Tag: globalisation

China ‘outsourced’ air pollution now reaching US mainland

January 24, 2014 benign0 41 Comments

America’s decades-long orgy of “outsourcing” its irreplaceable manufacturing might to China is now coming back to bite. Pollution dumped into the atmosphere by China’s growing carpet of factory smokestacks is now reaching the United States’ mainland according to a US National Academy of Sciences study. “We’ve outsourced our manufacturing and much of our pollution, but…

Economy, Environment, Lifestyle, Tech Talk

Filipino labour force not up to par: Philippines ready to host foreign workers

January 15, 2014January 15, 2014 benign0 65 Comments

The Philippines’ Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is reportedly considering opening the country to foreign workers. A list of occupations for which there is a “shortage” of local people qualified to fill has been released by the DOLE… Architect Chemical Engineer Chemist Environmental Planner Fisheries Technologist Geologist – Geophysicist, petrogeochemist, petrophysicist, micropaleontologist, engineering geologist…

Development, Economy, Education, Lifestyle

President Noynoy Aquino may have a good reason for giving a no-go to charter change!

May 22, 2013 benign0 45 Comments

In a pre-emptive strike on the whole discussion around ‘charter change’ that is likely to come up after the opening of the 16th Congress in July, President Benigno Simeon “BS” Aquino III issued his two cents on the matter of foreign ownership of land in the Philippines. â€œI donâ€™t think they are necessary detriment to…

Charter Change, Development, Economy

Alienation and Estrangement: In Defense of Humanism

May 13, 2013 Jose Mario de Vega 3 Comments

Â In 1844, a young German philosopher wrote a book entitled â€œThe Philosophic and Economic Manuscriptsâ€. The said writer is no other than Karl Marx. In that work, Marx begun to examine, analyze and scrutinize the concept of alienation (entausserung). The other term that he used is estrangement (entfremdung). Marxâ€™s central thesis is that: The…

Civics, Development, Society

Lack of thinking and arrogant attitudes are the Philippines’ undoing

April 29, 2013October 28, 2015 Ilda 150 Comments

In the Philippines, there are many people who claim to have a monopoly on great ideas. They claim to know what is good for you and everyone else. Some of them get very impatient about bringing their ideas into “action”. These people also think that their ideas are superior to other people’s ideas. They quickly…

Culture, Government, Politics, Society

Businessweek’s business of talking up the Philippine economy

May 1, 2012November 2, 2015 benign0 11 Comments

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 —…

Development, Economy, Media, Money Talks

Repatriation of workers should match a repatriation of jobs

April 23, 2012 benign0 3 Comments

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…

Development, Economy, Money Talks

Counter-intuitive solutions to fixing the Philippine economy

April 3, 2012April 3, 2012 benign0 4 Comments

I remain convinced that America’s immense creative and commercial energy will shine through whatever social order is imposed on it; much the same way as the might of Chinese entrepeneurial and industrial ethic managed to thrive in the repressive communist regime of the mainland as well as in even most the dysfunctional and corrupt governments…

Development, Economy, Money Talks