What lies ahead?
2025 will be a difficult year for many countries. As this blog’s focus is the Philippines, the question is what to expect there for this year.
- Will any oppositionist enter the Senate after the term of Senator Risa Hontiveros ends? The trend of 2019 and 2022 is a warning. Likewise, will two more Tulfo brothers enter the Senate?
- Will Filipinos start colonizing Mars in the coming years, or will they be OSWs or outer space workers in similar roles as OFWs in many places today, often with very limited perspectives?
- Will tourism continue to grow, or will it hit boundaries due to limitations in infrastructure and public transportation? The Philippines is competing with the likes of Thailand, after all.
- Will something from the Philippines, be it Jolibee or Filipino pop, become significant globally? Will the Philippines still mostly supply resources natural and human, or will it level up its trade?
- Will the apparent economic growth of these days be sustained, or will the country like before fall into the one-day millionaire trap? Will a Senate without opposition make sure money is not wasted?
Some of these questions are important and serious. Some just happen to be my part of what I am observing or are food for thought.
Let us question the questions, find new questions, and seek answers.
(Picture source: Wikimedia commons – link)
The Society of Honor by Joe America 
_-_Flickr.jpg){kind=link}
thinking if what lies ahead by reflection of the recent past. thanks Irineo
Ah, inspiring us to think for a change, eh? Haha.
My answers.
All this goes off the table if war breaks out in the region, with Taiwan likely to be the flashpoint.
More than THANKS for the questions to consider — others perhaps that may crop up! G. H. Abad
Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone
Not arranged according to your outline. Will try though.
I am still hoping that De Lima and Chel Diokno enter the Senate
No Tulfo.please.
As I said before Binay and Villar would be new blood infusion.
Tourism can improve if we combine out Nautical Highway with under water bridges.
Those Cansls and Wuexkn and Zamboanga can boost trade and tourism, so they must no longer be just drawings
Plus the kidnappings and peace and order should improve.
We do not have a Space Progam all we do is piggyback.
No rich guy that I know of has even joined Richard Brandon’s trip to Earth’s orbit
Though I say we must mo longer export humans.
Singapore, Japan, Korea have low birth rates and aging workforce.
US lacks STEM people. India already cintril the board rooms must they control the mailroom too( can’t think of another room with entry levels)
NEDA will soon have more powers, let us see what they can do.
Thanks for all the answers so far. As Three Kings Day is a holiday here, the sun is out, which is not the norm this time of year, and the winter days are short, meaning the day is already half done, I will respond later after a walk. Maybe the “late shift” will also have chimed in by then.
One thing up front, though. The YT video below is the preview of the movie Song of the Fireflies, which is finally coming out. Being indie, it had funding issues. It is about the Loboc Children’s Choir from Bohol, with Morissette playing the teacher and choir leader who founded it.
Lots of dialog in Bisaya, and it seems the kids speak in real Bol-anon intonation and are locals, though that is something Joey, kb, even maybe LCPL_X can judge better. While I am happy if commercial PPop succeeds or even in a decade or so Filipino dramas (still to OA as of now), the good arthouse stuff should also persist. After all, Korea also has a spectrum of films from Parasite to K-drama, “high art” and “street art” should stimulate each other within a culture.
All I know about Bohol bisaya (per Mango ave. girls) is they use the J sound a lot. not sure if that’s actually true though, Ireneo. but i guess thats the running joke, and how innocent naive they are when they go to Cebu. like how Ilongos would put their windows up when driving in car just to “show” people they have aircon, i’ve never seen that but I guess Bohol folks are naive; but Ilongos are show offs is the point.
but I stayed here a couple of nights: http://www.nutshuts.org/howtofind.html Some scandanavian dude I met on Mango ave said I should check it out cuz they had a legit Sauna. which they did!
as to your 1-5, for sure Starlink use will increase in the Philippines, but I’m starting to think the UFO psionics connection will have better chance of DE Filipinos going to Mars (according to John Lear we or “they” actually already have bases there), compared to Neuralink DE Filipinos going to Mars. so for sure Filipinos are going to Mars. one way or another. lol.
But seriously, I think 1-5 also need to connect to the prevalence of Filipinos and circumcision and infections thereof to complications (from tomatoes to actual life altering complications) due to the procedure and after like bathing in polluted waters.
Cuz there seems to be correlation with development (personal and national) and circumcision.
related also is this map, like if you talk to Mexican women their first sexual experience tend to be with 1st cousins, but taboo so not talked about really nor legalized. not sure though if same in Philippines, though i’ve talked about incest before, but this one is more like sexual exploring like show me yours i’ll show you mine stuff not really icky like incest. but Latin America tend to reflect Mexico/Mexican culture i noticed. once dated a Bolivian chic who said similar.
back to circumcision, S. Korea is a recent spike, i guess cuz of Christian evangelicals. those folks are crazy. over here, every weekend , you hear of Korean churches with rumbles between parishioners same members duking it out. so I can understand the coup attempt due to this phenomena over here.
Back to circumcision…
There’s something about infections and tuli custom in Filipino psyche I think , Ireneo. i think its the fetishization, like I said before of Filipino sailors inserting ball bearings around their penis to please more women. that’s a crazy tradition. but i think its related to circumcision.
So customs that keep people down should be cut. no pun intended. lol.
There is this Boholana member of the Filipino PPop girl group BINI being interviewed in Visaya by ABS-CBN host Melai Cantiveros. Her accent struck me as quite marked, and the kids in the movie preview sound quite similar. I have an ear for accents, but the sample is too small.
There was a documentary I watched last year on how that girl group formed. During castings in 2019, Colet mentioned asking her sister jokingly “song and dance, where will they take me?” as it was just a generic casting then, the PPop group was still a secret project. So I guess people from Bohol are possibly considered “hicks” by Cebuanos but aren’t fools, BTW Colet’s parents insisted that her sister accompany her to Manila for casting, they know the dangers.
Yeah, “hicks” is an appropriate word I would think, Ireneo. theres a bunch of neighborhoods up and down that river. so from Nuts Huts there was a guy that had a bangka you paid him to cross the river, and there were ferries up and down the river too. but I remember the neighborhoods were really open like people just left their stuff outside. and i guess no one stole anything there. remember i told you that scene I saw where kids were playing toddlers really and their babysitter was a dog that kept rounding them up. it was there i saw this. lol.
I ‘m sure you’ve seen Men Who Stare At Goats with Clooney and Ewan McGregor that movie was based on a book by Jon Ronson (same title). And so this is one of the Men, Joe McMoneagle. after the Army, his buddy and boss Skip Atwater his commanding officer did extra remote viewing work after their unit was disbanded (more such units were stood up but made more secret), and they had left the Army. So there was another remote viewer named Pat Price who disappeared or died , but his remote views were so crazy that Joe and Skip decided to follow it up, which led them to remote view Mars (Hal Puthoff was probably the dude that suggested it, since he was more into UFOs and Joe and Skip not really, neither was Pat Price). here’s more on Price: https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp79-00999a000400050006-0 he’s the original guy that stumbled onto the UFO stuff they were actually targetting Russia and Russian psychics, that was the Army/CIA program Stargate. not really into UFOs.
Well that’s the backgrounder, but Joe McMoneagle (just input his name in youtube lots of videos recent and from the 80s) went to Mars but went back in time. where in, he said when Earth was still basically like our Venus, Mars was a thriving planet. but an asteroid or something cataclysmic ripped out their atmosphere. some went underground, some decided to bail out and some of those folks ended up on Earth when it was still filled with volcanoes etc. supposedly they ended up staying here ever since. could be related to Biblical niphilim or Atlantis or Noah’s ark, Summerian gods, Hindu gods too, i dunno. But Skip and Joe stumbled on this playing around with how Remote Viewing actually works, that time and space wasn’t really an issue when doing this (see Edgar Cayce blog here). so they decided to delve into UFO stuff, i think that Mars pyramid picture came out and they decided to check it out. and that Martian chronicle was the product of it.
Something interesting to consider. my point, if DE Filipinos do go to Mars, they’ll technically be returning home. but Hal Puthoff, Skip Atwater, Pat Price & Skip Atwater are the names you want to youtube and or Google if you wanna dive into this rabbit hole.
ooooops.. I said Skip Atwater twice, that should read Joe McMoneagle.
This is really good. I added the film to my list to watch later. A bit more highlighting other ethnic groups’ contributions can only make the nation grow more strongly united.
Speaking of alitaptap/aninipot (fireflies), populations of native Philippine fireflies have decreased dramatically from my own observation over the last two decades. It’s really sad as before when the jungle was relatively close to even larger towns, fireflies were common. I remember a girl I spent a lot of time with in my more youthful trips. Unsure at the time whether or not she and I would work as a couple, so we never made it official, but we did climb quite a few heights to get closer into the native undergrowth to see fireflies. On one occasion we trekked all over Negros Oriental, just to encounter swarms of fireflies under the clear night sky pulsating like two beating hearts. Those days are nearly gone with foliage clearance, pollution, and artificial lights.
Filipinos are the fiercest warriors in history. If given weapons by western powers, we can defeat China easily
OK, some comments on the answers.
0. In general, there were some comments.
0.1. Joe, yes, I believe that Socratic methods can enliven discussions
0.2. Karl, I will still comment your answers using Loresian enumeration
0.3. Gian, yes, this is all from recent current events and recent blog topics
0.4. Gemino, many thanks
0.5. I recall that Joey starts working again today. Let’s see when he comments
0.6. LCPL_X still has to return from Mars or from a UFO in the California desert
0.7. KB, isk, sonny, NH the snowman, Popoy etc etc we will see as this goes on
0.8. This is also an exercise in getting us into what happens on the way to 2028
1. Senate
1a. Joe sees Bam Aquino possibly winning
1b. Karl hopes that Leila de Lima or Chel Diokno get in
1c. I could see Leila de Lima get in if she harnesses her rage inside
1d. Karl hopes no further Tulfos, I suspect at least one more will get in
1e. Hope the Senate doesn’t at least stand in the way of local good government
2. Space
2a. Joe sees the challenges stay on earth
2b. Karl says the Philippines is just piggybacking
2c. The microsatellites help monitor storms and sustainability
2d. There are more half-Filipinos in Japan and Korea now than on Mars
2e. One half-Filipina Korean is even in KPop, but OK, that is for later.
3. Tourism
3a. Agree with Joe
3b. Agree with Karl even jf the PH is I heard WAY safer than in the 90s/00s.
3c. Under water bridges are too science fiction IMO, Karl.
3d. Getting NAIA working more efficiently would do more as of now.
3e. Karl I don’t know what drawings you are mentioning
3f. I have heard service level is still relatively low over there. Who knows more?
3g. There is also what I heard that it is in general more expensive than 🇹🇭
4. Export and OFWs
4a. Joe is right. Even PPop global domination will be SOME new jobs
4b. Though there is a possible cross-promotion effect on tourism by PPop
4c. There is also potential cross-promotion between PPop, tourism, Jolibee
4d. Maybe I am being OA, but stuff that increases Filipino confidence is good
4e. There also was a Toyota Tamaraw in the early 1980s and it also went well
4f. Hopefully, the new middle class doesn’t experience what the old did in 1982
4g. Kopinos and Japinos can also possibly influence the Philippines, long-term
4h. Two Filipinas and a Kopina from KPop group UNIS covered Pantropiko by BINI
4i. Their being seen by the KPop crowd helped in making Pantropiko such a huge hit
4j. There is also the Fil-Am rapper EZ Mil who helped drive interest in PPop, indirectly
4k. Jolibee has a good chance to defeat KFC that now sucks – if the Coktiangs want to
5. Economy
5a. Agree. It will keep growing in spite of the government
5b. Unless, of course, they mess up like in 1982 when PH was bankrupt
6. War
6a. Yes, a war where China attacks Taiwan would be unpredictable
6b. G-Yeon, yes Filipinos can be great fighters, see the Battle of Yultong
6c. Maybe they are strategically not at the same level as Sun Tzu’s country
6d. Tactically, Filipinos can be brillant in the spirit of diskarte, for sure.
6e. Grounding the BRP Sierra Madre was a brillant move for example.
6f. Bravery alone doesn’t cut it in this era. It is no longer mano a mano.
6g. Have real lessons already been learned from Mamasapano or Marawi?
P.S. LCPL_X sees Filipinos going to Mars, of course. I don’t see it THIS YEAR.
The other two things he mentioned aren’t really about what might happen THIS YEAR or at most until 2028 in the areas I mentioned.
BTW I don’t consider PPop that important. VP Leni’s Blue Industries proposal WOULD have been much greater. Imagine foreign ships actually flying the Filipino instead of the Liberian flag, for instance, just one idea, but it didn’t click with the people so what can we do?
Music is just one area where Filipinos feel confident. As Joey mentioned in another convo, they might see technology and innovation as too “magical” for them to master.
So maybe it has to be similar steps to building confidence like African-Americans went through, not in the same order as Motown came before Muhammad Ali while Pacquiao came before PPop and of course now the Philippines even has Olympic Gold medals.
Don’t know about Filipino fashion, but I heard that industry has some potential as well.
P.S. LCPL_X sees Filipinos going to Mars, of course. I don’t see it THIS YEAR.
I have to clarify. no DE Filipinos going to Mars this year. But for sure more Filipinos (probably DE Filipinos too) will get Starlink this year. this i can guarantee.
I was just saying between Neuralink DE Filipino and psionic DE Filipinos, I’m now thinking it’ll be the psionic DE Filipinos that’ll get to Mars first given all the “drones” and UFO activities reported in late 2024.
re tuli I think if there was a gov’t or private push to say let’s stop this tuli stuff all together, then it might factor in to your 1-5 going forward. say for 2025 end tuli as a nation. if not ditching tuli all together then maybe do what Jews do, wherein they tuli shortly right after birth. but given Filipino health care that might be more dangerous. so i lean towards deleting tuli completely.
4d. Maybe I am being OA, but stuff that increases Filipino confidence is good
So my tuli commentary would fall under this one, Ireneo.
I don’t know about the actual effects on development, but it might be as hard to get into the culture as the ban on eating dogs. I saw a dog slaughtered, etc. in Balara, that might be rarer now. BTW the bolitas seamen sometimes have are as old as the time of Lapulapu, they were described by early Western chroniclers. Anyhow I believe we abroad should know it isn’t our call to tell Filipinos what to do and not. We should at least know how far we can go.
As for cousins, etc. Chemrock IIRC once wrote an article about the negative effects of inbreeding, and yes, that might have been more around 1900. Not before 1571 when people moved around more between islands and less after moving to big cities and abroad postwar.
Meaning you can’t actually do much more as actual marriage between cousins isn’t really condoned in Philippine society at all, probably because especially in small communities (just like Macondo in the new Netflix series Hundred Years of Solitude) inbreeding is a real risk.
Edited P.S.: we are NOW trying to talk about stuff that lies ahead, not make recommendations. Feel free to submit articles to Joe on these two topics if you want, but I’ll still pass them..
Also, we shouldn’t go deeper into the Mars topic here as it isn’t the main focus either.
BTW the bolitas seamen sometimes have are as old as the time of Lapulapu, they were described by early Western chroniclers.
This is interesting, so related to anting-anting then i presume. have any more on this? thanks.
Feel free to submit articles to Joe on these two topics if you want, but I’ll still pass them..
That’s a good idea. let me see if I can connect tuli and some sort of psychological condition vis a vis GDP.
Here you go, but let’s stop the discussion of that matter here in this article as my goals for it are somewhat different.
https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/pinoyabroad/dispatch/321457/scholars-say-bolitas-widely-used-as-secret-weapon-of-pinoy-seamen/story/
https://kami.com.ph/16055-bolitas-seriously-strange-sexual-oddity-filipino-seamen.html
Maybe causes and effects are not what they seem to be if one reads the two articles.
Though that might be exactly something you can expound on if you go for an article of your own, a hint from one article “..Their awareness that they are easily dispensable have made Filipino crew members insecure and hesitant. Mckay hypothesizes that industry insiders and other international seafarers see this caution as effeminate – a signal that they are disciplined “followers”, but not necessarily born leaders.. Filipino captains are a rare sight..”
I’m not familiar with promotional paths on ships. I presume one generally becomes a captain by completing competence certifications onward and upward. My hometown Naval, Biliran, is heavily populated by seamen, and many have nice homes. I presume they are captains of this or that. I know getting aboard a ship is not easy, fresh out of college. But once one is on the seas, is there a promotional path? I dunno. But there are a LOT of Filipino seamen.
In Bonn, Germany, where we used to live, there was a Filipino captain married to a German woman who had completed his qualifications there. I think the old way was indeed that “white men” were the captains, Filipinos, the crew, and so many didn’t even try to become captain. That has been changing in the past decade is my impression, but I guess a lot of glass ceilings are mental. As MLQ3 wrote, a lot of Filipinos are still subservient even if they don’t have to be.
It is like in the 1990s UN, ranks like P3 (professional 3) were rare, and P4 nearly not existent among Filipinos. Some of the mobbing I got there (very heavy really) might have been a sense of me having opportunities they didn’t feel they had. Of being closer to “the whites” and all.
First an AI assisted reply
Then a link to my maritime review articles.
The Philippines supplies a large number of both officers and ratings to international merchant ships, and the ratio of the two depends on the year:
2021: The Philippines supplied 74,304 officers and 135,370 ratings
2019: The Philippines supplied 107,755 officers and 182,228 ratings
2018: The Philippines supplied 143,090 officers and 153,231 ratings
2017: The Philippines supplied 100,185 officers and 163,903 ratings
2016: The Philippines supplied 100,605 officers and 159,858 ratings
The Philippines is the world’s largest supplier of seafarers, providing a large proportion of the officers and ratings needed to safely transport about 90% of the world’s trade. In the early 1970s, the Philippines only supplied 1% of the world’s seafaring labor force, but today it makes up about 25%.
Here is the link to my Maritime Review Articles.
https://maritimereview.ph/author/kgarcia/
Seamen just need short vocational training then OJT. There are many agencies for this route. Seamen still earn a good salary compared to an average Filipino. Enough anyway to support multiple women anyway, as often is the case. More pragmatic seamen that don’t have too many “bisyo” or women can easily save up to build a nice house.
Sea captains and engineers require college education. That’d be Bachelor of Science in Marine Transportation (BSMT) and Bachelor of Science in Marine Engineering (BSME), respectively. I’ve met a few, but not so many Maritime Officers who were originally seamen but saved up to go to college for the degree. Most maritime officers, like Philippines Airlines of Cebu Pacific pilots, come from at least middle class families who can afford to put their son through the college course required. Another route for maritime officers are retired PN/PCG naval officers who would’ve already completed the relevant education.
Well I’ve eaten dog in the Philippines before. Like many things in a Filipino context, the story of how that came to pass was funny, sad, a bit crazy, and had a dash of folk beliefs mixed haphazardly all at once.
(btw, I did not enjoy eating the dog.)
The overacting one? 🤣😂🤣
Yes, my work did start up again so have been a bit busy. Started writing an initial comment but wasn’t satisfied with it, so I will finish that later after I get settled.
Technology is just a tool, and innovation is just a effort-saver new way to use tools. If one does not take the time to learn how to use a tool, perhaps due to lack of confidence, any tool seems like magical and its user a magician. Overall, Filipinos lack confidence yet blame that lack of confidence on the wrong “causes” (ahem, colonialism). It can be argued that indifferent politicians hold Filipinos’ confidence back, but it must be asked: “who voted those politicians into office in the first place?” Awareness to see that obvious answer is the start to building confidence.
African-Americans are a bit different though. Discounting the White admixture (caused by obvious reasons), what makes up the African-American population today has ancestry in a number of old African kingdoms, some major kingdoms. The slave trade was the result of European demand, African wars, and Arab slave traders. Prior to emancipation, slaves homogenized the various origin cultures together in order to survive, and largely kept the strength and willpower of the nations they came from. After the Civil War, African-Americans quickly started communities with highly educated (sometimes self-taught) professionals and businessmen. Some even went back into farming and bought their former masters’ plantations. The most famous of these high-functioning African-American towns is colloquially known as “Black Wall Street,” but there were many ( See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa_race_massacre ). Of course, the former Confederates quickly started the Ku Klux Klan to terrorize and subjugate the burgeoning African-American efforts, and with the Federal government ending Reconstruction to Southern threats of another Civil War, the terror evolved into a complicated system of economic and political suppression that was not formally ended until the Civil Rights Movement though major echoes are still here today. African-Americans are still known for their strong-willed nature and hard working attitude. The emphasis on gaining success through sport and entertainment was the result of the debate between W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington, in which Booker T. Washington’s arguments won out after the Black Wall Streets were crushed by the KKK terrors. A bit different from the Filipino experience, I think, where the Philippines didn’t have any organized nation-states (at least regionally influential ones) pre-Spanish. It’s easier for a culture to rebound if the culture has something substantial to rebound from…. Filipinos need to find their own identity and embrace it strongly to form the basis for future rebounds if there’s a need.
Maybe one can blame colonialism only in so far as the proto-states that were forming in the 16th century might have become stronger if, for instance, Magellan had been delayed a few months and perished in the typhoon season. At least as strong as the Mindanao Sultanates.
Possibly, Dutch expeditions coming later and Spanish coming a century later from Mexico would have faced more serious resistance, even though the machinery of the Dutch East Indies Corporation was powerful enough to crush many Indonesian Sultanates except Aceh, something the Portuguese could not yet do – and even if they might have been conquered eventually there would be less need for creating all kinds of legends to gain confidence.
The Philippines, of course, has to work with what it has and accept what actually happened.
For instance, there are those who point out that the ancestral homes of the colonial period are not really Spanish, and indeed, the colonial houses in Mexico are different. Indonesians have said the layout is similar to a Malay longhouse, so like the old houses of pre-colonial datus.
It is true that there is a bit of a poser element in some Filipinos – to use hip-hop slang. Or like the joke of Latinos calling a Fil-Am posing to look like them “puto” and the Pinoy answers “yo man why you calling me a bread”? Joe did BTW once write that knowledge leads to confidence.
Perhaps. There are many maybes in parallel Earths (comic reference hehe).
I think the more reasonable alternate outcome would’ve been in the near-term at least if Magellan had been delayed was that a Portuguese would’ve come eventually, and the strongest Filipino polities at the time (Maynila, Tondo, Sugbu, Butuan-Calaga, Sulu) probably would’ve been subjugated by the Portuguese instead. The Sultanate of Aceh may have been a corner case, given its “more distant” and possibly more defensible location that is oriented more towards trade with India and the Arabs rather than directly on the Strait of Malacca like Malacca and Johor. Eventually even Aceh did fall to the Portuguese. If the Portuguese had not come, then perhaps everyone in maritime SEA would be speaking German or Dutch after the Wars of Religion and Reformation.
Nearly 20 years ago I once told a UP friend who had studied history under your father that using colonialism is an excuse and a crutch as there have been plenty other peoples who had been colonized for much longer. He was shocked to learn that the Han (including various periods when the Han were under Mongols and Manchus) colonized the Vietnamese and Koreans for nearly 1,000 years, yet both peoples came out of the experience culturally intact and with an even stronger identity, even absorbing neighboring cultures in the process. I tend to think of the colonialism discourse as being heavily tinged by borderline or outright far-left influences, specifically the discourse within those tiny American liberal arts colleges I mentioned. Throughout history people have “taken their breaks,” accepted it, perhaps learned from it then moved on, and so must Filipinos as a nation. Well ok, the Koreans are still upset at the Japanese for the much shorter Imperial Japanese occupation…
The poser element of some Filipinos is a form of not recognizing one’s own strengths and greatness, I think. Try as they may, it’s impossible to perfectly copy the original, so may as well create one’s own originals. Though like artists throughout history, one can become one’s own master while also drawing on influences of other masters and schools of art. In today’s information-driven world, the knowledge is out there and it’s free. Back when I started in IT, I still had to read multi-volume printed manuals so heavy the manual could act as a doorstop (which we often did use for that purpose). Today, if one knows how to properly write a search query, both the information and helpful strangers with examples are within the reach of one’s fingertips, yet I still have people ask me simple things that they could’ve just researched themselves. Instead of “RTFM” now we have “LMGTFY.” I learned my trade largely by my own effort, but I also had good mentors to point me in the right direction, so perhaps what can help Filipinos are abroads coming back and setting up mentorship programs in various fields.
It may just be me, but I think a discourse is no longer helpful when it starts to hold one back from advancing. Maybe most Filipinos aren’t aware of the finer details of the Revolution today given the woeful state of Philippine Education, but there seems to still exist underlying resentments that manifest in using this or that as an excuse. No one is holding the Philippines back today, except Filipinos themselves and the leaders Filipinos elect.
Using colonialism as an excuse until now is dumb, but maybe those who do have another agenda. For instance, the alleged “elitists from Ateneo” around PNoy were working to increase opportunities for Filipinos – long-term. Now let me venture a conjecture about some people.
A lot of UP folks, including originally Leftists (until Duterte red tagged), were pro Duterte. Knowing UP Diliman from the inside, people there might not be as rich as the Ateneo or La Salle folks in corporations, but they can get way too comfortable at times. It is UP folks from whom I have heard the bs that Filipinos who settle abroad and succeeded have betrayed the nation for greed. And those who work abroad contractually and send home money are bayani, of course.
Ideas of victimhood make people easy to dominate. Movies like the Leftist Tu Pug Imatuy about the Manobos, cheered at UP Film Center, has the Manobo narrator literally say of Manobos turned NPAs “they became Gods that protected our people”. Isn’t that a form of patronage?
Some UP people who join the government might also be as patronizing as others supposed to “serve the people.” Maybe some of them know they wouldn’t last in a competitive environment, just as I feel a lot of people in middle-class subdivisions might fear the rise of the new middle class. Maybe a lot of what is holding back the Philippines are excuses to keep the entitled in their very cushy comfort zones. Like I already mentioned, Filipinos can rise to challenges but relax too quickly after challenges. Having an intellectual excuse for staying put is “great.”
Damn I have been nasty to two of my tribes today. But maybe we all are indeed too full of BS.
It is stunning the lack of conceptual reasoning by so many, the Left especially. It’s like the incompetence of agencies like PhilHealth and SSS. What do these people think about? Because getting things done is not among them.
Indeed I did see a lot of anti-PNoy criticism from the left flank when it came to his advisors’ technocratic tendencies, which I found to be unwarranted. It’s much easier to criticize after all, when one does not need to do the hard work of governing nor even bother to try to get power because then one would be held responsible. It’s much easier to remain “small” to retain the ability to criticize. These people don’t want to win in my view, they just want to become famous. My own personal (constructive) criticism for PNoy’s administration was the same one I had for Obama, which the lack of boldness to more fully tackle problems given IIRC the coalition held majorities in Congress, and the inability or unwillingness to tout the accomplishments that did happen. Voters can’t be expected to know about good works if they don’t know…
You may have noticed that over the years that the more moderate left and center-left in the Philippines have started adopting populist messaging and terminology. What they haven’t done is adopt populist *energy* and so they start to seem like posers using whatever new terms that amount to virtue signalling to demonstrate their purity. Virtue signalling is BS and while voters might not be informed enough to recognize it as such, voters can sniff out BS even if they cannot identify the source. The small, affluent, out-of-touch political cliques of tiny American liberal arts colleges tend to seep into the narrative of the left, given that a number of them go onto enter Ivys for graduate education and enter politics as advisors. In a way this is one of the downsides of American soft-power, as US culture wars that start when the American right takes virtue-signalling terminology out of context and forces it into becoming an issue, then it’s repeated mindlessly across America. Leftist Twitter (before Musk) also did a lot of damage by spreading these useless purity tests across the West, to where Marine Le Pen, Orbán, AfD, PiS were able to make American culture war terms an issue in their respective countries as well despite having no relevancy. The Philippines is affected too, judging by how the Filipino “intellectual left” is so very Twitter-brained, at least previously.
I noticed long ago that many Makabayan section leaders seem to have come out of the UP system. UP is an excellent university system, but apparently these Makabayan leaders and other far leftists don’t even understand their own messaging. For example, talking about Filipino “strength” vs demanding “US Out” and “China hands off WPS” is nice and all, but did they suppose if the US did pull back, would the Philippines be able to defend all the territory alone at this juncture? Selling easy solutions to complex problems like farmers’ rights or indigenous rights can only lead me to conclude that the salesmen are way out-of-touch and living in unreality. As someone who had experienced poverty, every time I see one of these bloviators vlogging from their quite-nice homes about the rights of the poor and how we must rise in revolution, I just want to reach out and punch them. They know nothing about the indignities faced by those at the bottom, nor do they want to learn. Others are useful as long as the others fit into their fantasies, which also requires others to do all the hard work while they remain “intellectually above.”
I do not agree with positions that require dictators, which GRP eventually settled on before they turned on Duterte, nor do I agree with positions that make it an impossibility for Filipinos (or any other human society for that matter) to gain access to more dignity through education and job opportunities if one wants it. In my view, most Filipinos feel like they can’t do anything, because very few Filipino leaders have told them since the Revolution that Filipinos can be anything they want, with a bit of luck if they work hard enough. Instead I hear things like “it’s our fate,” “it’s what God wanted for us” which frankly is infuriating. But these are learned beliefs and behaviors. We are all human and have the same basic genes and basic potential outside of exceptional outliers. But to move forward, Filipino leaders need to give confidence to the people and lead by creating opportunities to gain that confidence.
3f. Level of service in government? It is horrible. SSS just got dinged by audit for not collecting P89 billion in company contributions. We had the PhilHealth fiasco last year. They were forced to remit P90 billion to the Treasury because they could not figure out how to spend it. Dept of Agriculture thinks it can lower the price of rice by declaring a maximum retail suggested price, rather than controlling hoarding, smuggling, and corruption. And planting more of the stuff. Cebu is going after mines that DENR ha given huge land permits to, some of which have villages on them And dolomite beach. Gross incompetence everywhere. I tweeted yesterday that I think government agencies hate Filipinos. Sure seems like it.
I’m inclined to summarize your iterables. The Senate is largely irrelevant, space is a non-starter, tourism is stable but not dominant, OFWs are here to stay so to speak, the economy is stable and building depth but lacking primary manufacturing, and war would be a huge wrench in the engine. Government is a mess. The place is lovely, and interesting as hell.
Or, as MLQ3 recently wrote, it neither will crash nor will it take off anytime soon. Maybe the opposition has to define what it can be good for, as obviously the ship can somehow run without even a Risa Hontiveros in the Senate?
Maybe the powers that be will even be wise enough to avoid bankrupting the state like in 1982 as the new middle class might not be as civil as the old middle class was in 1986, so what is the need for these pesky smart-ass oppositionists, is my partly rhetorical question.
I am asking this question by putting myself in the place of many a Filipino who doesn’t have the information we have. Or our ideas of how stuff ought to be.
In my article to be published Thursday, I start to discuss the opposition’s message. I think there are clear points to be made. The recent issues on PhilHealth and SSS are perfect ammunition to support an opposition’s push for anti-corruption and better agency work. Or the Ombudsman hiding SALNs. There are plenty of hard-hitting points to be made.
In saying this, I note, though, that there seem to be few captains on the opposition’s ship.
I meant service level in commercial even tourism establishments, though what I have is hearsay about obtuseness and especially unwillingness to fix errors, though allegedly there are places run by Filams with a higher standard.
Probably the penchant for doing things in a strange way runs through banks (if you have many names etc.) places where you buy electronics (test first not cash and carry) to maybe even resorts. What I also hear of often is difficulties with credit cards issued abroad.
Hotel service can be clunky at times but I think four and five star hotels meet international standards. The local rustic resorts are personable. The retail “try before buying” to negate the product warranty is still prevalent. Drives me nuts but my wife seems to find comfort in it. Yes, sometimes the intermediaries that approve credit cards seem to be off line is the main issue. But my cards have been worn out here, so it is only an occasional issue, or is becoming less a problem. On the other side, the positive side, electronic banking and transaction services (g-cash) are very good. Moving electronic cash is easy.
Erratum
Underwater tunnels
Related on Resistance to change and absorbing new knowledge.
Sure people listen if they want to. Then they either dismiss it as nothing to do with their lives that they do not give a damn
Or” Ieave this to the experts I know nothing about what is being introduced”
Something like that.
OR if something new and reformist is introduced in the Philippines and it has initial struggles, some have the knee-jerk reaction to dismantle it and go back to the old way, for instance those who wanted to scrap K-12 entirely.
At least the politicians did not give in to that, for example, and just fixed some of the issues.
Something like Philhealth or SSS is, of course, too old to scrap, but those who try to fix it are more likely to be caught holding the bucket and blamed, but that can be politics anywhere.
Re your correction on underwater tunnels, thanks, though that probably is something the country might want to do in selected places where there is actual benefit.
Better make sure airports, sea ports etc are in good shape and efficient FIRST.
Hope Ramon Ang lives longer.
Or has a trusted protege like Manny Pangilan to Salim and Eamon Ang to Danding.
If I recall his son passed away a few years ago. Don’t know if he has other children.
But no coordination would kill projects long planned.
“Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista yesterday said the LRT-1 Cavite Extension would have to undergo redesigning to make way for a project of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
Bautista said the train extension could no longer run on its original alignment as the DPWH constructed a flyover in a segment where the railway was supposed to be built.”
omg, who goofed? Flyover more important than train. Agencies need to be headed by professionals, not the entitled.
Professional even attitude not just qualification.
ahem, I think filipinos can handle a conflict of schedules, flyover vs train. which come first, the chicken or the egg. and we’ll talk it over a basket of hot steamed seafoods, no shooting or killing of interested parties please. and we can always detour.
unlike those americanos, who are probly nervous now. the gulf of mexico is to be renamed, gulf of america, and greenland is to be usurped. no more fact checking and misinformation will rule the world.
“Better make sure airports, sea ports etc are in good shape and efficient FIRST.”
https://filipinotimes.net/latest-news/2024/11/05/naia-tagged-as-worst-airport-in-the-world/
x-“Yung NAIA ayaw na ayaw kong tawagin ng mga foreigner yan na the worst airport in the world. Kaya I want to make sure na kung pwede, ako na sana [ang] magkaroon ng pagkakataon na mag-rehabilitate nitong NAIA,” San Miguel Chairman Ramon Ang earlier said.-x
Perhaps, through TSOH, I could tell Mr. Ang about my two-cents worth on the airport? 🙂
Fire away and hope he reads it.
Thanks, Karl!
I am gathering my thoughts now. 🙂
btw, …
Regarding the history of the airport, is anyone here aware of what happened on
January 22, 1972?
MiA burned
burn, baby, burn, mia is like a phoenix. gotta burn and die inorder to resurrect. and now under the auspices of ramon ang et al, naia is apparently blossoming. ramon ang is treating it like a business, spend big to make his customers happy! and happy customers are content to pay fees, reasonable fees for comfort, ease and faster transaction at the airport.
1.) Still likely a progressive or a centrist will have presence in the legislature no matter how the conservative political oligarchy outnumber them and dominate the system from top to bottom.
2.) Maybe in a few decades, and even then it’ll likely a Westerner of Filipino extraction who could finally get astronaut wings.
3.) Tourism will continue, but with intense competition between SEA nations as long as there is the strong dollar allowing tourists to enjoy more bang for the buck.
4.) Supplying human labor remains on top of anything, as remittances will continue to flow into the country, but tighter restrictions abroad may force local institutions to improve quality of human resources and raise standards of training.
5.) Of this, I am feeling unease with how people are reacting in different ways to the recent gargantuan national budget, the disturbing corruption and depletion of Philhealth, etc. as some are going on with their lives and others seeking the illusion of plenty, as if the damn news isn’t going to affect them, even though many do grumble with the prices of consumer goods and their salaries are not doing enough.
At this stage, people are given choices: either try escaping the country if they feel so persecuted (as mostly the young seem more contented to do as they declare on Twitter, Bluesky or Reddit, believing the lower classes are a threat and accomplices to the political oligarchy), or — weary of trying to fight the system and questioning authority — surrendering themselves to that oligarchy as sycophants or slaves to the grind or sticking to their phones and doomscrolling…
…or just quietly continue resisting, criticizing, keeping the spirits of dissent and democratic principles alive.
Thanks, madlanglupa, and sorry for the delay in responding.
1) I fear that the trend of less and less centrists and leftists in the Senate, with Sen Risa as possibly the last Mohican, could be the canary in the coal mine.
A sign of how the educated Filipinos, whether in universities or corporations, have gotten estranged from the masses and even the new middle class that formed from OFW and BPO money and majority voted Duterte in 2016
They may vote for a more civilized populist like Tulfo in 2028, odds are 3.5:1..
2) unless Filipinos continue to cooperate with Japan – or even India, that will be the case.
Filipino OSWs might do risky jobs like seamen in space, like space walks to repair satellites, possibly by around 2040 with odds at 2.65 to 1.. (the odds are baloney of course)
3) a coach once told me you need to differentiate your offering somehow, find your branding.
3a) my brother-in-law is an English freelance media professional and found “It’s More Fun in the Philippines” more on point than “Love Philippines”
3b) Still, I agree with Joey that Thailand’s package is both cheaper and more predictable and that Filipinos might overrate their own charm and English.
3c) the really low-cost and riskier destinations in Southeast Asia might be Laos and Myanmar.
3d) Malaysia is expensive, I heard. Indonesia and Vietnam have a lot to offer culturally while the Philippines, of course, does have its command of English – for now.
3e) Fortunately, the cringe tourist promotion of Imeldific times has never returned.
4) yes, unfortunately, the Philippines never pulled through with proper industrialization. Pnoy tried and VP Leni had plans. BPO has not leveled up the same way the Indian or Romanian software industry have.
5) sigh, how true.
The abroads often are told they betrayed the country for materialistic reasons, which really hurts. Many of us abroad have given up or did so for a long time like I did. Yet there still might be hope.
so many problems in the philippines, and I am probly doing my bit to prolong it! biro mo, when people ask for help, I give, no questions asked. no judgement. I am told I am utter lemming, so encouraging of dependency or mendicancy. like I care!
I was once mendicant and very grateful for people who lend a hand, of teachers who give me time of day, no questions asked, no judgement. and now, I give, no questions asked and gives no judgement. it is so hard to beg to the point of being mendicant, so devoid of dignity, but one has to live and get by.
there are many gasbagging in the internet, people with less to do and more time to while away. and with donald trump at the white house, it is about to get crazier. but I think we filipinos will stay our course. we may laugh at ourselves and be critical of fellow filipinos, but when it comes to what matters most, we will probly do the right thing. most of the time. and go after those that compromise the security and safety of our country and squandering our resources .
1. Heavy is the weight of the world (or nation) when one shoulder bears it, when the other side while clownishly amateur spreads the load shakily across multiple shoulders. In a few months we will be at the mid-point of Marcos Jr.’s term, yet in the last near 3 years those who claim to want better futures have stayed at the sidelines or fought over minor disagreements. It is not right to demand for singular figures to save us, when we don’t have the will to even save ourselves. The opposition needs to get its act together, formulate a workable agenda, and stop putting forward multiple slates that fracture the landscape.
2. Filipinos abroad are often rejected back home as not being “real Filipinos” anymore, yet they are the ones often doing great things after which they are eagerly re-adopted. Perhaps my next governor will be a Filipino-American. For those who cannot emigrate, sometimes the next best thing is to become a contract OFW. What a waste of potential when even degree holders are doing menial jobs for potentially abusive employers, but there’s often no place nor budget for talent back home.
3. Tourism often has a higher cost in the Philippines than a similarly tropical destination like Thailand. The Philippines can cling to supposedly being better at English, but I recall a Thailand trip in the late 1990s where our tour guide spoke excellent English, being a former engineer. And besides, Thailand has a government-sponsored program to hire K-12 English teachers to level up their skills for both local positions and for international trade. Many of those English teachers are Filipinos. Thailand has better infrastructure, less red tape, and generally “less” corruption at least of the type that tourists can see. How long will the Philippines depend on Filipino charm and cheesy catchphrases like “It’s more fun in the Philippines!” in this race? Thais are also quite charming. Inaction has predictable results. Let’s see.
4. Moving too quickly on making a cultural impact abroad as a way to build confidence back home may backfire, as that seems a lot harder to do than simply becoming associated with something positive, e.g. the Japanese, Koreans, and Taiwanese being associated with high-tech manufacturing of value added, even desirable products.
4a. I’d think that Filipino cuisine has a higher chance of “making it” first abroad than P-Pop. Filipino food is often quite good, even if it looks a bit uniformly brown. So level up the cooking technique, presentation, introduce color in the form of vegetables. So far P-Pop seems to only have OA fandoms that previously oscillated between Japanese and Korean popular culture. Obsessives like that concern me, like the “weeaboos” of the early 2000s. How long can an obsessive hold interest, if something new comes along for them to become obsessed with? After all, many K-Pop fans originally were obsessive J-Pop fans.
4b. Status quo will have the Philippines supply both natural and human resources in the form of raw materials earning the least in a given supply chain with no added value or supplying low-cost human labor in the form of OFWs and BPO workers. Remittances will still stream in to power insatiable non-discretionary consumption by OFW workers, most of who clearly love their family so much, yet accept lacking for themselves. Surely the Philippines can benefit greatly from even OFW maids and cashiers, who have now learned different, more efficient ways of doing things. But once the OFW can’t work abroad any further, spending by their family on needs and wants cancels out any earnings the OFW may have had, leaving no savings to try starting a new, possibly innovative business back home.
4c. Trade will be difficult to increase aside from awarding more mining and extraction licenses. There seems to be little effort to build industries, even with foreign investment, that would level up the Philippines’ standing in the supply chain by adding value to the manufacturing step done locally. Other nations that are resource poor have figured out ways to import raw materials so the nation can support jobs higher up on the supply chain. But for resource-rich Philippines, that would require foresight, planning, but most of all *responsibility* by both government and business leaders.
5. Not sure what more can be done in an economy supported by a combination of tariffs, remittance fueled consumption, VAT. I have concerns about any plans to raise money with foreign loans, especially private foreign loans as opposed to sovereign-backed foreign loans. Of course, private lenders usually charge a higher interest rate, and demand their money back even if austerity measures are required. Broad economic growth cannot occur without raising average Filipino purchasing power. Purchasing power cannot be raised without increasing salaries, which in turn can’t be raised if there are no industries turning enough of a profit to support those salary increases. Solutions are difficult if perfection is expected, but the outlines of an “idea” of how to solve the root problems exist. Maybe there isn’t enough political courage to propose then follow through with at least trying.
Thanks for this. My short feedback.
1) Yes, exactly. Applying yours and LCPL_X’s tip not to be too kind to one’s own clique, I saw the division of the opposition at a micro level as the leaders of Europe for Leni (the ESA lady I mentioned) and Germany for Leni (one of the Conti SAP team) did not manage to work together in 2022, with the Ilongga lady a bit pissed off at my contact to the Conti guy (only possible due to a Bikolano contact) and the latter suspicious AF of me due to my friendship with the Ilongga. That was how sensible people in the revolution, like Mabini, must have felt amidst the chaos.
2) Yes, the Philippines has a lot of gatekeepers who make life hard for those coming back. My father had awful run-ins with the clique of Agoncillo at UP when he returned from Sorbonne.
3) I remember when PAL felt secure as “Asia’s First Airline” and due to its staffs friendliness..
4)a.i. Yes, PPop still has a long way to go, and it may fizzle out if there is no significant 2nd Gen at the same level as SB19 and BINI, who were strongly shaped by the pandemic. Filipinos tend to rise up to challenges but often slack off again when things get easier, so let’s see.
4)a.ii. Like Pacquiao learned from Roach and BINI learned training discipline from Koreans, Filipino cuisine could benefit from Vietnamese coaching. I ate Ga Hat Dieu on Monday, and Vietnamese restaurants don’t drown individual ingredients in sauce like Chinese or Thai ones.
4)a.iii. I still say that VP Leni’s plan for Blue (maritime) industries was excellent, but most of even Pink barely understood it. More possibly later this evening.
5) Giancarlo caught my attention back in 2015 when he said Filipinos might need more of an SAP or ERP kind of mindset, understanding the structure of complexity. GRP was less constructive in saying the Filipino mindset is jungle-like in its chaos but was still a bit right.
Now I wonder where pablonasid and kb are..
one. Ireneo, don’t mean to return to tuli. but Ilongos at least from Cebuanos are said to be uncircumcised in Cebu. I always thought this was just cultural, like the way they’re known to be show offs in Cebu, but I think its an actual cultural aberration wherein Ilongos are in fact uncircumcised compared to the rest of the Philippines. So in the middle of Mindanao theres towns neighborhoods know to be Ilocano, and Cebuano, and Kapangpangan, and Tagalog, etc. no Bikolanos though i don’t think. so in that central Mindanao area, theres a lot of friction of ethnolinguistic groups, but Ilongos are known to be uncircumcised specifically there too. so theres corroboration. as to not being kind to one’s own, Walter Isaacson biographer has this as theme i think. or has identified it as secret sauce to success. as far as leadeership goes. just needs to be leveraged fairly or on balance. i think is his point, based on youtube interviews at least.
Yep, Joey has mentioned elsewhere how familistic Filipino firms are, but guess what, many Bavarian firms also are and some even are internationally successful and well-known, Swabian (Mercedes country) firms as well. But like in the rural societies that the Southern states of Germany used to be, everyone has to do his or her part, no excuses tolerated. Be lazy or marry someone who is a drain on your resources, and you are excluded is the gist of how it is here, family-owned firms here are more humane than shareholder value firms in that they value loyalty as well not just profit – and yes I do believe loyalty is of value, it can make people go the extra mile when needed – you slack off you’re out or don’t move up the ranks or in your role.
Bayern Munich soccer club is a clique but also a major firm, and that club gives huge importance to excellence and going the extra mile for the team, on- and off-court, no bullshit, the Oktoberfest is mostly run by family owned firms but they work their butts off at all levels..
Be lazy or marry someone who is a drain on your resources, and you are excluded is the gist of how it is here,
Reminds me of this movie: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_the_Money_in_the_World “Based on John Pearson’s 1995 book Painfully Rich: The Outrageous Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Heirs of J. Paul Getty, it depicts the events surrounding the 1973 kidnapping of John Paul Getty III and the refusal of his grandfather, the multi-billionaire oil tycoon J. Paul Getty, to cooperate with the kidnappers’ extortion demands.”
I guess compared that to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_East_India_Company “Established on 20 March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies, it was granted a 21-year monopoly to carry out trade activities in Asia. Shares in the company could be purchased by any citizen of the Dutch Republic and subsequently bought and sold in open-air secondary markets (one of which became the Amsterdam Stock Exchange).”
Then comtrast to tech giants of today, you have to put pressure where needed, thus your “Bayern Munich soccer club is a clique but also a major firm, and that club gives huge importance to excellence and going the extra mile for the team, on- and off-court, no bullshit“
Question: Who are the leadership examples in the Philippines that have this? or which groups or companies? even military units and branches will exhibit this culture of excellence. But individuals like what Walter Isaacson does, is easier i think to digest. If you can go more into families/groups that run Oktoberfest, that would probably be helpful, Ireneo. what can be replicated? I guess Atiatihan or Sinulog etc. would be synonymous. make it so these celebrations are international in scope. increase tourism. but more importantly have something that happens year in year out that makes culture of excellence a habit for incoming generations which they can apply into other facets of Philippine life. maybe Oktoberfest is the in here, Ireneo.
The forces of status quo in the dynasties + business alliance may be mocked by those who see themselves as “intellectually above” yet do nothing to help win, but I’ll give it to the dynasties that they sure know how to put their house in order long enough to create stable alliances. While on the Left side it seems like a constant jockeying fight about whose ego can win against rivals. Each faction leader wants 100% “my way or the highway” so the end everyone loses because the factions can’t reach 80% consensus.
Are our opposition leaders down to local organizers in the fight to be the peoples’ champions? Or are they in the fight to boost their own egos? I imagine it to be like a scenario where an unmaintained castle that is falling apart manned by its garrison (dynasties) is about to be sieged by a combined army (opposition political parties and party factions) outnumbering the garrison, going into the battle with immense confidence. Then on the morning of the siege that would easily break the rotting castle, it’s as if the various factional elements start to either refuse to fight if they are not named supreme commander, or they start outright fighting amongst themselves, as the castle garrison watches in disbelief at how they even managed to win the battle.
Speaking of food, Vietnamese Saigon and Mekong Delta cuisines have a lot of Austronesian elements that are similar to Malay/Indonesian and non-Hokkien-influenced Filipino dishes. This is because the Cham people whose Cham Empire formerly was anchored in present-day Southern Vietnam were part of the Brunei-Majapahit-Cham maritime network. There isn’t much English-language research on the Chams, though there is a lot in Vietnamese academia. On my travels in Malaysia and Indonesia, I noticed that the local cuisine differed quite a bit from various Filipino dishes that must’ve originated from the same proto-recipe. The dishes evolved to be much more colorful with flavoring and spices that target specific areas of the taste buds and mouth feel compared to many Filipino dishes, which while tasting good to me, sadly are mostly “brown” and uniform in seasoning (or over seasoning!). Of course, the peoples of ancient Malaysia and Indonesia had a lot more contact with neighbors across the seas and exchanged ideas. Filipino cuisine could work on its presentation and attention to detail/technique, maybe become a less brown and less fried. Our eyes are the first to taste food, and when it’s drowned in sauce, suka, too much oil when using fattier “unwanted scraps” everything comes out brown making the food look unappetizing to those not used to the cuisine.
We’ll continue the Blue industries discussion in the next blog.
I think trying to develop more of a ERP mindset would needlessly confuse Filipinos. After all, ERP was created so companies can use a simplified product compared to the need to maintain resource planning development/maintenance teams in-house for every business. Most people just want the gist of how something works, any valuable pointers or danger spots to look out for, then they will “go with it.” We must maintain the principle of “KISS” as people just can’t dedicate that much of their mental bandwidth to politics, which is why people who have resentments yet don’t know the cause often turn to politicians with dictator-lite tendencies. Just recall in the 2016 general election, multiple rivals introduced increasingly complex yet vague proposals to the people, not that Roxas’ agenda was all that simple to begin with, and easily lost to Duterte’s KISS of “I’ll take care of everything personally.” Let’s identify what ills the Philippines, rank those ills in order of urgency, then feasibility of rectifying, choose the easiest problems to tackle, then formulate reasonable plans to do as such in order to gain wins to build momentum. The big thing is always a shiny object, yet small things when added up weigh just the same…
P.S. This may blow your mind, but Gà hạt điều is actually a Chinese American dish, and doesn’t exist in China at all similar to how American pizza didn’t exist in Italy until very recently. Chinese American cuisine is adapted to the American palate, using local American ingredients, and often has very loose connections with actual Chinese food. Gà hạt điều, or Cashew Chicken, originated in Springfield, Missouri in the restaurant of a Cantonese-Chinese American restaurateur. It’s a famous dish in the Midwest, even being served at standard American restaurants. I believe at one point Cashew Chicken was even nominated to be Missouri’s official state food. Cashew Chicken was later transmitted along the Cantonese business networks, eventually being introduced in Vietnam and Thailand during the Vietnam War as gà hạt điều and kai phat met mamuang, respectively though each with its local flair. The Yue communities, though not always speaking the same language anymore (e.g. Vietnamese, Cantonese, Teochew, Hokkien, Hakka, etc) are usually well connected culturally and in trade, which is probably how you ended up eating gà hạt điều, originally the American-Chinese dish Cashew Chicken, in Germany at a Vietnamese-German restaurant, heh!
OT, I just noticed this classic trending in the admin console, which some of us editors here have access to. It somehow corresponds to Joey’s view of the Philippines being OA:
Contributor https://joeam.com/author/cha3d/ once said Filipinos love to act as if in teleseryes and make unneeded drama – interesting to see major aspects converge so I hope it helps us find better ways – gotta go for now till later.
These two classics trended in previous days:
Ah, Josephivo and Edgar. Wonderful selections.
That has to be one of my top ten articles for the double meanings and precision with which my word scalpel was working. Real literature. Thanks for popping it in here. And I do miss Cha, a rock of sense, understanding, and compassion. I suspect her family is bringing those qualities to the whole of Australia, one of the most enjoyable places on the planet when it is not cooking or burning.
on pa victim and OA
Aren’t we gonna the era of PC and wokeness?
Civil Rights were born from centuries of Slavery.
China’s leaders are acting that way because of alllegedly been humiliated by Colonists and not having a strong Navy historically.
Nature and Nurture.
We may not be OA if it’d still in our DNA to be felt like being Colonized, Oppressed, Persecuted.
On the nurture part of revenge we are triggered by “fake news ” false narratives of our ancestors. Bur there is a segment that is griping over legit feuds and news
Master slave though evolved is still there.
Ambisyoso or Ambisyosas will still remain..
From Egyptian and Babylonian exiles to
Gone with the Wind or Pulang araw stories
of freedom will always be ingrained in out DNA.
We will always be OA
I get that, but I think Joey was saying the future is what you make of it.
That is what Doc Emmett Brown told Marty at the end of Back to the Future 3.
Of course, there is even such a thing as intergenerational PTSD.
Maybe intellectual elites should help deal with that to move forward.
This is why I support how Joe is trying to look forward towards 2028.
so true, we will always be oa, it is in our blood! and we love drama to within inches of our daily grinds, haha.
look now, we have imee’s pelikula about pepsi paloma’s rapists, apparently reminding voters there should be no rapists in senate. god knows the rapists has gotten away with crime, and now rapist is seemingly running away with a senate seat! when rapist should be sitting in an electric chair! what else is the rapist going to get away next? oh, this is going to rattle some bones! and rapist has gone to court in an apparent bid to tro the pelikula. this case is probly not likely to be settled before the coming election and rapist senate bid is probly in jeopardy.
then senatorial aspirant tulfo has been exposed as fraud and a fakester. has stolen someone’s identity kuno and become tnt, tago ng tago, and work in estados america upang ipagtayud ang pamilya, sabi. well, pwede namang ipatagoyud ang pamilya without being a fraud, e. once a fraudster, always a fraudster, the tendency thus goes. slippery road.
so if the opposition has learned anything, it is to strike while the iron is hot! and the senate gladiatorial arena is going to be hotly contested next month in february when official election campaign begins. por bida, bam aquino is no rapist and not a fraudster. and if he can inject a bit of drama, and literally eat the pagpag he was supposed to have fed the people, and come out well and truly alive, with a hefty sense of humor to boost, well, well, well! he who eats pagpag may get to eat (not his words!) but the fine fruits of his labor.
pagpag today, inasal tomorrow! and that’s not being fraudster.
I would say iron while the iron is hot, so your clothes get nicely ironed.
Whether you go to church, to the Senate, or Solaire remains your choice.
so many choices now. and clothes dont have to be ironed. some are drip dry, lenin blends and easy to care. and to save the environment, filipinos do recycle clothes and many we wear hand me downs. and I even got torn jeans and they’re so fashionable.
clothes aside, what lies ahead for the philippines in 2025 is hopefully a better foundation will be laid, is laid. with new and deserving public servants elected to office. I want bam aquino in the senate! I want leni to be the mayor of naga city. I want trillanes to be mayor of caloocan city, I want bato to go back to dabaw and plant kamote thereafter. same with bong go, who relayed digong’s utter dislike of leni, resulting in leni’s resignation from digong’s nsc board. and now, digong, his daughter sara, gloria arroyo and erap estrade are out of pbbm’s nsc board.
and I shall be with the devotees of the black nazarene.