Pagnanakaw sa taumbayan

“You don’t know the bloggers here personally and what they’re contributing, small, medium and big to the country, so zip up!”

I’m sure everyone is contributing individually. But then if you step back and take stock of the bigger collective picture, there’s not much to be proud of, is there? 😉

“But it would take a Ghandi to do that and I’m pretty sure among the more than 80 million souls living in Pinas today, one is quite capable of doing it – someone like you.”

Thanks. I respectfully decline though. 😉 It’ll be a bit difficult doing a job that requires some interaction with people like Manny Pacquiao, Richard Gomez, and Tito Sotto though. 😀 As someone noted here, masyado akong “burgis” to work with Pinoy showbiz folk. 😀

“There are a lot many people here risking legs, limbs and lives to find solutions to the problems of the country you have despised apparently!”

One question in light of what was said above:

Where are the results? 😀

“When victory comes, and it will come, they are the ones who will be rightfully honored and remembered.”

It’s easy to say “it will come”. But when asked what is the basis of this fearless forecast, what can we come up with?

zilch

1986 was also a year of great hopes — hopes based on Ninoy’s blood spilled on the NAIA tarmac. 20 years later all we have to show for this “great hope” and “spilt blood” is a badly-designed statue of this “hero” in Ayala and a soot-encrusted statue in Edsa that all but alienates non-Catholics.

“In the meantime, i hope that you have the humility to realize that you, as a member of the burgis, are part of the problem.”

Hmmm, this rhetoric sounds eerily like one of Erap’s campaign speeches. 😀

“hindi makukuha at masosolusyunan ang lahat sa pamamagitan ng pagmamagaling o pagpapagalingan!”

On the contrary, Western civlisation was built as a result of a strong ethic of competition, the articulation and propagation of ideas, and the testing of these ideas against competing concepts.

Too bad you find fault in using “napakalalim na inggles”. It so happens that Tagalog is an intellectually impotent language and woefully inadequate for the communication of the kind of thinking required for Pinoy society to lift itself out of its pathetic wretchedness.

The language of a society merely reflects its collective intellectual breadth and depth. Case in point: There is no Tagalog word for “efficiency”. 😀

“So, to answer your question of “where are the results?”, the bloggers here are fueling the economy of the Philipppines! ”

That’s right. 10% of our economy is accounted for by expat remittances. That’s really sad. And you know what is fuelling the economy? Nothing more than consumerism. That’s right. Much of those “heroic” remittances go to nothing more than consumption. Very little of it is channeled into pursuits that contribute to the expansion of the capital base of the economy.

Right now our economy is flooded by cheap Chinese-made trinkets that the recipients of overseas $$ hungrily lap up.

“Each of us have roles to play. Blogging is our contribution. What is yours, Benigno?”

Here is my contribution:

http://www.getrealphilippines.com

I believe you said that “In Jose Rizal’s time, his pen was his sword”? 😉

“If we take baby steps now, we will reach our destination”

True.

The venerable Nick Joaquin had this to say about our much-vaunted delight with “little contributions”:

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However far we go back in our history it?s the small we find–the nipa hut, the barangay, the petty kingship, the slight tillage, the tingi trade. All our artifacts are miniatures and so is our folk literature, which is mostly proverbs, or dogmas in miniature. About the one big labor we can point to in our remote past are the rice terraces–and even that grandeur shrinks, on scrutiny, into numberless little separate plots into a series of layers added to previous ones, all this being the accumulation of ages of small routine efforts (like a colony of ant hills) rather than one grand labor following one grand design. We could bring in here the nursery diota about the little drops of water that make the mighty ocean, or the peso that?s not a peso if it lacks a centavo; but creative labor, alas, has sterner standards, a stricter hierarchy of values. Many little efforts, however perfect each in itself, still cannot equal one single epic creation. A galleryful of even the most charming statuettes is bound to look scant beside a Pieta or Moses by Michelangelo; and you could stack up the best short stories you can think of and still not have enough to outweigh a mountain like War and Peace.
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Read the complete article “A Heritage of Smallness” here:

http://www.getrealphilippines.com/agr-disagr/17-4-smallness.html

– 😀

Sorry,

I meant to say:

That is Erap’s populist stance — a stance that is popular with folk who find no merit in uplifiting their pathetic lot and instead prefer to find glory or virtue in their wretchedness.

Ate Luz, ang manibalang ba iyong mambabalang na parang mangkukulam?

cvj: You and Arroyo are probably so used to making that statement that you fail to see its inherent presumptuousness and arrogance. What exactly do you mean by ‘our level’ and what do you think is ‘their level’?.

Politicians dancing the otcho-otcho on stage during campaign festivities is an example of stooping to the level of wretched ignorance just to get a message across.

That our politicians would do so manifests their own regard for the intellectual faculties of the people they are trying to woo.

parasabayan: Whose fault is it that the remittances by the oversees workers go to consumerism? With the tax collections the government get from the overseas workers, couldn’t the government allocate these for worthwhile projects?

So it’s all about the government again, isn’t it? The Chinese-Pinoys lived under the same inept government framework that native Pinoys did. They lived as Third Class citizens in fact selling taho and balut to local Malay Pinoys who derided them as “beho”. They did not rely on the government to channel their meagre profits into capital creation. They relied on themselves.

Until Indo-Malay Pinoys acquire this ethic of accumulation and wealth creation, OFW’s remmittances will merely be spent on celphone trinkets, tricycles, and jeepneys.

And by the way, an economy propped up by OFW remittances to the tune of 10% of its value is nothing to be proud of. People who are proud of such a statistic are victims of the propaganda of the very president they love to hate. The fact is, an economy that is propped up by overseas caregivers and labourers serves as a poignant reminder to of what a huge failure our society is at creating an environment for Pinoys to prosper.

Philippine Vigil: However, much as Benigno’s exposé has merit, they cannot be realistically achieved until we have eradicated, obliterated the one, single, biggest divisive factor facing this miserable republic: Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

I beg to differ. The problems that contribute to the continued utter wretchedness of Pinoy society were created and were in place long before GMA ascended power.

Was it she who created our pathetic dependence of OFW remittances?
Was it she who created our sad sad addiction to consumerism, wild fiestas, and garish sense of style, resulting on our society having one of the lowest savings rates in the Far East?
Was it she who created these monstrous “export processing zones” that created nothing more than labour-added-value industries that are now suffering deaths-by-a-thousand-cuts in the face of Chinese and Vietnamese competition?
Was it she who had entrenched this debilitating victim/”dukha” mentality that routinely prevents Pinoys for taking personal accountability for their own pathetic plight?

Mr. Vigil, above the rest of the chattering masses here, I think you are smart enough to be above this whole let’s-blame-Arroyo stupidity and actually be a bit more self-reflective as to what exactly is the root of Pinoy society’s inability to pull itself together. 😉

Mr. TonGuE-tWisTeD. Pare, sobra mo namang ni-literal ang mensahe ko. Tough luck. An inability to read in between the lines and drill down into underlying meanings can sometimes be attributed to a failure in an approach to training in reading comprehension. I suggest you do what most people here do and look for someone to blame for inadequacies in our education system. 😀

“Which the Filipino moneyed elites would not do to an ordinary Pinoy!”

That simply highlights the whole problem with our wretched lot. While the Chinese are able to pull themselves together into a powerful collective force, Pinoys are pathetically fragemnted along family and tribal lines.

Kawawa nga naman talaga ang Pinoy. 😀

That’s a really nice stocktake of “actions” on the part of the other bloggers, Mr. Tongue. But way beyond the basic stuff? I don’t think so. Not after checking out the quality of debate here.

We’ve had eminent people doing the stuff you cited here for decades.

And writing about this and that human rights abuses to whatever European audience? How’s that different from all the writings about the same abuses, dysfunctions, and stuff in blogs like this, and those filed within the legal framework of the Philippines?

Nakita mo lang ang “The Hague”, the “EU” and the “UN”, nasilaw ka na agad. 😀 I do believe I caught a little whiff of that all too familiar stench of colonial mentality. 😉

You’ve noted so many “statements” from so many “cause oriented groups denouncing this and that human rights abuse and expressing indignation about ded-bol journalists and all that crap since time immemorial. In its heyday, the PCIJ blog was really into publishing (or rather pandering to) the hollow-headed statements of this and that organisation (look what happened to it now — reduced to single digits na lang ang comments volume ng PCIJ).

And after all this noise, these “statements”, and these filed “complaints” to this and that tribunal and watchdog organisation, the question remains:

Where are the results?

And here we are again, at the start of yet another Fiesta Election all poised to elect the same old moron politicians and engage in the same old brain-dead debates.

So who’s fault is it? Who is accountable? How’s filing a bunch of complaints gonna change anything?

How is what we are doing today fundamentally different from what’s been done before?

And if we can’t even find anything fundamentally different about what we are doing today, what makes us think that our future will be any different?

“However, I think it is only proper to offer counter-arguments without resorting to ad hominem posts”

The above concept is beyond the intellectual grasp of most Pinoys though. 😀

Samakatwid ay tuwirang inamin ni Montano na kaya siya pumayag na kumandidato ay sapagkat sagot ni gma ang gastos sa kampanya at wala siyang matibay na pananaw at adhikain para makatulong sa bayan kung hindi ang matulungan lamang ng kanyang kasikatan ang kampo ni gma. Napakababaw ng kaligayahan mo Montano. Mga tunggak at ulol lamang ang boboto sa iyo.

Ang napansin ko lang ng basahin ko ang mga sulat nyo mga kabayan, mga kapuso ay masyado kayong nahatak at nahila ni benign-o. Ang paksa sa itaas ay si Cesar Monta-no at sa kahihila sa inyo ni benign-o ay nahatak kayo sa personal na mga katangian at mga di kanais nais na katangian ng ating mga kabayang pinoy. Nakakalungkot isipin na hindi tuloy kayo makapagbigay ng mga magagandang mungkahi at suhestiyon dahil nasilo kayo ni benign-o sa kanyang mga karunungang pinagsunugan niya ng kilay ng mahabang panahon. At natural lamang na gamitin niya ang kanyang talino dahil kung hindi ay matutulad lamang siya sa isang batingaw na walang tunog. Mga kapuso, relax lang tayo… Kapag namatay tayo ang ating karunungan ay mapapasa kanino kaya?

Bakit pa idadaan ang asong ulol sa apoy puwede naman gawing kilawin.

Pasensiya ka na pards. Ako ang pumutol kasi masyadong masagwa na ang mga kasunod.

“Yes they lived here in the Philippines but these Chinoys were being helped by Chinoys and pure Chinese capitalists who are getting help from their country so that they can establish a base here. That is why we have the Chinatown now”

Then that begs the question: How come Pinoys are so pathetically unable to help and support one another the way the Chinese do?

Exactly.

Compare that to Pinoys who are all but shortsighted. The discussions don’t get below personalities, and the outlook doesn’t go beyond the next election.

Mang Nelbar, bakit kung ako “champoy” ang sinabi mo? Sana man lang Siopao, Mami at Siomai.

Ang galing naman ng pinag-uusapan dito. 😀

cvj, What blog? I don’t have a blog. 😉

cvj: “this disturbing possibility that an inability to prosper as a nation may be hard-wired into the cultural DNA of Indo-Malays”

Wherever you got that snippet, it seems it is you who are quick to jump to convenient conclusions. If the author of that text raised “the disturbing possibility…” then that is a valid call out don’t you think? One only needs to come up with a logical counter-argument to debunk this “possibility”.

All you do on the other hand is stomp your feet and cry “racist!”.

Tough luck. 😀

As to your “we have to value both” thing, consider this: It is easy for companies to relocate their operations to wherever there are lower wages and better-skilled workers. Labour, on the other hand, have no choice but to go where the capital chooses to plant itself.

Where a society is capital-poor (such as wretched countries like the Philippines), workers are paid pathetic wages. In a society that is capital rich (you know which ones they are), workers are paid handsomely.

So in the hierarchy of valued assets, it seems your hero-labourers (of which the Philippines is vastly abundant in) are at the bottom of the heap. Case in point: A country of only several million such as Sweden adds vastly more value to humanity than the Philippines — a country of almost 90 million.

Mr. Tongue: Keep on guessing. 😀

ilang pagtutuwid at paglilinaw (clarifications & rectifications):

a) yung 30~35% ng taunang budget ay para LAMANG sa pagbabayad sa tubo (interest) ng mga inutang!

b) kung saan hinugot ni mr. benignO ang 10% (lang ?!) ang kontribusyon ng OFW sa ekenomiya, hindi ko alam. baka ang ibig niyang sabihin, 10% ng populasyon ay nasa ibayong dagat na para maghanap-buhay.

k) ang malinaw at kumpirmado; 60% ng FOREX reserves ng Central Bank ay galing sa remittances ng OFW’s at ng mga residente sa ibayong dagat.

d) ang ensaktong numero mahirap kunin(re: puntong b.), pero madaling palawigin kung gagamitan ng imahinasyon; dahilan sa mga sanga-sangang pangkabuhayang gawain (multiplier effect). halimbawa: ang pagpapatayo ng paupahang bahay, internet cafes, eskwelang pribado, gawaing bukirin, atbp.

o kaya naman, ang pagpapalago ng pera sa pamamagitan ng pampinansyal na instrumento (derivatives).

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efficient = masinop *
efficiency = antas ng sinop

* narinig ko ito sa ilang manggagawa ng iNTEL, na pagbinigkas ito, nangangahulugan kasama na dito ang pulido, mabilis, at mahusay.

p.s. kung meron mang hindi nakakatuya sa mga terminong sariling wika na gamit ko, patawad. handa akong matuto lalo na’t may magtuturo. ang totoo niyan, isa akong BISDAK– bisayang daku 🙂

cvj at p.v. ;

salamat. pero hindi ko aakuin ang orihinalidad ng ideyang ito. mangyari, alam na naman ng halos lahat ito, eh. inuulit ko lang…

mahigpit ang paniniwala ko, na kaya pumupunta ang mga kababayan dito kay Ellen HINDI lang dahil gusto nilang makibalita, bagkus sa mas importante pang dahilan: paano SILA makabahagi sa solusyon tungo sa pagbabago kaugnay ng problema.

nagkakaroon lang minsan ng patlang, kasi minsan ang iba mas binibigyan ng malaking panahon ipaliwanag ang mga nangyari/pangyayari imbes pag-usapan at asikasuhin kung paano baguhin ang sitwasyon. salamat, muli.