We beg to differ.
Indeed, the Chinese know how thing “work” in the Philippines. They have, after all, been prominent figures in Philippine industry since the Middle Ages. They know enough to fly above the radars of the natives and deal directly with the powers-that-be. That strategy of knowing and dealing with the right people continues to this day….
Read More “China knows how things “work” in the Philippines” »
If there is one thing that has long baffled observers of social norms and collective behaviour, it is the predisposition of Filipinos to clanishness and distrust for one another. This lack of trust and extreme insularness that seem to be roadblocks to large-scale cooperation and organisation are what could likely be signficiantly hindering progress at…
Read More “Science may hold the key to understanding why Filipinos distrust one another” »
The seeming aversion of Filipinos to large-scale infrastructure projects — the sorts needed to achieve the vast economies of scale needed to compete in the global market likely stems from the Filipinos’ heritage of smallness. This prescient snippet quoted from Nick Joaquin’s seminal piece describes the underlying character of Philippine culture that is at the…
Read More “Filipinos need to get better at killing in order to prosper” »
I earlier wrote an article providing my viewpoint on the idea that there is such a notion as a “Philippine economy in the time of Marcos and Duterte”. This cites the topic of discussion in a symposium pitched using that title that features renowned PhD of Economics candidate and Rappler contributor JC Punongbayan. The points…
Read More “To “economists” like @JCPunongbayan “Troll!” is a SOUND argument” »
“Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by ignorance.’ – Hanlon’s razor When a person is intelligent, and it shows, he is often referred to as a show-off and seen to be arrogant. Well it can be that that person is indeed arrogant, or it may just be an inaccurate perception of…
It’s amusing and annoying at the same time reading comments on blogs such as this, that point out the idiocy and the reasons why Filipinos, collectively, have a hard time getting out of the mud that he loves wallowing into. Words like racist, butthurt, asshole are thrown by either side. Some have never-ending thread of retaliation…
Read More “Dealing With a Bleeding, Stabbed-With-Truth Ego” »
Why did the Philippines grow a car culture to begin with? Filipinos can neither make cars nor fuel them using their own domestic resources. They neither have the roads on which to drive them comfortably nor the discipline and precision of design to keep traffic flowing smoothly. Indeed, what the supposed “car culture” Filipinos take…
The brouhaha over House Representative John Bertiz not removing his shoes for a security check at the Manila International Airport is, itself, evidence that rules and the Law don’t really rule in the Philippines. In a modern society of laws, such a display of arrogance would have been swiftly dealt with and not have required…
Read More “House Rep. John Bertiz’s arrogance mirrors the character of the Filipino people” »