No limits to a free people.
In Cocoy’s recent blog, Up n Grad and I had an interesting discussion (interesting to me anyways). This blog takes off from these exchanges between UP n Grad and I, to wit:
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The Philippines apparently still is very much in the early stages of democracy. Pinas is in the chaos stage, which is both bad and good. The good part is that Filipinos have woken up to the fact that they do have brains, that they can read and be informed as best they can and that they can form opinions all-by-their-lonesome as opposed to swallowing the pablum and electioneering-propaganda and outright lies from their major or the governor …. from Malacanang … from pundits and peryodistas. Even the class-D and class-E know that they can vote according to their priorities, not to the priorities of internet twitter’ers or Beer Manufacturing tycoons. The bad part is “talangka” and Bush’s “you are either with me or against me”. A few pinoys (or maybe a lot of Pinoys!!!!) practice this “Me! Me! Me! I am the Light and The Way!!” complex, the only “my point of view is correct”. This translates into the policy of “my way or the highway” and the simple plain lack of ability to tolerate uncomfortable discussions whether the dissent is vicious or humorous or even whether the disagreement comes from a likely ally. Rallying around a strong cause like “GMA-talsik diyan!!!” is not good enough anymore. Evidence is the vicious adhominems as one group interprets Primer’s romantic endorsement of Bayani Fernando as being a fifth-columnist (spreading lies) or being a paid hack. And if Pinoys can’t rally and coalesce from the “GMA talsik diyan!!” platform, then how can they coalesce around “My Philippines, my country!” ideal? Then add to the picture above that 25% or more of Pinas voters remain in the “GMA is a good president!” and Pinas today is Pinas today. It becomes no surprise (to me..) that a portion of the population do not care about governance. This segment of the population manages their daily lives with mantra either of “Leave me alone, I have a family to feed” … “Leave me alone, I have to study… ‘cuz once I’m done, then I’m outa here!!!”
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It is time to wake up and smell the coffee – that’s a very small number of Filipinos.
Call a spade a spade. At the end of the day, the choices made by the DE ignoramuses will swallow the ABC combined – three times over.
That’s what the majority (the DE who outnumbers the ABC exponentially) want – to remain poor; to remain dumb; to vote for thieves and crooks – their robin hoods; to blame government and remain personally irresponsible for choices they make – it is totally disgusting, sickening, and makes me barf.
Up n grad reminded me about Jon LimJap’s blog-comment
| Yup, bongV… I thought Limjap had a blog-comment along that theme — that the current lousy state of Pinas governance is from THAT -D/E voting patterns |
If the Philippines is to have any real shot at making democracy work, the ABC groups need to figure out how to develop norms conducive to democracy within the D/E group. The crux of the matter is that there are factions of the ABC group that benefit from the dumbed-down mobs of DE groups.
Any trapo, or the descendants of trapos (mainly from the ABC group) will justify and become apologists for such a system – because vote farms work for their clans and preserves their lifestyle na sikat. It reduces the equation to a have versus the have-nots. in such a system, He who has the gold, RULES.
He who has the gold to buy votes, RULES.
He who has the gold to buy congressmen, RULES.
He who has the gold to buy Senators, RULES.
He who has the gold to buy judges, RULES.
He who has the gold to buy cops, RULES.
He who has the gold to buy prosecutors, RULES.
He who has the gold to buy government employees, RULES.
That, my countrymen, is transactional politics.
The Philippines has a democratic form of government but the practices are anything but democratic. Philippine political norms are anything but conducive to democracy.
Amidst all this posturing, all this rhetoric, no worthy candidate can even get to a position of authority if the D/E groups choose a bamboozling womanizing crook and gangster who gambles in a casino with floozies and his posse while the nation burns down. Or if the DE group buys what a faction of the ABC group is selling – a diabolical mimicry of good government which is anything but good, and totally rotten and evil to the core.
It becomes more glaring in the light of Senator Ping Lacson’s withdrawal from the race. I have no interest lost for Ping due to his association with Erap, but I admired his candor in pointing out that
| Sadly, what we have today is a feudal set-up foolishly labeled as democracy, where transactional politics is entrenched both in the bureaucracy and local government units; and where the poor are deluded into believing that throwing candies or giving instant noodles or occasional help in distress is the be-all and end-all of public service.In the grind for survival, the poor forget all too often that the occasional goodies they get are mere scraps from the tables of the immoderately greedy powerful who plunder public coffers, or abuse power for self-profit.
I have always maintained that if we doggedly and purposively set government right, the rest will follow. When people respect government, they pay the correct taxes and follow even the simplest of traffic rules. Equal opportunity. Level playing field. To each a fair, fighting chance. Patas na laban, para sa lahat. But reaching out to the voters, particularly those in the D and E income levels, which altogether comprise some four-fifths of the population, does not come easy. It is most expensive in a political system which has neither strong institutions nor correct procedures. Minsan ay sumagi na rin sa aking isipan na tanggapin na ang 200 milyong pisong pork barrel bawat taon para sa isang senador upang magamit at makasabay man lang sa isang magastos na pangangampanya. Nguni’t, at mabuti na lamang, nanaig pa rin sa aking isipan na ipagpatuloy ang isang adhikain at paniniwala na higit sa ano pa mang bagay, mas mahalaga ang integridad sa isang tulad kong inihalal ng bayan upang maglingkod nang tapat at walang halong pag-iimbot. The great Charles de Gaulle of France, who put order back in a land wracked by anarchy, once remarked that “in order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant”. Like his forebear Nostradamus, he might have foreseen the Philippine political scene of this generation. But I refuse to lie. And I refuse to purvey make-believe storyboards and saturate the airwaves with fairy tales. Even if I tried to communicate the truth to our people given the extremely limited resources that I could raise from well-meaning friends who have kept the faith, and believe as I do in my central advocacy of good governance and national discipline, the time has come to face the reality that the intent to lead in this land in order to do good, has become an enterprise only for those who have access to unlimited funds. |
I am listening to Ping’s swan song, and I can relate to it. If a Senator who has the means higher than a layman, is throwing in the towel, what chances do average Joes have? Zilch. Nada. Bokya. Nothing. Wala. ZERO.
Without any fundamental change in political norms, mores, and culture within the DE groups, the only options facing Juan de le Cruz are more stagnation/stagflation, violent conflict, or migration.
It is a buyers market – clearance sale on voters, congressmen, Senators, judges, cops, prosecutors, and government employees.
Go to the DE group first – cheaper by the dozen, brandish sardinas, alak, wowowee, bring the entire circus. Don’t worry about the long-term, the DE group has short memories, it only thinks about its stomach. Feed it today – and it will sell its soul to you.
Welcome to Philippine Political Cultures, Norms, and Mores – PAY TO PLAY.
Once you are “in”, all those judges, senators, congressmen will go against you, UNLESS, you “spread the sunshine”. So, spread it like peanut butter, bend ‘em like Beckham, fuck ‘em like Paris, Pamela, and Katrina, let ‘em eat cake, give ‘em play time with Rasputin and his variants.
And in case you didn’t read the sign at the entrance, it reads “ABANDON HOPE ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE”.
For the podcast, click Podcast – Golden Rule and Buyers Market
Popularity: 1% [?]
what a dark, desolate vision of despair, bongv. it’s like a black hole where not a glimmer of hope can penetrate. the sad part of it is – it’s true.
50 years of Pinoy politics with zero track record of offering a single sustainable solution is staring us right in the face. And yet here we are chattering on about this and that ‘presidentiable’ and this and that no-substance political “party”. Talk about flat learning curve! :D
Exactly. And by the looks of it, it will be more of the same old BS, different day. new faces, same old scripts.
bongv,
what do you mean by a buyers market? what concept or theory in Management and administration you have applied. To consider all juan dela cruzes as the product so cheap that it can be bought then the application of your buyers market is nothing new. Many juan de la cruzes have been bought at low price not only during the last election but probably for about 30 years. There was not even an election year that the trend reverse to a seller’s market or in equilibrium. How does the country like Philippines stop all this nonsense…
so it’s not a buyer’s market. it’s already beyond that. It can be a direct assault to human rights. In the international standard of human rights issue, vote buying is a crime of the state against the people. Locally, there’s no consideration of the legal aspect of managing the people and that is the lack of applying the rule of law. It’s a human right issue. You don’t buy people, period.
You don’t buy people, period.
YOU DON’T GET IT – PEOPLE ARE SELLING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HALLER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
there’s no buyers when there’s no seller… in this relationship, who has the capacity and legal duty to exercise the rule of law in terms of managing the people. When money from the top are controlled, then vote buying will not happen. It is a crime also at higher places where vote buying is encouraged by the policymakers. Or , it can b interpreted that some private entities and big corporation will provide the gift to influence policymaking.
At the bottom where Juan de la cruz reside, he has no capacity to understand where did that money comes from. He also does not understand the bigger consequence that the money he receives for selling his vote can be a debt to be paid by the people. at the end.
leytenia:
the theory looks good – but the theory does not factor in the reality of “under the table”. once the market is created it takes a life of its own – and as the saying goes, it takes two to tango.
google search private entities conflicting interest with public. i think you will get the connection if we have to look at issues from the very top. i thought you are pro-poor.. :)
top-down is not enough – that’s too traditional, and given the historicity, can only gain ground when there is an accompanying culture conducive to democracy.
thus, a purely top-down solution is naive because it does not have the political base that will allow the sustainability of reforms – that an honest leader will be corrupted by corrupt demands from the constitutency is no longer speculation but supported by facts and phenomonology.
given that the elections is a numbers game, a .Pareto analysis will show that leadership will be decided by the DE group for sheer reason of overwhelming numerical superiority – an undeniable FACT.
a solution can be crafted by addressing the dynamics within the DE group – but it is not an easy task because it involves changing the norms, mores, cultures. bringing about a personal metanoia – a eureka moment – but it will not happen overnight. for the meantime, the madness will be there for the long haul – our remaining hope, are the future Filipinos – thus it becomes critical to support education – to provide more resources and knowledge that will ignite a child’s imagination, his values, his compassion, his integrity – that he may succeed where we have failed.
until the conditions condition conducive to democracy, exist – your managers will be managing what Jose Rizal calls “half-way brutes”, not human beings – good luck with that.
hay naku leytenian:
we take off from the fact that there already exists a market – a buyer and a seller
the voter who wants to sell his votes, and he meets a buyer who is willing to buy the vote at the price the voter wants. the chronological sequence of who looked for who first – is irrelevant – the fact is both parties to the transaction wanted something – and they both got i, the general welfare be damned.
ignorance is not an excuse, binibaby mo pa, yang style mo style enabler, bulok naman yung ini-enable mo.
leytenean, will you please stop blubbering about “management” for once in your life? it’s o.k. if you’re talking about PERSONAL management. but you are too beholden to management in the context of master-servant or superior-subordinate relationship. people are not herds of cattle. celebrate their uniqueness from each other. remember that they have all been endowed with the ability to think – even for their own selves. when they decide to sell their votes, it’s in the exercise of their freedom to be stupid, to follow a wrong path, to be weak; not because they were “managed” correctly or wrongly.
old fashion pa rin … :)
the world is bigger than an MBA lens
MBA has nothing to do with the skills and talent of the individual in the application of its theory.
Sources of money comes from
1. Public or people’s money thru Special purpose funds.
Maghabol ka na lang sa tambol mayor if you can get that legislation passed – wake up smell the coffee, sige lang ka basa libro walay application :lol:
you mean “old FASHIONED”? why, is it wrong because it’s old fashioned in your mind?
Can some folks please disagree? Please?
They are now pushing the Right of Reply Bill. FV is using Awaiting
Moderation. The Freedon of Speech and Opinion are slowly being taken
from us. CON ASS plus muzzled press and citizens can pave way to
Gloria Arroyo Dictatorship. We must be all vigilant now.
Muzzled Press??? Hah! The freest and most irresponsible press in Asia? Muzzled? Come on…both admin and anti-admin types want the Right-to-Reply law to pass.
ConAss? What ConAss? Where is there a ConAss? And if there is a ConAss tomorrow (which there won’t be), just what will that ConAss do? The Senate, SC and voters still have their say no matter what a ConAss does.
Martial law and dictatorship have been “imminent” for what, 9 years now?
What drama. It’s not the D or E classes who are generally naive, it’s those in the A,B or C classes who buy this junk who are specifically naive. These kinds of buyers are known as “suckers”.
How about focusing on issues, policy choices and the competition for job-creating investments?
Yeah, the DE’s vote for Erap was so enlightened
Yeah, the DE’s vote for GMA and Poe was so enlightened
Look at the Philippines now, it’s the renaissance…
of the garbage heap.
I am not sure I can get anything positive or constructive from a prescription such as has been said by one viciously stupid comment.
I sure don’t see anything in leytenian’s point that could possibly be a cause for much misinterpretation. Maybe, there are just those who work in the gutters – they sweep everything clean.
Case to case, then.
it’s not for the flea-brained, that’s for sure.
If this blog is sent for publication in any of the newspapers, this goes straight to the trash can for obvious grammatical errors. Spot the errors for yourselves.
speaking of this entire blog (FV), 99.9% of them are yours but you’re too feeble to know.
That’s why it’s in a blog – it’s not the type of writing that pekeng peryodistas like, paano na lang ang AC/DC natin nyan.
pera-pera lang yan men. pag threatening kay bossing or sa mga aso ni bossing, siempre papel agad yung mga pinagmudmudan ng datung.
keep the people stupid, para tuloy ang negosyo… :lol:
Among many, “peanut better” – wow! People are beginning to eat their words.
invent a spell checker for wordpress, meanwhile that has been corrected – and people are able to figure out the context – kesa naman magsusulat ako ng pagka-habahabang nobela – napakahabang prosesyon, naligaw naman sa daan, sa canal pa talaga ang bagsak, hindi sa simbahan :lol:
Chopsuey of a blog, I am not sure where to abstract the notion of “Golden Rule”, anyone?
Primer:
Sa tinagal-tagal tagal mo sa gobyerno, either nagtatanga-tangahan ka pa rin, or talagang tanga ka men – GOLDEN RULE – HE WHO HAS THE GOLD, RULES -
Primer is a paid Media Dog of Gloria Arroyo and Bayani Fernando.
Can you just see who he is promoting. KaKAMPI ni Gloria Arroyo.
Si Kleptomaniac na Bayani Fernando.
I guess Bayani Fernando shared his loot with Primer. Or both of
them are Kleptomaniacs.
How did you come to the conclusion that Primer promotes KAMPI?
Can you not read? That Kleptomaniac Bayani Fernando is his Patron.
Bayani Fernando is with Arroyo coalition. Who would not believe
Primer did not share the loot with that Kleptomaniac.
You work and sweat for nothing?My Ass…
Hey , Leytenian:
The Congress People had been bought a long time ago.
Gloria Arroyo had already implanted MicroChips inside their brains.
These MicroChips can be controlled by Remote Control Push Buttons
and Joysticks. Congress people are now Robot Androids. Some are now
Zombies.
“50 years of Pinoy politics with zero track record of offering a single sustainable solution is staring us right in the face. And yet here we are chattering on about this and that ‘presidentiable’ and this and that no-substance political “party”. Talk about flat learning curve!”
You do not begin a sentence with a number – that is a no-no. Oh baka naman ngayon mo lang narinig niyan? Okay, learn.
How do we make that long-winded sentence short enough and direct to the point without losing any single thought?
Let this be a quiz for readers.
“iyan”, not “niyan”
Could you pinpoint “that long-winded sentence” please, so we would know how?
“That’s why it’s in a blog – it’s not the type of writing that pekeng peryodistas like, paano na lang ang AC/DC natin nyan.
pera-pera lang yan men. pag threatening kay bossing or sa mga aso ni bossing, siempre papel agad yung mga pinagmudmudan ng datung.
keep the people stupid, para tuloy ang negosyo”
Now you’re talking. Isn’t that self-deprecating for one who prescribes the notion of “garbage in, garbage out” especially since you’re always being joined by yet another self-deprecating … (I can’t describe).
I thought you were one of those who are saying that bloggers must have excellent communication skills in the English language, with good syntax, grammar and all.
So perhaps, you have to walk your talk, practice what you preach.
You have to be consistent with your tenses.
No offense meant, fellow BF fan. But “you have to walk your talk, practice what you preach”. :)
“invent a spell checker for wordpress, meanwhile that has been corrected – and people are able to figure out the context – kesa naman magsusulat ako ng pagka-habahabang nobela – napakahabang prosesyon, naligaw naman sa daan, sa canal pa talaga ang bagsak, hindi sa simbahan”
That’s been what the likes of you I have been telling about. In my infamous blog, ‘Blogging vs. free speech”, I unwittingly omitted a single word – “mother” – and then every fool feasted on this little mistake as though without it, they cannot understand the gist of the blog. And sure they didn’t understand the gist of the blog. Kaya nga tawang tawa ako, I am only telling you this now.
The blog is a great piece kaso nga, this is what my idol Karl Popper – the Open Society and Its Enemies, Conjectures and Refutations, the Poverty of Historicism, among other works. Oh, nakatangan ka na?
Now, sometimes people are just hiding behind their professed high IQ but then clearly, everything is grinding their own head. Kawawa naman talaga.
If you did not realize, more than 210 comments feasted on that otherwise nice blog piece, but when we all succumb to the hypnotic effect of a pseudo intellectual mob, then that is it.
Now I realize Connie might just be correct in saying – bloggers are a whole bunch of high brow entertainers and pseudo intellectual masturbators.
This is not a complete thought. Therefore, it is not a sentence. So, why did you put a full stop after “works”?
this guy has really gone bonkers. now he’s praising his own crap and enlisting his other mask “karlpooper” to clap hands with him. there must be a way to debug this blog with this kind of pest. nakakasira ng kalidad.
Primer:
A spelling typo can still be readable based on the context. Omitting a word however, changes the entire context.
Si Karl Popper pa lang ba ang nabasa mo na theorist? :)
Let Karl Popper come to the Philippines and apply his methodology – mapapaiyak yun :lol:
Men subukan mo si Michael Mann, 4 networks theory, uses the IEMP model – http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/theory/four_networks.html – It is a very dynamic model.
Primer:
Hate to burst your bubble – you are the only person on this site which considers your blog post – nice.
Don’t be digging a deeper hole amigo.
In case you haven’t come across the IEMP Model, aka 4 networks theory by Michael Mann – read up on it. ;)
FV is raeally a microcosm of Pinoy society — mediocre work is tolerated and wrong arguments endure. :D
Hyden,
How much, if you know, I get paid by our beloved president GMA?
Same question on the other?
It is time to cast the larger net???
Bencard, may I please have your permission to expound my American viewpoint in this blog thread? I warn you, I may invoke the name “Obama”.
Joe
you can even pray to him, joe, for all i care. he’s your “messiah”, isn’t he?
Hah, Ben, Ben. He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother.
Joe
The word ‘nice’ is safe enough, hardly even flattering so don’t burst my bubble, burst your own bubble, if you have one.
As one says, ‘nagkwekwentuhan lang tayo dito’. Look at the twitter of caffeine, look at the podcast of jon, look at our blogs – they are all the same, one genre, new genre, bad genre – depends on how you look at it, amigo.
Find yourself some sleep or you’ll be consuming all the coffee.
Sorry bystander, word ‘says’ missing.
bystander,
Actually, there is no error in what you quoted as it is a statement of fact so if goes in the present tense. Were or are, I would choose the latter in the case of the statement that followed.
“this guy has really gone bonkers. now he’s praising his own crap and enlisting his other mask “karlpooper” to clap hands with him. there must be a way to debug this blog with this kind of pest. nakakasira ng kalidad.”
Awefully boring to have to read filthy, stinking, cheap comments – penny a dozen.
When was the last time he went into the pest control business?
Where are the points to be rebutted, the views to be refuted, the opinions to be debunked (oh never mind English grammar – sila naman mas lalo pa nga)?
Primer:
Seems like he agrees with the following:
He who has the gold, RULES.
He who has the gold to buy votes, RULES.
He who has the gold to buy congressmen, RULES.
He who has the gold to buy Senators, RULES.
He who has the gold to buy judges, RULES.
He who has the gold to buy cops, RULES.
He who has the gold to buy prosecutors, RULES.
He who has the gold to buy government employees, RULES.
Or as you would say – “pera pera lang yan men”.
I think FV needs real editors, and that posts should be written through a submission-editing-publication process instead of posting an entry straightaway from the contributor. Madalas kasi ang kinalalabasan walang uniformity, and there are lots of errors, too.
Pasensya na pero may mga pagkakataon kasing nakakatawa.
Kindly expound.
I picked up a copy of Jonathan Swift’s masterpiece “Gulliver’s Travels” at SM Mall in Pampanga. As a kid, I had been force-fed abbreviated excerpts from the book in English class and thought it was more or less a fairy tale about a traveling Brit meeting some miniature people and some giants. Now I find it was a highly controversial satire in its time (published 1726). It pokes ribald fun at kings and ministers, nations and churches, and those who believe they are better than others – as well as the political party with whom Swift disagreed. He did not use the term bloggers, but he coined the word Yahoo, which is a thoroughly disagreeable creature. Perhaps Yahoos and bloggers are of similar parentage, as bloggers incessantly jam their opinions at others, much as Swift’s Yahoos did, as they shat upon Guliver from a tree.
Not only do Yahoos infest the megabytes of FV, herds of them roam the halls of the Philippine legislature, I am convinced. The crowing mob approving 1109 for instance, did its best imitation. Yahoos are in American government, too; most go by the title of Republican. Or lobbyist. I think Dick Cheney is among the leaders.
I leave it to you to find a reference copy of the book and find out how, physically, Yahoos are put together. Suffice it to say “ugly” is an understatement.
Joe
Joe:
This is the kind of rational and insightful thinking that I want to see more of ;)
Anybody can do a Gordon. That’s what they all do. Make promises. Where will he get the money for his project? Besides, such a project is a legislative concern, not executive. Budget, stupid! For the greedy and needy gold rules. So, it’s not just the D&E, my friends. For the gullible, a golden tongue will do.
I wrote the Flash several times on about fostering the bayanihan spirit through a legislated distribution of power and wealth to LGU’s. All he did was guide me to his website. At least, he responded, unlike the other Senators.
Exactly, anyone can do a Gordon – but WHY ISN’T ANYONE DOING A GORDON? OR A BF? or ANY FLAGSHIP VALUE identified with a candidate
Or a mix of:
* GORDON’s Turnaround Savvy
* FERNANDO’s Ability to reduce the D&E Groups and move them over to the ABC groups
* VILLAR’S Business Acumen
* ROXAS Integrity
No one fits the mold?
BongV,
Yes, Indeed. It is called focusing on needs and getting something done.
I like where his heart is, and think his head works well, too.
I just wonder if he is tough enough to stand up to the sharks that infest the waters.
Joe
The Golden Rule and the Buyer’s Market. Interesting conversation. Indeed! A fine diagnosis. But am I missing something? A precriptio, perhaps?
Sorry. I was looking for a prescription when the button pressed itself. Heh! Heh!
You missed the point by a mile. It’s about politicians penchant for unrealistic or unattainable promises, and our childish gullibility. A PHG in every region? My ass!
Not the type of politician who turned Olongapo around – or a politician who shaped Marikina up – promise attained, sealed, and delivered.
There actually exists Regional Medical Centers run by the DOH – infusion of funds will upgrade these hospitals to PGH caliber.
But folks prefer the intellectual pygmies :lol:
The PGH itself has to beg for funds. Anybody can promise a 40 pupils per classroom ratio, and convince some suckers to fall for it!
If you must root for Gordon, focus on his ability to galvanize volunteers among other helpful character traits, not on promises dangled. Consider also that Olangapo, Marikina and Makati are not as shark infested as Joe America’s waters.
Misses the point that Gordon’s experience in beefing up Olongapo’s world-class hospital can be replicated. When he provides a vision, there is credibility, precisely due to his demonstrated capabilities of turning Subic and Olongapo around.