Finalist-PhilBlogAwards 2010

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Saturday, November 29, 2008

HEALING GLOBAL ECONOMY VIA NEW FINANCIAL ARCHITECTURE

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Magandang hapon! Good afternoon! Buenos tardes!

At this juncture, this economist, who is also a healer (pranic healer, soul healer, psychosocial counselor), will begin to articulate economic problems from a wellness vantage point. I will be calling the paradigm ‘healing economics’ as a fusion of wellness principles and economic analysis.

If we observe the ‘treatment’ applied by public policy experts on national economies today, we would see that the solutions to the problems are largely short-term ones that only mitigate economic collapse for a while. We can call them ‘band aid’ solutions to problems that are more of ‘cancerous’ in nature, and by common sense we know that band aid cannot cure cancer.

The economies of our nations have already been integrated over the last three (3) decades or so. This integration constituted the ‘global economy’ which is distinct from national economies and which manifest its own laws. National economies have become interstices or tissues of the global economy, and trying to cure ailing national economies without taking into consideration the wellness of the whole global economy will fail.

What is now urgently most needed, as a formula for enabling healthy national economies, is to put into place a new global ‘financial architecture’ as a beginning treatment. There is no way that economies can heal without the proper macro-policies and institutional frames that support them, and those policies cum institutions must be constructed at the global level.
Just by using that ‘global’ category as a yardstick, we can see that the solution of bank bailouts being rushed in the USA and echoed in Europe are not the long-term salvation to the ailment.

That bailout route was already tried in Japan in the 1990s, it was then called ‘crisis management’, and it resulted to a 12-year recession-to-low growth catastrophe. Japan became the “sick man of Asia” for a decade, which was unbelievable for observers who knew this country’s economic might all along.

If there are certain realities that we must admit as having already turned into dead carcasses, they are:

· Virtual or Bubble Economy: Economy that is founded on speculation, with values derived from out of financial values themselves and divorced from production, cannot be sustained for long. It is finally DEAD. Only fools would still think that reviving it, without regulating and/or criminalizing the economic predators that thrived on it, is the soundest healing work preferred. Nobody needs to heal a dead thing, just bury it deep below the ground, lest you create a zombie or vampire out of it.

· Free Market of Currencies. Treating currencies like commodities that are tradable without sufficient regulation, is voodoo paradigm of ‘monetarism’. This is now DEAD. It can never work, it doesn’t, and will never work under any given context. Free market doctrine (laissez faire)), in the first place, was long dead. It was a doctrine that was enforced by the British Empire, through the “power of the gun,” and supported the slave trade business. To revive such a doctrine in the current context—guiding trade and exchanges in the monetary-currency markets—is plain voodoo practice, as it fattens the purses of economic predators at the expense of national economies and marginal social sectors.

The route to strategic healing, which combines ‘preventive’ with ‘curative’ treatments, is through a new ‘global financial architecture’. This can be and should be done most urgently, as the carcasses are now spreading havoc of ailments across the planet, through a global conference of all the nation-states. Through this conference, proper diagnostics can be done, with the help of top experts, including those representing marginal sectors, and proper treatment can also be conjured.

An outline of agenda items for deep reflections in such a treaty-making conference would be as follows:

· Shift Back to Regulated Trading of Currencies/Monies. Money is the lifeblood of the economy. As such, no private group or whatsoever should be allowed to play it like gambling toys just to fatten their already fat pockets. Private stakeholders that gamble in the currency markets are like cancerous corpuscles in the blood vessel, their operations must be well regulated and certain trading activities declared as banned.

· Securitize Currencies with Precious Metals. A reconstruction of the gold standard should be done most quickly. This system was junked in 1971 yet, and look at the catastrophic result of its folding up. Not only gold, but certain other precious metals and crystals, such as diamonds, can be declared as securitization measures to guide money production within any country at any given time.

· Fixed Exchange Rates. National currencies are still around. In no way should they be forcibly junked in favor of a global currency, which is too premature a measure. Within a period of transition, of say 25 years, national currencies should be the chief legal tender, exchangeable based on fixed exchange rate policy.

· Tobin Tax on Cross-border Financial Transactions. All cross-border financial-monetary transactions, done as matter of business engagement, should be imposed a Tobin Tax, the amount of which will be defined in the conference. The revenues generated from such tax will then be used to fund the United Nations and its attached institutions (UNESCO, WHO, ILO, etc). Through this measure, all cross-border transactions can also be monitored, making it easier for international enforcers (e.g. Interpol) to counter-check sabotage and related criminal operations by predators.

· Ban or Criminalize Excessive Speculation. Excessive speculation of currency markets and related financial transactions must be banned and declared as crime. Those engagements of ‘currency attacks’ that have wrecked many economies are on top of the agenda for criminalization. Till these days, they remain unchecked, due to free trade principles in currency and financial trading.

· Ban Banks from Derivatives Operations. Banks should operate largely in support of developmental and re-development pursuits. In no case should any country be allowed unrestrained speculative and/or derivatives operations that leave the banks vulnerable to collapse.

· End Usury One and For All. For as long as usury remains, poverty and underdevelopment will never end, while once wealthy economies can crash back into 3rd world status. Usury must be criminalized as an evil act, thus ending once and for all a long history of predatory hoarding.

· Create New Global Financial Institution. To enforce and monitor the new financial architecture put into place, a new global financial architecture or GFI should be installed as well. The international Monetary Fund is a total failure, even as it was used as a mere tool by predatory financiers to extract usurious rents and disable national economies through immoral austerity measures. In the long run, this GFI can be considered as the infrastructure for a global central bank, should cooperating states approve it in principle.

Incidentally, the clamor for installing a new financial architecture is now getting stronger by the day. I am very optimistic that this will be concurred in due time, for failure to do so would prolong the agony of global economic collapse and decline. Let us cross our fingers that it will be called for very soon.

[Writ 28 November 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

PHILIPPINE PATRIOTISM: RUMBLINGS OF LEMURIAN AWAKENING

Bro. Erle Frayne Argonza

On the 30th of November, this republic will again celebrate National Heroes’ Day, to commemorate the patriotic heroism of the late Andres Bonifacio, leader of the Philippine Revolution (1896). Like his fellow patriots Dr. Jose Rizal and Apolinario Mabini, Bonifacio became the Bearer of the Torch of Liberty, a sublime energizing ‘torch’ from the 7th Dimension (Plane) inspired by a Deity of that namesake, Liberty.

The significance of this sublime Torch (to shorten it) is unknown to the hordes of somnambulists that now populate the islands and the entire Terra, a fact known only to very few wakened souls on the planet, both on the Light and Dark sides of the ‘Force’ (spiritual force). And even among the wakened ones, few know the significance of the Torch’s descent on the erstwhile “small-time” archipelago, for such a descent—and its consequent incineration of the dark veils of the Collective Unconscious—is of epochal import to humanity and the Spiritual Hierarchy.

The Philippines was carved out of the fragmenting Empire of Majapahit by a maritime power of Iberia, the Kingdom of Spain. No such unified entity as Philippines existed before, save that the totality of principalities governing the area were subdued one by one, and then declared as one single colony for efficient governance. Had the Spaniards just done their deeper research, an enterprise that they didn’t possess than, they could have discovered that the islands were in fact a part of a larger entity—the Empire of the Malays—that was then the wealthiest ever known by the world till these days.

The Empire, which covered a territory that was more or less as large as today’s ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nation), was peopled by a seafaring race, of diverse ethnicities but united by the Emperor and his Princely scions who governed the various potentates. The Malay peoples were genetically bred thousands of years back, simultaneously with the appearance of the Aryans, from among a group of dark-skinned Lemurians, the result of which was a pedigree of lighter bronze-brown hue that looked like golden bronze in magnificent beauty when lit by the daylight of the Sun. As to ‘who’ bred the Malays, few surely know even among the wakened ones, but this much I can say: they were the same ‘off-planet’ force that bred the Aryans (Keltics being the first result) from out of their own gene pool mixed with existing races then (Aryans bred from Red-skinned Atlanteans).

As sturdy and smart as their Aryan counterparts, the Malays survived the catastrophic phenomena that followed the end of the last glacial period, catastrophes that submerged the original subcontinental island of Maharloka (‘great land’) that they originally inhabited, a vast land over four (4) times larger than today’s island southeast Asia. Maharloka was the center of a world empire or civilization of Mu, the greatest and wealthiest civilization ever on Earth, exceeded by the other entity Atlantis only in technological prowess and sordid evil. Upon Maharloka’s sinking, so did that Flame of Civility of the entire Earth sink with it, bringing down likewise the vast treasures of precious minerals (gold most specially) accumulated by the Great Empire.

It was Maharloka, whose very center of governance, commerce and spirituality was the area we now call Philippines, that bore the Torch all along, and this fact enabled a Great Balance in the Planet against the Dark Lords of Atlantis. Maharloka’s people were largely a Warrior race, assigned by the Spiritual Hierarchy of Terra that sublime role, for two (2) reasons: (a) it had to guard the spiritual treasures (‘jewels’ of ‘ancient wisdom’) that guided all human philosophic, scientific, and esthetic precepts, and (b) it is the site, till these days, of the hyper-space gateway Portal to the galaxies and constellations beyond our Solar system. And so from this Great Land also came the Kingly Class that was to govern large parts of Terra.

When the Majapahit Emperor and scions arrived on the historic canvass, it was hopefully the first attempt at wakening the mighty, gigantic ‘spiritual force’ of the entire planet. Centered first in today’s Indonesia, the principalities in no time at all experienced awakenings in maritime technology, metallurgy, and alchemy, or those enterprises long dormant in the collective mind but which has always been present among humans. Enlightened souls then embodied among the princes and their families, new institutions began to flourish, High Culture of the Malays galvanized in no time at all, and then wealth multiplied in such paces unequalled today even by such much ballyhooed economic miracles as China’s.

The Evolved Souls in the Empire knew what their objective was: (a) to unite the entire Malays and friendly races under the aegis of one Great Civilization, and (b) to secure the Philippines which they knew was the bearer of the Torch not only for new Maharloka but for the entire humanity. If the 2nd goal can be well executed, humanity’s march to the New Age of Light (satya yuga) can be done more smoothly, even as the entire Southeast Asia’s might and spiritual power will be secured for many ages to come. But such a vision wasn’t to be fulfilled.

Among the prinzeps of the Emperor’s very own home embodied those same troublesome souls that were responsible for internecine wars in the planet and evil experiments that accelerated the rise of sea waters and ended the Ice Age.
Conflicts among the princes emerged for many decades that fragmented the Empire, till the Western powers arrived in the area to carve out their own respective jurisdictional boundaries in a vast region. The noble mission of an early awakening of the dormant ‘spiritual force’, through a noble descent of the Torch, thus ended in mighty ‘fire and brimstone’ of Europeans’ canons.

When all the principalities have gone a-sleeping, when all hope seemed to have faded, outbursts of rebellions echoed across the Spanish crown’s colony. No, the Indios (Hispanic pejorative term for the islanders) never fully surrendered, natural warriorship embedded in the genes was always there to ignite the fires of rebellions, till eventually crescendos of rebellions were heard like loud classical marches all over the islands c. 19th century. Then arrived those Evolved souls—Rizal, Mabini, Bonifacio and those they led as a huge Team of heroes—designated by Hierarchy to lay the grounds for a future, kingly nation. Such a nation, which bears the name of an Emperor, Philip II of Spain, would be the inheritor of the Majapahit Empire, and will lead the way for others to ignite each of their flames of Liberty.

The making of the Philippines hasn’t been completed yet, for being the inheritor of the Majapahit, and likewise the center of Maharloka, it must emerge to wield the ‘sticks’ and ‘treasures’ of Hierarchy (wisdom) and the Elements (gold, wealth). But the patriots’ carrying of the Torch continues till these days, thanks to the most ennobled virtues of the Triad of the Torch—Bonifacio, Mabini, Rizal. For as long as the patriots will bear the sacrifices and burdens of the Torch, a burden so huge as it is intended for the entire humanity as a whole, ‘cosmic magic’ they shall wield, until the Great Land will arise again in the future.

Already, unseen hands have been moving from Above to ensure that sons and daughters of the late Majapahit Emperor will become presidents of the Philippines. From the House of Marikudo came the scion Manuel Roxas; from the House of Soliman—Emilio Aguinaldo, Manuel Quezon, Jose Laurel and Joseph Estrada; from the House of Lacandola–Diosdado Macapagal and his daughter Gloria Arroyo; from the Prince of Moluccas, Fidel Valdes Ramos; and, from the Ilocandia principality, Ferdinand Marcos. I have no doubt that the next president-elect will be another one of Majapahit descent, to fulfill His task in preparing the islands for its future role no matter if He is as sleep-walking as the great hordes of islanders.

Finally, today, great events have happened that ensures the readiness of the Philippines to be once again the nexus of global prosperity and spiritual governance in the epoch now unfolding: (a) the recent transfer of the Planetary Chi from Glastonbury in England to Mt Banahaw in Southern Luzon (Phils), and (b) the opening of the hyperspace stargate portal above the Sunda template of Palawan (I witnessed the opening of the portal during two separate meditation visions early this year, 2008).

Let there be no mistake: no one force can ever stamp out Philippine patriotism, no matter how rambunctious and chaotic this could be during certain junctures. For this patriotism is an energy-downloader of the Torch, and performs its role for the greater cause of igniting the ‘spiritual force’ of the entire Planet Terra. The time for the full awakening of such planetary force is near, and key to its awakening is the awakening of the Philippines’ subsidiary ‘spiritual force’ (signified by a friendly Dragon).

Hail Philippine patriotism! Hail Gat Andres Bonifacio and our beloved libertarian patriots! Hail the Majapahit Emperor and His Enlightened Scions! Glory be to the rising Maharloka, Lemuria finally cometh!

[25 November, 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]

Thursday, November 20, 2008

PHILIPPINES AS FRIENDSTER CAPITAL: SOCIAL & SPIRITUAL FACETS

Bro. Erle Frayne Argonza

Magandang hapon! Good afternoon!

A gladdening news just filtered out recently about the Philippines having now capped the Top Friendster end-user notch. Accordingly, there are today 30 Million end-users in the Philippines of the top social networking platform, the Friendster, out of a total of 85 Million users worldwide. Just couples of months back, it was at 24 Million Filipino ‘ka-Friendsters’ that represented 1/3 of the world total.

This development reveals couples of very significant insights about my beloved compatriots, the Filipinos, as well as that of the host network, the Friendster Inc. In Max Weber’s language, there is ‘elective affinity’ between the economic structure’s templates (Friendster as economic service provider) and the Filipino’s ‘superstructural templates’ (values, value-relevance). In Jung’s language, the demands of the world structures have manifested synchronicities with the ‘symbolic structures’ of the Filipinos.

Let me then share some notes to you about what this topnotch end-user behavior of Filipinos exhibit in regard to the world’s top web-based social networking. I will sum up the revealed insights in two (2) categories, namely: (a) social, which refers to the economic and behavioral facts involved; and, (b) spiritual, which refers to those core elements of the human psyche & soul revealed by the behavior.

SOCIAL FACET

· 30 Million is 30 Million, it is awesome and potent a social force to reckon with.
· Internet Users Up: 30 Million ‘ka-Friendsters’ means that millions of Filipinos now have access to the internet, the minimum of which is 30 M. My estimate is that the figure goes up to 40 Million, which is double the badly underestimated statistics from marketing and state agencies (18-20 Million).
· Warm, friendly, hospitable traits of Filipinos. These are among the value assets of the Pinoys. They can never be underestimated. They invite as many contacts on the Friendster as possible, regardless of whether they know that contact personally.
· Internet Facilities: Telecom infrastructures have now made web accessibility higher among Pinoys. Combined facilities are: (a) New Generation for DSL & related services, in all cities and town centers nationwide; (b) Wireless Broadband, present in commercial hubs; (c) Rural Interconnectivity, platform for countryside, innovation by engineers from the University of the Philippines.
· Graphics & Writing/Reading Up: Pinoy’s mind is largely attuned to graphical-intuitive, that is why they’d love to view pictures and graphic creatives. However, Pinoys are also developing writing & reading habits, which the content blog spaces offer.
· Urban Filipinos, which represents 60% of domestic population, lead the locals in propelling the islanders to ‘global citizen’ status, thru web-based platforms. My estimate is that 85% of Pinoys on Friendster are urbanites.

SPIRITUAL FACET

· ‘Friend’ dominates the word ‘Friendster’, which jibes with the Filipinos deep devotional attitude. Devotion is the cementing force of society, and the first impulse to reach out to the Almighty Providence and Divine Beings.
· ‘Friend’ in Friendster jibes with the Water element among Pinoys. This element is manifested as love for building social networks, artistic-graphical creatives of Pinoys (Pinoys are Asia’s top musicians), and the healing prowess of the islanders (note our top healers, top nurses/doctors overseas).
· The letters F-I-R-E (Fire) and F-R-I-E-D (Fried), which signify the Fire element, another powerful element of Pinoys, is also found in Friendster, though is subdued. It is indicative of Pinoy’s conscious efforts today to do everything to tame their Fire element, use this for more beneficial purposes, and permit the Water element’s positive aspects blend with Fire.
· Public life in the Philippines is mired in Negative Fire: Insurgent groups, politicians, civil society all wanting to overthrow established authority. Pinoys, via platforms such as Friendster, would want to somehow balance this Fiery disposition with the more constructive, creative disposition presented by Water, though they also ride and direct the Fiery caldrons of public life.
· Interestingly, the Water element is also shown in the Philippines’ maritime prowess. 28% of international seafarers are Pinoys, while the country is beginning to manufacture ships as huge as 10,000 Tonners, and it won’t be a surprise if in 15 years’ time the Philippines will be a global ship-building power. Almost all Pinoy seafarers surf the web while aboard their ships, and many use patronize Friendster (including my cousin-in-law, a maritime engineer).
To the endeared readers, choose your wilds: social facet, or spiritual facet. I chose both, as I’m both (a) a social scientist and (b) a mystic-healer-Guru of the Teaching.

For the Friendster Inc, it has no other choice than to root itself more in Philippine life. The corporate honchos cannot afford to offend the Filipino end-users, no Sirs, for that would flip the Water side of Pinoys to the Fire side. Fire is the ‘overthrow syndrome’ of my kabayans (compatriots), they’re so good at it, insurgencies here can last as long as nine (9) decades such as Tamblot Revolt.

And, to the Friendster corporate people, please don’t ever offend Filipino women. Let you be reminded that we are the ‘6th Top Gender Empowerment’ country worldwide as of today. We’re known for Filipina warriorship prowess, and that warriorship is seen in our feminist leaders and advocates reforming policies with Firepower, and overthrowing corrupt regimes with blazing thunder. Inside Filipino homes, the Mother is the Boss, this is a fact of life. No Sirs, I implore you never ever to offend the women of this country.

Let me congratulate both the Filipino ‘ka-Friendsters’ and the Friendster Inc. for the stunning success of the Friendster platform. Mabuhay!

[21 November 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

WILL ZAIBATSU OFFENSIVE BE ACCOMPANIED BY NEW JAPANESE MILITARISM?

Bro. Erle Frayne Argonza

In a previous article, this writer articulated the success of the Japanese Zaibatsu offensive. As one ought to realize, the success of the Zaibatsu offensive came at the expense of other markets, notably the North’s. Intellectually bankrupt as they are, the policy makers and technocrats of the North never foresaw the catastrophic consequences of predatory policies more so those concerning finance that came from their Japanese partners.

Today, Zaibatsus are well prepositioned across the globe, and it doesn’t matter anymore whether their headquarters will still be based in Japan. They have already fanned out beyond their boundaries, thanks to gullible states and market players in host countries that aren’t equipped to read the psyche of their Japanese partners. Japanese market presenters carry the mien of humble partners who bow in deep respect before you during business meetings, so who could ever suspect the rather cold-blooded nature of such gestures.

What the world must observe with greater focus these days, when global fascism is rising, is the resurgence of Japanese militarism. It may come in the form of ultra-nationalism, or ultra-conservatism, and may have nothing of the ‘Hail Emperor’ mantra of the previous Empire. But seeing the rise of predatory Zaibatsus, focused observers can never miss out on the possibility that the economic offensive may be accompanied, at some juncture of global economic crisis, by a very resurgent militarism.

Japan was very badly isolated during and after the 2nd World War, and till the early 1970s its moves at extending cooperation came with enormous suspicion, more so from the Asians whose countries were “burned down to the ground” by invading Japanese military forces. There surely was a colossal repackaging of Japan’s image, from wartime arrogance to new era peace-loving and humble advocate. To prove their sincerity, they even crafted their new constitution such that offensive forces were banned and only defensive military forces allowed.

No one ever heard of Japan getting involved in the arms race for many decades, and till these days the mindsets of somnambulistic folks tend to regard the Japan of the present as the peacenik country of post-war yesteryears. Even my old folks, who suffered miserably from the cruelties of Japanese forces during the war, have come to forgive Japan, though they still harbor the pains during moments of reminiscing.

The peacenik image is a product of its own context, this one must be reminded about. Japan was in high growth for many decades, than it matured onwards till it reached consumer society proportions around the 1980s. Then came the ‘globalization’ voodoo economics, and the rest was history.

That was then. The situation now is different. The global economy is crashing down, the plunge still hasn’t ceased, and the EU-USA experts just couldn’t learn from Japan’s ‘bailout’ mistakes. As the economy falters, anxieties arise within a country, and tensions across borders will increase. Superstition and groupthought (fascism) are rising, and before long we will see the fireworks of another world war ensued in the hottest spots of the globe.

EU-USA (West) and Japan (East), which comprise the pillars of the global economy, are now on the decline. If we study the behavior of their peoples well, whenever they experience severe crises, they undertake wars as strategy to release or canalize collective anxieties. They identify a Bogey Man (e.g. Nazi’s identified the Jews, North Americans identified the Southern slave owners during the US civil war,…), and then transfer their internal anxieties and defects on the Bogey Man, and war ensues.

Such economic pillars just seem unable to manage their decline without taking down others. This is classic binary mindset, destructive and demonic. Such mindset is responsible for using nuclear arms, regarding the casualties on their perceived enemies thereafter as mere statistics. And East Asia better prepare for the eventuality that this mindset will become dominant again in Japan in the short run.

Demented minds in Japan have two (2) bogey men today: (a) North Koreans and (b) Chinese. As this is happening, events have already shown the preparedness of Japan to mobilize its troops for missions outside the borders (e.g. Iraq war). Japan also possesses the technical capabilities to produce weapons of mass destruction such as nukes and probably the Tesla Earthquake Machine or TEM.

Intelligence reports have it that Japan is capable of constructing WMDs and manufacturing new series military vehicles (e.g. aircraft carriers) in just less than a year upon call to action. We wouldn’t be surprised if we receive further intelligence information that such WMDs and vehicles are in fact already in place, needing supplementation in quantities and troop mobilizations.

It need not be overstressed that Zaibatsus are awash with money to fund militaristic or Banzai offensives for sustained periods. They already demonstrated this, during the Gulf War and Iraq War, when their coffers coughed up large sums by the tens of billions of dollars to pay the bills for the offensives while the USA provided the main attack hardware and human ‘warm bodies’ (like they were the Hessian Troops of the global
oligarchs).

If ever that the USA-EU would fall into a state of totalitarian governance (police state, fascism), and Japan would follow along that direction, then chances are high that the North Atlantic Alliance (USA-EU) and Japan would form a new Axis Powers alliance. The North Atlantic powers would constitute the Western flank, while Japan would comprise the Eastern flank of the alliance.

It will be déjà vu for sure. If indeed such is the direction. Peace advocates still have time to scuttle new treaties up north that could redound to concentrating enormous powers in central governments that are undisguised fascist police states. There is still time, but time is now short.

Before long, Japanese slogans of Banzai! will be heard again across the Pacific. Just by hearing it, or reading it on the papers and TV, many middle class Asians will die of heart attacks. Let us just hope that it will only be a slogan of marginalized mad people in Japan and nothing more.

[Writ 15 November 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila.]

Friday, November 14, 2008

ZAIBATSU GLOBALIZATION ‘VOODOO ECONOMICS’ BOWING OUT

Bro. Erle Frayne Argonza

Magandang hapon! Good afternoon!

Let me share to you at this moment some notes regarding the ‘globalization’ experiment and the flawed policies that sustained it. There has been much ballyhoo about the global economy’s integration, over the last three (3) decades, as having been carved out supposedly by the Anglo-Saxon policy architects, using Thatcher & Reagan as the face for the ‘neo-liberal’ policy regime they installed.

Little do peoples across the globe, including experts who are so mired in their own parochial perspectives, know that the liberalization of country economies has a great deal to do with the Zaibatsu offensive. The West should better accept the facts: that their technocrats and policy shapers have run out of fresh ideas since the 1970s onwards (i.e. mentally bankrupt), a gap that they filled up by looking up to Japan and the NICs (newly industrializing countries) for copycat purposes.

Reaganomics, as neo-liberal policies of ‘privatization’ was dubbed (Thatcher of the UK preceded Reagan by a year), is as voodoo as one can get, seductive as any enchanting mantra-resonating principle can be, and was indeed potent in erasing the vestiges of the Regulated Economics doctrines that preceded the era. In the emerging markets, they were dubbed as ‘structural adjustment policies’ or SAPs, were imposed by the IMF-World Bank Group on debtor nations, and can be summed up as follows:

· Core principles: Privatization, Liberalization, Deregulation
· Subsidiary Principles: Tax reforms, trade liberalization, free floating exchange rates, diminished state subsidies for welfare, increased utility prices (revenue generation)
· Governance Principle: Decentralization (local government autonomy)

Such policy reform measures, as far as developing countries or DCs were concerned, came in as very harsh, cruel ‘austerity measures’ imposed by the IMF. We citizens from the ‘margins’ can never forget these measures, the pauperization that they effected, the dislocation of marginal producers, the decline of health services and rise of morbidity rates, and so on. In the Philippines, our very own capital goods industries were either delayed or un-implementable (such as integrated steel), as the money allocated for their purposes simply dried as dictated by the World Bank.

But there’s another set of policy architecture that wasn’t Anglo-Saxon, and didn’t receive their inspiration from the classicists (Smith, Ricardo) and the monetarists (Friedman, Hayek). This set of liberalization policies came from Zaibatsu country, and were crafted by Japanese technocrats. Not only policies, but also institutions were addressed by them, giving rise to the globalized economy that we have today.

Chief among those technocrats was Kenichi Ohmae, who in the 1980s was a think-tank executive. Further down the line were many other technocrats, who were organically linked to the Zaibatsus (landlord-industrialist-financier oligarchs), taking up cudgels for Ohmae.

Globalization, as one better realize, was never meant as any ‘win/win’ formula for nation-states in the arena of international trade as the liberal thinkers came to defend it later. It was outright a strategy to pre-position Zaibatsu corporate interests outside of Japan, notably the U.S. and European markets.

At that time of conceptualization, Zaibatsus have already efficaciously penetrated the Asian markets, and had leveraged their investments’ entry via aid and technical knowledge diffusion (including sponsoring Developing Country scholars in Japanese universities & special institutes). The old doctrine of ‘Asia Co-prosperity sphere’ was finally won, without firing a shot this time (unlike Imperial Japan era expansionism).

In the 1980s, the clamor for mooring investments and trade in the Western markets became ever stronger. The offensive tactic adapted was rather two-pronged, which made the new voodoo mantra even more potent:

· On the micro-level, permeate other markets with new concepts such as ‘Theory Z’ (decentralized authority, see W. Ouichi), total quality management or TQM, new tools for strategic planning, mergers and de-mergers. Till these days, the tools are considered sacrosanct in all sectors of society, including the Catholic Church that now uses ‘bottom-up’ planning added to strategic planning (my observations done in 2001-02 in a California diocese).

· On the macro-level, blend the Reagan-Thatcher ‘structural adjustments’ with the ‘globalization’ doctrine. The Zaibatsu technocrats fanned out across the globe, some of whom were positioned inside international bodies, and sweetened liberalization via a supposedly ‘win/win’ growth strategy for participating countries. This brilliant blending, which Western thinkers didn’t perceive at all as any subtle tactic by a predatory class (Zaibatsu), soon caught up fire and became buzz word for nigh three decades.

Before long, the Japan Inc. was being bandied across the globe as worth any country’s emulation. Southeast Asia and Korea went for it. Even the former presidents of the USA admired the Japanese Inc. doctrine of renewed private initiatives and shift from macro- to micro-economics as stabilization and growth measure. Bill Clinton of the USA spoke so fondly of ‘globalization’ like some captive fan of an economic icon, and moved to negotiate the NAFTA.

Little do unsuspecting, gullible peoples across the planet, more so the policy experts of the West, realize that the Japanese voodoo economics was largely intended to permit Zaibatsu investments to breed and morph inside their economies. Using merger and buy-in tactics, the Zaibatsu agents made it appear that their sponsors came in for benign purposes or so. If there is any group in the world today that is enjoying its last laugh, it is the Japanese militarists of the past, who finally saw the success of their nation’s offensives and the decline of the West via ‘organized chaos’.

Around 1994, the magic of the Japan Inc. began to cramble. Recession came, and before long many banks and investment houses were catching fire. That was the origin of the bankrupt and immoral Bush-Paulson ‘bailout’, which began with the ‘crisis management’ tactic in Japan to save ailing banks and financial institutions. Eventually, Zaibatsu technocrats were forced to revive the Western tool of ‘interest rates’ intervention, to the extent of bringing down interest rates to zero percent and sustaining it there for many years.

There also came that moment, in the late 1990s through 2006, when Zaibatsu financiers suddenly were so awash with funds (liquidities), at a time when Western economies reached low growths. The ‘yen initiative’ package was therefore conceptualized as another last-ditch voodoo tactic, which was implemented by loaning out large funds at zero or low interest, which Western financiers than re-loaned at profitable interest rates. Many such funds reached the USA& EU realty subprime mortgage markets, to recall. Again, note the seemingly benign nature of the financial gesture.

Just as when the realty markets were beginning to sneeze in America, the last voodoo measure was pulled out. The ‘crisis management’ was already folded up earlier, as Japan’s economic growth was propelled up anew by the Asian markets notably China’s. Just as when USA & EU needed the Zaibatsu loans very badly, and ditto for portfolio investments, they were pulled out, thus ensuring the crash of both economies.

Japananese voodoo economics is now bowing out, as the compass of policy initiatives at present is pointing to the reconstruction of macro-economic, New Deal type measures intended to attack problems both on short-term (bail out on productive sectors) and long-term basis (induce physical economy rather than predatory finance). But the withdrawal of the voodoo regime is not being done without witnessing its catastrophic results.

That’s surely tragic for the West or North. I wonder how Zaibatsus & technocrats perceive peoples outside their borders: whether they regard the latter as human beings worth co-partnering with, or as hungry lizards that must subsist on crumbs of investments & finance from Japan that have been buttressed by enormous tons of gold acquired through production and plunder of occupied lands, across the 2,000 years of Japan’s existence from kingdom to nation.

Honestly, I don’t know the answer. But if the Zaibatsus are receiving flaks from outside their borders, it wouldn’t be a surprise. There are no more borders for Zaibatsus by the way, just an entire planet with seamless web, cocooned in all corners by their corporate money.

[Writ 14 November 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

SZWARZENEGGER’S GAY PERSECUTION: NAZI-ERA GENOCIDE COPYCAT!

Bro. Erle Frayne Argonza

Cryptic night to everyone! Cryptic indeed, as we all received this cryto-fascist measure led by the Aryan Master Race prototype, Arnold the Terminator, that reverses the state law concerning gay marriage in his wealthy state of California.

Arnold the Terminator is getting to resemble closer now the same dreaded morbidity machine of the movie series that featured him as the old prototype Terminator. Not satisfied with the narratives of bloodletting by the Nazi Aryans of his beloved Austria home, narratives that penetrated deep into his bone marrows (his source of intelligence), he has now devised an agenda to persecute the gays of California.

The Terminator’s agenda had already spread to other states, which is sending signals that his country’s folks might just get happier by passing on to gays their collective Bogey Person which they would all desire to destroy via mass hysteria cum plebiscite legitimation tactics. With the USA & Europe now on the way to rapid economic downspin, a phenomenon that had induced higher anxieties and anomie, the collective outlet might be this Bogey ‘Man’: gay & lesbian.

I was surely shocked at this development, more so that the rationalization is based on distorted biblical interpretation. The likes of Arnold and his hoi polloi ‘Aryan Guards’ are the least competent regarding scriptural exegesis, their competence perhaps registering a level of wood tick at the highest. Alarming!

The fundamental concerns that arise regarding this ‘loin power’ bullying of gays by the biblical pretenders are as follows:

· USE HOLY BIBLE LARGELY FOR HOLY ISSUES/HOW HOLY IS GAY MARRIAGE? The issue pertaining to gay marriage is not a question of divinity, but one of social or public policy. Why then resort to biblical justification of banning gay marriage? Marriage is a social institution, a human invention, and as Guru of the Teaching there is nothing in scriptural books nor teachings from the Ascended Beings that reveal the God or Divine source of marriage. Social institutions change with time, depending on emerging needs. Banning gay marriage does not make the ‘loin power’ bullies who support the measure more holy, it only makes them feel more powerful and ready to bash other sectors that they feel must be collectively ‘terminated’ or persecute, nothing more.

· ONLY THE HOLY PEOPLE HAVE THE PRE-EMPTIVE RIGHT TO USE HOLY BIBLE FOR SOCIAL ISSUES. Let me ask you, how many among those ‘loin power’ bullies can ever show clear credentials of their ‘spiritual career’ that merit their recognition as HOLY? Is Arnold the Terminator the holiest of men in California or the USA, that he can afford to appear as self-righteous and justified in bashing gays & lesbians?

What is revealed by this development is the rapid onrush of a fascistic mindset among the folks of the states that reversed gay marriages. This is not a matter of siding or not with gays. Rather, on a larger perspective, the bashing of gays as a thuggish assertion of macho ‘loin power’ is symptomatic of the degeneration of the populace into Nazi-herd mindset, synchronous with economic chaos and depression.

During the advent of Nazi power, it became the addiction of the Nazis to perpetuate the persecution of diverse sectors as a step-by-step sashimi tactic of genocide. First they came for the Jews. When no more Jews could be gruesomely terminated, they came for the Communists and Social Democrats. After the Left’s demise, they came for the Liberals and freethinkers. That done, they then came for the gays, the sick and senior citizens (this latter meant no more welfare subsidies be allotted to the weakling ‘rats’).

Fellow Earthans, prepare for the worse. Watch your own backyards, as those Terminator madfolks’ pathology might spread as contagion to your countries and cities. The spirit of Anti-Man, or Demonic zeitgeist, is here with us, and we will have to live with it for some time.

If Arnold Terminator is really man enough, I challenge him to a fight with the Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao. Possessing none of the exegetic sophistication nor ethical foundation for holiness, he better demonstrate that he is man enough by facing Pacman. So mote it be.

[Writ 11 November 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila. This writer is a yogi-mystic and Guru of the Teaching. He is also a social scientist and development consultant.]

Thursday, November 06, 2008

OBAMA VICTORY: ‘14th BRUMAIRE ‘ OF US TECHNOCRACY, HEALING BEGINS

Bro. Erle Frayne Argonza

From my highland nest in Manila goes Big Kudos to Barack Obama & US Democrats!

My first elation has to do with the fact that Obama represents my generation of ‘post-industrial babies’, comprising of those aged 55 and younger. Obama represents a broader worldwide trend of leaders who are veering away from intolerant/polarized values towards one of ‘tolerance for difference’. My generation is the first among the emerging ‘global citizens’, and I could hardly wait to see various sectors worldwide taken over by the most competent and enlightened ones among us, as exemplified by Obama’s take of the US presidency.

Another source of elation is the fact that Obama is a Black man, the first one ever elected as president in America. His victory sends a clear signal to many countries across the globe—dominated by Whites as majority populace—that the time for change has come. Just across the border, in Mexico, the citizens are still accustomed to choosing a White Man as president: White, and Male. Quite a bit further, down south in Argentina, it’s still White country there, and I wish the minority Colored people or Colorados will get to be Chief Executive, whether they are male or female.

Finally, a source of euphoria over Obama’s victory is his being funded largely by the people’s purses. True, there were fund donations from the wealthy families, but to say that their pockets constituted the cutting edge funding would be to disregard those aggregates of monies that in-flowed to Obama’s campaign coffers from out of ‘couples of dollar bills’ donations from the workers & middle classes. I would dare say that the people’s purses comprised the cutting edge in funding, for the 1st TIME, which has many governance implications for Obama’s Team.

There are certain sociopathic elements in America, represented by the perennial Democrat candidate Lyndon LaRouche, who have been peddling the allegation that George Soros, through his subaltern Felix Rohatyn, were behind the bulk of funds for Obama. In some other articles published early this year, LaRouche kept on peddling the noxious allegation that Mafia groups were behind Obama’s making as a politician, and that, ipso facto, his funding would come largely from the same criminal rings.

Were it not for LaRouche’s sociopathic and fascistic tendencies, I should really find many of the facts and thoughts that he generated as worth our reflections. Let us challenge the likes of LaRouche to come out with evidences, and file criminal charges in proper channels such as the US Senate, and they better desist from further slanderous and libelous accusations against a political team that is outside of their poll choices.

The people’s purse option, let me repeat, has deep governance implications. It is indicative, first of all, of the immense constituency participation during the polls, which clearly created for them (people) a status as co-partner of the Obama Team. Second, the people’s purse option gave the clear mandate to the Obama Team, comprising largely of noblesse technocrats, that it can exercise a ‘relative autonomy’ from diverse interest groups particularly the financier-technocratic-military elites.

I would prefer to see the Obama victory as a ‘14th Brumaire of the US Technocracy’, which is a very laudable feat, precisely as a result of that people purse option. 14th Brumaire refers to that moment in history when Louis Bonaparte declared a coup d’etat in France, a grand act of defiance against the oligarchy that enabled him to exercise ‘relative autonomy’ from the latter. The governance implication of such an act is that the Strong Man was able craft and enforced policy initiatives, unhampered by the pestering demands of ensconced elites.

Obama won his coup equivalent by way of the electoral path, with aid from a vibrant electoral constituency and allied politicians who also buttressed his victory with additional seats in both houses of the US Congress. With solid grounds of support from both the people and the legislative allies, Obama has been practically offered the policy initiative on a golden platter by the electoral heaven of social contract. And the good image exuded by this Team was that of a change-directing Technocracy rather than that of a rambunctious Pedagogue of dangerously perverse hoi polloi.

With such a grand opportunity of mandate, the Obama Team is enabled to re-engineer the policy environment of America on its initiatives. Lobby groups and ‘whispering mafias’ representing the elites do not have a business making demands on this Team, and must be kept at bay, in practice more than in words as promised by Obama.

The Obama Team should also use this ‘14th Brumaire’ mandate to begin a long process of healing. The healing work is quite complex, as it entails tasks both on the domestic and international fronts. This healing can begin by the shift in tact from that of the previous hawkishness of the neo-conservatives to the dovish aura of Wilson-Roosevelt-Kennedy greats.

For my own country, Obama should not forget the 1 Million+ Filipinos who died during America’s invasion of the nascent republic, many of whom died as ‘collateral damage’ of a genocidal campaign. White House and Congress should better release their respective statements of apology to my nation, dubbed as populated by “brown monkeys with no tails” by the White combatants (T. Agoncillo, History of the Filipino People). Coupled with this is the return of the Balangiga Bells that were looted by the US Army after leveling the town of Balangiga in Samar province, with all town folks butchered and all visible structures burned to the ground (ibid).

Obama must also remember the 1 Million+ Filipinos who died during World War II, or who died defending the interest of America in the Far East. Many of the living veterans of that war are waiting for their additional just subsidies, their bones now almost disabled from mobility. World War II was never our war, but was one among the world powers’, and look at what the cruelties and genocidal butchers our people got from defending America here.

Authentic healing will take several decades to undertake. But there is no harm involved by beginning the process now. The Native Americans and Colorados of the USA are expectant, and so are those peoples who suffered from America’s imperialistic adventurisms overseas. Begin the healing now, and put a final end to the USA as Empire.

The Obama electoral coup is total, his technocratic Team’s autonomy ensured. He cannot fail to deliver results as expected, and he must translate that ‘relative autonomy’ into more solid healing and prosperity feats. His massive constituencies must help the Team in this colossal task, to ensure galvanization par excellence, rather than just wait passively for results.
Cheers! Kudos to the Obama Team! Mabuhay!

[Writ 06 November 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]

Sunday, November 02, 2008

PEACE & HEALING IN THE FORTHCOMING USA ELECTIONS

PEACE & HEALING IN THE FORTHCOMING USA ELECTIONS

Bro. Erle Argonza / Guru Ra


[Healing Meditations 08-01. Writ 02 November 2008, Manila, Philippines.]

Citizens of Terra, Peace & Love!

Within a few days from now, on November the 6th, the USA electorate will choose a new set of federal leaders. As observed in all quarters, this giant pillar of the global economy is currently on a downspin in both the domestic and international fronts. Being Fellows of this planet, we cannot just stand by and show indifference to the eventualities forthcoming, but should, I think, exude one of concern and love for the people of America.

Never mind if for past decades this hegemonic power from up North had manifested excessive force in dealing with other nations of the planet, for both political and economic purposes. Never mind if multitudes of our own compatriots who were caught up in the military and trade offensives were sacrificed in the process: their lives snuffed, bodies injured, and livelihoods irreparably wrecked. Never mind the 36 Millions of peoples who died due to the military adventurisms of America since after World War II. Mind only that we all move forward ahead, that we continue to forge a new world of peace and prosperity in a global regime of ‘dialogue of civilizations’.

American society is now very sick. There is no way that we would ever desire to see this country fall, or fragment into the abyss of chaos, as partisan groups would seize the opportunity offered before them, go the way of violent adventurisms and slug each other out in the terrain of Old Wild West of blazing guns. Just witnessing this federal titan beset with political and economic instabilities over the next ten (10) years, would already spell trouble for the entire global community that will experience the catastrophic impact of the uncertainties caused by the consequent anarchies thereafter.

America is very sick, and if there is anything that we Peace Advocates must demonstrate now, it is the collective might of forgiveness, understanding, compassion, and brotherhood/sisterhood. Let us show the power of Oneness, precisely by commiserating with our brothers and sisters in America who are equally beset with enormous pains from the miserable descent of their beloved country to the hovels of the Damned and the Fallen Ones. Look Fellows, the Americans are leveling down mountains of evils by the normative pathways of accepted institutions, inspired as they are by their founding patriots and guided by the Constitution of the Union, and not by excessive violence and force that befit only those agents of the Dark Path. Let us all attune ourselves to their hearts in their herculean but sublime efforts, be with them in their painful sojourn.

The forthcoming election is therefore an occasion both for national healing in the domestic front of America, and for global healing as well. Recognizing this sublime import of the forthcoming popular feat, let me state succinctly the petitions:

I call upon our Fellows across the globe, to show our fellowship with the simple folks and mainstream middle class urbanites of the USA, by praying and meditating for peace and progress in the electoral contest. Furthermore, let us all pray and meditate that finally the road back to the Light will begin as a new set of leaders will commence with their noble mandates in a few weeks’ time.

On the day of the polls itself, please sit down even just for a few minutes, burn a White candle for purity of purpose, combine it with Pink candle for love and healing, and pray & meditate for the petition so stipulated above.
Let there be healing and peace on the forthcoming USA electoral exercise, followed by consequent stability and prosperity. So be it.

[Prof. Erle Frayne Argonza, economist, sociologist, and development consultant from Manila, is also a yogi-Mystic. He is an initiated Fellow of the spiritual Brotherhood and is a Guru of self-realization. He is currently in touch with the souls of Abraham Lincoln and Mahatma Gandhi, both of whom are Evolved souls, who urged him to do some focused peace concerns for America and encourage a reversal of disastrous economic policies of Reaganomics.]