A certain lack of character in the Philippine legislature

By JoeAm I started thinking about how to characterize a legislature that would have 9 year-old children taken from their parents and placed in confinement with other so-called “kids in disregard for the law” until they are as old as 25, and then expect them to emerge into the greater world as constructive members of … Continue reading →

On the matter of criminal responsibility for 9 year old kids

By JoeAm House Speaker Arroyo and Senate President Sotto evidently intend to sponsor legislation to allow children as young as 9 years of age to be criminally responsible in the Philippines. The current age for criminal responsibility is 15 years of age. What are we to think of this? The arguments for it are those … Continue reading →

Tragedy of denial in the Philippines

By JoeAm I hope you had the opportunity to read Chemrock’s article entitled Tragedy of the Commons in the Philippines. It gets right to the heart of the personal and social malaise that infests the country leading to bad behaviors, bad decisions, and bad results. Poverty is the worst of the outputs. State-sanctioned murder is … Continue reading →

Tragedy of the Commons in the Philippines

By Chemrock Juan has a few cows which graze daily in the small field outside the village, together with scores of other cows that belong to fellow villagers. He makes a decent living from milk production. An opportunity came for Juan to double his herd. He knows nothing about optimum herd size, but he has … Continue reading →

Adopt technocracy to reach competence, not federalism to spread incompetence

By JoeAm A recent blog article on electricity by Chemrock raised the point that government services are only as good as the people managing them. Readers debated privatization versus government ownership of electrical and other utility services but there could be no resolution because the deal killer always is the poor managers who run things … Continue reading →