There is nothing more pathetic than a dumpee latching on to the traditional but empty words of comfort dished out by the average dumper:
“That’s ok. We can still be friends.”
As we bicker over the trivialities of local politics and the no-longer-shocking plight of the poor and unemployed of the Philippines (a continued testament to our deeply-entrenched Heritage of Smallness), the best response we could come up with in the wake of the re-location of the regional hub operations of giant logistics company Federal Express from Subic to China’s Baiyun International Airport in Guangzhou is to rejoice over a consuelo-de-bobo retention of a token operation in the old Clark Airbase.
Thus, in SBMA Administrator Armand Arreza’s classy words:
That’s okay because FedEx remains to be in the Philippines [...]
Pwede na yan right, Administrator?
We can still be friends…
“It’s not a matter of Subic being not good enough to [FedEx],” [FedEx assistant chief pilot Joel Edmondson] said [to the Business Mirror]. “This is an economic decision that puts us in a better position to move forward in the market.”
But of course. It’s not you, it’s me.
FedEx’s selection of the Philippines as its regional hub back in 1995 was touted as a flagship milestone heralding in an era of civilian greatness for the most recent of infrastructural wonders passed on to the custody of the natives of America’s former colony. As the ensuing decade had shown, we’ve remained consistent with our long tradition of reverse-alchemy — our unique ability to turn gold into crap.
Waaaaay back in 2000, I wrote how:
[...] after almost a decade, policymakers are still scratching their heads as to how best to optimally exploit the infrastructural wonders of Subic Bay and Clark Field. In the meantime, for lack of any foresight or imagination, we are slowly turning these into playgrounds of the rich and famous again with water-guzzling golf courses and casinos sprouting up.
Golf courses and casinos. Indeed, there is no shortage of reminders on the extent by which our faculties for exercising a bit of imagination remain utterly stunted. This trait of ours in conjunction with, our renowned heritage of smallness, our focus on the droll, trivial, and irrelevant, and our insularity, i.e., …
[...] narrowly restricted in outlook or scope; being provincial, being narrow in scope, or considering only small sections of an issue; narrow-minded
… go a long loooooong way in explaining why we are so utterly inept at sustainably turning resources served up to us on a silver platter into reliable streams of recurring income. Consider that the latter phrase describes the cornerstone concept of the definition of the business enterprise.
In our pathetic 100% reliance on all things foreign and 0.0000001% reliance on inherent capability (because there is none); the lack of that substance that would have routinely cushioned a crash in any number of these periodic financial collapses, simply means that our implosion as a society and as an economy sees no bottom (specially when seen in the context of the embarassing 2.3% p.a. clip at which we multiply).
Major corporate decisions like this take years of planning. The runway at Subic just wasn’t long enough and I guess FedEx was worried about getting left behind as its customers and competitors poured into China.
Years of planning versus Bahala na.
A contest of ideals one could hardly consider a clash of titans in the arena of human intellectual achievement.
So goes a bit of insight on what separates the real babes from the average bimbo. Both may look good in a bikini in their early 20′s but it takes a bit of substance to keep the proverbial International Man of Mystery smitten over the long haul.
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So what is wrong if the Philippines wants to become the slum capital of our neck of the woods?
Hey life here is good and all you guys who do not have the means to support yourselves here in the Philippines are mouthing off.
I frequently enjoy my late afternoon drink at the bar at Manila Golf and the view is one of the best in the city. It is a great life…..
Then one can go for a massage at Polo.
So what if Fed Ex left Subic? We are going to become the malling capital of S.E. Asia.
I think we will do better than Macau when it comes to establishing a Las Vegas style complex.
We are good at having fun and we might as well make money out of it and brand the Philippines the hedonist capital of the world.
The women here also age well.
bO why knock a good thing when you cannot afford it?
The slumification of the Philippines is a government sponsored project for those who cannot go abroad. We have good people here who also want to paint it in bright colors.
Maybe not in the next ten years, but eventually Pinas will have a leader in the caliber of this Polish Catholic lawyer who found an old oil lamp and rubbed it. Out came a Genie who said,
“Master you have released me from the lamp and I grant you three wishes, what would you like?”
The Polish lawyer’s eyes lit up because he knew what he wanted, so he answered,
“I wish for a bottle of HEINEKEN that never gets empty.”
“Granted master” replied the Genie and produced the bottle.
The Polish lawyer was delighted and immediately poured himself a tall glass of the dark brew. After he drained the glass he picked up the bottle and sure enough it was full again. The Polish lawyer got drunk on this one magic HEINEKEN bottle for three weeks before he remembered that he had two more wishes.
He rubbed the lamp again and the Genie appeared.
“Yes master, you have two more wishes, what would you like?”
“You remember that magic, never ending HEINEKEN bottle?” he asks the Genie.
“Well, for my final two wishes, I’d like another two of them.”
Hey J_AG, honestly I think you are spot on. Trouble is we fancy ourselves as some kind of serious aspirant for industrial greatness when in fact I think we are better off becoming an R&R haven for tourists coming from real industrial economies. All we need to do is collectively thumb our noses at those men-in-robes who teach us their pseudo-”morality” and get on with it. :D
The Olongapo of Asia? Then it is time to elect Dick Gordon come 2010.
Gordon’s not that bad compared with some of ‘em, except that he’s handcuffed to GMA, which is bad enough, you know, something about rotten tomatoes in a basket.
Benign0,
There is no evidence to link the decision of Fedex to the racist sociological psychobabble which you habitually utilize to explain virtually anything BAD that happens in the Philippines. It was simply a business decision that made sense for Fedex.
Consider Fedex’s reason: The volume of package delivery business going into and out of China is nearly one million times the volume relative to the Philippines and labor costs are a fraction of Clark or Subic rates. Plus, yes, they have superior infrastructure.
These are hardnosed business decisions.
Heck even IBM sold its PC business to Lenovo after it operated there itself for years. Don’t tell me the folks at IBM lack substance and creativity and the ability to plan their infrastructure and businesses.
Not just Fedex is moving out of XYZ and moving to China, but hundreds, if not thousands of companies from all over the world. Name any major company that ISN’T in China. They all had to move from somewhere like Olongapo. Or Yorktown Heights. Or Elkhart.
How could you miss such an obvious explanation Benign0?
You need to work harder. You can’t just keep pulling the same rabbit out of the hat. After about the nineteenth time even the three year olds aren’t convinced it’s magic any more.
“Maybe not in the next ten years, but eventually Pinas will have a leader in the caliber of this Polish Catholic lawyer who found an old oil lamp and rubbed it.”
UP n, why not a leader in the caliber of this Singaporean non-catholic lawyer who also drink magic HEINEKEN but never got drunk?
Give the Filipino people good examples and proper motivations, and stop calling us names, then we can all be friends again.
I agree with you DJB. Between two alternative decisions, the corporate has to choose the best profit center for an international operation.
I’ve got a better idea, Bert. Why don’t you come up with those “good examples” you imagine are out there. And then we could be “friends”. Nothing like a convincing rebuttal of my assertions that can make me a bit friendlier, dude.
Deano here thinks this tired old “magic” of mine is in its “nineteenth” iteration. That’s because coming up with said nineteenth iteration is easy. I think what is REALLY hard is coming up with nineteen of those “good examples” that Bert here seems to think I can pull out of a hat. :D
benign0,
I am waiting with “baited” breath for the 20th time the rabbit comes out of the hat. It’s a surefire thing. You scan the news, find something terrible that has happened, you say tsk tsk abracadabra on the keyboard, …lack of substance and creativity yada… stick the blinking GIF on and hit the publish button. It’s mental laziness, Manong. Shame on you!
But this is really “classy” and “substantial” of you:
What is this? Insurance, in case your wife catches you blogging? Wait till she asks you how in the hell you know the difference between the two categories so well, huh hon?
The economic situation is hard hit in the Philippines. Because most of the people live
in poverty or below poverty line. There is no
large middle class. We are a nation of “isang
kahid, isang tuka”. to think otherwise is to
delude ourselves.
KA FLOR,
Does that mean you’ll just accept that as it is, then beg for alms and shout for “justice” for everyone who is “isang kahig, isang tuka”?
Is that all people like you can do?
jaundice.
While on the topic of airports, people should be reminded that in 12 years or less, Clark will be the Philippines’ prime international aviation gateway. (People- and business-migration accelerates when the rail line gets built, and not surprising if real-estate prices north of Caloocan rises faster than those in Laguna/Tayabas.)
Gout, siguro.
Friends? don’t we have enough for ourselves at least for now?
On Fedex: cost cutting, volumes and safe investment are keys. DJB made a lot of sense.
You’ve got great melody, Benign0. You just need some new lyrics. And put this worm in your ear: “I am a Filipino! I am a Filipino Human Being! I am OK.”
It’s just this. That an example must come by himself, if he is truly worth the beef of what he’s saying. There is nothing wrong with self-edification except that a clear manifestation of it must be clear enough to be seen outside of self-claims in blogposts but, if outlook from the claimant is to be any indication, and indications indicate that there is nothing from the person but loathing for his brothers even if assuming his claim is true it could just be a case of the pot calling the kettle black.
Or, the pot calling himself black.
You can sue FEDEX anytime, and say.. we still friends.
Atlanta GA is near the top of the hill, Pampangga is located in the valley of darkness. Bottom line? S.H.I.T. rolls down hill. Law of gravity has nothing to do with it, its just the global recession.
Oh GMA may also feel slighted by this pull out probably thinking that Obama hates her, but its got nothing to do with politics, just business. s.h.i.t. happens. Just happened in her watch.
The fact remains that there are lessons to be learned from Intel then and now FedEx leaving Pinas. It is a hollow to claim that FedEx left because China’s business volume is way higher than Pinas’. The business-volume generated by Pinas was not the reason why Intel and FedEx came here.
Quo Vadis, Pinas?
Is “parliamentary”, or is it “4-years per term, 8years-max for Pres & V-Pres”, or “no-change” that is needed?
And this is simpler — CHED specifically and the Govt/Pinas generally supports a policy of providing a chunk of its studentry with educational-competencies that exceed the requirements of the local businesses. Sensible?
And of course, this one — is an English-speaking population a competitive advantage?
when money speaks, you break down language barrier. kaching!
1940s pa tayo naging english-speaking populace, saan ba ang competitive advantage na yan? pakihanap nga.
sa tsina, usap muna sila paano magkapera. nang nagkapera, saka na sila bumili ng english teachers–pang travel allowance nila. sinundo pa sila ng fedex.
And here is another problem — how come the current president, and the one before, and the one before, and the one before…. with all the Filipinos available for them to call on — how come the string of presidents picked cabinet secretaries and undersecretaries, etcetera who were duds?
I think that if you ask them, that DJB, rom, Ding G, deQuiros, the CBCP leadership and practically all the graduating class of LaSalle, UP-Diliman, and PMA-Baguio combined … a huge majority of Filipinos already have made allowances for the heartbreak where the next president (after GMA) will be served by cabinet-secretaries, undersecretaries, etcetera who will predominantly be duds. Is there some thing the matter?
I am waiting with “baited” breath for the 20th time the rabbit comes out of the hat. – DJB
It would be somewhere between June to November. When UPS’ Clark hub relocates to China.
This time, I will agree with a point by benign0. ‘It’s not us, it’s them.’
Its FedEx plain vanilla business decision (off shoring actually) to be nearer its clients. The city of Guangzhou (formerly Canton) is 150 kms from transshipment point Hongkong. Guangzhou hosts the biggest international industrial fair.
And benign0, even if the Philippines builds the longest runway all the way to Zambales, Tarlac,etc. such will not prevent FedEx or UPs from leaving Subic. As you said: sometimes ‘Its not us, it’s them.’
Capiche?
And benign0: being a consultant as you claim in Australia and for such a clueless post, either:
1. your company is overpaying you
2. your company is as stupid as their consultants
3. you are as stupid as the ‘laborers’ you left in the pigsty
FedEx is not the issue, FedEx is the symptom of the issue.
James Carville said it succintly — “It’s the economy, stupid!!!”
If only Pinas had grown its economy between 1985-to-today even only half-as-fast as China had grown its economy in the same time period, we’ll be in a different ballgame.
UP n grad:
Isa ka pa. Do you understand what size and scope means?
Clueless.
Phil Manila : do share your insights and edumacate the clueless.
Phil Manila: I won’t be surprised that you are onto something (or maybe not) but no one would be able to agree or disagree with your analysis if you are as cryptic and nebulous as you have been.
UP n Grad:
Everybody, but benign0 knows about it.
From Wiki:
After its accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, the People’s Republic of China emerged as a prominent destination for production offshoring.
After technical progress in telecommunications improved the possibilities of trade in services, India became a country leading in this domain though many parts of the world are now emerging as offshore destinations.
Phil Manila: Yup, such is what has happened. And because China business-volume (and package shipments to/from China) is already huge and also expected to grow larger (but not this year, maybe 2011 onwards) then it made economic sense for FedEx and UPS to leave clark/Subic (even though it meant spending spending over a hundred-plus millions of additional dollars to relocate).
So now, one of the options for Pinas is what Pinas now is doing — talking to Kuwait, Asiana, other airlines (and maybe DHL, other couriers) to relocate portions of their freight business to use the Clark/Subic’s now-idled capabilities.
Another option (takes longer, needs more creativity and discipline) is to grow Pinas economy (as China has grown its manufacturing base via FDI’s and other instruments and policies), with Clark/Subic like a Hongkong with a thousands of jobshops. I also expect a group of businessmen that will push to go over CBCP’s “dead body” to turn Clark/Subic zone into a Las Vegas with gambling and legalized prostitution.