Hecky's Talaan: FutureMe.org

Some say your best friend is yourself. And to be the best-of-friends, you need to take care of the relationship. So, how are you taking care of yourself? What do you think you'd be like in the future?

I was on the road early this morning listening to NPR. NPR's Scott Simon interviewed Matt Sly, co-founder of FutureMe.org. Sly, a computer science Yale MBA student, set it up so that people could write an email to themselves and have it sent in the future. You could have the general public read it too. To date, some 386,268 letters have been written to the future. A book compilation is forthcoming this Fall 2007.

I've written mine and if you get to read something about the four Fs and C.O.W.S, that email's mine!

Enjoy thinking about your future and emailing yourself. If you have time to waste, have fun reading others'.
Here's a few samples:

Dear Future Me,

Send someone a love letter anonymously. Someone lonely, sad, and depressed, much like yourself in this moment past.

(written Tue Dec 20, 2005, sent Sun Feb 5, 2006)

_________

Hey self.

you're 18 years old. you are sending yourself a letter to god knows how far away in the future, just to remind yourself how stupid and cheesy you once were, silly enough to do these things such as write yourself when you're old.

if you get this message, congrats on making it this far. remember, the journey is never over.

-your younger, less mature self

(written Sun Jul 11, 2004, to be delivered Wed Jul 11, 2029)

_______

Dear future me,

youre trying to remember arent you? checking the writing style, seeing if it matches yours now. well tough. im not you and you're not me so i think we'd both better deal with that and move on. we both know i'm immature compared to you. also im whiney, bored and filled with issues that would make a grown man laugh. you'll no longer be a teenager by the time you read this you lucky lucky man. so how are you anyway? got a girlfriend? a steady job? still on your course at university? did you pass your first year? you didn't deserve to either way. we both know that. still writing? plays? stories? books? films? you can't live your life according to escapism and other peoples feelings, you know that don't you. there are three hundred thousand people like you in this country. most of them are better educated, smarter, more sensible and, lets face it, better writers than you. but don't give up. you've decided to do something and that, my friend (do you mind if i call you that?) is something not to be taken lightly.

only after disaster can we be resurrected its only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything nothing is static everything is evolving everything is falling apart

you used to believe those words.

-mike

(written Sun Mar 21, 2004, sent Mon Mar 21, 2005)

Comfort Women House Resolution Petition Update: 800 and growing str ong

The truth is out there and PM Abe needs to find find it, confront it, and respond to it in an honorable way.  He dishonors his countrymen with his statement. 

 

 

Hecky

 

Comfort Women House Resolution Petition Update:  800 and growing strong

Posted by: "M. Evelina Galang" mevelinag@yahoo.com   mevelinag

Tue Mar 27, 2007 9:30 pm (PST)

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

The petition to support Comfort Women House Resolution 121 is two weeks old and 800 signatures strong. Though it began as a United States petition to House Speaker Pelosi, we have received global support from citizens in Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, The Netherlands, The Philippines, Australia, Germany, Italy, France, Singapore, Austria, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Taiwan. If you go online you can read comments written by our international community, expressing concern, outrage, apologies, compassion, and testimonies from survivors of WWII comfort stations. It is turning into an amazing international document of support.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Abe said, "I express my sympathy toward the comfort women and apologize for the situation they found themselves in".  While this sounds like an apology, Prime Minister Abe is not taking responsibility for Japan's Imperial Army's action under the direction of the Japanese government. He is not apologizing for these war crimes. His statement falls short of a sincere apology.

The House Committee on Foreign Affairs has decided not to take action on the Comfort Women issue until after Prime Minister Abe's U.S. visit April 26-27. This gives the petition one month to grow and to truly support House Resolution 121. If it passes, Congress will ask Japan to take full responsibility for the systematic rape and enslavement of the 200,000 women and girls during WWII.

More importantly, the petition itself sends a strong message to surviving Comfort Women. It honors and respects their experiences and demonstrates to them that the global community hears them and believes them. Their experiences are a part of history.

I urge you to send the petition around. Continue to post the link on your blogs, continue to send out email blasts and to announce the petition to your friends, your colleagues and your family members. After all, this is about our women. This about how we choose to treat one another. Let's aim for 1000 signatures at the very least. Let's see if we can find 200,000 signatures for each of the women who suffered during WWII.

Thanks to those who have signed the petition and are spreading the word. To sign the petition go directly to http://www.gopetiti on.com/petitions /comfort- women-house- resolution. html or for more information you can go to labanforthelolas.blogspot.com.

Sincerely,

M. Evelina Galang
Assistant Professor, English
University of Miami

Indiana Jones of beer dead: "beer is the most feminine of drinks...:

Obituary

---

Alan Eames

The Indiana Jones of beer, he traced its history in the Amazon and Egyptian tombs

Roger Protz
Friday March 23, 2007
The Guardian

It is due to the work and travels of the indefatigable writer and anthropologist Alan D Eames that we know that a Sumerian poet, writing around the year 3000 BC, said, "I feel wonderful, drinking beer in a blissful mood, with joy in my heart and a happy liver." Eames, who has died aged 59, was known as the Indiana Jones of beer. His travels took him not only to Egypt to unravel the origins of brewing in the Old World but also to remote regions of South America to discover how the ancients there also concocted a life-enhancing drink made from grain.

He visited 44 countries in his search for beer and its roots. He crawled through Egyptian tombs to translate hieroglyphics about beer. Back in the United States he would startle male-dominated groups of drinkers at his lectures with his view that beer is the most feminine of drinks and that most ancient societies considered it was a gift from a goddess rather than a god, as with Ama-Gestin and Ninkasis in the old world.

Eames, who was born in Gardner, Massachusetts, was the son of Warren Baker Eames, a Harvard-trained anthropologist. Eames graduated from Mark Hopkins College in Brattleboro, Vermont, and moved to New York City in 1968, where he opened an art gallery. In his spare time he researched beer in New York Public Library.

Following in his father's anthropological footsteps, Eames delved deep into the origins of beer and, along with Professor Solomon Katz of the University of Pennsylvania, developed the theory that beer, even more than bread, played a key role in creating settled, civilised societies.

Eames wrote: "Protected by alcohol, beer had a palatability lasting far longer than any other food stuff. A vitamin-rich porridge, daily beer drinking increased both health and longevity, reducing diseases and malnutrition... Ten thousand years ago...barley was domesticated and worshipped as a god in the highlands of the southern Levant. Thus was beer the driving force that led nomadic mankind into village life."

Eames ran several bars in New England that sold a wide range of beers from many countries. He was the founding director of the American Museum of Brewing History in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, and was a regular lecturer at beer camps held in the premises of the new wave of small craft breweries that began to transform beer appreciation in the US from the 1970s. He broadcast regularly and was an adviser to film-makers in Hollywood on beer-related themes. He was the author of many books on the subject, including his major work, The Secret Life of Beer (1995) and the delightful A Beer Drinker's Companion (1986), which had quotations, writings, songs and poems about beer going back 5000 years.

Eames made extensive forays into the Amazon in search of a legendary black beer made by tribes in the region. He declared that centuries ago beer was fermented as a result of young virgins chewing grain and then spitting their saliva into brewing vessels. The result of his travels resulted in a black beer called Xingu being brewed commercially in Brazil and exported to North America.

Xingu raised eyebrows and hackles. It was a "bottom-fermented beer" - that is, a lager - and was brewed with hops. Neither lager brewing nor hops were available to the ancients whom Eames claimed had developed black beer. But he was used to controversy. He stood outside the small clan of professional beer writers and criticised those who tasted beer in the comfort of their homes rather than paddling up the Amazon or visiting Egyptian tombs.

Some doubted the authenticity of certain aspects of his work and his description of himself as "the King of Beer" did little to quieten the critics. He claimed he was awarded a lifetime achievement award by the leading American magazine All About Beer, though the publishers say no such award has ever been made. Julie Johnson Bradford, the editor, says discreetly that Eames was "a colourful man".

Controversy aside, he was passionate about his subject and a trenchant critic. One of his favourite beers was the legendary Ballantine's India Pale Ale. It was a victim of takeovers, mergers and consolidation, passing from one brewery to another like a parcel of old socks. Eames said of it in Ale Dreams (1986): "Ballantine's India Pale Ale. Jesus, this beer is a holy sacrament! Dangerous, high-test, 44 magnum ale, its bitter, woody suds, reeking of spruce sap, overwhelm the nose and palate - God, this is fabulous ale ... Years later, as a saloon keeper, I'm selling the same wonderful ale. Now fallen ale, exiled to a new, ugly, stubby bottle with some stupid adman's nonsense label. The American beer industry - take the best ale in America and use all our advertising and packaging skill to render it such that no one in their right mind would ever venture to try it."

In recent years, Eames stopped travelling and declared he was happy to stay at home in Vermont with his family and dig the garden. He was married four times and died in his sleep of a respiratory problem. He is survived by his fourth wife, Sheila, his sons Adrian and Andrew, and his daughter Elena.

· Alan Duane Eames, author and beer expert, born April 16 1947; died February 10 2007

Intelligent Design in Geologic Time

Of course there is intelligent design...

But working through geologic time...

So let our wonder... about geologic time, biodiversity, and human history...

Open our souls, hearts, and minds to divine inspiration
within an evolutionary mindset.

Bryce Canyon, Utah
Spring 2007

Signs I bump into

FUTKAL (Football sa Kalye) launch at the Gawad Kalinga Global Expo, October 2006

Manila, Philippines

Mazatlan, Mexico. December 2006

University of the Philippines Mountaineers (UPM), June 2006

Restaurant in Zambales, Philippines. September 2006

Response to Tony Abaya's Most Corrupt Country (Phils)

Depressing, but it indicts all Filipinos, which is wrong. The most corrupt are the gatekeepers in government who use their position to enrich themselves. The other side of the coin are the businessmen and elite who do business with them. The average Filipino is not even on any side of the coin. The average Filipino suffers and struggles. They have been shut out. The rent-seeking elite, professional politician, and bureaucrat are a minority. However, they are a powerful minority. How do we solve this? Support social movements that promote moral renewal, i.e. Gawad Kalinga. Encourage and support initiatives that provide financial and social services to the poor that will uplift them. Support initiatives that make it easier to do business in the Philippines. One specific initiative is the Hyperwage Theory being espoused by the StreetStrategist, aka Thads Bentulan. Another is the Universal or Basic Income Guarantee movement. We need to redistribute economic oportunities...If the elite don't change and reform (or the working rich don't push hard enough the rent-seeking rich to reform), then change will have to come from the base of the pyramid.

Turning the GW crisis into an opportunity

Shouldn't we turn a crisis into an opportunity, risk into reward?

Our biggest problem is poverty and underdevelopment, basically the ever-widening gap between the poor and the rich. Poverty also has environmental impacts.

Global warming presents opportunities to developing countries, such as the Philippines. Pinoy environmentalists should frame the discussion as one of opportunity, not as sacrifice. The sacrifice should be done by those living in the developed world, not the developing countries. The industrialization of the West laid the seeds of destruction via global warming. They must bear the bulk of the burden.

We should look at:

1. Developing green technologies (see my alt tech xmas list), including green building technologies as one path towards sustainable industrialization
2. Developing the carbon credit exchange market
3. Developing alternative fuels
4. Educating the next generation of engineers, designers, educators on green technology and business
5. Getting the rich countries to pay us to develop our industries in a clean manner unlike their growth pattern

Sustainable development is not only about conservation.

It is also about human development that addresses basic needs of food, shelter, health, clothing, education, etc. including improving the quality of life.

Following the global warming money/ GW links

Why is the Virgin founder offering a $25 million prize for the technological solution to global warming? See the following from Grist.org.

BBC News

Bloomberg, Alex Morales and Elliott Gotkine, 09 Feb 2007
The Independent
An interview with Sir Richard Branson

I've noted from others previously that no one, except for two Russian scientists, want to bet $10,000 that global warming (climate change is the term used by the republicans) is occurring and is being exacerbated by man's activities. See:

http://julesandjames.blogspot.com/2005/06/betting-summary.html
http://www.jamstec.go.jp/frsgc/research/d5/jdannan/betting.html
http://backseatdriving.blogspot.com/2006/04/bob-carter-wont-bet-over-global.html
http://backseatdriving.blogspot.com/2005/09/bet-offers-to-bloggers-denying-global.html

The Pieser report mentioned to discredit the Oreskes artice in Nature was defective methodologically. See Tim Lambert's post (http://timlambert.org/2005/05/peiser/.) Here's the primer on how to talk to a climate change skeptic (http://gristmill.grist.org/skeptics)

Follow the money of the skeptics.... (http://www.motherjones.com/news/featurex/2005/05/exxon_chart.html)

Lastly, Mother Jones' series on anthropogenic global warming (http://www.motherjones.com/news/featurex/2005/05/world_burns.htm) should be must reading...

How many scientists do we need to accept that global warming is occurring?

The science behind global warming is becoming clearer over time. There are so many credible scientists who have reached the same conclusions. Apart from the 2,500 IPCC scientists, recently, the world's largest general scientific society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) released a statement on climate change. AAAS was founded in 1848. It is comprised and/or serves 262 affiliated societies and academies of science, reaching 10 million

individuals. Their statement can be found at:

AAAS Board Releases New Statement on Climate Change:
http://www.aaas.org/news/releases/2007/0218am_statement.shtml

Global warming denialists are quick to point out that communists and leftists are mainly behind the efforts to promote global warming action. Indeed the leftists are present, but so what? They are not as big a threat as the rightwingers make them. The American kind may be irritating, but they are not of the Soviet type that led the USSR into economic and environmental ruin.

I say follow the money. As i posted last year, if you don't believe in global warming there are those who do and will bet you $10,000 that it's true.

Follow the oil company money used to pay journalists, scientists, and think tanks to contest gobal warming.

But more importantly, follow the money being invested in alternative technology.

I think this is a growth sector: carbon credits, solar, biofuels, reforestation, etc.

A few years from now, we'll see who was right and who made money.....

Common sense on global warming

The science behind anthropogenic global warming in ADDITION to natural phenomena is sound and documented. Any appeal to the "flat earth" analogy for arguing that there is not enough scientific data to posit that there is a global warming is a disingenous argument. The scientific methdology has improved over the past few decades and since the 60s the scientific results have mainly supported the global warming thesis.

On the contrary, most of the political editorializing are by the paid GW denialists, at least here in the US political and media arenas. There are no heroic figures in the GW denialist camp. None of them is a Galileo. They are all well-paid and well-fed.

Don't you think, as someone elsewhere noted, that it is immoral and self-destructive to pump out thousands of metric tons of toxic fumes every year in the name of progress?

If it stinks,

If it irritates your skin,

If it pollutes the water,

If it makes it difficult for your children to breathe,

If it causes CANCER,

If it kills you,

Then why continue to pump it out?

As they say, use your [common] senses....

Tucson can do better

Tucson ranked 21 out of 72 cities in the US in terms of "greeness". It's from the Urban Environment Report published by the Earthday Network. There are seven subject areas used for scoring: (1) toxics and wastes, (2) air quality, (3) drinking and surface water, (4) quality of life, (5) parks and recreation opportunities, (6) human and public health, (7) global warming and climate change.

These subject areas are mediated or weighted by a vulnerable population index (VPI), which accounts for the concentration of people vulnerable to, more sensitive to, or susceptible to environmental change ("citizens at risk").

Tucson's scorecard can be seen at: http://www.earthday.org/UER/report/az_tucson.html

Mesa, Az ranked 16, while Phoenix is 30th.

I liked the term used by VP Al Gore last night at the Oscars. He used "environmentally intelligent" technologies or processes instead of using "environmentally friendly" or "environmentally sustainable".

ten sexiest green tips...so far

now if only most environmentalists gave such sensible advice....

Keeley Hazell's ten green tips:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2006410004-2006500447,00.html

enjoy your weekend!

Debate on Gawad Kalinga

Dear Norman and others,

I beg the indulgence of all, but this seems to be an educational conversation, especially in light of what Boy Montelibano noted is an election year. Maybe those running for office can pick up something here. In response to Norman's rejoinder, I will answer in three ways:

Norman's assumptions of what GK is doing are inaccurate. When Perry labeled it a humanitarian effort, it conflated it with Western- forms of assistance. It is not. It is a culture-based (Filipino) social movement that has global implications.

- I strongly disagree with Norman's view of the World Bank's historical SAP (structural adjustment program) performance in the Philippines, as well as free-trade as it is currently being implemented by the developed nations. The documentation shows that WB-IMF practically handpicked (by browbeating Marcos), trained, cajoled the Filipino technocrats who co-implemented SAP. WB internal documents, as emphasized by R. Broad, also show that there was no mathematical or economic basis for a Philippine SAP. Implement SAP within a dictatorial and corrupt Marcos regime and what do you expect? Let us not blame Filipinos when the WB-IMF were wedded to the Marcos regime.

On free-trade, when the World Bank decides to do an honest assessment on the topic it find concludes that free-trade isn't free at all and adversely impacts the Philippines. See World Bank's Cororaton’s study.

The new tigers of Asia did not use WB's formula. They had proactive government officials who protected the national interest (industrialization, build up domestic economy then export, etc.). They were able to get trade concessions from the developed countries. Our leaders did not. So, it’s back to a question of leadership...

- I disagree that low wages is a way to development. This is unrealistic and not feasible. Instead of low wages, we should be more creative, more daring, more courageous and we should value the human capital of Filipinos. In this regard, I recommend reading the Hypwerwage Theory of Thads Bentulan aka the Streetstrategist and Universal Basic Income.

Other than those above points, I have no quarrel with Norman's plan for a Filipino conspiracy to conquer the world. In discussions such as this, I like to keep in mind the words of American, Filipinist historian, Alfred McCoy, that social science often times diverges from social reality.

WHAT GK is NOT

GK's Tony Meloto always stressed that GK is neither a project nor a program. They are neither funding depended nor are they concerned with exit strategies. They do not ask, much less beg, for money from anyone. They have not and will not. Yet, supporters have pledged to build a million homes.

WHAT GK IS

GK is an initiative of 10-15% of the one million member Couples for Christ (CFC). They started it with their own experimental efforts (in the late 1980s) and money through 'padugo'. This enabled them to come up with a model for a new kind of social movement for nation building, which is built on servant-leadership, modeling change, healing social divisions, and a holistic, seven-point, community based development process. GK claims their sites are 'non-sectarian, multi-sectoral, non-partisan and non-discriminatory' and are developed through 'caring and sharing of time and resources, massive mobilization of volunteers and partners, and patriotism in action'. GK's model of a transformed community is a peace zone and faith community, environmentally healthy, and productive through programs on shelter, child and youth development, health, environmental, food, and economic productivity initiatives, community empowerment and values transformation.

The reason why GK initially focused on housing is because of the acute need for it. Housing and related expenses, as I have said, constituted the bulk of the poor's household expenses. With their new home, it enabled them to save, use the home as either an economic asset or entrepreneurial tool, gave them dignity and confidence, freed resources for better nutrition and health, etc. Again, housing is only one of six initiatives in each GK site.

GK's ECONOMIC INITIATIVES

GK's Dylan Wilk says that corruption stifles business in the Philippines and that working with GK fosters a culture of integrity. If the rich, the powerful, and the government are transformed then the poor have a chance to progress. Tony Meloto said that the poor already know how to fish so there's no need to teach them how to fish. But, 'they ain't fishing'. Thus, with the 900 communities GK has set up, it is launchiong its economic productivity strategy encapsulated in the following:

- Develop middle class and entrepreneurial values in GK communities,

- Make education, technical skills training, etc. available in all GK communities,

- Adopt a one town-one product (OTOP) strategy for each GK community based on comparative advantage,

- Develop food sufficiency (i.e., square yard vegetable production) in each GK community with the goal of surplus production,

- Foster trade among the projected 7,000 GK communities in the Philippines and eventually GK communities worldwide,

- Encourage expatriate Filipinos to retire in the Philippines bringing with them their savings, skills, and time. A developed 'Reunion Village' (complete with in-house farm, convention center, R & R facilities) in Batangas has a current market value of at least 150 million pesos (one home costs US$40,000). This is run and managed by GK beneficiaries. Several more are being planned and target the 300,000 eligible Fil-Am retirees,

- Develop each GK site as commercial and tourist centers. In GK Baseco, Starbucks-donated equipment enabled the set up of Bayani Café where a cup of coffee retails for P65.

- Use information and communication technologies (ICT) to promote entrepreneurial activities. A MOA was signed with the Rotary and a b2b Filipino group to pilot test b2b centers in five GK sites, and, most importantly,

GK is open to any suggestion that fosters productivity in GK sites that is sustainable and socially just.

HYPWERWAGE THEORY

I have been trying to convince the StreetStrategist that Hyperwage Theory and GK are not mutually exclusive. GK complements Hyperwage in that the former shares the value system of the latter. It puts a premium on Filipino human capital and seeks to develop it. Hence, prices for GK goods are of the middle class range (inflation is a not an issue), i.e. P65 coffee, US$40K retirement homes, PhP5,000++ art pieces. GK is a social movement, which can espouse Hyperwage because of the same value system.

You will have to read the Hyperwage Theory. The StreetStrategist recently wrote Why Filipinos Aren’t Rich and reiterated his call for a hypwerwage policy. According to him, labor is undervalued, hence there is little purchasing power. This stifles entrepreneurial activities and innovation. Hyperwage will enlarge the middle class. Radically raising the salaries of the working class (the household helper is proposed to earn P20,000/month) will have significant multiplier effects.

GK, Hyperwage, and other social justice movements all look at the unequal distribution of wealth and power as the single most pernicious barrier to Philippine development. Each propose their own solutions to underdevelopment, but nothing will move without a transformational leadership at all levels of society.

NOTE TO HYPERWAGE E-GROUP MEMBERS: For background information on the debate on Servant- Leadership and Gawad Kalinga, click on this link.

Thanks again and regards.

Hecky

Reprint of StreetStrategist's (Thads Bentulan's article) WHY FILIPINOS ARE NOT RICH

Why Filipinos Are Not Rich by the StreetStrategist aka Thads Bentulan

The Street Strategist has arrived at the conclusion that the poor Filipinos are not rich because they do not have money.

This is a very simple concept but it takes a genius to appreciate its simplicity.

You may notice that I am trying to explain "why Filipinos are not rich" in contrast to "why Filipinos are poor." Is there a difference? Yes, there is.

In asking "Why Filipinos are not rich," the implication is that the normal state of events should be that Filipinos are rich and we have to explain if ever they are not in the normal state, that is, we have to explain why Filipinos are not rich when supposedly they should be rich.

Diminishing circle Anyway, let us proceed. The Street Strategist has arrived at the conclusion that the poor Filipinos are not rich because they do not have money.

The Filipinos have no money because the country's wealth is inequitably distributed in favor of a few rich.

Wealth is inequitably distributed because the labor sector does not have a bigger share of the wealth.

Labor does not have a bigger share because they are mispriced and undervalued.

Labor is undervalued because they do not have an equal footing to enter into a fair contract with the rich employers.

To gain a stronger footing, the government should step in and prescribe a higher minimum wage.

But the government does not want a higher wage because they are afraid the businesses would have lower revenues as a result of higher labor wages.

The businesses cannot maintain their revenues in the faces of higher costs because the demand for their goods and services do not increase.

The demand for goods and services do not increase because the labor class are not rich, therefore they have lesser disposable money.

The people have no money because the wealth is inequitably in the hands of a few rich.

Thus, we are locked in an ever diminishing circle.

Community of inequality Let's view this from another perspective.

According to a World Bank study, 1/3 of the wealth of the Philippines is owned by only 5% of the Filipinos. This is a huge disparity. This is an egregious distribution of wealth. In economics, the Gini coefficient is the measure the gap between the rich and the poor.

What does this statistic mean?

Try to visualize a community of 100 of your friends.

For every PhP100 spent within this community, after all is said and done, these expenditures and incomes will eventually settle as asset or wealth distributions.

Of every PhP100 in asset, PhP33.3 goes to only 5 of your friends (PhP6.7 per pax). The balance of P66.6 is distributed among the reminding 95 friends (PhP0.70 per pax). Can you imagine how inequitable that is? That's a ratio of 9.5 to 1, or 950%.

And did you forget something? Those 5 friends of yours were actually not doing any work at all. They were playing golf all day, while your other 95 friends were the ones toiling under the hot sun, fighting against each other, backstabbing each other, and knocking on doors at night to sell products. Is that fair?

What is really callous is that your rich 5 friends have billions of money that they could not possibly consumed in ten lifetimes. Single solution And yet you ridicule me for proposing a single solitary action, that is, a legislated minimum wage of P20,000 ($400 at $1=PhP50)?

Please remember, I am advocating communism, socialism, or confiscation of property. I am only advocating the correct valuation of labor, the world market price for labor. Why can't our teachers be paid like the teachers in Singapore? And Singapore has zero natural resources to rely on unlike the Philippines?

Squander Myth: The Filipinos are poor because they squander money.

I heard so many upper class people say this. I even heard on radio somebody who cited their rich neighbor whose children squandered their inheritance.

But many Filipinos are fortunate enough to inherit wealth? A few thousands? We have about 35 million workers, and that's the majority. They have nothing to squander. Job search Myth: The Filipinos don't look for jobs.

I find this too simplistic. Filipinos are looking for jobs so much so that millions of Filipinos in search of work worldwide.

Maybe there are too few jobs here in the country. I have repeated many times why are there a few jobs around. That is why I wrote several chapters on the topic of job creation as a result of the Hyperwage Theory.

Maybe the jobs are not paying well enough. If the actually wages are lower than the threshold reservation wage (the point at which the worker is indifferent if he has a job or not), then maybe that's the reason they do not apply for jobs.

Remember if you work in the US for one year that is equivalent to 10 years in the Philippines.

Lazy Myth: The Filipinos are lazy.

You must be kidding me. Give each one a minimum wage of PhP20,000 and you'll see. Currently, among the best workers abroad are Filipinos. And you and I both know that.

Unsaving Myth: The Filipinos don't save.

Of course, the savings rate in this country is low. Of course, the Filipinos don't save. We have half of the country living below the poverty line and you expect savings? But the top 5%, yes, they do save. Save for what? Should that money be shaved off a little bit and shared back to the workers in form of higher wages that will be used to buy the goods and services owned the same top 5%? It will all go back to the businessmen anyway.

Why Filipinos Are Not Rich (Part 2 of 2)

Naturally rich The Filipinos are naturally rich. If we monetize the value of our entire natural resources nationwide we would have a higher per capita wealth than Hong Kong, Taiwan, or Singapore.

But why is it that these city-states have a higher per capita income than the Philippines given that fact that they have no natural resources? Simple. They put a value to their intellectual capital and human capital.

In Hong Kong, if you can't afford to pay about PhP25,000 for a domestic helper, then don't have one. If you can't afford to pay PhP30,000 for a sales clerk, then don't be in business. But do you know that happened? Businesses flourished. And they have domestic helpers who are nurses or principal teachers from the Philippines. Hong Kong is the 4th or 5th largest financial center in the world and it is only about 1/5 the size of Cebu province and it have zero natural resources. It imports water from China, can you imagine that? Singapore imports vegetables from Indonesia or Malaysia.

Why aren't the Filipinos rich when in fact they should be? It is because the minimum wage workers are paid slavery wages, very far from the world market price for labor with is the US price. Since they have slavery wages, they have little purchasing power. With little purchasing power, there is little domestic market. When there is little domestic market there are few businesses. When there are few businesses, then there are fewer employees, and since there are fewer employees, there is little purchasing power. And if there is little purchasing power there is little domestic market and so on and so forth.

Few rich, thin middle class The Philippines has a very thin middle class, as with any other Third World country. It is the middle class who provide entrepreneurship, the small businesses that is 95% of the number of establishments. Again, this thin middle class is due to the egregious concentration of wealth in the top 5% of the population. How do we then solve the inequitable distribution of wealth? With only one stroke. A legislated minimum wage of about P20,000 ($400) probably staggered over five years.

I am tempted but would not discuss here all the economic benefits and non-economic benefits of Hyperwage Theory because I had done that in my 33-chapter book.

Before anyone criticizes Hyperwage Theory, it would do justice if you read it first. In the same manner that I read as much economic textbooks and journals before I finally set into writing my idea of Hyperwage. What I am saying is this: The Filipinos are not rich but that is not what is supposed to be. We have the natural resources that should have given us the power of the purse, the power of wealth. The Filipinos are supposed to be rich. And there is one solution to correct this anomaly. Give labor its true value.

Suppose the businesses give back PhP100 billion in wages back to the people. Assuming a propensity to consume of 80%, the economic multiplier is theoretically 5 times, and the entire nationwide economy will be richer by PhP500 billion. This is the beauty of Hyperwage Theory. Instead of business annihilation, there would be economic redemption. Again, I have discussed this fully in my book on Hyperwage.

I hope I can meet my Henry Dennison, the multi-millionaire that Harvard economist John Kenneth Galbraith called crazy but who eventually caused the latter to reverse his economic thought. If you recall in my Hyperwage book, Dennison argued that the rich few like himself have a bigger share of the income stream which sucks the economic wealth away from the economic system. Dennison argued that the income stream to the poor should be increased. Who will be my Dennison who would believe the Street Strategist's Hyperwage Theory and become its advocate?

And who will be my Galbraith? As I narrated previously, the famous Galbraith was once a Harvard professor who flipped his economic thought and reversed his ideas and finally adopted the very radical, ridiculed, and controversial ideas of John Maynard Keynes.

Asymptotic hyperinflation

Will there be hyperinflation under Hyperwage Theory? I have discussed this fully and the answer is that there will asymptotic hyperinflation, that is a hyperinflation with a ceiling, and that ceiling is the world market price.

Let's take a look at this illustration. This is a simple one but if we analyze common products (vegetables, cooking oil, paper, newspapers, etc.) in this manner, we will have a clear idea of what asymptotic hyperinflation is.

Assume a person eats half a kilo of rice a day. With a domestic helper's wages of P2,000 per month, then a person earns PhP76.90 daily. Assuming the current price of rice is PhP30/kg then he will consume PhP15 of rice daily. He will have a net on only PhP61.90 per day.

On the other hand, under Hyperwage, is monthly rate is PhP20,000 and his daily rate is PhP769. What will be the price of rice under Hyperwage? About PhP50/kg? Where did we get this price? We assume a comparable quality of rice in the expensive city of Hong Kong which is priced about PhP50/kg. Surely, we could not be above Hong Kong' price under our Hyperwage Theory. Thus, after spending for a half kilo of rice, the helper obtains a net of PhP744.

So which is better, a net of PhP46.90 under our current low wage regime or a net of PhP744 under Hyperwage Theory? What if rice surges up to PhP100/kg? This means our rice will be higher than that in the US or Singapore or Hong Kong? That's seems impossible. We could not be above these expensive cities, could we? Even assuming it is PhP100/kg, but how much rice can one eat? Still half a kilo so that will cost him PhP50 daily, and his net is PhP719 daily.

Monthly Wages

(PhP) Daily

(PhP) Rice/kg

(PhP) Daily rice consumption/pax (PhP Net)

(PhP)

2,000 76.90 30 15* 61.90

20,000 769.00 50** 25 744.00

20,000 769.00 100*** 50 719.50

* Assumes a person consumes ½ kg rice daily

** Comparable rice per kg in Hong Kong (we cannot possibly be more expensive than HKG) ***

Can rice really surge to PhP100 or any amount higher than US or HKG? Now, apply the same to a can of Coke, a kilo of cabbage, an IBM Laptop, an Ericsson cellphone or a Sony TV. How do we know what will be the prices when we adopt Hyperwage? Simple, call the US or Singapore prices, and you can use these prices as your reference prices. Do you really think the price of an IBM laptop will rise 100% once minimum wages are raised 1,000%? No way. It may rise by 5% to 15% but never by 100% because the world market price for an IBM laptop is our reference point. If laptops are being sold in this country at P100,000 each, do you really think it would be sold at P200,000 because the minimum wage is now P20,000? Why should we pay double than US prices?

See my point?

At any rate, I have discussed all these issues in my 33-week discourse on Hyperwage Theory in 2005. Human capital

There are several factors of production in an economic system. Our economic theories emphasize the benefits of using the market price of each of these factors. Our theories frown upon subsidies because they distort the allocation and efficiency of capital. Yet, there is one factor that is not merely an inanimate factor of production, a factor that cannot be made to wait for market forces to determine its price. This is human capital. In the Third World countries, if we wait for market forces to determine the market price for labor, such time may never come in our lifetimes. Why? Because a hungry stomach cannot wait for market forces. If First World countries value labor at $7.50 per hour, without government intervention, do you think human capital in Third World countries will stop working unless paid the market price of labor? They cannot survive half a day without food. They will accept anything to survive. Why aren't Filipinos rich?

What makes a country or its people rich?

Education? We have a literacy rate that is one of the highest in the world at 95% or more, yet we are belong to the poorest of nations. Can we econometrically say that education is what makes a country rich? Statistics says no.

Natural resources? We have one of the richest natural resources in the world, yet we belong to the Third World. Surely, natural resources is not what makes a nation rich, is it? Statistics says no.

English? We are the third largest English speaking country in the world, but we wallow in poverty not wealth. Is English what makes a country rich? Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong don't have half of our English skills, yet why are we mere domestic helpers to them, rather than being their rich employers? Or is there a possibility that English is not such a relevant factor we think it is?

I admit the BPO industry has employed hundreds of thousands but do you really expect us to become a First World country with this? This is Third World mentality. To attract call centers to the Philippines, we need to slave our college graduates as phone operators? Isn't it possible that we will perpetuate our status as Third World workers for First World businesses?

Low wages? For the last hundred years our strategy has always been low wages but why are we poor? Maintaining low wages means that you want the people to earn less than their US counterparts and therefore keep the people in check under the strategy of poverty. Yet, how come low cost of labor did not help our businesses become world-class players like Nokia or Intel or Samsung? Isn't it obvious that maintaining low wages has kept us in Third World status? Can you economically argue that low wages are what makes a country rich?

Statistics says no.

Low purchasing power? Low wages means low purchasing power. Answer me this: Does SM or Ayala go to Maasin Leyte because of low wages? No. The big businesses go to places where the people have purchasing power. Purchasing power is due to high wages of the people. Isn't it obvious that Jollibee goes to the US because of the high purchasing power despite the high labor cost? Why is SMC in Australia? Why is ABS-CBN in Saudi Arabia? Economically, what makes a country richer, low purchasing power or high purchasing power?

Yes, indeed, why aren't Filipinos rich? Why is there a huge gap between the rich and the poor? Why is management paid 100 times higher than the lowest employee in this country while in some countries it is only 10 times? What is your solution to correct this situation?

As I have pointed out, it is not high education, it is not natural resources, it is not command of English, and it is not low salary that makes a country rich. It is how you value the poorest of the poor. It is how you value least of the least. It is how you value human capital. It is giving labor its true world-market value. It is Hyperwage.

streetstrategist@gmail.com

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