We beg to differ.
It’s labour day again in the Philippines. A colleague of mine noted the irony in this celebrated occasion being a “non-working” holiday. But the way that irony and many others simply fly over pointed heads in a society renowned for missing simple points is another topic for another occasion. The more important thing to observe,…
Read More “The empty rhetoric surrounding Labor Day in the Philippines” »
With growth in big developed economies all but flatlining, what do firms — investment banks and securities trading houses — whose entire business models hinge upon “growth” ad infinitum turn to? Where else but to ever more volatile and unreliable “emerging markets”. The Philippines is in one of these arbitrary lists of “emerging” economies —…
Read More “Businessweek’s business of talking up the Philippine economy” »
Which of the two should Filipinos demand more? This somewhat rhetorical question popped into my mind when I came across this article depicting yet another one of our country’s tantrums towards the foreigners. Recently, District of Columbia Councilmember Marion Barry earned the ire of the Philippine embassy for allegedly being racist towards our Filipino nurses…
Former Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan defined a developed country as: “… one that allows all its citizens to enjoy a free and healthy life in a safe environment”. In theory, his statement is simple enough to understand but quite complicated to put into practice. Annan wasn’t specific about which country or…
Read More “Manufacturing can be a key to Filipinos enjoying a free and healthy life” »
It’s final. To the plea of Hacienda Luisita Inc (HLI) that its vast plantation in Tarlac is worth P5 billion, the Philippine Supreme Courte voted 8 to 6 for a final valuation just short of P200 million. This is based on an assessment of P40,000 per hectare made in 1989 when the Department of Agrarian…
The lessons learnt from outsourcing was long in coming. “Cheap” manufacturing meant taking “cost” advantage of foreign exchange and purchasing power disparities between rich nations and poor ones. And the low costs that were outcomes of these arrangements were bandied as “efficiency gains” in the home market despite no real operating efficiencies being actually realised…
Read More “Repatriation of workers should match a repatriation of jobs” »
Flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) is up for a long-overdue $500 million to $1 billion fleet modernisation program following full takeover of management control by San Miguel Corporation (SMC). SMC had recently acquired 49 percent of publicly-listed PAL Holdings which gives SMC an indirect 40 percent stake in Philippine Airlines. SMC president Ramon S. Ang…
Introduction When I visited Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia last year, I saw a banner run across the two Petronas towers with the following words in Malay on it: Daulat Tuanku As soon as I could, I searched on Google what this phrase means. It is more or less the Malay equivalent of the English expression…
Read More “Filipinos: like a ship lost at sea searching for a beacon” »