The Game Grown Up Nations Play!

It is not just enough for us to fight against and yell about corruption. It gets old pretty quick. We must do more than just complain about our social, political and economic ills. We have to offer solutions!  As we fight this despicable, backwards and loathsome social disease we need to also look  at our more successful Asian neighbors and beyond , then copy what they have done right to become  successful.  In short, we need not re-invent the wheel.  All we do is copy what has been done successfully , improve on their successes and beat the competition at their game!

Are we up to it as a nation?  Are we truly capable of imitating our financially successful Asian neighbors and perhaps even surpass their achievements?  We will never find out until we dare to play this game that grown up nations play!  As one wise guy said, ‘In order for you to win you have to be in the game!’  And what, you might say, is this game?   Folks, this game is  called the global economy! This is the biggest , most time-relevant , highest-priority , all-important  and exciting game that smart nations  play.  And the Philippines, with the right players at the controls, can truly compete , excel and win in this game of games! 

We are loaded with potential!  Like the Chinese, we have cheaper labor than most. Like the Japanese we are very tech savvy and highly trainable.  As the Taiwanese are industrious and creative, so are we! And when we set our minds on great goals to achieve,  who is going to say that we are less capable and aggressive than the Koreans in going for it? And I would venture out to say that after proper training, we speak the best English ever among the non-English speaking nations of the world!  And I am not pulling anybody’s leg when I say this.   I never stop to be amazed at the great proficiency and polish of our customer service reps at the many call centers of the nation.  These guys are a gem that I am truly proud of. Hats off to these miracle workers! When I talk to them, I hardly detect any accent to tell me I am speaking to a Pinoy or Pinay! Truly amazing!  Well, all of the above are just that, great potential. We have yet to apply these potential to something much bigger than ourselves.   Here is where great management , leadership and teamwork not just by the President but by all of us, come in!

The wise guys have told me that a group is just as good as the leader leading that group. I say that the leader is just as good as the group that he leads!  Try leading a bunch of totally incorrigible morons and see what happens!  So, it looks like both the leader and the people he leads have to be great leaders altogether!  Nothing beats the experience of leading self-leading and self-managing team mates!

Now let us look at our top leadership who are supposed to be at the helm or controls of our nation and ‘the game’.  I am talking about key leadership positions held by our men in Congress, the Senate,  the high courts, positions held by governors, generals , admirals, directors , department heads , financial experts, businessmen, mayors and so forth.   The President has proven his determination and resolve to really lead our nation long  before the last of  his first one hundred days in office were over.   I am all ears and standing by for the first shots from these quarters I mentioned above but one hundred days have passed, everything is still quiet.  I have not heard of nor read about any of these folks yelling and screaming about their ‘much awaited and expected’  all-out support to the Commander-in-Chief in moving this nation financially forward.  I am reminded of a classroomful of delinquent children who have been behaving very badly and the tough and no-nonsense teacher has just walked in .  Everyone is quiet,  watching  and trying to see what is coming down next.  This happens when you are perhaps guilty and you don’t know when your turn will come up to get yanked from your chair and get a royal ass chewing or worse. 

Or perhaps our leadership under the President are simply speechless .  What with the long and many years of practicing corruption and mis-management then all of a sudden you are placed in a position where you are asked to perform in  a way totally opposite to what you are used to doing! Well, that would make a lot of folks speechless indeed!  So, are we in a wait and see situation? Perhaps the President will get exhausted, lose his focus and give up?  Then back to ‘business as usual’? 

We are confident that we are wrong in these assumptions.  But we truly are all ears. We are waiting for our gallant leaders to step up to the plate.  And to give credit to the daring few, those who have started to streamline the economies of their provinces ,cities and towns and preparing to launch their ‘assault’ on the competition,  the fruits we seek are closer than we think.  Indeed the Chinese were on their way to great wealth ten to fifteen years after they embarked on their historic economic transformation by daring to venture into this global game of wealth acquisition.

I believe that our leaders are more than capable of turning this nation around when they decide to jump in and lead.  We as people are truly capable of rising above all this  mediocrity then boldly going for excellence!  The President is waiting. The whole nation is on standby.  The citizens are poised ready to be led and to lead!  It will be a great day in our history when indeed as people we commit to this noble cause, get truly fired up, move as one and join and dominate this  exciting race of races where every single citizen becomes a winner when the whole nation wins!  Again, one wise guy said that when you help somebody win , you too become a winner! 

Help this nation win and the rest are winners!

Joe Joson, USA

True Reform Starts With You

We as a nation and people are not short of efforts in reforming our government and society. Past efforts that have come and gone are indeed endless. This means that we as a people care about making this sick nation of ours pull itself up and out of this mess that we call  ‘government’.

How in the world are we going to get this done?  I wrote earlier that it all starts from a change in the hearts of men and women who run this nation, a change in the hearts of men and women who vote these leaders in. In short it starts with all of  us as individuals. I heard there are efforts from a few elected officials and prospective candidates to attempt reform that will turn this nation of ours around.  I heard that some of the top candidates are hoping to ‘unify’  reform-minded candidates and elected officials.  What is the chance that this will work this time around?

Not to sound hopeless and negative but there are opinions floating around why we are having such  a tough job, even for the best-intentioned effort at reform, to succeed.  One ‘rationale’:  “If I do not buy votes, I am a dead duck as a politician. I will definitely lose,”  is one of the reasons.  Another rationale: “If I do not hand out grease money in brown bags to keep me from being impeached, I am out with the first impeachment attempt.” Or  “If I do not hand out goodies so people vote for me I do not stand a chance at getting elected.” In order to win in elections or survive an impeachment or stay in office to carry out the ‘reform’ of cleaning up a messy government, the candidates first have to make a mess of buying votes. Then the same people have to somehow ‘recover’ his or her expenses by dipping further into government funds. Now, does not make sense? Not on your life! But this is the political mindset in our country. No matter how honest or desires to be honest one gets, he or she is surrounded by those who feel that they have to  buy or bribe their way into office.  Again , how will this address the reform that we want to achieve? We cannot clean up one kind of mess by creating yet another mess. Indeed it is one vicious circle for all politicians in the Philippines , honest or dishonest! And until candidates start getting elected and re-elected even as they stay outside this vicious circle of corrupt political practice, we in the Philippines is doomed to be forever a basket case politically.

And what is my point? Simple. If we want to get different results we need to quit doing the same thing over and over. If we truly want to be a part of the reformation of our extremely mismanaged and corrupt government, we need to do something that is totally different from what has been done for years which brought the same predictable results!  And I would say that it will indeed take ‘balls’ , excuse the language, to get this done!  But it takes courage to make a change of this magnitude! 

There is a small number of gentlemen who are on the honest side of the fence. I concede that they are by a long shot outnumbered by those who get elected through dishonest means.  Nevertheless, they are out there.  So, one wonders.  What would it take before we get honest leadership to become a majority among our elected officials?

I don’t want to sound like an old record but until foreign investors see an orderly, honest, well-organized, well-disciplined, efficient, well-managed, professional and decisive leadership and citizenry in the Philippines, no reasonable amount of foreign investment will ever come to us. And again this consistent influx of foreign investment money is the key to our redemption from this eternal poverty.  But even with what we presently have in terms of capital should be sufficient to get us on track to financial wealth if we knew how to manage our resources!

The Chinese continue to get rich from foreign investments.  And now even the Vietnamese is leaving us in the dust. And here we are a ‘democracy’ buying our rice from the ‘communist’ Vietnamese because we are unable to produce enough to feed our own people. Truly depressing!  Rice production is so easy and yet we in the Philippines for some ‘unexplained’ reason do not know how to manage ourselves and produce enough of our own rice so that we don’t have to import from the Vietnamese! Are we missing something here?

Again who is there to blame for our being disorganized and impoverished? Well, look at you who sits at the position of being the organizers!  And look at you who vote these morons into office in exchange for a few pesos or cans of sardines!  Reform does start with us as individuals! It is no rocket science!

It is encouraging to see articles being published by some of our brothers who understand law in our country. I just wondered if we have such a thing as a law that outlaws vote buying. And if not, why not? This is what we need to have implemented like yesterday! Make this into law and enforce it. And we need men of honor, dedicated men to do this. Until then, let us not pretend to hope that positive changes will ever come to us.

Joe Joson, USA

Properly Managing The Philippines A Must

        In one of my travels I ran into a retired U.S. Air Force Coronel who worked for the Voice of America in Tarlac, Philippines.  He spent many years there and made a lot of observations.  I asked for his opinion on one issue. I asked what he thought were the reasons why the Philippines is the way it is, lagging behind most nations in Asia with its economy.  He told me he would give me just one reason.  He said it is the lack of or absence of consistent and proper management in many areas.

      
       Having spent almost four decades in the United States and having been exposed to many of its private and government systems and operations, it was easy to see what he was talking about. Indeed as one enters the Philippines from years of living in one of the most organized and managed societies in the world, one immediately sees the stark contrast.  And we are not talking about the difference in wealth but the efficiency with which things are being run.

    
      When the U.S. Naval base in Subic Bay, Zambales was still in operation I marveled at the heaven and earth contrast between what happened inside the base and the communities and government just outside the gate and beyond. Again we are not talking about the difference in wealth.  It was also a great source of amazement to see the same citizens of the Philippines, which made up the bulk of the workforce, working inside the naval base performed  with such remarkable efficiency and dependability.

     
      So we look at yet another angle. Let us quickly take a look at the successful entrepreneurs or businesses in the Philippines.  These are noticeably and mostly Chinese and other foreign-owned businesses. 

Now, we step outside our nation and go to the myriad of nations where our citizens go and work.  We exhibit the same remarkable ability to excel and be proficient, dependable and efficient.

     
      So, we ask this very important question.  Why are we NOT able to do the same things in our own turf and under our own style of management? Why is it that when we work under a different and obviously better management, we do not seem to have a problem flourishing as people?  Here lies the glaring fact.  Our ability to consistently organize and manage with any form of sustainability to move our society successfully forward is truly missing from a lot of areas in our government and even in the civilian sector.  Which leaves us with total clarity on what needs to be done.

Joe Joson, USA

Every Citizen and His Brother Want A Progressive Philippines

       For as long as I can remember, I have on every opportunity, asked people from our country this one question. Do they believe that the Philippines will ever one day become progressive or financially wealthy? The answer is universal. They would like to see that day come but they are not convinced that it ever will. Their usual comment: ‘Not until the leadership in our country learns how to properly manage itself, the nation will remain impoverished, backwards, disorganized and mediocre.’ In short, we remain the eternal ‘sickest man in Asia’ until we learn how to really, truly manage ourselves and our finances.

     Some went as far as comparing the situation of mismanagement and corruption in the Philippines as that of a fishpond that has a runaway growth of undesired species of fish (the corrupt politicians). The desired kind of fish (the few good men in politics) is badly outnumbered and are being eaten alive by the bad fish. Recommended solution: Poison the whole pond and start all over with a new generation of good fish. Others recommended dropping an Atomic Bomb to rid of the corrupt officials then start all over! This may sound comical and unrealistic but the seriousness of our troubles has permeated our society so deep and for so long that most people have given up. One result is the never ending trek of millions of our citizens overseas to find employment. The result that hurts the most is the grinding poverty, the hunger of millions in our midst day in and day out. But the irony of the whole thing is that ALL that the leadership in the Philippines has to do is copy its Asian neighbors and in less than ten or fifteen years a truly financially successful nation can emerge! And this comment is based on what we have all seen and continue to see happen to nations who manage themselves well and excel economically.

  If and when our leaders finally ‘get it’, we would then be competing vigorously with our Asian neighbors economically. Our leaders’ present preoccupation is unfortunately NOT economic competition with our Asian neighbors. They are still living in the stone-age political culture of competing with each other, killing each other, outmaneuvering each other at every turn, outspending each other during elections , outdoing each other on who can get as much as they can from government coffers once elected and who can get the biggest cuts from contracts from foreign investors. Only a few have teamed up with others to focus on economic competition with our successful economic neighbors.

     Again if we asked our brothers in politics whether they wanted a financially successful Philippines, they would tell you that indeed they do. We all want the good life. Ask them what they need to do to bring the good life to everyone in the Philippines, they will give you a blank stare. They are clueless. But they can rattle off a list of things they can do to defeat their political opponents. They can tell you all kinds of tricks up their sleeves on how to stay in power. And mind you it rarely includes honesty. Neither does it list their own bank accounts to finance their election campaigns. They have on their lists for their campaign sources such things as fertilizer funds, allocations for the army’s supply of boots and so on.

      So here we are with Elections 2010. The number of overly-eager candidates running for office is, as usual, endless. Everyone wants to ‘lead’ or perhaps leadership is the farthest thing from their minds. So why is everybody pushing his way into office? For one, politics for at least six decades or more, has been our nation’s leading brand of ‘big business’. While our Asian neighbors compete with the world with real profitable businesses to enrich themselves, we in the Philippines enrich ourselves by getting elected and taking ‘profits’ from taxpayers’ money! And how can we miss this? Look around you and see if this isn’t true! Many of them who did not have a dime for themselves a decade or two now have wealth way beyond what their salaries could have brought them. Start looking at their possessions and property which they did not have before then ask yourselves how they accumulated these from their annual pays! It will not add up! Lifestyle checks? Will they work? Not a chance!

      Some folks from the CBCP have issued statements appealing for our politicians to come out clean and run clean and honest administrations and elections. Why do we in the Philippines plead for crooks to come out clean? In nations who have their judicial systems fully in place and enforced, these crooks are sent to jail! Or is it because the enforcers are crooks themselves?

       So, every citizen and his brother want a progressive Philippines! Then start with ourselves! If you are a crook, knock it off and start thinking about long term benefits of using taxpayer’s money properly. If you are not a crook, God bless you and tell your dishonest brothers to help you spread the word on the long term merits of a well organized, well managed, fully accountable, truly responsible, financially sound, ethically and morally grounded government . With this approach everyone will benefit from the nations’ wealth that will surely come in ten years or so, guaranteed! That is IF ALL of us focus on just that. Doing the right things so that the whole of the Philippines and not just a select greedy few becomes wealthy.

        So, I dare everyone to look past their noses and look at the LONG TERM benefits of a clean and well managed government. It is truly worth fighting for! Once created and sustained, our nation can begin to be one of the Economic Tigers of Asia. Our professionals overseas will have reason to come home, set up businesses and add to the emerging economy. The biggest bonus will be the foreign investors from around the world. When they start rolling in and staying in, our nation can then race with the economic giants of Asia and the world. Our lives will be forever changed. And no citizen of the Philippines will say no to such newfound source of pride and strength. Our present ways of running our affairs is our greatest weakness. Let us dare to change for our children and grandchildren. It all starts with all of us. Have these thoughts with you when you go to the polls this summer. Make your vote count LONG TERM!

Joe Joson, USA

Real Change Is But A Change of Hearts Away

      As we watched four typhoons devastate the Philippines in recent weeks we witnessed love and compassion in action among our citizens. It was very heart warming to see people helping people. The thousands of different scenarios that unfolded through the news media, Youtube and other sources, showed the world how we take care of disasters and each other. Without a lot of grumblings. Terrible as the situations were, and yes , we lost a lot of lives in the process, our countrymen almost without exception took things as they came with humble acceptance. We are indeed a nation of a lot of humble people. And life goes on after every disaster. The citizens of the Philippines have weathered all the beatings that nature can bring. We have learned how to submit ourselves to a lot of punishment whether it is by a natural disaster or whether it is man-made.

     
     This is where our story as a nation of humble and submissive citizens turns sour. Our ability to handle unpleasant events and situations with ease has become our Achilles heels. Indeed it makes us wonder if it is total indifference and helplessness that make us or allow us to be submissive even to the perennial abuses and mismanagement of many of our elected officials.

    The four typhoons did not dampen the drums beaten by Presidents-and-Vice Presidents-to-be and company. As we speak, the drumbeat is getting louder. Every one of these would-be Presidents or Vice Presidents have got a package and promises to sell to voters. But a lot of questions continue to haunt us. Will any of these candidates bring us the needed leadership, honesty and integrity to pull us out of the political, financial and social quagmires that we have been in all these decades? These quagmires are hundreds of times worse than all the floods of Manila and the northern Philippines put together. I KID YOU NOT!

   
      While these floods devastated lives, homes and crops, they only lasted a few days or weeks. Compare that to the devastation, the constant destruction brought on by your corrupt, inept, dishonest and crooked politicians in many places all around the nation. See, they are widespread and their destructive effects cover the whole of the Philippines everyday! They are in our midst to continue the devastation 24 hours a day 7 days a week! At least typhoons leave, they don’t!

     They are like termites deeply entrenched in all the nooks and crannies of our society. They continue to swallow, nibble and eat away at what belongs to the communities. They eat the walls of our nation, the columns of our democracy, the foundation of our economy. And we think we are a free nation! No siree! We have lost our freedom many many years ago!! This is when we as people surrendered our values to these crocodiles in our society. Our freedom to be a nation with a decent economy has long ago flown out of our windows. Our freedom to enjoy a life with relative abundance and comfort has long been taken away by these losers! When we lost our dignity by selling our values and ignoring corruption practices that stare us in our eyes day in and day out, we have lost our freedom! When we lose our dignity we don’t have much else left to lose! 
    
     Yes, we have some more freedom left. The freedom to be an impoverished nation, the freedom to export our men and women for work because there is nothing left in their country for them, the freedom to be looked down upon and laughed at by our more progressive Asian neighbors, the freedom to be a third world nation forever, the freedom to be at the bottom of the food chain , the freedom to have NO true freedom at all!

And we in the Philippines think that we are a Christian nation. If so, how is it that we are ranked as one of the most corrupt nations in the world? The math does not tie up well. Eighty to eighty five percent Christianity, as claimed, cannot result in a nation being ranked very close to the top of world corruption! Are we missing something here?

       Our perception of having these many ‘Christians’ or followers of Christ within our midst is total hogwash. Our definition of a Christian, it seems, is one who goes to church, makes the sign of the cross on Sunday, then goes to work and be corrupt from Monday to Friday. We all know that most of our corrupt officials do go to church on Sundays. We are indeed a nation of churchgoers. But a true Christian is one who is a follower of Jesus Christ. If we have as many churchgoers as we have followers of Christ, then corruption will NOT be what it is in our country! That is a fact! Our erring brothers and sisters in government think that going to church alone will be enough to cover for their sins. There is a seeming comfort zone in their beliefs that attending church alone cleanses them of their rottenness. Forgiveness only comes with true repentance whether you go to church or not. And true repentance comes from deep within our hearts and is accompanied by a permanent transformation or conversion from being an evildoer or a thief to a righteous person. So going to church and asking for forgiveness for our sins and followed by going back to the same old sin during the week is not going to cut it. You remain a thief!

       The desired transformation is but a change of hearts away. The change that we so desire for our nation lies in the hands and hearts of you who sit in that office in government, big position or small. The change that we desire lies also in the hands of the citizens who will NOT tolerate corrupt practices of elected officials.

It does not matter how many more elections we have in the Philippines or who gets elected. Until hearts change, you who are corrupt will continue to saddle your country with your greed. Until hearts change, we will remain a nation that is an eternal basket case that no one can hardly be proud of! The unity that we exhibited during the typhoons can be replicated and applied to our challenges in corruption. The choice is indeed very clear!

Joe Joson, USA

Progressive Philippines, a Dream, a Goal, a Must

Progressive Philippines

Progressive Philippines, a dream, a goal, a must.

If you are like me, I am not just tired of the present situation in our country. I am sick of it but nevertheless not defeated. The present situation of mismanagement, poverty, corruption, hopelessness, no clear direction or purpose, no national unity to achieve anything meaningful just to name a few. We are like a ship drifting with hardly any power, leaving its destination to chance, no leadership strong enough to guide it to success, no leaders to set great examples. With citizens most of whom have given up, stumped to inaction by the myriad of problems we face.

Where do we start?

A great question since all of us are overwhelmed by the magnitude of the challenges we face.

If we have arrived what would we see? If we do start somewhere, what do we want to see at our destination?

Clear Goals and Specific destinations.

Once we have started and on the move do we have CLARITY of goals and purpose? What are our Specific Destinations or desired achievements?

What, Why, When, How, Where, Who.

Why do we want these things? How will we get these things done? When do we want these things achieved by?

Loopholes and obstacles.

As we move on towards our goals, what challenges can we expect to encounter?

Blueprint or map.

Do we have a step by step blueprint to guide us so we do not get sidetracked or get lost?

Getting organized.

How do we get organized so our effectiveness is maximized? I would assume that we are not such great organizers for how else would we end up the way we are now as a nation? The challenge though is not impossible.

Making Commitments.

Are we committed to pay the price of time, emotions and money? Every goal has its price. We have to be committed to pay the price.

Changing the hearts of men and women.

Do we start with committed and changed hearts? These changed hearts, these committed souls will have to be the backbone of any meaningful change.

Setting sail.

If we are ready, shall we set sail and go forward and not looking back but setting our hearts on our worthy goals?

Going for it.

Once we set sail, there is no turning back. Just bravely facing the unknown with confidence knowing that the goal is certain.