Amadeo in his usual masterful prose has written:
Pardon my heresy but I find it hard to believe that electing a national president could be that elementally crucial to life, or no, maybe just so life- or game-changing (?) for an entire country of people. Isn’t it that after all we go through this process every several years? For the last 60 some years (excuse or strike out the Marcos interregnum)? A few times for the better and at other times for the worse?
In the last US presidential elections, a good number of people did harbor such a game-changing possibility with the historic election of Obama. Though I admit I did not get caught up by that euphoric tide. As a matter of fact I mailed my absentee ballot early and promptly headed for the old homeland.
But one year later of hard reality and if you scan through the US political firmament, things have not really changed that much. Some partisan and not so partisan sectors would say there is a decided turn for the worse, but the President’s remaining loyal constituencies think otherwise and declare the US is on the right track to a renewed revival of greatness and amity with the rest of the world.
And life goes on as usual.
Are we there yet, meaning the end of global recession?
But please do not get me wrong, electing a president is serious business. But here’s hoping we do not get into a frenzied tizzy trying to find out if one of the many self-anointed is indeed The One or the savior even with a small “s”.
Unless the expanded field of candidates is fraught with scheming wolves in sheep’s clothing? Then please proselytize me.
I will try, Amadeo.
In less than a year of Obama’s presidency, the US has regained the trust and respect of the world. (It’s not just the “President’s remaining loyal constituencies” who believe in this; Obama was awarded a Nobel Prize for it, remember?)
That is change.
The war of choice the US has waged in Iraq is definitely ending.
That is change.
By the prompt and decisive action of President Obama, what would have been a perilously impending plunge into another Great Depression in the US and then to a possible global economic disaster has been averted.
That is change.
A woman of Hispanic stock now sits as an associate justice of the US Supreme Court.
That is change.
For those who lost their jobs, whose houses were foreclosed on, or are without the means to have affordable health care even when very sick, you may be right that “life goes on as usual.”
But only a couple of days ago, Obama made it known that he’s just warming up. In a remarkable event unprecedented in US history, Obama repaired to the Republican den and unscripted, without teleprompters, live on national TV, debated with his congressional critics, mostly white people, and then he schooled them, all 140 of them, like middle-school children.
That is change.
Yes, when he first announced his bid for the US presidency, this affable young man (whose lovely wife is a descendant of a slave, whose father was an African and a Muslim, who speaks Indonesian and plays hoop with his buddies in a White House backyard just like a Black kid in his neighborhood) was considered by many as a political lightweight (whose only meaningful experience, the noxious tagging during the campaign has gone on, was supposedly just as a “community organizer”).
Obama is now the president of the strongest nation in the world whose bust could be bound for carving at Mt. Rushmore someday.
That is change.
Noynoy Aquino III of the Philippines gets the same label that’s been heaped on Obama from suspected paid hacks disguising as media practitioners– a “political lightweight” (just as FPJ, a very successful entrepreneur in his own right, had gotten the consistent title whenever his name was mentioned as the presidential candidate who was a “high-school dropout”).
When the labeling is repeated too often, it could have the potential of affecting the confidence of otherwise well-meaning political onlookers, like our leytenian, in the “ability to lead, skills, and . . . experience” of Noynoy reducing them to only “(sensing) him as an emotional choice” despite their honest belief that Noynoy is “nice” – because to them and rightly so “that’s not what it takes.”
Yet, Noynoy Aquino has been a three-term congressman, is a senator of the Republic, and although often preferring not to seek the limelight an untiring “fiscalizer” in the tradition of his illustrious father.
Noynoy is the same young man who very early on had learned the darker side of political contestation, Philippine-style, in the school of hard knocks. He witnessed how his famous dad while incarcerated was mocked and abused by the dictatorship, saw his siblings grow up without the physical presence and guidance of a father and suffered the painfully traumatic experience of his family having been forsaken in the most trying of times by people who they thought were dear friends and allies.
And when the mantle of national leadership was passed on to his mother, Noynoy found himself in the thick of repeated violent power struggles that almost cost him his life.
The myth peddled by partisans that Noynoy is a political lightweight too shy to face the public has been wholly unraveled, fortunately, when he took center stage before the nation’s business leaders who found him too presidential not to be admired. He was better, even sharper (as Obama was before his interlocutors) in the Q & A that followed. And like Obama, Noynoy during the exchange has exuded confidence and those other sterling qualities of a leader that have been observed.
Change is “extremely possible,” Noynoy assured his audience notwithstanding that when he first announced his aspiration for the presidency he was brutally forthright in his acrid assessment of the malaise of our society: “Matindi ang kabulukang bumabalot sa ating lipunan.”
Respectfully confident, viciously honest Noynoy was before a sternly scrutinizing public.
That gives hope for change.
The solutions Noynoy offered to certain perennial problems that have long crippled the nation are commonsensical and immediately enforceable as those are well within the powers of the president to accomplish: prompt collection of taxes that are due, punishment of tax evaders and smugglers, and in general the curtailment of graft and corruption (which for the most of the Arroyo administration have cost the nation a mind-boggling amount – about a trillion pesos). Noynoy’s commitment to solve these problems is decidedly unmistakable.
That gives hope for change.
Noynoy remains unequivocal in his resolve to hold Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo accountable for what she has done to make our country go so terribly wrong.
That gives hope for change.
The special ability as well as the skill or experience that it takes for a leader to fulfill at least these basic promises first will be nothing less than plain integrity and political will. Filipinos, or an overwhelming majority of them, believe Noynoy possesses those indispensable qualities.
That gives hope for change.
But then again, like Obama, Noynoy cannot do this promised transformation by himself. More than anything else, true transformation requires collective resolve, or Bayanihan effort and spirit to uproot the system in place. Hinda ka nag-iisa. That was our promise to Ninoy before.
Ninoy was not The One.
Cory was not The One.
Noynoy is not The One.
We are.
We are The Ones.
That gives hope for change.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Ummm, no comparison I believe.
Before getting elected as U.S. President, Barack Obama was Harvard University professor, president of Harvard Law Review, successful community organizer in Chicago, U.S. Senator, etc.
He’s not your usual political scion…
There you go again Phil being negative and all. Just try and understand the context of the comparison.
Hmmm, Mike, I wasn’t being negative; being realistic maybe.
I was responding based on Manong Abe’s context of the need for team-building, etc. But did you also try to understand the context of my statement, to repeat:
“professor,..successful community organizer…” read as: mentoring, working at the grassroots, building and forging coalitions, etc.
Who among the candidates have this Obama experience and skills? Priceless.
And why is it that if people try to question your camp’s views, that they are considered being negative, cynical, hopeless, cowards (?), etc?
The last time I checked, RP is still a democracy, ain’t it?
seriously, you’re comparing noynoy to barack obama?
read again.
for a change.
he didn’t read it yet. read it, imp!
Bravo Abe.
Why some people continue to be so enamored with a messiah in a supposedly participatory democracy shows a stubborn clinging to political babyhood. True transformative power, one that guarantees certainty for change to take place is in the citizenry willing to engage in the task of nation building.
No single person, even if imbued with presidential saber, will be able to bring about that change unless he/she acquires the autocrat/dictatorship persona, something that which La Gloria Engkantada seems to be salivating with terrifying gusto.
Abe,
You have been talking about this bayanihan spirit, for quite a while.
So if my candidate(Noynoy) loses, as long as they did not cheat,we should support whomever that president maybe.(hat tip to ine)
This does not mean that there must be no more opposing views,that is not participatory. In this ideal scenario,it means no more stalling of important legislations and no more kill bill movies,and the like.
There are many other ways to participate in nation building, if many laws can not be implemented due to budgetary constraints, the citizens can have a say if they want charter change on economic provisions or not.
Having said above,I have to say that I am not downplaying platforms,it is crucial in the electoral process.The candidate still needs to prove that he is capable, and that he can translate his vision into action.
Karl,
Whatever is the outcome of the election, it behooves us to always develop practices of consultation and cooperation among our social partners. Democracy as we know is a mechanism for participation, consultation and bargaining with a view to fashioning a consensus needed to serve the common good.
Re platforms. I’m not downplaying platforms at all. But platforms (which are essentially campaign manifestos or policy perspectives, if you will) should be distinguished from legislative initiatives (policymaking per se). You don’t need to demand in the former specificities such as the tasks to be accomplished, who will do what, when (milestones) and the budget provision to support the initiative.
Majority of voters are either too busy, lazy or uninformed to intelligently slice and dice the fine points of development policies for example (e.g., a policy for state involvement in SMEs). So, for the most part those details are left out in political manifestos for campaign purposes which are intended to reach out a wide spectrum of potential supporters.
whats up karl,
Long time. But let me kindly fill in the void.
Let us defined what Filipino Government is. A “social monopoly of force.” It is the greatest instrumentalities of agglomerative force which have ever been clustered by means of. MEDIA, ACTORS, ACTRESS, BROTHER’s, SISTER’s, COUSIN’s, UNCLE’s, AUNTS’s, WIVE’s, HUSBAND’s and the likes. These are the cronies/trapos and uncivil to enforce such ruteless government to the Filipino’s. They are the police and the military of the Philippines, they are possesive, multifarious (to certain extent also, to take someones life[ve's]) to benefit theirs. The ability to govern our Nation, they have none. The potentiality of these governments to dispose civility to our people, that would be surely answered by you and I. Let us question ourselves, are we the violators of our government or are we “The Ones” to execute changes for our Philippine Nation. Let us observed what they have done in the past.
Amadeo drives a good point home. Changing the president doesn’t change the government. But besides that, there are a lot of differences between the U.S. and our country, like the use of Electoral college in the U.S. I favor that for us too. Digression there… changing the president here won’t change the government, since the real government is the oligarchs and the cronies. Change them, and then you can consider the government changed. I prefer that economic protectionism be removed so that foreign companies can put pressure on the oligarchs or at least drive them out. We don’t need them oligarchs.
errr, i find people who talk about “economic protectionism be removed” really don’t understand anything.
World Bank conducted a study on why the philippines can’t seem to improve. We’ve supposedly been making 6% gdp for n quarters. i mean, talk about “stimulus package”. so anyway, where is that growth going?
i enjoin you to read my post on it: http: // filipinovoices [dot] com /the-state-of-the-filipino-nation
bottom line: Filipinos need to reinvest into the country.
What i didn’t know then, that i do know now is that government needs to assure all investors that we do have a level playing field before anybody will be willing to reinvest. That means solving the problem of corruption. That means guaranteeing that the rule of law is obeyed. That we can get justice.
I think protectionism keeps the oligarchs in power and allows them to maintain their companies with shoddy standards. For me, at least let give foreign investors more leeway or ability to challenge our own local biggies. Filipinos aren’t that keen on reinvesting into our country when they know it’ll fatten up the oligarch’s bank accounts.
oh, and that said: Noynoy’s Economic plan, thus far for me is better one compared to the other candidates. His choice of reducing taxes should be what we should go for. his plan to make tax collection more efficient is spot on. his plan to reevaluate agrarian reform is a good one.
ok, let’s reduce taxes and increase revenue collection efficiency – does this include the “sin taxes”?
how much taxes in PHP will he reduce?
how much taxes will he generate in additional revenue with increase in revenue efficiency?
Will this net revenue be enough to maintain or upgrade the already shoddy government services? count in the rebuilding efforts after Ondoy and Debt repayments.
What;’s the possibility of resorting to more loans WHEN tax collection efficiency is not increased?
It’s hard to take the talk of efficiency at face value, that someone will increase efficiency when THAT someone who has been in office for 3 years – and only does 9 bills – then comes up with an alibi for slacking using a non-existent English word.
Now, if it were someone telling me he can do it because during his watch, he had initiatives that actually increased collection efficiency in his locality by 20% for the period from 1994-1997 – those are facts that I can’t argue with
also, what’s his take on eliminating the pork barrel? that’s a huge source of corruption – if he becomes president – will he eliminate discretionary spending – including his own? will his colleagues in congress and the senate support that? if not – I say he is blowing hot air with his anti-corruption talk.
and speaking of pork barrel – how did he spend this money – can he (and all other candidates who are in the senate) provide an accounting – after all he’s the “honest” candidate.
Cocoy,
We can only lower the tax once we’ve reached a stable economy. Do you not know that? Guess not.
bongv.
raising tax collection efficiency from current levels of 13% to 15% is a priority. doing that reduces deficit by 150M already.
of course, reducing taxes won’t be done until things are stabilized. that goes without saying, Anne.
hahaha, if the oligarchs is the government how do you expect them to remove their plate cover?
ENoyNoy remains the top choice. But if surveys are to be believed, Filipinos are still evaluating and choosing. The survey (presented in Ellent’s site) may suggest the enthusiasm for NoyNoy may be dropping 2% per month. Villar is catching up.
Well, Abe, you certainly got my attention with that beginning. I thought it was me writing. And I read through to the end. I particularly appreciate your point that he has been (surprisingly, to me) solid in his public performances. Now have him lose the starry-eyed commercials of no substance that make him APPEAR to have no substance, and get some hard-hitting jabs at Villar. It is astounding to me that Filipinos, who are annually embarrassed by their international rankings on corruption, would even think of Villar. In the US, he would be drummed off the stage by the party, because other candidates within his party would not want their elections tied to his demise. Here, it is very very different.
Joe
Joe:
Noynoy is Cojuangco scion born with a silver spoon – he is “Old Money”.
Villar is street smart dude whose smartest move was to marry a rich woman – he is “New Money”.
Old money, new money, same moneyed interests.
Lesser evil na, No money – Gordon.
Least of all evils, as in walang wala – walang pera, walang experience – Nick Perlas.
BongV,
Dude! I have seen Perlas here in the State speak in regards to the environment change and its purpose for the Filipino’s and its environment sector. Nick has a heart for our Nation. It wasn’t grasp by our Filipino administration though. Too bad, we really do need environment make over. Specially in the administration staff. LOL
Once again reeking of CLASS RESENTMENT, I see. U gotta do better than that, BongV.
Laban sa elitista. If Nonoy cannot shaake the elitista image,
the pakikiramay will not be enouugh for Noynoy to attrract more
of the votes from classes D and E. I am sure other bloggers will write
about Pinoys being for underdogs, and “born spoon in mouth” to
a political dynasty is not underdog.
Dante, I think the inaapi thesis is ridiculous. It’s certainly not MY criteria for choosing a leader. I was just asking the group if they felt the guy’s thesis had any traction.
Noynoy can’t control who his parents were. Can u? At least hindi siya nagpayaman sa Senado when he easily could have done so. Unlike some others who immediately come to mind. At least he has no personal wealth of his own. He’s actually far more simple in his style of living than most people realize.
Elitista? U people r basing all your knowledge on ads made by his media handlers. But show me some proof that he’s elitist beyond that. Show me the money.
Until then, I’ll remain convinced that some of u just don’t like him (why so silent on Villar and Erap, buddy?) because of that: CLASS PREJUDICE AND RESENTMENT. Period.
Other bloggers can write whatever they like. Not a problem at all.
Lila: To understand why taxi- or jeepney drivers may fall for the “elitista si NoyNoy” talk, you can’t think like you, you have to think like common tao. It is like this. Can you ever think of Erap as elitista? Ateneo nga si Erap pero barumbado which is why he got kicked out. Erap is drinking buddy type like regular guys sa kanto. It is not the money – Erap is rich, has his own helicopter, but to the guys at the corner, Erap is not elitista. Also think of Trillanes. To normal people, a soldier can’t be elitista even if he is a Kennedy like John F. Kennedy. Soldiers have buddies while NoyNoy does not seem to have a barkada, or at least the people who say Nornoy is a regular guy do not talk. Kung baga, everything is a guess, and it is easier to guess that “born silver spoon in mouth” Noynoy is elitista. Here is another one. When Ma’am Cory was going around and talking to common-tao in their own baranggays about micro-loans, Noynoy did not accompany her. Too bad. I hope you understand why “elitista” can stick on NoyNoy, unless, as you say, you know him better like you know him better.
Well, that’s a good explanation, Dante — thank u. But, following your argument, then FVR can’t be considered to be elitista either since he’s also a soldier! :-) No, seriously, I can’t claim to know Noynoy well. Bu what I’ve seen and know is that he’s shy and unassuming and humble and also highly intelligent. I’m kinda shy too, so I understand — people who don’t know me sometimes assume that I’m “mayabang” because I’m not maingay at first. But not everyone is kalog in public, u know?
What I like about Noynoy is that he seems to have a sense of honor. No one really uses that Arthurian word anymore, but it really goes beyond the notion of chivalry. It’s about integrity, I guess. Cory had a bit of that too (altho she did slip u a few times –more out of ineptitude than malice, however), even more than Ninoy. And he’s not all about personal aggrandisement, which I respect.
I’ve seen Erap practically fall asleep in the Senate! Is that really what people want…?
Dante R, here’s how I’ve tried to distinguish elite from elitist :
__________
. . . you are an elite if you belong to a class in a society that determines decisions to negotiate with rebels or not, to raise prices or interest rates, what news to report on primetime, what values should be taught in schools, what new products to ply in the market, whether to contain “brain drain” or the OFW phenomenon, etc. If you are basically in the receiving end of these decisions, you belong to the non-elite class.
You are an elitist if you hold that the above decisions should be done essentially by the competing interests within your (elite) class.
Now,even if you are an elite but you believe in the participation of every component member of society to make those decisions, such would define you as a democrat rather than an elitist; or if at least you believe in bargaining, accommodation and compromises among various interest groups outside of the elite class, you are basically a pluralist despite being an elite.
I see bloggers here who do not see anything wrong with Le Circue show of GMA’s insensitivity also do not condemn Villar and his C5 hocus pocus which shouts corruption. Instead, they turn around and attack Aquino who is heading the polls. Same people who puts the total blame on the Filipinos instead of the elected leaders who have the powers to implement change in the Philippines but failed to do so because of selfish interests. At least they are being consistent and true to their hand picked name Anti Filipino.
Couldn’t agree more, Rosa! :-)
Talking about elected leaders who have powers to implement change but failed to do so–for whatever reason–oh, sounds like Noynoy Aquino to me.
On Obama:
He has his work cut out for him.
Half of Americans would rather spend money on Weapons development and the Military while stonewalling global healthcare reform which costs just as much.
Of course, it’s the men with guns who will win.
thenashman,
What’s so ironic about WAR and GUNS?
There are certain aspect of Obama’s administration I disagree. That would be Eric Holder, which Bo appointed as the United States Atorney General. When it comes to our “Second Amendment Rights” These two, wants to strip our “Rights To Bear Arms” But these are another issue that I challenge with our government. This is what I love about America. We can voice our opinion(s). As with Philippines, your stuck in a rut for 6 years. Or maybe forever, let us hope not.
Obama had guts and Noynoy was favoured. Obama planned for his candidacy and his goals for America. Noynoy did not plan until he got emotional. Good thing about the filipino people is being supportive even for the wrong reason? MBC and the staquo? authored 9 bills dut did not pass?
When CHANGE and HOPE are used in election campaigns. Know that after
the political rethorics are said. And we elected a new President. Nothing changed. The more things change. The more they remain the same.
We will have the same outcome. When Noynoy Aquino shall be elected.
Dont put too much hope on the guy. His handlers promote him. As if he
is the all solution of our country’s ills.
There is even a deodorized film about his noble parents.
@Cocoy
Reducing the taxes does not result into efficient tax collection. People, and business entities will attempt to avoid taxes regardless whether they amount to millions or a few pesos.
Tax Collection is increased if the “mabobotehang usapan” between examiners and taxpayers will be eliminated which I think is doable but impossible to implement not unless the President-elect will do nothing but to spend all his time of running after crooks.
Haven’t you heard that the former BIR Chief during the time of the Cory is accused of corruption and is now under prosecution for unexplained wealth. http://www.manilatimes.net/index.php/news/nation/7779-lawyers-want-ex-bir-chiefs-unexplained-wealth-confiscated
Does this not prove that even if the President is not corrupt, his/her minions could do the stealing from the government coffer? Leading by example does not hold true especially if the money involved is in millions.
Tax-reduction is “god willing”, not a pormise. “No tax incresase” is the promis made in the speeech to MBC. Tax redction : a vision (like 2014??).
yup yup. alot of people misunderstood this.
The cat… Glad your back… Lol
thanks leytenian.
“Leading by example does not hold true especially if the money involved is in millions.” – Cat
Well, culprits can also be punished as example. That’s what Noynoy is promising.
Ok. Why up to now, the culprits in the hacienda luisita massacre have not been punished.
maybe, if that’s taken cared of – we can consider those promises.
Abe,
Like all other presidents, the only thing he can do is wait for the court to convict the culprits.
You being a lawyer know that even the obvious guilty ones are given their days in court and can get away with their crimes if they have good legal team for their defense.
And some who were found guilty by the media thru trial by publicity are really innocent.
I do not think that the case is going to be finished in his term if ever he’s elected. If he is going to remove them from office right away, then he is courting trouble from disgruntled people who form Yellow and Green movement or Hilton Dirty Dozen. :)
Mr Abe: I know that noynoy has promised to go after Marcos wealth. What is he going to do? There have been years of effort already, so what is noynoy going to do different than all the previous presidents? Effort without results, sayang lang ang lipad-eroplano for the investigators to go again to Switzerland or New York. Nynoy talking about “marcos wealth” sounds like a gimmick.
pure idolatry.. obama was elected in a precedent setting election because people believed in his message of change. now americans are losing faith in him and his numbers are going down. americans just like pinoys are gullible too, they did not see the politician in obama. wars in Iraq and in Afghanistan will continue because it is in the best interest of America.. obama will not be able to persuade the right-wingers and for that matter the “military branch” that america will be more peaceful without these wars.
in regards to having been able to arrest the collapse of the economy, that is too early to say, and at cost of billion of dollars stimulus package pumped to big interest groups at the expense of ordinary working americans, these working class americans would rather have rescession and welcome the economic collapse and let america seek its true net-worth level in the global market and not to beef it up through artificial-life support.
obama cannot be compared with nonnoy. his capital is the anger of the americans against the Republicans and the money produced by the left-wing media and hollywood billionaires but his political reservoir is fast is ebbing away.
Noynoy’s most valuable asset in capturing the presidency is his pedigree and the electorate’s anger against GMA which is only secondary. He will become our president not on the promise of his personality because frankly there is none, or his platform because it is too good to be true but chiefly because of these two factors.
Obama is too bright and too intelligent to be compared with Noynoy. Abe is so enamored with Noynoy that he can almost compare him with a diety.
Do not get me wrong. I am pro-Noynoy who sees his limitations and capabilities.
jcc,
I was looking for something to argue with you about, but couldn’t find anything. damn. I would add that obama’s money was also raised by a massive internet machine that gobbled up $5′s and $10′s from the common man, his real constituency. He is rather Estrada without the vices, eh?
Joe
joe,
that’s fine. you know that i am not an obama basher. my opinion cuts across party lines.
jcc,
Obama’s capital is not the “anger of the Americans against the Republicans” but the hunger of the Americans for change. No different for Noynoy as regards his compatriots.
Filipinos will send Noynoy to Malacañang because they are equally hungry for change and their guts tell them Noynoy is the man they can trust toward such end.
That GMA is part of the problem but not THE problem Filipinos are smart enough to know. Let’s give them that credit.
The sad flipside of it is that if Noynoy (and Mar) win and then breach their promise, the Filipinos will feel so deprived anything could happen to state the depth of (this time) their anger.
Now, you are pro-Noynoy because you see his capabilities as being good enough to be President of the Philippines. Yet, you don’t see him to be his own man?
“Pure idolatry”? I’m reminded at this juncture of Justice Fernando’s favorite expression when a classmate of ours could not grasp his point: “That indicates the clarity of vision being dimmed.”
There’s a reason why people have brains.
And there’s a reason why people have guts.
Use accordingly.
Abe,
I am pro Noynoy because I found the other guy within a striking distance, intolerable and detestable. I will vote for Perlas and JC de Los Reyes if they can mount a credible campaign -but unfortunately they could not. Shall we say, I don’t want to waste my vote. Besides, I don’t want a multi-party system. If people would only vote for the two chief contenders in the contest, we will avoid electing a “minority President”, this way, we would be less divided and fractious.
jcc,
Your absolutely KOREK!
Sometimes how i wish I was the fisherman casting the bait, to see who would bite.
If I may rephrase this quote just a tiny bit and render it in a Filipino perspective. So to speak, their point of view.
And this my friend, is the reason these Filipino’s can’t seem to choose “The One“
Abe:
I admire your very uplifting defense of the Obama presidency. Surely it comes from the heart steeled by deep conviction. Thus, had I decided to offer a rejoinder to your points I could not match such explicit passion and tenacity. Though I assure you I have my own hard convictions quite contrary to what you have laid out.
I would instead allow the overarching constituency, which is the American electorate, the same one that gave Obama 53% of its votes, to say its piece.
For this I defer to the site, Real Clear Politics, which during the last 2 US elections has been quite impartial and accurate to the point of being prescient, in rendering their poll numbers culled from averaging out polling numbers from most credible sources.
I recall during the weeks/days leading to the last elections when they were giving out daily and weekly polling numbers that one could almost feel the palpable pulse of the citizenry as validated by streaming news cascading in torrents out of the Internet, by simply putting your hand over their digital words.
Anyway, I will let their most current polling averages speak for themselves.
Re President Obama Job Approval – 49.3% Approve vs 46.3% Disapprove
His number has been hitting below the 50% point for some time. Some would argue these are not very promising for a 1st year president, and compares negatively to some other more generic WH occupants.
Direction of Country – 36.6% Right Direction vs 57.4% Wrong Track
These are very telling blows which I would assume reflect negatively not only on Obama’s domestic agenda, but also that of his foreign policies.
Even the Democrat-dominated Congress fares worse:
Congressional Job Approval – 26.3% Approve vs 66.3% Disapprove
And to show that political alliances/allegiances may be changing, consider this.
Generic Congressional Vote
45.6 Republicans
42.4 Democrats
Thus, while we each in our ways have our own differing personal assessments of this administration, one like me finds it more apt and convenient to defer to the same body politic that elected Obama. And this same group’s turnaround reaction appears to tarnish the bright luster of “hope and change” aura heaped on then candidate Obama.
And like many presidencies in the past, it is now gripped in the unenviable task of trying to improve its numbers, salvaging floundering legislative tasks still in the pipeline, and resolving other pesky domestic or housekeeping chores like unfilled key position vacancies, closing Gitmo, or looking for another venue for the KSM trial, distancing itself from sticky lobbyists and other characters considered shady, etc. And no better internationally what with the escalating heat generated by countries like Iran and No. Korea, exacerbated by non-cooperation from the likes of China and Russia. And now, even a shaky country like Yemen has gotten into radar range.
But then not much different from what Bush 43 encountered and tried to do, and those before him faced and held by similar situations.
So I repeat, life goes on…as usual.
And for what it is worth, I reiterate that I favor the NoyNoy-Mar tandem given that I have committed to supporting a mayoralty candidate here in our little city, who is both trusted friend and former teaching colleague. He has been declared official LP candidate and as true believers in the saying “all politics is local” we support the national in the same way that the national hopefully supports the local. Because when it comes down to it, local voters will vote in pursuance of their own narrow local interests.
Amadeo, I miss DJB at this point. Didn’t he repeatedly point out that polls are opinions, not votes? True, it’s a wake up call for Obama but lucky him, he has already started the campaign for the 2012 elections this early.
Anyway, here’s what Obama said at the GOP House Issues Conference in Baltimore: “I don’t believe that the American people want us to focus on our job security. They want us to focus on their job security.” (Applause.)
Barack is really just warming up.
But Abe, aren’t the gists of your above two paragraphs contradictory or self-cancelling?
Obama campaigning early for 2012 but in the succeeding paragraph says the American people do not want politicians to focus on their job security?
Amadeo,
This is what Obama said during his interview on “World News” with Diane Sawyer.
Despite shrugging off a single-term possibility, Obama is out there “campaigning” because it seems he firmly believes he can “solve the problems and help people.”
It is very Noynoyish too. In an interview after his announcement to seek the presidency Noynoy said: “I will be a president that will be missed by the time I step down. I do look forward to the time that I will step down.”
Come on, guys, Barack is half-African, half-American.
Barack is Harvard law. Barack can give speeches like
very few can give speeches.
Tell again why you keep comparing noynoy to Obama????
Noynoy does not even have a wife, much less children of his own.
Amadeo,
Other presidents with higher first year ratings did not come into office in a firestorm of economic collapse, a bursted housing bubble, and the unrealistic expectation that the bubble and full employment could somehow be put back in place within the first year. Americans lost a lot of wealth, and it dramatically affects their daily lives even today. What other president receiving higher ratings had that environment greeting him in Year 1?
However it plays out, you can bet that Mr. Obama will respond with dignity and intelligence, two attributes that got him elected.
Joe
Also, putting poll readouts in their proper context, today’s political arena is a hotbed of political partisan sniping, made easy by blogging and tweeting and reality show sound bites.
The difficulty is that, though the social context is different for Obama vs. other presidents, the election outcome can indeed be as predicted by polls. He may bite the dust after one term. But it has little to do with the caliber of man. More to do with the environment in which he operates.
In a Philippine context, the elected president may not be the best man for the job, just the one who slots himself into the Philippine context, which is not particularly politically sophisticated, and indeed is rather starstruck.
Joe
JoeAm:
I hope that you are not insinuating that the current US political climate/arena is significantly different from the last administration, or the administrations previous to that.
I hope everyone has noticed that Obama has increased the Education budget by a whopping 32%.
That’s a better long term solution.
Sorry to disappoint your positive outlook on an increased education budget. California spends if not the most but at least among the most per capita (student)but can only show very poor ratings in the graduates it produces. Many states with very low per capita easily overhaul the California results. Thus in US K-12 education it has not been about expenditures.
I fear this is payback to a huge constituency of the current administration – the national teachers group or the NEA.
Amadeo,
I suspect you are right, the tenor was pretty bad previously, too. But I think it has gotten nastier with the expansion of internet influence -u-tube, blogging, etc -, ratings wars at Fox vs CNBC, where they take a slant and get people worked up and tuned in, with pundits from the left and right saying outrageous things, again for ratings, with Republican Chairman Steele claiming that the only “true patriot” is a Republican, and with Obama asking congressmen in his state of the union message to “stop campaigning every day” and do some work, whilst his internet minions crank out millions of e-mails weekly that for the most part bash Republicans.
It is rather dismaying to see the gap between the ideals taught in American schools and the manipulations put into practice.
Joe
“We don’t need them oligarchs.”
But the oligarchs or business magnates are the big donors for the election campaign funds of majority of politicians so that they can ask for payback when the candidate is elected not only in terms of preferential treatments but also in the sourcing of capital.
The economic crisis during the time of Marcos was due to the large-scale waste of investment resources courtesy of the business oligarchs/cronies of Marcos. The government banks became the personal banks of these businessmen.
A deja vu happened with the names of the cronies changed as there was a change in the administration.
Call me indifferent but I am not only looking at the presidential candidate but also at the people behind his candidacy.
I do not think that the endorsements earnings of the celebrity-sister is enough to pay for the campaign of the presidential candidate-brother.
So where does Noynoy get his campaign fund? Will he not become beholden to people who donate to his fund. Would you like me to believe that the peso-peso public donations are enough to pay the political machinery in charge for embellishing his image. Last time, I heard there were people who resigned from their day jobs to become full time media handlers. They’re not philanthropists to donate their time. Are they?
Don’t feel bad Cat. The US Supreme Court rolled back last week the 63-year old ban on corporate political contributions.
Expect candidates in colorful NASCAR getup on the campaign stump next time.
Abe,
I am not referring to US politics. The business magnates or big corporations in the United States do not have to contribute millions to the political campaign fund of a candidate to get what they want for their businesses.
All they need are strong lobbyists to protect their business interest.
It’s called ratings – the more viewers for Noynoy – the better the ratings, the more advertising – guess who rakes in the $$$
The Cat fleshed out further what I meant above. Them cronies are the real runners of the show. The anti-president flurry can be seen as a decoy that derails any efforts to fight the much more likely lords of corruption in the country – the oligarchs or business magnates. Even if the president changes, them oligarchs will do something to make the president look bad while they continue their usual kalokohan.
As usual Abe Margallo is clueless. The doctrinal technocracy that rules the planet almost blew up the world economy until they had to resort to in heretical measures to save the world economy from collapsing.
Obama underestimated the gravity of the situation and now has to backtrack as populist pressures are building up that may ensure the democrats lose big in the next election.
The doctrinal technocracy rules and naive individuals like Margallo and the rest of the people who post here should take note.
There appears to be a shallow and hollow understanding of the most basic premise under which countries are governed today.
The financial markets collapsed around September 2008 – Bernanke acted immediately and correctly even though he has to share part of the blame for causing the crisis itself.
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/65936/alasdair-roberts/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-guardians
The dialogue/discourse in this blog has to be raised up from the nonsense that Margallo espouses.
J_AG, I’m sorry but if you cannot tell that the populist progressivism of Katrina Van Heuvel and the totalitarian “nasty little thoughts” of Alex S. Blinder are like water and oil, and which side are you on in the dialectics, I’ll begin to suspect that you are an oxymoron without the bull.
Wow, so you would have Katrina Van Heuvel nominated to be Chairman of the Federal Reserve. The debate in the U.S. is whether Congress should have political say in running monetary policy. If you had bothered to read the U.S. Constitution you would have noticed that Congress has already created by an act of Law, a monetary authority and Central bank called the Federal Reserve to be run by technocrat/bankers.
For the advanced societies of the planet monetary economics holds sway. These are societies where the idea of property rights, sanctity of contracts and the rule of law prevail. They are a given. They are the effect of a broad based economic growth and development.
Here in the Philippines the idea of property rights is still alien concept in a primitive wealth gathering society. I speak of the Lockean idea of property rights. Not your landlord style of property rights.
The debate in the higher levels of the technocracy is the degree of state intervention. The debate between the Austrian and Keynesian schools of monetary thought are still being fought.
It would be unwise to start that here since the popular/populist tabloid nature of the discourse here would find it strange.
The world was lucky that we had a technocrat who happened to have studied the causes of the Great Depression and he incidentally promised Milton Freidman that the Federal Reserve would not be the cause of the Second Great depression. They actually caused the first one and turned a business downturn into a Great Depression. They let thousands of banks close down in the 1920′s -30′s.
When looking at the Philippine scene your almost pure idealism will never succeed as reality and the complexities of reality always will intrude.
The massive majority of the country are imprisoned by poverty and a feudal culture of mendicancy and dependency. They have no property rights to defend and are not invested in the country. They will cling to the person that will best serve their subsistence level of survival.
Who the hell decides on the price and supply of money in the country? The technocrats or the politician?
Tell me Chong would you give that power to the executive or the legislature?
Recently you said that Noynoy cannot interfere with monetary policy as that is the province of the BSP. However in the U.S. there is growing consensus that the powers of the Fed should be curtailed and Ron Paul ran in the last presidential election on the policy frame of abolishing the FED. he wants the GAO to audit the Fed’s operations.
Now does that make him a commie for questioning the status quo?
How dumb can one get?
Where are your ideas coming from? Disneyland or the planet Pandora?
J_AG,
We seem to have some areas of agreement.
1) That both the BSP and the Federal Reserve, as formulator and executor of monetary policies, are “independent within the government” except that BSP’s independence is constitutionally-based while the Federal Reserve is statutorily-based.
2) That for developing economies, strong state intervention should be welcomed but as the economies develop, the dichotomies between laissez faire and intervention narrow (or otherwise, the market system can even be berthed in state institutions). However, during economic crisis, the state asserts its role again.
Now, you speak of Lockean property rights. But those rights (of the bourgeoisie), the basis of capitalism, if unchecked result in unfairness and inequities (Ron Paul’s libertarian regime does not realistically allow everyone to be owners of great properties like Manny Villar or Bill Gates, and those fortunate to be born to privileges and wealth necessarily do not start off living their lives on a level playing field with those born to want or privation). That is why the state intervenes to correct the resultant economic and social injustice, e.g., by providing free basic education to the poor.
You seem to entertain the debate as to whether technocrats or democrats (or the latter’s elected representatives) should ultimately be the decider or our governor. Plato favored the former. And citing Alex S. Blinder, you think that’s a good idea.
But if no one guards Plato’s Guardians (so that those high-placed technocrats could act not only without accountability but with impunity), we could end up in totalitarian state or in a state of nature where the Lockean rights disappear altogether.
J_AG, if believing in a “people-powered” democracy makes me a “pure idealist,” I’ll gladly take it.
Jag,
Are you for the autonomous, unregulated power of the technocrats?
Question tranquil?
Who has ovrsight and regulates the BSP or the Federal Reserve?
Do you have a civil society here in the country that even undertsnads the basics of the fractional reserve banking system under a fiat currency regime?
Do you iknow the difference i the free banking system and the present one we have today.
Romulo Neri fiasco?
Yeah Noynoy is definitely not the one..
In addition to the CAT, Corporations already possess free speech rights when it moves towards advancing their own interests. They have had it ever since there were corporations. The instrument by which this free speech is communicated is advertising directly or indirectly , like supporting a candidate. And there’s no legal limit on how much they can spend on ads or attending a forum just to advance its own interests.
Let me be clear, if advancing a corporation’s interests involves free speech in the form of outlay in cash money on campaign ads or support to a product, it is really just another form of product peddling. And if the product this time around happens to be a political candidate running for office, kawawa ang pinoy. (the exchange of goods for an agreed policymaking)
This is about ethics in public service. Noynoy is not the one.
leytenian,
Let me be clear, just the same. By eliminating the dreadful candidates, and the lack thereof. Considering, we are “The Experience” also, we are “The Ones” (as what manong Abe have stated)
Food for Thoughts:
• Pinoy-in-Pinas are getting better informed
• Our government and its administrative are taking notice
• Give it time, it will come to pass
• Now this is the time, for you to make that change…!
Note to Abe Margallo.. If you want to get some perspective about the U.S. political situtation I suggest you read the online publication of the American Prospect and The Nation.
Read Robert Kuttners’s pieces together with Dean Baker and Robert Reich.
Stop writing all these nonsensical things about Obama.
yes Abe, Noynoy is definitely not the one!
Exactly.
Noynoy Aquino is not the one – People are “the one”
“the one” who voted for Erap and all those thieves in Congress.
and “the one” blames Gloria after “the one” voted for Gloria instead of Roco –
yeah right.
BongV,
hey, you muckraking troublemaker,
who let you in the door?
By the way, the first four of Carlin’s words,
pulled from the recesses of my memory,
but modified for FV sensitivities were, I think:
Dung synonym starting with s
That good old f word
A small part of a woman’s anatomy
An activity not unlike sipping coke from a straw
Then he added three more later, but I can’t recall them.
One may also have started with an f.
The mind creaks,
but it still laughs . . .
Joe
Nice to see some wit around here, Mac… ;-)
Nice to see some smiles, too . . .
Joe
Joe:
T seems to be a middle name…. :D mine probably..
dontcha be mentioning good ole Georgie Carlin here..
it’s “inappropriate”… :P
and… btw… Sentro ng Katotohanan on DWBL – is the platform plez MSM arm – - 8:30-9:30PM TTh 1242 Khz
feel free to call in during the program.. leadphil [dot] blogspot [dot]
In 1972, FBS Radio Network opened an AM Radio Station called DWBL. Famous broadcasters such as Mike Enriquez, Orly Mercado, Marigold Haber-Dunca, Dodi Lacuna & Noli De Castro started their broadcast in this station. In the 80s, it was rated as #1 AM Radio Station.
DWBL is the home of Top-Rated Announcers such as Bobby Brillante, Arvin Malaza, Fe “Aksyon Lady” Ramos, Danny Mario, Pablo “Pabs” Hernandez, Atty. Jay De Castro, Buddy Castillo, Jeif Grande, Henry “Toti” Lacorte, Jun Santiago, Suzette Ledesma & Ante Pagulayan.
if MSM will not come to the blogosphere…
the blogosphere will come to MSM ;)
think out of the box? break the box? there’s a box?
let’s get out there – and meet “the one” :)
Noynoy is not a Ninoy. That’s good! Siya na siguro ang iboboto ko.
Ninoy was a scumbag. Isa sa mga kabulukan na bumalot sa ating lipunan. Ilan na ba ang namatay dahil naging ninong si Ninoy ng CPP at NPA?
Noynoy?
Just because he is the son of President Cory?
The son of Senator Ninoy?
Give us a break.
This culture is sickening – politics become a purely family affair.
Wala na bang iba? Maawa kayo sa taong bayan.
Hey, Primer,
You running for office?
Patricio is selling chickens.
Joe
Noynoy is definitely not the one…
Right, we are the ones, the voters are the ones who can make a change.
One of those who posted a comment above said something about voters becoming wiser . That is mainly because of the advancement of technology, information is now more accessible and the youth became more participatory in the Philippine politics. Thanks to twitter, fb and other social networking sites, those who are keen in evaluating the candidates share the information they gathered to their friends. Indeed, the electorate is becoming more informed. Now, the challenge is on how to screen the information we are fed. Just like those provided by this blog entry.
At least Obama had the guts to pull the plug on that expensive Lunar project.
Better the money spent on earth than on an ego-trip.
Let China build the first Lunar Base and when they sort out all the bugs and technical challenges, the the US can follow. How’s that for a change.
Abe baby get your ideal candiate to read this as he need a lot of help just to get his message going.
http://www.bworldonline.com/main/content.php?id=5658
[Edit by cocoy as per comment policy - no fully parsed links, please.]
I defer to your editorial rights but I thought it best not to point out that a bunch/some of the professors from U.P. are calling for the abolition of NEDA, BOI and the NFA myself. Some days back some of them were openly calling for a rethink of their doctrine as outlined by the Washington Consensus. But unfortunately these technocrats who have been espousing the minimal state finally realized that the state is the necessary ingredient in promoting sustainable economic growth. The government is supposed to be the referee. But if the economy is kept too small you starve the referees since no rule based system exists. Hence you do not have the benefits of a market economy reaching the broad masses. The economic system imbeds the culture. The institutions of the state are weak and superficial. So which comes first. If the world were under a gold standard currency system we would not be in the mess we are in. But that is no longer possible or is it?
This is the kind of polciy debate these fools running for President should be having. Not this kid of shit you hear daily and read all over the place.
Respect your idelaism but for all practical purposes you also need a healthy dose of reality
J_AG, given Benjamin Diokno’s fiscal prognosis, what’s wrong with Noynoy’s INITIAL two-pronged approach to the problem: One is by plugging the “revenue leaks” at the BIR and Customs and by punishing tax evaders and smugglers (he is proposing neither to create new taxes nor increase current rates). Two is encouraging entrepreneurs and enterprises to invest and create jobs in any industry (through “rationalization of fiscal incentives” as one of the ways proposed).
I read the second approach to be: because the resources of the government are meager it could only pump-prime the economy to a certain extent. Therefore, the rest of the stimulus should really come from good old risk-taking and entrepreneurial spirit (largely from the economic elites, I suppose) with government support or involvement when called for.
Greater productive activities could only mean more revenues for the government to help address the fiscal crisis. When the government is strapped, the economic elites should pick up the slack. We are all in the same boat anyway.
Punishing tax evaders and smugglers. Plugging tax leakages.
Wow you are parroting the technocrats. Plus revenue leaks and pump prime the economy.
One of the more brilliant technocrats the country has ever produced Sixto K. Roxas once wrote that in emerging societies like the Philippines you still have to build the pumps that you will have to pump prime since we do not have it. That would mean you simply pump prime imports.
The Philippines economy cannot have a normal industrial business downturn. What we have is a continuing trade deficits that causes fiscal deficits. It is caused by (allow me the technocratic term) supply bottlenecks that are structural and systemic in nature. Not only economic structures but combined with political and cultural structures that make it absolutely impossible to pump prime a primitive wealth creating society.
Fiscal deficits are structural in nature in the Philippine context due to its low saving capacity and the trade deficit is the root cause of those fiscal deficits.
Governance becomes an acute problem since the elite have to compete to grab the power over the fight for the meager savings and the power to create deficits by the state.
Keynesian economics distorted and corrupted by the private capture of state power.
The country lives by inflation based taxation and the country survives by devaluing its debt away.
The future generations will pay for it and not you or Dollar Joe.
Abe,
I have come to the realization that the duly elected Philippine president is unlikely to be the best man for the job, but rather, it will be the candidate who appeals best to the emotional, politically unsophisticated, star-struck masses. That is Villar’s clear target and he is throwing everything at it. Mr. Aquino is after it, too, with increasingly more powerful commercials. I personally would like to see Mr. Villar lose, and hope all the advertising dollars he has wasted will go round and round the Philippine economy to create some jobs. I fear that somehow they will go into the pockets of the media executives and off to Aspen, Colorado, or other exotic places that don’t employ many Filipinos. But I hope he loses, for sure. I don’t think unethical crooks should continue to be put into the top job in the land. It rather skews the international corruption ranking from the getgo.
Now, I think you should continue to promote your candidate, but also start building a contingency plan should Villar win.
What’cha gonna do if the unsophisticated electorate elects Villar, thereby continuing the trend of putting unethical cheaters into power?
I figure my candidate, Gordon, has about as much chance of winning the election as a snowball in the spout of Pinatubo, so I am looking ahead. And pondering what I am going to do about it . . .
Joe
Joe,
The summary that I’ve made about my earlier post in FV (If your gut tells you Noynoy, go for it, remember?) could probably be appreciated in a better light now, to wit:
1. Big media has taken over political campaigns and conducts them as if candidates for public office are detergents or athletic shoes.
2. Voters in general are either too preoccupied with other things or lacking enough interest to vet thoroughly and intelligently what’s stated or promised in political platforms.
3. Often, voters fall for sound bytes and other forms of political gimmickry dished out to them by the media.
4. Candidates do not embody all the political choices preferred by voters and therefore voters choose a candidate as a “package deal” (with chinks in the white armor).
5. Otherwise well-intentioned projects like bO’s ‘platform, plez’ will reach only a very narrow segment of the electorate – like FV regulars who, fairly informed of the issues, may have already formed their biases in favor of certain candidates/issues. Hence, over-analyzing the candidates’ position would be more like an exercise in “mental eroticism” than something truly instructive for the purpose.
6. Since FV or similar forums are unavailable to the run-of-the-mill electorates who are prone to the manipulation by the media, the suggestion is: it might be better for voters to just rely on their lifeworld experiences [the basis of their innermost feelings - or gut], than expect to get educated by crusading people like bO or Benk in making political choices in the same manner that it would be better for consumers to rely on the experience of buying a pair of shoes that doesn’t cause discomfort or soap that doesn’t dry the skin than allow themselves to get mesmerized by the commercial hype on those commodities.
Abe,
Yes, I see your points. BO and BenK (and you and me) can only aspire to influence a possible opinion maker or two, and from that maybe a snowball can begin . . . recognizing they melt fast here . . . but for now, for sure, the broad electorate is not studying platform plez . . .
Joe
Joe,
Amado Doronila, who is not part of the “broad electorate,” writes about the latest Pulse Asia survey on the presidential race in this fashion:
“His critics attribute Aquino’s decline to his relative administrative inexperience in government and his failure to spell out his program (he did it a few times with forums, including the one sponsored by the Makati Business Club) in public gatherings where he only pledged that he would never steal, if elected” (emphasis mine).
Doronila tries to be clever by first attributing the criticism to Noynoy’s “critics.”
But he actually reinforces the falsehood himself: “In a recent speech to the business community, Aquino pledged that his government would not steal.”
It’s a shame. It’s either that Doronila is simply parroting without thinking the myth out there interwoven by designing partisans, he being too lazy to vet intelligently (if he has read Noynoy’s speech at all) the policy perspectives Noynoy has spelled out before the business community OR ignoring entirely the speech after somehow vetting it, he has fallen (late in his career, unfortunately) into becoming an AC-DC* opinion maker.
*According to Manila Times’ Dante Ang, AC-DC is an Attack /Collect-Defend/Collect journalist.
Joe:
food for “technocrats”
- nscb [dot] gov [ph] headlines/StatsSpeak/2009/091409_rav_bbb_food [dot] asp
excerpts:
The law of the instrument, formulated as follows: Give a small boy a hammer, and he will find that everything he encounters needs pounding.
People Power!!!!
Abraham H. Maslow (1962), Toward a Psychology of Being:
I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.
UP n, in time, the child will grow, or will learn to employ the hammer as a stern judge his gavel: pound it on his worktable at the opportune time to signal for order as when the contestants in his chamber can only hear the echoes of their own voices.
The real value of People Power is not whether by its use as an instrument of democracy the right man is chosen to lead the nation or the wisest policy is enacted to address a difficult problem but really in the developmental benefit of participation in terms of educating the people in the ways of being social partners in nation-building.
That’s more than enough.
People-Power is like the chaleco salvavida – to be used only in case of extreme emergency. The problem with Pinoys-in-Pinas is that people are taught to believe “The chaleco salvavida will save you” that they skip the other part — to learn how to swim.
What a shame.
UP n, you still don’t get. Filipinos can float or soar – across oceans, colonizing every nook and cranny of the world. Look at you.
My Fellow Filipino’s, this includes you Joe!
With all the words that has been exchanged. I do hope that we all, can be constructive as a whole. So that, to fashion these intellectual verbiage and, to apply these wonderful thoughts, to better our Nation. Rather than engaging ourselves to bartering.
If only we, Filipino’s[joe included] have the intellect to muster these sarcasm between us all and, to resolve our issues amongst us, as to better benefit our Nation. Our wonderful thoughts can be use to open doors for the Filipino people. Then, we as Filipinos can harness these dreams, and be released from the enigma that we have been bound.
Food for Thoughts
• By the words I been reading and constant bickering and sound bites…[...]
• You people are highly educated bunch of brats (no pun intended)
• Let us figure out and resolve our issue(s) and propel this Country of ours to a great start on May 2010
Hear, hear! :-)
Lila,
It is wonderful, to have you here @ FV
Very nice of u to say so, Mario.
I strongly suggest you read John Locke and Adam Smith to get the gist of what they mean about property rights.
The basis for Ricardian and Marxian property rights that evolved from an agrarian society to the division of labor on the shop floor and the fight over the surplus value created in the division of labor on the shop floor.
Please the note the first money or currency is the labor required to produce a thing of value to be traded. The cost of that in real terms is the value needed to sustain labor’s needs and wants. Prices of everything stem from that reality. Labor in this means the physical and intellectual labor required to produce value and the collective social labor required to produce capital goods like a steam turbine. Has the Philippines ever graduated to producing its steam engines at least?
j_ag,
Having read this book. This also reminds me of a novel by Ayn Rand. A murder and rebirth of a man’s spirit. Sometimes I think that, Ayn was antagonist to the human sub-species or our insubordinate human culture as a whole. Oh yeah! John Locke and Adam Smith got this perspective from this wonderful Novelist, Ayn Rand. She was ahead of our time and, practically predicted these scenarios in her “Atlas Shrugged” novel.
Hi everyone,
Just wanted to share a reflection I’ve been going through some time now about “wasted votes”. Is there really such a thing?
Which vote is a wasted vote? The one used to give the best candidate a fighting chance, or the one used to let a supposed front-runner’s backers control the outcome with unscientific surveys? Having generated the largest business portfolio for my previous company using market research, it really bothers me that the methodologies behind the various election surveys seem so loose that the results are practically useless except for whatever agendas those who paid for the surveys may have.
For example, if Noynoy A is really the front-runner, how come most people I speak with are supporting Gordon?
Obviously since I’m not a Villar-ionaire I can’t do a proper survey myself at this point, but it’s very worrying – look at the financial crisis caused by believing too much in credit ratings paid for by the companies being rated themselves – how much misery has been caused by this ill-placed compianza? Should we peg our faith in getting the leaders we deserve on unscientific surveys, or should we peg our faith on finding the best fit candidate for our country’s needs?
What would you like our country to have achieved 6 years from now? How do we measure the achievements we would like our people to have accomplished in 6 years, 12 years, 24 years, and what kind of proven accomplishments let us know which candidates are the best choice?
I am sure different voters will have different criteria, and different results, but I hope you’d help spread the word to let the best candidate win, and not necessarily the ones pre-selected by paid-for survey companies. Personally, I’m impressed with this platform and the values, qualifications and experience behind it http://bit.ly/cABGn9
Just to share, where I’m from, I can go jogging at night, there’s a functioning public library, LTO transactions take 15 minutes, public school students have international-standard classrooms, and it doesn’t even need to collect the same taxes as Makati. Do we want to just survive in our country, or really live?
I believe our people will make the right choice if we just remind ourselves to stay focused on what this election is about – our future, our dreams, and our loved ones.
May the best candidate win.
What do you think? Please spread the word to everyone you care about also
Cheers :)