James Fallows wrote his article “Damaged Culture: A New Philippines? in 1987, a year after EDSA.
It is now 2009, twenty two (22) years after EDSA and still:
The countries that surround the Philippines have become the world’s most famous showcases for the impact of culture on economic development. Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore–all are short on natural resources, but all (as their officials never stop telling you) have clawed their way up through hard study and hard work. Unfortunately for its people, the Philippines illustrates the contrary: that culture can make a naturally rich country poor. There may be more miserable places to live in East Asia– Vietnam, Cambodia–but there are few others where the culture itself, rather than a communist political system, is the main barrier to development. The culture in question is Filipino, but it has been heavily shaped by nearly a hundred years of the “Fil-Am relationship.’ The result is apparently the only non-communist society in East Asia in which the average living standard is going down.
And speaking of elections, the Philippines of 2009 might as well be stuck in 1987:
Democracy has returned to the Philippines, in a big way. As if to make up for all the years when they could not vote, Filipinos have been analyzing the results of one election and preparing for another almost nonstop since early last year. Election disputes have returned too. For three months after the legislative elections last May, long recounts dragged on to determine whether Juan Ponce Enrile, Marcos’s former Defense Minister, whose switch to Aquino helped topple Marcos, would get one of the twenty-four seats in the Senate. Senators are elected nation-wide, in what often resembles a popularity contest. Among the new senators is a Charles Bronson–style action-movie star; Enrile is about as well known as the actor, and though he has made many enemies, most foreigners I spoke with found it hard to believe that in an honest vote count he would have lost to everyone on Aquino’s list of nominees, which included a number of newcomers and nobodies. Finally, in August, he squeaked in as number twenty-four.
The economy? It is same o same o. The conversation below may very well have happened today, or an hour ago, or a minute ago.
Manufacturing? “There were not many viable sectors to begin with, and most of them were taken over by cronies. The industrial sector is used to guarantee monopoly and high-tariff protection. It’s inward-looking, believes it cannot compete. People are used to paying a lot for goods that are okay-to-shoddy in quality. Labor costs are actually quite high for a country at this stage of development. They should be like Sri Lanka’s but they’re like Korea’s, because union organizing has run far ahead of productivity. It’s a poor country–but an expensive place in which to produce. American and Japanese firms have set up some electronics assembly plants, but they’re only buying labor, not building subsidiary industries or anything that adds real value.’
Agriculture? “It’s been heavily skewed for fifty years to plantation crops. All those traditional exports are down, sugar most of all. Copra is okay for the moment, but it’s never going to expand very much. Prawns are the only alternative anybody can think of now.’ Agriculture is also nearly paralyzed by arguments over land ownership. Since the Spanish days land has been concentrated in a few giant haciendas, including the 17,000-acre Hacienda Luisita of the Cojuangco family, and no government has done much to change the pattern. “You could argue that real land reform would lead to more productivity, but it’s an entirely hypothetical argument,’ an Australian economist told me. “This government simply is not going to cause a revolution in the social structure.’ Just before the new Congress convened, as her near-dictatorial powers were about to elapse, Aquino signed a generalized land-reform-should-happen decree. Most observers took this as an indication that land reform would not happen, since the decree left all the decisions about the when, where, and how of land reform to the landowner-heavy Congress.
Services and other industries? “They’re very much influenced by the political climate. I think this has tremendous potential as a tourist country–it’s so beautiful. But they don’t have many other ways to sell their labor, except the obvious one.’ The obvious one is the sex business, visible in every part of the country–and indeed throughout Asia, where Filipino “entertainers’ are common. In Davao, on the southern island of Mindanao, I watched TV one night and saw an ad repeated over and over. Women wanted for opportunities overseas. Qualifications: taller than five feet two inches, younger than twenty-one. When I took cabs in Manila, the drivers routinely inquired if I wanted a woman. When my wife returned our children’s rented inner tubes to a beach vendor at Argao, the vendor, a toothless old woman, asked if she was lonely in her room and needed a hired companion.
Resources? “Exploiting natural resources has always been the base here,’ one of the economists said. “But they’ve taken every tree they can easily get. It’s not like Brazil or Borneo, with another fifty years to rip out the heart of the earth.’ Every single day Japanese diners take hundreds of millions of pairs of chopsticks out of paper wrappers, use them for fifteen minutes, and throw them away. Most of the chopsticks started out as trees in the Philippines, though more and more of them now come from American forests. The Philippines has more naturally spectacular mountains and vistas than Malaysia or Indonesia, but you can travel for miles in the countryside and mainly see eroding hillsides stripped bare of trees. Like Americans who speak of “conquering’ the frontier, Filipinos sometimes take a more romantic view of what “taking every tree’ can mean. F. Sionil Jose, a prominent novelist in his early sixties, who grew up in Ilocos, has written a famous five-volume saga–the Rozales novels–about the migration from the harsh Ilocos region to the fertile plains of central Luzon. The Ilocano migrants made a new life for themselves, he observes, and they did it by cutting down the jungle and planting rice. “There is some hope with minerals and gold,’ one of the economists said. Indeed, a Forty-ninerstyle gold rush is now under way in Mindanao. I was told that communist rebels, Moslem separatists, and former Philippine Army soldiers now work side by side in the gold mines, proving that economic development can be the answer to political problems.
And the clincher is
Still, for all the damage Marcos did, it’s not clear that he caused the country’s economic problems, as opposed to intensifying them. Most of the things that now seem wrong with the economy–grotesque extremes of wealth and poverty, land-ownership disputes, monopolistic industries in cozy, corrupt cahoots with the government–have been wrong for decades. When reading Philippine novels or history books, I would come across a passage that resembled what I’d seen in the Manila slums or on a farm. Then I would read on and discover that the description was by an American soldier in the 1890s, or a Filipino nationalist in the 1930s, or a foreign economist in the 1950s, or a young politician like Ferdinand Marcos or Benigno Aquino in the 1960s. “Here is a land in which a few are spectacularly rich while the masses remain abjectly poor. . . . Here is a land consecrated to democracy but run by an entrenched plutocracy. Here, too, are a people whose ambitions run high, but whose fulfillment is low and mainly restricted to the self-perpetuating elite.’ The precise phrasing belongs to Benigno Aquino, in his early days in politics, but the thought has been expressed by hundreds of others. Koreans and Japanese love to taunt Americans by hauling out old, pompous predictions that obviously have not come true. “Made in Japan’ would always mean “shoddy.’ Korea would “always’ be poor. Hah hah hah! You smug Yankees were so wrong! Leafing back through Filipinology has the opposite effect: it is surprising, and depressing, to see how little has changed.
And since 1987, the Philippines has remained bleak,- extreme disparity between the rich and the poor, the impunity of political assassins, the corruption, the instability, and the culture – same o same o.
It may be too pessimistic to think of culture as a kind of large-scale genetics, channeling whole societies toward progress or stagnation. A hundred years ago not even the crusading Emperor Meiji would have dreamed that “Japanese culture’ would come to mean “efficiency.’ America is full of people who have changed their “culture’ by moving away from the old country or the home town or the farm. But a culture-breaking change of scene is not an answer for the people still in the Philippines–there are 55 million of them, where would they go?–and it’s hard to know what else, within our lifetimes, the answer might be.
Recently, The Accidental Migrant wrote:
Our view of Philippine politics is personality-based and mainly centered on the president. We tend to reduce Philippine economic reality to the question of exchange rate between the pound sterling and Philippine peso.
Except for the activism displayed by Filipino domestic workers in claiming their right as workers in this country, we have not gone beyond our translation of Filipino “identity” into those traditional summer barrio fiestas, the beauty contests and dinner parties to raise some money for their pet projects, and our religious gatherings.
The need to translate the respectability we have earned as a migrant workforce into a political power that would demand good governance in the Philippines and to become an important voice in the UK’s foreign policy and overseas development commitments to the Philippines remains a big and ambitious challenge.
The million dollar question – getting from the current/AS-IS state of irresponsibility to the Desired Future/TO-BE State of personal responsibility – of holding and demanding accountability from the government WHILE ensuring one is also accountable for one’s civic obligations remains in oblivion.
The Numbers Do the Talking.. Again
Numbers do talk. But all of us tend to read it differently. Caffeine Sparks was miffed with the numbers
Debt owed to domestic lenders rose from P1.06 trillion in 2000 to P2.4 trillion in 2008. Debt owed to foreign lenders rose from P1.09 trillion to 1.8 trillion in 2008. And the President, dear beloved President in pink, has the gall to say she has “exorcised” debt???
I can understand if FVR will say he “exorcised” debt because it was during his term when the Philippines emerged 35 years of IMF program supervision. Foreign debt is not evil when such debt is used to generate revenues. The question is what is the composition of the 1.09 trillion in debt. If it is debt that does not generate revenue then I agree that Arroyo doesn’t have the gall.
Somehow, I doubt that Speaker Nograles’ proposal to amend the constitution, supposedly to encourage investments, will attract these businesses. They will have to eliminate themselves first.
Well, Item No. 4. Policy Instability – is a euphemism for anti-foreign investments/protectionist policy, specially, when said policy is enshrined in the Constitution under the section on National Patrimony. Since these rent capture protectionist policies are etched in the charter, changing these policies necessitates amending the charter in order to attract business.
As pointed out by Kobayashi, during an ASEAN sponsored conference – There are only two reasons for Global Firms to invest in developing areas
Establish Export Plants
– Firms place importance on “operational conditions”
– The less world economic growth, the more selective firms become
– The more possible investment destinations, the more selective firms become
Access to New Markets
– Firms place importance on “market size” and “future growth opportunities”
– The less world economic growth, the more attractive these factors appear to firms
3 Factors Are Considered When Choosing an Export Plant Location
- Geographical/psychological proximity to targeted markets
- Geographical/psychological proximity to global firms themselves
- Operational costs (including tariffs, restrictions on foreign investments, etc.) and business environment
The BPO industry has benefited from liberalization. The findings of Shujiro Urata, Professor of Economics, School of Social Science, Waseda University, presented his observations at the US-China-Japan Trilateral Forum in November 11th, 1997 are still relevant:
World foreign direct investment (FDI) has grown rapidly since the early 1980s. Indeed, the rate of increase of world FDI was higher, compared with world trade from the early 1980s through the mid-1990s. As a result of these new developments, FDI has become one of the most important means of integrating the world economy. The role of FDI in the world economy would be significantly greater, if the impact of FDI on various economic activities is considered. FDI enables investing firms to utilize their firm-specific assets such as technologies and managerial know-how efficiently, while FDI recipients can obtain not only the funds for investment but also efficient technologies and know-how. Furthermore, FDI recipients can enjoy the benefits by gaining an access to various networks such as sales and procurement networks being developed by investing firms.
There are some factors that may be important for all types of FDI. A well-functioning legal system is crucial as it provides protection of assets owned by foreign investors. Without security of assets, no foreign investors would undertake FDI. Closely related to the point just noted is protection of intellectual property rights, as intellectual property is a source of competitive edge for most foreign direct investors. These points may be summarized as the capability of providing credible commitment on the part of host government, or governance for short.
Another interesting observation on a number, this time the GDP was made:
Pattern One: GDP went up even as imports contracted.
Pattern Two: GDP went up even as exports also contracted.
There were more goods and services consumed…but we didn’t export any of them?
The authors of the cited study provide the answer in Page 9 –
At any rate, it is quite clear that NIA statistics and even indicators of foreign asset holdings depict not a consumption-driven rise in economic growth after the Asian Financial Crisis but an import-substitution driven one. Can expenditure switching or import substitution explain the rise in Philippine economic growth after the Asian Financial Crisis? If the national income accounts are reliable, this would be a tautological question since the numbers clearly say that such was indeed the case.
They also suggest that:
6 – Consumption growth is probably overestimated
7 – Agriculture may not be as robust
8 – On the contrary, Industry is weakening
9 – There are many problems in the measurement of service sector growth
The authors stated that consumption might be overestimated. They might as well have included:
- imports are underestimated and,
- exports are understimated.
These underestimations, in case people forget, is the lifeblood of customs.
In general, it would be safe to say that all the goods coming in and out of the Philippines are under–declared. These “pilferages” will add up. While the customs duties for such goods are not declared, their entry into the economy will have an impact and will be reflected as an increase in consumption as people pay for goods that they consume – but these goods were not captured at the point of entry or exit into the Philippines.
A STRONG ECONOMY BUILT ON WHAT?
It is an economy built on the paradigm of import-substitution, pretty much a protectionist paradigm – which of course is institutionalized in the Constitutional provisions on national patrimony. An economy built on the whims of the local economic elite, without any worries about foreign competition. The local economy is has a captive market that the local economic elite can toy with, with impunity.
Then, a ball was thrown from left field:
Benigno, Bencard,UPn, and BongV
Nibbling at the fringes of a well thought out and sybstabtiated essay bt Dean de la Paz, Why don’t you attack his numbers if you disagree with his analysis? Economics is too complicated for you?
The gist of it is that the GMAs numbers have to be taken with a grain of salt. And I agree For instance, in education – when the Education secretary proclaimed that there was a lack of classrooms – GMA instructed her to pack more children in a classroom – WTF. She solved the classroom issue, BUT in a perverted way. GMA claimed there was economic growth – I agree. NOW, whether this growth was equitably distributed is another matter, given the Gini coefficient. There is nothing new to what the author is saying that I am not aware of. And the conclusion he derives from the data are no different from the conclusions I will make based on the data.
So anong problema mo ngayon MCB?
And it does not help that Philippine society has citizens that behave like feudal subjects, half-brutes even – prompting Jose Rizal to reiterate the adage – like people, like government. James Fallows completes the circle of ground hog day:
Most of the things that now seem wrong with the economy–grotesque extremes of wealth and poverty, land-ownership disputes, monopolistic industries in cozy, corrupt cahoots with the government–have been wrong for decades.
It even gets glaring when one attempts to elevate the discussion to a rational and systematic discussion that the vacuous play possum and play the victim card to the hilt and would rather talk about how victimised they are instead of discussing solutions objectively measurable time-bound measurable solutions. The victim chatter is pathetic, it sickening, and retarded. What’s worse – are its enablers!
So, the long and short of it. The Philippine state of affairs (not just the SONA speech,) is all good – Situation Normal All Effed Up – SNAFU.
Popularity: 2% [?]
hey, bongV: Guess who wrote these:
puhleeezeee…… i am puking
As long as we make politics and public service as as way people
can enrich themselves, and will never go to jail. We will have
the same problems. Politicians are our stumbling blocks to progress.
They are like parasites sucking the people’s blood.
As long as people allow politics and public service to become a way for people to fraudulently enrich themselves without doing jail time, we will have the same problems.
Politicians and the people/voters/supporters who put them there are stumbling blocks to progress.
They are like parasites-and infected carriers spreading a plague of dysfunctionality, unrepentant ignorance, and obliviousness.
A two way atreet…
exactly, a two-way street, a synergy – like people, like government.
Primer:
your modus is if you can’t understand it – “it is intellectually-deficient”.
a 1 x 1 matrix is – “is intellectually-deficient”.
kepner is “intellectually-deficient”.
benchmarks is “is intellectually-deficient”.
having cars pay parking fee in public spaces is “intellectually-deficient”
the synergy between choice and consequence is “intellectually-deficient”
sure says a lot – SNAFU ;)
bonv, i think the best response is to ignore it rather than dignify the acute moronism. i don’t think anyone with a modicum of rationality takes the guy seriously. i would just treat it as one of the impurities in the air the rest of us breathe.
sheesh, go to mlq’s blog – he has longer knitting. look at all the blogosphere – that’s the style. there is no need to reinvent what’s been said lest it gets lost in translation into a Yoda-like ambiguous incoherent rambling essay that is pretty much nothing but junk.
this is a blog – not a thesis, you can stick your protocol right up your hiney.
moreover, in case your english is unable to comprehend this statements – i will gladly donate a dictionary, even sponsor a scholarship for you on “English as a Second Language”.
“In general, it would be safe to say that all the goods coming in and out of the Philippines are under–declared.”
yet another example of the wide-ranging effects of graft and corruption.
Primer: name-calling is a means to highlight intensity, similar to Mar Roxas with his putangina expression about GMA. Some people do use it while some do not -Mar Roxas putangina, “bansot talsik diyan!”, “ano ka ba, hindi ka ba talaga makaintindi o binayaran ka lang?” in Ellen Tordesillas or even at Q3′s site. Similar to where some people do and some do not — write readable English or readable Bisaya. Similar to some using kerosene to do damage to sidewalk vendors’ incomes (while some don’t).
Name-calling has other incidental effects, e.g. name-calling can bring back to “the collective” bitter or sweet or hilarious memories of others who had been colorful with coconut- and literary adjectives.
And those indented paragraphs brihg back this topic — Pinoys-in-Pinas are overpaid / Pinas labor costs are high.
to read the blog – as it should have been formatted
http://www.philippinebeat.com/boards/showthread.php?t=3577
Hmmm, back again in Principal’s Office for guidance counselling, eh, BongV and Primer?
Kailangan pa bang i-memorize ito:
10 Basic Blogging Etiquette Rules
1. Respect the views of other bloggers. You can have a dissenting opinion and still be respectful. Before you hit submit, re-read your entry.
2. Never reply with personal attacks. Discuss issues in a mature manner.
3. Refrain from using foul or vulgar language; it turns people off.
4. Apologize if you make a mistake or give erroneous information.
5. Use correct spelling, grammar, punctuation. This is not text messaging or IM’ing.
6. Do not correct other blogger’s spelling, grammar, or punctuation.
7. Lurking: it is okay to lurk (read other posts without commenting). When a post inspires you to post, then do so.
8. Respond to comments or questions about your post. If your answer is too personal or off topic, then email a reply directly to that person instead of posting a comment.
9. Always reference material from other sources, and if taken from an online webpage, then provide a link to it.
10. Think before you post any information that you do not want the world to see. The blogosphere is global and open to the public.
http://www.drdaveanddee.com/blogetiquette.html
Political correctness is so yesterday.
The first part of this blog post makes me think this way: those who want to do right should have the balls to disobey or go against our Philippine culture, because the wrong is deeply entrenched and is even taught to be right. You might have to uproot the whole culture or replace it with another one, risking accusations of being unpatriotic or anti-Filipino. It’s a damaged culture; it’s unfortunately true.
WTF, Dude! Thought you were a true blue revolutionist.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_wKZGWRF9g&feature=related
Don’t sound like an anarchist or the green valley monster will get you. :)
Lighten guys. Too early to brawl. :)
BTW,
Bong thanks for tracking back to Fallows’ piece.
It’s a sobering tome that truly underlines the reworking, the maturation that Philippine society needs to go through.
Phil,
Thanks for the kit, a constant reminder that helps everyone I guess.
I read somewhere that only 3% of the world’s population do not live in the country of their birth.
I am sure that the Philippines is ranked high in the number of its natives who do not reside in their country of birth.
Our culture is not damaged. A predominant culture still does not exist.
A clueless one said that integrated societal development is not in any book on economics. Modern societies were built on states building on soft infrastructure, i.e. education, health and welfare.
How can economics be simply about business when business is the mechanism at the service of human development.
It is shocking the gross ignorance of so so many. This has led to the beggaring of the state and collectively the country has to depend on indentured labor to survive.
J_ag:
As of 2007, the NSCB reported:
Registered Voters (2007): 43,536,028
Population (as of Aug 1, 2007):88,542,991
The number of Filipinos living and working overseas is estimated by POEA at 10% of the total population.
That means there are at least 79.2M people residing in the homeland at the moment. As previously mentioned, of this 79.2M, 43.5M are registered voters.
Of these registered voters, the polling bodies segregate the socio-economic groups as A, B, C, D, E. Groups ABC comprise 7% of the voting population. Groups DE account for 93% of total registered voters.
Culture is defined as “the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic, or age group”.
The dominant culture would be the culture of the majority group – the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of the 93% that comprise the DE groups.
As I mentioned in a previous blog on Philippine political culture – Using the Civic Culture Theory as a frame of reference, based on the description of each type of political culture, in my opinion the Philippines’ political culture – is that of a SUBJECT.
- FILIPINOS “are aware of central government, and are heavily subjected to its decisions with little scope for dissent. The individual is aware of politics, its actors and institutions. It is affectively oriented towards politics, yet he is on the “downward flow” side of the politics. In general congruent with a centralized authoritarian structure.”
“The dominant culture would be the culture of the majority group – the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of the 93% that comprise the DE groups.”
We have differing types of tribal communal societies from North to the South, peasants working in a European style peasant feudal system, tenant sharecroppers and the urban poor comprising groups from all the former. They would constitute the mass base of your main street economy.
The rest are working for the state and the small minority have mostly integrated their culture with the former colonial masters and emerging Sinic masters…They work for the multinationals and the rest for the emerging Chinoy economic powerhouses in the country.
Now tell me you have a homogeneous culture amongst the 90+% plus the rest of the bunch.
When you look at the Philippines through the eyes of a first world individual there is no advanced predominant main street culture. It does not exist in the Philippine context.
Oh, I forgot to mention that most especially here in the Philippines civic culture is very very local…. The barangay and town level rules…
J_ag:
From north to south – from barangay to national:
Predominant practices of:
* Patronage
* Vote buying
* selecting candidates – (http://www.pcij.org/stories/2004/poorvote.html)
I am looking at this based on data provided by Filipinos themselves. Thus your statement has nothing to do with the what the data is saying.
As far as the data is concerned, the statement – that the view is “elitist” is unsubstantiated speculation because the conclusion is derived from the factual data – after the fact.. not before the fact.
One other thing that HASN’T CHANGED is on-going PROOF that Pinoys should never have asserted their independence off the United States in the first place.
Check out this “Letter to President Obama” sent supposedly by these bozos (and posted, where else, on JOLOG CENTRAL):
Teofisto Guingona Jr. former vice president; Jovito R. Salonga, former Senate president; Franklin Drilon, former Senate president; Camilo D. Quiason, former SC Justice;
Former senators Wigberto Tañada, Sergio Osmeña III, Vicente T. Paterno, Agapito A. Aquino;
Josefina T. Lichauco, former cabinet secretary, Concerned Citizens Movement; Francisco I. Chavez, former Solicitor General; Corazon J. Soliman, former cabinet secretary; Juan Santos, former cabinet secretary;
Jejomar C. Binay, mayor, Makati City; Bro. Eddie C. Villanueva, national chairman, PJM; Sr. Mary John Mananza, OSB, co-chairperson, AMRSP; Harry L. Roque, Jr., UP Law, Concerned Citizens Movement; Jun I. Lozada, state witness, ZTE/NBN
I find it pathetic that those signatories would take their grievances to the President of the United States. It demonstrates that the Philippines should never have asserted its independence from the United States in the first place!!
That such a message would be sent to a foreign head of state by people who themselves are IN POSITIONS of influence says A LOT about the utter impotence of Pinoys in this whole business of looking after themselves.
- Pathetic.
- Uncool.
- Full of sh!t.
That’s The Filipino for you — after 63 years of “Independence”, and most likely for the NEXT 63 years.
benigno, it appears to me that these are totally desperate bunch who couldn’t find a way to defeat pgma in her own turf. thus, like weakling crybabies that they are, they try shamelessly to undermine her by going “international”, making sumbung (on all fours) to the likes of u.n. commission on human rights, the international court of justice, and now, pelosi and obama. pathetic! what can they expect these people and entities do to a duly-constituted government of a free and independent country? spank its chief executive? are we too vacuous to realize what these mendicant countrymen are doing to us as a nation with their hubris?
james fallows, the same guy who is attempting to stop everyone from spreading the boiling frog myth.
http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/07/guest-post_wisdom_on_frogs.php
All that “damaged culture” argument is old sociological hat of the 20th century. Hay naku, BongV we are in the 21st century and we have new ways of explaining poverty! The Philippines is poor not because of its culture alone but by its geography which makes it prone to disasters. However, the culture of (neo)colonialism exacerbates the problem of poverty. One major politico-cultural shift that can lessen poverty in a disaster prone country is a massive redistribution of wealth (tied to land) which General Macarthur dictated on occupied Japan. This resulted in massive enfranchisement. Socialism under Deng did that for China. Japan and China have one party governments. Dealing successfully with environmental vagaries involves a society that is sufficiently empowered and enfranchised.
Blackshama:
Oh sure, there are new ways of explaining poverty – blame geography except one’s behaviors, attitudes and practices – how convenient :)
If I were to take the disaster argument – dang, Florida will be so poor, given the hurricanes that hit it every year.
Fallows is a litmus test. Those who reject him are trapped in Filipino culture, blind to new knowledge. Those who support him are trapped in Western values, void of spiritual depth. The TRUE PATH is to do what is best. Throw trash out the window of the bus if you believe that is okay, don’t if you don’t. But always choose with a conscience guided by the light of Jesus or any good and compassionate soul.
Have a good day.
Joe
Joe:
If you are referring to the Western value of democracy – isn’t it supposed to be devoid of spiritual depth because it is secular? It’s the separation of church and state thingie?
Supporting Fallows does not necessarily mean being trapped in Western values – on the contrary it might mean shedding off bad habits to let the better virtues emerge.
Bong,
Oh, no. Secular does not mean devoid of spirituality. It means putting one’s organized expression of same subservient to the state. Spiritual depth allows one to appreciate the arts or the music or unknown ties that bind humanity. Or fall to the knees in supplication to the Great Good we should aspire to.
As for supporting Fallows, you are right, it SHOULD mean a willingness to set aside bad habits of either Western or Filipino culture, by latching onto a new mirror of cultural perspective. It is why traveling is so important to development of the ummmmm mind and spirit.
Joe
i am baffled with what fallows means by CULTURE. from what bong quoted above…
” America is full of people who have changed their “culture’ by moving away from the old country or the home town or the farm. But a culture-breaking change of scene is not an answer for the people still in the Philippines–there are 55 million of them, where would they go?–and it’s hard to know what else, within our lifetimes, the answer might be.”
so you can change your CULTURE by moving away?
i define culture as a series of practices, beliefs that characterize the vast majority of citizens of a people/country.
does chinese culture change when the chinese move to other countries?
i’ve checked the internet, and i’ve seen NO OTHER DEFINITION of the word CULTURE that has a geographical dimension.
it appears he just made up this idea, which happens to fit his ideas about filipinos.
GabbyD:
A barrio dude lands in NYC.
Compare the culture between NYC and the barrio.
Don’t you think after living in NYC, the barrio dude will take on the NYC culture? Don’t you think – he will learn to fall in line? to throw his trash in designated areas and days only? That he will dress more appropriately based on the NYC mainstream fashion? That he will learn to be more tolerant of other cultures and belief systems? that he will become more aggressive in pursuing opportunities?
falling in line.. sanitary habits.. etc – arent’s these practices? habits?
clearly, there is a difference in the practices and habits in the barrio and a difference in the practices and habits in the big city?
that when the barrio dude moved to the big city, he assimilated big city culture?
one person? sure. but migration is not about 1 guy moving somewhere, but whole groups of people moving. this is also what fallows is referring to .
Gabbyd:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographic_history_of_the_United_States#Rural_flight
“Rural flight is the departure of excess populations (usually young men and women) from farm areas. In some cases whole families left, as in the Dust Bowl in the 1930s. Much of rural America has seen steady population decline since 1920.
Black migration out of the South
The Great Migration was the movement of millions African Americans out of the rural Southern United States from 1914 to 1960. Most moved to large industrial cities, as well as to many smaller industrial cities. African-Americans moved as individuals or small groups. There was no government assistance. They migrated because of a variety of push and pull factors:
Pull factors
1. Income levels were much higher in the North, with far higher wages in the service sector.
2. The enormous growth of war industries in WW1 and WW2 created new job openings for blacks—not in the factories but in the service jobs that new factory workers vacated;
3. World War I effectively put a halt to the flow of European immigrants to the industrial centers , causing shortages of workers in the factories.
4. After 1940, as the U.S. rearmed for World War II (see Homefront-United States-World War II), industrial production increased rapidly.
5. The FEPC equal opportunity laws were more enforced in the North and West.[1]”
***
Also, consider Urbanism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urbanism
If James Fallows thinks the Philippines is a damaged culture, I would say he’s a damaged brain. And his Filipino factotums and followers, and fans who bite his bait hook, line and sinker, the same, heheh.
if ever there really is a damaged culture, it’s the Filipino Filipino bashers, the perverts who kept on baning their own heads.
banging their own heads pala’, heheh.
as long as your statement is substantiated ;)
I’m curious as to one who simply basis his opinions on what he reads.
Has he ever met a full blooded Lakota. Or an Ojibway.
One of the biggest problems that continue to exist amongst the native peoples of North America is the gap in their social development.
Take two babies at birth and leave one with the tribes in Papua New Guinea and one with a family in California.
Would their culture be similar?
The gap between urban areas and rural areas in advanced industrial societies is miniscule….
The gap between the Amazon tribes and the urban areas in Brazil is huge…
Why are the Uighurs in China having a difficult time?
Culture is an expression of social (communities) development based on the stage of material development.
All this fully dependent on environmental determinism…
If the M.E. had no oil the people there would still be subsisting on dates, lamb or goats. However their culture fundamentally remains the same as it was centuries ago.
If you were a non Arab residing there and you insulted the Prophet and I were an Arab Muslim I would have the legal and moral right to kill you to defend my faith..
Do you know what the NY culture means? What about the Queens and Long Island cultures? Pronounce the word Houston. Do you know where the city is in New York City?
Advanced technologies in communication and transportation have made the globe smaller. Culturally the gap can separated by centuries and sometimes millennium.
BongV you should visit Afghanistan…..Like the U.S. military has learned the hard way bring along an anthropologist.
With all the modern arms they are having a real tough fight with guys who are not even wearing proper shoes.
J_ag:
I don’t need to visit Afghanistan. I have my own Afghanistan – I am from Mindanao – have you visited it? I was born and raised in it – and I know what each mujahideen feels when he sees an indio occupation force – so feel free to educate me about Afghanistan.
I don’t need your Lakota’s, I have my own Lakota – I am a Lakota – I am a Maranao – I am A Moro.
You can be in NYC, you can be in the Bronx, Queens, Long Island, Yonkers, SoHO, Little Italy, Chinatown, Aparri, Jolo, Gaza, Kabul, Fallujah, Marawi – you can be anywhere in the world – and culture will still consist of the beliefs, behaviors, objects, and other characteristics common to the members of a particular group or society. Each group being an instance of the definition.
You wanna know guys not wearing proper shoes giving someone a tough fight? Reminds me of a platoon of Abu Sayyaf thumbing its noses on a battalion of Philippine Marines – who are also provided the modern arms.
How well do you know your own backyard?
Yup – here’s the material development stage- rest of ASEAN 21st century, Philippines – Cretaceous/Devonian/Cambrian/Jurassic.