I.T.P.S.
January 12th, 2009 by benign0I just read caffeine_sparks’s Authenticity and Mar Roxas. I think I know now why the Philippines — a country of 90 million — cannot produce even one good president.
It’s because:
We expect so much from presidents and so very little from ourselves.
We expect presidents to be saints but cannot seem to find it in ourselves to stop urinating in public. We expect presidents to be brilliant but cannot seem to hold ourselves to world class standards of excellence. We expect presidents to be accountable yet cannot seem to hold ourselves personally responsible for our own prosperity.
In other words, we set up our leaders for failure by setting standards of such scope as to leave little for us to be responsible for. When a President becomes responsible for “creating employment”, for example, guess what: suddenly, it is not our fault if we cannot find a job. Their failure can absolve us of our own failure to make things happen for ourselves.
This is not too different from how, left to their own devices, “key stakeholders” in an IT systems implementation project tend to press for no less than a do-it-all system that “automates everything from end-to-end”. When the possibility of such a system being built is raised (say, during vendors’ dimwit sales pitches), all of a sudden there is an excuse for inefficiency, poor data quality, poor governance, and overall poor operational practices — because all of a sudden everything is manual and prone to error.
A society of true achievers can prosper despite their president.
Strip away all the nice-to-haves promised by our half-wit politicians and regard our society relative to other developing countries. We have our democratic rights, a free press, and a relatively open economy. Flawed as these may be, they are still a whole notch better than most. Vietnam and China on the other hand are both complete antitheses of these even to this day. Yet with a very small relatively recent relaxation of their once oppressively tyrannical central state control of their economies, a flurry of economic activity had overcome these two states. With just enough breathing space, business in these countries, flourished.
Compare that to the Philippines, whose idea of oppressive totalitarianism is Marcosian — a teddy bear of a regime compared to that of China’s and Vietnam’s back in their bad old days (and even compared to the ones they have today). Compared to China and Vietnam, we have always been economically free — even in the bad old days of Marcos’s rule. Yet to this day, after “winning” our “freedom” in several “revolutions” since 1983, we remain not just an impoverished society, but one that sees no clear way out of this impoverishment.
So there is something quite funny about the way we obssess — more like quibble — about the “authenticity” of our politicians; as if an incremental improvement in a sitting president’s niceness will mitigate a fundamental bankruptcy of substance in our society.
I.T.P.S.
It’s the people, stupid.
============
Join us on Facebook!
January 12, 2009 at 4:47 pm
I would say, it takes two to tango. For example, I agree that putting job creation as a burden on the shoulders of the president merely induces band-aid solutions that are at best lip service, case in point:
1. Pulis Oyster — the newest iteration of the Metro Aide, insinuating that job creation meant more job openings for street sweepers
2. Courtship of foreign investment at all costs, e.g., giving up wholesale Bell-esque “parity” rights to foreigners which allowed for a more rapid depletion of our natural resources.
Job creation is the job the business sector, which creates and/or expands businesses, compete in an open market, and “up the ante” in terms of adding value to products and services that allow for a rise in standards of living for most, if not everyone.
Unfortunately the moneyed middle class, particularly the OFW, smirk at the idea of formal business creation or merely join bandwagons of existing business ideas which makes for a red ocean market environment.
But the President does have the mandate to make it favorable for businesses to flourish, in particular, lessening red tape during business creation (which is the major, most painful part of
the process, discouraging too many potential business owners to implement their plans, or encouraging unregistered/illegal/underground economics).
Case in point, the way that the Mugabean regime has induced and mishandled their hyper-over-maximus-inflation in Zimbabwe will clearly point out that no amount of activity nor resolve from ordinary citizens could battle their economic strife.
Of course, self-castigating Filipinos must see *that* particular example for them to be able to truly appreciate the fact that the Philippines is not the worst case scenario, or at least not the one that they would hope would claim the blame for their underachievements.
January 12, 2009 at 4:57 pm
Aeta responds to Tracy Borres:
http://smoketalk.wordpress.com/the-gospel-according-to-tracy/#comment-2708
My thinking is, this should be the golfing incident not for bloggers. Aetas need respect too. Heckk all races need respect. Pero paningin ko the kastilaloy network will make sure this doesn’t go viral.
SORRY FOR CROSS-POSTING, but this is Cocoy’s TRIAGE in effect.
January 12, 2009 at 4:57 pm
golfing incident FOR bloggers , that is.
January 12, 2009 at 5:02 pm
BrianB,
Errr, how is that related to *THIS* topic?
January 12, 2009 at 5:07 pm
triage nga
January 12, 2009 at 5:17 pm
triage?
January 12, 2009 at 5:18 pm
Oo triage. Uso yan sa E.R. o kung may massive medicalemergency.
January 12, 2009 at 5:29 pm
Nick, Butog could contribute a great deal on FV. His story and personal opinion is of cultural import, I believe. This is what you’re looking for.
January 12, 2009 at 5:53 pm
ditto what jon said.
(the first one.)
January 12, 2009 at 7:02 pm
Among the things Jon said is to extend the net of blankety-blank capitalists to now include “… the moneyed middle class, particularly the OFW (who) smirk at the idea of formal business creation”.
January 12, 2009 at 7:09 pm
Somehow, I find myself agreeing with the much of the stuff Benigs said in this post.
Ok, that’s…
Haha.
Ano ba yan. This is the second time I did that, Agree mostly with Benigs, here in Filipino Voices.
Well, I don’t agree naman with all, but…
Makes sense, eh.
Maybe I’m just tired. Haha. Its been a loooong Monday.
But, yeah. Its that “why do we keep urinating in public” thing. And the question always in my mind, even before Garci, why despite having all of these things…
Haynako. Mahirap magcomment ng sabaw ang utak.
Basta, some things benigs said made sense.
January 12, 2009 at 7:16 pm
UP n grad,
Your point being?
January 12, 2009 at 7:47 pm
rob… he is trying to humiliate you so don’t be too quick to agree with benign0, especially about “WE” and ‘urinating in public’. The Filipinos I know do not urinate in public. I was in Manila for an entire week, and I did NOT see any Filipino pee on a wall or into a canal.
January 12, 2009 at 7:48 pm
didn’t see any Vietnamese in Saigon or a Khmer in Siem Reap pee into a canal or onto a wall, either.
January 12, 2009 at 7:52 pm
The argument is greater in its isolated parts than the whole. Ibig sabihin sophistry at rhetoric lang lahat, walang laman.
I say let’s give Butog a space here. Butog represent!
January 12, 2009 at 10:06 pm
Kung baga sa burger, puro condiments walang meat.
January 12, 2009 at 10:59 pm
That we deserve the government we have is a cliché. But in our context, the people really do not have the power over their government. Our election is rigged; the tri-media paint a glowing picture of the politician of their choice; the people do not have the political maturity of discernment to distinguish between the clown and a statesman, most politicians who offered their services to the people on election time are clowns.
What can the people do? Most are uneducated and poor, directionless and powerless. One of the important jobs of the government is to create a healthy climate for investment. If our bureaucracy is inscrutable as well as corrupt, investment capital is retarded if not totally withdrawn from the country. No capital investment means no job for the jobless poor.
The poor people do not discharge the powers of government. It is the people that they are made to believe they have elected that do. Powers that can direct limited resources to the most pressing problems of the country. But how do we prioritize our resources other than paying the bloated salaries of our bureaucracy that do not function and channel others to pay kickback and other extras to feed the gluttons in our government?
Our leaders ( if they understand the meaning of leadership) should be there to lead and provide inspiration to the populace who are poor and create opportunities for them and not only opportunities for our leaders, their cronies and friends.
That the people is the problem is the quintessential favorite line of our conquistadores that the “indios are indolent”.
No Benign0, it is not the people. The problem is only the few people who have control over the lives of so many, whether they be in our government bureaucracy or in the private sectors that hold their power, be it political or capital to maintain the present inequities and enslavement of the people.
Yes and no Benigno. Vietnam and China are as poor as the Philippines. The economic boom you see in these two countries are limited only to a couple of popular cities. If you go to their countrysides, abject poverty, hopelessness and despair are very apparent. The diference is that in our country, these conditions exist throughout the country.
January 12, 2009 at 11:02 pm
peeing in public street is not equivalent to dipping your fingers in government treasury and justified as one of th perks of being a government official. :)
January 12, 2009 at 11:17 pm
Shout that “It’s the people” in our Advanced Australia Fair, you would get a ruckus the size of Uluru.
My dear Benign0, It’s the pollies! It’s the pollies that screw up and the pollies that can inspire change.
BTW, it is the Chairman that successfully socially engineered 12 million Filipinos. You don’t see people urinating in public in our Pink and Blue Paradise!
Fair dinkum mate! In Outback Oz (I hope you have visited it), if you can’t find the dunny, or if the dunny is populated by redbacks and the funnelweb, you will piss in public.
Or if traditional curse comes true and an Emu kicks your dunny door down.
You will piss in public.
How I miss Australia dear. I’m planning to visit this year.
BTW, I wish you an advanced Happy Australia Day!
January 13, 2009 at 1:05 am
Benign0,
I have known a lot of Pinoys abroad who do well because the “climate of opportunity” was there. Something we do not have in our country.
My concept of the true chracter of the Filipino people is further strengthened by what I saw in crew of a cruise ship we boarded on in June 2008.
Here is the link and try to peer through our true character which I know you will find in yourself also because you happened to be in Austrialia which provides the same opportunity.
http://jcc34.wordpress.com/2008/07/02/bahamas-diary-day-three-062908/
January 13, 2009 at 1:06 am
Expectation is a natural tendency . The people are expecting every president to enforce and implement our laws in return for their votes. It’s a pubic debt that the president must DELIVER. It’s common knowledge.
In the case of the private sectors, big businesses extend their financial assistance and gifts in every elections to their political candidates beyond what is allowed. It is an early bribes to influence our laws and legislations.
The newly elected will owe both to the public and the private sectors.
The cycle of corruption will continue during procurement and contract awarding. Our ports and borders will always be weak and will be difficult to improve and drugs can easily penetrate. Corruption and illegal shipping can be expected because bribes were extended prior to office.
Most businesses ( product and consumer goods) always involve shipment of goods from/to our PORT- think about it.
Last question: Who can influence the president the most in terms of his/her performance to enforce and implement our laws? in reality, is it the private sector or the public?
January 13, 2009 at 2:14 am
i don’t get this:
“Compare that to the Philippines, whose idea of oppressive totalitarianism is Marcosian — a teddy bear of a regime compared to that of China’s and Vietnam’s back in their bad old days (and even compared to the ones they have today). Compared to China and Vietnam, we have always been economically free — even in the bad old days of Marcos’s rule. ”
what do u want to say? that marcos isn’t bad? edsa I shouldnt have happened? we should accept authoritarianism in exchange for NIE type growth?
come on, don’t pull your punches…
January 13, 2009 at 3:03 am
Since I was raised in the province surrounded with beautiful trees and white beaches, I have no recollection that my people or my poor neighbors suffered the same kind of poverty and hunger that the city poor experience. In my observation, the poor in the provinces lack the cash flow but access to food was never a problem. Most of them have vegetables in their backyard, fruits and other basic ORGANIC foods. They have poultry like chicken , ducks and pigs. Fishermen with their simple canoes were moving at sea , catching fish with a beautiful sunset behind them. I also don’t remember that i have seen a poor person begging in the streets in my province except for my cousins who always ask for chocolates and dollar bills when I’m home :)
Even now, my people are happier living a simple life that I truly miss. They will not be subject to complication except stuck to what is available. Ignorance is Bliss and the Filipinos are one lucky people except the people running this country complicates it.
Benigno is partly right that we should not rely and expect instead we should demand what to expect. :)
January 13, 2009 at 3:47 am
sleek,
the feed intake of your chickens and hogs are so expensive nowadays and even raising them in the barrios are no longer cost effective. their intake of ordinary feeds and grains even if produce localy are produce also produce with heavy reliance on fertilizers and insecticide that are imported.
but if you have still that shangrila in your barrio that is one good spot where filipinos should go. but even in my barrrio, the people have started looking for job abroad. :)
January 13, 2009 at 4:09 am
jcc,
you are talking about the business side of raising chickens and hogs. I am talking about individual family who eats chickens for personal consumption and not for public sale :)
But maybe you are right in your part of province and I may have overlook reality but isn’t it nice to live life simply ? just like sending those alabang boys to jail while i’m at the comfort of my home :) LOL
January 13, 2009 at 4:57 am
Among the things Jon said is to extend the net of blankety-blank capitalists to now include “… the moneyed middle class, particularly the OFW (who) smirk at the idea of formal business creation”…. as the OFW makes his way to the Singapore- or Dubai-bank to set money aside to pay for Philippine income tax. [But Jon, do you suggest that most Filipino OFW's smirk :neutral: about this matter? Who assigned responsibility for Pinas business- or job-creation to the OFW? The OFW already has a job, for crying out loud... and the OFW is overseas. Out-of-sight, out-of-mind.]
January 13, 2009 at 5:22 am
Seriously, though, Jon…. what do you expect the OFW to do about Pinas job-creation? Other than contribute to the education of their kids, siblings, or clan… or buy condos or house-and-lot on installment-plan in Fort Boni or Clark, what else can an OFW prudently do —- remote-manage a sari-sari store in Taguig?
January 13, 2009 at 5:45 am
The first precondition to grasp Benigno’s blog, ITPS is logically to (re)read that of caffeine_sparks’ “Authenticity and Mar Roxas” since the former is a rejoined to the latter.
Having done so, it is clear Benigno is trying to say that caffeine’s ‘assessment’ of Mar Roxas during their mini ‘food festival’(press con, of sort)rests on a mistake and then endorses heretofore Mar Roxas.
Thus, instead of finding fault from the would-be president, we revert back finding fault with ourselves.
Realpolitik is one of personality cult and benigno in saying that we cannot produce even one good president is a sweeping generalization as well as rejection of all presidents.
Benigno must at least again include Mar Roxas since by caffeine’s little standard alone, the man does not fit to a tee. So much space has been wasted talking about the man. As Prof. Jasminez keeps telling students, “negative publicity is still publicity”.
Flip the pages on the next, please.
January 13, 2009 at 6:36 am
That simply highlights the point I make across practically all of what I write, jcc. Sure, there’s lots of places all over the planet that provides “opportunity” for Pinoys to do well, just as (based on what I see is the flavour of all the chatter here about presidentiables) there supposedly is that one “good” president somewhere amongst the lot of our 90 million that will rescue us from the craphole of a society we’ve become.
But then we so fancy ourselves as such an “independent” and “sovereign” nation as to even kick out a bonanza American military presence from our shores back in the late 80’s.
The irony in what you say here, attourney, is that you see Pinoys as being so great because we excel in foreign environments. The issue here is that we choose to be a sovereign people, yet don’t seem to see it within our accountability to create opportunity within the framework of that very sovereignity that we so toothlessly defend.
Hey, blackshama, maybe you should come back for a visit, mate. From the way you throw around trite colloquials from the Aussie vernacular it seems you exhibit a growing need to re-connect with the Land of Plenty. ;)
And, GabbyD, Marcos was bad. But Chinese and Vietnamese commies are even badder. But then at least the latter don’t pretend to be democratic and “free”. Compare that to Pinoy politicians and you realise between the Sino-Viets and the Pinoys which of the two is the sadder case. :D
January 13, 2009 at 6:52 am
Hey UP n grad, check out a little update I added to my article above just for you. :D
Being a UP grad, I kinda expected that you’d be one who wouldn’t fall into the trap of confusing absence of proof with proof of absence.
Of course most of us here don’t “know” any Pinoy that urinates in public. That’s because our kind is not representative of the typical Pinoy that subsists on chicharon-crumbs-or-insta-noodles-on-a-mound-of-rice while glued to an OFW-$$-funded flatscreen TV flashing an episode of Wowowee.
But then there is something a bit quintessentially Pinoy as well about that a basta hindi ako ganun attitude you exhibit too. ;)
January 13, 2009 at 7:37 am
In his usual grating ways, BenignO preaches rugged individualism which used to have currency among Republican circles in US politics in the early 20th century. The notion that most individuals left to their own devices, with very minimal government intervention or assistance, can and will succeed.
I myself believe in its legitimacy. Less government is still a much avowed mantra in US politics, though in current practice it may have fallen either on hard times or disrepute.
Is it for everyone? Nothing is.
January 13, 2009 at 7:41 am
pinoys who urinate in public must be mostly men. women must hide. I will let the pinoy men figure out their weewee… :)
January 13, 2009 at 7:52 am
Pinoy women seem to tolerate it though.
Ganun kasi e.
Pwede na yan.
:D
January 13, 2009 at 8:01 am
I’d rather see it this way, Amadeo:
Left to their own devices some people will succeed and some people will fail.
That most people fail and very few succeed in Pinoy society SAYS SOMETHING about the fundamental inherent nature of Da Pinoy. ;)
January 13, 2009 at 8:57 am
hahaha, hindi naman ganyan benigs. if women in the philippines have more choices and capable, i don’t think they will tolerate it. I don’t. it’s an eeeewwww… you know what I mean but ganun nga kasi sa pinas. puede na rin.
Isn’t it part of a barangay capitan and mayor’s agenda during campaign? at least to provide public rest rooms that will accommodate a town’s population.
this is also a joint effort between local health department, local educational institutions, local law enforcement and the church. Awareness program and education to men is very crucial.
the women will act as support and sometimes could be the shock absorber :)
January 13, 2009 at 9:16 am
Going by what bO says about job creation.
I am a little perplexed by why Obama’s government and the technocracy in the U.S. still see the need to spend trillions more after spending, pledging and guaranteeing about $8 trillion in public money to try to save jobs and create about 4 million jobs in the next two years.
Haven’t they heard of bO’ scriptures on dogmatic laissez faire about leaving well enough alone.
Why are governments all around the world turning their backs of bO’s doctrines to save jobs and create new ones to replace jobs that have disappeared.
The good/bad thing about the power of this new media is that anyone can put forth his or her ideas.
So fools, lunatics and idiots are most welcome.
January 13, 2009 at 11:21 am
UP n grad,
I want them to stop sending their children to school for the sole purpose of following their footsteps in going abroad as an OFW, and start thinking about improving their lives here in the Philippines so that no further generations will suffer the consequences of remote-fatherhood or remote-motherhood, which is a much, much bigger issue than remote-managing a sari-sari store.
January 13, 2009 at 12:10 pm
benigs,
I said we need leaders who will inspire and lead us through the crisis by creating opportunities in our country. Our people have the right work ethics, we simply lack the opportunity: jobs and business that will employ our compatriots. :)
The leaders should provide the atmosphere to invite capital investment locally and from abroad.
I cite Pinoys abroad as way of pointing out that we have the right attitude if given the right opportunities. :)
January 13, 2009 at 1:03 pm
Notice, jcc how we always come back to the big “IF” part of what is now becoming a circular discussion.
… if given the right opportunities…
Obviously then the issue is where those “opportunities” will be coming from. Turn that passive sentence into an active sentence and we become a bit more clear about where the missing ingredient lies, thus:
If _______ gives us the right opportunities…
Fill in the blanks… ;)
I find that people tend to construct sentences in the passive form to avoid the hard questions.
January 13, 2009 at 1:36 pm
Most Pinoys early lives were founded by hardships, hardships that should provide an enduring incentive to succeed. But those incentives did not exist in his own society. So many poor followed from generation to generation and they became a product of strange circumstances of survival. Today, many of them are not aware that the best society, economically and politically, would be a society mostly governed by a few wise men and women. And sadly to say, there are no FEW for Philippines. ( sigh)
But I came to believe that people are naturally born traders regardless of education or professional status. We are social animals, very much into social exchange. Pinoys are surprisingly generous. “You do something for me and I do something for you”. The benefits of market exchange are easy to see in personal interactions. Out there in the free markets though, the people who receive from the many and expected to be the fews are not clear. malabo talaga… :)
the best systems maximize the freedom of the individual, subject only to the constraints of others in the system. Take note of “Constraints” benigs :) i am a classic liberal. My personality will not fit in a country were freedom do not exist. I can relate to you benigs but let’s do something for them in a higher level, beyond our individuality. Leave the men who urinate on the wall. They don’t know any better but we do. :)
January 13, 2009 at 11:03 pm
Leytenian,
Are you implying that “non urinal enlightenment” is the monopoly of Filipino migrants abroad?
January 13, 2009 at 11:12 pm
benigs,
the leaders who have access to resources and power should create the climate conducive to creating small as well as big business to employ our people.
our manpower resources are okay. the opportunities aren’t.
January 13, 2009 at 11:19 pm
No Jon, the keyword that I was trying to imply is ”
“Let’s do something for them”. I thought of it more like humanitarian and not a monopoly. Besides I don’t represent the many Filipino migrants abroad. I am who I am.
Thanks for your concern.
January 13, 2009 at 11:37 pm
and Jon, sorry if I have misunderstood you. I didn’t mean it that way. I see your point though and I understand.
January 13, 2009 at 11:50 pm
Leytenian,
Just making it clear, thanks :)