As the 2008 US Presidential Election nears, I can only lament the sorry state of our political system. We don't have political parties, we have individuals with supporters who need to call their grouping a party to fulfill election requirements.
There is nothing liberal with the views of the Liberal Party. The Nacionalista Party, bought by Senator Villar is not more nationalistic than the Nationalist People's Coalition of Danding Cojuangco. At least I know that Ramos' Lakas CMD is about 'palakasan' (roughly translated as cronyism) and GMA's KAMPI party is all about 'kampihan' (us versus you). Erap's Partido ng Masang Pilipino is a party of Erap and FPJ fans. And then we have all the political leaders with their own parties, PDP-Laban, LDP, PRP, and the list continues.
I have been a member of political parties in the past... when I worked as a poll watcher in the past three elections, I had to sign the ID which basically makes me a member of the party thus eligible to be a watcher. Since my paid-poll-watching days are over, I don't think I will be a member of a political party in the future.
If I am an American, I am not sure if I will be a registered party member even if I am likely to vote for Obama, the nominee of the Democratic Party.
Democrats are generally anti-war, pro-women's rights, pro-environment, pro-choice, and pro-stem cell research. They hold the right to privacy sacred. They believe that there should be a clear separation between church and state. They favor a more interventionist government in terms of regulation, education, and health care.
Republicans are pro-life, pro-market, pro-democracy and pro-God. They place special value to the right to bear arms. They generally advocate lower taxes, less regulation and more globalization. They are more likely to think the America is the most supreme country on earth and they should go to great lengths to promote and preserve America-type democracy.
However, political beliefs are not strict dogmas to be followed strictly by all party members. People are not Blue Democrats and Red Republicans, there many shades of violets, purples and magentas in between. Politicians tend to be more centrist and populist as election nears. Individuals are allowed to reach across the isle and be bi-partisan to pass crucial legislation (almost all Filipino politicians vote for personal reasons and not according to party stand... party stand does not exist).
I am still in the process of assessing where I stand on several issues. I believe that there are government failures and market failures, and there should be a balance between regulation and letting the market work freely (where is that balance is very difficult to find). I believe couples should have access to reproductive health services but abortion is never an option. I think that the government should protect the environment but not to the extent that we ban all mining and logging. I believe that gun ownership should be strictly regulated. I think that it was wrong for America to act as the world's police and occupy Iraq.
Having written that... actually, I think I am leaning a bit more like a Democrat, to a certain extent... I think.
That was difficult!!! Being rational for your political views is actually very difficult.
Now I understand why people end up just saying "I don't like McCain (or Jovito Salonga), he is old" or "I'll vote for Obama (or Erap), he is handsome."
Friday, October 24, 2008
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
The biggest crisis of our life?
The past few weeks are among the most turbulent times in the global financial market. It may actually be the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression (1929 - 1939). To most of us, we do not have any idea what that means.
The closest Filipinos can relate to are the 1983 economic crisis, when the US decided to stop financially supporting the Marcos regime. The next economic crisis after that was largely due to the military adventures launched by the now- Honorable Senator Gringo Honasan. Still, they were textbook readings for me as I was still a kid when those happen.
The 1997 Asian Crisis is a little bit clearer. I entered college in June 1998, Ramos welcomed us with the great accomplishments of his administration. Then the economic and political disaster named Erap (1998 - 2001). Most people really didn't care much about the economy back then, pro-Erap people pinned the economic woes on Ramos. Anti-Erap people blamed Erap.
And now the current global financial mess. This is the first economic and financial mess I am able to follow in my professional life. It is both intriguing and extremely exhaustive to understand. Mankiw and Mishkin (textbooks) tell you one thing while the whole world tells you another. One problem is that US textbooks go to great lengths to explain the US economy (as expected), while better systems exist.
Case in point, I am examining the effects of the financial meltdown on three developed Asian economies that are all heavily reliant on exports, Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea. Singapore adjusts monetary policy through their exchange rate, Hong Kong adopts US interest rates while South Korea adjusts interest rates but heavily subsidizes different parts of the economy. And everything in between is chaotic.
How about the Philippines... we are more complicated actually. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas adjusts key interest rates but banks follow the Treasury bills rate which is controlled by the Bureau of Treasury, which is under the department of Finance... meaning, Teves has more control over lending rates than Tetangco.
Our stock market is very small, nobody cares how the international crisis affects us. No international news agency reports what happens to our stock market. A few percentage point loss in the US stock market is enough to wipe out our entire stock market. in the late 1990s, The Economist included the Philippines in their Key Statistics for Key Emerging Markets, recently they dropped us in favor of Pakistan.
It is very depressing... but I am quite sure, there will be more crises, as in more crises that our generation will encounter through our lifetime.
The closest Filipinos can relate to are the 1983 economic crisis, when the US decided to stop financially supporting the Marcos regime. The next economic crisis after that was largely due to the military adventures launched by the now- Honorable Senator Gringo Honasan. Still, they were textbook readings for me as I was still a kid when those happen.
The 1997 Asian Crisis is a little bit clearer. I entered college in June 1998, Ramos welcomed us with the great accomplishments of his administration. Then the economic and political disaster named Erap (1998 - 2001). Most people really didn't care much about the economy back then, pro-Erap people pinned the economic woes on Ramos. Anti-Erap people blamed Erap.
And now the current global financial mess. This is the first economic and financial mess I am able to follow in my professional life. It is both intriguing and extremely exhaustive to understand. Mankiw and Mishkin (textbooks) tell you one thing while the whole world tells you another. One problem is that US textbooks go to great lengths to explain the US economy (as expected), while better systems exist.
Case in point, I am examining the effects of the financial meltdown on three developed Asian economies that are all heavily reliant on exports, Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea. Singapore adjusts monetary policy through their exchange rate, Hong Kong adopts US interest rates while South Korea adjusts interest rates but heavily subsidizes different parts of the economy. And everything in between is chaotic.
How about the Philippines... we are more complicated actually. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas adjusts key interest rates but banks follow the Treasury bills rate which is controlled by the Bureau of Treasury, which is under the department of Finance... meaning, Teves has more control over lending rates than Tetangco.
Our stock market is very small, nobody cares how the international crisis affects us. No international news agency reports what happens to our stock market. A few percentage point loss in the US stock market is enough to wipe out our entire stock market. in the late 1990s, The Economist included the Philippines in their Key Statistics for Key Emerging Markets, recently they dropped us in favor of Pakistan.
It is very depressing... but I am quite sure, there will be more crises, as in more crises that our generation will encounter through our lifetime.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Do we need a Pinoy Obama?
Years from now, wikipedians, historians and pundits will look at the past two weeks as the reasons why Obama won the US presidency in 2008. There are 5 main reasons why Obama won:
1. Sarah Palin (if she is not lying, she is fumbling)
2. Presidential Debates (to go or not to go)
3. Economy (it's the economy, stupid)
4. Campaign Ads (Lipstick on a pig)
5. Iraq War (tell that to the Marines)
Barrack Hussein Obama, Jr. will be the first African-American president of the USA, not a descendant of a slave traded in colonial times but literally the son of an African-Kenyan and an American. He is an intellectual heavyweight with humble roots. His parents met in the University of Hawaii, where his mother earned her PhD in Anthropology. His father Barrack Obama, Sr. was a graduate scholar in Hawaii, and later earned a Master's degree in Economics from Harvard. (Can a Ravanilla be the first Asian-American president of the US?)
Barrack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, has degrees in Political Science from University of Columbia and Law from Harvard. He worked as a community organizer, a law senior lecturer at University of Chicago, an Illinois State Senator, and a US Senator of Illinois.
Obama runs on a platform of change and hope. With almost everything screwed up in the US today, he has a lot of things to change: the economy, budget, housing, finance, labor market, two wars and everything else in between. The task is enormous and it makes Obama's HOPE mantra more powerful.
In difficult times, more than the ability to make difficult decisions, pick the right people, and push difficult reform provisions, a leader must be able to inspire people. The need to inspire is the same reason why people vote for politicians they can relate to, candidates who can feel (or at least appear to feel) their pain.
(This is the same reason why Erap became president and why he remains popular. He does not have a college degree, the same with about 60%-70% of Filipino adults. Erap would love to talk with the average-hockey-mom from Alaska, and they will have thousands of things to talk about.)
The ability to inspire people to do things for themselves separates good leaders from less notable ones. More than just being the highest technocrat or bureaucrat, leaders who inspired people leave a lasting memory, they move a nation for a greater cause... Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Ramon Magsaysay and Junichiro Koizumi, to name a few.
With the crisis the Philippines is facing, do we need an Obama? Probably not... as Obama said in one of his most mocked statements "we are the ones we have been waiting for." We should not spend countless hours looking for people to inspire us, we should strive hard to be an inspiration for other people.
We do not need to look outside to find great inspirations, we have Among Ed Panlilio of Pampanga, Grace Padaca of Isabela, and Jessie Robredo of Naga City. But what have we done? Local politicians in Pampanga are trying to unseat Among Ed. Robredo and Padaca are trapped in a system that it seems they cannot be elected to a higher office. And we are left with politicians on the national level rewarded for mudslinging, defamation and grandstanding.
Reform and change are very difficult. We need leaders with the political will to do the reforms, the technical skills to implement them and the charisma to rally the nation behind him. Not just rhetoric and showing off, We need a change that we can believe in.
1. Sarah Palin (if she is not lying, she is fumbling)
2. Presidential Debates (to go or not to go)
3. Economy (it's the economy, stupid)
4. Campaign Ads (Lipstick on a pig)
5. Iraq War (tell that to the Marines)
Barrack Hussein Obama, Jr. will be the first African-American president of the USA, not a descendant of a slave traded in colonial times but literally the son of an African-Kenyan and an American. He is an intellectual heavyweight with humble roots. His parents met in the University of Hawaii, where his mother earned her PhD in Anthropology. His father Barrack Obama, Sr. was a graduate scholar in Hawaii, and later earned a Master's degree in Economics from Harvard. (Can a Ravanilla be the first Asian-American president of the US?)
Barrack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, has degrees in Political Science from University of Columbia and Law from Harvard. He worked as a community organizer, a law senior lecturer at University of Chicago, an Illinois State Senator, and a US Senator of Illinois.
Obama runs on a platform of change and hope. With almost everything screwed up in the US today, he has a lot of things to change: the economy, budget, housing, finance, labor market, two wars and everything else in between. The task is enormous and it makes Obama's HOPE mantra more powerful.
In difficult times, more than the ability to make difficult decisions, pick the right people, and push difficult reform provisions, a leader must be able to inspire people. The need to inspire is the same reason why people vote for politicians they can relate to, candidates who can feel (or at least appear to feel) their pain.
(This is the same reason why Erap became president and why he remains popular. He does not have a college degree, the same with about 60%-70% of Filipino adults. Erap would love to talk with the average-hockey-mom from Alaska, and they will have thousands of things to talk about.)
The ability to inspire people to do things for themselves separates good leaders from less notable ones. More than just being the highest technocrat or bureaucrat, leaders who inspired people leave a lasting memory, they move a nation for a greater cause... Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Ramon Magsaysay and Junichiro Koizumi, to name a few.
With the crisis the Philippines is facing, do we need an Obama? Probably not... as Obama said in one of his most mocked statements "we are the ones we have been waiting for." We should not spend countless hours looking for people to inspire us, we should strive hard to be an inspiration for other people.
We do not need to look outside to find great inspirations, we have Among Ed Panlilio of Pampanga, Grace Padaca of Isabela, and Jessie Robredo of Naga City. But what have we done? Local politicians in Pampanga are trying to unseat Among Ed. Robredo and Padaca are trapped in a system that it seems they cannot be elected to a higher office. And we are left with politicians on the national level rewarded for mudslinging, defamation and grandstanding.
Reform and change are very difficult. We need leaders with the political will to do the reforms, the technical skills to implement them and the charisma to rally the nation behind him. Not just rhetoric and showing off, We need a change that we can believe in.
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