Development Wisdom from Dr. Romulo Davide, 2012 Ramon Magsaysay Awardee

This life story of Dr. Romulo Davide, agricultural scientist and 2012 Ramon Magsaysay Awardee, made me both inspired and sad. To be inspired by his life and wisdom is self-evident. But it's sad to think how our nation has ignored so much talents, creativity, and dedication among our people.

Some words of wisdom from Dr. Davide for our country's development:

• There is no barren soil, only barren mind.

• Education is important to get out of poverty.

• (Go to UP.) Exposure to greatness and passion for excellence.

• Wherever you are, do your best; lest you may lose the chance to do it again.

• Land to the landless.

• Poverty will just keep on reproducing itself if we don't address it.

• The countryside is critical. Liberate poor farmers from the bondage of poverty and hunger.

• When you fail that means the approach is wrong so we have to change it.

• When you train farmers as scientists you cannot fail their perception, their mind, and their production.

• Farming is business. What farmers need now are inputs, seeds, markets, roads. Teach them how to produce organic, compost, whole seeds, hybrid so they only need market and (farm-to-market) roads.

• Every municipality with farmers should have markets ("bagsakan").

• Scientists are always hopeful.

• Farmers have no right to remain poor, nor we have the right to keep them poor. Because we need them. But we lack regards for farmers. Rich and developed countries take good care of their farmers and are proud of them. Farmers are heroes of the land.

• Bring the university to the farmers.

• Always think young.

• Work with pleasure. Enjoy your work.

• Wherever there is poverty, we/the government should be there. Prioritize 6th, 5th, 4th, and 3rd class municipalities by letting them produce their own food, education, and increasing their incomes.

Dr. Davide's scientific profession is a very good source of reflection for our country's development plans for "national industrialization", the establishment of a "national innovation system", and the creation of "sustainable communities". It's essentially telling of how we have historically missed the active role of government:

• in coordinating all its policies, strategies, and agencies (industrial policy); 
• in linking the state with universities and industries (national innovation system); 
• in prioritizing R&D (research and development); 
• in valuing science and technology as well as scientists and engineers (knowledge-based society); and 
• in observing the important linkages between the sectors of manufacturing, agriculture, advanced services, SMEs, as well as the 'informal' economy (synergies in economic development). 

Can we institutionalize a "Council of Elders" with wisdom — notable Filipinos who have seen and experienced much of life and history — who will make sure that over the short-, medium-, and long-terms we are leading to our national goals of social justice, democracy, and development? 

Hope!

Addendum

Quo vadis, Europa?

Here's an added 'political' burden to the already deepening 'economic crisis' in Spain.... 

What has happened? What is happening in the EU?

When I was studying regional integration there was a convincing argument that I used to look up to — that there's a marked difference between the accession of Spain, Portugal, and Greece in the late 1980s (i.e., 'good' integration) and the accession of East and Baltic Europe in the early 2000s (i.e., 'bad' integration). As it appears, the 'good' cases are worse off than the 'bad' cases. Overall, however, EU is in a sorry state.

Quo vadis, Europa?!?!

Meanwhile, I'm reminded of one of my lecture slides about my thesis of "Today's Geoeconomics of Development", a narrative of "lagging behind, catching up, forging ahead":

• China is a Technology.

• Europe is a Museum.

• US is a Wall (Wall Street).

And I've been longing to have the time and opportunity to write about this argument.

Create a generation of 'producers' for the nation

For Philippine national development, this education focus on stock trading and finance is not that advisable. We've got to educate a generation of 'producers' - thus, not only traders.

The focus should be more on the sciences, technology, and engineering. Our country needs more of TESDA and other skills training institutions — more skills, more professions, more specializations, a huge division of labour are key to a more vibrant economy that can enlarge the middle class and create wealth for the nation.

Language Framing the Israel-Hamas Conflict

See how sophisticated the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) are.... This is how the Iron Dome missile defense system works:

I just hope that all stakeholders, including the media, should be careful of their language. It's just ridiculous how the symmetry/asymmetry dichotomy is often missed out in discussions and analyses. That is, Israel is an established state with defense capabilities supplied by the US and European allies; while Hamas is a political movement with no the same capacity to defend their territory and rights to self-determination.

Why are ground-launched rockets of Hamas being called 'terrorism'? And why are airstrikes of Israeli Defence Forces being called 'right to self-defense'? 

I'm also worried that even 'the religious' card (between fundamentalisms of Christianity and Islam) is being played out in all these propaganda and psychological warfares — a conflict which to me is essentially 'political'. These clash of fundamentalisms, and on top of it the real deaths and misery in these conflicts, dig deeper the establishment of a generation of haters.

Oh, dear humanity!

On the Israel-Hamas Conflict: Give Peace a Chance!

Reference to BBC News Middle East report: 

"Gaza crisis: Israeli air strikes hit Hamas HQ"

Give peace a chance! I'm afraid that all stakeholders in the Israel-Hamas conflict, including the US, NATO, the Arab League, Muslim and Christian groups, the media, and ordinary observers do not think about peace. Let us not nurture a (future) generation of haters. 

As I see it, the ongoing war will go on to become an endless Israel-Hamas tit-for-tat. Recent US State Department call is one-sided, as always favourable to Israel, instead of calling for an end of the conflict and promoting the possibility that Israelis and Palestinians can live in peace side by side.

What we have is an established state (Israel) with defence capabilities supplied by the US and a political movement (Hamas) with no capacity for the self-defense of their legitimate aspirations and territory. 

The world and the whole of humanity are losers in this tragedy.

* * *

But there seems to be a tension within the patron-client relationship between the US and Israel. Obama must be having a hard time at this time, dealing with stubborn Israel and planning the US Middle East policy as well as its 'pivot to Asia' strategy.

And here's Obama, a master politician doublespeaker, publicly speaking about US stance in the Middle East and its relationship with Israel:

It would have been interesting if he went on to discuss his own interpretation of the history of the conflict. We need actions. 

Meanwhile, Syrians are also crying for justice and freedom — those states from the US to Turkey to Saudi Arabia and Qatar to the EU, including Denmark — have rhetorically spoken about freeing Syria. Their passivity on the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflicts is also telling about their real stance towards Syria. 

Questioning the IMF Chief's Discourse, Asking Development's Fundamentals

It's really interesting how IMF discourse appears to have changed in recent years. In a TV interview during her visit in the Philippines, IMF Chief Christine Lagarde looks to a more vibrant Asia which she refers to as "a shift in economic history" in the global economy from US-EU to Asia in the next two decades. However, the IMF should be reminded that Asia has become, or is becoming, a success story either through the economic strategies that are 'wrong' in the eyes of the IMF or through the lessons drawn from the decades-long hardships we've had experienced being indebted to the IMF and subjected to its conditionalities.

Lagarde said that "the IMF needs the Philippines rather than the other way around"; that the IMF is providing technical assistance to the government for efficient revenue systems through the use of IT in tax collection system; that there's need for institution and capacity building; that inequality needs to be tackled so as to be conducive to a more sustainable growth. Lagarde also pointed out that what the Philippines is doing right is the agenda to "grow the middle class which keeps economies sustainable". Lagarde then proposed that we keep the focus on education, health, pension schemes, unemployment insurance, minimum wage, women empowerment, and the CCT, which is to be regarded as "financial safety net to help people move up the ladder". 

These all sound so good indeed. But the fundamentals of development strategy are not being asked, nor are they being categorically stated by the IMF Chief. How to address inequality? How to broaden the tax base of the government? How social services of education, health, pension, and unemployment insurance are to be financed? Why only "minimum wage" and not "living wage"? Why the need for "financial safety net" if "inclusive" or "sustainable" growth should mean that all must benefit from a growing economy in a synergetic way?

The IMF (together with the World Bank and the ADB) may be using progressive-sounding discourses these days, but we should continue asking them about the fundamentals of their development strategy and the telos of their economic policies. Still, they promote a type of (exchange-based, finance-led) capitalism that cannot increase living standards of tens of millions of Filipinos, incomes of the workers, earnings of businesses, and revenues for the government. We need to have a production-based development strategy to establish a socio-economic condition which eliminates poverty and inequality and hence enlarges the middle class in a truly middle-income country whose people have the means, rights, and access to social entitlements. As always, it's the question of the mode of production — i.e., how to create wealth for the nation — that is the  prerequisite for redistributive justice and that is the crux of economic development.

Oliver Stone's Untold History of the US, the Petraeus Scandal, and the Future Generation

I just watched the interview of Oliver Stone at CNN's Piers Morgan Tonight. I agree very much with most of his points from the General David Petraeus scandal to Obama's chauvinist pronouncements. I wish I could see this Oliver Stone's documentary series "The Untold History of the United States".

There's something deeper in Obama's greatest-nation-on-earth victory speech that must be taken seriously. Central to this is the agenda to re-write history away from the point of view of the victims, away from reality, away from the truth. Remember Winston Churchill: "The victors write history." And also, George Orwell: "Those who control the present, control the past...."

Soon enough, right after Obamania, we're confronted with the realpolitik of the political-economic national, material, and ideological interests of the United States, its vested interests, and its military-industrial-Wall Street Complex.

In this regard, Oliver Stone is doing a great service to peoples of the world by writing a book and making a documentary that challenge the regime of mendacity that is being protected and promoted by Obama, the right-wing intellectuals, and the network of the reactionary powers-that-be. Oliver Stone said that his series touch on America's history from the start of the US empire when it entered the Philippines in 1898, to the US denial of the history of the Vietnam war, and the absolute failure of US interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

On the Petraeus scandal, it always fascinates me how powerful people, mostly in the Atlantic, resign from their offices or fall down for the 'wrong' reasons. Sexual harassment and other sex scandal cases have become tools to put down these powerful and controversial individuals — including the infamous Bill Clinton's Monica Lewinsky affair and the IMF Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn's rape case. (The same tool was also used to instigate the silencing, persecution, and downfall of WikiLeak's founder Julian Assange.) Mainstream media easily jump on these sexual misconduct issues. Of course, extramarital affairs and rape are serious moral, legal, and public concerns. But I do hope that the authorities and the media should also be critical of the misdeeds of these public officials in the actual performance of their duties and responsibilities. 

Importantly, General Petraeus is never a hero — not for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as for their purported 'reconstruction', and arguably not for the US reputation as a global policeman! Petraeus should have long resigned for the destruction of civilizations and of current and future generations of human lives in the Middle East and in the world as a whole. The pains, wounds, and cruelties that Petraeus has orchestrated are crimes against humanity that will not be healed in, and even by, our present generation.

Hopefully, soon, our generation can tell the story of our past and share with the future generations in a remorseful yet jubilant way what we used to learn in school through this classic composition by Tom Paxton and sung by Pete Seeger, "What did you learn in school today?" (HT: JH):

What did you learn in school today,

Dear little boy of mine?

What did you learn in school today,

Dear little boy of mine?

I learned that Washington never told a lie.

I learned that soldiers seldom die.

I learned that everybody's free,

And that's what the teacher said to me.

That's what I learned in school today,

That's what I learned in school.

What did you learn in school today,

Dear little boy of mine?

What did you learn in school today,

Dear little boy of mine?

I learned that policemen are my friends.

I learned that justice never ends.

I learned that murderers die for their crimes

Even if we make a mistake sometimes.

That's what I learned in school today,

That's what I learned in school.

What did you learn in school today,

Dear little boy of mine?

What did you learn in school today,

Dear little boy of mine?

I learned our Government must be strong;

It's always right and never wrong;

Our leaders are the finest men

And we elect them again and again.

That's what I learned in school today,

That's what I learned in school.

What did you learn in school today,

Dear little boy of mine?

What did you learn in school today,

Dear little boy of mine?

I learned that war is not so bad;

I learned about the great ones we have had;

We fought in Germany and in France

And someday I might get my chance.

That's what I learned in school today,

That's what I learned in school.

A Reminder to Fellow Progressives re Obamania and Our Struggle

In my love-hate relationship with America, here's one assertion that I hate: that they "live in the GREATEST NATION ON EARTH" and proud of "the STRONGEST MILITARY on earth and THE BEST TROOPS [in] this world"....

Do fellow progressives really think and believe from the bottom of our hearts that Republican and Democrat politicians are / can be our soul-mates?!?!

Have we forgotten our history how the USA was built through genocide of the native population, slavery, slave trade, racism, colonialism, and imperialism? Have we forgotten our critique of political economy which includes how the US war machine has persistently subjugated the world, including the Philippines and Latin America? And that all these have led to the wretched conditions of the earth and of human relations itself?

Yet, we rejoice in deceitful statements and we praise how powerful the victory speech of a master of political doublespeak which celebrates in triumphant tones the GREATEST NATION with the STRONGEST MILITARY and the BEST TROOPS on earth?!?!

So what now for our struggles and advocacies for people, peace, and planet at this moment when a great doublespeak(er) has been reelected in the White House? Recall Marx's letter to Arnold Ruge, "... what we have to accomplish at present: I am referring to ruthless criticism of all that exists, ruthless both in the sense of not being afraid of the results it arrives at and in the sense of being just as little afraid of conflict with the powers that be."

Indeed, "Pessimism of the intellect; optimism of the will!"

A Reading-Thinking-Researching-Writing Exercise: That's Creative Academic Work

Many facebook friends have shared this - "Write that journal article in 7 days".... The tips in this PowerPoint presentation may be helpful for others. But I'm afraid that students and prospective (academic) writers might misconstrue it. In particular, I would caution against writing academic papers (especially in the social sciences and humanities) in just seven (7) days! This thought may boost students' confidence but, to me, it might actually send a wrong message to students because of the danger of underestimating the writing task at hand.

There are important reasons why theses, essays, or group projects are programmed for several months, a semester, or a few years. As I always remind my students: academic work (especially, thesis) is a reading-thinking-researching-writing exercise. Hence, seven days are not even enough to fulfil each of these tasks, especially if we demanded 'original', 'substantial', or 'substantive' contributions to knowledge from the research projects of our students.

This is not to totally dismiss the tips of @thesiswhisperer and her colleague for it's a good reminder of the essentials in academic paper writing. But I'm sharing it here with a note of caution about the uniqueness and context-specific nature of creative academic work. 

Write that journal article in 7 days from RMIT University

After three years of teaching Master's students, this semester I've been given teaching responsibilities for Bachelor's students. Teaching/supervising Bachelors level students must be very challenging! I'd be very wary of relaying this message to both my graduate and undergraduate students.