Are Pinks for real?
Analysis and Opinion
By Joe America.
In a draft of this article, I had penciled in the title “Are Pinks lazy or incompetent?” Well, that’s stupid enough. Pinks are neither lazy nor incompetent. They are the opposite. My question overlaid an unfair and inaccurate premise that Pinks had any charter before them other than to elect Leni Robredo. That’s all they intended to do. Or they would have formed a political party. So I dropped that rude headline.
But today is its own reality, and I am inclined to wonder, do Pinks have a role to play?
Here’s the framework for the question:
- Dynasties run the Philippines for personal advantage, not Filipino well-being. They are today’s colonists. The proof? Just look around.
- An anti-dynasty law is unlikely to get enacted because a majority of both legislative branches is dynastic. President Marcos is setting up his family (Marcos/Romualdez) to rule for decades.
- The best way to break the dynasties is to craft a huge left/liberal peoples’ initiative comprised of five elements:
- Pinks ( Robredo supporters)
- Yellows (Liberal Party supporters)
- Akbayan (center left)
- Makabayan (far left)
- New recruits (voters in dynastic regions who have nationalistic passion)
It will take all five groups to make a difference. Each, on its own, just does not have the power to move the needle much. To win in 2028, to capture the presidency, and maybe even to make a difference in 2025, each these five groups must do two things:
- Demonstrate the maturity and flexibility to join with the other members of the coalition.
- Build national political strength.
With that as the framing, we can ask the question, what are Pinks doing as a political organization? Not as a social services organization where they work generously and competently. But as a POLITICAL organization, with national reach.
The answer is: nothing.
Pinks are independents. They have no national political organization. No candidates for the House or Senate. No party chairman. No organizer. Nothing. Zilch. They have the glow of Leni Robredo and the memories of fantastic, uplifting rallies. Fading memories I’d imagine.
To be real, for today, Pinks have a choice to make. Organize, build, and help Filipinos break free from colonizing dynasties.
Or fade out.
And let that wonderful spirit and all the good intentions die. Leave it to others. Or like a lot of yellows, give up and leave politics. Or leave the country.
Well, I’m hoping there will be a new reality because I’m rather sick of colonizers. I think the Philippines is a potentially great nation and the dynasts are holding her back. On top of that, the American dream is dying, rather proving that nothing is forever. And so I wonder. Do Filipinos have any dreams left?
Do Pinks?
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Cover photo produced by Word Press image generator using the article as the prompt.
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The Society of Honor by Joe America 
The loss in 2022 was painful for sure, and every Pink had their way of dealing with it. But American Democrats bounced back from 2016 and will bounce back again. They will check out what went wrong and find a way to do better next time. Will Pinks do anything similar. I wonder.
Sorry to say, but I didn’t see that after 2016 and 2019 in the Philippines. Imagine the Democrats down to less than 20% of the vote by yesterday because that is what happened to Pink in 2022. Cheating if ever just shaves and adds stuff here and there. That loss was very real.
Others within Pink console themselves with being the good guys. Well, that doesn’t help as the goal of a political group is to shape a country in a certain direction. Good is if one gets it done. Joe, thanks for outlining an implied Pink vision. Because Atty Leni isn’t a miraculous idol, an avatar of Our Lady of Peñafrancia who would have healed the country magically. Similar hopes with Cory did not materialize either. Sorry for the sarcasm. Y’all feel free to correct me.
I think Leni Robredo would have been a magnificent President. The best. She is organized, precise, and intelligent. Her cabinet would have been terrific. She is not political. Loves people, dislikes the crass superficiality of politicking. That’s my observation. A president is only as successful as the circumstances permit. That was Cory’s reality. What, seven coup attempts or somesuch? Aquino was imperfect because of a military operation that was betrayed by someone on the Peace Committee and Frick and Frack SAF leadership, by a monster storm, and by some mosquitoes.
Leni Robredo was betrayed by social media shitstorms and the anger of the oppressed seeking a ruthless savior.
I think the Pink political flame is pretty much out, as a national phenomenon. Unless someone rides to the rescue. That person would likely have to be Leni herself, so is a small likelihood.
But that doesn’t make the plan to break dynasties that I’ve outlined wrong. Just weaker.
Yes, Leni Robredo would have done a good job, but a lot of even Pinks barely knew her capabilities nor what she stood for.
As the Philippine polity still lacks the capability to distill the essence of what great leaders are and continue it, having a simple goal like down with the dynasties is probably the best way. Other bridges can be crossed later, a very Filipino way indeed of dealing with things.
And already I’m seeing Pinks online learning the wrong lesson from the Democratic loss in the US. I was surprised to even see MLQ III’s anecdote from a friend comparing Harris’ rallies to Pink rallies. The fact is Democrats were extremely organized; the problem was that the message didn’t break through to voters who fell to their base instincts of scarcity mindset based on fake information. Not really sure what to do to be honest when MAGA fully believes a booming economy with low interest rates is fake, but believes “$8/gallon gas” when one can literally point to the gas station sign down the street that says “$3/gallon.” The failure of the Pinks in 2022 was not the rallies, it was the lack of organization in addition to not really having a message or policy. When I observed the Pink rallies, it was more of a lovefest, similar to a liberal church revival meeting.
Perhaps the other problem for both Kamala Harris and Leni Robredo was that they had very limited time to campaign. In today’s social media environment, the message needs to be repeated endlessly for a year or more. See the other side: they constantly repeat lies, until people believe it.
Yes, the lovefest was truly impressive – but ineffective.
EDSA was different in that it was a true risk, but what irritated me soon afterward is how Cory was portrayed as a savior type figure by some. And there was this spirit of wow we have a wonderful new Constitution and we have Handog ng Pilipino sa Mundo composed by Jim Paredes. Let’s all sing and let the curtain fall so we can live happily ever after is the impression I got from some, and I thought, oh no, guys, really? Huge luck once doesn’t guarantee miracles. And exactly what Joe described happened, coups, etc. – magical expectations not met.
The hope of replicating a singular and exceptional event like EDSA is foolishness. Painting entire avenues pink with people is impressive, but that’s it. With the rest, I concur.
What do you think causes the magical thinking in the Philippines? My guess was that it is related to the old days of the datu where people are given everything they demand, or they switch allegiance.
It would probably take a massive societal shock to cause another EDSA I. I’ve talked to quite a few Filipinos over the years and quite a few expect some kind of EDSA event to solve all the problems plaguing the Philippines.
Some sort of magical thinking related to leaders is part of many a tribal culture, for instance also the “Heil” (hail, for those Saxons that got lost at sea and ended up on a strange island) of a Germanic King. The usage of exactly that word for an Austrian Lance Corporal who must not be named shows how anachronistic tribal stuff is in today’s world. But for instance, Prof. Xiao Chua has been trying to modernize that thinking by, for instance, portraying Jesse Robredo as a modern datu who brought kaginhawaan to the people of Naga. We should also see how the use of very Filipino concepts like kalooban and kapwa in Catholicism over there. Sometimes, it is necessary to fetch people from where they are, not from many miles away.
Seems like the false lesson learned by some Filipinos due to EDSA is that if St. Mary (Cory) didn’t help as no instant miracles happened after 1986 was to try the devil (Duterte) instead.
One can pray, but one has to have a plan and take steps needed to improve a nation.
One of the biggest problems I see plaguing DE when I interact with them is that they spend almost all the salary they earn. Yes, one can say that their salary is lacking in the first place and the salary is lacking, but one can still prioritize. I’ll see friends complain and drop into resentment about lacking, yet they will go for convenience, food delivery, taking tricycles rather than the jeep (to save a few minutes; not talking about saving half an hour here), buying shampoo sachets and one stick cigarettes from the sari-sari rather than a bottle of shampoo or a pack of cigarettes, buying ulam outside and feeling “good” that they “saved” by cooking rice at home. More still, they will continue to complain while holding a relatively new Android or secondhand iPhone and ask me why I’m still using my 5 year old iPhone. I sympathize with DE, I really do, which is why I prefer to spend time with them. But I remember my family when we had nothing, packed like sardines 3 families in a small rented 2 room house, eating rice with patis and oil, then I think about how we had saved a little at a time in order to move to an apartment, then a condominium, then bought our own house. I shared with some friends that my family were hacienderos until recent times, and they were shocked how we gained back a modicum of wealth from nothing. Or they will ask me if I have a housemaid, helper, yaya or driver, and when I said “no,” they said “why not,” because even they, an informal settler, can find someone more poor to work for them as a labandera.
When I stressed the importance of save excess salary to to let’s say, fix up their house built with salvaged materials, they said “why? it’s useless.” Yet there was a shiny new Chinese aircon in the wall replacing the jalousie window, never mind that due to no insulation or gaps in the installation they spent double or triple the electricity they needed to run that aircon. Of course when Odette hit the Central Visayas, it hit Lapu-Lapu City, Cordova, Mandaue City head on after dragging destruction across Bohol. If they had saved a little to rebuild the walls with hollow block at least they would’ve just had to build a new roof and replace some belongings instead of everything being flattened.
“The barangay captain and mayor will help us. The President will help us.” Of course, many Cebuanos were disappointed as the supposed help from the Duterte administration never came. Streets were still flooded weeks later and strewn with broken trees and electrical poles. I think for most people they didn’t even get any assistance money until months later, and it was not the full amount promised. I wonder where the difference in the promised amount went. Surely money does not take months and months to send?
I think it’s a big problem if the DE, who constitute the vast majority of Filipinos (93%) retain the old mentality where they depend totally on their leaders for the “extra stuff,” and spend all their salaries mostly on needs, yes, but spend the rest on wants that can wait. Most of the chinoys whose families had immigrated during the Spanish or even American time arrived to Philippine shores with nothing, and likely had worse off jobs and lower salaries than native Filipinos. Yet they didn’t give into their wants, saved, and now are wealthy and thriving. A country where the vast majority depends on leaders in near totality is an electorate that’s easily controlled. Improvement takes hard work, a bit of thrift, and a bit of luck. Yet those who even linger a bit too long in front of the Jollibee menu sign are teased as “kuripot.”
German Social welfare recipients can have behaviors similar to Filipino DE.
There used to be a place called Cafe Manila in the working class and partly marginalized South of Munich. I came into that area when it was between being bohemian and gentrified. Maybe that Cafe Manila robbed me of any hipster type delusions about certain milieus.
It was not a Cafe, it was a beer joint, owned by an old lady from Davao and frequented by some of the craziest drunks of Munich. Many of the kind that spent their time at that time €390,- monthly welfare allowance on beer in the first days of every month. Some were smart enough to buy canned goods immediately after they got their allowance – in cash, from the post office, as they had lost access to the even normal savings banks – but the boss of the Cafe Manila, actually of Cebuano descent, was able to I guess earn OK from her small pub which had her apartment behind it. She was the last resort for folks who were not given drinks elsewhere and especially not allowed to “write up” drinks, meaning drink now pay later. Not totally dumb.
A former assembly line mechanic and an electrician were two interesting characters I got to know there. The mechanic was pensioned, had fled Silesia with his mother as a child, and did not get into Dresden as the refugee trek from the East was huge. They watched the town burn in the night. Anyhow, he had been a small enterpreneur and told the electrician who had not had a job in years (and me) that the Filipina was making good money selling beer that cost 80 cents in the store for 3 Euro in the glass. He said just estimate how much they drink there.
She could, I guess, afford the “generosity” of “lista” as she knew her clientele would usually clear their debts on the first of the month. Her father, she once told me in a rare open moment, had been a rice trader in rural Davao with good connections to the older, postwar Ampatuans.
BTW, the mechanic only drank one beer at the Cafe Manila and invited the few people he liked to his place where beer in cans was served. He was a kind of mentor to me in my early years of freelancing when I didn’t have a clue. And too timid to dare meet the “better circles” in Bavaria. Something great that old man told me was: “You don’t belong here, the moment I don’t see you anymore I will be happy.” He also told me,”If you notice you aren’t cut out for business, get out and find a job again, I did that too late.” Followed the advice of the old man in both points.
What I also saw in that subculture, now dried out by gentrification and by these people who mostly failed to get on the train of modernizing postwar Bavaria getting older, was that misery loves company and people at the bottom can act like crabs anywhere in the world.
The most interesting thing about the Red States in the US that have a high proportion of Trump voters is that Trump supporters are either affluent non-college educated small business owners, or very poor Whites who are surviving off of state welfare or social security disability benefits (it’s relatively easy to become certified for social security disability, but then one can’t work legally since they are “disabled”). Both vote against their own interests as tariffs hurt small businesses the most, while taking away government benefits would hurt the other supporters. It all boils down to racism and fear that other races will get ahead of them. White supremacy is still a thing here in some states.
I wonder what party the Fil-Germans in your story would vote? And who would they vote for as an overseas Filipino in Philippine elections.
I can tell you that there is a stark divide between Fil-Ams and it works much like back in the Philippines. The educated Fil-Ams, like doctors, nurses, lawyers, businessmen tend to vote for Democrats in the US and vote for LP back in the Philippines. In fact Tagalog-Americans form the bulk of Fil-Ams and they vote Democratic. On the other hand, non-college educated Fil-Ams such as blue collar workers, those who own small shops, and (haha) those subsisting on government welfare mostly voted for Trump in the US and Duterte/Marcos back in the Philippines. This other half are mostly Bisaya and are more recent immigrants. Ilokano-Americans form a small slice, and due to mostly being US Navy veterans from back in the day, habitually vote Republican here due to traditional (undeserved IMHO) association of the Republican Party with anti-communism, but interestingly vote for LP back in the Philippines. Non-college educated Filipinos really have weird and syncretic political views that sometimes don’t make sense. There are those who were super-Pink supporters yet are rabid MAGA. It’s like … “ano connect?”
before those two things, Joe, I think we need to identify who the enemies to be opposed are. Which I already know the answer to, but I would then ask further which is the worst enemy? and how to choose between said enemies. if one is chosen as worst, then the other enemy has to be seen as ally and not enemy, eg. the enemy of my enemy is my friend. of course I’m talking about Inday Sara as ally here. but yours might be different. if you favor Sandro then why? or if its Tulfos, etc. etc.
The idea is to defeat Dynasts meaning no more Marcos or any Dynastic last name and replace them with non dynastic last names, then they will be dynasts soon enough. Back to square 1.
A non-dynastic President could get an anti-dynasty law passed. On to square 2.
Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!
Right on!
Are the Tulfos a dynasty? Hmmmm. Are they trustworthy? I can’t read them. If they are committed to honesty in government, and anti-dynasty as a concept, then they could be in the Peoples’ movement. But Sara and Sandro are deep into dynasties over nation, so, no, they remain, not the enemy, because they are citizens, but outside the movement.
They remind me of the Daltons from the Lucky Luke comics series. That is, of course, not a deep comment.
Haha, well shallow is occasionally refreshing or, as in this case, deeply amusing.
THANKS, as always, Joe America. We need to build a “national political organization” to rid our country of “political dynasties”!
Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone
Yes, indeed. That is exactly what is needed.
These are my takeaways from the US Election that are relevant to the Philippines:
• Expel the Far Left once and for all. Their votes are too few, they are too troublesome, and they really, really scare “normies.”
Makabayan needs to go. People see Makabayan as commies because that’s exactly what they are. Just like one cannot change one’s DNA, Makabayan’s DNA is rooted in Joma’s Maoism and they refuse to repudiate that. They are not wanted. They demand too much, give too little. They are not constructive. They can’t deliver votes, which is the entire point of running an election campaign to begin with.
• Messaging needs to be kept vague so the other party can’t attack by crucifying a movement to the cross of positions.
Joe Biden did a great job with this in 2020 with his message of unity. Normies thought Joe Biden, an old White man, as a Centrist. Even the left wing of the Democratic coalition thought he was a Centrist and criticized him for it. But Joe Biden ended up being the most progressive President since LBJ, passing as much progressive legislation in one term as a two term President, all while looking like a Centrist old White man. Post analysis has started to see patterns of the Democrats losing because Biden’s own party backstabbed him, thinking Democrats will win anyway this year, and the Far Left driving the narrative on the Gaza War (which they don’t actually care about as they are using it to try to foment communist revolution). Instead of staying unified as a party, certain Democrat elites tried to jockey their own preferred candidate by sabotaging Biden. Big mistake.
• Mainstream Media is no longer reliable for information.
Mainstream Media has largely been captured by corporate interests, who have figured out again that Yellow Journalism of outrage sells. Gone are the esteemed journalists of yesteryear, who have been replaced by so-called journalists who remind me of high school Journalism Club rejects who are chasing fame and Twitter clout rather than reporting unbiased news. Trump was “sanewashed” throughout by the Mainstream Media, who have apparently woken up today and are begging for readers to re-subscribe because they are “the light in darkness” and “protectors of Democracy.” Screw them. We have seen this game before.
• Social Media algorithms are skewed towards outrage.
Mark Zuckerberg in the lead-up to the 2016 Election attempted to clamp down on fake news written by obscure cranks, amplified by Russia, and mindlessly shared by millions. What he found out was that outraged reactions bring in more ad revenue, so he chose money over the Truth. The other social media platforms quickly followed. Twitter has been captured by a maniac billionaire, while right-wingers proliferate on Reddit. All put a thumb on the scale of people’s limited time to process information due to living their lives. Truth is paywalled, while disinformation is free. People are addicted to little glowing screens and the instant dopamine hit social media provides.
• The right-wing influencer, vlogger, podcaster network is extremely effective.
From people who were caught red-handed taking Russia’s money like Tim Pool ($400K a month), to “ironic comedian” podbros like Joe Rogan, to angry shouters like Ben Shapiro and Nick Fuentes, it’s clear the right-wing influencer, vlogger and podcaster network is very effective. Liberals in the US and Philippines have nothing like that. I do listen to quite a few progressive, centrist and center-right podcasts, and what I found during the “backstab Biden” debacle was that the centrists and center-right Never Trumpers stayed loyal to Biden while the progressive podcasters gleefully stabbed Biden over and over again. Well today the progressive backstabbers are crying a river over the Democrats losing.
We need to create our own influencer, vlogger, podcaster networks to disseminate the message repeatedly. The other side constantly lies using their influencer and online networks, eventually converting people. Liberals balk at the propanda-seeming nature of repeating a message and stay on their high horse, but there is no doubt that reinforcing messages is effective, whether the message are lies or truth.
• The other side have content networks, we don’t.
For years, billionaires like the Koch brothers have financed right-wing content networks like “Prager U” to make YouTube videos. I had blocked them a long time ago, and was only recently surprised to find out that these videos are very effective at brainwashing people into insane right-wing positions. There are millions of young people, mostly young men who are bored, friendless and seek long-form video content to “connect” to someone. We need to create our own, but instead of brainwashing people, we should share common sense truths to reinforce it.
• Legal and politician development pipelines.
The other side have legal networks like the Federalist Society to nurture right-wing judges for the pipeline up to the Supreme Court. The majority of US Supreme Court justices are now FedSoc members. In universities, conservatives are sometimes ostracized and College Republican Clubs and FedSoc gives them community. Often these conservatives aren’t the smartest people, as seen by FedSoc judges, but the difference is they had support to pipeline them through universities, bar exam, judge clerkships with right-wing judges, and eventually referral to judgeship themselves. Both the US and Philippines needs similar societies.
The other side develops their politicians, as can be seen by JD Vance, an obviously incompetent moron, somehow becoming VP-elect. They protect their acolytes. We destroy and tear down ours, some being the greatest prospectives. All these pipelines are funded by nonprofits who collect political donations and from donations of “good” billionaires. All these pipelines require creating organization and structure. The Republicans have been plotting their capture of all government branches for 40 years, and realized that due to the inevitable White minority they needed to capture the Supreme Court. Now they possibly may have a 7-2 court for my entire lifetime.
Liberals have no far-sighted thinking. We think that we are smarter, more educated, more competent (and we are). Yet we are constantly putting out fires personally rather than delegating to firemen, or simply letting the problem burn out like the conservatives do. The US conservatives have been planning this for 40 years. Heritage Foundation was set up in 1973 as a corporate reaction to Nixon’s initial embrace of the “liberal consensus.” I used to intern for the Heritage Foundation (haha).
Liberals need to start being far-sighted. We need to build organization that lasts beyond administrations. We need to protect our own and identify malcontents and eject them from the coalition immediately. A bit of “falling in line” isn’t a bad thing. Voices can be listened to, but it doesn’t mean we should obey obscure voices that cannot bring votes. After all, without winning votes there’s no point to a political party at all.
Excellent takeaways. I disagree on Makabayan but no need to rehash that. Mainstream media here are not captured by gamers like Murdoch and Bezos. They are reasonably honest if a bit shallow. Social media is poisoned for sure. Liberals are indeed soft, thinking that “being good” is enough. It isn’t. You have to compete with ruthless cheaters for citizen appeal. The right wing talk shows and tubers are definitely powerful. Lies are fun.
Since Inday Sara opted for the VP spot, when she could’ve gone Presidency and actually win it, where does that put her? Further what if she does promise to enact anti-dynasty law, and actually enacts it?
On Tulfos, I guess not dynasty yet, but since they are running as a family bloc, the definition can be expanded. plus they’re already media dynasty if not in politics, i’m thinking. so just lateralling over.
Sandro for sure is the enemy.
(I have no idea what s going on, Joe, but that was in reply to your dynast and Tulfos comment)…
There are millions of young people, mostly young men who are bored, friendless and seek long-form video content to “connect” to someone. We need to create our own, but instead of brainwashing people, we should share common sense truths to reinforce it.
I’m hearing a bunch of people voted for Trump based on that Joe Rogan 3 hour interview. I watched it and I can understand why. its really easy to watch cuz its just two dudes shooting the breeze, directing the conversation here and there, to and fro, both leading and following. taking turns. humorous too. my personal favorite was when he promised to open up the JFK/MLKjr. records early (its supposed to be later on this decade). which is Rogan’s thing. he’s also into UFOs, but strangely Trump stopped short of promising anything when Rogan pressed him Trump went on a different tangent. but Rogan did press Trump on his evidence for the 2020 election steal to which Trump just pointed to some book which documented all this, then Rogan was all like Well what else do you have that you can present to courts when if you become president, and nothing. like Cool Hand Luke, but they just kept on going meandering thru different topics. that was the only time Rogan kept trying to press him like 5 times i counted on election fraud proof. Gavin Newsom would totally own in that kinda format, probably push it to 5 hours even. but Kamala Harris (and why I was adamant she not do it, though with this landslide wouldn’t have made a difference either way we know now) would not have lasted 30 minutes before she ran out of talking points. My only comment on this idea, and I agree with you, if you get too preachy you’ll not have an audience, Joe Rogan works cuz he’s just shooting the shit, many times he’s saying I don’t really know. but its interesting. theres really no common sense truths, but shooting the shit. and they people that come on have to do the same, just shoot the shit w/ him. Howard Stern is the closest i know but that guy’s not as popular as when he was on radio.
• Messaging needs to be kept vague so the other party can’t attack by crucifying a movement to the cross of positions.
I disagree with this one, Joey. Kamala Harris was totally vague. That whole no tax on tips she copied from Trump, what the hell was that about? its a none issue, yet she decides to copy it. She was suppose to throw Biden under the bus, and say I’ll do better folks. instead opting for vague.
We are discussing Pinks and the Philippines here. Speculations on American politics are off topic. Speculations on Trump’s likely foreign policy, as it affects the Philippines, would be on topic. The article discusses how a peoples’ initiative can be formed here and the role of Pinks in that pathway.
Kamala Harris had an entire policy (nearly 100 pages) on her website. Kamala Harris, Tim Walz and their surrogates shared their policy constantly. Kamala Harris being “vague” just shows that you weren’t listening and believed the misinformation instead. Vibes are not truth. The no tax on tips Trump proposal was actually a trick loophole for the wealthy hedge fund managers to treat their profits as tips, while Kamala Harris’ proposal was targeted to tips on actual wage earners like service workers.
I’ll take someone that’s loyal over a backstabber, even if they end up losing. A loyal friend can stand with me to fight another day, while if they’re a backstabber, I’d be dead. MAGA knows loyalty. Trump will screw up and say the sky is purple when it’s orange, and they will all parrot that it’s purple. Why should Democrats engage in circular firing squads when the other side doesn’t? Why should Democrats always be held to a higher standard for little failures or no failures at all, when the other side is given a pass for tanking the economy and the US’s prestige across the world every single time they’re given power?
My request is to make the conversation relevant to Philippines. The subject is Pinks.
A loyal friend can stand with me to fight another day, while if they’re a backstabber, I’d be dead.
Joe, I just need to clarify “She was suppose to throw Biden under the bus, and say I’ll do better folks. instead opting for vague.” Joey, not stab Biden from behind, but more like moro-moro to allow Harris to distance herself from Biden. Cuz when she was on the View she couldn’t say either way like she had a brain fart. so Biden should’ve directed her early on, hey girl throw me under the bus. like pros, do the moro-moro. Look at Inday Sara and Imee, Imee said yeah we’re still besties. cuz Inday Sara i’m sure ran that bit w/ her about exhuming Imee’s dad’s remains before hand. moro-moro. I’ll stop here, Joe.
Last time before moderation. There are lots of forums for wailing and weeping, blaming and grinding about the US. There are few good discussion threads about the Philippines. I’m determined to keep this as one.
As Joey said, these types of broadcasters seek fame by being titillating in a simple, destructive manner. They establish the tenor for social media. Shallow with no core moral framing. I enjoy the musicians Howard Stern has on live, for the insights he dredges up as to how songs were created.
Those are irrelevant speculations to me. She is not among the five groups I mention. She is of the Dominant Duterte Dynasty and not a peoples’ servant as far as I can tell.
I say in a very small insignificant voice, all the more reason to impeach her!
Oh, the House hears you, I suspect, so your voice is not insignificant at all.
During Duterte’s time, Philippine media “obeyed in advance.” I remember what happened to the Manila Bulletin and The Inquirer. In last week, major American papers The Washington Post and LA Times did the same. The American historian Timothy Snyder whose area of study is authoritarian systems explains that power is almost always given freely to proto-authoritarians.
https://timothysnyder.org/on-tyranny
“Do not obey in advance.
Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do.”
The era of modern liberal parties is ending, I think. Liberals since the 1980s have positioned themselves as the do-gooders in contrast with soulless conservatism based on pure greed. I am reminded again that conservatives around the world are no longer the principled center-right conservatives they used to be, but have been captured by billionaires who in an attempt to hoard more money yet being few in number lack the votes to play fair and square. So they take a divide and conquer strategy to split every else’s power, even if the vast majority of people share common interests. By the power of anger and division, people are sorted into tribes who fight against each other, allowing the wealthy to retain power.
Filipinos may think they are followers, but in the modern digital age the Philippines is often the “leader,” the canary in the coal mine. In the lead up to the 2016 Philippine election there was massive disinformation unleashed on Filipinos, who are the most gadget-addicted country in the world. The Dutertes were a relatively unknown local dynasty, yet somehow created a huge disinformation campaign with their DDS trolls. There was evidence which came out later that the Russians with the help of Cambridge Analytica did a trial run on the Philippines electorate due to the English speaking population. The Russians later used a refined version of the playbook on the US Elections that year. Repeat the same with Brexit in the UK, unrest in the Netherlands, France, the far-right’s capture of Eastern Germany.
All the right-wing vloggers are just others in the ecosystem. Sure, it’s impossible for the Russians to have funded entire networks, but they have provided the seed money. The sad part is the Russians didn’t even invest that much money to these greedy, unpatriotic individuals. Now China and Iran have gotten into the game as well.
There are enough “good” and decent wealthy people who can help fund a liberal network of vloggers and podcasters. There are regular people who are willing to chip in for good content. Too often Liberals run away from allied content creators, thinking they are not that serious, or that they may be liability. In the US the Liberal Meidas Network has grown rapidly in the last year, all funded by their viewers. Joe, people like you and I may be old fashioned and prefer thoughtful writing, but the truth is that most people want to listen to content in the background. And most of the time that is long-form podcasts or vlogs. Even I listen to long-form podcasts (history) as background noise while driving or doing something else.
In today’s world, the working class in every Western or Western-looking country like the Philippines are too busy working, struggling to survive. They are often friendless or have fractured family and friends circles. Vlogs, podcasts, and new born again or “non-denominational” churches have replaced traditional family and friends groups. Liberals need to create their own groups that provide that sense of community and belonging. The game has changed. If we don’t adapt, we will become irrelevant in the face of the assault by the other side.
The Democratic base in the US are already starting to reflect and rediscover FDR’s more aggressive, militant stance. In the UK PM Keir Starmer won by taking the gloves off, despite a few years ago the Tories had a seemingly insurmountable supermajority in Parliament. The same could help the forces of good win in the Philippines.
The “good” that liberals preach is boring and doesn’t sell as well as anger, threats, and mahem. If conservatives are essentially traitors to the values of the Constitution, founded on biblical interpretations, they are both rotten Americans and rotten Christians. Philippine dynasties are sweethearts compared to amoral MAGA haters. Like Stephen Miller, the architect of Trump’s immigrant hate platform.
Well Filipino dynasties are sweethearts in comparison, with the occasional tandem killing conveniently removing opponents.
FDR was sure effective in channeling worker rage for the good. Both Truman and LBJ were famously acerbic. Joe Biden too, but he was constrained by the polished professional political elite. I think Democrats need to go back to that more pugilistic type of politics.
The same can go for Philippines too. People want a fighter, even if he was crude like Duterte. That’s also why Pacquio hung on in Congress and Senate for so long despite famously being absentee. I see nothing wrong with Liberals and the Left being fighters with one half of the face while the other side showing kindness. Punching back works. Filipinos loved Miriam Defensor-Santiago for that.
True, although I think I might have to concoct a nnew word to define those who believe in freedom, responsibility, equality, justice, compassion, and hard work. Liberal, like “yellow” is a hopelessly scorned adjective in the Philippines.
Redefining who is patriotic would be a start. Filipino Patriots, instead of brainless nationalism that has hampered the Philippines since the Revolution. Partido Patriyota has a nice ring to it.
It’s sad but I’m starting to conclude that people in today’s world don’t care about high-minded ideals like freedom, responsibility, equality, justice, compassion, or even the value of hard work. This is due to the relentless undermining of social and economic stability by the monied elites that caused people to no longer have time to think about such things. What little free time they have they’d rather engage in modern opium smoking to cope. People feel that life is a zero sum game and in thr scarcity they must take as much as they can grab for themselves. Instead there must be a new message of abundance politics, with the attendant jobs to match the words. Local governors and politicians in the US are already pivoting to pugilism and attracting investment to their own locales. If the forces of good in the Philippines manage to capture local power they must do whatever in the power to get the same. Only then can a power base be built for the next battle.
It’s pretty clear that social media have caused a great dumbing down of thinking, emotionalizing discussion and turning debate into sloppy illogical sound bites. That’s the world today and Filipinos drew only the free pass of being a blank unwritten slate. There is no way to quit, for myself. The path moves that direction up ahead.
How can we move forward to create a pro-democracy, pro-good governance social media presence in the Philippines?
There is already a good governance initiative among LGUs, so the awareness is here. I think emphasizing Filipino pride in decency and competence would help. My proposed unified left/liberal peoples’ initiative would support those ideals. I don’t do any social media other than X and modestly on Threads. You might consider writing an article for Rappler. They are pretty good at speaking for democratic ideals. I’ll keep writing here.
The Philippine cities that are more modern like for instance QC or Baguio who belong to that initiative probably have realized you can’t run a city well for its inhabitants just “any old way” in this case like in the 1950s, not much different from barangay style.
That awareness has only partly trickled up to national level, which I have described as the national village. One can at most nudge awareness in the right direction, realizations happen when they happen, like a light bulb turning on.
Yes, but voters have to find enlightenment, too.
The voters get it locally because local is more tangible.
National is I fear still too abstract for most. They are happy when one of their perceived own like Pacquiao sits in the Senate but don’t care if he works.
Cities like QC and Baguio are solidly middle class though. Middle class people demand better standards of living and security. I think it’s still quite tough to replicate the same in cities with large voter bases in the D category, as they tend to vote for the devil they know then the devil they don’t know.
There is a structural issue in the Philippines called the Internal Revenue Allotment or IRA, which every town gets based on population and land area.
By contrast, a German town gets a portion of income and corporate taxes earned their, meaning it has an incentive to attract business and productive people, while Philippine LGUs just need a large population.
The US operates similarly, with taxes being broken down by local (usually property tax and sales tax), state, and federal. This also encourages local behavior for officials to compete for contracts and attract business, with the accompanying productive people to be employed at those businesses.
Though, the “Red” states effectively survive by leeching off of the “Blue” states’ tax revenue, while attacking the “elites” living in the Coastal States that their state depends on. Go figure.
Although, if tax control is transferred to more local control in the Philippines with a small portion being sent to the national budget, I wonder how that would work. I can easily conceive scenarios where the local politicians would try to skim off more locally, cook the books and send less to the national coffers. Oversight would be needed.
There was a huge issue as well, BTW, with bottom-up budgeting or BUB.
I read somewhere about how money for a barangay hall in Albay took two years to arrive from being requested to being actually disbursed.
Leni’s Angat Buhay (more correctly, Angat Pilipinas Inc.) has the advantage of speed as opposed to a government that needs a dozen employees and five forms in color carbon copy to change a light bulb and believes that is the only way.
It seems useful to create more NGOs then like Angat Buhay. In most countries political parties also have NGO arms. IMHO Filipinos need to start looking at political control with a holistic view. It’s absolutely possible to do more with less. One just needs to see how the effect can be maximized, in order for people to start remembering names and parties. But alas, by 2028 we will probably just see another bunch of color rallies with 6 months to go until election day, then the dejected supporters will wonder why they couldn’t defeat the always present, always active political machines of the dynasts. Dynasts can only win when people are not engaged and feel demoralized.
The reasons for dynasts and oligarchs in the Philippines are similar. It is a low-trust society where people suck at cooperating. Have you been able to see how Filipino overseas organizations often fail? The reasons can be anything from one person or group taking money because they believe it is rightfully theirs, one person or group accusing the others of doing so, refusal to accept decisions taken by majorities leading to minorities forming their “new barangays”, loss of need for patrons who were the automatic leaders of some associations and much more. Both Revolution and Republic failed due to pathological inability to set aside differences to at least WIN before literally killing one another.
What works well long-term abroad are groups dedicated to helping and especially groups dedicated to helping the respective hometown. That Angat Buhay and diverse LGU initiatives work well at home is not surprising. The country might not be ready for more yet.
It is the same here. The issue is mostly 2 things. Easier and cheaper to just pay the BIR and LGU under the table thing as everything is not properly tracked.
true, filipinos loved miriam defensor santiago methink mostly for her irreverent jokes both published and spoken, but did not love her well enough to give her the votes. in 2016, she failed in her bid to be president and her running mate, bong marcos, also failed in his bid to be vice president. roughly 3 months later, miriam died of cancer.
I think the love was from B, and the fringes of A and C, So she could not convince a nation.
Personally, I thought Defensor-Santiago had authoritarian tendencies herself, and I was not impressed with her choosing BBM as a running mate.
“It’s sad but I’m starting to conclude that people in today’s world don’t care about high-minded ideals like freedom, responsibility, equality, justice, compassion, or even the value of hard work” …
I agree; the amount of time one ends up alloting to evaluate insights like these demand a disciplined personality to “triage” events & tasks in response. (the duality principle of space & time)
like kb’s american bobotante comment, also especially MSNBC over here are commenting the same, like they are bobotante no college education etc. its just high falutin’ stuff, sonny. the job of those over educated and higher IQ folks are to make it make sense at the ground level. its not trickling down. don’t blame the D&E’s , people with education and or smarter need to talk to their mechanics or gardners or nurses aids or waiters. they never cared about high-minded ideals because you can’t eat high-minded ideals. i learnt that one in the Philippines, sonny. at this point D&E’s are just looking to throw wrenches at the machine. and Trump was the biggest monkey wrench out there. So Pinks need to just focus on D&E’s from here to 2028. and Pinks need to keep asking can they eat justice and compassion and equality and equity and diversity. if the answer is no, then move on to what is digestable.
Agreed, LC – it’s a jungle out there! My concern(s); The ABCDE frame for PH & US must be bridged at the interfaces like fording a body of water of unknown depth & constitution; like it’s always a “civil” war; What’s the goal, who are the opposition, what costs, resources, benefits, collateral damage, etc.
Some hints are in my answer to LCPL_X, but I just realized that the Catholic Church (as my father once said, an institution that survives two millenia is worth studying) can show the way. The deeper books are for monks, catechism for the literate laymen, and pictures for the common people. A lot of lessons are contained in the stories of the Bible, as long before their were Greek philosophers, people told stories way back to the time Neolithic campfires. There is a strength to stories not existent in theory. Seven fat and seven lean years, for instance, is a more catchy lesson than details of budgets. Houses built on rock as metaphors for projects..
I, for instance, only got a shocking real feel for Duterte’s brutality when I read the story of Clarita Alia of Davao, who lost 4 sons to tokhang. Recent interviews with and fan biographies of SB19 and BINI with their life stories made the struggles of many Filipinos more real than ever to me. Whether it was one needing help from US relatives to pay his his hospital bill for dengue, one being sent to Japan after he ran up huge hospital bills as well and even getting an offer by a rich Japanese woman to marry him, or one who’s mother hid from the 50:60 in her youth when they often had only katas of the coconut to eat with inutang rice as the father’s band gigs and her mother’s sari-sari store gave 6 siblings only a precarious existence – all these examples and more made the stories Joey has been telling here recently very real to me. More of that..
There are also non-intellectual media that shape our idea of the world, for instance, movies. If I look at below video criticism of modern movies as destroying heroes, I am reminded of how my father already found 1970s movies as lacking heroes.
But at least my teen idol actor Harrison Ford wasn’t just a rebel without a cause in his Han Solo role. Actually, he is more similar to Humphrey Bogart (the actor my father idolized as a teen) in his iconic Casablanca role than one sees at first glance, not caring until he does care. But the Critical Drinker and his friends are right when they lament how Han Solo and Luke Skywalker are deconstructed in Disney Star Wars, to be replaced by a Mary Sue character like Rey, someone who doesn’t have a heroes journey because she never goes through adversity. Looping back to the Philippines, they don’t have Darna anymore, who relies on miracles, the famous meteorite she swallows, they have do it yourself heroes like Ang Probinsyano or the secret agent in Iron Heart. By contrast, the USA has nihilists like Walter White. Even Jesse Pinkman, who is a good character, flees to Canada. Back again to the main topic Philippines, both PPop groups SB19 and BINI are admired by their fans for their grit in getting to stardom, even if the stories are different, of course a group of boys and a group of girls, need I say more? Kiko Pangilinan should have practiced telling stories to the masa in 2022, based on known teleseryes or admired groups or stars with his wife Sharon Cuneta as the test audience. I have been trying to get a grip on the present Filipino “Zeitgeist” via popular culture to get the people’s “pulse.” It is like my father talked to taxi drivers all the time in Manila to get a feel of what the street was talking about. I kinda did that, too, as a consultant when I came to new places. Also, watching the corniest local TV shows in the hotel when new in town, get a feel for where I’m at. If the Liberal politicians in the Philippines can’t do stuff like suggested, they should at least hire people with some background from ABS-CBN or wherever who know what the people feel most about or at least what they laugh about, or involve Kris Aquino more in the background, all that.
Some hints are in my answer to LCPL_X, but I just realized that the Catholic Church (as my father once said, an institution that survives two millenia is worth studying) can show the way. The deeper books are for monks, catechism for the literate laymen, and pictures for the common people.
I am loving my youtube algorithm, Ireneo. again just from my Carl Jung watches, youtube tells me you should watch these videos too , dummy… so I say aye, aye… and go further into rabbit holes. This one I came upon last night just going thru videos. cuz i’d just submitted my 5th Inday Sara article to Joe and wanted to read up more for the comments. sonny, do you know this Jesuit? just his biography alone is awesome. Totally agreed, Ireneo, we need to see priests more like that boxer priest from the Exorcist movie. archetypes of heroes and warriors , that’s digestable. as much as people wanna piss on Joe Rogan that s what he brought to the table, via UFC, UFOs, fringe people, conspiracy theories, just stories. people like stories and better yet when they can connect the dots. like a scavenger hunt for the mind. and if you go on a road trip even better. I’m watching “From” right now , from the creators of “Lost”. trippy stuff. Warrior Nun was a good show too (they’re suppose to break into a movie trilogy now from the series). you’re right , theres so many ways to expose D&E to high falutin’ stuff without theory and words. show ’em.
This discussion makes me think I should add a sixth element to the formula for a peoples’ coalition. The Catholic Church. That’s exactly the group that is needed to move the coalition away from radical leftists to straight center, with the Church representing the conservative side of things.
But the Critical Drinker and his friends are right when they lament how Han Solo and Luke Skywalker are deconstructed in Disney Star Wars, to be replaced by a Mary Sue character like Rey, someone who doesn’t have a heroes journey because she never goes through adversity.
I really liked the Rey Skywalker story arc, it was better than Joseph Campbell s hero’s journey cuz it went for the source, Carl Jung which Campbell got his hero’s journey from. but Rey’s was about becoming whole not bifurcated, that’s all Jungian (which I’m just discovering now, analyzing why I liked it vis a vis the Critical Drinker). the movies were great, but then Disney + instead went for DEI woke stuff. lost in translation. All the tv series I never could get into. even Mandalorian i hated. Rey Skywalker i liked. i’ll have to watch it again now, with this Jungian stuff in mind.
As an aside, both new Star Wars trilogies are actually quite similar to the original trilogy. The original Star Wars trilogy was “DEI” for the time, with characters like Lando and various non-humans being stand-ins for other races. All 3 trilogies had similar stories, just set in different time periods with different actors. Most of the fans who hated the new Rey arc were older GenX White men who grew up on the original trilogy. It was never about DEI with the Rey arc. In today’s society, it is impolite to be nakedly racist, but the comments I saw hating rabidly on the Rey arc told me all I needed to know. It was racism, because what those men hated was that Star Wars dared to include some non-White characters and a female lead as the Main Characters. Same goes for the spinoffs like Mandalorian and Ashoka. Andor, they didn’t hate as much since the main character, who in real life is of Hispanic ethnicity, probably passed enough as White.
Oh, I know that there was a lot of open hate towards the Vietnamese-American female character in Star Wars 8, for instance. Still, the two new Star War trilogies were like worse and worse copies of the original trilogy.
Andor was done in a very interesting way, showing the life of ordinary people in the Empire as well as those doing its dirty work. The planet Ferrix, with its mix of working class, guild, and black market culture, was fascinating. The ISB was morbidly fascinating, fascism embodied.
Well there was more muted hate towards the Black character also, but it’s considered more acceptable to be openly racist towards Asians than Black Americans. Black Americans will push back as they have dealt with racism longer. I felt sad about that as the later movies were re-written actually to remove the Black and Asian characters to very minor roles. I think I read an interview somewhere from the scriptwriters how that made the later movies in the trilogy really suck. On the new trilogies being worse, well, sometimes we are stuck in what we grew up with. I happen to think the original trilogy was the best also, and really hated the prequel trilogy… but looking back over 20 years later, the prequel seems better than I remembered it to be.
I really enjoyed Andor, and I actually liked Mandalorian and Ashoka too. A bit sad Ashoka was not renewed. Disney-fication is a thing though, but not in what some anti-DEI/anti-woke people accuse it as being. I see Disney-fication as more like making sequels of everything so quickly that there are no longer any interesting or deep stories told. The Marvel Universe started out the same, very interesting and entertaining, but later movies in the MU are a chore to watch with the jokes not hitting as hard as before.
ps.—- I hope Filipino screen writers and film makers get into Jung, theres a lot there to be mined for sure.
SB19’s leader and songwriter Pablo writes VERY Jungian songs on his solo work. His first song, La Luna (with subtitles), is about the shadow we all have:
So is Gigi de Lana in her cover of Unholy, probably more instinctively than the English major Pablo, but it also is edgy and got conservatives riled up:
The Philippines is new to edgy stuff whether you call it Jungian or whatever. Filipinos are often to afraid of the dark to confront it square on, so most of the good mostly just hope and pray.
Irineo, if I may add, there’s a christian hymn about hope and pray that most good filipinos sing when facing their most insurmountable problem in life. the hymn goes this way, do not worry over what to eat, what to wear and put upon the feet, trust and pray, go do your best today – and leave it in the hands of the lord!
so good filipinos go out and do their best for the day, and the rest is up to the good lord. and they do again the next day, and the day after the next, doing what is their best for the day: living.
“sonny, do you know this Jesuit?…”
Fr Teilhard de Chardin SJ was required reading at the Ateneo for Philosophy credits for Arts & Sciences; with much regret I had different Philosophy professors. Fr Roque Ferriols, SJ was the department specialist on Fr Teilhard. As you’re our go to resource for anything Google I also suggest a search for Fr Robert Spitzer, SJ; also Stephen Meyer (Intelligent Design); Dr James Tour of Rice University; Hugh Ross of Caltech on the Anthropic Principle. (listen to his podcast on the Book Of Genesis)
“This discussion makes me think I should add a sixth element to the formula for a peoples’ coalition. The Catholic Church. That’s exactly the group that is needed to move the coalition away from radical leftists to straight center …”
Count me in, Joe. 🙂
You’re in, sonny. You can be our virtual ambassador to the blog from the Church. No salary, of course.
Thanks, sonny! this is the first time I’m hearing Anthropic Principle. i’ll start on those folks youve recommended. good stuff. cursory youtubing I can already see Hugh Ross with UFO stuff, sonny. my interests for sure.
@Joe I second this Catholic Church addition. but with more monks and Jesuits (and cloistered nuns and mystics). More Penafrancia stuff please.
ps.—- its times like this I really miss i7sharp. we’d be neck deep in KJV quotes and numbers by now!
I really enjoyed Andor, and I actually liked Mandalorian and Ashoka too.
Andor was the one I least hated. Ashoka, I prefered the cartoon it was just a better story IMHO.
LC, (ps) Fr Des Chardin’s Omega Point/Singularity is also the intersection with The Big Bang as postulated by Fr Lemaitre and presently as affirmed by Dr Hugh Ross. Makes sense, really.
It wasn’t a surprise that in the period following the Black Death in Europe, rising standards of living and wages for the survivors increased the leisure time necessary to ponder high minded principles, ushering in the Enlightenment. Nowadays, life for most Filipinos is akin to “neo-feudalism” where the vast majority of the population is too busy trying to earn enough to survive. No time to think, and the little leisure time they have they would rather spend on entertainment. What little time is left is consumed by gadgets feeding algorithms.
Irineo B. R. Salazar
“… I just realized that the Catholic Church (as my father once said, an institution that survives two millenia is worth studying) can show the way“. Your dad was very wise, Irineo!
thanks, sonny! this is really good stuff. was not aware of this. keep it coming. a lot of it is going over my head, but I’m reading it. lol.
Poignant words by conservative Fil-Am attorney George Conway. The last line hits hard.
“I say all of this not in anger, but in deep and profound sorrow. For centuries, the United States has been a beacon of democracy and reasoned self-government, in part because the Framers understood the dangers of demagogues and saw fit to construct a system with safeguards to keep such men from undermining it, and because our people and their leaders, out of respect for the common good and the people of this country, adhered to its rules and norms. The system was never perfect, but it inched toward its own betterment, albeit in fits and starts. But in the end, the system the Framers set up—and indeed, all constitutional regimes, however well designed—cannot protect a free people from themselves.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/11/trump-election-presidential-term/680562/?gift=9uyuYdwstDXmDRiaAfJXJQtoQYoHC9i4Om2FExW_YlQ&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
Yes. It’s a failure of 72.6 million souls.
aha, there are also bobotantes in estados unidos apparently, and philippines is no longer the sole proprietor of bobotantes, haha.
it is alleged trump got more votes from latinos, blacks, asians and women; all believing america can be greater, in the new golden age trump harps about. so all those celebs from taylor swift, ophra, lady gaga, beyonce, jennifer lopez, etc their endorsement did not matter much. even dr phil changed side and voted for trump having been apparently snubbed by kamala harris’ running mate.
72.6 million needy, uninformed souls at last count. The allegations are untrue and stats are published and available to research, I’m pretty sure. The chart I looked at had about 70% of white men for Trump, 55% of white women, and about 15% of blacks and 25% of Latinos. That’s from memory. Basically, angry whites elected him, people of color are afraid of his hate, and a whole lot of people will suffer because of dumb whites.
Latinos put Trump over the top this time, as he probably killed off some of his White voters in Covid mismanagement.
From the perspective of Latino Trump supporters. Some are apparently illegal immigrants who are being protected by Biden while undergoing their asylum claims. Apparently they think Trump will punish the “bad Latinos” but not them.
A revealing read (reader mode to bypass paywall):
“Near Varela outside the ICE field office in Atlanta stood Manuel Baez, a migrant from Venezuela who entered the country illegally roughly two years ago. He is temporarily protected from deportation by a Biden administration humanitarian program, but he identifies as a Trump supporter.
“I wasn’t here last time” he was in office, “but they tell me that the economy was better then,” Baez said. “I think he’ll bring taxes down.”
He described the border as “out of control” and “dangerous.”
“Trump is protecting us by making sure we don’t go through that,” Baez said.”
https://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-news/they-could-be-deported-but-these-latino-immigrants-in-georgia-still-relish-trumps-win/WG2R3GU3INBVHAJGHXWNJYCMEA/
I’m Spanish fluent. During travels to Latin American countries there is much of the same crab mentality prevalent in the Philippines, which leads me to conclude this is a byproduct of Spanish colonization. Everyone wants to be “alta,” and identify as White even if they are clearly not. In Spanish the term for someone with crab mentality is “chaqueteo” meaning someone who changes jackets frequently. Such a person would be accused of being a “cheto.”
Republicans even if they are insincere, fill Spanish airwaves with propaganda and send Spanish speaking surrogates out to talk to immigrants and stoke anger/confusion. Come to think about it, the dynasts also send surrogates to talk to local concerns in the local language even if they are also insincere. I had a thought today during a chat with a friend that we’ve rarely observed Liberals or Pinks interface with local voters in their own language. They also depend on social media and seldom viral moments rather than going out to meet the people, so they seem distant and insincere.
True getting out there requires money and an operation. But without doing this when the dynasts already have networks to do it is a critical failure.
Well, white women outnumber Hispanics, and more than a majority went for Trump, so I am still inclined to see it as a white man’s disease. Hispanics didn’t win it for Trump in my calculus.
I agree with your observation. I live in a predominantly white neighborhood and most of my neighbors have the Trump yard signs. I only saw 1 more Harris sign aside ours. It belongs to a white Lesbian couple. I can’t call my right leaning neighbors bobotantes because a lot of them are white collar professionals. I think the Republicans’ diatribe about illegal immigrants taking white people’s jobs and their supposed criminality making communities unsafe resonated with white people and brought out anger, hate and fear. Trump’s campaign is ripe with “othering” and dehumanization of non-white immigrants (Springfield, Ohio “they’re eating the pets” incident and Trump talking daily about US being the garbage can of the world where they toss their criminal elements). White people got scared and looked at Trump as their savior and protector. He told them he will fix their issues. It is analogous to the DE voting of Duterte in office.
Spot on, JP. I’m fascinated by the modern delineation of “woke” as evil, whereas woke is basically enlightenment that some find oppressive (mask mandates). To me, this is the modern way good is defeated in favor of bad. It will be a dismal life when values are absolutely turned inside out, willingly and needfully.
JP, when VP Harris was sent to the Mexican border crisis zone, she seemed not able to leverage her presence to state concern and that Pres Biden had the situation under control; also, her hard line on pro-choice just made pro-lifers confirm a putative Harris presidency will make presence of Planned Parenthood & the abortion infrastructure/industry a fait accompli.
Ireneo was asking about Clint Eastwood and Gran Torino and am a fan of the writer, Nick Schenk most of his movies have this No Country for Old Men vibe to them. But I think if you really wanna understand what Ireneo called pro-Trump American cowboy archetype, you’d have to look at Taylor Sheridan’s body of work. and stuff he’s produced. I think more than anything he’s captured American zeitgeist. from cowboys to la frontera to indians, if he can connect cattle mutilations and UFOs package that into a series or movie, I’m set. If you poll the 72 Million people who’ve voted Trump, you’ll see most like around 99% of them would have watched and enjoyed a movie or series of his. Wind River is my favorite. formula seems to be cowboy trope, then hunting, then fighting for what s right which gov’t don’t consistently, and you’re beset by all these bad things. boom, that’s MAGA right there. and all American archetypes within that main cowboy archetype, Ireneo. real simple stuff. but engaging. here’s a plot w/out title.
White people got scared and looked at Trump as their savior and protector. He told them he will fix their issues.
Not scared per se, JP. but trying to enact what Taylor Sheridan’s protagonists have done, essentially cleaning house. That’s why am interested how this deportation will unfold. because in Sicario (don’t watch Part 2, Sheridan still wrote it but different director… like night and day, it shoulda been titled Dora the Explorer meets Sicario) cuz it promised that all the stuff happening in that movie was going to spread all over small town America, and that’s what Aurora CO and Springfield OH represented in the campaign an unfolding of Sicario. in addition to sanctuary cities. i guess you’re right its fear, but the type of fear that leads to action, JP. not cowering more like we’re fed up, lets take action. and I agree with you exactly just like DU30, eg. we’re fed up of all these sigas and tambays high on shabu. clean house.
If Trump asks me for advice on how to do this deportation, i’d tell him: Just deport the ones that got thru during Biden’s term. keep TNTs cuz many actually pay taxes they get a provisionary SSN (or some number) to use on the IRS forms and they actually pay taxes. they do this to prepare themselves for amnesty, like wishful thinking. Its gonna be dragnet time, so people might get too mired into it, so set like a timeline. then move on to other issues. all the new illegal immigrants that got thru during Biden’s administration.
Fuck the USA. Bunch of losers.
ps.— add clarification before I get labeled Nazi (lol), cuz the guy I go to to have my old corolla kept alive on the road is illegal, and I don’t wanna have to go out and look for another mechanic. plus his shop set up is just awesome we have coffee just pass the time when slow, etc. mexican gardners come by to have their trucks fixed. there’s folks that should be grand fathered in is my point, and the Biden illegal immigrants seems a rational start, not everyone. just the recent ones.
“guess you’re right its fear, but the type of fear that leads to action, JP. not cowering more like we’re fed up, lets take action.”
More like they fear these illegal immigrants in Trump’s context but not the ones they are hiring to do their yard work, care for their children and building/roofing their homes. Fed up with eating the fruits, vegetables and livestocks that these immigrants bring to their tables? Will they be taking action in paying new hires at least minimum wage and picking/raising their own produce and meat animals?
This mass deportation will not only cost a lot of taxpayers money in enforcement but will also make everyone’s grocery bill higher and the yard/home maintenance and childcare bills of some hypocrites.
Please discuss the relevance for Filipinos.
I guess it does affect the entire world, which catches the cold when the USA sneezes. I did find the viewpoints of Joey, LCPL_X, JPilipinas, and sonny (all in the United States), plus gian extremely interesting to understand stuff.
I won’t even get into how Germany has a fever now as the Scholz administration enters its final days. Every happy country is the same, and every unhappy country is unique. Been trying to find the “hook” for the article I am drafting, which IS about the Philippines, getting there.
It’s a real editorial problem, how to develop a blog that appeals to Filipinos when the main contributors are Americans talking about America.
I’m sure stuff will go back to normal after we have all digested the undigestable that recently happened, as most of us here now are normal. LCPL_X is somewhat normal, but he I guess knows when the MPs are around even when going home drunk from R&R.
It is true that we are heavy on people outside the Philippines now, including myself. I am happy to see how Karl and especially Giancarlo are speaking up more nowadays. Joey, with his extensive background, greatly enriches the discussion.
Corny interlude, that all reminds me of this and the video below, courtesy of Tito Vic and Joey featuring Maricel Soriano:
“..we wash your clothes, we wash your children
We cook your food we clean your car and room we clean your kitchen
We are always waiting to lend a helping hand
Pagutusan mo kami ngayon chimoy chimay..”
@Kuya Sonny:
There is no viable leveraging because of the red border states’ officials. They will demonize anything that the Biden-Harris administration does. Harris was not the border czar, she was a liaison to countries whose citizens are crossing the borders. She talked to these countries’ to find the root cause of their citizen’s migration to US. There are less immigrants crossing the borders in the incumbent administration than Trump’s first term. Harris abortion policy is clearly stated: Woman’s body, woman’s choice. Not the government’s. She is for individual liberty and reproductive rights. Many of the states already have abortion laws that only allows it in case of rape, incest and medical necessity while others have a total ban. Several more had it on the 2024 ballot and most of them won except for a few red states. The problem with many pro-lifers is that they are too concerned with unborn children but have 0 concern for live children. Numerous children are dying from school shootings but none of the pro-lifers will help in passing a gun reform bill. Trump repeatedly said that Dems support abortion up to birth which is a lie. He already back pedaled from his stance of total abortion ban to giving the decision to states.
This is a blog about the Philippines. Not by Americans about America for Americans. I seem to be having trouble getting this point across.
I guess we are all a bit emotional about what happened this week.
As it is Sunday, I guess all of us should pray or take a walk. I will read the weekend paper – real paper – and its analysis of this week.
I still consider the German abortion law one of the best compromises between modern and conservative viewpoints, I summarize:
1) of course rape, incest and medical necessity allow abortion
2) as for own decision, there is a number of months pregnancy within which it is allowed – with mandatory counseling. The latter is to prevent misuse of abortion, a conservative concern.
Connecting to the Philippines which runs into total gridlock on such matters, even more than the USA, which, as I mentioned long ago, has three archetypes: cowboy, businessman and missionary. Divorce discourse is similar in the Philippines, all just yes or no.
Every society has its discourse on right and wrong, and as I joked not joked at times, I hope we can at least decide that we will not eat people.
Joe my bad for triggering JP’s replying; JP my bad but you’re right; since I’m here na, I have to say – save the baby/fetus & mom even in case of rape or incest; you know what I mean 🙂
@ Joe
Got it. Though I really think that US is still top of mind for a lot of democratic countries around the world as a reference to what can and can’t be done to keep their democracies on track to a progressive path. US’s lessons learned can guide them from falling into the potholes and pitfalls of democratic governance. That said, I respect your wish and will refrain from taking baits and donning my patriotic mask for my adopted country. I can reassure you though that I also have a deep reservoir for PH patriotism. I am on this blog for that reason.
I have to say – save the baby/fetus
They do save it, sonny.
https://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/fetal-tissue-companies-california-complaint-229688
“DaVinci Biosciences and sister company, DV Biologics, made money off of the sale of “hundreds of different fetal tissue and stem cell ‘products,’” “from the hearts, lungs, kidneys, brains, intestines, skeletal muscle and bones of the aborted fetus donations,” according to the civil complaint. Federal law prevents companies from profiting from the sale of human tissue.”
oh, sonny, related to all this Catholic stuff, you should watch Investigate Alien by George Knapp its his new series in Netflix (just watch the 1st episode, no need for the others). its connected. here’s accompanying video of how he started in Vegas.
(Joe, please allow me some leeway with sonny, as am just helping an old Filipino get his neurons pumping in old age, sonny’s no spring chicken and new information to string up is good for the brain. as he’s helping me.)
sonny, I don’t know when Joe’s gonna start writing about the Catholic Church vis a vis 2028, but I’m already thinking for the 6th Inday Sara article in Dec. (for Christmas season, i know like Joey says ‘ber is already Christmas season there) it’ll be on the stuff you’ve shared with me spun into the stuff i’ve already covered. but if I focus on Church articles from now to 2028 and as a non-Catholic myself, how likely is it I can get this award?
https://churchandstate.org.uk/2012/10/cia-and-the-vaticans-intelligence-apparatus/
the pontiff intoned a ceremonial prayer in Latin and decorated him with the Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Sylvester, the oldest and most prestigious of papal knighthoods. This award has been given to only 100 other men in history, who “by feat of arms, or writings, or outstanding deeds, have spread the Faith, and have safeguarded and championed the Church.”
p.s.—– I guess I’ll be competing with Joe. Joey’s already got a leg up on us cuz he’s Catholic. but assuming it’ll be about output too.
I’m working it out in my head now. As the Chairman of the Board for the New Philippine Peoples’ Coalition with the Apostrophe in the Right Place (PPCARP), I am contemplating dumping Makabayan out of the Coalition and bringing the Catholic Church in. This moves the Coalition sharply to center and rids it of hard-headed extremists who, as Irineo puts it, suck at cooperation.
The Church is pretty much apolitical because local parishes align with local dynasts, but this can be corrected and the drift nationalized by a policy statement that formalizes the designation of the Philippines as a Catholic State that sees Muslims and Christian denominations, and even Jews and Zoroastrians, as brothers and sisters of the faith under the Constitution’s freedom of religion section.
In line with this, the Coalition will oppose the death penalty, abortion, and divorce, and advocate elevating religious holidays to national importance while consolidating and reducing political holidays. Now this will cause some tension amongst the leftish members who will be faced with tha awesome burden of being flexible, or being losers.
Now this will cause some tension amongst the leftish members who will be faced with tha awesome burden of being flexible, or being losers.
Unless these guys come up with a cosmology and/or soteriology, they’re assed out , Joe. positivists materialists have no place here. Spiritual De-Growth economics is their only in at this point. but I doubt they’re even thinking about that. I suggest they look into RJKjr’s son and his psychedelics reawakening that convinced his dad on efficacy of said molecules. that’ll butt up on soteriology.
This was a good read, Joe.
https://perell.com/essay/peter-thiel/
Thiel speaks with a religious reverence for Girard’s theory:
That is spot on for our times in which social media allow the anti-learning side of things to grow dark and disruptive. Envy is mainstream, a global phenomenon. The way out is awareness I suppose. And as your other post says, develop non-competitive personal pursuits that get us off the treadmill. In the Philippines, few have any insights such as these, and competition thrives without many winners. Government is politics in the main, not results.
Unless these guys come up with a cosmology and/or soteriology, they’re assed out , Joe. positivists materialists have no place here.
The terms cosmology & soteriology caught my eye. As LC uses them they bridge the separate areas of Ontology, Theology & Physics, i.e. into a continuum between the software & hardware of human beings; the faculties of mind, will & the human body (hardware/software). Bravo, LC!
thanks, sonny! that means a lot to me coming from you.
Have you heard of this Rene Girard fella? I guess he’s really big in the Catholic/Christian community. lots of videos. and I’m just hearing about him now via Googling about Peter Thiel. but I see him related to Jung for sure.
There is a reason why Amish turned out to vote for Trump. Americans love their freedom and government overreach has hit too close to home.
https://en.as.com/latest_news/us-elections/the-story-of-scott-presler-the-activist-who-galvanized-the-amish-communitys-vote-for-donald-trump-in-us-election-2024-n/
In 2021, Presler settled in Pennsylvania where he has been working to get voters registered and encouraged them to support Trump. He targeted labor unions, hunters and specifically Amish communities.
For this last group he used the case of a local farmer whose dairy was raided by state authorities for selling raw milk, unpasteurized, without a permit as an example of government overreach. He also focused on the Republican Party’s stance on religious and education freedom along with deregulation of business.
Slightly OT. There were similar issues with raw milk and traditionally slaughtered meat in Romania when it was new to the EU and had to implement EU regulations.
First of all, why couldn’t they exempt stuff for usage in the same village. EU rules are for food transported by truck across the entire continent.
(Of course, in the US and in the EU, many rules are there to avoid potential litigation, which is less likely to be an issue in close-knit traditional communities)
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/amish-convicted-in-beard-cutting-attacks some Amish did cut each other’s beards off in one conflict over a decade ago.
Second, the very poor farmers of rural Romania could have been given loans to upgrade their facilities and a transition period.
Finally, some mayors in Romania simply prohibited horse carts and unmodern. Moving to pickup trucks was not possible for some old and illiterate drivers, in addition to buying a truck. That Romanian peasants go about courtship like in the video below is probably not the rule. The costumes are IIRC German-Romanian and many of them left Southwestern Germany around the same time as the Amish and many Russian-Germans. The video is a bit comedic.
there is a reason why I am a big supporter of LGU capacity building. When you have to live with people in a small place cooperation and understanding is necessary. This is similar to how people outside of metro manila (even elites) have the Imperial Manila mindset. The regulations are one size fits all and fail to account for the local customs and situation.
This was a good read, gian. I’d seen the memes of buggies with Trump signs. but this makes a lot of sense. Kinda like that Peanut the squirrel meme for gov’t over reach , only the reason for authorities being there was actually animal abuse eg. Only Fans account (lol). actually not funny cuz Peanuts and his raccoon buddy bit the animal control folks in the course of collectying them, so they had to be put down (last I heard). beastiality was the actual story though. lol.
unfair characterization of the peanut affair
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/11/05/peanut-the-squirrel-seizure-euthanasia-new-york-bomb-threats-animal-santucary-social-media/76068515007/
Ah, maybe Only Fans and beastiality was just NY Dept. of Environmental Conservation/Chemung County Health doing PSYOPS against the dude and his squirrel and raccoon. Whatever the circumstance for being there, I do think killing to save them is just wrong on all counts. gov’t overreach, even if it was some Richard Gere shit, gov’t has no right to intrude. R.I.P. Peanut and Fred.
Define government overreach in terms of particular policies. Then do step 2, clarify if the gains for the sum of those affected outweigh the pains of oppression for those not benefitting. Were covid mask mandates oppressive? Are mandatory vaccines oppressive? Is Affirmative Action oppressive? Then do step 3. Is oppression sometimes for the national well-being? And step 4, if a dictator implements an oppressive policy, is it somehow not oppressive because he is all-powerfully right?
Probably colored by personal experience.
People exercising borrowed legitimacy/power should move carefully and not act as if the power they exercise is theirs to begin with.
I consider overreach, any policy/regulation without clear documentation on Why, Where, What, Who, and How. Without clear targets and clear predictions. Regulations/Policy should default be repealed unless renewed yearly. If it is important then create a law for it.
By default any policy/regulation that removes or limits rights has to be either a law with clearly defined bounds and should have an expiry unless reviewed and renewed.
an example of government over reach from a democrat congresswoman from a deeply red state. Ste discusses how a daycare needs 4 sinks to serve fresh fruit because of regulations drafted in Washington. I have examples like that here but it would be like shading some of my clients and agencies that I help. so in some ways think of my NGA lighter regulation stand as actually in response to what I see but can’t really talk about.
https://x.com/DemocraticWins/status/1855400696524279848
JOE, I am eagerly waiting for your thoughts on Trumps massive victory (plus house and senate).
I think millions of innocents will suffer pain. It is a great American tragedy. The impact on the Philippines is unknown, but the US Ambassador from the Philippines advised 200,000 improperly documented Filipinos to leave the US to avoid getting thrown out.
it appears trump fave word is tariff. for so long nations have been alleged to be mooching on estados unidos and that is about to change.
if those 200K improperly documented filipinos were to go home, america would have to charter planes for them. if deported, said filipinos cannot come back for a period of time, and after that, they can apply for entry visa.
phil consulate over there in USA would have to organise their return, better that way than let them organise themselves. else they’ll disappear underground and be trafficked. I dont know if pbbm will pitch in and help with the expenses but he has a leverage. we have around 600 afghans here being processed prior to entry to USA on biden’s request.
Chaos for those living within the changes forced upon them. Untold anxiety and suffering. Yes, the PH Embassy cannot process 200,000. The consulate in LA can hold 50 at any one time.
The amazing part is a lot of families with TNTs are Trump supporters, even while they might be availing government welfare (for the legal family members). TNTs I’ve met are largely all Trump supporters. They have committed criminal actions, but they somehow think the law should not apply to them. It’s those other illegal immigrants that should be punished. *We* are *good* immigrants even if we skipped the line. The era of mass amnesty for illegal immigrants ended in 1986. Even Republicans were reasonable at that time, as Reagan was President. Amnesty for illegal immigrants is just not possible now, seeing as how long the Dreamers brought to the US illegally as children have now been languishing for decades.
That’s for America to work out.
Here is a summary of the possible foreign policy for Trump 2.0:
US will be a conservative and isolationist government with close ties to world’s dictators, reduced participation in international organizations and democratic alliances, and massive cuts on foreign aid.
“https://kettering.org/the-global-dimensions-of-project-2025-a-foreign-policy-for-authoritarianism/
Please extract what this means to Filipinos.
The Filipinos should prepare for all eventualities. It will be nice if the US with Trump at the helm will honor its lifelong commitment of supporting its foreign allies but if Trump chooses Project2025 to be a template of his incoming administration, there’ll be less to no help coming to its allies such as the Philippines. The PH government may still have a trump card in its present foreign policy toward China as Trump himself and his supporters are bent on making China the world’s villain. Still, Trump’s administration may not be as generous as the incumbent.
Trump is a very unpredictable leader. The best way to deal with his leadership is to be prepared for the worst scenario and hope for the best. For PH’s sake, I am hoping he will take good care of her.
These friends were all plucked by Thiel, JP. So if you wanna divine for the Philippine about what Trump’s gonna do. don’t fret over Project 2025, look to Peter Thiel. that’s the guy driving the ship, IMHO. ever since Joey commented on Eric Weinstein’s connection to Thiel (in my UFO blog, or maybe it was the blog right before it) i’ve been rabbit holing that guy. I think it was gian (or maybe Joey) that mentioned PayMongo in the Philippines well that’s his too. Soros and Thiel work together too, which was a surprise to me cuz Soros is somewhat of a boogeyman at FOX News. he was prominent getting DA Gascon LA county booted out, didn’t fund him this cycle.
Thiel I think will be fan of gian’s education centered blogs for Philippines. So I hope gian keeps it up.
Won’t be surprise if he plucks gian like he did w/ Vivek, Vance and wives. ships gian and fam to NY. then returns gian to Philippines as next President. cuz that’s how this guy operates.
The movement with the left that watches abuses and not every breath and every move the security forces and the dynasty and trapos make.
The left left is useless. The center left is important. The liberal left and center is weak. I wonder what the oligarchs care about.
the devil is pushing me to say, the oligarchs are great in keeping our country afloat. sink, and they sink with it.
I agree. They are the apolitical heartbeat of the Philippine economy. I love ’em to death every time I enter a swank mall here.
I really would not mind if the peace loving left are collating data and gathering good info useful for the rainy days. they may not be physically trained warriors and have ample thirst for blood, but they can bring something to the table, their own way. they may lack the steel kahones needed to confront face on the triple threats of the security forces, the dynasts and the trapos, but in their watchful silence given to observation, they may know who did what and can be assets.
maybe the left dont want to break a well manicured fingernail or break into sweats being involved in a heated tussle but I trust they may have knowledge what the tussle was about. or in possession of a much needed pic to prove there really was a tussle. we all have a role to play, some greater than others. and we share in this country.
Knowledge is power especially if you know what to do with it.
sa panahon natin ngayon, knowledge is maybe power but it needs data as back up. like when a senator said of his last blood test na he is good and well, and showed a copy of his blood test in facebook. on that copy I saw that his creatinine level is maybe a tad too close to the upper limits of normal. he may well be on the way to having liver problem. and boyo! he is already nagliliyab at madaling magalit, goes from zero to 100 in the irritability scale. the berseker is nanghahamon already. I was so tempted to put my hands up and accept the challenge, but I have to demure. hindi niya ako ka-level. haha.
I was just thinking about this, vis a vis Jungian “persona” and how it becomes difficult to shed like muscle memory. but you’re saying it could be chemical too, kb. and i remember that thyroid operation you suggested about Inday Sara which i’ve not yet seen covered anywhere. what is creatinine level about? how is it connected to behaviour and/or emotions. Nate Silver is saying its just pressure. but theres something deeper at work, whether chemical or molecular level or something else.
probly just mean he was dehydrated and needed to top up his liquid intake, is all. liquid as in water, no alcohol.
Many agree with you that is why Risa is a senator, and the far left has still not produced one.
job mismatched. the far left dont seem to have the fortitude for it. maybe.
While talking to a young Democratic operative friend in the last few days to cope with the election in the US, we ended up on the topic of machine politics. It dawned on me that Republicans basically are a modern incarnation of a political machine, while Democrats had abandoned machine politics a long time ago. Thinking about the Philippines, I started to think about dynasties as a sort of political machine as well, though instead of a duopoly of national machines, there are many local machine “clans” that make temporary alliances with each other.
What is a political machine? A political machine is a party organization that recruits members by use of tangible incentives. Historically US political machines were regional party branches who used the spoils system of political patronage as incentives through cronyism and nepotism. The spoils system gradually died out in US politics following the assassination of President James A. Garfield in 1881 when a delusional minor party hack decided he didn’t receive the position he deserved. The following reform created the roots of the modern American professional civil bureaucracy. There were vestiges of the spoils system still existing by the time of the American Military Government and early Insular Government, which was created the patronage system in the Philippines.
With the rise of the global Socialist-Workers movement and American Federation of Labor (the original American labor union), labor unions started taking a prominent role in the Democratic political machines, while business-aligned Republican political machines depended on populist mouthpieces like Fr. Charles Coughlin. By the 1970s, the labor unions were starting to get broken up which damaged the power of Democratic political machines greatly. When President Ronald Reagan dismantled the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization in 1981, the era of labor union influence started to greatly decline. In the 1990s Democrats switched to vibes and emotions based campaigns, while Republicans switched to their new media mouthpieces on AM talk radio and the then-new propaganda news channel Fox News. As the American elections in 2000, 2016, and now 2024 have shown, vibes and emotions based campaigns require extreme sentiment to work, which is not always successful. On the other hand the Republicans continued to build out their new “machine” in media echo chambers and local political machines, capturing more voters despite the wealthy controlling these machines push for policies that actually hurt their own voters. They can always turn around and blame recessions on the other party using their machine apparatus.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_machine
(Aside: The older Tagalog term “bossing” has its roots in the English word “boss” [bos + ing], and directly relates to machine politics prevalent during the time of the early American colonial period.)
Likewise, after these set of conversations with the political operative friend, I’m becoming more convinced that Filipino dynasts have very effective local political machines. There is a chain of patronage from the governor, to mayors, to barangay captain, tanods, and SKs. New and up-and-comers are trained and nutured, moving up the pipeline to higher positions. The local dynastic machines “take care” of the voters by taking credit for help sent by the national government, NGOs, and are always eager to engrave their names on school desks or emblazon their banners on the sides of buildings. When the voter “feels” like they are “taken cared of,” despite the help being quite small, they become more loyal. After all, everyone appreciates what the bossing did for them and their family.
On the other hand, the Liberal Party allied local political machines have largely abandoned the Liberal Party in the years since EDSA. Other political parties like Akbayan or Independents like the Pinks have no machine support at all, besides Akbayan in minor places. The Center-Left, Moderate Left, and Left have gone all in on vibes and emotions based campaigns ever since the assassination of Ninoy Aquino. It worked out for Cory Aquino and PNoy Aquino since vibes were quite high, while the political machines were still quite weak (almost non-existent during the time of Cory Aquino). Vibes alone just can’t win.
Another thing we here in the US have been learning over the last few days is because the *perceived* vibes of the Kamala Harris campaign was so high, with its overflowing rallies, including the positively massive one at the National Mall, compared to the barely attended Trump rallies, people simply didn’t vote. Apparently many millions of potential voters assumed that Kamala Harris was going to handily win against an obviously bad candidate in Trump, and did not bother to vote. There are so many social media posts by distraught coulda-shoulda voters the last few days admitting that they feel so ashamed that they did not vote. Trump’s total vote numbers are in line with his previous numbers, while nearly 15 million voters who voted for Joe Biden thought Kamala Harris would win by a landslide and did not vote despite the Harris campaign’s constant warnings that it was a close race.
After the 2022 Election, one thing that confused me was why were Leni Robredo’s rallies so huge and full of vibes, yet she received a relatively few votes. Even many DE’s liked Leni Robredo, that is if they were not totally bought into the DDS propaganda. Yet when the votes were counted, Leni Robredo fell short… by a lot. I remember /r/Philippines on Reddit where Filipinos admitted they were Pink supporters yet did not vote because they had some *insert here* excuse, such as work, busy, thought Leni would win anyway, etc. But see, in a political machine, the machine follows up with their voter lists and makes sure they have banked the votes of the families who they are the patron of. The voter does not receive the vote bribe or bag of canned goods until they have confirmed they had voted. Unless vibes are overwhelming like a wave, vibes alone just can’t win against a machine especially after the machine has had time to entrench.
Of course, being good, the opposition needs not bribe voters, but I don’t think the Pink campaign really followed up with voters at all. The Pink campaign depended only on vibes, just like Grace Poe depended on vibes back in 2016 when she split votes from Mar Roxas leading to Duterte’s win. So perhaps the opposition needs to think about creating its own organizations and political machines. There needs to be a pipeline of local to provincial to national positions rather than razzle dazzle blitz campaigns. Name recognition is much more powerful than anything vibes can bring, especially if those vibes only last a few short months. Supporters need to be encouraged to bloc-vote. Supporters need tangibles in order to become loyal party supporters. The tangibles can be better jobs, constituent services on their problems among other things. Come to think about it, Filipino politicians barely provide constituent services and depend almost entirely on habitual voting on name only. Imagine if politician’s offices set up constituent services to address their constituent’s issues and cut red tape, how much more popular they would become as a “doer” and a man/woman of “action.”
Apparently many millions of potential voters assumed that Kamala Harris was going to handily win against an obviously bad candidate in Trump, and did not bother to vote. There are so many social media posts by distraught coulda-shoulda voters the last few days admitting that they feel so ashamed that they did not vote. Trump’s total vote numbers are in line with his previous numbers, while nearly 15 million voters who voted for Joe Biden thought Kamala Harris would win by a landslide and did not vote despite the Harris campaign’s constant warnings that it was a close race.
This is problematic for me, Joey, because even CNN in the last 2 weeks was talking about not only neck and neck but Trump actually winning. so all Kamala Harris supporters had to feel that it was 2016 all over again and really come out to vote. as to that 15 Million (i guess now closer to 10 Million latest count), that’s still a big gap to say they just thought it was already in the bag. Either chempo is correct all along, or 10 Million did not support Harris outright, and not forgot to fought— I mean you can vote by mail forchrissakes!
As to the VP Leni connection, most D&E were Inday Sara and DU30 supporters, I think the not voting or forgetting to vote more applies to this situation, and not the one here. they were torn VP Leni and Inday Sara (via support from her dad). But the Philippines has pretty good localized polling P100 pesos for a carbon copy of your ballot as proof or something similiar. and they can get a feel of where the districts gone. over here that 10 Million is still a mystery to me. but the feel was 2016, so it doesn’t make sense that they’d forget to vote, Joey.
forgot to fought— * vote
Also to clarify feeling like 2016, I mean after the results not before. the last month was all hands on deck, and why they were scrambling to put her out in talk shows and podcasts etc. (too much scripted stuff like rallies and controlled interviews) the feeling was all hands on deck, not that it was in the bag.
To connect all this to the Philippines, it looks like Musk and Trump are already set to end the Ukraine and Russia war, he’ll further contain Russia (like he did Iran, that’ll happen again soon too), but with Putin diminished. Trump can focus on China, which means more focus in the Philippines. Like Joey’s been saying China really’s not that powerful, so less NATO stuff like in Trump 1.0 and more China for Trump 2.0. i gotta feeling that’s more than just tarriffs too. Trump already knows the Marcos family. but for sure TNTs need to book their flights home soon, cuz this round up looks like its gonna happen for sure.
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35461265.amp
“China has a long history of symbolic associations with food, which may have encouraged extravagant interpretations of Mao’s gift. The mangoes were compared to Mushrooms of Immortality and the Longevity Peach of Chinese mythology. The workers surmised that Mao’s gift was an act of selflessness, in which he sacrificed his longevity for theirs.
The mangoes also proved to be a gift to the propaganda department of the Communist Party, which quickly manufactured mango-themed household items, such as bed sheets, vanity stands, enamel trays and washbasins, as well as mango-scented soap and mango-flavoured cigarettes. Massive papier-mache mangoes appeared on the central float during the National Day Parade in Beijing in October 1968. Far away in Guizhou province, thousands of armed peasants fought over a black and white photocopy of a mango.“
The Philippines’ secret weapon.
The larger picture is already coming out about the election. A lot of people who would’ve voted for Harris simply didn’t go out to vote since they thought she was going to win because Trump was melting down publicly in the last month. I’m sure Trump was shocked at his win this time like he was shocked the first time. Same effect as the Pink rallies, which is the double edged sword of looking like one has huge momentum so that supporters feel complacent and don’t think their vote will be the deciding one. A lot of Pinks didn’t vote as well in 2022 because they assumed Leni would win easily. The different is Trump voters showed up and voted; Marcos voters showed up and voted.
And Trump himself isn’t really that dangerous to any country. The problem lies in the fact that he’s extremely lazy, and lets his advisors do everything. Look at who the advisors are. They are all Putin-aligned. His presumptive Chief of Staff Susie Wiles along with other top advisors have all been implicated being connected to the Kremlin, but there wasn’t enough hard evidence before they directly broke American laws so they were never prosecuted. Combined with Trump’s friendliness, even subservient attitude to Putin and Xi, that can only mean bad things for Ukraine, and can only mean bad things for the Philippines.
Terrific parsing of the LP problem gaining traction.
“On the other hand, the Liberal Party allied local political machines have largely abandoned the Liberal Party in the years since EDSA. Other political parties like Akbayan or Independents like the Pinks have no machine support at all, besides Akbayan in minor places. The Center-Left, Moderate Left, and Left have gone all in on vibes and emotions based campaigns ever since the assassination of Ninoy Aquino. It worked out for Cory Aquino and PNoy Aquino since vibes were quite high, while the political machines were still quite weak (almost non-existent during the time of Cory Aquino). Vibes alone just can’t win.”
Now the next step is: “How to get existing local political machines to join an opposition alliance?” or “How to create new political machines?”
My preference is to create new, non-family aligned political machines, along with an aligned media network. It’s a heavy lift. But I’m convinced that in order to break the dynasts, this is the only way.
The pinks are real, just so happened to be minority. Its ideals and spirit will live on with Angat Buhay as a well-oiled NGO helping people in need. Am afraid that’s where it ends. Political dynasty, patronage politics, foreign meddling, fake news prevalence are just too much for pinks or any left/center coalition to overcome.
Can’t blame Leni, if she is disinterested in leading a national movement. We saw how the trolls bashed and made her life like a living hell.
Been away in Philippines for too long – but I think the best way to reach CDE is through tabloid and AM radio station. The likes of Chel Diokno should have a regular column in Abante, Bulgar, Remate, Balita/Taliba and other leading tabloid publications.
Also, have a free legal advice show in the top 3 AM/FM stations in the country. That’s how you reach the masses. This is what propelled Cayetano dynasty in the senate. The late Rene Cayetano has Companero y Companera in the 90’s in DZMM. Of course, the liberals should study how the radio anchors connect to their viewers. Kasi, yung political ads nila ngayun trying hard and medyo cringe. Everything is with packaging. But I agree with Joey, better leave out Makabayan.
for broad liberal movement, they can build presence in FB/social media via the Reels Way. Ask people to follow back, share some subtle ideas then give some token prizes. Magparaffle sila. They’d be amaze how many sign-ups and followers they can get.
aw, jeep, you know there is no patent on ideas. these days, people copy one another’s ideas, there is no law against it. only the finished product you cannot copy for that would be plagiarism. there is no monopoly on ideas, they area free and readily available here there and in the internet, even moreso in social media where advice and ideas galore existed freely. so if one comes up with fantastic idea, you can bet your bottom peso, another will come up with similar idea and maybe even tweak it to become a better and more appealing idea. the public will be saturated with nagpasiklaban ideas, so they pick and choose. it’s a free country. then it all boils down to probity. maybe.
candidates lost not due to lack of trying, they just got outgunned and out maneuvered and could not last the round. so those who are maybe nasty and take illegal substances to boost their energy and stamina, hire thugs to do some heavy pushing for them, employ a number of well known influencers to campaign for them, also hire also battalions of trolls to attack and spread misinformation about the opposition, oh, yeah! they sure get ahead.
the problem with dce is that many are bailiwicks and beholden to their tested and trusted manoks in the a and b! most are already ‘suki’ or on patronage. cde is not really isolated that they can be picked and plucked and unraveled at anyone’s choosing; the border is permeable though. cde do have sense of humor and will accept all freebies coming from all denominations specially during election. the more the merrier. cde will even give off the idea they are easily manipulated, and maybe even grateful for it. but.
Excellent practical steps, Jeep. You should be in charge of the Center/Left’s coalition strategy development and marketing effort. These things are EXACTLY the local noisemakers now absent from opposition’s thinking. Thanks for the insights. I’ll probably lean on them for future articles.
If I zoom in anybody have any ideas how best to implement anti-dynasty laws? Personally I am appalled by most of the ways it can be implemented.
For one, this tradition of jail or attempting to jail previous presidents need to the stop IMHO, gian. cuz I’m sure DU30 would’ve loved to just retire and live a quiet life, but since people in office are out to get him, then he’s gotta get back into office and get his family into office as well. that’s probably the push for most of these dynasties. ensuring personal safety (and progenies). lawfare. stop it.
OT reminds me of the Ottoman tradition of Sultans jailing their brothers as potential usurpers, with some literally insane side effects. https://daily.jstor.org/why-ottoman-sultans-locked-away-their-brothers/
Trump-OT, I get the feeling that some of the sympathy for Trump is from those who are of the American “cowboy” archetype (and wannabe cowboys too) in a country that has lost its frontiers and of course has become highly regulated, see the Amish example. Though for Europeans, the USA still seems crazy wild, Joey going out with his AR15 this week shocked me, here even the Korean police baton is banned for civilians.
Joey going out with his AR15 this week shocked me,
I’d say almost everyone here in California owns at least one, Ireneo. rifle and pistol. Walking Dead played a big part I think.
Handgun maybe, but not many people own rifles and shotguns, even in Red states.
There are more guns than people in the US. For 2024, US population is approximately 345M. Adults or those who can own guns legally are at 258M. There are an estimated 500M guns equating to 1.5 guns per person and 2 guns per adult. 400M guns are in private hands and the rest (100M) are with law enforcement and military.
If someone is a lawbreaker, they should be indicted and brought to stand before justice. If the President is above the law, and can become a lawbreaker, why would the citizen follow laws? The rot can start at the top, or the rot can start at the bottom. If someone wants to stand on top then they should try to become an exemplary mirror for citizens to reflect upon. If someone is above the law, then there is no longer a functioning democracy.
Crazy about the Ottomans though. They sure lasted quite some time compared to earlier caliphates. Perhaps being Turkish, they ran things radically differently from the prior Arab caliphates.
Funny thing is, most of the real cowboys in the US are actually Mexican immigrants or Mexican Americans working on ranches. The Texas cowboy aesthetic is mostly fake. I have better rope skills that most of those White fake cowboy cosplayers.
See for the Mexican tradition of vaqueros, which then was learned by African American freemen, then later co-opted by the White Texans. Ranch also came from the Spanish word “rancho,” meaning a adobe brick community which was what most ranches started out as.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaquero
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ranch#Etymology
As for my AR-15, military-pattern rifles are banned in most states including California, but yes I own a “grandfathered” Colt AR-15. As well as 2 California-legal AR-15s I made myself from a lower receiver I ran through a CNC, then assembled using standard AR-15 upper receiver, barrel, trigger assembly, etc. I have a considerable arsenal at my house haha. I also hunt big game occasionally like deer, elk, wild (feral) boar, as well as fowl like pheasant, duck, geese. Just regular hunting rifles like a Remington Model 700 in 30-06 caliber for big game, while fowl I use a Remington Model 870 in 12 gauge. My freezer is filled with game meat, and I also buy a side of pork (half a pig) sometimes and make my own ham, bacon, etc. Handguns galore too, and I conceal carry sometimes with a good old Glock 26 in 9mm. My favorite handguns are in .45 caliber like classic Colt 1911 or H&K USP45. Plenty of American Democrats have guns, and more bought guns after Trump got into power. Republicans and MAGA probably have more guns though, but their gun culture is more about cosplaying with expensive rail attachments (“military special operator” aesthetic). Their AR-15s are boutique and probably cost 5-7x my AR-15, but I’m a better shot. We usually deride them as “Meal Team Six” or “Gravy Seals” as they are almost always very obese White guys 😉
What is the relevance to the Philippines. Here’s what I propose. When LCX writes his articles, you can write about the moon for all I care. When I write about how to develop the Philippines, we write about the Philippines. I can’t get an audience if we are not relevant. Or I can just turn the comments off when contributors simply have no motivation to follow editorial guidance.
Admittedly, I went on a long aside. However to clarify, the lawbreaking President I was referring to is Duterte (following LCpl’s reply prior to Irineo’s reply).
See for the Mexican tradition of vaqueros, which then was learned by African American freemen, then later co-opted by the White Texans.
I totally agree with this by the way, Joey. and why cowboy is boy like how they used to call blacks then became some Marlboro man aesthetics. And this connects to the Philippines cuz https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romeo_Brawner_Jr. ‘s grandfather is a Buffalo soldier. and a bunch of them switched side in the Philippine-American war. hell even the original Long Ranger was black. so totally agree. if you visit Cebu soon, go to Calamba cemetery and ask where the American section is and you’ll see a handful of Buffalo soldier head stones, they stayed behind like Brawner’s granps. been writing Buffalo soldier associations and black academics about this. no one cares though.
I see this as a failure of understanding of how organizational/institutional development is done.
The administrative state needs a level of competence before it attempts stuff like anti-dynasty legislation.
Build up the people, build up the institution, think long term.
Trying to do things for people not ready for it is a recipe for failure.
I agree. Like buildings like this treated like it was barangay hall in some squatter area, gian. (ps.—- i did think of you a couple of days ago when i drove thru Temecula and saw this building, gian. I was like, Hey that’s gian’s peeps right there! in Temecula.)
There are anti-dynasty laws? The arguments for them try to define certain levels of consanguinity that would ban relatives in close proximity to elected officials. Seems like grammar policing to me, whereas just defining competence and measuring it would be more effective.
I’m also intrigued by your view that LGU’s should be empowered because they’d do better at running things than national. That’s the Republican argument in a nutshell. US education, policing, a lot of taxation, etc are assigned to states, counties, and cities. National deals with defense, social security, health policies, anti-trust, etc. I can see benefit of that. Probably competence would have a path in competent LGUs whereas today competence has no pathways anywhere. This deserves an article. My solution to breaking dynastic colonization of the Philippines is Democratic, so we have a bit off opposite thinking going on.
Badly phrased. No matter how I think of if I cannot get myself to agree to any anti dynasty laws as it seemingly will remove rights from an individual and any test would be hard to prove it is like you are committing a crime just by existing.
My experience with a lot of the NGAs point me towards a view that although competence is higher than LGUs it is still lacking and it is coupled with two more issues. No skin in the game for the NGA regulators, and a lack of understanding of what the front lines encounter.
I have a unique view as we have been compiling various citizens charters of various agencies and you get requirements and steps whose reason for being has probably already been forgotten.
Bring a zerox, and an original copy, and the PSA copy should be 6 months old. These requirements and processes seem to be sensible when you look at only one but when you are looking at tens or even hundreds you see how random these things are.
NGAs regulations also tend to be harder to change from experience, but whose rigor and technical/scientific/research/experimental backing is lacking.
Ah, thanks. Yes, I understand that view on anti-dynasty, which is why the sole measure should be demonstrated competence, as any corporate boss would demand in selecting executives. I don’t know the world of NGOs, but a little about LGUs, and it seems to me there is zero comprehension of how to learn-build-learn-build. Every new guy goes back to zero. Most have no idea of the disciplines of planning and results measurement.
my understanding is that inexperienced heads of lgus can be fast learner, vico sotto for example, though he is summat part of the sotto dynasty. vico sotto should already be conversant in all things constituents by the time he goes for his 2nd term in office. but before that and as neophyte politician, sotto has got hugot to draw back on, the people in his council provided much insight into how his office was run, then it was up to him to run his office similarly, or open up venues and imprints his own style of governing.
ben magalong, the mayor of bagyo, is one of those newbie heads of lgus that hit the floor running. I dont believe he is new to politics as he is and was already dealing with politicians and rubbing shoulders with them long before he became mayor. he was one of those that supported the trumped up drug case vs de lima, but then recanted.
maybe magalong learned by osmosis until he was truly baptised, won his mandate and got put in the front seat, confronted with the realities of being mayor. magalong served the city of bagyo well, though not everyone in bagyo is pleased with him. he has a pending court case.
Vico Sotto III is proof of giancarlo’s thoughtful opposition to anti-dynasty laws because they abridge personal freedoms. We ought not care who a leader is, as long as he is competent. Or she.
Joey, what is your take on Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino, BTW? I am not surprised he is pro-Trump, even as I didn’t follow the race that tightly. Preview video below:
There is a scene where the old man Eastwood plays saves an Asian-American young woman from being harassed by African-Americans. Her young white boyfriend is of little use and even tries to deescalate by calling some of the blacks “bro” and “Eastwood’s character saying maybe he doesn’t want to be your brother.” Don’t recall if he pulls a gun there. He does once drive a Hmong (?) gang off his lawn with a rifle, classic scene. How realistic is that movie anyway? The tenor of the movie is that the old “cowboy” ways are more solid. Is a certain libertarian bent also part of the Zeitgeist that produced Trump? See also the Amish example.
Oh, I know that there was a lot of open hate towards the Vietnamese-American female character in Star Wars 8, for instance.
I’ll jump in here cuz I think your Eastwood and Kelly Tran question are related , Ireneo. I disagree with you and Joey on hate re Kelly Tran. IMHO it was an aesthetics backlash, which I think is related to all this DEI/woke stuff, in which Hollywood now attempts to redefine “beauty”. for years we were fed this and that was beautiful, then like over nite they place another aethetics sense and call it beautiful so of course theres gonna be a back lash. same with Bee Vang who played the kid Eastwood was helping out, Thao. his back hair if you noticed was standing up the whole time in the movie, like they couldn’t comb it? its a weird aesthetics they’re promoting now. which works in some movies, like grittier. but remember Romeo Must Die, theres no backlash, or Jackie Chan movies, especially the one with Claire Forlani (Joey, remember that UC Berkeley movie she did with Freddy Prince?). the love interest is supposed to be pretty that’s sort of Hollywood law. look at Ashoka. Natasha Liu and Diana Inosanto, no backlash. its aesthetics. but Ghostbusters the all female one did. So too Billy (Wiccan) from Agatha All Along. Or Love Hard that Christmas Netflix special with Jimmy O. Yang. its an aesthetics issue, which Hollywood is trying to unfold prematurely. people are just reacting to looks, sure might be related to race thus racism, but its mostly aesthetics, Ireneo. one Hollywood has monopolized for so long. Florida Project that aethetics experiment is good in some movies, not so good in others. that was perfect casting. I can go on and on about aesthetics, Ireneo… kinda my interest too. axiology.
Trump-OT, I get the feeling that some of the sympathy for Trump is from those who are of the American “cowboy” archetype (and wannabe cowboys too) in a country that has lost its frontiers
I would agree with Joey though that theres too much White saviour motif in Hollywood, instead of them revamping aesthetics maybe focus on the liminal spaces of race in America, like this:
( She’s a cowboy I think, Ireneo)
In conclusion, I think its mostly casting issue. Do more fine tuning on casting and you’ll get viewership buy-in. otherwise backlash. You ever watched Mi Vida Loca? that’s a good movie I think. (I think Selma Hayek’s first American movie too).
that chic in the bottom left and her romantic interest in the movie were also in Selena with JLo. but I think only Selma Hayek made it big from that movie.
Don’t recall if he pulls a gun there. He does once drive a Hmong (?) gang off his lawn with a rifle, classic scene.
I did wanna ask Joey what Hmongs were up to in northern CA cuz they’re even urging their kababayans in MN, Wisconsin, Michigan, etc. to get to northern CA?
The ber months are upon us and kapaskuhan is near. The air is filled with cheer. Caroling there, preparing handaan here. Yay!
Been seeing some posts in my socmed feeds again about generous politicians taking care of their community. A few friends shared with me their local electeds promised 2kg, no even 4kg low quality cuts of pork depending on family! It’s such a blessing to have such caring politicians who take care of the people. Was it a bribe? Of course not, it’s the spirit of giving season. But of course, remember who helped you the next election ok?
When I pointed out to my friends that the free pork and canned goods are not free, and it’s effectively a vote bribe. They quickly became perplexed and what I said went “whoosh” over the tops of their heads. A politician may give out the leftover pieces of the kasim with just bone and hardly any meat attached, while they laugh as they eat the liempo and tadyang figuratively. All ultimately paid for, by ahem, the taxpayer of course. In such a country where rampant and blatant corruption is on display publicly with no one questioning it, it will be difficult to achieve reform indeed.
That all reminds me of how old school Marcos Sr. era and Cory era reformist types were at the Philippine Embassy in the place we used to be at. The usual statement about the old school types was “mababait sila.”
In that value system, Binay is also mabait. In fact, that is how an Embo resident living abroad saw him. Those who wanted to implement rules properly were seen as “masungit” somewhat in the way Giancarlo has described in some posts as the rules were impractical.
Could someone also be seen as mabait if he/she facilitated interfacing with the government more efficiently? Too often the red tape in the Philippines, which you described as masungit, essentially function as allowing mini-power trippers at every level of government-civil interface. Some officials may be helpful I guess, but those are few and far between, and even they don’t understand why there is so much paperwork and red tape. I always joke that Filipinos love Americanisms so much that they copied our bureaucracy, except due to not understanding the function of why the US has bureaucracy, made everything way more complicated because it’s “just for show.” Another example of cargo cult behavior. Most US states and the federal government have tried to reduce paperwork requirements over time, to reduce citizen irritation and encourage citizens to interface with the government.
Well, Senator Tulfo is seen as mabait by that standard. People can directly contact him, tell them what their concerns are, and he calls up the relevant offices live. People who might not give an average Juan the time of day.
There is a Bavarian novel where a late 18th early 19th century protagonist, the son of a miller who had to stop his studies with Jesuits as his father died early, has to deal with a judge who intimidates peasants wearing a powdered wig and using French and Latin terms. To some extent, Filipino public officials can be similar to that judge, and a lot of Filipinos can be the „peasants.“ The character I mentioned was able to deal with the judge using what he had learned from his half-finished education, BTW, but of course, that is fiction. In the Philippines, the song of KZ Tandingan (TJ Monterde’s wife) might apply: „Imposible, imposible, sa pelikula lang ito nangyayari“. But a mix of government becoming more service oriented and people being educated more is probably key. Trust in people is natural, trust in systems is learned.
ahem, I like tulfo because he reminds me of tofu and his skin looks pasty as tofu, and he is airy as tofu as well, haha. though I dont really like tofu, having once gotten sick with salmonella gotten from tofu.
yeah, mabait and masungit are all subjective to me, but like many pinoys, to see is to believe. but I like the way the citizens of makati got birthday cakes on their birthdays courtesy of the mayor of makati, the expenses charged presumably to the city of makati. the owners of the bakery contracted to bake those cakes are summat related to the mayor. that’s business filipino style, what comes ’round, comes around. and if that does not bother the citizens of makati, then I have no bother with it.
there are those whose work is to collect data and compile data all day long. govt agencies are notorious for collecting data and stats for how else are they going to explain govt expenditures without receipts and accompanying transactionals and paperwork? those are needed for probity and people who knew the system expect it and are prepared well in advance, and most follow through.
yes, most often we wait for services and wait for our turn as there are others before us similarly waiting. and it will help greatly if we also have all the required paperwork ready, to make the transaction smooth and effortless. but expect delay. like in emergency dept of hospitals where people can wait for hours as those with life threatening injuries like those involved in motor vehicle accidents and are bleeding profusely take priority.
AI should make our life easier and lessened the line of people waiting for service and process their paperwork beforehand. not everyone in the line needs to be seen by a person, they can be processed by a machine or bot. and moved on.
there are people who are prepared to talk to a machine, to press this number and that, until the service they want is met. faceless transaction, many are happy and satisfied dealing with that.