written an article to highlight one or two acts of heroism during the past typhoon? [I do not think the dolphin-story counts.]
liam on, “i find your enmity towards me odd as i was nowhere near ridiculing you..”
If you have time to reread, the post is stating about me on the lack of ambition or opposite of it. To take it as “enmity towards you”, is an overreaching interpretation to your disadvantage that might limit your potential of getting clients as web contents writer if you read too much on any write ups.
Up n Student on, “companies tend to systematically promote their least-competent employees”.
That is how we do it and then fire. It is less aggravating and better defensible position from legal standpoint to fire a person that fails on new position. In contrast, it is hard to get rid of a person who had been doing the same thing over the years like a machine because it is difficult to prove a significant variance of performance that can hold up in court.
d0d0ng: you give me the impression that you are a diligent conscientious worker. Are you still ambitious for a promotion? And among your office mates and among those in your immediate Filipino community, how do you do it when you sense that people sometimes ridicule you or how do you react when you sense some people envious and maybe resentful about what you have accomplished after years of persevering? It must be such a feeling you get when you notice the big change between when you were back in Mindanao and the material wealth of the life where you are now in USA.
And to think that some in your office (like your former bosses who are now gone) may want to get you fired…. not fun at all.
This website seriously needs post threads. What you think MLQ?
UP n student – there is a nature way to compensate as expenses tend to use up whatever increase of income one might have. On the other hand, for every additional dollar, only 60 cents is your take home pay. Hence, other non-cash items like stock options are great.
Regardless of country locations, pinoys are engaged in sourgrapings which generally have no tractions other than for entertainment. I just think good luck to people at work who might be envious coz I care less as long as I am the driver.
The change between then and now is relatively invisible. My old friends and relatives don’t know what I am doing nor have any idea. I don’t mix my relatives with friends. When I went back to Philippines, I still ride PUJs and tricycle. The funny part is I can claim I am working in Manila or in Cebu unless somebody learned from nanay. Most of all no cellphone, it is a distraction.
In personal life as in business, you don’t want to advertise yourself as an easy target unless you want something in return.
i think the average pinoy’s fear of risks or of being too successful are misunderstood. he is simply easily contented. mababaw and kaligayahan. ayaw nya ng mga skyscraper at nakakalulang mga suweldo kung sobra naman ang banat sa buto na kinakailangan. yes, we are masipag and self-sacrificing but largely for reasons of sustaining the family. beyond that, the idea of sustaining the country or a large business enterprise, di na masyado kayang arukin. we’d rather watch showbiz gossip shows and telenovelas doled out by abs and gma. we revel in our low-information mindset, cunningly exploited (but not alleviated) by gma and abs.
so the task of being ambitious and risk-happy is left to the middle class and the elites. unfortunately, they too can’t be ambitious for country. they will be greedy for family, true, but they will let the rest of the country go hang. wala tayong sense of nation. once we imagine ourselves successfully as a nation, we might be able to care enough and transcend tribal, social, economic barriers to think of our common fate. now, we might think of ourselves as pinoys but that aint intense enough to get us all through.
to justice league: the reason why those meters are up high, especially in low-income areas, is to prevent theft of electricity. if electric cables are underground, you can be sure the rate of loss of cable and profits due to theft will be horrendous.
PSI,
Sorry for the very late reply.
Cheers anyway.
Qwerty,
I didn’t have time to scan if you addressed your main concern on the issue of underground electrical cables to our host (since that issue is originally his while the issue of high electrical meters is mine).
But its quite obvious that you as a resident would be willing to relinquish your right to inspect your meter. Unless of course your vision is that good with or without binoculars to inspect your meter that high up.
As I implied before, a resident consumer has the right (as based on the Magna Carta for Residential Electricity Consumers) to a properly installed meter that is easily accessible and visible for reading by him/herself.
Unless MERALCO has justifiable reasons to deny that right; that right must be respected.
to justice league: i was only repeating meralco’s reason for locating the electric consumption meters high above the level of sight. i understand that the readings of those “high-altitude” meters of low-income neighborhoods are not actually billed to the end-users. instead, meralco has a “special way” of determining consumption in those neighborhoods and charging the users accordingly. you might want to ask around the communities in commonwealth avenue for the details of this practice.
Qwerty,
Good to know that you know MERALCO’s reason for doing that.
Thanks for the advice on asking the communities on Commonwealth Avenue but may be some other time.
But since you understand that the readings of those “high-altitude†meters of low-income neighborhoods are not actually billed to the end-users and instead, meralco has a “special way†of determining consumption in those neighborhoods and charging the users accordingly;
did MERALCO say WHY they installed meters in the first place when the actual reading of such meters aren’t the basis for billing charges anyway?
Supremo, FILIPINIOS ARE GREAT! FILIPINOS ARE INTELLIGENT!! PROOF? We earn more than others!!! HA!HA!HA!
I HEARD THIS OFTEN FROM FILIPINOS!!!
Why can’t I read of Filipinos in Economic and science journals? Like Wall Street Journals or Scientific American?
What has the Filipinos contributed in life-altering accomplishments and business-improvement decisions? ZERO!!! BIG FAT ZERO!!! These high-income Filipinos are working their butt off as nurses being led, commanded and controlled and Filipinos just follow!!!
All we brag about is our english!!! Dude, Vietnameses, Hong-Kongeses come to America nary an english yet they have contributed life-altering-business improvement ideas!!! Filipinos zero!!!
We brag about our impeccable spellings!!! Tell me who are the line up in Scripps Spelling Bee!!!
Hey, I take you are from New YOrk. Here’s a story from New Jersey. A nurse mother child was told to look for another school for her child.
She complained to my brother and said, “I’ll bring my Mercedes so they’ll know who I am” SO A MERCEDES CAN MAKE A FILIPINO INTELLIGENT?
HOW EXTRA DUMB!!!!!!!
I DRIVE A VOLVO AND A SAAB!!! I DON’T DRIVE MERCEDES. BECAUSE MERCEDES IS SOOO FILIPINO!!!! DOES THAT MEAN I’M A BRIE-EATING WINE SNOB ELITITST DEMOCRAT?????
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