Podemos and Left Politics in Europe

Comment on Giles Tremlett's article at The Guardian: 

"The Podemos revolution: how a small group of radical academics changed European politics"

Source: The Guardian

Viva Podemos!

Podemos, launched on my birthday 17th of January last year, will make history in Spain and Europe this year. It's a daring political experiment of the left, radical yet practical.

"Politics was like sex: you start off doing it badly, but learn with experience.” 

I just hope that we/Podemos are learning much from the recent and ongoing experience of Greece's Syriza in the plan to break away from austerity. The lesson, I think, is: The left should never underestimate the power of the Troika (the IMF, EU, and European Central Bank), the EU political-business elites, and Germany to enforce and sustain the status quo. Thus, there's a need for much more sophisticated strategy, organization and solidarity.

Longish, but a very good read for people interested in social movements, European politics, and how left activist-academics (inspired by Gramsci, Laclau and Mouffe) are putting ideas into practice....

Finland's Dynamic Education System

Reflection on Pasi Sahlberg's essay at The Converssation: 

"Finland's school reforms won't scrap subjects altogether"

Source

This is one of the many things that I am liking in the Finnish education system. Aside from putting high regard and social status to teachers, the country treats teaching as a 'dynamic' (rather than static) learning process. Now, Finland is again hitting international headlines with their new 'decentralised' experiment of 'phenomenon-based' learning and teaching through an 'interdisciplinary' approach.

It has now been a year since I've been given an opportunity to teach here in Finland. Though I teach at the higher/university education level (which is a different ballgame from the much appreciated basic/school education system in Finland), I always remind myself that the current generation of Finnish students enrolled in our master's programme have been products of the successful education reform process that Finland undertook since the 1990s — an education system and process that is substantially different in method and principle from what I had undergone. Moreover, our master's programme, where I am part of the core staff, at the University of Jyväskylä is an inter-faculty initiative that includes students and faculty members from the Faculty of Education, which is recognised as Finland's leading expert in teacher education and adult education, as well as a major exporter of education. 

Mindful of this dynamism in the teaching profession in Finland, during the last year I have audited many lectures on how teaching is done by colleagues and availed of the university's privilege for academic staff to allot some of our work hours for professional improvement by enrolling myself in several trainings as well as in some courses learning with students themselves in the same classroom. It's demanding for a fresh post-doctoral academic due to the very competitive condition of the profession these days especially for a foreigner in Europe's academia. But on second thought this is good — indeed, much better and desirable than being complacent, stale, sterile, or bored. 

The constant challenges of creativity, innovation, and change keep us on our toes. 

--

An interesting note here from Pasi Sahlberg: 

"You may wonder why Finland’s education authorities now insist that all schools must spend time on integration and phenomenon-based teaching when Finnish students’ test scores have been declining in the most recent international tests. The answer is that educators in Finland think, quite correctly, that schools should teach what young people need in their lives rather than try to bring national test scores back to where they were."

Lee Kuan Yew and Lessons from Singapore's Development Experience

Comment on The Straits Times article:

'Mr. Lee Kuan Yew's Red Box' by Heng Swee Keat

The article is an interesting personal story of how the late authoritarian — 'benevolent dictator' to some, 'human rights violator' to others — Lee Kuan Yew had governed one of the most boring and repressive, yet economically successful, city-states in the world - Singapore....

Source: http://www.lee-kuan-yew.com

It isn't surprising why many Filipinos would rather have an authoritarian figure, even a dictator, again like LKY in the Philippines. This is an obvious indication of Filipinos' sheer frustration of the current state of affairs. After thirty years since the end of Marcos dictatorship, the promises of democratization have been hollow. Others, perhaps, are just ignorant of the particularities of Singapore's historical, political, and socio-economic dynamics and circumstances. 

Ironically, many Filipinos want to have disciplinarian leaders, but we do not even (want to) discipline ourselves. 

The development history of Singapore cannot be solely attributed to LKY's leadership. Workers have contributed tremendously to its development -- the impressive infrastructure of Singapore have been built by migrant workers, and many of the city's skilled workers and their children have been taken good care of household workers, many of whom from the Philippines and Indonesia. 

It's also important to note that the 'Chinese' population were already thriving on commerce, business, education, culture, and politics in colonial and post-independence Malaya. This, among other reasons, compelled Malay political elites to strategically expel Singapore from Malaysia to secure the dominance, and advance the interests, of ethnic Malays. Thus, it is not right to say that LKY built Singapore from scratch. 

The Singapore development experience cannot be replicated anymore. Not in or by the Philippines at this juncture. It has had its own historical specificities. 

• One, Singapore has had, as what economists would call, a 'minimum efficient size', which has roughly the same land area as Metro Manila and only twice the population size of Quezon City.

• Two, it pursued industrialization with a strong manufacturing sector at the time when Keynesian economics ruled the ethos of development strategy in the postwar era -- a favourable catching-up period to industrialise which Marcos and the Filipino elites failed to capture.

• And many more....

However, there are some important lessons that the Philippines can draw from Singapore's economic development experience. 

• First, do some serious planning for industrialization. Critical components of this strategy are: policy coordination; specialization in manufacturing, while designing the synergy between manufacturing, agriculture, services, and SMEs; and the prerequisite completion of land reform. NEDA and Philippine economic planners and managers since the 1960s would appear amateurs when compared to the serious planners and managers of Singapore, and even Malaysia.

• Second, having a large public enterprise can be efficient and can be a national asset. Contrary to the claims by neoliberals and free marketeers, Singapore has large public enterprises which has been key to the country's economic success. Governments are not necessarily inefficient, and government intervention in the economy are not always bad.

• Third, encourage the existence and organization of labour unions. At the level of Singapore's economic development, high wages have been realised not out of the benevolence of LKY's government or the generosity of businesses, but due to active negotiations and duly recognised activities of labour unions (even if these unions are state-orchestrated in the case of Singapore).

• Fourth, FDIs and MNCs can and must be disciplined by the state. There are good and bad FDIs. Distinguish between greenfield and brownfield investments. Thus, the strategy of the state is to attract the good ones, and make them work towards the realization of the country's national and social goals. 

In short, here's my explanation to Singapore's successful "economic" development which may be emulated by developing economies like the Philippines: 'good' people + good institutions + good policies + good governance + good timing + good luck!

Yes, I must add, remember Philippines: 'development' and 'democracy' can be together! 

wink emoticon

Education Reform and the Goal of Equality

Reference to GMA News Online report,

"DepEd steps in on salutatorian speech controversy"

If you asked me what should be done, just one concrete strategy, in reforming Philippine education system, I'd say: abolish all the honors system in grade school and high school. 

Kung gusto pa rin nating may mga awards, gawin na lang na gaya ng sa college na kahit ilan puwedeng maging summa, magna, cum laude, o nasa dean's list; hindi lang isang valedictorian at isang salutatorian sa bawat batch.

Also, abolish the hierarchy of sections. Abolish din ang mga row 1, row 2, row 3, at row 4. These divisions, segregations, or categorisations of pupils/students are not good for learning. 

Dapat pantay-pantay. All students must be given the same high quality facilities and teachers.

In this news report, there's really fundamentally wrong in our institutions. The default response or knee-jerk reaction of the country's institutions whenever there is a problem is to immediately deal with it as a 'legal' issue. 

When we do 'reform', we have to critically ask the principles, ethos, or philosophy — yes, even the politics —, behind (or underpinning) the rules or laws that must be questioned and examined.

My sense is that the K to 12 educational reform experiment in the Philippines will likely fail if 'equality' is not its defined and desired telos. Based on my observation, a crucial difference between successful K to 12 system in Nordic countries (especially Finland) and the new K to 12 in the Philippines (or the US) has to do with the 'goal' or 'objective' of education.

In the successful case of Finland, for example, it's very clear that the goal of education is 

• towards 'equality' (which encourages cooperation while discovering one's talents and pursuing one's life's purpose),
• not 'excellence' or 'competitiveness' (which, as we see in the Philippines, leads to selfishness, egoism, and ugly competition). 

If 'equality' is not a goal of education in the K to 12, the terrible US case shows that those who pursue the 'vocational' track are stigmatized and subsumed under the 'academic' track. 

While 'learning' is the means and ends of education in Finland to develop students' real-world problem-solving skills; the Philippines is obsessed with 'testing' that encourages short-termist 'rote memorization' skills.

May this incident open up some serious rethinking about the country's education reform process, and not waste our time with non-sensical bickering between these innocent children who are victims of the deeply flawed principle, philosophy, and policy of education that we have had from the very beginning.

* * *

Here are excerpts of the comments I made to friends' comments in Facebook:

1.

[E]ducation policy should be part of, coordinated with, each and every socioeconomic reform policy in the country towards a particular national goal. Our country's problems are so convoluted and complex already that require comprehensive, wholistic, and coordinated approach.

2.

The first order problem of the Philippines is 'poverty' (which is a largely 'economic' issue), but a more difficult and sensitive issue linked to it is 'inequality' (which has a 'class' dimension). Both of these have to be addressed, and education policy must be integral to solving these causes of Philippine socioeconomic problems. What you've pointed out as the 'achievement gap' is a symptom of these causes.

I'm a believer of 'universalism' and the principle of solidarity, which is different from your proposed 'targeting' approach. The latter has long been employed by different Philippine administrations, patterned after the US-style of 'equitably' allocating state resources. The former must be tried out, and there are already studies about its viability in developing country contexts as well as policy prescriptions for it made by scholars and researchers who contribute to UN-level research.

3.

[Do] not to target the 'poor', but target 'poverty'. 

I get your point on 'equality' and 'equity'. The 'equality' in my mind is anchored to the principle of 'social justice' -- where the allocation of government resources and programmes are context-specific, in the sense that these must be 'learner-centered' and oriented towards particular student's needs and abilities. This conception is, therefore, a synthesis of your equality-equity graphical representation in the blog post.

P.S. I touched on this 'learner-centered' idea a bit in my current 'teaching statement' - although this is at higher education level. 

Nostalgic About Sampaloc

Reflection on Alexander T. Magno's essay in CNN Philippines: 

"Mang Kulas and the Philippines' vanishing trades" 

Nostalgia.... 

Though the author must be older than me, I was also born, grew up, and studied in the same area in Sampaloc, Manila. I could relate very much to his memories — the sights, sounds, smell, and feel — of the streets of Sampaloc. I noticed, tasted, and experienced all of these with fondness in the '80s and '90s.

Source: CNN Philippines

Ang hindi niya lang yata nabanggit na gustong-gusto ko na tinda ng mga mang/kuya/manong at ale/ate/manang ay iyong lumpiang sariwa (matamis o maanghang, pero pili ko lagi halo); ice candy / ice buko / ice munggo; "merienda, merienda"; puto't kutsinta; palitaw; turon / banana q / maruya / kamote q; "carioca, carioca"; "siomai, siomai" nung intsik na napakasipag; okoy; mami / goto / lugaw; sinegwelas / duhat; one-day-old na puwedeng may pait o tanggal pait; iskrambol; samalamig / palamig / sago't gulaman; yakult; cotton candy; sundot kulangot; buli-buli.

Pati iyong "special offer, special offer". May mga naglalako rin sa kalsada na naka-kariton ng mga isda, karne at gulay. 

May nag-aalok din ng "sampaguita, sampaguita". May mga teks, turumpo, sumpit, jolen, sipa, at iba't iba pang mga laruang plastik.

Meron din iyong parenta o arkila ng game-and-watch, at iyong nakalimutan ko na tawag - iyong sisilipin mo at makakikita ka ng film o mga larawan.

Magaganda rin ang mga side car noon, mapoporma, may mga design, at sound system pa.

Pag-piyesta, meron din iyong dice ("green" ang lagi kong tinatayaan o depende kung ano iyong nasa kulay sa taas ng gitna na pangalawa sa tatlong dice), roleta, at iba pang tayaan.

Meron ding mga bunot-laruan, iyong pabunot na itutubog sa tubig iyong papel at may numero o hugis na lilitaw sa papel. At siyempre, iyong may tindang mga salagubang, sisiw, bibe, mayang makukulay, kalapati, at iba't iba pang mga insekto.

Kayo? Ano pa ba? 

grin emoticon

Accountability: 'What' and 'Who' Walden Bello and Akbayan Represent

Comment on the essay by Joy Aceron and Francis Isaac in Rappler: 

"That thing called resignation"

Source

Interesting essay from Joy and Kiko.... In addition, I think it is also important to understand that thing called "accountability". 

Walden Bello wears so many hats — a well-known public scholar and social activist, and recently a thinking and working congressman. Thus we may ask: Walden is accountable to whom? The answer to this may be context-specific.

But aside from being a party member of Akbayan, Walden is accountable to the many activist individuals and groups, and their constituencies, in the Philippines and internationally who supported Walden's candidacy, nomination, and cause for the principles that he fights for. The bottom-line is that Walden is ultimately accountable to 'what' and 'who' Akbayan represents. That is to say, the principles of democracy, social justice, self-sufficiency and sovereignty; and the poor, marginalized, victimized, subordinated, discriminated peoples, genders, and classes.

Source

It is unfortunate that Walden's principled stance and Akbayan's dynamism practising internal party democracy may not be appreciated well considering the country's dominant political culture and mentality. Such move does not also seem to be effective in the context of a personality-based political system in the current presidential form of government. The strategy of mainstreaming left political parties (i.e., left parties forging coalitions with mainstream political parties) may be much more effective in a parliamentary set-up which gives every party in the coalition substantial clout in decision-making and maneuver.

I am one of the many who supported Walden when he ran in 2007. Looking back to the testimonial that I wrote for the campaign, I'm very pleased and satisfied that the promise I made has been greatly fulfilled by Walden — though it has been quite short for the much needed and anticipated protracted struggle:

"Warning: re-electing AKBAYAN with Walden Bello as representative will forever change your conception of public service, tremendously elevate the level of political-economic discourse in public debate, and significantly accelerate the pace of social change."

Post-Aquino III and the State of Philippine Democratization

Comment on Inquirer's report:

"'Aquino left nothing to chance': Palace rebuts BOI; he's not covered by chain of command" 

Source: Inquirer.net

I guess it's just right to be skeptical this moment when a nation's trust has been broken. Ano'ng laro na naman ito ng Malacañang? In a controversy like this, the Palace will resort to their usual PR strategy and legalese justification (and, if necessary, their patented 'Arroyo-blaming syndrome') to protect the President from any accountability.

Be critical and vigilant about the BOI report, noting that it's highly probable that its draft was first reviewed by Malacañang before making the report public. 

At the same time, this should not stop us from continuing the clamor for the importance of having a truly independent truth commission to investigate the Mamasapano clash.

PNoy's obsession, hate and fear of Arroyo continues and will continue to haunt him. He's anticipating criminal liabilities to be filed against him that will put him to jail right after he leaves the presidency. 'How-low-has-the-mighty-has-fallen', that is Arroyo, and which I think is somehow a good indication of the country's democratization progress against impunity and of the attainment of some degree of respect for, at least, the ''institutional' and procedural' rules of democracy. 

Isn't it good for Philippine democratization and political future if we had had three former (popular) presidents jailed: Estrada, Arroyo, and then Aquino? We could only hope that this development would discourage the ill-intentioned, incompetent, unprepared, mediocre from daring to run for president. May the politically ambitious realize and fear that there's virtually no room for error in governing a sensitive country case such as the Philippines. In one fell swoop all a politician's good deeds are forgotten.

Perhaps, one of the most important goals of political democratization, as well as of socio-economic development, must be to have a nation of 'ungrateful' people. An 'ungrateful' citizenry — who has the material conditions to mind her/his one's business and life's purpose — would be a cure to all that is historically wrong in our country's patronage, clientelist politics.

Apparently, PNoy's political time is basically over, and he's now consumed with making sure that a reliable, favorable ally would be elected next president to immunize him against legal actions and political persecution later on. After the Easter he'll focus on his last SONA speech and cleaning up of his administration's records; then the usual national calamities/disasters in the third and fourth quarter of the year. During the last months of 2015 and first quarter of 2016, the attention will shift to the 2016 presidential candidates, and to local elections in the second quarter of 2016.

Is PNoy's 'good governance', 'tuwid na daan' project, now at the homestretch, paving the way for the return of the trapos with Filipino people voting again with broken-hearts and trauma from the yellow fever???

Foreign Languages in Reforming Philippine Education Curriculum

Comment on Rappler's feature:

"Canadian Harvard graduate speaks fluent Ilocano"

Source: Rappler

Naglaing met ti ag-Ilokano ni lakay!

Seriously, there are also many, many Filipinos abroad in countries in Europe, Asia, or Africa who are fluent or have some knowledge of foreign languages and dialects. The fact that many Filipinos are amazed at this guy is an indication that in reforming our education system we have to include in the curriculum foreign languages just like when the Spanish language then was mandatory. 

A new generation of Filipinos should be able to speak/write/read [a] language[s] other than Filipino and English — perhaps, one Asian and one European.

In the academia, especially in the humanities and social sciences, it is the norm that European (or American) scholars who are supposed to specialize in the study of Asian, Latin American, and African societies, politics, histories, or cultures must also know the language of their respective country/community studies. Technically, one cannot be a 'Latin Americanist' without knowing Spanish, or a 'Sinologist' (China specialist) without understanding Chinese. 

In Asian studies conferences, for instance, we could meet European scholars who can even teach and write in Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai, etc. This, it seems to me, is not yet being observed in Philippine universities — and thus must be considered in any reform efforts in the humanities and social sciences.

On the Resignation of Walden Bello and the Akbayan Experiment

Reference to ABS-CBNnews.com report: 

"Walden Bello: PNoy runs gov't like 'fraternity'" 

Source: ABS-CBNnews.com

Been busy lately with grown-ups' preoccupation with 'matters of consequence' (to borrow from The Little Prince).... 

Catching up with news, and this one struck me most personally, though I long felt this coming.... 

I would just like to express my appreciation and respect to Professor Walden Bello for his integrity, principled politics, and for keeping the values of an outstanding scholar-activist and true public intellectual known among colleagues and comrades in the global justice movement for being "a man of high political culture".

I still remember Walden's parting words and advice to us in the very last meeting of our undergraduate class in Political Sociology sometime in 1999 which I have kept in my heart and which made me smile as I ponder over the reason for his recent political decision:

• that "when there's a tension between politics and your values, you have to follow your values"; and 
• that "it is very easy to be corrupted in this world, but this will only happen if you allow yourself to be corrupted".

I also would like to wish Akbayan! Citizens' Action Party the very best in its present and future. I still think that Akbayan is one of the most viable left political parties in the Philippines, theorising and practising progressive politics. I have learned to see and understand Akbayan as a daring and promising "experiment" of the democratic left movement, and as such a political "project" engaged in the "process of being and becoming" a truly progressive sociopolitical force for social change.

In this process, there are / will be conflicts, contradictions, and personalities (with similar political ideology but different personal interests) that must be managed and resolved well for the project to survive. And most importantly, in this process, there is learning and there must be learning.

Destiny, Decisions and Discernment

Done screening paper applications. A lot of strong and interesting candidates for our master's program. Next, interview and essay exams of those in the shortlist. 

Under ideal conditions, I'd like all of them to be admitted — offering places to the deserving achievers, and giving chances to the promising late-bloomers.

Reflecting on my past educational journey, connecting the dots, I tend to believe in 'destiny', while being aware that the decisions and choices that we made in the past have contributed greatly to where we are and what we have become. 

But now that we have to make decisions on who deserves to be given the opportunity, it may not be apt to be romantic about it and think of 'destiny' of every applicant. We will have to make tough decisions that will make or break a young aspirant's plans, ambitions, wishes, or prayers. 

Perhaps, if this isn't about 'destiny'; it's about 'If it's meant for you, it's meant for you'. Just like in relationships, if they're not meant for each other, they'd break up anyway. In this case, if it's not meant for the admitted candidate, s/he would drop out anyway.

May we have the wisdom, foresight, instinct, and discernment to offer places to the deserving, to the most promising, to those who won't take for granted this wonderful educational opportunity and resources, and to those students who would also make teaching a worthwhile professional endeavour and a meaningful life's vocation.