Weekly Brief
More and more data pours in showing that the Philippines is falling further and further behind its southeast Asian peers.
In review and in prospect
The Philippines is a vulnerable society — vulnerable because, though it is resource-rich, it is almost wholly dependent on external capital for its survival. Japan and Singapore, for example, are resource-poor countries, yet they are among the world’s most prosperous and highly-developed. The Philippines along with many African and South American countries lie in a fertile belt rich in minerals and other resources. Yet chronic impoverishment and underdevelopment characterise these societies.
Resources are therefore not a key ingredient in the development of a society from Third World to First World. What separates the winners from the losers in human development is a talent for smart work. There is a key truth in the observation that a small elite set of human beings control an astoundingly disproportionate amount of the world’s wealth. This truth is that quality — not quantity — is what ultimately matters in the on-going competition for power and wealth going on within our species.
When we recognise what underlies real wealth in today’s world order, the flaw in the sort of “activism” we are subjected to becomes crystal clear. In the Philippine setting, in particular, much of this dysfunctional “activism” revolves around Filipinos’ entitlement to labour rights and territorial claims. The trouble with this is that even if all these “activist” advocacies are realised — with every Filipino worker paid “just wages” and all territorial claims from the state down to indigenous communities’ resolved — there is no guarantee that wealth at First World levels will follow. The key to wealth will remain elusive because the key to sustained and scalable wealth is in capital expansion.
Perhaps Filipinos will increasingly become highly-paid employees thanks to more foreign investment and more foreign-owned capital (like multinational corporations) finding homes within their country’s borders. But unless Filipinos become a society of better (more skilled and productive) workers, more adept at making nice things, and more innovative at creating new markets through the development of new products, services, and processes, they will remain a fundamentally poor society.
Last week's blog posts
Tardic Wars: No New Hope for the Philippines
January 7, 2024 by benign0
"Whereas some semblance of historical ideological differences marked the conflict between the Yellowtard-Communist Axis and the now-defunct Unity Team, today’s 'debate' is underpinned by bitterness between former close allies..."
Over 200,000 EMBO Residents Taste Bitter Loss of Makati Citizen Benefits
January 5, 2024 by Oman
"Aaaah.. so early in their term and already mired in controversy. From a strictly political point of view, it doesn’t do these barangay officials well to act in seeming defiance against the Supreme Court as well as Taguig City where they now belong."
The 1987 Yellowtard Constitution is the foundation of everything wrong with the Philippines today
January 4, 2024 by Ramon Ortoll
"We don’t need the Senators anymore. But they can only be dragged out kicking and screaming from that new 'state of the art building' they will be moving into. Nonetheless, we should push for constitutional amendments..."
Yellowtard columnists now cheer Philippine President Bongbong Marcos
January 3, 2024 by Ramon Ortoll
"In the politics of switcheroo, the Dutertes (led by former President Rodrigo Duterte and his daughter, current Vice President Inday Sara Duterte) are now the villains. To my mind, this is just the enforcement of the social caste..."
January 3, 2024 by benign0
"Both of Facebook’s 'partners' are widely known for their editorial slant in favour of the Philippines’ Yellowtard-Communist Axis. Vera Files was founded by Ellen Tordesillas who, for more than two decades, observers insist, published her 'journalism' in the service of this camp."