PhD Mission Accomplished! (Final Recommendation)

I just got confirmation that the Academic Council has approved the final recommendation of my assessment committee to grant me a PhD degree. Happy that it's now official! In a fortnight, I will be receiving the diploma - signed, sealed, delivered! 

Below is a copy of the committee's final recommendation (again, I covered the committee's signatures with a barcode). It basically restates the preliminary assessment, plus an evaluation of my PhD defence and public lecture. I cherish these last words in the final evaluation:

The assessment committee recognizes the dissertation as an impressive contribution to the understanding of the contemporary global neoliberalization process as it unfolds in the context of Southeast Asia (specifically the Philippines and Malaysia). The level of ambition is high with regard to the treatment of the subject matter. 

... [T]he end product shows a strong ability of theorizing and conceptualizing both the explanation of global neoliberalism and its implementation and institutionalization at the societal level in the two cases. The empirical evidence is well chosen to illustrate the conflicts within the elites for the gains of the imposition of authoritarian neoliberalism although the committee feels a certain discomfort.  

The committee is unanimous in its recognition of the academic capability of Bonn Juego as demonstrated by the written dissertation. The committee is also satisfied with BJ's public lecture on the topic: "Can a democratic state form coexist with a non-democratic economic essence of capital accumulation and increasing polarization in the division of the economic surplus?" 

In the oral session BJ has competently answered questions raised by the committee members. It is the opinion that the dissertation is a heuristic contribution to the theme of capitalist development and contemporary Southeast Asia. 

For further developments of the dissertation in book form or article the assessment committee encourages Bonn Juego to reflect on the broader social context of class relations and the social dimensions of authoritarian liberalism. 

The assessment committee recommends highly recommends that the PhD degree be awarded to Bonn Juego.

Final Recommendation - PhD Degree (Bonn Juego), Barcode in Signatures by bonnjuego

Years of the reading-researching-thinking-writing processes that come with a doctoral study in the social sciences entail a mixture of emotions. Now, I can say out loud that I am so proud of my work! 

PhD mission accomplished!

* * *

Update: Today, 19 June, the granting of a PhD degree to me has been reported and published in Nordjyske, a newspaper in the northern region of Denmark. Ironically, the report about me was printed in the same fold in the paper with the French right-wing leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who would not, to say the least, welcome me in Europe! My PhD mission is accomplished, but the struggle for recognition continues!

PhD Defense Presentation

And my years of PhD study experience came to a conclusion last week! Here I am sharing a copy of my defense's presentation notes — which I delivered for just about the maximum allotted time of 45 minutes. 

In photo: Morten Lassen, Johannes Dragsbaek Schmidt, Amlet Cruz, Bonn Juego, Jacques Hersh, Jane Parpart, Barry K. Gills.

I am so thankful to my assessment committee composed of Professors Jane Parpart, Barry K. Gills, and Jacques Hersh for the very thoughtful evaluation, engaging examination, and kind recommendation. Professor Jane Parpart told me during the reception: "Sorry, Bonn, that we seemed to be tougher on you than the usual because we think you can take it." Professors Jacques Hersh and Barry Gills told me that they, too, enjoyed the defense. I must say that I also enjoyed the defense — even though I became emotional, broke down in tears at the last turn of the defense and during the awarding of the degree! I apologized to Professor Jacques Hersh for shedding tears at the beginning of his speech when he mentioned some of my experiences in the programme over the last few years and my character as a PhD candidate; but he said to me in a very comforting tone: "It's alright.... It only shows that you're human...".

Thank you also to Aalborg University's Department of Political Science for hosting the occasion, especially for the time and hospitality of Professors Morten Lassen and Anette Borchorst, as well as my supervisor Johannes Dragsbaek Schmidt. Despite having no sleep at all for the morning's three-hour thesis defense, the committee as well as my friends and colleagues in attendance had kept me on my toes and my adrenaline going. 

I know that more important than earning this PhD degree is to lead a good life. Thus, a good game continues! 

Bonn Juego - PhD Defence Presentation (FINAL) by bonnjuego

Recognizing Scandinavia's Best Practices

Comment on BBC News feature on:

"Why Finnish babies sleep in cardboard boxes?"

Scandinavia is still the region with the most humane society we have in modern times. (Except, arguably, in the area of immigration policy.) There are so much good, better, and best practices that the world can look up to Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland; but why are many countries in the world so obsessed with the US-style of organizing life and society???

Source: BBC News Magazine

On a personal note, I understand why it's so difficult to leave the comforts of Scandinavia. But sometimes, we have to miss this comfort zone so as we don't miss other wonderful opportunities that this world also offers.

PhD Thesis, Assessment, and Defense (Preliminaries)

As promised to friends, now that I have received the preliminary assessment from my PhD thesis committee, I'm making this blog post. Here I share the following documents:

(1) My PhD thesis (preliminary pages only): 

Capitalist Development in Contemporary Southeast Asia: 

Neoliberal Reproduction, Elite Interests, and Authoritarian Liberalism 

in the Philippines and Malaysia 

(2) The Preliminary Assessment from my thesis' Expert Assessment Committee:

• Jacques Hersh, Professor Emeritus, Aalborg University (Denmark)
• Jane Parpart, Professor, University of Massachusetts Boston (USA)
• Barry K. Gills, Professor, Newcastle University (UK) 

[Note: I inserted a barcode in the space for signatures.]

(3) Invitation to my PhD defense which will take place on Monday, 3 June 2013.

* * *

I have already thanked family, friends, colleagues, and mentors in the 'Acknowledgments' section of the thesis. Now, I would like to express my utmost appreciation to my Assessment Committee for the time and insights given to my years of postgraduate academic work, especially for their very favourable critical evaluation which unanimously accepted my thesis for defense. I am simply elated at reading the Committee's concluding appraisal: 

 

" The assessment committee recognizes the dissertation as an impressive contribution to the understanding of the contemporary global neoliberalization process as it unfolds in the context of Southeast Asia (specifically the Philippines and Malaysia). The level of ambition is high with regard to the treatment of the subject matter. "

Making a contribution to knowledge  (be it 'original', 'substantive', or 'modest')  is the foremost objective of all PhD candidates. Thus, my thesis being recognized by reputable senior academics (all of them full-fledged professors) as making an "impressive contribution" is simply heartwarming.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! :)

* * *

Bonn Juego, PhD Thesis (Preliminary Pages) by bonnjuego

Bonn Juego, PhD Thesis (Preliminary Pages) from Bonn Juego

Preliminary Assessment - PhD Thesis (Bonn Juego)* by bonnjuego

To Erap, Grace, Nancy, and the Filipino People

Image from: Simple Thoughts

Alas, with the 2013 Philippine mid-term election results concluding, I echo a personal realization since I started voting in the country's national election in 1998: that my electoral choices are, thus far, not shared by most Filipino electorate! 

Again and again, "name recall" is the game in Philippine elections — in the past, at present, and most likely in the (near) future. And, yes, the fundamentals of "money politics", too! I long for the day when "money" — both the need for and use of it — does not anymore factor in the essential political-electoral decision-making of the Filipinos.  

I respect the decision of the plurality and the majority. Now, my appeal:

• To Mayor Erap Estrada: Redeem yourself and do justice to my beloved Manila!
• To Senator Grace Poe: Prove your worth and show us the good in what we missed from 'Tatak FPJ'!
• To Senator Nancy Binay: You're also a UP alumna. Live by Honor and Excellence!
• To the Filipino people: Let's make these politicians we elected work for our rights, welfare, dignity, and development!

Hope!

Malaysia's GE13 and Forces of Democratization

Ouch Malaysia! The seat of power remains with UMNO/BN (56-year incumbent); but Pakatan Rakyat's (opposition coalition) showing of winning about a quarter of a million more "popular votes" is telling that the force of democratization and the clamour for reforms are very much alive in Malaysia.

UMNO/BN is criticized for being elected only by 47% of the national electorate and hence not democratically elected by the majority. But who says that the overarching political structure in Malaysia forged by UMNO/BN for more than half a century is 'populist' and 'democratic'?!?! Now, we can evidently see opposing forces in the country between democratization (popular power) and authoritarianism (which heavily relies on coercion but needs some considerable degree — not necessarily a majority — of legitimacy). Historically, the basis of UMNO/BN hegemony has not been 'popular power', but political coercion plus some support from the hegemonic bloc of the UMNO political-business network and its clienteles.

* * *

How did UMNO/BN secure power in the end? We have long suspected that the ruling UMNO/BN would not win the popular votes but only through "gerrymandering" — i.e., the art of manipulating electoral constituency so as to favour the ruling party coalition in the determination of parliamentary seats. There have been allegations of fraud as well. Nevertheless, signs of the times: democratization is an idea and force whose time has come in Malaysia! 

We can only look to Malaysia's political history to explain its present-day electoral structure. Some lines re "gerrymandering" and related issues here from my PhD thesis monograph: 

Page 259:

" Indeed, the source of strength of the market order as well as elite hegemony had to be state regulation and repression. This dynamic interdependence for survival between the market, elites, and state became more pronounced in times of crises. In fact, the observations have been: that Mahathir’s government even acted more authoritarian (i.e., over both the public and the economy) during the 1997-1998 Asian crisis and its aftermath than during periods of relative political and economic stability; and that the 9/11 event, to a large extent, provided the government the legitimacy to implement repressive laws, to suppress public protests, and to pass new electoral laws conducive to gerrymandering—all of which were hostile to the opposition (see Pant 2002; Pepinsky 2009). "

Page 262: 

" The impressive victory of the ruling BN coalition in the 2004 general elections winning an overwhelming majority of votes and securing 199 of 219 parliament seats was often credited to Abdullah’s charisma, his well-received attempts at not living in the shadow of Mahathir or the so-called ‘de-Mahathirization’, and the drawing power of the Islam Hadhari slogan (Khoo 2003b; Chong 2006; cf. Loh 2005b). While this personality-based analysis might had been a factor for the electoral success, an important agential-structural explanation that must not be ignored was the fact that Abdullah and UMNO were the greatest electoral beneficiaries of the regime of authoritarian liberalism that Mahathir and his power clique had instituted for the last two decades. Notably, decades of UMNO dominance of money politics, particularly during the Mahathir regime, made possible: the consolidation of a wealthy and powerful electoral machinery that included the art of gerrymandering; the control of mainstream media; the silencing, harassment, and crippling of critics, dissenters, and opposition; the promotion of the image of a ‘moderate’ Islam especially after 9/11; the normalization of the perception of the conduciveness of neoliberalism and its policies of privatization and liberalization to economic growth and long-term social development; and the popularization of the discourses of ‘Asian Values’ or ‘developmentalism’ that conceptually separates, detaches, or dis-embeds democratization from development (see Loh 2005b). " 

Pages 266-267:

" Najib took over the premiership from Abdullah with, notably, [a] the party mandate to regain UMNO’s dominance; [b] the ethnic Islam and Malay agenda for continued political and socio-economic privileges; [c] the capitalist development objective to immediately overcome the challenges of the global economic crisis and to realize the long-term Vision 2020; and [d] a personal interest in crafting his own legacy in Malaysia’s history. As a strategic step towards addressing these demands and objectives, especially the attainment of the latter, Najib (2009b) launched the concept 1Malaysia or ‘1Malaysia: People First, Performance Now’ as a key pillar to his government’s agenda for ‘national transformation’. The methods by which the 1Malaysia concept is being articulated and executed as a socio-political, economic, and electoral project evoke of the usual modus operandi of authoritarian liberalism attuned to the regime’s interests in maintaining the status quo vis-à-vis the current circumstances of the amplified social conflicts and the exigencies of the global and domestic economy.  

" What is happening in the present conjuncture in the post-Mahathir and post-Abdullah Malaysian political economy under Najib is complex and can be epochmaking whether at: the sphere of electoral politics; the attempts to revise or perhaps end the NEP; the further entrenchment of reactionary, racist forces in UMNO; the increasing irrelevance (except at an instrumental level) of the ‘Chinese’ and ‘Indian’ parties in the BN coalition; an opposition with the huge advantage of the public’s perception of the government’s hopelessness and yet fraught with its own internal problems; and the impact of the global crisis for domestic economic restructuring. Nevertheless, 1Malaysia is intended and being presented as a continuation of UMNO-BN hegemony since independence—which includes the past development agendas of Najib’s father Abdul Razak, his benefactor Mahathir, and his predecessor Abdullah. "

Page 277: 

" Mahathir’s Wawasan 2020, Abdullah’s Islam Hadhari, and Najib’s 1Malaysia are different slogans promoted at different phases in Malaysia’s evolving development discourse and experience with fundamentally the same interdependent objectives of: deepening ruling elites’ interests in perpetual wealth and power accumulation and managing the class, social, and ethnic conflicts that are intrinsically induced by the structural contradictions inherent in the regime of authoritarian liberalism. The relative robustness of Malaysia’s authoritarian-liberal regime is largely due to the ability of the state to balance the acquisition of consent through general elections and parliamentary representations, on the one hand, and the coercion of dissent through repressive means against opposition politics, on the other. This balancing act, however, does not guarantee stability in regime maintenance efforts, but it actually signifies the regime’s conflict-ridden nature. " 

Labor must be a true social force

Comment on ABS-CBN News report:

"6 Senate bets show up for Labor Day protest"

Every election is an opportunity for Filipino labor groups to strategize to become a true electoral force — hence, a considerable political-economic force — in the country. 

Labor must be a social force to reckon with! Unite!

A Reflection for Labour Day 2013

For Labour Day, here's my comment on James Miraflor's essay "Why Higher Wages Make Economic Sense":

Hi James, Good essay. I find your position very "normative" that is largely devoid of the analysis and strategy for creating the political-economic conditions for a high wage regime. Economically, this requires a mode of production that is able to induce productivity explosions and realize full employment. Politically, then, it shall establish a countervailing power of labour unions. 

For rich countries like Scandinavia and Western Europe, I think increasing wages is only a question of political will on the part of the government and involves political negotiations between capitalists and organised labour. But this is not the case in a poor Philippines as recently manifested in PNoy turning down the demands of "labour" for legislated salary increase, living wage, and job security in favour of "capital" and its ideals for "competitiveness" through the creation/maintenance of a "market-friendly" socio-economic regime.

So, for me, first-order agenda are an economic mode of production that is able to create wealth for the nation and a political movement to struggle for high wages and its attendant positive social consequences.  

We are all labourers! Mabuhay!

* * *

P.S.1. PNoy sang a somewhat different tune — yet consistently neoliberal — in this year's labour day (see Rappler's top story "Aquino rejects labor groups' demands") compared with his speech two years ago before a gathering of employers....

Cf., a blog note I posted two years ago: "Workers  spend what they get; capitalists get what they spend."

 

P.S.2. As I asserted a couple of years ago on Labour Day: "Labour is source of value and wealth. We are all workers!"

All nice and decent academics, unite!

As a comment on The Thesis Whisperer's blog essay "Academic assholes and the circle of niceness", which has been recently shared in facebook by several postgraduate friends, I wrote the following sentiment on my facebook wall on April 18:

Unfortunately and fortunately, I've also seen and experienced both the 'nasty' and 'nice' sides of the academia. Sadly, however, the trauma that the nastiness of pseudo-academic assholes inflict on young academic dreamers oftentimes overwhelms the profession's niceties. 

In addition to witnessing nasty academic assholes cleverly maneuvering their way up to promotion, what is heartbreaking as well is to see these tenured/secured senior academics with so much feeling of insecurities in their hearts and minds. That's "kicking away the ladder" in the supposedly ivory tower of integrity and professionalism — that is, the academia!  

I join The Thesis Whisperer in her appeal here: "Ultimately we are all diminished when clever people walk away from academia. So what can we do? It’s tempting to point the finger at senior academics for creating a poor workplace culture, but I’ve experienced this behaviour from people at all levels of the academic hierarchy. We need to work together to break the circle of nastiness."

Another harsh reality though is that insecure assholes do not like clever people around and they are just so ecstatic seeing clever people walk away not just from their own department or group or university but from the academic profession itself! 

I am one of those who long for the old-fashioned academic culture of generosity, encouragement, and inspiration.

All the nice academics, unite! We have nothing to lose but the assholes!!!

And here's my related blog post some months ago - "Academic Profession: A Sad Reality".

* * *

My friend, Nikki Briones Carsi Cruz, succinctly shared her insights into this sentiment of mine which must continue to remind me of hope in the academe and goodness in many academics:

Thanks for sharing this Bonn - I have an inkling about this sad/harsh reality, but I must say though, that thankfully, there are also many mentors who make the effort to protect and inspire young blood. Two years ago, upon acquiring my Ph.D., I reached a crossroads and I wondered whether to leave the academe for good, but inspiring people I look up and respect reached out to me, and I can testify, that the culture of generosity, encouragement, and inspiration still exists. I found lifelines being flung at me from near and far... enough to keep me afloat, and tethered to the academe.

I agreed and replied:

Indeed, Nikki, there are many decent people around, too, who we could work and ally with. I also believe that for our generation, time is on our side so this thought should keep us going and hopeful. 

I'm currently at what you refer to as a 'crossroads'. Yes, a PhD degree gives so much options in life and career. But I believe that more important than the professional pressures of having a PhD degree is the personal sense of leading a happy, content, purpose-driven, and dignified life. To me, this personal goal comes with the constant search of associating ourselves with as many soul-mates as possible in work and in life. 

Cheers from Copenhagen! 

Be generous to teachers!

In solidarity with Denmark's national union of teachers....

Being generous in time and resources to teachers is good for pupils/students, quality education, the economy, and overall social well-being! 

And I argue the same for university teachers!

* * *

P.S.1. Photo taken by Ams in Copenhagen.

P.S.2. Just a background re ongoing teacher lock-out in Denmark, see BBC News Europe report "Denmark teacher lock-out paralyses schools".

Rest in peace, Margaret. RIP Thatcherism!

Comment on BBC News UK Politics:

"Ex-Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher dies"

Bye, bye Thatcher, the milk snatcher....

Spiritually, I bid farewell to the Baroness.

Ideologically, I'd rather remember Tony Benn taking on Thatcherism (i.e., the pricing of everything and the valuing of nothing), wishing that the Iron Lady, ex PM Margaret Thatcher, brings to her grave the inhumane and unjust ideas, interests, and power of the capitalist market forces and the elite class that she had protected and facilitated to unleash in the UK and all over the world.

Rest in peace, Margaret. RIP Thatcherism!

On Malaysia and Philippine Elections 2013 and a Note on Surveys

Comment on Aljazeera's Inside Story:

"Is it time for change in Malaysia"

And the high heat is on in Malaysia as well.... This could be epoch-making!

As a student of Southeast Asian politics, I am much more interested at this time in following Malaysia's upcoming general elections than the national elections in the Philippines. For many reasons.... Part of the reason is the seeming 'anticlimactic' effect of SWS and Pulse Asia surveys in the Philippines -- and, yes, I want to puke at the results: same names, same games, shame, shame! 

(Note: As a social science student, I believe in the scientific findings of these credible polls; but I detest their time-tested effects, among others, on Filipino voting behaviour.)

Wish elections in the Philippines do not have surveys where it is like a horse race (karera ng kabayo) in which horses (candidates) do not know who are llamados (leaders) and dehados (laggards) from the taya (bets)!!!

Migrant work is a "value", not a cost!

Reference to ABS-CBNnews.com report:

"Hong Kong's foreign maids lose battle against residency"

Alas, our friends lost in Hong Kong. Sadly, it's not only a setback for the legality of migrants' living and working conditions; it's also a setback for the struggle to change social mindsets and perceptions that migrant workers are not to be regarded as mere "costs" to host country governments but rather as "values" to the development of their economies and the evolution of their societies.

We shall overcome.

The Bottoms-Up-Budgeting (BUB) "Method" and the Poor Political-Economic "Structure"

Reference to Inquirer News:

"Aquino shifts P20B to war on poverty"

This Bottoms-Up-Budgeting (BUB) by the Aquino III administration is an interesting and welcome initiative in attempts to democratize development and nation-building. I believe that the idea is very much akin to "participatory budgeting" which originated in Brasil. We can only wish this project well. Let's see how this new "method" fares when implemented in poor local government units (LGUs) with deep-seated impoverished political-economic structure. In particular, how will this BUB "method" contend with the entrenched "structures" of political clientelism and economically depressed markets at these poor LGUs?

Resolving poverty — i.e., the art and science of development — has never been easy. The "political" problem of patronage may be addressed through political will of the reformers at the top alongside active citizenship from below. But the "economic" aspect of poverty would have to deal with the classic underdevelopment problem of capital formation. How does the PNoy administration plan to create capitalist markets in these localities when there won't be capitalists who would risk to invest in business in municipalities with no purchasing power of the workers? A case in point: many OFWs initiated small businesses in their municipalities only to realize sooner that there is no market — specifically, the circulation of production and consumption — there. 

How will this BUB method ensure the realization of a key development strategy (which proponents of MDGs have been so late to recognize): the creation of jobs, employment, or livelihood???

Further, the BUB method has to be linked with a broader or an overarching development vision and strategy ("Daang matuwid"? But what does this really mean?). This also demands a responsible citizenry who should be vigilant all the time and who must be conscientious to vote for politicians who will take good care of their budget allotment and taxes.

Pope Francis and His Discourse on the Church of/for the Poor

Reference to GMA News Online's report:

"Pope urges religions, those with no church to ally for justice"

Pope Francis' discourse these days sounds seemingly progressive. But so far I find his speeches replete with doublespeak so long as he continues to disembed the critique of poverty and injustice from the principles of 'liberation theology'.

How can we address the plight of the poor and the curse of inequality and injustice if we do not relate these problems as closely bounded with the reality of the material existence of human beings and the materiality of human relations and the ecology? Poverty, inequality, and injustice of today are not simply states of the mind or issues of the spirit. 

In a word, if poverty and being poor are not viewed in 'relational' — that is, in 'material' — terms, the Pope misses out the essentials of injustice and inequality. As long as the materiality of human existence, human conditions, and human relations in today's world is not taken seriously, Pope Francis' rhetoric will continue to be used as a spiritual justification for the maintenance of the status quo that is ruled by the rich, the elites, and the powerful. In this sense, Vatican's catholicism remains the church of and for the rich and powerful that manipulates the poor for purposes of its legitimacy, power imperatives, and perpetuation.

Pope Francis may need to get out of the shadows of the theological doctrines of ex Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI.

* * *

Postscripts. 

• From media reports, it is clear that Pope Francis is critical of liberation theology. After all, Vatican realpolitik suggests that if he were a liberation theologists, he would not be elected Pope. In the first place, the anti-liberation theology of the late John Paul II is indicative that he would not have even been appointed Cardinal.

• Here's a geopolitical question: Is there a parallelism between John Paul II from Eastern Europe elected Pope during the Cold War and Pope Francis elected at this historic left-turn in Latin America? If this is the case, with the rise of China and the geopolitical interest in containing China, is Cardinal Chito Tagle from Asia being groomed as the next Pope? Just asking and pondering on this....

On UP's Tuition Policy, Corporatization, and Social Rights

Paalam "Lorena" / "Kristel".... It is really sad that UP is being blamed for the suicide of a young, promising student. I am just lucky and thankful that when I was studying in UP Diliman for both my undergraduate and graduate degrees, I had a Barangay Scholarship which gave me a privilege to only pay 600 pesos per semester — a negligible cost indeed. This effectively lessened the burden of undergoing a very demanding UP education.

Personally and in principle, I believe in free state education — from basic to the university level. This should include the social provision of universal healthcare, social security, and life's other basic necessities. 

But since it is election season in the Philippines, may I remind the voters that if a candidate promises all these free services, do not believe them if they won't explain to you how they are going to create wealth to finance all these costly social services. We have to create a wealthy nation — at least a middle-income country — first in order to afford free and socialized provision for education, health care, and social security. I have always argued that the question of the mode of production for our political economy is a prerequisite for the goal of redistributive justice.

Economic development, political democracy, and social justice now!

* * *

Comment on Alex Magno's column in the Philippine Star:

"Kristel"

I remember our class discussion before with Alex Magno re utilization of UP's land grants. Anyway, though I believe in the ideal of free state education, I argue that even from the point of view of finance, UP managers must realize that UP education itself is a considerable guarantee of the future capability of the student to pay off her/his study loan. Indeed, being generous to a UP student is a very sound investment decision!

Similarly, the UP administration's resort to "forced leave of absence" (forced LOA) for students who do not pay their tuition on time effectively cuts off the expected cash-flow of the borrower to pay off his/her debt in the immediate future.

Unfortunately, the attempt to "corporatize" the management of a state university does not fully grasp the capitalist logic of investing in future productive human capital — i.e., a (UP) student. I am not that comfortable in using this business language for the sphere of state education but I would just like to point out that even from their own capitalistic mindset they do not understand well the imperatives of investments and finance.