A revolution for a better life

What does the latest annual global competitiveness ranking tell us about being a nation on the cusp of an economic take-off? Answer: Let’s always be on our toes, never let our guard down, and let’s move faster.

The Philippines dropped to the 42nd place from 38th in a listing of 60 countries that were ranked in the 2014 World Competitiveness Yearbook that is done annually by the International Institute for Management Development.

If this were a school report card, this would have translated to a clear and resounding F grade that would have merited a severe admonishment from our parents. Natutulog na naman sa pansitan, in other words.

Complacency

Complacency is a sin that many Filipinos have difficulty getting away from, and it would seem that this is largely influenced by our cultural lackadaisical attitude that translates to weaker focus, poor sense of urgency and a generally low tolerance for economic struggle.

The history of our struggle for freedom is a clear manifestation of this laidback and easy-going demeanor: it took Filipinos more than 400 years to rise up in arms against a colonizer that was largely controlled by Spanish friars.

If it’s any consolation, we eventually muddled our way to independence – which incidentally is on its 116th year celebrations today. Even today, it seems we’re finding some new energy after more than a century of added muddling to perhaps become a rising star in Asia and the world.

No surprises

So how do we heighten our focus, bring on a higher level of urgency in our actions, and decide with firm resolve to really slug it out against the many other countries who are vying for economic survival or supremacy in the global marketplace?

The 2014 competitiveness yearbook tells us specifically in what areas we failed to improve which consequently weighed down our ranking last year. All five areas mentioned – infrastructure, corruption, unemployment and underemployment, undeveloped financial system, and natural disasters – not surprisingly have always been our Waterloo.

Snail-pace

The Philippines continues to move snail-pace in building the necessary roads, bridges, ports and water systems that are the essential highways of progress. P-Noy has realistically less than two years to the end his office, and yet the public-private partnerships (PPP) program he vowed to get off the ground at the start of his term is still trying to take off.

The report has noted that the battle against corruption in the country has shown improvements under P-Noy’s leadership, but has still a long way to go before it can be considered defanged and no longer materially harmful to the economy.

Unemployment and underemployment still thrive, another no-surprise, given the fact that there are no new industries that are being built that will soak up all the excess manpower resources that join the economic mainstream every year but do not make it to call centers or jobs abroad.

Our small and medium scale entrepreneurs continue to have little or poor access to capital that is urgency needed, not only to start a business, but more so to expand to levels that can generate more jobs and higher market sales not only domestically but even abroad.

And lastly, natural disasters – even the relatively minor ones – continue to be big risks that threaten business continuity and devastate personal incomes and lives.

Jeepney culture

Returning to the big question, where do we stand?

The simplest, but unfortunately a little overused, analogy that best illustrates our psyche is the jeepney on the road – truly an incarnation of what the Filipino is all about.

Despite advances in technology, the jeepney has stayed on the road with its second-hand old-world diesel engine technology unmindful of potholes that rankle its aged under-chassis, the absence of basic safety gadgets like safety belts (or much more, an airbag), balding tires, plastic windows that need to be unfurled at the onset of rains, and its often glassy-eyed driver behind the wheel.

The jeepney culture is a defiance of the need for improved infrastructure to move from point A to B, to eliminate corruption that reduces the daily income, the desire to be better employed, financial institutions’ inability to offer capitalization to purchase an alternative and more efficient vehicle to earn money, and the call to be better prepared for any kind of natural disasters, including city street flooding.

The jeepney driver’s culture is something else, and found uniquely only in the Philippines. Easily distracted, never in a hurry to get to point B (even with a full load already), and quite adaptable to his economic misfortune, this driver has become apathetic to anything outside his jeepney.

Change from within

So what needs to be done?

To calibrate progress, the driver needs to be fully confident about having a vision and a goal, and as much impassioned to seeing this through. He must want to transform his jeepney to something that will transport him from poverty to progress.

He must also inspire his fellow drivers and passengers to want more from life, just as the priests Gomez, Burgos and Zamora wanted to be no second fiddle to Spanish friars, just as propagandists like Rizal, Graciano Lopez Jaena and many others clamored for equality, and just as Filipinos chose America to represent a change to a new world order.

Revolutions start from within, and this is essential to a successful and improved societal change. But please let’s not wait for another 400 years to do it.

We’ve gone a long way already, but we still have a long way to go.

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