For you UN Secretary General Ban: A letter from us
#Yolanda, Arroyo, Ban Ki Moon, Bautista-Horne, cold shoulder, defense, DND, Forest Ranger, government, intelligence, Margareta Wahlstrom, satellite, shame, Tacloban, UN Philippines, United Nations
Open Letter to the United Nations
November 21, 2013
HIS EXCELLENCY
BAN KI MOON
Secretary General
The United Nations
UN Headquarters
First Avenue at 46th Street
New York, NY 10017
USA
Dearest Secretary General Ban:
Our warmest greetings!
Kindly please understand, I had seriously debated on whether to send this communication to you or not. I decided on going through with it since I believe that the result would turn out for the better. Nothing that transpired in the past has diminished nor degraded my respect and love for the UN. I have no intention in demeaning anyone’s position or creating anything negative between myself, my group and the UN even if that can’t be helped, but this has to be done, and I shall humbly embrace the consequences of my act.
After tropical cyclone Haiyan aka Yolanda, not a surprising lot of relief organizations are now helping in Tacloban, in the towns of Leyte, Samar, Cebu, Bohol, Capiz, Aklan, even parts of Mindanao. Entire states committed volumes of resources to come to the aid of the Philippines. As published in the media, the Philippine Government stated that the affected areas include nine (9) Regions in the entire archipelago that consists of seventeen (17) Regions, with three (3) Regions being small and newly created divisions that were fairly recently separated by Special Law (CAR, ARMM and Caraga). It is presumed that all of these relief organizations and representatives of their own countries are operating out of the goodness of heart and the desire to be of sincere help to the people of Tacloban City, the municipalities of Leyte, Samar, Cebu, Bohol, Capiz, Aklan, portions of Mindanao. Although some are at a loss to convince others of their intentions: “just wait… in due time we are convince you of our legitimaty.”
Some of these relief organizations are part and parcel of the United Nations organization. Be that as it may, most or all of these organizations anyway, under the principle that all states are municipalities embraced by the founding charter of League of Nations that is now the United Nations, are governed under the auspices of the august body that you head. The people of Tacloban City and the rest of the areas affected by the tropical cyclone Haiyan aka Yolanda, are grateful for all of the help of the UN, the honorable member states under it and the public sector as well as private relief groups that are now helping. More > >
Proposed revision of Senate Bill for Bohol-Cebu-Negros Rehabilitation
Resolving an Invisible Crisis
Right photo: Credit cards. Source: www.theguardian.com
A large number of law firms and collection agencies all over the country have benefited up to 45% commissions share for recovering long lost debts for credit card companies and banks.
The question is, when all over the world especially in the US Army, people start shying away from using credit cards because it buries one in serious perpetuating debt burdens, more if you are not scion or heir to the tycoons in Forbes’ List, Philippine banks are obsessed with selling that product: the plastic money.
And 99% of members of the Bankers’ Association of the Philippines are racing against each other in selling insurance and pension plans without letting the enterpreneur class to succeed. ( Please see source article here. )
In a world where there is no plus side to very small revenue or cash accumulation, bankers are inclined to accommodate rich clientele and Alvin Toffler’s dark characters who form the other side of the coin of that phenomenon in modern times that he calls rapid wealth creation: criminals, underworld, terrorists, drug kingpins and the like.
Extraordinary is a bank manager from Antipolo who declares, “from our subsidiary bank, if you have a transaction to settle with our mother bank, I can endorse you all the way so they will provide you all the assistance you need.” In the case of a bank manager of a large bank at V.A. Rufino St., Makati City, the lady manager says it is impossible to endorse a transaction or provide suggestion to the manager of another branch of the same bank. This Makati bank branch manager wants that all transactions must emanate only from her branch.
What will keep a bank manager from endorsing a client? And what will prevent the bank manager from Antipolo to continue to give positive, constructive aid to clients in linking up with other branches of his bank?
The manager from Antipolo is the epitome of the banker’s public service ethic. The manager from V.A. Rufino in Makati is distinctly the portrait of the imbecile banker.
More than 70% to 80% of bankers in the Philippines suffer from a dearth of knowledge and are extremely poor in intelligence as well as wanting in intellect. No one is to blame except their headquarters office and the kind of education bankers get from the Philippine educational system that cannot afford to teach the correct nuances and shades of meaning of banking jargon.
On the part of bank headquarters, the governing policy of their banking corporations are bereft of the desire to promote broader credit to the entrepreneur population. The hard and fast rules of KYC – Know Your Customer, is extremely distorted and warped so much so that even knowing the potential depositors are thieves, murderers, drug lords, gambling lords, possibly as well terrorists fronted for by their relatives and associates, the bank manager will happily endorse the opening of banking relationship with the criminal and proceed to service that enemy of the public.
Effectively, this makes banks Public Enemy, by association, as launderers of the funds of these members of the underworld.
Indeed, the benefit of the bank accepting as much cash and other valuables from these shady characters is tremendous, at least there should be balancing acts on the part of bank management to add a redeeming value to their inclination to accommodate and protect criminal figures.
Compounding the situation of refusal to give away assistance to clients, is the inability of bankers to fulfill their ultimate obligation to service the customer. In many foreign-to-local transactions, if the scheme utilized is new to the Philippine banker, the transaction becomes bogged down not be the absence of interest of the banker but by the lack of fingertip knowledge and second nature skill to attend to the needs of the client.
Ultimately, meaningful change should happen in the banking industry. While it is all right to keep taking deposits from and giving away loans to the likes of billionaires like Sy, Ayala, Tan, Gokongwei, among others, taking the deposits of criminals needs to be done with a conscience. And plowing back dirty money as in the case of major public funds thief like Edwin Gardiola, as loans to the Gardiola shell companies and the conglomerates of his protectors, is a mortal sin. Dirty money for big loans, while at the other side of the equation nothing is for the honest or the least criminally inclined small and medium scale entrepreneurs.
hmes2013: Will there be more Negros, Bohol Killer Quakes?
Source: http://www.hazmapping.com
Sane Growth and Development
Before development happens, the integrity of society must be ensured. This includes government, the people, the various sectors, coming together or undertaking acts showing signs and semblances of convergence or confluence towards a greater goal, fortunately, for the greater good.
In case of the presence of intervening forces such as destabilization, massive corruption and decay of the state’s institutions, sometimes swift solutions need to be applied to prevent further deterioration of the politic into regression. During specific events in human history where the basic nature of man was fully put to test, the worst kind of behavior among constituents of the state deplorably brought nations down.
From the Middle East, Africa, the Americas, Europe, Asia and the cold continent vast territories were laid to waste due to the the surge of barbaric behavior among both the leaders and subjects of kingdoms and states. In the Philippines today, or even in the Americas, in Europe and elsewhere, developments like this are taking place. The decline in societal integrity threatens basic survival in the face of worsening conditions in the globe wrought by phenomena such as climate change, the onslaught of the hyper effects of maximized solar flare activity, the planetary behavior in our own Milky Way, among many others.
On many occasions in the past, often external forces were helpful in bringing about the healing of a kingdom or state. But the most poignant stirrings towards treating a nation’s ills must start from within.
The people of the Philippines will suddenly come to the realization at one point, that they are going on a downward spiral that will take the entire country past the point of no return. When this happens the basic politic will gradually slide inexorably into anarchy. The hostage taking in Zamboanga City, the succeeding similar sympathetic acts in Cotabato, the breakdown of the peace process with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the deterioration of peace and order, the overwhelmingly shocking reports about horrendous overspending for unacceptable purposes, appear to be clear manifestations in the scheme of things and such events will continue to fester and like wounds that grow into serious afflictions. Without doubt, these ills could develop rapidly into irreparable proportions.
At this time, benign foreign intervention may be necessary, or forceful internal interference – as it were – as it appears that the major force steering the country has become fully corrupted enough and totally demonized by its very own doings and undoings to have any more moral ascendancy to lead. There is no alternate but for the prevailing inchoate corporate philosophy of a government gone wayward to be wholly replaced by a saner and more coherent paradigm.
Mr. Aquino at Malacanang and his cabinet has lost their precious moment and bets are off. It is time for change, and in the Philippines’ case, an overhauling regime change. The people and the future generations deserve no less than that.
Source: http://shepherdlions.blogspot.com
September 17, 2013
Rationalizing severe business sector corruption
Policy regime change is needed in the business and especially in the finance sector. The old paradigm of the Philippines and selected vassal type states with supplier economies, must be revolutionized. This will depend mostly on the act of the young, emerging, up-and-coming captains of industry.
The history of Philippine finance has been that of subservience and excessive docility towards superior super powers or stronger industrial economies. This cannot be the case any longer. Even with the excursion of individuals or groups like Enrique Razon to foreign frontiers, Ayala and other entrepreneurs – Eduardo Cojuangco Jr., Lucio Tan, Henry Sy, John Gokongwei to foreign enterprise destinations or missionary ports such as New Zealand, Australia, China, Latin America, Papua New Guinea, Vietnam, among many others, much has to be repaired in the Philippines.
Benevolent, jump-starting credit from both the public and the private sector is close to non-existent, breeding unsophisticated but widespread corruption within the private sector; the government is most of all helpless to stem this kind of graft and corruption within the world of Philippine business. The doctrine of trust as the most important item for purchase in the Philippines is extremely prostituted to nauseating proportions. At the end of the day, private enterprise becomes the receiving end of chastisement and censure for entering into haphazardly concocted schemes that bleed the public treasury dry or siphon the blood of the average consumer publics.
While banks deprive the vast majority of the country of credit, the financial sector lends indiscriminately to public sector institutions that simply steal the borrowed funds or connive with private business groups or ghost, or shell non-profit service providers to divert the loans and bank the same in private accounts.
Still, notwithstanding this cruel practice of the financial sector, Big Business engage in blatant theft of intellectual property of both local and foreign IP owners, enriching themselves without regard to any kind of regulation or rule designed to rationalize fair use of property rights.
One of the greatest failures of the state stems from the lack of a strong, collective espousal of concern for one’s country. The fundamental blame can be traced to this country’s entire educational system that is wholly inadequate in this regard in comparison with more nationalistic, patriotic states like Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Malaysia, and others. Both the public sector and the business sector work in proverbial synchronicity towards improving the nation state – all in their own niches. Compounding this problem is that the sons and daughters of the captains of industry and political elite usually grow up under the watch and tutelage of more or less illiterate baby sitters (yaya) and imbibe a culture of Mr. Nonoy Marcelo’s nincompoopism, similar now to that exhibited by the national leadership.
If credit regime policy was revolutionized and this so-called cash transfer program, including the billion peso bribes to legislators and bureaucrats were spent instead for pump-priming national credit, if only the leaders of the country were more patriotically inclined instead of exceedingly greedy, a lot of change would have happened over the last three years.
It will certainly take a mere pittance of the 2014 2.26 Trillion pesos Philippine budget to create islands of growth in the financial credit sector. But if things go on as they are, this is mere wishful thinking but without doubt a situation that could breed bigger problems in the near future. The state of want and deprivation everywhere surely will translate into bigger crimes, fuel terrorist group’s recruitment efforts and spur a myriad social issues that will be difficult for any future administration to competently manage.
Then again, the same could have been hoped, if the previous regimes from the post-Marcos era to the present had entered into this kind of paradigm shift. But there appears to be no hope for the country given the kind of nincompoops pretending to run the government or acting like captains of industry in a country they will never consider to be their own love. The best next thing that could happen in the Philippines then, going back to the initial premise that the only redeeming factor are the youth and the conscientious citizens of this land, will be a full-blown, whole system resetting revolution or a self-imposed values reorientation and policy regime shift by the business sector.
Every source of decay dies of its own; however, there is absolutely no crime in removing the root of a disease even before its appointed death. Relatedly, any system can always have bugs. But no system admin would appreciate running the system with the bugs when ridding it of the problem issues will make the thing run smoother, more efficiently and make every affected end user happy.
Source: http://shepherdlions.blogspot.com
September 8, 2013
Demographics and Disaster
When the Philippine Coast Guard began recovery operations in Tacloban, together with all the other entities participating in search, rescue and recovery, they were appalled at the huge number of dead bodies floating in the sea off Tacloban’s coasts and on the streets.
Yolanda: There is a lesson to all this
As Mr. Simeon Benigno Cojuaungco Aquino the 3rd wades through the waters of indifference over the plight of the victims of Yolanda, the share prices in the Philippine stock market plummeted, ostensibly due to the risk avoidance stance of many investors worldwide. The inside track of course will reveal that apprehensions over the Aquino regime’s handling of government and the severely wanting response to Yolanda, is a main factor in the share price plunge.
There appears to be lessons in all this. Among the most critical lessons learned during the brief past few days, considering the media perception that Mr. Aquino does not fire incompetents, the following might be more sensible to sane people:
1. Roxas must return to Manila. After the Anderson Cooper faux pas of Roxas’ wife, Corina, who was merely defending her traipsing husband, Roxas should no longer be burdened with sneaking and tripping away from Metro Manila and continue with his job at DILG as Secretary in earnest.
2. As an alternative, Mr. Aquino could also replace Roxas and move him up to become the head of a new super body on trade, finance and economic development. As trade secretary, Roxas was very effective. Given that expertise, this person can scale heights beyond Mt. Everest especially in the face of our plummeting stock market performance. (If Malacanang will pay for it, http://www.qualitychange.org can draft the executive order creating the temporary super body and the law that will make it permanent provided that this site will be allowed to bill Mr. Aquino for these expensive assessments and tedious effort of drafting an enabling order tailored fit for 2016.)
3. To make DILG run smoothly, a civilian person, not a retired military nor police officer, with traits similar to or better than that of Mayor Rodrigo Duterte should be appointed by Mr. Aquino to replace Roxas. As much as possible, whether that person comes from alta sociedad (high society) or not, the new DILG secretary must be very down-to-earth and willing to hold hands with the people – particularly in disaster stricken areas. Roxas refused to dirty his hands in Tacloban and while he is perennially making his presence felt there, he appears not to be winning confidence by being a snub and appearing to be disinterested and indifferent to the suffering Taclobanons.
Related Topics:
For relocation away from danger zones:
Relocation from fire vulnerable areas
Relocation away from landslide threat
UNICEF: Relocating families to safe areas
Comparative view:
To relocate or not to relocate