I have been working and writing on a book about the potentials and pitfalls of the Philippine Economy the last few months.

My working title of the book is " Back to Square 1: Reinventing Philippines Inc., "

I am now done with the first chapter.  The title is " 16 statement of beliefs on the Philippine Economy."  I have posted it on the website ( www.Philippines-inc.com) . I would like to  present you the working titles and the links, and would dearly appreciate your comments.  The sites will take comments.  Many thanks!

  16 Statement of Beliefs about the Philippine Economy

1. The role of government is to create wealth, not redistribute wealth
2. Trade and Technology is a Positive Sum Game
3. Government intervention is a zero sum game
4. The Government cannot spend its way to Prosperity
5. No Country ever became prosperous because of aid
6. Too much Jam today. No more jam tomorrow
7. The way to lower population growth is to give jobs and security to women
8. Having Rich Resources can be a Curse
9. Make people’s self interest work for the country
10. Don’t count on other people to look after your interest
11. A Skilled Immigrant or Expat is not your enemy, but your friend.
12. Sending your best people overseas is the Lousiest way to earn dollars
13. Productivity is what improves income and standard of living
14. The way to Prosperity is by working harder, not having more holidays
15. A country can never have too much Investments
16. Competition is Stressful, but there is no Other Choice

I am writing a series of articles on my analysis of Philippines Inc., and hopefully this will be compiled in a book at a later date.  Here is one of my observations on Philippine social norms and practices.

——

If you are a single parent with small children whose kids may need to spend a few hours with the other parent, or a parent who brings children to stay with their grandparents for a couple of hours, you will understand what I mean…. The kids come back stuffed with chocolate, chips ,ice cream, and toys.

You understand that the long term cost of doing such is that the children becomes fat, unhealthy, undisciplined, and refuses to eat wholesome food.  Their teeth will rot, and their education ignored. Worse, you know you cannot push them too hard to work or study ( things that are good for them) , because they will tell ‘ lolo’ about it, the lolo who seem to have endless supplies of candies and soda, and who never says its bad for you.   In the eyes of the child, he is his knight on shining armor.

Such can be your dilemma in managing corporations and being a leader.  There are interim leaders who don’t subscribe to long term thinking, but in short term popularity.  I feel the tragedy of Philippines politics as it was developed, is that there are too many well meaning lolos and padrinos. They don’t do much when there is work to do ( but you like them, because they don’t ask much from you either, unlike your parents!) , but do come by occasionally to show that they care by

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 I am not an economist. However, for the last 20 or so years, my passion has been in management and technology, and along the way, I have written over a thousand articles and talks on making management and technology more understandable to everyone.  Over the last few months, I have heard a lot of discussions about the economy, and I sincerely feel some of them were knocking on the wrong direction.  I would like to humbly present my own understanding and simplification, for those of you who may want to understand a little bit of what I believe is a very crucial point in our nation’s development.

 I might be oversimplifying certain things, but hopefully this analysis will give a better idea of what I believe we should focus on.

 GDP  and  GDP per capita.  

 GDP or Gross Domestic Product refers to all the goods and services produced within the nation in a given year.    This is one of the standard by which a nation’s economy is gauged vis a vis how it is performing against its neighbors. 

 For the periods from 1980 to 2009, the country’s GDP grew from 32 billion dollars to 158 billion dollars.  That’s five times!  On paper, that looks good.  But wait a minute!  It’s not good, because during that period of time, we also almost doubled our population, from 48 million to over 92 million in 2009.  That means that while output grew almost five times, there were twice as many people to share or output that, so at the end, per person, you are only about 2.5 times better off!

 If you glean the country’s per capita GDP, you will note that our GDP  (adjusted for purchasing power parity or PPP) actually grew from $1247 per capita in 1980 to $3437 in 2009.  That’s only about 2.7 times in almost 30 years. 

 That might seems impressive until you see what China has accomplished.  For the period of 1980 to 2009, China grew GDP from $309 billion to $4.757 trillion.  That’s a growth of about 15 times.  But it gets even better because in that period of time, their population grew from around 987 million to 1.334 billion.  That’s a growth of only 35% over 30 or so years. 

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My Music Group plays Jingle Bells as a way to greet one and all a merry christmas!

I was talking to a friend hotelier, and he was recounting that for over 10 years in the early 1980s, he was working in a hotel in China.

One time, there were a group of students who came, and each was carrying an umbrella.  He told the tour guide that at that time of the year, there was no need to carry umbrellas because it hardly rained.

The tour guide reiterated that they have been advised to bring umbrellas - reason is at that time, China dd not have doors to their toilets.

So when you have to go to the comfort room, an umbrella was needed to shield yourself if you don’t want to be seen!

Fortunately, China has progressed quickly, and in most places, you will see western style sanitary toilets with door and lock!

You have read this story countless times.

There is the martyr wife. She sacrifices everything for the family.  After marriage, she spends her whole time taking care of the house, cooking, washing, and cleaning.  She takes care of the family.  She has no time for herself.  In return for her ’sacrifice’, she makes the husband feel obliged and expect therefore that he returns the favor by being ‘loyal’.

Unfortunately many times it does not work.

The husband feels guilty and stays with the family, but Later on he finds a mistress.

The mistress does not make him feel guilty.  She does not impose. She listens and makes him feel good.

The husband feels the need to feel good because he feels the yoke of guilt for so long.  Hey, we all want to feel good.

This is not a moral story, but a story to be learned in business.  How much ‘influence’ can be had by making people feel obliged and guilty?  Do you know people who work long hours and expect rewards even in the absence of good results?  They supposedly sacrifice this and that ( and you don’t know what for?), and because of it, you were supposed to give them a little bit more out of a sense of guilt.

Yes, it does work, but only for a time.  Nobody wants to feel guilty, and if people are doing things for you because you made them so, you will for sure not enjoy success for long.   Because at the end people want to feel good.

If you want success, you should make people successful and feel good about working with you.  That’s the thing that will endure….

si filemon, si filimon

My Orchestral band for which I play the piano, the Asian Troubadours have recently released its Timeless Visayan and Russian Classics CD.  The CD contains 7 enduring Cebuano/Visayan folk Classics, and details of its release can be found in their site.

In addition to promoting Cebuano folk songs in music, we will be releasing a series of MTV featuring their music and performances.

Si Filemon, si Filimon is the first of the series. It is a lighthearted song about a fisherman’s travels to catch the bounty of the sea and returned emptyhanded.  It is a folk song popularized in the 60s and 70s by Yoyoy villame, and is mostly sang in parties and celebrations, as well as festivities.   comments are welcome!

Can A Little Extra Weight Protect People From Early Death? Underweight, Extremely Obese Die Earlier Than People Of Normal Weight

Underweight people and those who are extremely obese die earlier than people of normal weight—but those who are overweight actually live longer than people of normal weight.

This is a good article in terms of understanding where you are and where you want to be?

So, Are you surviving, sacrificing, sustaining, stimulating, or succeeding?

Are You Living for the Short Term or the Long Term? - BusinessWeek

In analyzing how we spend our time, whether personally or professionally, it can be helpful to consider two dimensions: short-term satisfaction and long-term benefit. Both have value. It can be disappointing to live our lives with no meaning or pleasure in the here and now, just as it can be unfulfilling to live only for today.

We have only one life and a short one at that - that pretty much is something we have to realize - we don’t have forever, and someday we will go.

There will be no regrets when we go (regrets or not, it will happen), but it is important I think that we leave a legacy and a feeling that at least the world is a better place because of us.

I am now 43, and for the last 25 or so years, i have been very conscious of this, and have spent a big part of my time trying to better my financial condition ( in short, earn a living), as well as do what I can to contribute back to society - either engaging in community activities, participating in chamber of commerce activities and charitable endeavors, teaching, and also writing.

Because I live in a developing country, what was always impressed upon me is that poverty is the single biggest hindrance to happiness and fulfillment, and therefore its elimination must therefore be the prime importance. 

Indeed, even among those of us who are middle or upper class, who does not harbor the illusion that maybe tomorrow, we will suddenly become obscenely rich, and therefore will spend the rest of our lives indulging in what we want without having to worry again about money, and therefore live happily ever after.

Yet, the pursuit, and attainment of happiness is more than that.

The last one or so years, i have started writing and publishing business comics books, teaching in my alma maters master of management program, and also playing in a band.  This has brought upon me some fulfillment and I justify that I am planting a rose. What does it mean?

It means that attainment of fulfillment is more than just eliminating hindrances, lifting miseries or righting wrongs.  It means we need also to provide people with good mental attitude and reasons to be happy.  A poor person will become miserable if we allow him to focus that he must be become rich first to be happy, and imposes on him the thinking that until he becomes so, he does not have the right to be happy.

In short, we need to build better gardens ( and communities) — and the way to build a great garden is to do two things — you remove the weeds and you plant the flowers. Let us not be only too focused on removing the weeds.  Let us plant some flowers.  I am proud that we just recently released a CD, and we hope that our music will be one of the flowers that will give to listeners some measure of enjoyment.

They say art is something that makes a person feel less lonely, and I would like to think by dabbling into music, I am doing something worthwhile as well.  Is your role that of clearing away the weeds, or planting the flowers?

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