In review and in prospect
The uninspiring facts surrounding the Philippines’ dismal ranking in many measures to do with its intellectual capital — student performance in standardised tests, IQ, etc. — persist. More importantly, these have remained consistent for decades; specifically the downward trend of these measures relative to other countries in the region. Despite this consistency, political pundits continue to selectively make assertions about Filipinos’ collective intellectual faculties to either promote or dismiss the ascent to power in popular elections of one politician or another.
Regardless of who is in power, the the fact of the intellectual bankruptcy of Philippine society remains foundational. This is readily evident in the circumstances surrounding the ascent to power of any president much of which had more to do with cults of personality than with any sort of ideological underpinning. The key common denominator across Philippine elections is well known — political parties that participated in them were all mere election winning machines and did not actually stand for anything pertinent to voters.
To be fair, in an impoverished country like the Philippines, there really is not much that differentiates one campaign from another. That's because the “helping the poor” trope effectively dwarfs all else as an election “issue”. A politician who does not at least pay lip service to this dominant “issue” won't stand a chance. So a typical election campaign in the Philippines is essentially mostly a lot of noise pandering to the “plight” of the “poor”. No real intelligence required there — just creative message crafting around a trite topic.
It's become evident that private initiative cannot solve this and many other basic problems that persist in the Philippines. And because curiosity and discovery is no innate in Filipino culture, the free market cannot be relied upon to produce visionary capitalists who build wealth upon innovation and original ideas. For that, government needs to play a stronger part in stimulating the right economic activity. Excellence in the arts and sciences, for example, offers good potential when one considers the size and relative youth of the Philippines’ population. Like all else, however, strong state programs need to be in place to induce activity and motivate people. This is the challenge at hand.
Last week's blog posts
March 26, 2023 by benign0
"To these deranged people, their loss was not a result of playing well but more an outcome of 'evil' people depriving them of a win they believe they are entitled to."
March 25, 2023 by benign0
"Notable is the lack of outrage being expressed by leaders and opinion shapers of the Philippine Opposition — a community whose members very likely secretly harbour the same murderous thoughts Poltic expressed on Twitter."
Mrs Imelda Marcos isn’t dead yet but the Philippine Opposition are already damning her to hell
March 24, 2023 by benign0
"One wonders what sorts of upbringing produces people such as these. If these are Christian people (seeing that they believe in hell), Catholic dogma is clear on who hold sole authority to judge people worthy of eternal bliss or damned to an eternity in the proverbial fires."
March 23, 2023 by benign0
"There should be — and will be — consequences for the kind of the dishonest behaviour Suzara exhibits online as well as for the harassment she incites using her dishonest allegations."
Has the quality of Filipino thinking progressed?
March 22, 2023 by benign0
"Perhaps this is the reason why no amount of 'democracy' makes Philippine society fairer, no amount of literacy makes Filipinos more intelligent, and no amount of technology makes their economy more productive. It’s all just for show."
A year after the Ukrainian crisis: what’s for the Philippines?
March 22, 2023 by The Unpopular Opinion
"The Ukrainian crisis leaves the Asian peoples to address the biggest elephant in their room — the conflict between Beijing and Taipei. This geopolitical issue has never been resolved since Imperial Japan left Taiwan in 1945."