A Revolution in the Ballot Box

"Heckuva job, Brownie" was an off-hand, careless comment by a careless in-over-his-head President. The comment would later define the disconnect between reality and wishful thinking in the Bush administration during and post Katrina.

The judgment of the American people was swift and brutal. Many reputations were ruined. Michael Brown (Brownie), the head of the Federal Emergency Management Authority, was finished. The governor of Louisiana at the time, Kathleen Blanco, was one of the high-profile election casualties. The Bush legacy was writ: this was either the worst President in history, or one of the top two worsts. The Moving Finger writes...

The American electorate is unforgiving. Sure they will forgive some corruption, some dalliance (as in the Monica Lewinsky saga), even some incompetence (as in the Bay of Pigs). But they will not forgive incompetence that results in the loss of American lives.

Contrast that to what is going on in the Philippines right now and you have an idea of why the Philippines is the way it is. There is no outrage. People drowned. People lost all their possessions. People are sick from the outbreak of a diarrhea epidemic. Yet, life goes on. No one, it seems, is held accountable for the inadequate, even non-existent government response to the floodings and mudslides that buried whole villages. Gossip about some people's incompetence is the only catharsis for the people because no heads are rolling.

No one is scandalized by the President of the Philippines going before the whole world begging for donations. Where did the disaster relief funds go? Wasn't there a budget for disaster relief in the President's 2008-2009 national budget?

True, some journalists are calling for accountability. But few Filipinos, apparently, are listening. Ondoy and Pepeng will soon become a distant memory, and no one will be held accountable for the wrong decisions that were made during and after Ondoy and Pepeng. No one will be held accountable for the failure of the infrastructure to keep the flooding at a minimum and keep most of Metro Manilans safe from the raging rivers which were once paved streets.

I remember studying Insurance Law in college in the Philippines. In law, natural disasters were called "Acts of God." In the U.S., of course, they are called natural disasters because that is what they are. But in the Philippines, they are known - maybe not exclusively anymore - as acts of God.

If in fact natural disasters are acts of God, then there is no defense against them. It would then be wrong to build infrastructure that works properly because that would save lives. If God intends to drown people by flooding the streets, then it would be wrong to prevent such floodings by building sewers that work properly and dredging rivers to make sure that water empties properly into the rivers and eventually out to sea. Because that would be going against the will of God.

That is the significance of the term "acts of God." Because we think of the wrath of nature as acts of God, we think that the proper response is to pray to God to keep our loved ones and ourselves safe.

It never enters our mind, or if it does, we don't dwell on the fact that catastrophic flooding occurs when the people charged with our safety do not do an adequate job. We do not entertain the thought that some of the people we voted for neglected protecting us from harm when biblical soakers like Ondoy pour billions of gallons of water on our communities.

We do not blame our elected officials because we made a compact with them. In exchange for P500 on election day, and the promise that they will give us or our relative a stand-up and flying pigeon job in government, we will continue to vote for them election after election.

The question of competence or governance never enters the equation. Politics is all local, the saying goes. I would hasten to add: in many cases, it is personal. To hell with the country, with my community, I will vote for and support whoever will give me money or a job, or will sponsor my daughter's wedding.

No one will be held accountable for the flooding of Metro Manila or the mudslides in Benguet in 2009. The Filipino Brownies, Blancos and Bushes will appear on TV and get praised for their efforts. Not the results, mind you, but the efforts.

When will Filipinos finally realize that the ballot is a sacred trust? When will they finally stop to think before committing to vote for and support the candidacy of someone who may be long on popularity but short on qualifications? Or someone who may be long on qualifications but short on genuine concern for the people they were elected to serve?

Natural disasters are not acts of God. God will never intentionally drown people, bury them in mud or the rubble of a building destroyed by an earthquake. Natural disasters happen all the time in countries like the Philippines because of their geography.

The leaders we have elected over the years, including and especially the current crop of elected public officials, have all been charged with our safety. Elected officials cannot excuse themselves by saying that flood control and emergency management are not their direct duties.

They are all at fault. All public officials who are on the take, who siphon off government funds for their personal use are all guilty in the cosmic order because they take money that could be used to finance flood control and mudslides-prevention infrastructure projects, not to mention the purchase of enough boats for rescue missions and the construction of shelters for those displaced by the rising waters.

Those who are not on the take but are silent in the face of all the theft of public funds that are going on under their noses are guilty as enablers, though some admittedly may be excused for their silence because of implicit threats to their physical well-being and their loved ones'.

In most countries, where the people expect good governance, in the aftermath of an Ondoy and Pepeng natural disaster the electorate would be in a screaming-mad mood these days. They would be demanding a complete change, a period of cleaning house. Not so in the Philippines, where people do not understand that they are the employers of the public servants that they elect every election cycle. As their employers, the Filipino people can fire these public servants on the next Election Day.

And that is what I urge every Filipino to do. Fire nearly every incumbent elected official seeking re-election in May, 2010. Fire all of them that you honestly feel have been corrupt, incompetent or both. Obviously, there are some politicians who are the exceptions. The good ones must be re-elected as a reward for their good governance and also to encourage them to do even better in their next term.

My guess is that 20% of elected public officials are probably doing a good job. Don't ask me how I came to this conclusion. The 80-20 rule has been around for a long time and is universal in its recognition and acceptance. Fact is, 20% of the people are doing 80% of the good job in society, the rest, 80%, are either doing only 20% of the work or not doing anything good or may even be doing some harm.

If we as a society clean house in May, 2010, my guess is that 20% of incumbents will be re-elected.

I appeal to every reader of this blog to spread the word: Clean house in May, 2010. Vote for the new candidates. Do not re-elect the incumbent. It is a matter of life or death.

Dance Fever

"You shake your hips too much," my wife told me. "People notice that," she continued, "so you should be careful not to overdo it when you do the cha-cha."

I get mainly praises now from people who see me dance because I've been going to dance school for close to a year. Just not from my wife, who is my harshest critic. I know, however, that she wants me to be better than I am, so I welcome her comments. The dance instructor I respect the most, out of several, does not shake his hips too much. He can make his hips glide from right to left, left to right - smoothly, effortlessly.

The guy is a lean and tall European, so he has the advantage of form. I am short by American standards, and stocky, so I can't really move like that guy. It's a good thing that I don't wear my hair shoulder-length long anymore, otherwise people might look at me and pronounce me a dancing Hobbit. (To borrow a description given by one of the Dancing with the Stars judges for the way one of this season's contestants has looked at times.)

Last year at about this time I took my son, Cesar Jr., to Dance World U.S.A., a dance school owned by Filipino acquaintances. I felt my son could benefit from formal dance schooling because of the obvious advantage of being a good male dancer in a world populated by young and eager female dancers. Cesar Jr. is still a bachelor.

After one class, Cesar decided it was not for him - because he thought straight men don't go to dance school. I immediately liked the idea of formal dance lessons, however, and I've hung around dance schools ever since. Though I remain friends with the owners of Dance World U.S.A., I have since transferred to the Tony Delgado Dance Club, a much bigger school with a huge enrollment and a lot more instructors.

Delgado dancers dominate the local dance competitions. In the latest region-wide dance contests, the Delgado dancers came in a close second to a team from California. The California team that won first place had a lot of over-50 dancers who took a lot of golds. If Delgado has a weakness, it is in the over-50 dancers category. Delgado instructors and students are for the most part young. There are few over-50 students, most of whom are in their 50s. You can count with the fingers in one hand the number of dancers who are in their 60s. Guess where you would put me.

If Delgado is to win the coveted Western U.S. region title next year, it must field more over-50 dancers. They can count on me, because I do intend to compete next year. They might also want to recruit heavily in the Filipino community that turns out regularly in Gold Coast Casino and Sun Coast Casino, where a Filipino band - the HNLV or Honolulu-Las Vegas band - plays almost nightly.

The over-50 Filipino dancing crowd is the dominant group in most of the dances at Gold Coast and Sun Coast. Filipinos love to dance. We are a graceful people. We are coordinated, we like to be on stage, singing or dancing. We like to entertain.

Filipinos as a group represent the biggest minority group that regularly shows up for classes at Delgado Dance Club, more than Hispanics, even though Tony Delgado and his wife are Mexicans and most of the dance instructors are Mexicans.

If more over-50 Filipinos decide that they need more formal instruction, they could take Tony Delgado to the pinnacle of dancing schools in western United States.

My goal in next year's western region competitions is not just to compete, but to win. I do the rumba and the cha-cha well, so I'll start with those two. I might compete in the tango and the fox-trot too. We'll see.

The only thing that will prevent me from competing is this damned exercise-induced asthma that I developed in July, when my wife, son Paul and I spent two days and one night at Zion National Park in Utah. I didn't know it then, but a licensed reflexologist I have consulted with has since informed me that the Utah air is one of the worst in the country because of the tiny suspended particles from all the rocks that are constantly breaking up in the mountainous regions.

For the uninitiated, a reflexologist massages the nerves that terminate at the feet. All nerves end at the feet and a trained reflexologist can tell you about the health and condition of most of your body's organs by examining the condition of the nerves that end at the feet.

The reflexologist told me about the condition of my abdomen, saw that I had had surgery in my right abdomen, informed me that I still had issues in my stomach, told me that I would soon feel pain in the back of my neck - all from merely feeling, massaging and examining the nerves in my feet.

My trip to the reflexologist sidelined me for a few days because my feet were sore from the one-hour reflexology session, plus the fact that my asthma symptoms worsened since the nerves in my lungs had somehow been disturbed rather violently from all the massaging and rubbing.

The session at the reflexologist has been for the most part beneficial because the hypochondriac me knows better what is going on in my body when the pains and aches come, linger and try to discourage me.

I'm a big believer in researching on the Internet whenever I feel pain in my body, so I have an above-average knowledge of my body to begin with. But the reflexology session confirmed much of the information that has been available to me and I have even better knowledge now.

It's full steam ahead to the western regional dance competitions in September 2010.

Lani Misalucha

The first time I saw Lani Misalucha perform on stage she was paired with Earl Turner, the master entertainer and singer with the strong, booming voice that screamed from the Shimmer Showroom's rafters.

I was, frankly, disappointed because Lani appeared over matched. She was tentative, listless and seemingly awed by her partner on stage. It was not the Lani that I had heard so much about, the Lani who had made the Society of Seven such a big hit in Las Vegas for the better part of two years, the Lani who had a long resume of triumphs in the Philippines and in many cities of the U.S.

The Society of Seven has long gone back to Honolulu and now features ex-Idol star Jasmine Trias as female soloist, and Lani Misalucha must confront her future on a Las Vegas stage that she has longed for so long to hog.

The experimental partnership with Earl Turner obviously did not work out and the Las Vegas Hilton management has obviously decided that Lani is the draw. Nearly half of the Earl-Lani audiences, after all, were Filipino and it was plain to everyone that if Lani had a solo act, the Filipinos would continue to come. The same could not be said about Earl Turner, who has very little support from the African-American community, whose attention is rightfully directed at many other African-American entertainers.

When the curtains rose last Tuesday, October 13 at Shimmer Showroom in the Las Vegas Hilton, it immediately became obvious that the Lani show was a huge improvement over the Turner-Misalucha "Voices" show. There were two dancing babes, a dancing magician, two background voices - one of whom was Lani's kid sister and look-alike - and a loud and forceful five-piece band.

Lani's introduction and entry was queenly, and it was obvious from the start who the Boss was. There was none of the tentative, the feeling-out maneuvers that Lani had been forced to do when she seemingly revolved around the world of Earl Turner.

And then she sang. This was not a petite, shy, deferential Filipina. She was the voice of Broadway, of Las Vegas in late night, of Italian opera. She was a strong voice, a coquettish voice, a rhythm and blues and a jazz voice. She was the voice of past platinum records.

Her Tina Turner impression was both comical and convincing. She was right on with her Britney Spears impression. She displayed the full range of her talents with her other impressions, especially her Celine Dion.

I sat there in awe as I recollected that hers was the voice that Las Vegans had voted second only to Celine Dion's as the 2008 female voice of the year and that the staff of the Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper had voted as female voice of the year, ahead of Celine Dion.

Imagine the pride I felt knowing that a Filipina female singer had been voted by the staff of Nevada's number one newspaper as the best female vocalist in 2008 - ahead of all the other internationally-acclaimed songstresses who had performed in Las Vegas last year.

This year, with Celine Dion's run in Mandalay Bay a recent memory, Lani Misalucha should by rights be the number one female singer in Las Vegas. This would be a monumental coup, considering that Marie Osmond has an extended run with her brother, and Bette Midler has her own a long-term gig.

I sat in awe as I tossed in my mind the possibility that Lani could actually record the old songs she sang last Tuesday. She never sings an old song the way the original artists sang them, she sings them much better. Her renditions are flawlessly different, not exact copies.

She always sings the operatic song "Nessum Dorma" in her performances, and it is obvious that if she had concentrated on opera instead of pop and rhythm and blues, she would be right up there with the Pavarottis. I would pay to hear her perform with Adrea Bocelli .

I wondered how good Charice Pempengco would become over the years as I listened to Lani's version of "Listen." Charice sings that song with passion and conviction, Lani sings it with romantic allure. I could not help connect the two performers, with Lani representing the present and Charice promising to be the glorious future.

Yes, the future for Filipino songstresses in Las Vegas - the entertainment capital of the world - is bright, and Charice promises to make it even brighter.

If we Filipinos can have a Manny Pacquiao as the pound for pound king of boxing, we certainly can have - if we don't as yet - a Filipina as the best pound for pound female singer in the world. Charice, being a shorter and lighter Filipina than Lani, would be hands down the best pound for pound female singer in the world in a few years.

Rising from the mud and muck - Part 2

The response was instantaneous. As if on cue, the global Filipino community responded with determination and zeal, with the mantra of self-sacrifice and the truly magical Filipino tradition of the bayanihan. If only Filipinos would have the same passion to change their world, nothing would be impossible for this Pearl of the Orient Sea.

Unfortunately, unless there is a calamity the magnitude of Ondoy and the resultant flooding of the heart of their country, Filipinos do not react well to the stresses of their everyday lives. They in fact do not react at all. They pretty much leave everything in the hands of God. They pray that their God would have pity on them, but if He doesn't, Filipinos would understand and simply submit to the "will of the Lord."

That is why when everything is said and done, you can bet your last nickel that Filipinos will go back to their lives - what's left of it - and become willing actors in a stage play that is being billed by their neighbors as "The Sick Man of Asia."

I hope I'm wrong. Besides, it would be a cop-out to terminate this analysis at this point. Let us dig deeper. Why do Filipinos prefer the annual ritual of making donations not only in cash and necessities, such as clothes and foodstuffs, but also of their time and their heroism? Why not spend a year, two years, ten years, to making sacrifices so that the infrastructure would function properly?

Let me explain this. Everyone knows that the esteros and rivers must be dredged. Everyone knows that the sewage systems must not be clogged up with garbage because when the rains come, deadly floods are sure to follow. Everyone also knows that whatever needs to be done will not be done.

Why are such life-saving infrastructure maintenance tasks not done? Why doesn't the government do a better job at it?

First on the government: Filipinos do not think that their government has the competence or the resources to do the right things. And it's OK with them. They know instinctively that they are electing incompetents (some are not only incompetent -shades of "Heckuva job, Brownie" - some are allegedly hopelessly corrupt) so Filipinos do not expect much from their government when it comes to building and maintaining infrastructure.

They know of the unwritten rule that if government is seen and used as a dispenser of political favors, an institution that creates make-work projects, a milking cow for powerful politicians and bosses, an enabler of tax cheats and jueteng lords, a see-no-evil-hear-no-evil-say-no-evil security guard, who in their right mind would expect that government would be there to take care of people's needs?

Second on the people: Filipinos know that they will be called on time and again to conduct food, cash and clothing drives every time a typhoon hits, or the earth shakes, or mud flows and covers whole villages. And it's OK by them: it gives them a chance to display their heroism and their charity. For politicians, it is an opportunity to stamp foodstuffs with their names - even foodstuffs that they did not personally donate - so that the people would remember them in the next election cycle.

Fine. We have an understanding of the roles of government and people in the Philippines. Or do we?

Having lived in the U.S. for many years, I also happen to know that there is a great divide here between liberals and conservatives, which divide probably explains further why Filipinos prefer private charity and heroism to government competence and relevance.

We Filipinos, because of our deep religiousness, are genetically conservative. Like conservatives in America, we believe that helping the poor, the dispossessed, those displaced by floods, earthquakes and typhoons is a great and noble private virtue. We do not believe that helping people in need is the job of government. Conservatives believe that the proper role of government is as a night watchman and enforcer of law and order, and only those. But only in theory, because in practice they know that even on that score, government is sadly lacking.

The conservatives' modern hero, Ronald Reagan, after all said that government is not the solution. Government is the problem.

Liberals, on the other hand, believe that government is an instrument of social change and social justice. Or should be. Because most of the jobs are too big in our modern world, only the government is in a position to undertake projects that would minimize the need on the public's part to do charity work, so the liberals believe.

That is why the anguished cries you are hearing about the government's unpreparedness and total lack of competence during and in the aftermath of Ondoy have generally come from the liberal media and those who want to reform the government. The conservatives are too busy packing foodstuffs, clothes and shoes.

FLOOD-PREVENTION INFRASTRUCTURE IN METRO MANILA

Because of Ondoy and predictions that there are many more Ondoys that will form in southeastern Pacific Ocean that will make a bee-line for Luzon, there is a headwind that is carrying the notion that once and for all, the infrastructure in Metro Manila must be updated to give Metro Manilans a better chance at survival should the typhoons that are sure to hit Manila and environs intensify and become more numerous in the future. Increasingly, even some conservatives have joined in the chorus.

The headwind is making Filipinos more liberal, if only in the sense that they are becoming more appreciative and more demanding of their government.

FINANCING

How the devil do we finance the massive projects that must be undertaken? In 2005, I wrote in my blog, lanzones.com, that the Philippines must consider a ten-year moratorium on interest payments on all sovereign debt. At the time, only the leftists shared that idea but now such an idea or variations have become more mainstream.

No less than one of the leading presidential candidates, Senate President Manny Villar, has recommended that the country look seriously at the Argentine blueprint for defaulting on the Philippines' sovereign debts.

One of the most respected thinkers in the Philippines, Walden Bello, makes a brilliant case for national debt default in his article published by Focus on the Global South, an NGO. Mr. Bello and others, such as Senators Manny Villar and Panfilo Lacson (I can't believe I would be citing Lacson), estimate that the total national debt is 3.8 trillion pesos and on its way to close to 7 trillion pesos within the forseeable future. At 3.8 trillion, national debt is more than 125% of GDP. AT 7 trillion, it will be in excess of 200% of GDP.

Clearly, the Philippines is in a silent fiscal crisis that puts the country in bankruptcy territory. "Debt servicing rose from 48% of national government expenditure in 2002 to 81% in 2004 and is expected to hit 89% in 2005," according to Mr. Bello.

A lot of countries, including Brazil, have had to restructure their debts and gotten discounts of 70-75% on their national debts as settlement.

Why the Philippines continues to insist on being an ideal debtor nation is beyond comprehension.

A ten-year moratorium on debt service payments on the Philippines' national debt will free up more than 300 billion pesos a year, or 3 trillion pesos in total that the country can use to dredge esteros, streams and rivers, cover the esteros with concrete, build levees and floodgates, relocate squatters, provide lifeboats and other rescue vehicles to low-lying communities.

There's the added bonus that the Philippines will have enough left-over money to build new schools, hire new teachers and improve educational standards in the public schools.

There is much that the Philippines can do with the money that will no longer be devoted to the mistaken notion that a good credit standing for the Philippines is of paramount importance, more important than the security of its people.

The Philippines is deathly afraid of being shut out of the world's credit markets should it default on its sovereign debts. Yet the experience of Argentina, Brazil and other countries suggests that the world cannot successfully take reprisal measures that will stick, especially when the debtor nations eventually end up righting their ships of state as the direct result of their loan defaults.

Besides, the winds of change are blowing across our ever-shrinking world. Many third world countries holding odious debts have been forgiven those debts by the advanced countries. At least $25 billion of the country's $70 billion in debt are odious debts, taken out during the Marcos years without the consent of the people. The classic definition of odious debts is debts taken out by a government without the consent of the people.

One may argue that because of government corruption, a good percentage of the loans taken out by the government ended up in the pockets of corrupt politicians. The $45 billion balance of the debts taken out by administrations succeeding the Marcos era, one may argue, is made up of odious debts and legitimate debts.

If the country defaults on its sovereign debts through a ten-year moratorium on interest payments, we may in fact generate more respect from the world's financial community. It will be a signal to the world that the Philippines can chart its own course, be the captain of its ship, and be perfectly willing to live without foreign loans in the future. Subject only to the caveat that the government shall work for the welfare of the Filipino people and the politicians who run the government shall not continue to line their pockets at the expense of the people's safety.

Besides, without foreign loans, the Filipino politicians will lose what has been alleged as a source of "commission" payments for securing such loans.

The way to go in the future, in that scenario of a brave new Philippine world is BOT - build operate and transfer. Foreign countries and organizations shall be invited to build infrastructure, operate the same, and transfer the infrastructure to the Philippine government after the foreign operators shall have made sufficient profits from its ownership and operation.

No monies are disbursed to the Philippine government which corrupt politicians could allegedly proceed to shave to pay themselves and their cronies "commissions."

Rising from the muck and mud: a New Metro Manila

(The pictures are from a torrent of photos posted on the Internet by unknown sources. If I knew who the sources were, I would gladly attribute the photos to them.)

NATURE'S WARNING

I can't believe a second destructive typhoon, Pepeng, hit northeastern Philippines and caused a lot of devastation there. This time, thank God, the Manila metropolitan area and the nearby provinces were spared.





At least Manila can dry out and the low-lying areas can watch the waters slowly recede and people who were rendered homeless and others who lost the contents of their homes can start rebuilding their lives.

As bad as the devastation and loss of lives were that Ondoy has wrought, it was merely a warning to all Filipinos that there may be worse times ahead.

My greatest fear is that people will go back to their daily routines, shrug off Ondoy as an act of God, pray hard that a similar calamity does not befall the Philippines in the future and do same-old, same-old. That would be a huge, unforgivable mistake.



Are there lessons to be learned from Ondoy? The obvious answer is yes. But what if there are lessons, are we as a people ever guided by lessons learned from calamities?



There is a picture that best embodies the fate of metro Manila in the foreseeable future. It is one of those pictures that have gone around the world on the Internet. It shows Manilans on top of a bridge with nothing but water ahead of them. To me, it is a metaphor for Manila's long-term destiny. Having left the great flood behind, Manilans look to a future of flooded streets, cars and houses. Manila's destiny has already been written, and it is written with an ocean of ink the color of mud and muck.


You may argue as many responsible and respected commentators have that global warming is a natural, long-term trend that is not caused by the actions of mankind. But if your sanity is intact, it will be hard to argue against the near-unanimous scientific community judgment that, caused by man or not, there is indeed global warming. The likelihood that there will be more violent, severe and record-setting storms hitting the Philippines and the Pacific rim countries has been predicted by many leading scientists in the world. We can ignore the scientific Cassandras only at our peril. Not us, perhaps, for many of us are not going to be around, but our children and their children and future generations of Filipinos not yet born.

The Philippines is in the bulls eye of every scenario created by global warming scientists. According to these scenarios, the rising oceans will sink large areas of metro Manila and many streets in the capital will look like Venetian canals. If it's any consolation to Filipinos, that will happen to some sections of lower Manhattan also.


And, if the rising ocean waters do not devastate Manila, the monster storms that are being predicted for the future will complete the job.


If the myriad of pictures posted on the Internet over the past week are enough to discourage and dishearten most Filipinos in the global community, imagine the effect of not one Ondoy a year but three or four such storms hitting Manila each year.


Filipinos cannot afford to brush off Ondoy and eventually go back to the usual hustle and bustle of their everyday lives. Ondoy must change their mindset and challenge them to confront a future that promises to be more frightening than they have ever experienced or imagined.


There is another picture that is going around cyberspace which is a microcosm of the dangers faced by Manilans from future floods, fierce winds and rampaging currents. It is the picture of a boy being hoisted by rescue volunteers and workers to the top of a roof. It is a metaphor for an existence where the only protection against the elements is on top of a roof. Perhaps like me, most are wondering how people were able to clamber up on the roofs of their or their neighbors' houses. Rescue volunteers hoisting people up to rooftops is one way. Another is by letting the rising waters take them up to the roofs of their homes.

WE MUST LEARN FROM THE DUTCH AND, YES, NEW ORLEANS

Filipinos must re-do the infrastructure of metro Manila in ways that as recently as September 25, people in the Philippines did not consider possible. They must do this, if today's children want to continuously live in Metro Manila and celebrate their 60th birthdays.



Something drastic must be done. Whatever the government and private industry do, if it's not drastic, it will not be enough.



A lot of recommendations have been made on how to assure proper drainage in low-lying areas of metro Manila, some dating as early as the 1970s, but Filipinos have not had the will and the funds to entertain such ideas.

The government may have the will now, but will there be funds for these most logical of all logical projects? There are some obvious "found money" lying around, but more on this later.



The obvious projects that are waiting to be matched by strong-willed Filipinos are:



1. Dredging of esteros, streams and rivers in and around Manila and topping off the esteros with concrete. This will increase the capacity of the esteros to accommodate rain water and sewage. It will also assure that people who live along such natural and man-made sewer systems are prevented from using them as garbage dumps.



2. Erection of levees along Pasig and Marikina rivers. Not the whole stretch of the rivers, but in spots where the rivers are likely to overflow their banks. We must learn from New Orleans, the Dutch and Europe's other Low Countries. It will be very expensive, but it is an expense that shall be worth the cost because such a massive undertaking will employ tens of thousands of people and the effect on local economies will be huge.



3. Creation of floodgates that will release water from Laguna de Bay to Manila Bay during heavy storms. This is another labor-intensive project that can have a huge impact on the economies of Cavite and Laguna.



4. Relocation of residents of squatter areas in low-lying communities to higher ground and dumping of dredged mud and muck to raise ground levels in those areas.



5. Pass a law requiring municipalities in low-lying areas and near rivers and streams to equip themselves with a sufficient number of lifeboats for search and rescue missions. If the municipalities are unwilling to do this, the law shall mandate that those areas must be permanently evacuated.



6. Clean up the BIR and Customs to increase tax revenues. Pass additional tax laws. Businesses and residents who operate and live in communities that stand to benefit from the new infrastructure will be assessed special taxes for as long as the new infrastructure is under construction.

7. Create government-sponsored flood insurance policies. Residences and commercial properties in municipalities that are located in the most flood-prone areas will command the steepest insurance premiums.



Now for the obvious question: Since the additional taxes and more efficient tax collections will not be enough to finance the new and renovated infrastructure, how will the Philippines finance all these ambitious projects? I will devote my next post to a discussion of how the money can be raised.

Meanwhile, we must all get used to thinking as one nation. If all Filipinos help Manila as one nation, one country, it may yet be the spark that finally starts us on the road to thinking as a country and not as families, clans, provinces and regions.



The rebuild-Manila project, if done by all Filipinos, can be the start of that change in mindset that every Filipino knows in their heart we all need but that we have assumed all along is an impossible dream. If we can only think as one nation as the Americans, the British, the French, the Germans, the Japanese, Koreans, Chinese, Sngaporeans and now the Indians do, we can start rebuilding Manila. Then we can rebuild Subic, Cebu, Zamboanga, Davao and other urban centers all around the archipelago.



We shall be able to do it because we will have the will and the mindset.

(Continued next week)

Size Matters

"What does Size Matters mean?" my 10-year-old son Paul asked me and my wife one day as I drove past a billboard on Sahara Avenue in Las Vegas. The billboard ad proclaimed the advantages of checking in hotel rooms with that extra space for relaxation, for moving about and for breathing.

Neither my wife nor I wanted to touch that one, but after wife and I looked at each other and burst out laughing, wife managed to explain to our son that there's more to hug and love in bigger things. Paul obviously just saw the Size Matters in huge, bold print and did not realize he was looking at a billboard ad for a hotel business.

Recently, I started to dwell on the obvious point of the proponents of the Size Matters philosophy of life.

I watched a couple of shows at the Las Vegas Hilton and really looked forward to using the men's restroom across the hall from the Shimmer Showroom. When you go to the john, you are greeted by pictures of gorgeous ladies with their tape measures, their smiles and WOW expressions.

Whenever I could, I chose the urinal with a picture of a lady with the You the Man! expression on her face. If life was not particularly kind to me, at least that lady surely would be.

Las Vegas is preoccupied with size. I don't know if there is a statistic for the most re-engineered boobs in the country, but if there is, Las Vegas should be number one. It must intuitively be the case. Las Vegas has showgirls aplenty, and there are thousands of scantily-clad waitresses in the casinos, all of them convinced that extra pounds or ounces in just the right places do generate better tips.

There is a show that attracts decent-sized crowds to the Night Club in Las Vegas Hilton which showcases some of the more gorgeous re-engineered boobs in the valley. The leader of the pack, who happens to be a talented singer with a huge voice, Lorena Peril aka Lorena Bobitt, is the main attraction. She doesn't take off her clothes, but she clearly is the main fare, a sexy woman with clothes on.

In New Jersey, I never saw a TV ad for a product that promises to make the male member not only stronger, but larger. In Las Vegas, you can't turn on your TV without running into this ad for ExtenZe, which promises to turn ordinary men into Big Nasty Papi. It's on every network station, and cable TV too.

Unfortunately, it's not for everyone. I did my homework, and found out that a lot of men who had tried the product reported palpitations and irregular heartbeats. Some even suspected that their hearts might have been permanently damaged.

There were of course the usual glowing and pulsating testimonials.

If in fact what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, those who live here must also believe that it will stay in Vegas only if the news is good. For if one happens to be embarrassed by boobs too tiny, or a member too puny, for sure such revelations will be heard around the world - even in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Or in Peoria, Illinois.

Size Matters in all of Vegas. Caesars Palace is not just a casino-hotel. It is also a huge upscale shopping mall. It is a sports arena and Broadway. If you want to go to the movies, or go bowling, you have to go to a casino. Most bowling lanes are at least 48 lanes across, while movies are shown in huge multiplexes.

The subdivision where I live, Rhodes Ranch, sits on a 3.77 square mile man-made oasis with a perpetually-green golf course. In contrast, the town where I used to live - South Orange, New Jersey - has a land area of only 2.8 square miles.

That's very much the story in all of Las Vegas. New Jersey and Southern California are made up of small municipalities that run into each other. Las Vegas is made up of huge master-planned communities that dwarf many of the small towns in high-density states like New Jersey and counties like Los Angeles County.

The master-planned communities do not have shopping malls inside their gated communities and this arrangement may have been a mistake. Many shopping centers have sprung up near or adjacent to the communities with the hope of servicing the needs of those communities' residents. And others from other communities who may be attracted by unique offerings of shops in those shopping centers.

The result is that few of the shopping centers or strip malls have the loyalties of residents who live close by. If those same malls had been located inside the master-planned communities, the residents there could walk to the mini shopping areas and customer loyalty would be easier to develop.

All over Las Vegas, North Vegas and Henderson, there are strip malls where there is less than 50% occupancy. As more and more businesses close, the carnage continues. Shopping and strip malls are being abandoned, perhaps at a rate nearly as fast as foreclosed houses.

It is clear that the preoccupation wth size has boomeranged on the Las Vegas valley. The huge, multiple storefront complexes must now compete for a pool of occupants that is ever shrinking as the worst economy since the Great Depression continues its Pyrrhic march across the continent.

One beneficial effect of this recession might be the thinning of the population. Literally. Las Vegas has always been known for bloated bellies and a sizable number of 300 to 400 pound men and women. Now that a lot of people have been shocked into the realization that they must go out there and pound the pavement looking for a job, the trend towards ever-bigger bellies, arms and thighs may finally be reversed.

If Vegasites come out of this recession thinner, meaner and, incidentally, healthier, it will be one good lining in the storm clouds that race past Las Vegas, not raining on the valley but holding on until they reach the Arizona mountains before dumping their precious and rare commodity.

Atlas Shrugged

The 1970s and early 80s were a fog to me. I'm sure I heard a lot of memorable songs in the 70s but I just can't remember them. If I hear a good song from my past, I'm sure I will have some precious recollection of it, but I wouldn't know it was from the 70s unless someone told me. Or any of the songs in the early 80s.

Those were my dark days.

It was also a time in my life when I refused to read any books other than my textbooks in my MBA courses at Seattle University and books I needed to be familiar with to advance my career.

That was in all likelihood the real explanation for my refusal to read both "The Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged," by Ayn Rand. I remember my first wife raving about both books, "Atlas Shrugged" in particular. In other words, I did not refuse to read the books just because my first wife had recommended them.

But I'm glad I did not read Ayn Rand and did not become one of her disciples.

The most famous disciple of Rand is Alan Greenspan, the former Fed Chairman, the one whom current Chairman Ben Bernanke succeeded.

Greenspan was the primary architect of the second golden age of America, he was also one of the major civil engineers of the economic collapse of the U.S.

You see, Ayn Rand taught that the best minds in society must be given absolute freedom in their pursuit of profit. Through her philosophy of Objectivism, Rand thought that such talented people would always spearhead society's march towards economic greatness through rational and superior thinking. Through objective and rational thinking, such people would always come up with the best solutions to social and economic problems.

Rand theorized that if the best minds in society went on strike and all retreated to a mountain retreat, the world would collapse. She felt that the best and most talented supported the world, just as the legendary Atlas carried the world on his shoulders and back. And if Atlas balked, or refused to carry the world any longer (shrugged), the world would simply collapse and even implode.

The world therefore owed its life, its existence to those best and brightest minds. Such people must be given absolute freedom to do their work, unfettered by government rules that tend to restrict their activities.

The unsuspecting Rand, then later Greenspan, never imagined the world they would help create.

Greed and excess eventually did the Randian philosophy in.

I read about Derek Jeter's history-making 2722nd hit as a Yankee, eclipsing the record set by Lou Gehrig seventy years ago and forever identifying him as the one who broke the great Gehrig's record. Someday, Jeter may be surpassed by someone else, but it will probably take decades, not years before such a feat happens. Jeter is one superstar who deserves all the accolades he has received in his baseball career.

There are some who like Jeter are deserving of all the hosannas and wealth that society has showered on them, such as Michael Jordan, Roger Federer, Tiger Woods, Michael Phelps, Lance Armstrong and others too many to list, but mainly the superstars of today have overblown accomplishments and certainly not deserving of society's long-term goo-goo eyes.

This, after all, is the age of the overcompensated, overweight "pillars" of society. The CEOs of today's major corporations now make 300 times what the average workers in their respective companies make. In the 1950s and 1960s, when America became far and away the major economic superpower in the world, the CEOs made 12 to 20 times what the average workers in their respective companies made.

How did the CEOs finagle such huge salaries, stock options and other forms of extra compensation for themselves? By closing American plants and relocating their manufacturing in third-world countries. The CEOs managed to increase profitability of their global operations by firing American workers and hiring workers in other countries.

Every thousand-block of American workers fired meant an uptick in the price of a company's shares in the New York Stock Exchange. For such upticks, the CEOs were rewarded with compensation previously reserved only for Eastern potentates.

The banks, investment and insurance companies made a compact. They would sell each other's products so that banks, insurance and investment companies would no longer be distinguishable. All of them would now be known as "financials."

The geniuses in the financial world created mortgage-backed securities and credit swaps that were responsible for the recent subprime mortgage crisis and the recent meltdown in the world economy.

"What?!" Greenspan exclaimed. "The meltdown occurred not as a result of the best and brightest minds going on strike (as in Atlas Shrugged) but because those best and brightest minds did a job on the world economy?" (Quotes from Greenspan were invented by me.)

The U.S. government seemingly was in on the whole farce and charade. From Reagan and Bush, Sr. looking the other way while Japanese manufacturers illegally dumped televisions and other electronic products in the U.S. market to kill American brands like RCA, Zenith, Magnavox and others, to Clinton hurriedly pushing through Nafta, which as Ross Perot had warned would create "a giant sucking sound" of American jobs being lost to Canada and Mexico, to George Bush, who did not see anything wrong with China taking over virtually all manufacturing functions in the U.S. in exchange for China buying up U.S. Treasuries which financed the Iraq War, the true war on terror, the tax cuts for the rich.

Because of the work of the best and brightest minds - not because those minds had gone on strike, as "Atlas Shrugged" had envisioned - the U.S. is now a basket case, whose problems are more gargantuan and worse than the problems faced by third-world countries like the Philippines.

Most people in the Philippines are used to having nothing. Americans are drifting because their assets have shrunk in value and even their most sacred possession, the embodiment of the American dream - now has a negative value. Many unemployed Americans have exhausted their savings as they wait for the employment picture to show some improvement. As though their lost jobs would ever come back.

There is a looming crisis in commercial real estate in this country, expected to peak as the meltdown in residential real estate is arrested and abated. The showcase for this topsy-turvy world of commercial real estate is the $11 billion City Center project in Las Vegas, the biggest privately-funded real estate development in the U.S. The geniuses who dreamed up this project never imagined that the decade-long boom in Vegas real estate would ever end. This, despite the fact that real estate booms don't last very long and are always followed by busts.

The new U.S. jobs that President Obama promised would be created in the alternative energy industry - what are the chances that such jobs will materialize? China and Europe are so far ahead of the U.S. in alternative energy they see us now as the poachers and not the other way around, which it should be since the alternative energy technology was an American invention.

The best and brightest minds are locked in the struggle between good and evil, between the haves and have-nots, between pure capitalists and the so-called socialists. Very little is being done in partnership. One side opposes what the other side proposes, as if by gut reaction.

The overarching debate on who should bail out the country, however, has recently been settled. It is the American middle class. Once again, the middle class is called upon to rescue the group of prodigal sons and daughters who might be exactly the people that Ayn Rand thought were the pillars of society, the Atlas that carried the world on his shoulders and back.

The middle class has already rescued the banks, the insurance companies, GM and Chrysler. They suspect that they are being asked to rescue the American health care system from eventual bankruptcy. They feel that they and their children are eventually going to be hit hard when the tax man comes a-calling to pay for the trillions in deficits that government has been incurring in record pace.

No, Ayn Rand, was wrong. The real Atlas in American society is not the best and brightest minds. It is the middle class. And recently that real Atlas has shrugged.

It has shrugged on the airwaves, in street demonstrations, in so-called town hall meetings across the country. They're mad as hell, they can't take it anymore.

If they would just drop the racist attacks on Obama, and if they would buck those who have seized on their angst to promote the crazy-quilt of right-wing causes, the rest of the country would take them more seriously.