Here is a video that encapsulates it all: the precise instant that Romanian dictator Nicolai Ceausescu lost control of his people.
The title of my entry is taken from the title of one of my favorite chapters in one of my favorite books,“Shah of Shahs” (Ryszard Kapuscinski).
And this is my favorite passage from that chapter, a useful reflection as we look back to 1986 and 2001, and ponder what we want to happen in the days, weeks, months, years to come:
Revolution must be distinguished from revolt, coup d’etat, palace takeover. A coup or a palace takeover may be planned, but a revolution -never. Its outbreak, the hour of that outbreak, takes everyone, even those who have been striving for it, unawares. They stand amazed at the spontaneity that appears suddenly and destroys everything in its path. It demolishes so ruthlessly that in the end it may annihilate the ideals that called it into being.
It is a mistaken assumption that nations wronged by history (and they are in the majority) live with the constant thought of revolution, that they see it as the simplest solution. Every revolution is a drama, and humanity instinctively avoids dramatic situations. Even if we find ourselves in such a situation we look feverishly for a way out, we seek calm and, most often, the commonplace. This is why revolutions never last long. They are a last resort, and if people turn to revolution it is only because long experience has taught them there is no other solution. All other attempts, all other means have failed.* Every revolution is preceded by a state of general exhaustion and takes place against a backdrop of unleashed aggressiveness. Authority cannot put up with a nation that gets on its nerves; the nation cannot tolerate an authority an authority it has come to hate. Authority has squandered all its credibility and has empty hands, the nation has lost the final scrap of patience and makes a fist. A climate of tension and increasing oppressiveness prevails. We start to fall into a psychosis of terror. The discharge is coming. We feel it.
As for the technique of the struggle, history knows two kinds of revolution. The first is revolution by assault, the second revolution by siege. All the future fortune, the success, of a revolution by assault is decided by the reach of the first blow. Strike and seize as much ground as possible! This is important because such a revolution, while the most violent, is also the most superficial. The adversary has been defeated, but in retreating he has preserved a part of his forces. He will counter-attack and force the victor to withdraw. Thus, the more far-reaching the first blow, the greater the area that can be saved in spite of later concessions. In a revolution by assault, the first phase is the most radical. The subsequent phases are a slow but incessant withdrawal to the point at which the two sides, the rebelling and the rebelled-against, reach the final compromise. A revolution by siege is different; here the first strike is usually weak and we can hardly surmise that it forebodes a cataclysm. But events soon gather speed and become dramatic. More and more people take part. The walls behind which authority has been sheltering crack and then burst. The success of a revolution by siege depends on the determination of the rebels, on their will power and endurance. One more day! One more push! In the end, the gates yield, the crowd breaks in and celebrates its triumph.
It is authority that provokes revolution. Certainly, it does not do so consciously. Yet its style of life and way of ruling finally become a provocation. This occurs when a feeling of impunity takes root among the elite: We are allowed anything, we can do anything. This is a delusion, but it rests on a certain rational foundation. For a while, it does indeed look as if they can do whatever they want. Scandal after scandal and illegality after illegality go unpunished. The people remain silent, patient, wary. They are afraid and do not yet feel their own strength. At the same time, they keep a detailed account of the wrongs, which at one particular moment are to be added up. The choice of that moment is the greatest riddle known to history. Why did it happen on that day, and not on another? Why did this event, and not some other, bring it about? After all, the government was indulging in even worse excesses only yesterday, and there was no reaction at all. “What have I done?” asks the ruler, at a loss. “What has possessed them all of a sudden?” This is what he has done: He has abused the patience of the people. But where is the limit of that patience? How can it be defined? If the answer can be determined at all, it will be different in each case. The only certain thing is that rulers who know that such a limit exists and know how to respect it can count on holding power for a long time. But there are few such rulers.
So was 1986 a Revolution by Siege and 2001 a Revolution by Assault? And the fate of the President lies in her hands, not in those of her critics. Something to ponder. I’ll give you a couple of concrete examples of what I mean.
In the case of Manuel Gaite, his wife has, understandably (and even justifiably) enough pleaded for fairness because of the public criticisms of her husband’s behavior. But we ought to consider how much of the outrageous arrows of fortune now sticking out of her husband, is due to those who have accepted Jun Lozada’s statesments as Gospel truth, and how much are due to Gaite’s own statetements -and that of the Palace. Gaite’s defense is a simple one: he is a good soldier, but a foot soldier may be the first to fall, as Fr. Joaquin Bernas points out in Shielding the President; and a soldier, even if good, fighting to what end? As History Unfolding points out, an official may fight well but not for worthy goals. Even the good soldier defense, as Torn & Frayed pointed out, insults the intelligence.
For this reason and many others (he surely had a hand in drafting some of the most noxious executive issuances of our time), while I sympathize with Mrs. Gaite and I think Gaite himself tries to be a good person, I am unsympathetic to where this has all led him.
In his testimony before the Senate, and indeed, on the basis of the administration officials who testified, one thing they didn’t shirk was that they tried to prevent Lozada from appearing before the Senate. Gaite admitted the Palace’s objective was to facilitate Lozada’s leaving the country until the Senate could wrap up the ZTE hearings. A recent Inquirer summed it up as a confession of conspiracy. What the administration tried to dodge was the allegation of abduction.
Another, and related, example is this: Lozada passport turned over to court. I’ve heard it said that when the passport was produced, the faces of the lawyers from the Solicitor-General’s office fell. The whole problem with the passport, apparently, was that a stamp showing Lozada had gone through immigration upon his arrival would have demolished the claim of an abduction. The problem was, no lower-level person from the Bureau of Immigration wanted to be a party to order to stamp the passport: it would have required a lower-level bureaucrat to stake his name and reputation on saying he’d stamped the passport when Lozada arrived, when no immigration official did. This implies that these bureaucrats didn’t think it was worth their while to take the heat for their bosses -and the surrendering of the passport to the court by a lower-level security person is a similar refusal to further take the heat for the bosses.
Let me refer, once more, to my Thursday column, Minimum and maximum, which tries to distinguish between two courts: of public opinion and of the law. Each has their proper place and they are not, much as the Palace insists, mutually exclusive: but each has its proper place and both are being actively resorted to (most recently: Lozada files kidnap, murder raps vs Razon, Atienza, et al ). Last Tuesday on my show my lawyer guest pointed out that Lozada’s testimony before the Senate is significant, in that it can be used to impeach him in court cases; therefore his assertions can actually fortify or weaken cases related to him or to officials in the courts.
Meanwhile let me state for the record that whatever my own preferences may be, I do not think a consensus for People Power exists, yet; or that there is even a widespread demand for the President’s resignation, yet: because there is no consensus on what should come afterwards. I find it heartening that people from all sides are making efforts to encourage arriving at a consensus.
But I do think three things have happened: first, more people are open to either option, and second, that the President faces a significant erosion in the constituency she fairly successfully claimed to represent from 2001 to the present: big business, the entrepreneurial class, include the Filipino-Chinese merchant class, professionals, and the provinces, and the majority of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. Why this has taken place, now, is best clarified by Manuel Buencamino in his column, Everyone has a limit.
At the Mass in La Salle Greenhills on Sunday, I saw a classmate and good friend of Mike Arroyo. I teased him, took his picture with my cell phone, and told him, “I’m going to ‘MMS’ this photo to your friends Mike and Gloria.” He replied, “I already waved my middle finger at them when I passed the security cameras at the gate.”
I saw a nun from the Assumption College, Gloria Arroyo’s alma mater and bastion of support. My daughter commented, “Look, dad, there’s a lonely Assumption nun. Are they breaking ranks?”
I laughed and texted Manuel Quezon III about the apparition and he texted back, “She is not alone.”
Everyone has his limits. I suppose that’s what Gloria’s bishops meant when they said there is some good in everyone, including unrepentant liars, bribers, cheaters, plunderers, kidnappers and murderers.
Third, even among those still unprepared to consider resignation or People Power, there is also a growing number of people who have reached the conclusion that the President does not intend to step down in 2010, but they are still digesting the implications of this realization.
As Amando Doronila points out in Mounting outrage, little momentum :
Although there are signs of increasing public outrage over the NBN scandal, a higher state of outrage is needed to send huge numbers of people to the streets. The military is watching the size of the crowd before it makes a move either to remain loyal to the commander in chief or withdraw support, like it did in 2001, when the general staff dumped Estrada.
And yet, as Mon Casiple suggests,
Malacañang is scrambling for the initiative. Mobilization by friendly LGU units are being planned, sprinkled by a few pro-GMA NGOs and church personalities. A media offensive has been launched — against Lozada, JDV, the opposition, and even against Vice-President Noli de Castro. The de Castro media attack seeks to prevent a possible de Castro defection that can fundamentally undermine GMA’s chances of survival.
And so, for betting men, the Asia Sentinel (in Philippines + Scandal = Life Goes On , which resembles Doronila’s views) is right in saying the advantage remains with the administration. For some, the old arguments still hold water, as shown by A Simple Life. See also …got my life back….
But if it is unable to turn the tide before Holy Week, then what? Let’s return to Mon Casiple:
If it is not able to regain the initiative in the coming days, then the momentum for people power may not be denied and a GMA resignation will be the only outcome, either to preempt people power or as a consequence of one. The key institutions to watch are the Catholic church, big business, military, the Cabinet, and the ruling coalition. All these are watching closely the rise of the people’s movement and are making their decisions on an hour-by-hour basis.
The political crisis may be resolved in a matter of days or weeks; failure to do so will create a sustained and debilitating crisis for the rest of the year.
Ricky Carandang pretty much sees the same challenge facing the administration: having created problems for itself, how does it turn the tables on its critics? In a suitably short period of time, too. See what reporter Jove Francisco has to say, too, about the way old strategies don’t work as effectively, anymore. See pine for pine for another example. But blog@AWB Holdings doesn’t think that trotting out the President’s Assumption friends really helps.
There is only so much we can do. But of the things we can do -consulting with people, fostering consensus, but also, recognizing our own limits and what we will do if those limits are going to be crossed by possible events- let’s do them.
There is another broad consensus that I think exists: that the problems are deep, and yes, systemic, and this means once we take a step in a particular direction, we have to ask ourselves if we are prepared to live with events unfolding to their logical conclusion. Which, of course, includes the risk of unintended consequences, too.
Let me close with another illuminating passage from the same chapter from the same book I quoted at the beginning of this entry:
The Shah’s reflex was typical of all despots: Strike first and suppress, then think it over: What next? First, display muscle, make a show of strength, and later perhaps demonstrate you also have a brain. Despotic authority attaches great importance to being considered strong, and much less to bering admired for its wisdom. Besides, what does wisdom mean to a despot? It means skill in the use of power. The wise despot know when and how to strike. This continual display of power is necessary because, at root, any dictatorship appeals to the lowest instincts of the governed: fear, aggressiveness towards one’s neighbors, bootlicking. Terror most effectively excites such instincts, and fear of strength is the wellspring of terror.
A despot believes that man is an abject creature. Abject people fill his court and populate his environment. A terrorized society will behave like an unthinking, submissive mob for a long time. Feeding it is enough to make it obey. Provided with amusements, it’s happy. The rather small arsenal of political tricks has not changed in millennia. Thus, we have all the amateurs in politics, all the ones convinced they would know how to govern if only they had the authority. Yet surprising things can also happen. Here is a well-fed and well-entertained crowd that stops obeying. It begins to demand something more than entertainment. It wants freedom, it demands justice. The despot is stunned. He doesn’t know how to see a man in all his fullness and glory. In the end such a man threatens dictatorship, he is its enemy. So it gathers its strength and destroys him.
Although dictatorship despises the people, it takes pains to win its recognition. In spite of being lawless -or rather, because it is lawless- it strives for the appearance of legality. On this point it is exceedingly touchy, morbidly oversensitive. Moreover, it suffers from a feeling (however deeply hidden) of inferiority. So it spares no pains to demonstrate to itself and others the popular approval it enjoys. Even if this support is a mere charade, it feels satisfying. So what if it’s only an appearance? The world of dictatorship is full of appearances…
…The most difficult thing to do while living in a palace is to imagine a different life -for instance, your own life, but outside of and minus the palace. Toward the end, the ruler finds people willing to help him out. Many lives, regrettably, can be lost at such moments. The problem of honor in politics. Take de Gaulle -a man of honor. He lost a referendum, tidied up his desk, and left the palace, never to return. He wanted to govern only under the condition that the majority accept him. The moment the majority refused him their trust, he left. But how many are like him? The others will cry, but they won’t move; they’ll torment the nation, but they won’t budge. Thrown out one door, they sneak in through another; kicked down the stairs, they begin to crawl back up. They will excuse themselves, bow and scrape, lie and simper, provided they can stay -or provided they can return. They will hold out their hands -Look, no blood on them. But the very fact of having to show those hands covers them with the deepest shame. They will turn their pockets inside out -Look, there’s not much there. But the very fact of exposing their pockets -how humiliating! The Shah, when he left the palace, was crying. At the airport he was crying again. Later he explained in interviews how much money he had, and that it was less than people thought.
This passage suggests many things; among them, the solid logic behind Atty. Raul Pangalanan’s arguments against The arguments for inaction.
And how’s this for action: First Gentleman leaves for Hong Kong–airport sources: Lawyer clueless but says not evading NBN probes.
Yesterday I texted some people I know outside Manila what they think, re: Lozada. Responses:
Bacolod:
hati rin kmi d2, sa ofc (provl gov’t) we biliv some facts bt questns are many like dat of what he dnt tel snce it s a big questn y now lg xa went out to d open… Protectn 2 life yes, but we cnt say 100% we biliv him…
Also from Bacolod:
They all believe him. But they are also disgusted with his investigators. Nobody I know trust that the Opposition want change -they just want their turn. The big change is they all hate GMA now but no tipping point. [The politicians are] discombobulated. They don’t know how to read the situation now. Even Bacolod’s notorious GMA lapdog Monico Puentevella who has managed to be close to all Presidents since Cory has signed a resolution against GMA which means He’s also paving the way for the next power “just in case.”
A student journalist at La Salle Bacolod:
Do u believe in Jun Lozada’s statements? 1000 Lasallian students. [survey results] 73% YES. 9% NO. 18% undecided.
From Naga City:
Save for some ppld identified wid Dato Arroyo phoning in radio programs, public sentiment is overwhelmingly wid Jun Lozada by a mile. Metro Naga chamber of commerce broke ranks wid PCCI and issued a statement supporting Lozada. Ateneo de Naga and Univ Sta. Isabel leading regl signature campaigning asking GMA to step down./ Ders a big protest event slated tom. da prolonged rains -for more than a wk now- notwithstanding
From Cebu City:
I think most people from Cebu are indifferent when comes to politics. But people do consider him credible. As a business person, most policies of the present administration are skewed towards favored businessmen. Regulatory Capture of Government Agencies is so obvious. Get rid all the nasty people hostaging the president. She’s good but helpless.
Also from a Cebu City friend currently traveling:
Met up w/friend (f. 32, married, filchi, alabang) n BKK, she says ppl back home don’t care anymore -the’ll see see what comes.My sister (f.41.single) joked “Who’s he” but says she was in NAIA with him the other night. Before I left Cebu, my thought my thought was: is this guy for real? is he honest? we all sort of presume that BigBoy is also BadBoy but really do we want yet another popular uprising? I suppose the general sentiment is… there’s a lack of it. people are getting apathetic again -at least marcos babies like us.
From Davao City:
So far, people believe him and his testimony… Pero as far as suportng anodr edsa, dats anodr story. I belv they wud want 2 w8 4 2010. No ppl powr dis tym… Prblm s corrupt s so widespread that ppl hv bcm cncal on d mattr… Evn d senators ond way or odr s nvolvd.
South Cotabato, according to the Davao City texter,
N so cotab2, d sentiment s mor ntense re anti gma coz its a known opositn area.
In Manila, a student from UST has this to say:
Still lookng 4 a concrete thing to do besides rally. Mabe if we start pressuring congressmen to support impeachment now. Itll giv anyone intrsted somthng to do.
Many of dem talk re hs crdblty n hw d whol plan 2 covr up only incrsd prcption dat he’s saying d truth, bt many r also dsenchantd w/ d hrings. F u ask me, d real ish brot abt b d series of NBN probes is being muddld by focus n prsonalties (lozada’s crdbtly, neri’s conscience, abalos’ guilt, gma’s involvmnt). Mnwyl, no 1. evn d opp s movng fast 2 fx d dysfnctional govt procurmnt 2 prvnt such deals frm hpening agn. Dat’s y ppol get tyrd of it ol n tune out
Congres or any poltcian is always undr d comand of pblic presure. Bt pols cnt feel that presure, bec media coverge is muddld, ppol just tune out. F media focuses n d real issues, ppol wil spil on d streets nt (jst) to chnge govt bt to presure it to initiate chnges. When ths starts n media covrs frm an ishus prspctv, a virtuous cycle wil begin, more powrful thn any powr brker. That kind of media advocacy hs bn sucesful in Africa, Europ n evn in US.
D real ishus r d dysfunctions in govt, thos dat Neri hs bn lamentng in hs polecon lectures. No one wants cheatng, bt no one is pushng… for elections effciency. No wnts coruption, bt no one is pushng to chnge d govt procurnmnt systm. no one is keeping govt audts in check (unles they cn use it for poltcal blakmail). D ishus r nt poverty. Povrty s an efect of our systemic problems, w/c is y that shud be our focus, nt ppol. Bec whoevr sits in gov’t r accidntal to do problem. Corruption cn always prospr in a systm left unchckd.
And from a lawyer:
Funny u shld ask, I was discusing it wid an ofcmate ystrdy, he said at first he was riveted by d whole thing but lately wid d idiots in d legislature grandstanding (galit lang dawbec dey werent in on it) he has gotten tired and tuned it out. Sad, and maybe dats d point of dis admin, 2 make pipol so sick as 2 turn apathetic as a way 2 cope.
And I.T. person:
Most people i talk to believe him, they see no ulterior motive for what he is doing.
As for the blogosphere, yugatech on how wiretapping’s getting cheaper; missingpoints on comparing Lozada to Singson. Bayan ni Kabayan on trying to understand Joker Arroyo. The Venom Speaks suggests we all make a self-check first.
Update, 2 am Saturday: noise barrages have caught the imagination of students! Check out video in Life’s precious moments don’t have value, unless they are shared. , and photos in *dawnskee* and rheavargas and I’m becoming tired… , as well as descriptions in spread YOUR wings and catch ME as i fall 🙂 and Fly and forever dance and Me, Myself, and I… and des’ Site and the ME behind the I and “my crazy little place is just around the corner”
And more statements, first from the UP Law Faculty and Students and then:
To a fellow economist and former colleague, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo statement from economists of the Ateneo de Manila University
We are outraged by the revelations made by Engr. Rodolfo Noel Lozada Jr. at the Philippine Senate Blue Ribbon hearings last 8 February 2008 about the overpriced Zhong Xing Telecommunication Equipment Company-National Broadband Network (ZTE-NBN) project. The project has no clear public rationale in the first place. We are dismayed by the revelations of Mr. Lozada that former Commission on Election Chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr., with the alleged involvement of First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo, ordered the inclusion in the proposed project a large amount of kickbacks, amounting to as much as 130 million US dollars (or more than 5.2 billion pesos), enough money to remove the yearly public school classroom backlog, or purchase 5.8 million sacks of NFA rice, or alternatively secure the basic needs of about 29,000 poor families for a year. Simply put, a lot is being sacrificed for the greed of the few.We are angered by the continuing attempt to cover up the anomalous circumstances surrounding the project, including the supposed kidnapping of Mr. Lozada to keep him from testifying in the Senate. We demand that government remove the cloak of Executive Order 464 and the invocation of executive privilege to allow public officials that have knowledge on the transaction to publicly testify on the circumstances of the deal. We demand the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) to release records of the meetings that allowed the contract to be processed. Because of the nature of the work of the NEDA in national economic planning to promote national development and public welfare (and not for private or individual interests), these minutes are public records. We want Secretary Romulo Neri, an Ateneo high school alumnus and supposed staunch advocate of reforms to eradicate transactional politics and oligarchic dominance in the country, to reveal all that he knows about the matter. Efficiency and equity demand no less.
We abhor the habit of this administration of forging secret deals and engaging in non-transparent processes in developing and contracting large infrastructure projects, especially foreign donor-funded programs, contrary to the tenets of good governance. We call on friends and colleagues in the government, especially the alumni of our university, and other sectors to help ferret out the truth about other alleged irregular deals entered into by corrupt public officials, including the fertilizer scam, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority book scam and the North Rail project.
We urge our fellow economist, alumna, and former Ateneo colleague, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, to fully explain and account for all the anomalies under her administration to prevent our country from plunging into another political and economic crisis. Indeed, we are dismayed that Mrs. Arroyo has not exercised the vast powers and resources available to the Presidency to ensure that large-scale corruption in the government is not only blocked but also punished, and that these irregularities have only increased political instability and uncertainty in the country. We are also offended that the Presidency has instead utilized these vast powers and resources to turn its back from servicing the public and contribute to the advancement of private greed, including the Machiavellian buying of congressmen, governors, and everybody else that get its way. And sadly, these abuses have eroded the meaning and legitimacy of the Presidency. If she fails to fully account and explain the anomalies and corrupt practices in her administration, the most honorable thing she can do is to resign from the Presidency.
Finally, we publicly pledge to heed the Catholic Bishops’ call to communal action by supporting the activities that would promote transparency, accountability, and good governance, and we call on our fellow social scientists and academics to support this advocacy. We pledge to make our voices heard by committing to various ways of peaceful and non-violent political mobilization.
— Signatures —
Fernando T. Aldaba
Cristina M. Bautista
Germelino M. Bautista
Edsel L. Beja, Jr.
Diana U. del Rosario
Luis F. Dumlao
Cielito F. Habito
Leonardo A. Lanzona
Joseph Anthony Y. Lim
Romelia I. Neri
Ellen H. Palanca
Malou A. Perez
Joselito T. Sescon
Tara Sia-Go
Patrick Gerard C. Simon-King
Rosalina P. Tan
Philip Arnold P. Tuaño
Just to clarify, we’re talking about historic and/or social sins, not individual crimes.
In the case of the Philippine Oligarchy, the injustice of inequality is an ongoing one, stretching back from the time of the Philippine revolution up to the present. In this sense, the child is committing the same sin as the father.
That being said, even in the case where the child has taken no part in his father’s sins which were committed sometime back, there is still an obligation to ask for forgiveness and atonement. I suppose this is so because we are connected to the past and to each other. This is also an acknowldgement of the reality of path dependence in which yesterday’s actions are a factor in shaping today’s outcomes. You cannot change what happened but you can at least apologize or provide compensation. An example of this is the Australian government’s recent apology to the Aborigines for the latter’s forcible assimilation a few decades back.
‘Ramos joined President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo at a wreath-laying ceremony at the Libingan ng mga Bayani in Makati City, which kicked off the commemoration of the four-day People Power revolt in 1986 that toppled Ferdinand Marcos’ dictatorship and swept Corazon Aquino to the presidency.
“It is customary nowadays to denigrate or minimize the importance of the Edsa events–perhaps because the greed, the apathy and the corruption we brought down during those days are once again making themselves felt,” said Ramos, a key player in Edsa I.’
The former President is trying to be relevant again. Is the guy a masochist or just plain KSP?
Why is the celebration at the Libingan? That monument has nothing to do with EDSA 1. Is it because the monument is inside an Army camp?
cvj,
What if the child did not actually benefited from or inherited the fruits of the sin?
supremo,
Gloria must have something on Ramos, or maybe he’s getting close enough to convince her to resign? Or maybe Gloria knows the saying “keep your friends close and your enemies closer?”
“What if the child did not actually benefited from or inherited the fruits of the sin?” – supremo
Then there is no problem, the child’s father was righteous.
ramrod, i don’t know where i put my notes, they were scribbled on a folder and well, i’m constantly trying to put order into chaos. what i recall was that the person was talking of their province and in the past year (06 to 07) there was a big drop in the players, from 24 to 6, i believe.
Supremo, you mean financially? If Mar Roxas or Noynoy Aquino somehow became destitute then i suppose that absolves them.
There are some social sins though where the fruits are not financial, or there are no fruits at all. Some are simply attached to one’s belonging to a collective identity. Aside from the example i cited above, another example is that of the Turkish genocide of the Armenians or the Japanese atrocities against the Chinese in Nanking.
Ramrod: supremo’s case is where the father (or grandfather) was a thieving sinner but “..the child did not actually benefit from or inherited the fruits of the sin.”
Is ramrod’s scenario an impossibility?
cjv, you advocate the concept of collective guilt?
mlq3, yes as far as social and historic injustices are concerned.
cvj: Here is a live question. [ I ask you, because my impression of you has solidified — that you are irrationally vengeful.]
Erap has been found guilty of plunder, pardoned, AND the court-system has identified the monetary remedies. PLUS, the court-system says that Erap keeps a gazillion-amount of money (okays, simply in the millions, not in the billions).
So is Erap’s grandchildren now absolved (as of this particular moment in time)?
“what i recall was that the person was talking of their province and in the past year (06 to 07) there was a big drop in the players, from 24 to 6, i believe.” – mlq3
If Indonesia was able to pirate the seaweed farmers, the industry got hit big time! A few years back the Philippines dominated the carageenan market worldwide, it was one of our cash cows really. Unfortunately this industry is heavily dependent on the raw material – seaweed. Too bad we didn’t take care of this…
Excerpt from wikipedia :
“The largest producer is the Philippines, where cultivated seaweed produces about 80% of the world supply. The most commonly used are Cottonii (Kappaphycus alvarezii, K.striatum) and Spinosum (Eucheuma denticulatum), which together provide about three quarters of the World production. These grow at sea level down to about 2 metres. The seaweed is normally grown on nylon lines strung between bamboo floats and harvested after three months or so when each plant weighs around 1 kg.”
YES. Unfortunately, it was not the court but the President who “annulled” his crime.
cvj,
‘you mean financially?’
I agree with you on some points. What if the child only uses the family name and nothing else?
MLQ3,
So it is possible that we could be in a nightmare scenario like weakening local manufacturing industries, increasing dependence on imports (must check Banco Central stats). We may not feel it all along because of the cushioning effect of dollar remittances. But where exactly is this “economic activity” some people are talking about?
BrianB : you’re not cvj, right… you just responded “YES” to the question “Are Erap’s grandchildren absolved?” I posed?
—-
cvj is a character, but should cvj be running for president or even congressman and anyone running against cvj asks me for a donation, my wallet will open up.
collective guilt? Damn shit!!!
Today’s sons of daughters of sons of Jews-the-killer-of-Jesus stay away from cvj. cvj, to me, is one who holds the 2050-generation of Americans — sons of sons of daughters of sons of Americans born after the Treaty of Paris guilty for what has happened to the Philippines. [I wonder about Japanese after WW2, too?]
ramrod,
“keep your friends close and your enemies closer?â€Â
This is why The Godfather is in my movie collection.
cartels, oligarchs, smuggling kingpins…
perfect combination to kill off industries one by one
of course the govt is helping too. heavy taxation of legitimate businesses while the above-mentioned three pick off these players one by one. mabuti sana kung naibabalik sa mabuti yung taxes no? like subsidies, infrastructure…
e puro SONA lang ang pangarap ni GMA eh! ilang bilyon ba kelangan para matustusan kahit isang taong subsidy para sa agrikultura?
ay oo nga pala, kahit i-subsidize, bago pa makarating sa beneficiary pinaghati-hatian na ng DA officials. mula sa head hangang sa pinakahuling hahawak ng pera. ganon rin nangyayari sa DOH di ba? o kahit sa alinmang ahensya ng pamahalaan. fota. kulang na nga ang budget, kinukupitan pa.
we really need to have a much faster way to make congressmen accountable w/o going thru impeachment. we also need a way to fire appointed officials that doesn’t require the permission of the executive.
Question why does S. Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Germany, France and in an indirect manner the U.S. coddle their oligarchy.
Why does everyone want to use the term competitiveness when that is a totally wrong concept and term to use. The term to use to distinguish economies is productivity. How far up the ladder of mechanization and technological advancement is applied in both the physical (productive) and non-physical (non-productive) sectors of the economy. mechanization and technology multiplied productivity of labor and created a vast new division of labor to take up the increased production and surplus.
Competition is for business and not economies. Why does the corn farmer in the U.S. get over 50 times the yield off his crop compared to his ancestors who use to get 4-5 times the yield on seeds planted.
They call it the mechanization and the use of technology not only on the farms but the creation of an entire infrastructure for the movement of goods and services. Preservatives, refrigeration and the use today of satellites and GSP positioning and infra red scanning of farms to balance the use of fertilizers and water. Who put those satellites into space in the U.S. The state. Who provided the impetus for the advances in communication – the state.
The stupid idea that competition brought about the cheap cost of communication is wrong. Cellular technology and the digital revolution went hand in hand with satellite based communication. Remove that from the equation and the high cost of land lines which is limited in terms of productivity.
Who created the massive irrigation projects in the U.S. The state. Who created the interstate system of transportation? The state. You expect the Lopezes to do it in the Philippines.
Why is the cost of flying cheaper than it was 20 – 30 years ago in real terms. Productivity. The invention of new and lighter steel alloys made it possible to build the jumbo jets ( more passengers per plane)and enable jets to fly higher and with more efficient fuel burning engines as there is less wind resistance at higher altitudes.
So the older planes had to be retired faster and there grew a huge market in cheaper airlines as surplus capital enabled financial companies to become the largest owners of airplanes and the market for leasing surplus jets became big business. GE Capital and AIG are the biggest lessors of planes to airlines. All guaranteed by the U.S. Export and Import Bank for foreign lessees.
Financial capitalism is simply the buying and selling of different asset classes. All made possible by the maturing of industrial economies. But they are derived from the physical economy of not only one country today but the integration of economies through transnationals and multinationals. (Here in the Philippines the plantation economy is still the model.)Dole -Del Monte.
Why did San Miguel open up breweries in Asia. Their market in the Philippines is already saturated. Why don’t they go into the U.S. or Japan or Europe. They know that they are not productive enough and would be slaughtered by the big giants who are almost fully automated right down to the retail end of the supply chain.
The oligarchy of which Big Mike and GMA belong to is akin still to the the backward oligarchs during the time of Machiavelli in Venice.
The problem for the left here is there is no proletariat. So how can they have a proletarian revolution. Just take a look at the pathetic small middle class. All wanting to live the life of a heredero or heredera.
The rest are abroad as immigrants and the would be proletariat are the contract workers.
No wonder ‘generation me’ in the Philippines is totally confused between Gretchen Barreto, Ruffa, Kris and Boy Abunda.
hvrds,
Amen to that!
UpN, the sins of parents don’t pass on to the children. of course. but when they take on that mantle, accept that inheritance, use those things gained by their parents through other’s blood – then, that is when they inherit their parent’s sins. when they take their parent’s legacies and change nothing in the way their families do business. now do you understand why they have to accept responsibility for that? it became their sin the moment they ran the business/inheritance the same way.
comprende?
though cvj may be taking it too far if he believes in collective guilt. rido thrives bec of that. now how do you break that?
it’s enough for me if the kids breakaway from the sins made by their parents. paid contrition to those their parents have trespassed.
now let’s see if the aquinos and roxas have done that…
HRVDS,
Of course we need to use COMPETITIVENESS where it is appropriate, we say GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS not Global Productivity to articulate quality policies right?
And its also tempting to surmise that we could probably improve productivity that results from efficiency of automation if we can afford the cost of efficient large scale infrastructure investments. If of course, we learn how to allocate resources properly and transparently.
devils,
I couldn’t have said it any better.
UP n, I think CVJ has already explained about individual crime vs. the burden of inherited wealth and inherited position. If, for example, you come from an usurper family and currently find yourself ruling a country as king then, logically, you are living life with the proverbial Damocles sword. Same thing with stolen land and ill-gotten wealth. Money stolen remains money stolen even after the passing away of the thief.
Come to think of it, did Cory Aquino apologize to the families of the Mendiola Massacre or the victims of injustice in their hacienda-whats-its-name was?
HRVDS,
I hope you’re still awake. So given all these FAVORABLE economic indicators Gloria’s economists are talking about GDP growth, foreign investments, etc., how come the Pinoys are still in dire straits?
Where’s all this economic activity everybody’s talking about? Why can’t the common barbero feel it?
“cjv, you advocate the concept of collective guilt?”
Manolo, OK. CVJ’s opinion verge dangerously to the Utopian, but his is an important point. A nation like Germany, which survived a crime of superhuman proportions, have in their identity an embedded version of that crime. In today’s laws (jurisprudence, really), crimes like murder are charged against individuals not cultures. You quoted Hegel some time ago. There is such a thing as the continuity of the historical identity. The characteristic of this continuity is obvious: Germany uses the German language, lives i German architecture, read German literature, prays like Germans used to pray. So if these positive or neutral traits are passed, why not the negative ones? To be fair, they can unlearn such cultural traits but is it ethical to simply unlearn the holocaust?
that’s verging toward…
ramrod,
‘Why can’t the common barbero feel it?’
Because trickle down economy does not work in the Philippines. Greedy corporations get in the way.
A typical 40 year old American professional living in Florida
Salary – $6K per month Net
Mortgage- $1500 per month
Auto loan – $300 per month
The guy still has $4200 left for other things.
Compare that to a 40 year old Filipino professional and you will know that there is really something wrong.
DevilAdv8 and all: This sentence the sins of parents don’t pass on to the children. of course. is actually not an “of course” for a number of folks. Just go to the Bible and you’ll find “death to the firstborn” or even to the all-born because of the sins or whatever-characteristics of the father. I will not assume that because DevilAdv8 says “…don’t pass on… of course”, that there is not someone who says “..sin does pass on… of course”.
As for BrianB’s setence…. I will simply take BrianB’s position as BrianB’s, not as cvj’s. I just want to point out that this sentence “Money stolen remains money stolen even after the passing away of the thief.” is dramatically different from “son..guilty of sin of the father”. The focus is on the money and has no mention of son nor daughter.
When the father sins, the father sins.
The children — innocent until proven guilty.
When the child sins, the child sins. The father — innocent until proven guilty.
When the child sins and the father sins, then the child has sinned and the father has sinned. But innocent the generation to be born 30-years later after the sinning.
UP n, the money is what makes the son or daughter wealthy like Noynoy and Mar Roxas. It practically made their career.
Does the country compete like the Coca Cola corporation? How does the Philippines compete against the Dole corporation and Del Monte corporation. How does a tenant farmer in the Philippines compete with his counterpart in China and Vietnam. They have almost no tenant farmers. Most of the tenants farmer’s harvest goes to his landlord and his creditors.
Is the Philippine economy growing . Yes. Is it growing across the board like a fine tuned integrated mechanism?
Nope. Is it simply growing Yes. The robust growth sectors – Finance, communications, utilities, BPO, Real estate and mining. The rest simply are in the going no where mode.
All the sectors indirectly subsidized by the State. Tax incentives and tax holidays. In spite of the so called robust growth the state is having a tough time collecting taxes. Most of the sectors are tax exempt or do not have incomes sufficient to pay taxes. – agriculture.
OFW’s do not pay income taxes.
Please note that the country has always had a deficit in trade in goods and services, capital movement and has a surplus in overseas labor income. The deficit in capital movement means that we do not earn enough from residents investment abroad to compensate for foreign profits from their investments in the Philippines. Residents investment abroad is rarely remitted home.
The one item that makes the difference is OFW income as opposed for expat incomes earned in the Philippines and sent home.
We still cannot pay our way in the world from domestic incomes. So how can Philippine business compete in the world economy when we are deficit dependent on them. If their goods are cheaper then it simply means they are more productive than us.
Pero talo sila sa Pinay. I am diehard fan of Pinays. Gretchen, Ruffa, Kris and Boy Abunda excluded.
UP n. I assure you i am not CVJ though I’ve been noticing lately that our opinions match almost perfectly. have you taken that political quiz he linked here?
“No wonder ‘generation me’ in the Philippines is totally confused between Gretchen Barreto, Ruffa, Kris and Boy Abunda.”
Gretchen is the mistress, Ruffa is a battered wife, Boy Abunda is the flaming queen with bad fashion sense (because he uses an imaginary mirror).
Got that?
BrianB: I sensed that you were not cvj when you said “YES. Unfortunately, it was not the court but the President who “annulled†his crime.”
Read again cvj’s blogposts and you’ll see reference to “…children of the sinner-father to be destitute” or “…children of the sinner-father to make amends”; qualifications that you did not add to your “YES”.
—–
Anyways… different folks, different strokes.
And your last blog post/question is “not cvj”. 80% of the time, cvj will make a precise refer-back to where to find the politican quiz you mentioned. If this is a quiz that puts a person on an 2-dimensional scale (to see if one is closer to Gautama Buddha versus Richard Nixon) I did take that test.
Bencard,
I agree so much with LDT test. But Im very much concern on wether how either side will accept the results though.
Regardless I woudl still love the LDT test done.
If anyone or anygroup who would facilitate genuine change to the current dysfunchtional system, I will support it.
Even if “revolution” is necessary.
the problem with the political oligarchy still goes back to the voters. your ordinary Pinoy voter will still elect familiar names, or, the politicians with the machinery whom they regard as “padrinos”, into office. that is what they are used to doing. unless and until philippine voters junk this mindset, be more cognizant of their power, and learn to decide independent of outside influences, the political landscape will not change.
Philippine society still operates on a class system. A large majority of our people think they only belong to the lowest class and that’s where they choose to stay, looking up to their anointed padrinos for assistance. I don’t understand this way of thinking, but I’ve come across it enough to recognize its destructive force on society.
And perhaps this is the reason the upper classes can get away with murder here, literally.
M
Not even a one bedroom condo would have this mortgage. I am sure with that kind of income, he will be getting a detached three bedroom in an upscale residential which mortgage may run as high as 3,000 to 4,000 a month.
I ve been thinking of this trickle down econmy in Florida or in the US as awhole everytime I see homeless people everytime I ride the subway. The numerous house for sale (near bank forcelosure, I guess) on my way to project site. The desperate job applicants everytime I advertise for an job opening for helper and laborers.
Why even when you listen to the campaign speeches of Obama, Clinton, and Mc Cain, poverty in the US is one of teh issues being tackled.
So every country has its own problem about poverty, corruption and trickle down economy.The thing is not all US resident and citizens are professionals . But solution to these problems are being discussed with out demanding the president to resign or even without overthrowing the current administration.
rego, any idea who might administer the test so that both sides can agree results will not be doctored?
nash, you forgot kris. the run-away mouth.
UpN, i agree with you. i used ‘of course’ as my personal opinion. meaning, for me, it comes naturally to think that each person’s sins cannot be passed on to others.
unless others willingly commit those same sins. by then, the sin becomes theirs.
hvrds, that would be a double whammy if they did. OFWs are already paying taxes to their host countries, it’d be mercenary to tax them more!
if you want to tax someone, we can tax those who engage in capital flight. tax them usuriously.
And yet another open letter came out. This time from the group of Ateneo Economist. Last week it was the Ex Cabinet secretaries. Is this becoming a fad now? At talga bang kailangan eempasize that they are talag ateneo, la salle, UP or Universiy of Asia and Pacific . Ex Cabinet secretary? when are we going to have aleete from Baranggay so and so. mmmmm Elitist Oligarchy kaya?
And Im having a feeling that these letters just dont have that impact as the Bong Austero letter. That despite the fact that that letter doesn’t have an Ateneo , UP La salle or University of Asia and Pacific on its headings.
It was simply signed as SC Austero and nobody know him at at all.
Effective commucation kay ang problema o sadayang elitista lang dating mga leter na eto at di ang masa o kahit yung middle class.?
rego, the U.S. society and overall culture is behind Europe by several decades. No universal welfare, relatively low taxes. Social democracy is the future for all wealthy nations. The US has not change since independence, although it has become the wealthest and most powerful nation on earth. MacCain will win.
The 0.1% can go to Spratleys
The Bible verses below might help settle the issue:
The Legal Issue (UP n student’s position)
2 Kings 14:6
… The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, nor the children be put to death for the fathers; but every man shall be put to death for his own sin.
The Moral Issue (cvj’s position)
1 Kings 20:34
“I will return the cities my father took from your father,” Ben-Hadad offered. “You may set up your own market areas in Damascus, as my father did in Samaria.”
Luke 19:8
And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.
The House Ethics Committee (same as the senate committee) investigating allegations of former PM Brian Mulroney Lobbying works as alleged by an accused German businessman is about to slap the Him with contempt if he fails to submit papers asked for one more day grace period.
Comparing the hearings, which may results only to legislation in regards to how long the Politicians should be out of Office before they can engage in Private works with regards to government lobbying and contracts, they were quite non-confrontational and even though there were hints of Partisanship, it was very tamed compare to the Grandstanding of the Senators in their conduct.
Also, a Public Inquiry to be headed by the President of the University of Waterloo is forthcoming to dig more and although the Government had already paid the former PM $2 million in his Lawsuit for defamation (out of court) when it accused him that he accepted cash from the German lobbyist Two Days before vacating the office of the Prime Minister, the matter was not that Clear Yet.
The former PM insisted that he did the lobbying works after quitting. Another case of money in the Envelope. Although it was recorded properly for accounting and income tax purposes.
Arroyo: I learned about ZTE mess on eve of signing deal
“President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Saturday said she learned that something was wrong about the Philippine government’s $329.48-million National Broadband Network project with China’s Zhong Xing Telecommunications Equipment (ZTE) Corp the night before she witnessed the signing of the NBN-ZTE contract.
Mrs Arroyo told radio dzRH that the day before she witnessed the signing of the NBN-ZTE contract on April 21, 2007 in Boao, China, she was advised about the supposed irregularities in the project. However, she said she could not readily terminate the deal that would be funded through a loan from the Chinese government.
“Sumbong sa akin the night before signing of the supply contract, that was one of many signings. (Pero) paano mo i-cancel the night before, may ibang bansa kang kausap (Someone told me about it the night before the signing of the supply contract. That was one of many signings. But how can you cancel a deal the night before, when you are dealing with a foreign country)?” she said.
Mrs Arroyo, however, did not say who told her about the irregularities, and what were these all about.”- GMANews 02/23/2008 | 08:21 AM
Time and again I see this word “grandstanding” and “Senate” when there are critical investigations in the Philippines. Sometimes I wonder why some people do not see the “corruption”, “relatives” and “highest position of the land” as well. Other related words are “persistent lies”, “cover-ups”, “non-accountability”, “E.O. 464”, and “non-appearance” as well. Go figure.
“Biktima: Pare ninakaw mo ang manok ko kitang kita ng marami
Magnanakaw: Hindi, sinungaling ang marami nakakita, eh bakit hindi mo itanong sa biyenan kong kakutsaba … eheste … hari ng Dept of Injustice
Biktima: Hindi, itanong na lang natin sa konseho para maimbistegahan
Magnanakaw: A hindi pwede, bawal ako magpakita doon
Biktima: Bakit
Magnanakaw: E.O. 464
Biktima: Sinong nagsabi
Magnanakaw: Nanay kong Reyna”