We are not Special

I hope these high school graduates (and the rest of us) take the speaker's message to heart.  Whether it be in geopolitics or in workplace politics, exceptionalism has caused a lot of unecessary grief. 

Equality as a Factor in Economic Takeoffs

Below is my response to Silent Water's comment over at Manolo's has gone under moderation so i'm reposting it here. (You may have to read my preceding comment to follow the discussion.)

"Silent Waters, i'm not a communist but try to look at things objectively. You need only observe at how fast the land of your grandfathers is taking off economically to see that the combination of Communism first and then Market Reforms later, does work. If it's any comfort to you, i'm not advocating communism (especially the Maoist kind). Other countries such as Japan, Taiwan and South Korea was also able to take off without having to go communist. They just addressed the issue of inequality early enough so that it does not get in the way of economic growth. Dictatorship is also not my first preference. The case of India, (another country which followed Socialist prescriptions and then introduced Market reforms) shows that you don't have to be a dictatorship to engineer an economic takeoff.

You seem to believe that what distinguishes the elite, middle class and the poor is hard work. That's not the case since Philippine society is not (and has never been) a meritocracy. If you're born poor, you're likely to die poor no matter how hard you work. The poor people you look down on as being 'lazy' are smart enough to know the odds. It's only people's elitist attitude that keeps them from seeing that." - cvj December 9th, 2007 at 1:32 am

Update Feb-01-2008: In an essay at the Boston Review, Pranab Bardhan explains why equality has proven to be a "good launching pad" for market reform:

"China’s earlier socialist period arguably provided a good launching pad for market reform. That foundation provided wide access to education and health care; highly egalitarian land redistribution that created a rural safety net and thus eased the process of market reform, with all its wrenching disruptions and dislocations; increased female labor participation and education that enhanced women’s contribution to economic growth; and a system of regional economic decentralization (that linked the career paths of Communist Party officials to local area performance). County governments were in charge of production enterprises long before Deng Xiaoping’s economic reforms set in, and, even more significantly, the earlier commune system’s production brigades evolved into the highly successful township and village enterprises that led the later phenomenal rise of rural industrialization."

(Via 3Quarksdaily.)

Trickle-Down Economics

Mariannet Amper

"There is this mind-set, which I think is so passe, that says: ‘The country is in shambles and the country is having a hard time and you are out there partying.’ But this generation is guiltless when it comes to that." - Tim Yap

Looking Back: Jose Rizal II on Gloria Arroyo's Focus

Now is a good time to review some of the propositions put forward by the opposing sides in the Let's Move On issue. Here's a comment from someone who goes by the unassuming handle "Jose Rizal II", in last year's Battle of the Epistles thread in MLQ3's blog.

"mlq3,

How’s your alter-ego noelet doing?

I see that you have not given up your misguided idealism to want to oust a president and yet still fail to provide us with a credible alternative.

Moreover, you miss the point of why government exists. It exists to ensure that the livelihood of ordinary people is ensured. That means that the economy should always be the primary concern of any government. Luckily, Macapagal-Arroyo is an economist and fixing the economy has always been her primary concern.

It is only dreamers such as yourself who keep insisting on politicking and talking about useless advocacies instead of focusing on the real task of fixing the economy, and people like you are the cause of greater suffering among Filipinos.

Already, ordinary Filipinos realize that Macapagal-Arroyo, for all her imperfections, is focused enough on ensuring that investments come in and jobs are created and slowly, they are realizing that you - the grandson of 'Mr. Philippines Run Like Hell' himself - as well as other people and self-serving politicians having similar mistaken views are more harmful to the country than you’ve misrepresented Macapagal-Arroyo to be.

People are slowly realizing that while she’s working hard in the background to improve the economy, you noisy fools continue to talk about useless political bullshit.

This is the tragedy of the Philippines.

It is when people are foolish enough to listen to real fools like you and your ilk.

Signed,

José Rizal II"
May 2nd, 2006 at 2:40 pm

I leave it to you to evaluate whether Mr. Rizal II's points has stood the test of time (in this case 18 months).

Final Victory for EDSA Dos

For someone like me who participated in EDSA Dos, such a victory would have been sweet. Now it is mostly an occassion for cognitive dissonance. As linked to by Manolo, blogger Bluepanjeet has expressed it best.

I hope those who marched for the ideals of EDSA Tres will similarly achieve their vindication. As DJB points out, the present Administration has provided many opportunities to do just that.

In the meantime, today's event has provided another occassion to showcase the cleavage between the two camps. Over at Ellen's, the commenters who are usually united (primarily by their opposition to Gloria) exhibited more than the usual divergence of opinion. In particular, when she posted the Black and White Movement's reaction to the verdict, commenter maarte had this to say...

"Both Black & White (Civil Society) and Bayan were among the participants in Edsa Two ousting Erap. Expectedly, they accepted the verdict. Why don’t they now conspire with other groups to oust Arroyo this time? Where’s Cory Aquino and the Catholic Church? Isang tambak kayong mga ipokrito ! Revolution na !"

...which was seconded by commenter emrjay...

"Yeah! i agree with maarte. Just ignore whatever they (Black and White and Bayan)said. Hypocrites!!!!"

and commenter Chi...

"Ako rin, same opinion here about Black and White Movement and Bayan. In fact, sila ang rason kung bakit ang Pinas ay nagkakaganito na niloloko lang ni Gloria.

Personally, I don’t expect more from them. They installed Gloria, they deserve Gloria!

Tama na ang mga press releases ninyo. Don’t justify anything dahil malaki ang kasalanan ninyo sa bayan for subverting the Constitution!"

Gloria Arroyo, who is the proximate cause of such division, can very well exploit these resentments and mutual distrust to retain power. Just saying.

Update Sept-13-2007 1:16AM: At Uniffors, Manuel Buencamino reflects on the people's sense of justice (a blind spot for lawyers steeped in their profession), and mourns a lost opportunity.

Update Sept-15-2007 4:13PM: In his Inquirer column for today, Erap’s Conviction and the Rule of Law, Randy David explains the source of the cognitive dissonance that i referred to above:

"The legal system of any society is strengthened not so much when it succeeds in putting the high and mighty on trial, but when the law is applied consistently and predictably over time. We know there is rule of law when people have stable notions of what is legal and illegal, and know what to expect when laws are violated...

...The independence of the judiciary and the professional integrity of those who serve in the various agencies of government, including those in the police and the armed forces, are the minimum conditions needed to make the rule of law work in a democracy. Alas, under Ms Arroyo’s watch, we have seen the most blatant undermining of these institutions by the executive. The assault on the autonomy of the investigative and prosecutorial offices of government, in particular, has been so brazen one wonders if those in charge are still in possession of their wits. Investigations, prosecutions, and preventive suspensions have been utterly selective. The pace and pattern in which they have been conducted manifest an astonishing partisanship often bordering on sheer malice and whim. The law has plainly been used as a weapon to threaten and punish political enemies...

The result of all this has been the consistent erosion of public trust in the country’s legal system."

In his blog, Arbet furnishes specific examples of what David describes above. However, David also does not spare the Opposition as he also says that:

"...If blame must be allocated, it has to be laid at the door of those who have done everything, directly and indirectly, to prevent the Court from focusing on the strictly legal merits of the case. I’m afraid they come from all sides of the political equation [emphasis mine]. If we keep subverting the autonomy of our judicial system, or promote a cynical view of our courts, how much justice can we expect when it is GMA’s or Comelec Chair Benjamin Abalos’ turn to be tried?"

A fair enough question.

Update Sept-16-2007 3:51PM: Over at Ellen's, commenter maarte quotes Ninez Cacho Olivares:

" Predictably, the so-called elites, along with the Catholic bishops and, of course, the leftists, hailed the Erap guilty verdict, praised the Sandiganbayan court for proving to one and all that “no one is above the law” when it convicted the ousted president.

They then issued statements to the effect that the Erap conviction sends a strong warning to all those in government not to engage in corruption and other criminal acts because the rule of law is being observed.

What dreamy idiots they can be, if they think that a guilty verdict on Estrada handed by a politicized judiciary can scare off these corrupt officials under the Gloria regime"

I agree that we're dreamy idiots if we think that Gloria Arroyo will be brought to justice by simply moving on. However, even the Tribune editorial for today says that:

"Consider it divine justice, but the conviction on questionable grounds of ousted President Joseph Estrada served to highlight more the excesses of the Arroyo administration."

I think it is in this sense that Erap's conviction can serve as a warning.

Update Oct-26-2007 2:11AM: Looks like Gloria Arroyo took the warning to heart.

Elitist Mindset in Action

Via Schumey, it is clear that whatever school this lady came from did not teach history properly. It is also unfortunate that her parents failed to teach her the right values. As expected, she and like-minded individuals would rationalize that they are just 'being real'. Of course, such an excuse is self-serving because facing reality in its fullness would require admitting to themselves that they are grotesque specimens of humanity.

Either that or she's just channeling Simoun and trying to manufacture another EDSA Tres moment, in which case all i can say is congratulations and keep up the good work.

Update (August 17, 12:25pm): It turns out that the columnist is Migz Zubiri's aunt.





It figures.

Update (August 18, 2:33PM): I'm not in favor of having her fired for the same reasons given by John Marzan. It was really only a matter of time before the inevitable Tu Quoque would be brought up, which as has been discussed before, is logically flawed but may be morally compelling depending on the context. I've been in enough conversations (with both fellow OFW's and home-based Pinoys) where we have criticized other nationals for the very same reasons that Malu Fernandez has so i would have to toss aside the stone on this one.

Update (August 18, 8:29PM): As a response to those who are not in favor of getting Fernandez fired, blogger Sparks stresses the importance of distinguising between private communication (e.g. among a circle of friends) and writing for public consumption. I still have to digest the significance of this line of argument. My ambivalence towards firing is that i don't want this line of thinking to go underground. Here in Singapore, the government has legislated 'Out of Bounds' (OB) markers, i.e. matters that cannot be talked about. I wouldn't want our own version of that. If the Manila Standard wants to build itself up as the newspaper for the elitist mindset, then that's their lookout. It's better if the elitists and racists are where we can see them so that we can put them up as negative examples. For one thing, Malu Fernandez' name dropping could be useful for the purposes of a future transitional spring cleaning.

Hans Rosling: Debunking third-world myths (TED 2006) and Insights on Poverty (TED 2007)

I just came across an impressive twenty minute presentation at TED 2006 by Hans Rosling, co-founder of the GapMinder Foundation.

He deftly uses his Trendalyzer software (recently acquired by Google) to present basic truths about the state of health, inequality, gdp per capita between and within countries over the past decades. Viewed from that time span, conditions do seem to be getting better.

For the more recent TED 2007, Rosling returns with an equally enlightening nineteen minute presentation, using longer timescales and ends with an impressive demo. (The Philippines gets special mention at 5:01.)

If you want to get the big picture when it comes to economic and human development, the videos are worth watching.

(Via boingboing.net)

Philippine Society and the Elitist Mindset

An exchange this morning with Benign0 over at mlq3's blog provides an insight on the way Filipino elitists think. This remark was particularly revealing:

"Now that you mentioned it, I’m quite a superstar where I work as well. But the question is this: are we really representative of the *average* Pinoy schmoe? Do you think people like us got to where we were thinking and acting like a typical Pinoy?" - Benign0 at May 24th, 2007 10:05 am

This echoes what he said to me earlier over at Ellen Tordesillas' blog:

"But do you really think that people like you and I are truly representative of the Filipino people? Just because there are a handfull of brilliant individuals does not necessarily mean that the society to which said individuals belong to is collectively brilliant.

Walk the streets of Tokyo and you will see quite a number of homeless bums. But to draw the conclusion that the Japanese are a bunch of lazy winos just because of a few homeless individuals is a fallacy.

Don’t presume to know the Pinoy masses, simply because you yourself are Pinoy." -Benigno at February 5th, 2007 6:55 am

A Filipino elitist believes that he or she is somehow better than the typical Pinoy. While this observation is unremarkable in itself (to the point of being trite), this mindset when combined with a flawed understanding of Philippine society leads to all sorts of attribution errors. While everyone recognizes that we have a highly unequal society, the typical elitist somehow accepts that we live in a meritocracy, with the prosperity they enjoy owing nothing to their lucky circumstance and everything to their own or their parent's (or ancestors) hardwork. Once again, Benign0 expresses this view when he told me that:

"Unfortunately I do not see you or myself as “lucky”. We are merely the culmination of the hardwork of our ancestors and, hopefully, continuing to build upon the capital of this hardwork by working hard and smart ourselves so that our own offspring will benefit and pass on this capital to the next. Let’s not be-little what our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents achieved by considering ourselves “lucky”. - Benign0 at February 5th, 2007 1:56 pm"

The Filipino elitist's view of society can therefore be represented in the form of the diagram below, with the yellow icons representing the hardworking and smart members of our society: Given this scenario, the elitist comes to the self-serving conclusion that there is nothing unjust in having resources (as depicted by the 'moneybags' in the diagram) concentrated among the smaller proportion of capable Filipinos who belong to the members of the Upper and Middle classes since these have been obtained through merit. Furthermore, since these segments represent the so-called cream, it would be advantageous to concentrate political and economic decision-making to this group. However, I doubt that the above picture matches reality since we know that our society is a long way from being a meritocracy.

Since I believe that in the Philippines one's position in life is determined to a large extent by factors other than individual merit, a more realistic picture would be the one below where the smart and hardworking segment of the population (as represented by the yellow icons) proportionally distributed across all classes: One major consequence is that our full potential for development is not realized because the capable people who belong to the masa have fewer resources to work with (again as depicted by the 'moneybags'). An important policy imperative therefore is to make available to these individuals the resources that will allow them to maximize their capabiities and maximize their contribution to our country's progress.

Wealth Redistribution: A Suggestion

Here's a comment i made in reaction to UPn Student and Watchful Eye's comments over at mlq3's:

Unlike in Malaysia, where the Chinese community constitutes a substantial minority (around 30%), the ethnic-Chinese population here is far too small to be the made the target of affirmative action programs as implemented by UMNO. Besides, our geographic proximity to China and hundreds of years of trade ties means that a lot of ethnic-Filipinos actually have mixed blood so the distinction between Malay/Chinese does not seem to apply as strongly to us. (Physically, Filipinos resemble Thais more than they resemble Malaysians or Indonesians.) The Filipino super-rich is a small community so a more targeted approach may be desirable.

As i mentioned* in Ellen’s blog previously, i’m hoping that the next leader of the country (whether he/she be democratically elected as i would prefer, or a dictator), would summon the 300 wealthiest families of the Philippines to Malacanang and ask each of them for a workable plan to redistribute a portion of their wealth to the poor (e.g. as seed money for livelihood programs). This plan, once agreed upon, should be closely monitored by the grassroots organizations for faithfulness of implementation and quality of execution. Within the ranks elite, they should also agree to police their ranks of would be cronies.

Where we should have a broad based policy against a class of people would be the big landowners (rural or urban) as it has been shown that among the forms of inequality, as i mentioned in this post and as alluded to by hvrds below, it is inequality in land ownership that is the most detrimental to economic growth. That’s why our neighbors who tackled this matter early on had more success in economic development. Besides, it is better for capital to be diverted to industry rather than real estate.

Update 11-22-07: Interesting discussion on what to do with the Philippine elite at this thread over at Manolo Quezon's blog.

*comment at February 15th, 2007 at 7:35 pm

Land Reform, Inequality and Economic Growth

To the extent that land reform is able to lead to greater equality in terms of ownership of land, the prospects for economic growth will improve.

From "The Mystery of Economic Growth" by Elhann Helpman (p. 92):

"Alesina and Rodrik* found a significant negative effect of the Gini coefficient of the distribution of income on the growth rate. But they also found that this effect becomes insignificant when the Gini coefficient of the distribution of land ownership is also included as an explanatory variable. In other words, inequality in the ownership of land not only is more important for explaining growth than inequality in the distribution of income, it also turns the distribution income into an inconsequential factor. This finding has been corroborated by Deininger and Squire**"

*Alesina, Alberto and Dani Rodrik. 1994 "Distribution Politics and Economic Growth" Quarterly Journal of Economics 109: 465-490

**Deininger, Klaus and Lyn Squire. 1998 "New Ways of Looking at Old Issues: Inequality and Growth" Journal of Development Economics 57: 259-287