This crisis is not only financial Dear Ms. Mayuga,
I enjoyed your article in today's Inquirer very much. One positive outcome from the mess on Wall Street is that it has jolted people into thinking more about how things work.
The financial crisis is not only a financial crisis. Speculative financing arose as a kind of safety valve in an economy that had developed other deeper problems. The question is what will happen next, now that this economic Viagra has lost its effectiveness.
Dr. Jim Sattler President, Satmari Software Systems, Inc. Greenwoods Executive Village Cainta, Rizal 1900
What next for sovereign funds, US dollar and debt?
Nice piece, Sylvia – a little light on depth of the real cause but good enough. How about a follow-up on what is currently an untouchable subject, which is really one of the most feared potential outcomes and what will surely be the forced de-leveraging of the markets and of all participants. What will sovereign nations/funds do next? Will they diversify out of USD and US Debt?
It's no longer paying a premium from all sides – literally (i.e. T-bill yields at negative or floating flat, USD devaluation, etc.) and figuratively (USD to counterbalance local currency rates, etc.).
When will they make a move, and who will? If that happens it could create a cycle and that would spell the largest economic correction in world history, let alone a possible cause for war…even world war.
How that unravels is the key. The US is lost na (already) – boomers without retirement security, infrastructure issues, humongous debt to equity ration per capita, etc. etc. The US will have to find a way out of it locally and probably will, but not until after a large disruption with a big IF: Do other countries have the patience to withhold shunning the US dollar and US debt, and get out of it?
God bless us all.
Peter Casimiro
Re-evaluate our idea of progress
Despite the ongoing debacle, I still believe in capitalism, democratic capitalism that is, as propounded by Michael Novak in his book the Spirit of Democratic Capitalism, for number of reasons, but to cite the most important one, capitalism married to democratic processes is still the best engine for innovation and creativity, for the latter activities, at the most fundamental level, are rooted in the individual, not in a group or group think.
That said, we know only too well the potential capacity (innate as a consequence of the Fall in the Garden?) of any individual for hubris and all the un-virtues that flow from it, e.g., insatiable greed, man's inhumanity to man, etc., that society should have the proper checks for such excesses and abuses. Thus the need for well crafted law. And no man should be above the law. Too often, though, the laws are observed more in the breach than in observance.
Let the private sector expand to innovate and create, but there should be a commensurate countervailing power to keep any individual or his/her creations (e.g., gigantic corporations) in his/her proper place vis-à-vis society, as expounded by John Kenneth Galbraith in his two books The New Industrial State and Countervailing Powers. No more "masters of the universe," like those in Wall Street who brought on the massive mess or those politicians who were/are in cahoots with them in such financial meltdown or exercise such unbridled powers in other realms of life.
No more Milton Friedmans, who are all brains and no heart, and no more political figures invested with almost absolute power. "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely," as we're repeatedly reminded by Lord Acton.
Or maybe, we should make a hard re-evaluation of the "idea of progress" as it's commonly held in the modern mind but which began a few centuries back, and consider our priorities with respect to ourselves, to our relations with other human beings and to our planet Earth. A good starting point is to go back to Schumacher's Small is Beautiful, and of course (how can I forget!), the Good Book of the Gospels in which the former is firmly anchored.
Gene Pulmano New Jersey, USA
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Nail on the Head
I am happy to read that you have hit the nail on the head.
During the late 60s and the early 70s, I was a Mendiola boy (San Bedista) and part of many things Mendiola. I marched with the likes of Arno Sanidad. My closest friends converted fully to the Left, egging me to do so too.
Not knowing that a man in India had said it first, I said, "Before you tell the world to change, change yourself first,"
After a few jobs, I became a farmer "so I could re-assemble my life in a better, simpler way." My lola said, "You will be poor." I smugly told her, "I will be happy." So I promptly became poor and happy.
My first miracle is that someone married me, no electricity, nipa hut, artesian well, outhouse and vegetable garden as well. The babies came one after another. And very soon, all six of us were poor but happy on the farm.
We learned to make soap, shampoo, tooth powder, lotion, liniment, ointment, vinegar...the essentials, in our kitchen with kitchen stuff. Because we were beekeepers, we put honey, pollen, propolis, beeswax and royal jelly into our household products. They turned from being merely good to fantastic.
Even in that pre-Internet, pre-blog age, word got around. People started coming over looking for our stuff.
We have been doing many things that promote global cooling. We share this with students in our bee museum: natural living through the world of honeybees. Some people scoff at us for making this miniscule effort. We say, "If you are not part of the solution, you must be part of the problem."
We have been getting ready for the American bubble to burst for about 30 years. We pray that it does not, even if this seems inevitable.
Joel & ViolaineMagsaysay Ilog Maria Honeybee Farms www.ilogmaria.com
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Dear Ms. Mayuga:
I've never been a fan of Reaganomics, a.k.a unbridled capitalism. It's gone worse over the years. Now transnational corporations like the oil gang are wrecking havoc on rich and poor countries alike. It's Social/ Economic Darwinism... allowing robbers to hold the bank vault lock code and hoping they will behave like good citizens. And McCain will continue to give tax breaks, a.k.a. corporate welfare to the rich while cutting down services to the average working person.
The good news is that Obama will win by a landslide. I feel sad that a friend of mine will vote for MacBush because they are both Republicans.
It's great to read a synthesis of the great Johnny Mercado and the venerable Sylvia M. in one column.
Thanks mucho.
Hernan Hormillosa Queens, New York City
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I read with great interest your article titled “A Sober Earth Day.”
The issue of oil, food, hunger and their world impact seems very complex, too mind boggling for conventional thinkers. But what the whole world, including the distinguished Prof. Michael T. Klare, is missing is understanding the true cause(s) of why oil supply is getting low, price climbing higher and higher, why the mad rush and greed of bio-diesel production (sponsored or pushed by oil & car companies to unsuspecting governments and people), air pollution caused by burning fossil fuel, world hunger and the great possibility of wars over fresh drinking water and food.
The true cause of all these ills is the use and perpetuation of combustion engines by oil and car companies in the last 100 plus years! Combustion engines require gasoline or oil to operate. In the process, it exacerbates air pollution and creates all the problems mentioned above.
The main and only function of a combustion engine is to generate electricity or power to move the vehicle forward or backwards. There are other ways of generating power for vehicles other than internal combustion engines - like electric cars powered by batteries. Although its power source is not yet perfected, the technology works.
If the world does away with Jurassic internal combustion engine technology and shifts to "Engine-less Vehicles" (electric cars included), gargantuan problems will disappear practically overnight because engine-less vehicles are NOT powered by gasoline, oil, bio-diesel, ethanol, tons of batteries, hybrids, hydrogen or solar panels. "Engine-less vehicles" (ELVS) is an invention is currently under US Patent filing. ELVs do not have combustion engines. They are powered by "exotic chips" heated by sunlight or commercial radioisotope. ELVS are non-plug vehicles; you can plug your house into your car. They have practically no driving distance limitation at sustained speeds to 120 miles per hour. Yes, you can drive 2,000 miles+ without stopping in an ELV. It can also operate in all road and weather conditions, day or night, with full amenities.
If world governments or industrialists shift their attention and support to engine-less technology, the world could gradually shift from oil-based economy to non-oil based societies. This will cure the ills we all dread. Incidentally, the "Engine-less Vehicle" was invented by a Filipino/ American in California. Welcome to a new engine-less and smokeless generation.
Franz B. Boncodin Long Beach, California
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I loved your column on Obama’s speech. I loved that speech too. Unfortunately, despite the clear logic of Fil-Ams supporting someone like him, many refuse to vote for him because he's black. Racism lives among Filipinos. Que horror!
And just like other ethnicities, those who have "made it" in the US become Republicans. Nagkakaroon na ng blinders - ayaw nang tulungan ang mga kailangan pa ng tulong.
Gemma Nemenzo San Francisco, CA
I thoroughly enjoyed your essay but, sadly, a lot of Pinoys/Pinays don't see what we see. Having worn the dark lenses of colonial slavery for so long, they think white and the divisive status quo are better than a black man championing unity.
Hernan Hormillosa Queens, NYC
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More Responses to “A Sequel to Noli and Fili”
Dear Ms. Mayuga,
I really savored your magnificent essay replete with historical references to our nation's legacy of struggle against oppression juxtaposed with contemporary events! If I may suggest a vernacular title to this sequel, I believe it should be: Ang Pagbabalik ng mga Prayle or Ang Makabagong mga Prayle.
Indeed, judging by recent developments, I couldn't help feeling the Spanish frailes are back with a vengeance. I don't want to sound irreverent, but while my faith remains strong, my respect for some leaders in our Church hierarchy is really being tested.
More specifically, I question the values some bishops are espousing by their recent actions. When your church pastors vacillate on principles of honesty and the pursuit of truth and justice, it sends the wrong message that malefactors could readily capitalize on to justify their evil deeds. Worse, such a stance effectively renders an imprimatur to the malevolent practices being carried out by these evildoers.
Thus, the Church as an institution cannot escape perceptions of complicity with wrongdoing. In this crucial time in our nation’s history, we tend to look up to our Bishops for moral leadership and guidance. But when they give their tacit approval to a regime that had perpetrated deception and cheating in our electoral processes, when they fail to raise their collective voices in protest over the pervasiveness of extra-judicial killings carried out by those vested with authority or when they remain silent on government inaction amidst allegations of cheating on professional board examinations, our Bishops, with the exception of a few, have effectively abdicated their role as Pastors of the flock.
Yours truly, Efren T. Dayauon Elk Grove, Ca 95624
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Congratulations for having written “A Sequel to Noli and Fili.” It is very vivid, inspiring and soul-searching.
It should be reprinted and distributed. You should be interviewed in a major TV channel and asked to speak about the ideas presented in your column.
Kudos again and thanks for writing such a beautiful piece - simply brilliant in form and substance. If the pen has power, this is it!
Agustin Lara Bais City, Negros Occidental
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Wow. I read with bated breath.
Not only a Noli-Fili sequel in waiting but a theater piece for déjà vu art.
Luz de Leon Dongalo, Parañaque
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I love it! Topical yet historical. Imaginative. Pen writing/speaking truth to power. Casting a wide net to catch the big fish (actually a small fish puffed up by power). Gene Pulmano New Jersey, U.S.
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Your latest is humorous even if it causes some psychic pain.
Some bishops made themselves irrelevant by sticking like leeches to someone’s saya. I take it as forced maturation of the laity. History will judge this time as a watershed, a.k.a. the liberation of the people from the feudal hold of the Padre/Bishop Damasos.
Hernan Hormillosa Queens, New York
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Greetings from the province of Kalinga!
We would like to ask permission for us to reprint your well-written article, "A Sequel to Noli and Fili," in this week's issue of The Guru Press - the only community paper that we have here in Tabuk, Kalinga.
More power!
Marciano Paroy Jr. Guru Press of Tabuk
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I just want to tell you that I enjoyed reading your latest article.
As I read, memories flashed back to when we stormed Malacañang after Marcos fled. I got barbed wire (the one used to barricade protesters) as a souvenir. I still have it with me here in Canada. I have bent it into a triangle symbolizing change.
But some things never changed since Fili & Noli. Tell that to Jim Paredes in the Land Down Under and all the rest of us who decided to leave RP.
But I guess we’re not calling it quits. I am here in a strange land to give my kids options. They will have the choice to be in a foreign land or go back to RP when they’re mature enough.
Me? I always look forward to going back and consuming San Miguel beer, watching the sunset and singing my favorite song : "Aling pag-ibig pa ang hihigit kaya sa pagka dalisay at pagka dakila/Gaya ng pag ibig sa tinubuang lupa? …Wala na nga wala...."
Wishful thinking: after my return, perhaps storm Malacañang again and get another barbed wire souvenir? This time I will not bend it into triangle.
Cheers to my batch of '86 revolutionaries! We had challenging and good times then (lots of fun too!)
My best wishes to all next-generation revs in RP! It's a long process but very rewarding when you defeat the dark side.
May the Force be with all of you!
June Estrada British Columbia
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Nice title but boring content. Don't you have anything new to write? Even the priests are starting to doubt your crying boy. Tell me, how do you know Lozada? Or are you just riding the wave?
Cal Fortiphor (magnaforte@yahoo.com)
Sylvia,
Baka gusto mong i-segue sa iyong Noli-Fili tableau yung serye ng anti vs. pro GMA statements issued by the perfumed set (aka Assumptionistas). Parang Ma. Clara vs. Donya Victorina.
This is what the Tribune published about this.
It’s a reaction to the Pro-GMA statement that had about 400-500 signatories kuno, but some were found to belong to dead alumnae and/or Maryknollers and Sta. Kulasas. That this occurred was not surprising. Walang screening process na sinunod, unlike the ANTI group who had proof of signature.
Siguro, if you will factor the deliberately slow signature gathering process followed by the ANTI camp and add to them those who disavowed their support of the PRO statement, one CANNOT conclude that the PRO GMA group has the upper hand.
What's more, the PROs issued a half-hearted clarification in the PDI yesterday, in the course of which they added about 40 more names of supporters-kuno. Marami na namang disavowals ang dumarating tungkol dito!
Angie Barrera is a PRO GMA prime mover. Nakakahiya! Teacher pa naman siya ng Assumption. “Call for Truth” daw ang kanilang statement pero ang daming spurious signatures! All it takes is one lie to discredit a statement calling for TRUTH, di ba?
Anyway, tama ang sabi mo: history repeats itself. Sino kaya ang bago nating Rizal? Parang mga Fraile ang marami sa ating Obispo: narinig mo ba yung non-statement na binasa sa misa ngayong Domingo de Ramos? Napaka-pulitiko sa hindi pagkibo! And therefore, even the stones will cry out for TRUTH, ACCOUNTABILITY, and GMA RESIGN!
