A Kleptocratic form of government

Thomas Friedman used this term in his book, "The Lexus and the Olive Tree" as he refers to the type of government which has a corrupt form of market. In his book, he mentioned that while traveling to Iran with $3300 at hand, he was supposed to be questioned as the maximum amount of money a foreigner can bring to Iran is at $500. But in Friedman's case, instead of doing customs declaration, he was instructed by the Iranian authorities to just pay them $300 and that Friedman can keep the other $3000. And Friedman was able to travel with majority of his pocket money without question.

And that's how Kleptocracy works.

In a Kleptocratic government, the government uses the power of corruption to its people for increasing its wealth for its personal gain. In short, those who are in power (and also those who are in the upper classes) exploit the lower classes for its personal gains and for increasing its power in the government. In such form of government, there lies a bigger gap between the rich and the poor; if you do not belong to the rich, then too bad you'll face constant exploitation from the upper classes; if you do belong to the rich, then you can just sit down, relax, and enjoy as you obtain wealth with no difficulty.

In fact, the Philippines had two official Kleptocracies: One during the Marcos Regime, and the other during the Estrada Presidency. In both cases, they had their own ways of exploiting money from the masses. Both misused public funds extravagantly for their personal use, as if the public funds were their personal bank accounts.

As a consequence, their misuse and abuse of the Philippines' public funds led to a weakening of the Philippine Economy, seen as the Peso to Dollar rate declined drastically. Aside from this, the quality of life the masses experience has been reduced drastically, as a result of surging prices of goods, which is caused by the weakening economy of the Philippines.

Even today, under the Arroyo regime, I still believe that the Kleptocracy within the supposed "democracy" of the Philippines still reigns, with various news about corruption in various government offices, with Presidential Candidate Manny Villar guilty of the Php 6.22 billion mess he has made with the C5 Rad extension project. The evidence of a Kleptocratic form of government is practically everywhere in the Philippines, it has been very difficult to control it.

With such kind of government, I would start worrying, even if I am a part of the middle class, as if this trend still continues in the Philippines, chances are that the Philippines would plummet down so hard, thet it would seem nearly impossible for it to recover. Although the Philippines has somewhat survived the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis and the 2009 Global Financial crisis, I do hope that these practice could be stopped, as it could potentially destroy the Philippines.

Yet, even with the upcoming elections, there still reigns the fear from the masses; there's a possibility that the Kleptocratic Philippines would still prevail, or, if successful, the Kleptocratic government will be put to a stop. With these presidentiables fighting over the most important position in the Philippines, through showing various forms of persuasions on why they deserve such position, the decision still lies to the masses, who have been constantly oppressed by the upper classes by exploitation and misuse and abuse of public funds.




The decision is not yet final. Let's just see if the upcoming elections, and the various political awareness programs that are being offered, could mark an end to this corrupt form of democracy in the Philippines.

Beyond the grade: A letter to students

A letter made by my Philosophy Professor in light of the events today. A must read.

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*Photo by me during relief operations last September 30

To Our Dearest Students,

With the release of your class standing this week (either in this board or in your classes), we are freeing most of you from your academic obligations so that you will be free to do your moral ones.

Last week was a time of great pride for all Ateneans. As soon as the flood waters rose to calamitous proportions, we as a community responded with great generosity. By the thousands we came, you most of all, to respond to the need for relief of those whose lives were brought to a painful halt by the floods. So many of you and so much of your energies were gathered in doing good when and where it was most needed. If there is anything that will most genuinely mark our being Ateneans in this Sequi year we celebrate, it is you passing bags and sorting clothes despite your own worries and pains. If only for that, I can say my work has a meaning.

Now that we are freeing you from your academics, we are calling you to continue that quiet heroism that you exhibited last week. When the floods rose, homes were ruined, the foundations of many lives lost, and psyches were hurt. Beyond being a time for relief, this is a time for rebuilding. Our task now is harder and costlier than relief, and that is why such a drastic step was taken by the VP and the deans. They have faith that if you are free to respond you will rise to the call of the moment.

This past week, I have heard many comments about how it might have been a mistake to let go of you this way. Some people said that not too many of our population were affected and that we should just have moved on and not lingered in this drama. I don't agree at all: 150 faculty, staff and maintenance personnel and 1000 students were directly hurt by this. Multiply that to the many more who are disturbed by their worry and concern for those among the hurt that
they love. I would say that this is a substantial number of our population.

I heard from some that if we let you go, most of you will just go back to your malls and your computers. But this is what I say to that: "I have been teaching in this university for 20 years and I know that it's probable that many of you will do just that. However, we need to free the energies of the responsible ones among you to come to the aid of our Ateneo family." Certainly we will lose many to cyberspace and the malls, but I believe that more will come with shovels, notebooks, ideas, and energies to help the wounded realize that there is life after the flood.

One remark I got was that we are babying you by absolving you of any more academic obligations. We should teach you to be tough by pushing you to persevere with your duties despite the hurting. The truth is that we are not babying you but challenging you to be strong enough to be able to rise to your higher duty the infinite responsibility for the other.

And so our dear students, with the posting of these grades we free you. Know that your philosophy teachers have faith in you--that without reluctance or doubt, we let you go to respond to the call.

Be safe and come back next semester with the wisdom you will gain in the lessons ahead of you.


Love,


Agustin Martin G. Rodriguez
Chair
Department of Philosophy

First world does not mean leading the pack

After watching the documentary "Who killed the Electric Car" for IR class a while ago, I came to realize an important thing about First World countries, that they are not necessarily leading the pack.

Take the US on it's take on electric vehicles. A great potential for the future, electric cars is a viable solution to the perennial problem on gasoline, emissions, and oil crisis. California's idea of having electric vehicles (examples of this are the GM EV1, the Honda EV Plus, the Ford Th!nk, and many more) was a good way of addressing the problem. People were liking the idea of it. Launched in the late 1990's (around 1996), it was a revolutionary idea. Up until it's elimination and destruction of these electric cars in 2003 to 2005.

It was a sad and stupid idea for the US to eliminate this budding solution to environmental problems. Japan has been in the progress of further developing these electric vehicles back in the early 1990's (if I remember clearly, it was 1992 when Japan presented to the world the electric vehicle), and Japan is still in a progress of developing this technology (which is very evident with the recent popularity of Toyota's Prius hybrid vehicle). How about the US? Because of pressures from consumers, oil companies, and the government itself, the electric car was killed by the United States. So sad.

Looking this in a liberalist perspective, the US' move to eliminate these potential ideas was because of the persuasion and pressure it received from pluralist groups, such as the CARB (California Air Regulation Board), Petroleum and oil companies, some consumers, and even the Automobile industry themselves. Claims of dubious zero emissions of these vehicles, plus a low demand for these vehicles killed the electric car. Such persuasions caused by conflict forced the government to cooperate with pluralist groups by going in what they want, which bred to the upsurge of these big, gas-guzzling vehicles, such as the Hummer.

The consequence, in my opinion, is that the US dug its grave deeper. A couple of years later, the recession hit the country, prompting their citizens to sell their gas-guzzling cars because of surging oil prices, and worse, people were losing jobs, and the US started to be in deep shit, that despite President Obama's efforts to stabilize the US economy, it was a problem that will take time to solve.

In the end, I think US' decision on killing the electric car proved to us that first countries are not necessarily to be leading the pack. In fact, when it comes to such technology, Japan is doing far much better than the US, that they sell the Prius not just in Japan, but in the US and in the Philippines as well (During my trip to the US in 2007, around 10% of the cars I saw there were Priuses, and in the Philippines, there is still an experimental run on putting the Prius into market). In this aspect, the US made a significant lapse in decision-making that created a chain reaction of events to them and their citizens.

The end of rivalries? I doubt.

During Cory Aquino's wake at the Manila Cathedral, among one of the main issues there was the visitation of the Marcoses and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo herself. The Aquinos accepted the visitation of Bongbong and Imee Marcos, but somewhat was "cold" upon GMA's short 7 minute visit to the wake.

In my opinion, there seems to be a problem with this, epsecially with media's portrayal of it.

First, let's dwell with the Marcoses. Ok granted they have visited the wake of Cory, with the Aquino siblings confronting Imee and Bongbong, does this mean that the rivalry has ended, as how media portrays it? In my opinion, I think this is just a partial ending to the rivalry. The bigger part of the rivalry is still missing. For me, if the rivalry has truly ended, then Imelda Marcos, the first lady of the dictator, should have visited at least. Did she paid her last respects to Cory? As far as I know, she wasn't there at the wake, save for her daughter Imee and her son Bongbong. There's still some unresolved conflict behind it.

How about GMA? Well we all know that she did cut her trip short in order to visit the wake of Cory. People were cold about it. Media portrayed it in a cold way as well. Well yeah, GMA used to be an ally of Cory during People Power 2, up until the election fraud issues that GMA had in 2005, starting with the Hello Garci scandal. Not that I am Pro-GMA or Anti-GMA (I'm more of neutral when it comes to this), but at events like this, politics should step aside. GMA did have the freedom to visit or not to visit Cory's wake. She decided to do the former, and we should not politicize or be cold about it. If we are talking about sincerity issues here, well at least GMA did made a short visit amidst issues about her and the conflict she has between her and the Aquinos.

The point here? GMA did made a last-ditch effort to fix up her reputation by paying respect to the late president, and even offering a state funeral (which the Aquinos declined). Behind all the numerous issues behind her, the latest being her supposedly last SoNA, she still paid respect to a political figure that became her rival after the 2004 elections. In my opinion, GMA somewhat did something right for once as she made an effort to visit the late president. I'm not saying that the rivalries are over, but the good point here is that rivalries are set aside for this particular event.

How I wish Imelda Marcos visited and also paid her last respects to the woman behind People Power 1.

An illusion of superiority

All of us are scared of North Korea. Armed with powerful nuclear weapons, the United States considers them as a threat. Despite that, does North Korea present a powerful, domineering force that all of us think of? I beg to differ.

Through the documentary "Holidays in the Axis of evil" one may perceive that North Korea, being on the talk when it comes to nuclear weapons and their "great leader" Kim Jong Il, is of a supremely evil state, who is against practically everyone. Heavily guarded, the host of the show had to comply with numerous rules before entering the North Korea proper. There was no forms of communication, whether it may be television, internet, or telecommunication. North Korea is depicted here as a place of isolation.'

Upon entering the North Korea proper, it is noticeable on how North Korea exemplifies communism: People wearing same clothes, working at different tasks, and have a great honor to their "great leader". Their book stores in fact sell only books talking about their "great leaders" in various versions and languages. Their museums are all about their victories and conquests against other states, particularly the United States. In their exhibits, they even have the axe they used to kill hundreds of Americans, and a Naval ship that they took from the United States because of espionage issues. Even their military bases and monuments of the great leader are heavily guarded by soldiers, who dedicate their lives on fulfilling this task.

On these initial observations, it is clear that North Korean residents have a very high sense of Nationalism to the point that they look up to their leader, Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung as their gods. Their approach towards nationalism hence is very radical when you would compare streamline nationalism in other countries.

Yet, how come North Korea seemed to be not threatening to the world, given the observations made throughout the documentary? Are we being brainwashed by the elite countries about what is North Korea? Frankly speaking, this whole issue on North Korea can be seen in two perspectives.

In the first perspective, North Korea, being a state that is inferior to that of the elite states such as the United States, would have a hard time to compete against them. The solution to their insecurity? Brain wash the citizens, make them honor the leader, promote communism through the principle of every North Korean Citizen working for North Korea, and the like. Hence in this manner, even if North Korea is not exactly that strong (the evidence of communal life presents to us that they are not as technologically advanced as other countries), they create an illusion that they are threatening through the use of communism. Why illusion? First, the people are not as fit as those from the United States. Second, they rarely talk about Kim Jong Il and his condition (sources say that he's critically ill, but given North Korea's isolation to the world of media, this can not be assured as well). Third, they are not technologically advanced! But since the people believe that they can win no matter what, this strategy that North Korea implies results in a high morale among its citizens, having deep faith in themselves that they can win no matter what.

In the second perspective, we can see this as the United States refusing to give away its reputation as the most powerful state to a country like North Korea. The United States, in fact, can be likened to the master who refuses to step down of its power. The United States as well is the one who has the lust and greed for power, not the states that they perceive as "most evil". Hence, they are insecure in the sense that they don't want to lose that power and domination. The solution? Threaten North Korea, gang up on the state (with the help of other elite states), and do "peace talks" with the North Koreans. Again, this is the US' coping strategy to ensure them of their domination (which they actually do the same thing for China, Russia, and other "threatening states")

So what does this show us? Countries have the greed for power. They don't want to be overthrown by other countries. As a response, they create and attempt to execute actions in order to balance that power. In the end, this war on domination can be seen with the phrase "fight to the death", through employing different strategies, both active and passive, violent and non-violent.

The harsh reality

I remember the story of Jonas in the book The Giver , wherein as he was given the role of the giver, a role only given to a selected few in their community, Jonas was exposed to the harsh reality, which is far from what seemed to be an ideal and perfect community.

Just like him, as kids we would be happy with the world around us, but as we grow older, we are slowly become exposed to the painful realities in society. Presently, it would be our current government system.

Grabbing the news from my friends like Kurt and Omi, I was angered at what happened to the nuns, priests, farmers, and supporters of CARPER. Treating people through the means of threatening the rejection of the CARPER and water cannoning the protesters shows the arrogance of the senate and congressmen towards the issue. I'd bet that they are not discussing about CARPER but instead they are discussing all about Hayden Kho and his promiscuity (which 1) is pure bullshit, 2) has no political relevance, and 3) is not of importance as compared to national issues). Seeing our country act like this saddens me.

Even coming from a middle class family, I am infuriated with where our taxes go. AND THEY GO TO PROSTITUTES LIKE KATRINA HALILLI AND NOT ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF EDUCATION AND ROADS!? Screw you congress and senate. You guys are just wasting the people's money over your selfish desires.

How I wish the reality could still be changed.

How a spark became fire

In light of the ongoing events of what is currently happening to the Ted Failon case, I have some things to point out.

1) Inconsistency. The primary problem here is the mere fact that all the evidences pointing to the crime are simply not connecting to each other. Ted said that he rushed home after his Radio program and saw the body of his wife bathing in blood. The police think that Ted went back home and supposedly shot his wife in the head, wiping off the bloodstains with the help of their helpers and drivers. Also, what the police did not consider is the fact that the wife was brought to the hospital, which should explain something significant.

2) All about the fame. For crying out loud, the Ted Failon case is like any other suicide / murder case out there. The only difference? Ted Failon's famous, and we all know what the media would usually like to selfishly present to its audience, and that is the "woah Ted just killed his wifey OMFG" issue. Nasa pera lang iyan. Where there is a lot of money, that's where the media goes. And I bet a million pesos that there would not be such a diverse publicity if it the crime involve some poor Filipino who killed his wife because of financial problems.

3) The politics. I've been hearing stuff that the supposed motive of Ted killing his wife is because Ted was making ligaw (sorry for the conyo-way of writing) to Korina, who we all know is the fiance of Presidential candidate Mar Roxas. And what does that tell us? Most probably it is GMA putting all the dirt and controversies straight into Mar's face so that he would not win in the upcoming 2010 elections. Again, it is dirty politics playing a role in the world of Philippine politics. Even if we know of Mar's honesty and integrity, it just happens that he has haters out there who are willing to do anything just to stop him from getting a significant position in the government. And again, it's all about the corruption that is going through an endless cycle within our Philippine politics, where people would go through the shortcut of things and step over other people in order to gain their selfish desires.

4) Reign of the outlaw. The maids, the driver, and relatives of the Failons were arrested by the police, dragged away from their homes, without any warrant to them. What do you call that? Where is the law then if the lawmakers themselves are the outlaws. This is not far and different from the shooting incident at EDSA a couple of weeks ago, where policemen shot down suspected car nappers down to the bone (meaning shooting them down until they are sure that the supposed car nappers are dead). What does this tell us about our police officers? One of my classmate commented the corrupt spending of the PNP, where they would scrimp on gear used for getting evidence (ie. cameras for use in photographing evidences) and spend a lot on unnecessary and excessive stuff (ie. gas for the patrol cars who you would rarely see roving around the metropolis). Also add to the fact that they are the ones involve with red tape and stuff like that, it comes to a point that we would even doubt our Police system here in the Philippines.

It's a sad story, but at the same time an annoying one. How can we expect significant changes if such corrupt acts are not tolerated? How can we be sure that justice is given fairly? How can we ensure the honesty and integrity of not just the police officers and officials involved in the case? A lot of questions can be asked about this single case.

Let's just hope justice is FAIRLY served.