Erle Frayne D. Argonza
The Social Weather Stations or SWS just recently conducted its regular national survey on hunger, with the alarming conclusion of growing poverty incidence. A 20% hunger rate was the bleak turn of the survey, which is indeed gruesome to the stomach given the economic boom years.
It seems that the only people benefiting from the economic boom are the likes of SMC’s Ang, PLDT’s Panganiban, Noynoy cronies and intellectual prostitutes, and the likes. It’s almost a year now since Noynoy Aquino was installed to the presidency, and so we may need to begin to assess whether His Excellency’s dispensation had fared well in alleviating poverty and in putting an end to insurgency that has been caused by hunger and poverty among all causes.
I am reflecting back on the agenda expectations I had during the campaign period, chief of which was the physical economy as crux of campaign. Do we have a physical economy frame that takes down hunger effectively, or do we have a hodge podge economy so badly integrated and managed by incompetent prostituted intellectuals?
[Philippines, 08 April 2011]
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PHYSICAL ECONOMY IN RP’S 2010 POLLS
Erle Frayne D. Argonza
The debates by presidential candidates have been reverberating the media audiences in the country for couples of weeks now. The issues have ranged from those that are social policy-oriented (subsidies to poor, health, education, housing, jobs) to macro-economic policies (sustaining growth, accelerating development) and moral policies (corruption, reproductive health). Some articulations of foreign policy were also heard from the competing gentlemen.
Seemingly confusing in their broadness, somehow the various forums for the debates (not actual debates but simply presentation of each one’s opinion about policy questions) did give a semblance of information-based campaigns by enthused candidates. This is already quite a departure from previous polls when debates were sparse and superficial, and should be lauded by observers.
What this analyst, who is a public policy expert, wishes to see clearly in the debates is the economic issue of whether to highlight the physical economy policies versus the virtual economy in the management of jobs and wealth creation by the next government. I raised this same question in the last presidential poll in the USA that pitted Senators Obama and McCain in a neck-to-neck fight. I shared my own assessment then that Sen. Obama resonated nearest to a physical economy inclination and should be supported by USA’s voters.
To reminisce a bit, the national economies saw the radical ascent of Reaganomic policies of privatization, deregulation, liberalization, and reinforcing policies beginning in 1980. Such policies led to the rapid integration of nations into a global economy, liberalized the cross-border flow of financial and monetary assets, and eventually led to the predominance of the ‘virtual economy’ based on predatory finance.
In the mid-90s, the Philippines saw its investments structure alarmingly imbalanced, with 86% or 6/7 of total comprising of portfolio capital, and only 1/7 or barely 16% in real or physical economy investments inclusive of FDIs (direct foreign investments). As early as 1989, I already raised the alarm bells that excessive radical liberalization of the economy could jeopardize the financial sector in the short run and lead to an economic collapse that could be far worst than the 1984-86 Depression of the Marcos era.
When a situation comes that the virtual economy dominates over the physical economy (agriculture, industry, S & T, transport) and subordinates the latter, a bubble is created. A bubble economy is one that grows on the basis of speculations in stocks and predatory operations of financial derivatives (secondary debt papers traded in the global market), and is bound to collapse when a burst comes since it isn’t based on tangible goods.
Surely enough, when the bubble burst in Thailand in June 1996, the ‘butterfly effect’ of a mini-flapping of wings created a storm across a vast region. We then dubbed that crisis as the ‘Asian financial meltdown’. The economies and financial institutions that had the greatest exposure to portfolio finance suffered the most.
The worst was yet to come though, as the USA had to wait for 2007 before it would experience its own crash, a catastrophic crash that spread to Europe and Japan (twas barely out of a decade-long recession). The same bubble economy and its predictable burst led to the crash, a recession that hasn’t fully retreated yet. Europe is still in flames today (watch the financial flames in Greece, Spain, Finland), while Japan remains as flat as it was during its 10-year crisis (1994-2004).
The fact of the matter is that, in a virtual economy, the predatory financiers (bankers included) gain the most, while the people pay the price for the collapse. And the payment comes in the form of ‘stimulus package’ that are derived from tax revenues. So the equation is that financiers run away with the massive loot, and the people pay for the cost of the looting crime. The culprits then run away largely unpunished, while the people face the punitive flames of massive business closures, retrenchment, unemployment, and bad debts.
In my book Fair Trade & Food Security (Kaisampalad publication, 2005/07), I emphatically stressed that we have to reverse the free market and free trade policies to be able to regain economic wellness. Reversal means we have to go back to the principles of regulated economy (production, trade, distribution, consumption), and replace free trade with fair trade in our international trade.
Strong regulatory frameworks, coupled with strong institutions and good governance, will redound to bringing back the physical economy into place. With the economy based on the physical or real economy, this country and any country for that matter will weather any economic storm both local and global. There is ample funds to pay national debts, balance the budget, fund social programs, create jobs, and increase wages.
Among all presidential candidates, only that of Senator Manny Villar so far resonates the strongest in terms of echoing the physical economy. This resonance could be explained by the fact that the noblesse legislator immersed himself in housing & infrastructures for the longest time of his life as an entrepreneur, and only fractionally engaged in speculative engagements. Besides, he was witness to the maelstrom on the realty sector caused by the bubble burst of ’97, a burst that wasn’t of his own making as it was the maneuverings of George Soros & pals via currency attacks (monetary markets) that led to the meltdown.
I hope you would agree with me that the slogan for this year’s polls would be: “It’s the physical economy, stupid!”
[Philippines, 19 March 2010]
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PROF. ERLE FRAYNE ARGONZA: http://erleargonza.com
Finalist-PhilBlogAwards 2010
Finalist for society, politics, history blogs
Showing posts with label cnn news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cnn news. Show all posts
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Friday, March 25, 2011
PHILIPPINE BANKS HEALTHY FOR THE BIG CHALLENGES AHEAD
Erle Frayne D. Argonza
Good day to you fellow global citizens!
The world reels anarchic over the geological ramblings in Japan-New Zealand-China and the tumult of the Arab peoples. These events cast veils on the clarity of the economic boom now going on in Asia, and so let me be among those who will project the boom side every now and then. Among such good news is the readiness of Asian banks for the bigger economic battles ahead, a trend that includes the Philippines’ banks.
Do recall that the Asian financial meltdown came in ’97, triggering recessions, mass lay-offs, manufacturing slumps, and heightened poverty. The policy environment then was one of free trade in the movements of finance and money across borders, which enticed portfolio capital to swamp Asia. Regulators were therefore caught off guard by the currency attacks fomented by the Anglo-European oligarchs fronted by the Quantum Group of George Soros.
Asia’s banks, monetary authorities, and financial stakeholders all learned precious lessons from that economic catastrophe. Short of establishing capital and monetary controls (such as what Mahathir did for Malaysia), Asian banks did institute quasi-regulatory reforms such as to raise banks’ reserve requirements, mop up excess liquidities when situation demands so, and finally fix caps on the asset requirements for banks.
The reforms instituted across the last fourteen (14) years since the meltdown paid off very handsomely for the commercial and universal banks in particular, as well as for strengthening central banks. It is important to ensure stabilization mechanisms in the said banks first of all, a pattern that will snowball in the thrift banks and rural banks.
As far as the Philippine republic is concerned, the latest situational reports do indicate very clearly the compass of a healthy banking overall. Total aggregate assets of commercial & universal banks exceeded P6 Trillions, deposits breached the P2.5 Trillions, and trust funds skyrocketed to past the P4 Trillion mark. Needless to say, our banks here are prepared for the big challenges, inclusive of financing big ticket Private-Public Partnership or PPP projects.
The same banks are very much prepared too for the latest regulatory requirements imposed by the BIS or Bank for International Settlements. The BIS adjustments are actually coming late in the day, as the said bank has been too Euro-centric for a long time. Were it not for the fiasco of the USA and European banks from 2007 through 2010, the BIS couldn’t have acted appropriately.
Western banks ought to admit it that they are learning the new adjustments from their Asian counterparts. And the lessons being shared by the Asian banks are the ones being considered strongly today by the BIS itself, which as one can see has been commending Asia’s central bank bosses for jobs well done in their respective backyards.
There are more reforms that must be instituted however, which means that the earlier reforms should only be the start of a series of long-term changes in the banking and monetary systems. I subscribe to a global effort to ban banks from participating in portfolio investments so as not to repeat the catastrophe that hit certain big US banks that disappeared overnight during the height of the recent Great Recession there.
The more efficacious management of bankruptcies should also be put into order. We are right now witnessing a bank run in the Bangko Filipino, which seems to repeat old patterns. More stringent regulations ought to be put into place, as it is getting tiresome now to see bank runs every now and then.
Essential corporate governance reforms are among those that need to be accelerated in the banking and monetary systems. Bank mismanagements and hostile take-over of smaller banks by bigger ones are spooky phenomena within the banking community, which pose as challenges to regulators.
Let the banks and regulators keep tab of the gaps in the system and address them accordingly. Meantime, with a healthy banking situation now in place, banks can clearly become stakeholders in creating the boom situation in the Philippines, ASEAN, and the whole of Asia.
[Philippines, 17 March 2011]
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Come Visit E. Argonza’s blogs anytime!
Social Blogs:
IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com
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COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com
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ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com
Mixed Blends Blogs:
@MULTIPLY: http://efdargon.multiply.com
@FRIENDSTER: http://erleargonza.blog.friendster.com
@SOULCAST: http://www.soulcast.com/efdargon
Good day to you fellow global citizens!
The world reels anarchic over the geological ramblings in Japan-New Zealand-China and the tumult of the Arab peoples. These events cast veils on the clarity of the economic boom now going on in Asia, and so let me be among those who will project the boom side every now and then. Among such good news is the readiness of Asian banks for the bigger economic battles ahead, a trend that includes the Philippines’ banks.
Do recall that the Asian financial meltdown came in ’97, triggering recessions, mass lay-offs, manufacturing slumps, and heightened poverty. The policy environment then was one of free trade in the movements of finance and money across borders, which enticed portfolio capital to swamp Asia. Regulators were therefore caught off guard by the currency attacks fomented by the Anglo-European oligarchs fronted by the Quantum Group of George Soros.
Asia’s banks, monetary authorities, and financial stakeholders all learned precious lessons from that economic catastrophe. Short of establishing capital and monetary controls (such as what Mahathir did for Malaysia), Asian banks did institute quasi-regulatory reforms such as to raise banks’ reserve requirements, mop up excess liquidities when situation demands so, and finally fix caps on the asset requirements for banks.
The reforms instituted across the last fourteen (14) years since the meltdown paid off very handsomely for the commercial and universal banks in particular, as well as for strengthening central banks. It is important to ensure stabilization mechanisms in the said banks first of all, a pattern that will snowball in the thrift banks and rural banks.
As far as the Philippine republic is concerned, the latest situational reports do indicate very clearly the compass of a healthy banking overall. Total aggregate assets of commercial & universal banks exceeded P6 Trillions, deposits breached the P2.5 Trillions, and trust funds skyrocketed to past the P4 Trillion mark. Needless to say, our banks here are prepared for the big challenges, inclusive of financing big ticket Private-Public Partnership or PPP projects.
The same banks are very much prepared too for the latest regulatory requirements imposed by the BIS or Bank for International Settlements. The BIS adjustments are actually coming late in the day, as the said bank has been too Euro-centric for a long time. Were it not for the fiasco of the USA and European banks from 2007 through 2010, the BIS couldn’t have acted appropriately.
Western banks ought to admit it that they are learning the new adjustments from their Asian counterparts. And the lessons being shared by the Asian banks are the ones being considered strongly today by the BIS itself, which as one can see has been commending Asia’s central bank bosses for jobs well done in their respective backyards.
There are more reforms that must be instituted however, which means that the earlier reforms should only be the start of a series of long-term changes in the banking and monetary systems. I subscribe to a global effort to ban banks from participating in portfolio investments so as not to repeat the catastrophe that hit certain big US banks that disappeared overnight during the height of the recent Great Recession there.
The more efficacious management of bankruptcies should also be put into order. We are right now witnessing a bank run in the Bangko Filipino, which seems to repeat old patterns. More stringent regulations ought to be put into place, as it is getting tiresome now to see bank runs every now and then.
Essential corporate governance reforms are among those that need to be accelerated in the banking and monetary systems. Bank mismanagements and hostile take-over of smaller banks by bigger ones are spooky phenomena within the banking community, which pose as challenges to regulators.
Let the banks and regulators keep tab of the gaps in the system and address them accordingly. Meantime, with a healthy banking situation now in place, banks can clearly become stakeholders in creating the boom situation in the Philippines, ASEAN, and the whole of Asia.
[Philippines, 17 March 2011]
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Come Visit E. Argonza’s blogs anytime!
Social Blogs:
IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com
Wisdom/Spiritual Blogs:
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com
Poetry & Art Blogs:
ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com
Mixed Blends Blogs:
@MULTIPLY: http://efdargon.multiply.com
@FRIENDSTER: http://erleargonza.blog.friendster.com
@SOULCAST: http://www.soulcast.com/efdargon
Thursday, March 17, 2011
MADNESS IN WISCONSIN: HARDLINERS JUNK LABOR RIGHTS
Erle Frayne D. Argonza
Madness masquerades as rational-legal in today’s postmodern context. The fiasco over the collective bargaining issue in Wisconsin, a state in the USA, is strong evidence of the erasure of the boundary between madness and rationality.
Industrial relations modalities of the moment have already graduated to a higher ground since the early days of management science. During those ancient days—of the likes of Taylor, Fayol, Weber—it was still customary to debate over how management should treat labor. Times have changed since then.
Collective bargaining as a sacrosanct ‘best practice’ has attained granite-rock acceptance as a social technology. It is the bedrock of industrial relations or IR. Needless to say, it had ceased to be an issue whether to accept that collective bargaining has full import in inducing productivity, efficacy, and efficiency in the work sphere.
As a social technology expert and analyst, it surely comes as a shock to me that collective bargaining has been put on the drawing board of decisional chips in a state of the USA, and debated whether it should even exist in that state at all. As far as the Philippines is concerned, where industrial peace has prevailed for two (2) decades now, collective bargaining is a sacrosanct tool, even as it is underpinned by human development paradigm championed by global institutions such as the ILO.
Even when Martial Law prevailed in the Philippines—under dictator Marcos—trilateral talk between state, market (business), and trade unions (civil society) was already at the height of institutionalization. It was followed through by best practices of labor-management dialogue in the micro-setting that led eventually to the industrial peace we are now experiencing here.
The same best practices were highly lauded by the International Labor Organization or ILO, and were adopted as some of the core practices recommended by the same magnanimous body to its member countries. Those same practices were hatched in the University of the Philippines’ School of Labor Industrial Relations or SOLAIR, an institution that had championed the generation of social technologies for the work environment.
The move by Jurassic politicians in Wisconsin, who maneuvered to junk collective bargaining supposedly to prime the state’s coffers and enable the payment of $3 Billions of debts, betrays a lack of understanding of the human condition and IR best practices. That the work force of Wisconsin has to serve as sacrificial lamb to be able to pay debts shows the degenerative madness that has permeated the mental banks of the politicians there.
I can only state one word to describe the Wisconsin condition: appalling! The protesting professionals and workers there were right when they said that the world is watching the Wisconsin fiasco, and yes indeed we are watching. There is no way we can allow a domino effect of that political madness to other democracies, and I do hope my own fellow Filipinos in America will make a strong voice in protest over such a madness by conscienceless policians.
Such madness is indicative of the Fascism that had encroached in almost all known sectors of the United States, a mindset that almost justified a martial law by the former president Bush. To use democratic institutions (e.g. legislation) in order to stifle workers’ rights is plain fascistic behavior, and should be exposed and junked pronto before the fascistic precedent spreads to other countries.
The hardliner politicians in Wisconsin better go back to their kindergarten lessons and get some crash courses in industrial relations, if it isn’t too late a thing to do this corrective measure. They should also be reminded of the lessons of America’s history, whereby the Civil War erupted precisely because of polarization over how to treat human resources there: whether to enslave or to free the colored peoples of the south.
[Philippines, 11 March 2011]
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Come Visit E. Argonza’s blogs anytime!
Social Blogs:
IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com
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ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com
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Monday, March 07, 2011
TAIWAN: QUACK DEMOCRACY, POTENTIAL ABOMINATION
Erle Frayne D. Argonza
In the late 1990s, the Filipinos were aghast over the discovery of factories—owned by Taiwanese “businessmen”—that employed children as slave labor. The children were practically housed in cages, and brought out only to work and be fed, then brought back at night to their cage sleeping quarters. Needless to say, the mere tots were never paid for their labor and lived wretchedness like the way the Chinese suffered in the hands of the Kuomintang.
There is no need to belabor the concluding event about the matter: the closure of the criminal factories. After being rescued, the children narrated their harrowing experiences in the hands of their criminal employers—Taiwanese to stress the point—who, as we all know, are scions of the predatory fascist Kuomintangs of their pariah province of Taiwan.
Knowing the history of Kuomintangs—who mass slaughtered 30 Million+ Chinese women, children, old folks and helpless non-combatants during their incumbency as China’s rulers—I wouldn’t be surprised if the Taiwanese of today exude toxic levels of arrogance and hubris in relating to peoples of other countries. Nay, they behave like they own every country that would host them in their seemingly legal businesses!
Taiwan has been exhibiting nauseating quackery as a democracy and nation. Scions of criminal mass slaughterers, who are likewise a collective den of predatory criminal Triads, can never be expected to exhibit maximum civility save that for diplomacy’s sake they would feign civility and sense of culture.
Nations of the world are right all along in bestowing recognition of a single China, via a One China Policy. Such a bestowal on China of what is a true nation and harbinger of civility is the most appropriate action of genuine nations and true democracies, a bestowal that they previously had for Taiwan but which they withdrew eventually upon the glowing of prudence in their respective mental banks.
With the withdrawal of recognition—as sovereign nation—on the pariah province of Taiwan came the diminution of chances for Taiwan to join associations or coalitions of nations. Being located in the southeast could have qualified Taiwan to become a member of ASEAN. Thanks God that prudence prevailed upon the true nations, and that undercut the mass slaughterers from potentially dominating ASEAN and unleashing the fangs of fascist hatreds and genocidal campaigns within the region!
In the absence of a formal recognition of nationhood, what Taiwan had accomplished instead was to unleash the horrific bomb of Triad criminality on its neighbors. Why not investigate for yourself those so-called Taiwanese businessmen in your own respective country and trace where their capital is coming from. Don’t ever be surprised if you’d find out ala Eureka! that the Taiwanese capitalists in your country or city are mere fronts for the demonic criminal Triads.
Taiwan is a pariah state, a criminal state for that matter, and should perpetually be treated as such. Nations across the globe are better advised to pull out their investments and expatriate workers from the predator province for their own sake. Pariah states are ‘bad feng shui’ for emerging markets particularly, or ‘cursed states’ in Christian parlance.
The abominations of the Chiang Kai Shek mass slaughterers have been well embedded in the collective psyche of the Taiwanese, exquisitely encrypted in the genes of the younger scions of the butchers, such abominations later to wake up upon a collective rousing at some time in the future.
Before Taiwan could ever breed a future ‘Taiwanese race’ of abominations, the nations of the world already acted prudently enough. For indeed a scion of an abomination will in the future be an abomination likewise, and there will be no telling what predatory monstrosities such a race will unleash on the nations of the world.
To the Filipinos who are employed in Taiwan today, better craft your respective contingency plan to move out of the pariah province. Before the fate of the sardine-producing children enslaved by Taiwanese businessmen will strike you mercilessly, better come home. Go elsewhere to seek gainful employment back home or in any country other than Taiwan.
[Philippines, 01 March 2011]
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Social Blogs:
IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com
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In the late 1990s, the Filipinos were aghast over the discovery of factories—owned by Taiwanese “businessmen”—that employed children as slave labor. The children were practically housed in cages, and brought out only to work and be fed, then brought back at night to their cage sleeping quarters. Needless to say, the mere tots were never paid for their labor and lived wretchedness like the way the Chinese suffered in the hands of the Kuomintang.
There is no need to belabor the concluding event about the matter: the closure of the criminal factories. After being rescued, the children narrated their harrowing experiences in the hands of their criminal employers—Taiwanese to stress the point—who, as we all know, are scions of the predatory fascist Kuomintangs of their pariah province of Taiwan.
Knowing the history of Kuomintangs—who mass slaughtered 30 Million+ Chinese women, children, old folks and helpless non-combatants during their incumbency as China’s rulers—I wouldn’t be surprised if the Taiwanese of today exude toxic levels of arrogance and hubris in relating to peoples of other countries. Nay, they behave like they own every country that would host them in their seemingly legal businesses!
Taiwan has been exhibiting nauseating quackery as a democracy and nation. Scions of criminal mass slaughterers, who are likewise a collective den of predatory criminal Triads, can never be expected to exhibit maximum civility save that for diplomacy’s sake they would feign civility and sense of culture.
Nations of the world are right all along in bestowing recognition of a single China, via a One China Policy. Such a bestowal on China of what is a true nation and harbinger of civility is the most appropriate action of genuine nations and true democracies, a bestowal that they previously had for Taiwan but which they withdrew eventually upon the glowing of prudence in their respective mental banks.
With the withdrawal of recognition—as sovereign nation—on the pariah province of Taiwan came the diminution of chances for Taiwan to join associations or coalitions of nations. Being located in the southeast could have qualified Taiwan to become a member of ASEAN. Thanks God that prudence prevailed upon the true nations, and that undercut the mass slaughterers from potentially dominating ASEAN and unleashing the fangs of fascist hatreds and genocidal campaigns within the region!
In the absence of a formal recognition of nationhood, what Taiwan had accomplished instead was to unleash the horrific bomb of Triad criminality on its neighbors. Why not investigate for yourself those so-called Taiwanese businessmen in your own respective country and trace where their capital is coming from. Don’t ever be surprised if you’d find out ala Eureka! that the Taiwanese capitalists in your country or city are mere fronts for the demonic criminal Triads.
Taiwan is a pariah state, a criminal state for that matter, and should perpetually be treated as such. Nations across the globe are better advised to pull out their investments and expatriate workers from the predator province for their own sake. Pariah states are ‘bad feng shui’ for emerging markets particularly, or ‘cursed states’ in Christian parlance.
The abominations of the Chiang Kai Shek mass slaughterers have been well embedded in the collective psyche of the Taiwanese, exquisitely encrypted in the genes of the younger scions of the butchers, such abominations later to wake up upon a collective rousing at some time in the future.
Before Taiwan could ever breed a future ‘Taiwanese race’ of abominations, the nations of the world already acted prudently enough. For indeed a scion of an abomination will in the future be an abomination likewise, and there will be no telling what predatory monstrosities such a race will unleash on the nations of the world.
To the Filipinos who are employed in Taiwan today, better craft your respective contingency plan to move out of the pariah province. Before the fate of the sardine-producing children enslaved by Taiwanese businessmen will strike you mercilessly, better come home. Go elsewhere to seek gainful employment back home or in any country other than Taiwan.
[Philippines, 01 March 2011]
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Social Blogs:
IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com
Wisdom/Spiritual Blogs:
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com
Poetry & Art Blogs:
ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com
Mixed Blends Blogs:
@FRIENDSTER: http://erleargonza.blog.friendster.com
@SOULCAST: http://www.soulcast.com/efdargon
Website & Mixed Blogs:
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Saturday, March 05, 2011
ARAB SHEIKHS BEWARE THE IDES OF MARCH!
Erle Frayne D. Argonza
The month of March just commenced as I write this note. It seems that, as of this writing, the ancient echoes of history are reminding the archaic royal states of pan-Arabia of the cryptic message “beware the Ides of March!”
The tumult of pan-Arabia (all territories covered by Arabs of diverse ethnicities) is clearly sweeping the dirt of the ancien regime, regardless of the nature of the states there: republic or archaic (monarchic). The rousing of awareness affects the young generation in particular, no matter what class, ethnicity, or sect they belong to.
So rapid are the unfolding events, and without the proper framework to comprehend what’s going on, the despots and autocrats of pan-Arabia are at a lost as to the proper comprehension of the phenomenon. In the absence of an appropriate framework, the royal rulers have to undertake a drastic palliative of giving respective families some large alms of welfare gifts.
Almost nine (9) quarters of a century ago, the last queen of France, Marie Antoinette, provided the same palliative: by giving cakes to the poor folks in order to deter their involvement in popular risings. Welfare gifts of today are similar to the cakes of Marie Antoinette. Let the sheikhs be reminded that Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVII were beheaded before the public, an event that foreshadowed what would happen to the various other archaic regimes across the globe, no matter if they gave away tons of cakes in case.
While the overthrown Saudi king and/or Arab sheikhs may not be physically decapitated after their removal from power, the fate of the late French monarchs signifies the decapitation of the monarchic power altogether. Which means that, in the short run, all the remaining archaic states in pan-Arabia will be effectively decapitated, and conditions made so hard for a revival of the ancien regime.
If asked for an honest opinion, my perspective on the matter makes me supportive of a republican form (structure) of government for all Arab states. Archaic regimes in pan-Arabia have been integrated into the power nexus of the Anglo-European oligarchy that has been planning to wage a World War III very soon by pitting a Sunni-Jewish alliance versus a Persia/Iran-led coalition.
Saudi Arabia has particularly been arming itself to the hilt, while Syria and Libya have already stockpiled themselves with the arsenals. All done in preparation for the great war. Israel has been undertaking massive military exercises inside Romania, as it will be the core force tasked by the financier oligarchy to frontally attack Iran in the months ahead.
But the political-military context in pan-Arabia had so suddenly changed as a result of the turmoil. All of a sudden, the viability of launching a world war versus Iran has badly eroded. The primary problems of pan-Arabia today are the domestic ones, and so the global war has to be put in abeyance if not shelved altogether.
As I already cogitated in my earlier articles, it will be suicidal for Israel to go to war alone versus Iran & allies (Hezbollah, Hamas, contiguous countries). Not only that, with the changed context in Arab states, Israel has to re-tool itself to be able to understand the rapidly unfolding events and forecast whether the future Arab regimes will be reliable friends or unpredictable enemies.
Meanwhile, the month of March had arrived, and this month bodes ill for the despots and autocrats of pan-Arabia. Beware the Ides of March!
[Philippines, 01 March 2011]
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Come Visit E. Argonza’s blogs anytime!
Social Blogs:
IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com
Wisdom/Spiritual Blogs:
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com
Poetry & Art Blogs:
ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com
Mixed Blends Blogs:
@FRIENDSTER: http://erleargonza.blog.friendster.com
@SOULCAST: http://www.soulcast.com/efdargon
Website & Mixed Blogs:
MULTIPLY: http://efdargon.multiply.com
The month of March just commenced as I write this note. It seems that, as of this writing, the ancient echoes of history are reminding the archaic royal states of pan-Arabia of the cryptic message “beware the Ides of March!”
The tumult of pan-Arabia (all territories covered by Arabs of diverse ethnicities) is clearly sweeping the dirt of the ancien regime, regardless of the nature of the states there: republic or archaic (monarchic). The rousing of awareness affects the young generation in particular, no matter what class, ethnicity, or sect they belong to.
So rapid are the unfolding events, and without the proper framework to comprehend what’s going on, the despots and autocrats of pan-Arabia are at a lost as to the proper comprehension of the phenomenon. In the absence of an appropriate framework, the royal rulers have to undertake a drastic palliative of giving respective families some large alms of welfare gifts.
Almost nine (9) quarters of a century ago, the last queen of France, Marie Antoinette, provided the same palliative: by giving cakes to the poor folks in order to deter their involvement in popular risings. Welfare gifts of today are similar to the cakes of Marie Antoinette. Let the sheikhs be reminded that Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVII were beheaded before the public, an event that foreshadowed what would happen to the various other archaic regimes across the globe, no matter if they gave away tons of cakes in case.
While the overthrown Saudi king and/or Arab sheikhs may not be physically decapitated after their removal from power, the fate of the late French monarchs signifies the decapitation of the monarchic power altogether. Which means that, in the short run, all the remaining archaic states in pan-Arabia will be effectively decapitated, and conditions made so hard for a revival of the ancien regime.
If asked for an honest opinion, my perspective on the matter makes me supportive of a republican form (structure) of government for all Arab states. Archaic regimes in pan-Arabia have been integrated into the power nexus of the Anglo-European oligarchy that has been planning to wage a World War III very soon by pitting a Sunni-Jewish alliance versus a Persia/Iran-led coalition.
Saudi Arabia has particularly been arming itself to the hilt, while Syria and Libya have already stockpiled themselves with the arsenals. All done in preparation for the great war. Israel has been undertaking massive military exercises inside Romania, as it will be the core force tasked by the financier oligarchy to frontally attack Iran in the months ahead.
But the political-military context in pan-Arabia had so suddenly changed as a result of the turmoil. All of a sudden, the viability of launching a world war versus Iran has badly eroded. The primary problems of pan-Arabia today are the domestic ones, and so the global war has to be put in abeyance if not shelved altogether.
As I already cogitated in my earlier articles, it will be suicidal for Israel to go to war alone versus Iran & allies (Hezbollah, Hamas, contiguous countries). Not only that, with the changed context in Arab states, Israel has to re-tool itself to be able to understand the rapidly unfolding events and forecast whether the future Arab regimes will be reliable friends or unpredictable enemies.
Meanwhile, the month of March had arrived, and this month bodes ill for the despots and autocrats of pan-Arabia. Beware the Ides of March!
[Philippines, 01 March 2011]
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Come Visit E. Argonza’s blogs anytime!
Social Blogs:
IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com
Wisdom/Spiritual Blogs:
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com
Poetry & Art Blogs:
ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com
Mixed Blends Blogs:
@FRIENDSTER: http://erleargonza.blog.friendster.com
@SOULCAST: http://www.soulcast.com/efdargon
Website & Mixed Blogs:
MULTIPLY: http://efdargon.multiply.com
Thursday, February 24, 2011
KHADAFY IS DEMONIC!
Erle Frayne D. Argonza
Good evening to all fellow global citizens!
First of all, I extend my solidarity to all struggling Libyan pro-democracy people. Being among the youthful political activists that overthrew the dictator Marcos in my beloved Philippines twenty-five years ago, I do identify well with the young patriots of Libya and Arab states that are clamoring for democratic governance via civil dis-obedience or ‘people power’.
As to the Jurassic perpetual president of Libya, Col. Moammar Khadafy, I have only a single word to describe him today: DEMONIC! Khadafy had ceased to be a human being, had crossed over to the terrain of the demonic, and had lost all sense of touch with reality in his country and the planet.
I couldn’t say exactly as to the precise time that Khadafy had been dominated by his own Inner Demon. He could have very well been formerly human, but judging by the way he exhibited his cruelty towards his very own people, he had ceased to be human at all.
Let it be clarified that I have no penchant for demonizing the estranged leader of Libya. On the contrary, I was once among those who sympathized with Khadafy and the socialist movement that he led. His movement overthrew the archaic state of Libya and replaced it with a republican form, albeit under his authoritarian stewardship.
Being then enamored to militant nationalist 3rd world movements that veered towards the Left, I strived hard to study the same movements and the ideologies that underpinned them. I was likewise involved with a domestic nationalist movement here in Filipinas.
From a cousin of mine did I receive a copy of Khadafy’s ‘green book’, which to my own amusement espoused an Arab form of socialism. Khadafy was well attuned to the secular nationalist to socialist ideologies then raging popularly among Arabs, exemplified by the Ba’ath Party ideology.
But time had elapsed, and the ideological trappings of the patriotic dictators of Arab lands have ossified. Entrenched in power for so long, there was only greed and lust for power, aside from lust for blood, that characterized the governance by the said authoritarian regimes.
From ‘green book’ socialism to militaristic obscurantism, Khadafy’s incumbency has borne witness to the shift from rational-legal modality to the Demonic Mind. To direct air force planes to bombard peaceful demonstrators, on top of the savage gunning down of the same protesters by blood-thirsty troops, is indicative of the lost of touch with conscience and reason.
Khadafi and his close minions are no longer human beings and should by all means be overthrown from power. Not only that, they should be tried for war crimes by the United Nations or equivalent international body. They should pay heavily for their crimes against the Libyan nation.
I won’t be surprised if, at this very moment, more sane minds in Africa are now hatching contingency measures such as to send a continentally-sanctioned invasion force to flash out the dirty & demonic regime of Khadafy. Africa should act fast and sweepingly decisive and demonstrate the same political will that it exhibited to flash out demonic regimes such as the previous genocidal regime of Rwanda.
Such an option is only a contingency ‘plan B’ option and need not be resorted to. The people of Libya are getting the upper hand in the move to institute democracy in their nation, they represent the nation in fact, and the nation should be prevail over an unjust, demonic regime that had lost all legitimacy to govern.
Khadafi is not the Libyan nation, and the nation is not Khadafi.
Hail the pro-democracy youthful patriots of Libya! You shall overcome!
[Philippines, 22 February 2011]
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Come Visit E. Argonza’s blogs anytime!
Social Blogs:
IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com
Wisdom/Spiritual Blogs:
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com
Poetry & Art Blogs:
ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com
Mixed Blends Blogs:
@FRIENDSTER: http://erleargonza.blog.friendster.com
@SOULCAST: http://www.soulcast.com/efdargon
Website & Mixed Blogs:
MULTIPLY: http://efdargon.multiply.com
Good evening to all fellow global citizens!
First of all, I extend my solidarity to all struggling Libyan pro-democracy people. Being among the youthful political activists that overthrew the dictator Marcos in my beloved Philippines twenty-five years ago, I do identify well with the young patriots of Libya and Arab states that are clamoring for democratic governance via civil dis-obedience or ‘people power’.
As to the Jurassic perpetual president of Libya, Col. Moammar Khadafy, I have only a single word to describe him today: DEMONIC! Khadafy had ceased to be a human being, had crossed over to the terrain of the demonic, and had lost all sense of touch with reality in his country and the planet.
I couldn’t say exactly as to the precise time that Khadafy had been dominated by his own Inner Demon. He could have very well been formerly human, but judging by the way he exhibited his cruelty towards his very own people, he had ceased to be human at all.
Let it be clarified that I have no penchant for demonizing the estranged leader of Libya. On the contrary, I was once among those who sympathized with Khadafy and the socialist movement that he led. His movement overthrew the archaic state of Libya and replaced it with a republican form, albeit under his authoritarian stewardship.
Being then enamored to militant nationalist 3rd world movements that veered towards the Left, I strived hard to study the same movements and the ideologies that underpinned them. I was likewise involved with a domestic nationalist movement here in Filipinas.
From a cousin of mine did I receive a copy of Khadafy’s ‘green book’, which to my own amusement espoused an Arab form of socialism. Khadafy was well attuned to the secular nationalist to socialist ideologies then raging popularly among Arabs, exemplified by the Ba’ath Party ideology.
But time had elapsed, and the ideological trappings of the patriotic dictators of Arab lands have ossified. Entrenched in power for so long, there was only greed and lust for power, aside from lust for blood, that characterized the governance by the said authoritarian regimes.
From ‘green book’ socialism to militaristic obscurantism, Khadafy’s incumbency has borne witness to the shift from rational-legal modality to the Demonic Mind. To direct air force planes to bombard peaceful demonstrators, on top of the savage gunning down of the same protesters by blood-thirsty troops, is indicative of the lost of touch with conscience and reason.
Khadafi and his close minions are no longer human beings and should by all means be overthrown from power. Not only that, they should be tried for war crimes by the United Nations or equivalent international body. They should pay heavily for their crimes against the Libyan nation.
I won’t be surprised if, at this very moment, more sane minds in Africa are now hatching contingency measures such as to send a continentally-sanctioned invasion force to flash out the dirty & demonic regime of Khadafy. Africa should act fast and sweepingly decisive and demonstrate the same political will that it exhibited to flash out demonic regimes such as the previous genocidal regime of Rwanda.
Such an option is only a contingency ‘plan B’ option and need not be resorted to. The people of Libya are getting the upper hand in the move to institute democracy in their nation, they represent the nation in fact, and the nation should be prevail over an unjust, demonic regime that had lost all legitimacy to govern.
Khadafi is not the Libyan nation, and the nation is not Khadafi.
Hail the pro-democracy youthful patriots of Libya! You shall overcome!
[Philippines, 22 February 2011]
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Come Visit E. Argonza’s blogs anytime!
Social Blogs:
IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com
Wisdom/Spiritual Blogs:
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com
Poetry & Art Blogs:
ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com
Mixed Blends Blogs:
@FRIENDSTER: http://erleargonza.blog.friendster.com
@SOULCAST: http://www.soulcast.com/efdargon
Website & Mixed Blogs:
MULTIPLY: http://efdargon.multiply.com
Thursday, January 06, 2011
RE-ECHOING KUDOS TO PRESIDENT ROUSSEFF OF BRAZIL
Erle Frayne D. Argonza
Brazil and the world are all eyes today on the newly elected president who just took her oath as chief exec, the magnanimous lady Dilma Rousseff.
Rousseff replaces the very popular Lula da Silva who had to step down due to constitutional limits on presidential terms (2 terms only). Both leaders come from the same socialist party of Brazil, even as Rousseff once served as top cabinet aide of Lula, so we do expect a continuity of the redistributive policies of Lula.
A former guerilla, who was among the audacious patriots who dared to clash it out with the military dictatorships that were backed, or should we say installed by the U.S.A. She suffered incarceration and political torment, rose above those constrictions as democracy returned, and ascended to power like a phoenix.
To recall, Lula worked out to bring social equity to its fruition, the result of which enlarged the middle class in Brazil. Poverty alleviation programs have been churning out good results as more poor folks graduated to middle income status during his term. His government’s innovative cash transfer program is being copied by various countries in the world today including my own beloved Philippines.
Lula will surely be well remembered for his feats, and hopefully the socialist party that he belongs to will stand by those redistributive policies that were inspired foremost of all by socialist doctrines. For his feats, Lula became the world’s most popular and admired leader in the whole world, and put Brazil all the more at the center of the world’s global growth drivers.
We will all be missing Lula, the same way that we miss Mandela of South Africa. But no worry, there’s Lady Rousseff who will continue the Lula’s policies and programs and who will dare to innovate more in such areas as providing aid to developing countries that are in need. Rousseff will strengthen Brazil’s leadership in Latin America, enough to veer away the south from the hegemonistic bullying of the U.S.A.
I did echo my kudos to the honorable Rousseff after she won her electoral victory. Let me re-echo my greetings again:
Best wishes for you President Dilma Rousseff in your incumbency as chief executive of Brazil! Goodwill to all Brazilians! Mabuhay!
[Philippines, 04 January 2011]
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Come Visit E. Argonza’s blogs anytime!
Social Blogs:
IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com
Wisdom/Spiritual Blogs:
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com
Poetry & Art Blogs:
ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com
Mixed Blends Blogs:
@MULTIPLY: http://efdargon.multiply.com
@FRIENDSTER: http://erleargonza.blog.friendster.com
@SOULCAST: http://www.soulcast.com/efdargon
Wednesday, December 08, 2010
GLOBALIZING CHRISTMAS
Erle Frayne D. Argonza
Christmas is now nearing as of this writing. Christmas bell tolls, kids’ carols, merry songs & dances are now up in the air, inviting everyone else to share the spirit of fun and camaraderie.
A Christian and sectarian holiday Christmas is, no one doubts this. Granted that Christmas is a sectarian affair, is it possible to transform it into a global/universal, multi-cultural event? There are apparently two (2) perspectives that clash concerning the matter.
From the point of view of fundamentalist, ultra-conservative church practitioners, whether Christian or non-Christian, Christmas is a sectarian affair and should not veer into cultural spaces not meant for its observation. A Muslim fundamentalist would throw monkey wrench at any attempt to globalize Christmas, and the same may be true for those fundamentalists of other denominations.
From the vantage point of a non-fundamentalist, cosmopolitan person, Christmas is one occasion that Christians can share to others. It is a multi-cultural affair, and it belongs to the whole of humanity for that matter. Ergo, everyone on Earth better attunes to the Christmas spirit and feel the ‘family of mankind’ fraternal bonds that the affair espouses.
As to where I stand in that polarity of perspectives, I am among those who wish to share the Christmas spirit as a multi-cultural blessing. Born a Catholic, but now a freethinker who espouses post-church spirituality, I remain attuned to the Christmas holidays just the same for the reasons stated above.
Christianity is a cult of Jesus, and I will have nothing to do with following or propagating such a cult. Esoteric Christianity, however, isn’t the same as the folk Christianity of the flocks who regard Jesus as a cult figure, and I squarely stand on the grounds of this mystical version of Christianity.
Esoteric Christianity teaches universal brotherhood among its core lessons. Universal brotherhood, a battle cry of cosmopolitan esotericists, is still a very valid principle to stand up for. It is the ethos that permits a soul to go beyond the bounds of sectarian precepts, embrace fellow humans as co-family members, and build a culture of dialogue across the planet.
I do hope that the more cosmopolitan Christians would consciously invite non-Christians to be part of the holidays, truly embrace their non-Christian brothers and sisters, and allow the latter to participate in such year-end party rituals as gift-giving. And, invite the non-Christians to 24th of December midnight gathering, where they can sit by the Christmas tree and partake of the food blessings for the occasion.
Non-Christians who may not be invited by Christians in their homes on the 24th & 25th of December can also go ahead and celebrate the affair with their families and friends on the said dates. Nothing is wrong for them to put up a Christmas tree at home and party on the 24th midnight and on the 25th of December. And, at the end of the month, celebrate New Year’s Eve too.
In the Philippines, the transformation of Christmas into a multi-cultural event has already been going on in the 60s till 1972. Unfortunately, the Mindanao War came, a Christian-Muslim schism was propagated, and Muslims became reluctant to celebrate Christmas with their brethrens among Christians.
I just hope that the tide of cleavages is now ebbing and ceasing. We formally recognize Muslim and Chinese occasions in this country, and so it would be fitting for all Filipinos including Chinese and Muslims to celebrate Christmas as well. By Chinese I refer to those Chinese who are Buddhist, Daoist, atheist, or non-Christian.
The occasions for Christmas parties are now going on, from one organization to another, and so it is best for us all to participate in these events. And, comes the 24th-25th of the month, celebrate Christmas at home as a ritual occasion to solidify family bonds. Then, comes the New Year’s Eve, celebrate with a Big Bang accompanying a party or gathering.
Peace be with you! Advanced Happy Holidays!
[Philippines, 08 December 2010]
[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com,
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]
Christmas is now nearing as of this writing. Christmas bell tolls, kids’ carols, merry songs & dances are now up in the air, inviting everyone else to share the spirit of fun and camaraderie.
A Christian and sectarian holiday Christmas is, no one doubts this. Granted that Christmas is a sectarian affair, is it possible to transform it into a global/universal, multi-cultural event? There are apparently two (2) perspectives that clash concerning the matter.
From the point of view of fundamentalist, ultra-conservative church practitioners, whether Christian or non-Christian, Christmas is a sectarian affair and should not veer into cultural spaces not meant for its observation. A Muslim fundamentalist would throw monkey wrench at any attempt to globalize Christmas, and the same may be true for those fundamentalists of other denominations.
From the vantage point of a non-fundamentalist, cosmopolitan person, Christmas is one occasion that Christians can share to others. It is a multi-cultural affair, and it belongs to the whole of humanity for that matter. Ergo, everyone on Earth better attunes to the Christmas spirit and feel the ‘family of mankind’ fraternal bonds that the affair espouses.
As to where I stand in that polarity of perspectives, I am among those who wish to share the Christmas spirit as a multi-cultural blessing. Born a Catholic, but now a freethinker who espouses post-church spirituality, I remain attuned to the Christmas holidays just the same for the reasons stated above.
Christianity is a cult of Jesus, and I will have nothing to do with following or propagating such a cult. Esoteric Christianity, however, isn’t the same as the folk Christianity of the flocks who regard Jesus as a cult figure, and I squarely stand on the grounds of this mystical version of Christianity.
Esoteric Christianity teaches universal brotherhood among its core lessons. Universal brotherhood, a battle cry of cosmopolitan esotericists, is still a very valid principle to stand up for. It is the ethos that permits a soul to go beyond the bounds of sectarian precepts, embrace fellow humans as co-family members, and build a culture of dialogue across the planet.
I do hope that the more cosmopolitan Christians would consciously invite non-Christians to be part of the holidays, truly embrace their non-Christian brothers and sisters, and allow the latter to participate in such year-end party rituals as gift-giving. And, invite the non-Christians to 24th of December midnight gathering, where they can sit by the Christmas tree and partake of the food blessings for the occasion.
Non-Christians who may not be invited by Christians in their homes on the 24th & 25th of December can also go ahead and celebrate the affair with their families and friends on the said dates. Nothing is wrong for them to put up a Christmas tree at home and party on the 24th midnight and on the 25th of December. And, at the end of the month, celebrate New Year’s Eve too.
In the Philippines, the transformation of Christmas into a multi-cultural event has already been going on in the 60s till 1972. Unfortunately, the Mindanao War came, a Christian-Muslim schism was propagated, and Muslims became reluctant to celebrate Christmas with their brethrens among Christians.
I just hope that the tide of cleavages is now ebbing and ceasing. We formally recognize Muslim and Chinese occasions in this country, and so it would be fitting for all Filipinos including Chinese and Muslims to celebrate Christmas as well. By Chinese I refer to those Chinese who are Buddhist, Daoist, atheist, or non-Christian.
The occasions for Christmas parties are now going on, from one organization to another, and so it is best for us all to participate in these events. And, comes the 24th-25th of the month, celebrate Christmas at home as a ritual occasion to solidify family bonds. Then, comes the New Year’s Eve, celebrate with a Big Bang accompanying a party or gathering.
Peace be with you! Advanced Happy Holidays!
[Philippines, 08 December 2010]
[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com,
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]
PHILIPPINES & ASIA CHEER UP GLOBAL ECONOMY FOR 2011
Erle Frayne D. Argonza
The yearend Holidays are now nearing, and so we all better cheer up for the forthcoming holiday season. As early as November, Christmas trees and gigantic lanterns were already set up in malls and public places in the Philippines, a very thoughtful way of demonstrating love and generosity.
There is much reason for the global economy to cheer up for 2011 as indicated by our own very optimistic business environment and national economy here in the Philippines. Our region ASEAN is mightily growing at robust rates, India and Korea are doing good, and China is very heatedly growing.
As already discussed by various analysts and writers, ASEAN + China + India + South Korea—dubbed as ‘Asian economy’—have been the growth drivers of the global economy as a whole. High growth rates, well managed liquidities, healthy macro-economic fundamentals, and high foreign exchange reserves all converge as multi-factor drivers of growth in Asia. As a result, consumption is still moving up here, thus compounding the growth toward sustained heights all the more.
The Philippines has its own good news to share to the globe. A ‘Santa Claus’ list of glad tidings shows the following:
Philippine currency is the 2nd best in Asia. Strong and trustable, even treasuries and bonds denominated in Peso are selling like hot potatoes.
Foreign Exchange Reserves are at an all-time high of $56+ Billion (end of October), enough to buy almost a year of merchandise imports.
Growth rate as of the 1st two (2) quarters was at a whopping 7.9%, showing mightily good production levels. Yearend growth rate would be no less than 6.5% at the minimum, a figure that will be sustained well through 2011 and beyond.
Local bourse has hit a high-time figure of 4,200+ points recently. This is way above the psychological breakpoint of 2,000 points (that now looks very Jurassic), and will optimistically breach 5,000 points by 2011.
Overall GDP per capita (nominal) will breach $2,000 and will move up rapidly to the next levels over the next few years. Purchasing power parity or PPP per capita will exceed $10,000 around 2013-‘14.
State wages have been moving up by 15% per annum consistently for couples of years now. This move drives up private sector wages as well. Wages will again move up in strides from 2011 to 2016.
Inflation has been reduced down further, and will stay comfortably at the 2.5%-3.5% range by 2011. This is welcome news for a nation that is so fed up with hyper-inflations in the ‘80s and ‘90s.
Unemployment has been going down steadily, and will be at a manageable level of 8% or lower by 2011. Rising growth rate can then be sufficient to address the other problem of underemployment.
Exports and imports, or foreign trade, have returned to pre-global recession levels, thus contributing to more employment and higher wages.
Filipino businessmen’s investments overseas have moved up, and will continue to expand in 2011 and beyond. These contribute to overseas remittances and employment of Filipino labor and experts abroad.
The list is longer than the above-stated, though suffice us to take note of that short list. Those items are fundamental to sustaining the economic machine year by year, reduce poverty till the middle class dominates the population, and shoot up human development to notches higher than today’s indices.
Japan, USA and EU are on economic fires but the dampening situations there won’t totally hurt the global economy. Emerging markets have done their best to insulate themselves against the fiascos and fires of the northern economies, thus enabling them to serve as the hope of the world.
The cheery environment of Asia should better be the one focused upon by our global citizens, a cheer that serves as the ‘Santa Claus grin’ of the global economy as a whole for this year and the ones forthcoming.
[Philippines, 06 December 2010]
[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com,
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]
The yearend Holidays are now nearing, and so we all better cheer up for the forthcoming holiday season. As early as November, Christmas trees and gigantic lanterns were already set up in malls and public places in the Philippines, a very thoughtful way of demonstrating love and generosity.
There is much reason for the global economy to cheer up for 2011 as indicated by our own very optimistic business environment and national economy here in the Philippines. Our region ASEAN is mightily growing at robust rates, India and Korea are doing good, and China is very heatedly growing.
As already discussed by various analysts and writers, ASEAN + China + India + South Korea—dubbed as ‘Asian economy’—have been the growth drivers of the global economy as a whole. High growth rates, well managed liquidities, healthy macro-economic fundamentals, and high foreign exchange reserves all converge as multi-factor drivers of growth in Asia. As a result, consumption is still moving up here, thus compounding the growth toward sustained heights all the more.
The Philippines has its own good news to share to the globe. A ‘Santa Claus’ list of glad tidings shows the following:
Philippine currency is the 2nd best in Asia. Strong and trustable, even treasuries and bonds denominated in Peso are selling like hot potatoes.
Foreign Exchange Reserves are at an all-time high of $56+ Billion (end of October), enough to buy almost a year of merchandise imports.
Growth rate as of the 1st two (2) quarters was at a whopping 7.9%, showing mightily good production levels. Yearend growth rate would be no less than 6.5% at the minimum, a figure that will be sustained well through 2011 and beyond.
Local bourse has hit a high-time figure of 4,200+ points recently. This is way above the psychological breakpoint of 2,000 points (that now looks very Jurassic), and will optimistically breach 5,000 points by 2011.
Overall GDP per capita (nominal) will breach $2,000 and will move up rapidly to the next levels over the next few years. Purchasing power parity or PPP per capita will exceed $10,000 around 2013-‘14.
State wages have been moving up by 15% per annum consistently for couples of years now. This move drives up private sector wages as well. Wages will again move up in strides from 2011 to 2016.
Inflation has been reduced down further, and will stay comfortably at the 2.5%-3.5% range by 2011. This is welcome news for a nation that is so fed up with hyper-inflations in the ‘80s and ‘90s.
Unemployment has been going down steadily, and will be at a manageable level of 8% or lower by 2011. Rising growth rate can then be sufficient to address the other problem of underemployment.
Exports and imports, or foreign trade, have returned to pre-global recession levels, thus contributing to more employment and higher wages.
Filipino businessmen’s investments overseas have moved up, and will continue to expand in 2011 and beyond. These contribute to overseas remittances and employment of Filipino labor and experts abroad.
The list is longer than the above-stated, though suffice us to take note of that short list. Those items are fundamental to sustaining the economic machine year by year, reduce poverty till the middle class dominates the population, and shoot up human development to notches higher than today’s indices.
Japan, USA and EU are on economic fires but the dampening situations there won’t totally hurt the global economy. Emerging markets have done their best to insulate themselves against the fiascos and fires of the northern economies, thus enabling them to serve as the hope of the world.
The cheery environment of Asia should better be the one focused upon by our global citizens, a cheer that serves as the ‘Santa Claus grin’ of the global economy as a whole for this year and the ones forthcoming.
[Philippines, 06 December 2010]
[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com,
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]
Friday, December 03, 2010
HUMAN RIGHTS AGOG IN BARBARITIES & MADNESS
Erle Frayne D. Argonza
Pleasant day to you all!
The Maoists in Manila have just released the update news that an activist (Left-leaning) is killed every week during the incumbency of President Aquino. Maoists constitute the largest Left group in the country, with an organized force large enough to participate in electoral contests and win legislative posts.
That report is surely a very revealing fact. Not only activists, but media men are also the target of summary executions and assassinations in this country, supposedly a bastion of free press in Asia.
Just recently, a topnotch botanist, Leonardo Co, was sprayed with automatic rifle bullets while conducting research on field, killing him and two of his associates. The army unit that is subject of investigation as culprits claimed that the research team was caught in a crossfire between state and rebel forces.
Human rights constitute a totality of entitlements that we have won after so many hard struggles. So much blood has been sacrificed just to make our world a livable one, blood poured to erect the edifices of prosperity, good working environments, balanced ecology, and exercise of our basic freedoms.
During the regime of the previous president Arroyo, an economist with a doctorate among her credentials, hundreds of human rights-related deaths, largely through summary executions by army and police forces, were recorded. No less than the United Nations Commission on Human Rights sent a team to investigate the human rights situation here, with the findings clearly indicating a bad situation for human rights.
Just recently, another team of experts, this time from the Human Rights Watch, did the investigations about the same theme, with focus on those committed in Mindanao. The feudal-fascistic Ampatuan family became the most focal subject of the research, with findings of gory stories of murders committed by Ampatuan politicians blindly intoxicated with power, using state paramilitary forces to commit heinous crimes.
It surely takes time for civility to take shape everywhere else in our planet. Even the bastions of democracy such as the Philippines fail in the tests of indicating successes in building human rights. In the USA, martial law was almost declared during the Bush era, a cryptic act that could have seen millions of Americans jailed and hundreds of thousands exterminated in concentration camps.
In Europe we are witness to the massive prejudices against immigrants, with Muslims appearing to be the key target of slanders and employment discriminations. Sarkozy expelled Romanian Gypsies just a few months ago, and he seems to watch with glee as his economy burns down like hell.
Power assymetries that we though would disappear with the advent of modernity, keep on being recycled in new forms. Rationality—authentic reason characteristic of authentic persons—is fading and giving way to Madness, as lamented by the contemporary philosophers.
Human right is synonymous to civilization, and the full respect of human rights can only happen in a society of rationality, wisdom, and universal love. Such a society operates on the culture of dialogue, the respect for differences, recognition of talents and competencies, and the essential respect for one’s humanity.
Sadly, such a society is not around yet, even as we need to do colossal spade works to build it. I still recall the likes of Jurgen Habermas, Erich Fromm, and Herbert Marcuse pontificate about the ‘sane society’, the ideal society that is rational, full of compassion (loving behavior), and productive. I resonate well with the minds of these thinkers who contended that no matter how bad the situation is, hope is there in building that culture of civility in a ‘sane society’.
Such a dream of building a future world can be done in a non-exclusionary way. Let us not tire in doing our spade works to build it.
[Philippines, 02 December 2010]
[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com,
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]
Pleasant day to you all!
The Maoists in Manila have just released the update news that an activist (Left-leaning) is killed every week during the incumbency of President Aquino. Maoists constitute the largest Left group in the country, with an organized force large enough to participate in electoral contests and win legislative posts.
That report is surely a very revealing fact. Not only activists, but media men are also the target of summary executions and assassinations in this country, supposedly a bastion of free press in Asia.
Just recently, a topnotch botanist, Leonardo Co, was sprayed with automatic rifle bullets while conducting research on field, killing him and two of his associates. The army unit that is subject of investigation as culprits claimed that the research team was caught in a crossfire between state and rebel forces.
Human rights constitute a totality of entitlements that we have won after so many hard struggles. So much blood has been sacrificed just to make our world a livable one, blood poured to erect the edifices of prosperity, good working environments, balanced ecology, and exercise of our basic freedoms.
During the regime of the previous president Arroyo, an economist with a doctorate among her credentials, hundreds of human rights-related deaths, largely through summary executions by army and police forces, were recorded. No less than the United Nations Commission on Human Rights sent a team to investigate the human rights situation here, with the findings clearly indicating a bad situation for human rights.
Just recently, another team of experts, this time from the Human Rights Watch, did the investigations about the same theme, with focus on those committed in Mindanao. The feudal-fascistic Ampatuan family became the most focal subject of the research, with findings of gory stories of murders committed by Ampatuan politicians blindly intoxicated with power, using state paramilitary forces to commit heinous crimes.
It surely takes time for civility to take shape everywhere else in our planet. Even the bastions of democracy such as the Philippines fail in the tests of indicating successes in building human rights. In the USA, martial law was almost declared during the Bush era, a cryptic act that could have seen millions of Americans jailed and hundreds of thousands exterminated in concentration camps.
In Europe we are witness to the massive prejudices against immigrants, with Muslims appearing to be the key target of slanders and employment discriminations. Sarkozy expelled Romanian Gypsies just a few months ago, and he seems to watch with glee as his economy burns down like hell.
Power assymetries that we though would disappear with the advent of modernity, keep on being recycled in new forms. Rationality—authentic reason characteristic of authentic persons—is fading and giving way to Madness, as lamented by the contemporary philosophers.
Human right is synonymous to civilization, and the full respect of human rights can only happen in a society of rationality, wisdom, and universal love. Such a society operates on the culture of dialogue, the respect for differences, recognition of talents and competencies, and the essential respect for one’s humanity.
Sadly, such a society is not around yet, even as we need to do colossal spade works to build it. I still recall the likes of Jurgen Habermas, Erich Fromm, and Herbert Marcuse pontificate about the ‘sane society’, the ideal society that is rational, full of compassion (loving behavior), and productive. I resonate well with the minds of these thinkers who contended that no matter how bad the situation is, hope is there in building that culture of civility in a ‘sane society’.
Such a dream of building a future world can be done in a non-exclusionary way. Let us not tire in doing our spade works to build it.
[Philippines, 02 December 2010]
[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com,
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]
WIKILEAKS ERODES REMAINING U.S. CREDIBILITY, WORLD POWER BULLYING IS OVER!
Erle Frayne D. Argonza
Dusk has begun to envelop my space as I write this piece. The WikiLeaks has been receiving a crescendo of publicities recently, as the leaked secrecies of the US diplomatic community has reached the big media players, eg. The Guardian. The devastating impact of the WikiLeaks on US credibility is now gnawing at the morsel of US governance itself, further exacerbating the already fragmentary situation of US governance institutions.
As I’ve been elucidating in articles of mine, the new millennium opened up with a context of multipolar world order, an emerging context that demanded re-carving of foreign policy architectures and the actual diplomatic dealings of world and regional powers with other nations. Sadly, the United States faired very badly in adjusting to the emerging context, as it chose the hawkish path of brinkmanship, unabashedly exhibited superpower arrogance, and bullied other nations into submitting to its diktats.
Take the case of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Rather than use the United Nations as the platform to contemplate and decide on the fates of the so-called “rogue” states, the US bamboozled its allies into submitting to its hawkish diktats, compelled them to join the “coalition of the willing,” or be identified with those who are “against us.” The hubris and arrogance of America’s leaders was captured emphatically in the finger-pointing George W. Bush whose madness exudes a demonically behaving sociopath.
The WikiLeaks disclosures have revealed to the world the true and honest perceptions of Americans towards the leaders and peoples of other nations. America’s diplomacy is but putting superficially sweet-looking mascara on top of the real thing: Saxon condescension on all peoples and nations of the planet. For Americans are truly of Anglo-Saxon psyche: the same marauding, pillaging, plundering, and destructive Saxons of antiquity whose very culture and psyche the Americans have inherited en toto.
Over a hundred years ago, upon America’s invasion and occupation of the Philippines, its leaders and negotiators already manifested the sordid duplicity that is markedly demonic. Presenting themselves before then president Aguinaldo as allies who’d help the Filipinos flash out Spain’s imperial forces, the Americans eventually ended up showing their true intentions by invading the country, an invasion that led to the deaths of almost a million Filipinos nationwide.
Having planted themselves well on Philippine soil deep up through the hinterlands, the conquering Americans than sang with gusto “Brown Monkeys with No Tails in Zamboanga” everywhere they went. So demonically condescending, you’d wonder whether the Anglo-Saxon Americans have ever truly modified their behavior across time.
It now seems, as the WikiLeaks aptly reveal, that America’s leaders and probably seconded by most of its people regard all other leaders and peoples as ‘monkeys with no tails’. For even those White leaders of the West do not escape the derision and philistine condescension of the Americans, coming at a time when the USA’s own western allies need them badly to help salve their ailing economies and stave off the possibility of a continent-wide protest movement that could lead to a new round of Spartacist anti-oligarchic revolution.
The likes of WikiLeaks do speak of new innovative ways of tech-oriented non-conventional means to battle the global oligarchy, beginning with the Anglo-American oligarchs and their political, technocratic, and military subalterns. Not only the USA but other world powers as well will not be spared from the scrutinizing vigilant eyes of concerned citizens who will disclose internal defense, diplomatic, big business, and related classified information, the effects of which will deal devastating blows on the images, credibility, and institutional strengths of entities and powers concerned.
Not just world powers but, again, the financier oligarchy will be de-fanged by the non-conventional attacks that will be waged against them via unveiling WikiLeak-type information. For world powers are mere footstools of the oligarchs. How I wish that the same modalities of disclosures will reveal the evils of the global elites, led by the Houses of Rothschilds and Rockefellers. Sooner or later, the world’s peoples must be made aware of the real nature of the elites and the world/regional powers as their puppet footstools.
The time for world power bullying has finally come to be reversed, with the advent of info-tech platforms for guerilla-type attacks versus the rich and powerful. America’s last bits of credibility are now being pulverized by the WikiLeaks disclosures, and it will just be a matter of time before those of other demonic world powers’ will follow.
[Philippines, 02 December 2010]
[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com,
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]
Dusk has begun to envelop my space as I write this piece. The WikiLeaks has been receiving a crescendo of publicities recently, as the leaked secrecies of the US diplomatic community has reached the big media players, eg. The Guardian. The devastating impact of the WikiLeaks on US credibility is now gnawing at the morsel of US governance itself, further exacerbating the already fragmentary situation of US governance institutions.
As I’ve been elucidating in articles of mine, the new millennium opened up with a context of multipolar world order, an emerging context that demanded re-carving of foreign policy architectures and the actual diplomatic dealings of world and regional powers with other nations. Sadly, the United States faired very badly in adjusting to the emerging context, as it chose the hawkish path of brinkmanship, unabashedly exhibited superpower arrogance, and bullied other nations into submitting to its diktats.
Take the case of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Rather than use the United Nations as the platform to contemplate and decide on the fates of the so-called “rogue” states, the US bamboozled its allies into submitting to its hawkish diktats, compelled them to join the “coalition of the willing,” or be identified with those who are “against us.” The hubris and arrogance of America’s leaders was captured emphatically in the finger-pointing George W. Bush whose madness exudes a demonically behaving sociopath.
The WikiLeaks disclosures have revealed to the world the true and honest perceptions of Americans towards the leaders and peoples of other nations. America’s diplomacy is but putting superficially sweet-looking mascara on top of the real thing: Saxon condescension on all peoples and nations of the planet. For Americans are truly of Anglo-Saxon psyche: the same marauding, pillaging, plundering, and destructive Saxons of antiquity whose very culture and psyche the Americans have inherited en toto.
Over a hundred years ago, upon America’s invasion and occupation of the Philippines, its leaders and negotiators already manifested the sordid duplicity that is markedly demonic. Presenting themselves before then president Aguinaldo as allies who’d help the Filipinos flash out Spain’s imperial forces, the Americans eventually ended up showing their true intentions by invading the country, an invasion that led to the deaths of almost a million Filipinos nationwide.
Having planted themselves well on Philippine soil deep up through the hinterlands, the conquering Americans than sang with gusto “Brown Monkeys with No Tails in Zamboanga” everywhere they went. So demonically condescending, you’d wonder whether the Anglo-Saxon Americans have ever truly modified their behavior across time.
It now seems, as the WikiLeaks aptly reveal, that America’s leaders and probably seconded by most of its people regard all other leaders and peoples as ‘monkeys with no tails’. For even those White leaders of the West do not escape the derision and philistine condescension of the Americans, coming at a time when the USA’s own western allies need them badly to help salve their ailing economies and stave off the possibility of a continent-wide protest movement that could lead to a new round of Spartacist anti-oligarchic revolution.
The likes of WikiLeaks do speak of new innovative ways of tech-oriented non-conventional means to battle the global oligarchy, beginning with the Anglo-American oligarchs and their political, technocratic, and military subalterns. Not only the USA but other world powers as well will not be spared from the scrutinizing vigilant eyes of concerned citizens who will disclose internal defense, diplomatic, big business, and related classified information, the effects of which will deal devastating blows on the images, credibility, and institutional strengths of entities and powers concerned.
Not just world powers but, again, the financier oligarchy will be de-fanged by the non-conventional attacks that will be waged against them via unveiling WikiLeak-type information. For world powers are mere footstools of the oligarchs. How I wish that the same modalities of disclosures will reveal the evils of the global elites, led by the Houses of Rothschilds and Rockefellers. Sooner or later, the world’s peoples must be made aware of the real nature of the elites and the world/regional powers as their puppet footstools.
The time for world power bullying has finally come to be reversed, with the advent of info-tech platforms for guerilla-type attacks versus the rich and powerful. America’s last bits of credibility are now being pulverized by the WikiLeaks disclosures, and it will just be a matter of time before those of other demonic world powers’ will follow.
[Philippines, 02 December 2010]
[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com,
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]
Friday, November 26, 2010
YOUR ESTEEMED RECOGNITION OF THIS BLOGGER WARMS THE HEART, THANKS!
Prof. Erle Frayne D. Argonza
November 2010
Felicitous greetings to you all!
Let me continue to reverb the message of a most heartfelt gratitude to you enthused readers and fellow analysts/writers who appreciate my notes on society, wisdom, and self-development.
My own eyes continue to witness the rise of end-users and discussants, as I visited the search engines to monitory those sites that have quoted or discoursed on my writings. My social blogs ensue being esteemed among the world’s top sociology blogs, warming up my heart ceaselessly.
With your impeccable appreciation and support of my cyber-crusade, information about me on the internet expanded by several folds.
Special thanks to the following online news, magazines and portals for citing my notes as among the top blogs on cyberspace:
http://thedailyreviewer.com
http://humanitariannews.org
http://www.nonprofit.org
http://sociology.alltop.com
http://clpl-india.com
http://pul.se
http://asiafinest.com
http://newestnews.net
http://topcityblogs.com
Thanks too to the following sites that have cited, discussed and debated on various notes of mine about a diversity of topics and themes:
http://adamsmithlegacy.com
http://alltop.com
http://artsandsciencesfilipiniana.blogspot.com
http://asean-society.org
http://awakento1.org
http://bedico.multiply.com
http://benjaminmangubat.multiply.com
http://blissnbaguio.multiply.com
http://blog.searchaid.info
http://blog-yemek-tarifi.com
http://boardreader.com
http://botd.wordpress.com
http://cantbustme.com
http://castasiaforum.org
http://cc.bingj.com
http://cewek-cantik.com
http://conceptsinproduction.com
http://connect.in.com
http://csmotes.com
http://culturalrelativism.blogspot.com
http://deepmarket.com
http://domainsbyip.com
http://dprogram.net
http://dumiabimdanbella.info
http://eastasiaforum.org
http://eeeph.netbooks.ph
http://en.wasalive.com
http://esthernababan.blogspot.com
http://eternalgodliness.punt.com
http://ewss.ifrance.com
http://extrafastnews.co.cc
http://facetopics.com
http://forum.prisonplanet.com
http://forumpolis.com
http://fototoday.net
http://garneringrightideas.com
http://globalbalita.com
http://groups.google.it
http://hubpages.com
http://iamretromanila.multiply.com
http://jeffmahonc.com
http://jk22.blogspot.com
http://josephparton.com
http://koha.nip.gov.ph
http://lanaodelsur.inetgiant.com.hp
http://leathernews.myip.org
http://lovingenergies.spruz.com
http://luciotanwatch.blogspot.com
http://marketingkristin.ning.com
http://maryraab.wordpress.com
http://mixx.com
http://mmsnews.cz.cc
http://mountzion.ning.com
http://nisim-tw.com
http://nonprofits.info
http://nuip.net
http://omgili.com
http://online-profitsnow.com
http://opitslinkfest.blogspot.com
http://origin-bx.businessweek.com
http://paper.li
http://peacocksandlilies.com
http://penditasuvarmabhuni.blogspot.com
http://petites-phrases.com
http://pipl.com
http://pirs08.webs.com
http://politekon.blogspot.com
http://psychicdirectory.wallwack.com
http://pulitika2010.wordpress.com
http://revspeech.proboards.com
http://r-domain.net
http://shopswissskydiver.net
http://surchur.com
http://tibak.freeserver.com
http://trendbuzz.com
http://tweetmeme.com
http://webpac.lib.nthu.ed.tw
http://wordsdomination.com
http://www.123people.com
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com
http://www.aidworkers.net
http://www.answerbag.co.uk
http://www.asean-society.net
http://www.asiafinest.com.br
http://www.ask.com
http://www.blogged.com
http://www.blogsope.net
http://www.buildhome.tizo.pl
http://www.carboncapturereport.org
http://www.cnn.com
http://www.davidicke.com
http://www.deepmarket.com
http://www.drunkduck.com
http://www.elib.gov.ph
http://www.familycommitment.org
http://www.finir.org
http://www.fiskedepan.se
http://www.godlikeproductions.com
http://www.hcrefund.com
http://www.icerocket.com
http://www.iyou.me
http://www.jamesoo.com
http://www.linkedin.com
http://www.longislandrealestatecentral.com
http://www.lowongankerjajulis.com
http://www.mb.com.ph
http://www.mixx.com
http://www.mode.org
http://www.mynewsdigest.com
http://www.onlineobchody.com
http://www.pakspectator.com
http://www.peekyou.com
http://www.pep.ph
http://www.pointsdevente.com
http://www.politicaltaxes.com
http://www.psychantenna.com
http://www.pubsub.com
http://www.rehabfromdrug.com
http://www.samepoint.com
http://www.spiritbond.com
http://www.tapatt.net
http://www.theakan.com
http://www.toluu.com
http://www.topix.com
http://www.untitledarchive.com
http://www.usforcenews.info
http://www.wallcloud.net
http://www.wealthyauthority.com
http://www.westpalmferrari.com
http://www.wopular.com
http://www.yasni.co.uk
http://www.zitrend.com
http://www.zoominfo.com
http://www3.mbl.sp1.yahoo.com
http://vd.finline.2y.net
http://yasamkadin.com
http://yoga-experts.info
Gracious thanks to you all! Mabuhay!
November 2010
Felicitous greetings to you all!
Let me continue to reverb the message of a most heartfelt gratitude to you enthused readers and fellow analysts/writers who appreciate my notes on society, wisdom, and self-development.
My own eyes continue to witness the rise of end-users and discussants, as I visited the search engines to monitory those sites that have quoted or discoursed on my writings. My social blogs ensue being esteemed among the world’s top sociology blogs, warming up my heart ceaselessly.
With your impeccable appreciation and support of my cyber-crusade, information about me on the internet expanded by several folds.
Special thanks to the following online news, magazines and portals for citing my notes as among the top blogs on cyberspace:
http://thedailyreviewer.com
http://humanitariannews.org
http://www.nonprofit.org
http://sociology.alltop.com
http://clpl-india.com
http://pul.se
http://asiafinest.com
http://newestnews.net
http://topcityblogs.com
Thanks too to the following sites that have cited, discussed and debated on various notes of mine about a diversity of topics and themes:
http://adamsmithlegacy.com
http://alltop.com
http://artsandsciencesfilipiniana.blogspot.com
http://asean-society.org
http://awakento1.org
http://bedico.multiply.com
http://benjaminmangubat.multiply.com
http://blissnbaguio.multiply.com
http://blog.searchaid.info
http://blog-yemek-tarifi.com
http://boardreader.com
http://botd.wordpress.com
http://cantbustme.com
http://castasiaforum.org
http://cc.bingj.com
http://cewek-cantik.com
http://conceptsinproduction.com
http://connect.in.com
http://csmotes.com
http://culturalrelativism.blogspot.com
http://deepmarket.com
http://domainsbyip.com
http://dprogram.net
http://dumiabimdanbella.info
http://eastasiaforum.org
http://eeeph.netbooks.ph
http://en.wasalive.com
http://esthernababan.blogspot.com
http://eternalgodliness.punt.com
http://ewss.ifrance.com
http://extrafastnews.co.cc
http://facetopics.com
http://forum.prisonplanet.com
http://forumpolis.com
http://fototoday.net
http://garneringrightideas.com
http://globalbalita.com
http://groups.google.it
http://hubpages.com
http://iamretromanila.multiply.com
http://jeffmahonc.com
http://jk22.blogspot.com
http://josephparton.com
http://koha.nip.gov.ph
http://lanaodelsur.inetgiant.com.hp
http://leathernews.myip.org
http://lovingenergies.spruz.com
http://luciotanwatch.blogspot.com
http://marketingkristin.ning.com
http://maryraab.wordpress.com
http://mixx.com
http://mmsnews.cz.cc
http://mountzion.ning.com
http://nisim-tw.com
http://nonprofits.info
http://nuip.net
http://omgili.com
http://online-profitsnow.com
http://opitslinkfest.blogspot.com
http://origin-bx.businessweek.com
http://paper.li
http://peacocksandlilies.com
http://penditasuvarmabhuni.blogspot.com
http://petites-phrases.com
http://pipl.com
http://pirs08.webs.com
http://politekon.blogspot.com
http://psychicdirectory.wallwack.com
http://pulitika2010.wordpress.com
http://revspeech.proboards.com
http://r-domain.net
http://shopswissskydiver.net
http://surchur.com
http://tibak.freeserver.com
http://trendbuzz.com
http://tweetmeme.com
http://webpac.lib.nthu.ed.tw
http://wordsdomination.com
http://www.123people.com
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com
http://www.aidworkers.net
http://www.answerbag.co.uk
http://www.asean-society.net
http://www.asiafinest.com.br
http://www.ask.com
http://www.blogged.com
http://www.blogsope.net
http://www.buildhome.tizo.pl
http://www.carboncapturereport.org
http://www.cnn.com
http://www.davidicke.com
http://www.deepmarket.com
http://www.drunkduck.com
http://www.elib.gov.ph
http://www.familycommitment.org
http://www.finir.org
http://www.fiskedepan.se
http://www.godlikeproductions.com
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Gracious thanks to you all! Mabuhay!
Thursday, November 04, 2010
ASEAN TRADE LIBERALIZATION, PREPS FOR 2015 UNION
Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago
Will the ASEAN ever achieve economic integration that its member states have long dreamed of? Being an advocate of ASEAN unification, let me once more share thoughts about my humble region.
Binding rules of tariff reforms are now in the offing for implementation this year across the region, a proof that the unification efforts are going on despite internal barriers. The original ASEAN 5 –Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand—are the most prepared for execution of the rules, while Brunei can test-case them as it has the resources to cushion off negative repercussions if ever.
Agreed, the continental countries that are catching up in their development—Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos—need some breather space of five (5) more years to be considered as executors of the same rules. They can catch up, rest assured, so collective trust should permit their self-confidence to propel themselves to high growth.
Economic integration can induce enormous growth and fast-track development in the region altogether. Pushing through with the integration would yield a result that no more member country would be poor by as early as 2020. In other worlds, every country would move on to middle income country status, fast-tracked in its growth momentum by the economic union.
Integration would go beyond tariff reforms, for a reminder. An economic union would need central institutions to note: (a) central bank, (b) regional currency, and (c) related regulatory institutions. Governance institutions, such as a regional parliament and executive council, can undergo deeper study and preparatory formation right after 2015 (political union will take a longer time to traverse).
As to a regional currency, do note that Asian countries have already agreed on a resolution to create an Asian Monetary Fund and an Asian currency. The former speaker of the Philippines’ House of Representatives, Speaker De Venecia, was a prime mover in getting the Asian states to agree on the matter. With him out of power now in the legislature, some other key personalities in Asia should take on the cudgels for implementing the resolutions.
There are surely kinks to be resolved in matters pertaining to economic sector priorities. ASEAN countries tend to compete with one another in certain manufactures and services, so the resolutions could yield an elimination of competition and/or concurring cooperation among the competitors concerned.
ASEAN integration is coming at a time of an evolving paradigm of mixed land use. This paradigm, on a macro-level, could justify well the existence of all key manufacturing and services in a member country, thus undercutting complaints about competition across borders.
Population-wise, the ASEAN will be 700 million head-strong before 2015, which renders the region as a gigantic one. Imagine if just half of the population will be middle income in status, the class that can sustain consumer spending across time. That would be a 350-million head count serving as the economic powerhouse at the household level!
In terms of aggregated Gross National Product or GNP, the figure is nearing $3 Trillions for the region. The prospect of the ASEAN overtaking Japan is no longer remote, a possibility that can happen before 2020. Such a possibility, however, can best happen should economic integration take place as scheduled, an eventuality that will render more focused managing of economic policies and governance reforms that will fast-track growth & development.
Meantime, we can only wish for now that the trade reforms will push through, thus resulting to a semi-integrated economy. The semi-integration will produce pronto a context of ‘import-substitution’ on a regional scale, which I think is a long-overdue goal in the region.
From hereon, ASEAN has only over four (4) years to resolve the last kinks, study the integration directions inclusive of institutional designs. It will be 2011 in just two months’ time, with we hope will be another auspicious year for the humble region and its noblesse diplomats, experts, and leaders.
[Philippines, 03 November 2010]
[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com,
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]
Will the ASEAN ever achieve economic integration that its member states have long dreamed of? Being an advocate of ASEAN unification, let me once more share thoughts about my humble region.
Binding rules of tariff reforms are now in the offing for implementation this year across the region, a proof that the unification efforts are going on despite internal barriers. The original ASEAN 5 –Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand—are the most prepared for execution of the rules, while Brunei can test-case them as it has the resources to cushion off negative repercussions if ever.
Agreed, the continental countries that are catching up in their development—Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos—need some breather space of five (5) more years to be considered as executors of the same rules. They can catch up, rest assured, so collective trust should permit their self-confidence to propel themselves to high growth.
Economic integration can induce enormous growth and fast-track development in the region altogether. Pushing through with the integration would yield a result that no more member country would be poor by as early as 2020. In other worlds, every country would move on to middle income country status, fast-tracked in its growth momentum by the economic union.
Integration would go beyond tariff reforms, for a reminder. An economic union would need central institutions to note: (a) central bank, (b) regional currency, and (c) related regulatory institutions. Governance institutions, such as a regional parliament and executive council, can undergo deeper study and preparatory formation right after 2015 (political union will take a longer time to traverse).
As to a regional currency, do note that Asian countries have already agreed on a resolution to create an Asian Monetary Fund and an Asian currency. The former speaker of the Philippines’ House of Representatives, Speaker De Venecia, was a prime mover in getting the Asian states to agree on the matter. With him out of power now in the legislature, some other key personalities in Asia should take on the cudgels for implementing the resolutions.
There are surely kinks to be resolved in matters pertaining to economic sector priorities. ASEAN countries tend to compete with one another in certain manufactures and services, so the resolutions could yield an elimination of competition and/or concurring cooperation among the competitors concerned.
ASEAN integration is coming at a time of an evolving paradigm of mixed land use. This paradigm, on a macro-level, could justify well the existence of all key manufacturing and services in a member country, thus undercutting complaints about competition across borders.
Population-wise, the ASEAN will be 700 million head-strong before 2015, which renders the region as a gigantic one. Imagine if just half of the population will be middle income in status, the class that can sustain consumer spending across time. That would be a 350-million head count serving as the economic powerhouse at the household level!
In terms of aggregated Gross National Product or GNP, the figure is nearing $3 Trillions for the region. The prospect of the ASEAN overtaking Japan is no longer remote, a possibility that can happen before 2020. Such a possibility, however, can best happen should economic integration take place as scheduled, an eventuality that will render more focused managing of economic policies and governance reforms that will fast-track growth & development.
Meantime, we can only wish for now that the trade reforms will push through, thus resulting to a semi-integrated economy. The semi-integration will produce pronto a context of ‘import-substitution’ on a regional scale, which I think is a long-overdue goal in the region.
From hereon, ASEAN has only over four (4) years to resolve the last kinks, study the integration directions inclusive of institutional designs. It will be 2011 in just two months’ time, with we hope will be another auspicious year for the humble region and its noblesse diplomats, experts, and leaders.
[Philippines, 03 November 2010]
[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com,
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]
Tuesday, November 02, 2010
WESTERN MAN’S SOCIOPATHY IN CHINA-BASHING
Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago
Good day to my fellow global citizens!
The USA and European states have been raising the alarm bell recently of a China that has been manipulating its currency to undermine the economies of the former. That is the perception coming from the West, a perception that is dangerously warped, so let me share some reflective thoughts about the matter.
The Western Man, nay the White Man has been manifesting a shared abnormality of sorts: that of resorting to a ‘bogey man’ discourse in order to justify an invasion or destruction of another nation and its people. The malady lies at the very root of the collective psyche of the Western Man, and seems to be incurable.
‘Bogey man’ discourse means the Western Man has the penchant for looking for someone or some country to blame for its own defects. It is a case of collective projection of their defects on other peoples, whom they would then demonize without let up as part of a collective catharsis. The catharsis could then break up into a great war in the foreseeable future which will be conducted with sadistic passion that is no longer human but ‘demonic’.
Didn’t the West recently create Jihad terror groups that they used for some time in their campaign against their collective nemesis, the former Soviet Union? Then, eventually, the jihad movements became the very ‘bogey man’ targets of the Western Establishment to justify the destruction of nations and peoples, such as what they demonstrated versus Iraq and Afghanistan.
Not even contented with the anti-jihad rhetoric that the Western media had hyper-hyped, the Western Man has been into every Asia-bashing ‘bogey man’ discourse over the last five (5) years or so. The Japan-bashing discourse led to the humiliation of the Sony Corp owners and the inflammation of anti-West passions right inside Japan itself.
There also is the increasing resort to India-bashing rhetoric in the West, which has been coming at a time when Indians are being murdered by the hundreds every year in Australia (a Saxon nation). Indian investors and executives are the targets of media attacks and dis-information by the very same White oligarchic forces that have been salivating for a control of the ‘smart money’ coming from India.
At this juncture, the West with the USA as the lead force has been elevating to crescendo level the China-bashing discourse. Multiple issues are being highlighted by detractors, such as the Tibet issue, human rights issue, and the hyper-valuation of the yuan/renminbi.
As already shared by experts across the world, the economic malaise of the West is largely an internal malady. Their very own economists, led by Joseph Stiglitz, have repeatedly pinpointed the structural defects of the economy, defects that are not being addressed properly as the Establishment has a different perception altogether (i.e. it is a cyclical problem).
In the late 90’s, I was among circles of political economist in the Philippines who foresaw the structural defects in Western/Northern economies. We forewarned the public of the coming failure of globalization and another depression that would hit both sides of the Atlantic.
Liberal economic reforms that began with the dropping of the gold standard yet (c ’72) and widened with the Reagan-Thatcher privatization initiatives, gave rise to the ‘virtual economy’ founded on predatory finance. The same predatory finance led to massive de-industrialization, agricultural decay, decline of S & T investments and new innovations, erosion of infrastructures, and neglect of transportation & communications. The latter sectors are the very foundations of the physical economy, the very ‘real economy’ that provides for jobs, social security, ‘safety caps’ for the masses, and long-term economic stability.
But predatory Western Establishment will have nothing to do with the facts, and will do everything to conceal the facts from the general public. The sociopathic elements, which sadly could afflict all of the key echelon people in the Establishment, are fascistically inclined to bamboozle and destroy every external polity and people that they can identify and project their defects unto.
So many peoples were already mass terminated and brutally killed on account of the same sociopathy of the Western Man. Just count how many hundreds of millions died due to the 1st and 2nd World Wars, add to the 37 millions that were killed due to America’s post-war military adventurisms.
The Western peoples should better forge a level of unity to solve problems by addressing the problems directly and reforming structural defects within their backyards. Nothing will be gained from flowing with their psychological defects that could lead to another round of mass terminations due to a global war that could explode soon.
[Philippines, 30 October 2010]
[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com,
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]
Good day to my fellow global citizens!
The USA and European states have been raising the alarm bell recently of a China that has been manipulating its currency to undermine the economies of the former. That is the perception coming from the West, a perception that is dangerously warped, so let me share some reflective thoughts about the matter.
The Western Man, nay the White Man has been manifesting a shared abnormality of sorts: that of resorting to a ‘bogey man’ discourse in order to justify an invasion or destruction of another nation and its people. The malady lies at the very root of the collective psyche of the Western Man, and seems to be incurable.
‘Bogey man’ discourse means the Western Man has the penchant for looking for someone or some country to blame for its own defects. It is a case of collective projection of their defects on other peoples, whom they would then demonize without let up as part of a collective catharsis. The catharsis could then break up into a great war in the foreseeable future which will be conducted with sadistic passion that is no longer human but ‘demonic’.
Didn’t the West recently create Jihad terror groups that they used for some time in their campaign against their collective nemesis, the former Soviet Union? Then, eventually, the jihad movements became the very ‘bogey man’ targets of the Western Establishment to justify the destruction of nations and peoples, such as what they demonstrated versus Iraq and Afghanistan.
Not even contented with the anti-jihad rhetoric that the Western media had hyper-hyped, the Western Man has been into every Asia-bashing ‘bogey man’ discourse over the last five (5) years or so. The Japan-bashing discourse led to the humiliation of the Sony Corp owners and the inflammation of anti-West passions right inside Japan itself.
There also is the increasing resort to India-bashing rhetoric in the West, which has been coming at a time when Indians are being murdered by the hundreds every year in Australia (a Saxon nation). Indian investors and executives are the targets of media attacks and dis-information by the very same White oligarchic forces that have been salivating for a control of the ‘smart money’ coming from India.
At this juncture, the West with the USA as the lead force has been elevating to crescendo level the China-bashing discourse. Multiple issues are being highlighted by detractors, such as the Tibet issue, human rights issue, and the hyper-valuation of the yuan/renminbi.
As already shared by experts across the world, the economic malaise of the West is largely an internal malady. Their very own economists, led by Joseph Stiglitz, have repeatedly pinpointed the structural defects of the economy, defects that are not being addressed properly as the Establishment has a different perception altogether (i.e. it is a cyclical problem).
In the late 90’s, I was among circles of political economist in the Philippines who foresaw the structural defects in Western/Northern economies. We forewarned the public of the coming failure of globalization and another depression that would hit both sides of the Atlantic.
Liberal economic reforms that began with the dropping of the gold standard yet (c ’72) and widened with the Reagan-Thatcher privatization initiatives, gave rise to the ‘virtual economy’ founded on predatory finance. The same predatory finance led to massive de-industrialization, agricultural decay, decline of S & T investments and new innovations, erosion of infrastructures, and neglect of transportation & communications. The latter sectors are the very foundations of the physical economy, the very ‘real economy’ that provides for jobs, social security, ‘safety caps’ for the masses, and long-term economic stability.
But predatory Western Establishment will have nothing to do with the facts, and will do everything to conceal the facts from the general public. The sociopathic elements, which sadly could afflict all of the key echelon people in the Establishment, are fascistically inclined to bamboozle and destroy every external polity and people that they can identify and project their defects unto.
So many peoples were already mass terminated and brutally killed on account of the same sociopathy of the Western Man. Just count how many hundreds of millions died due to the 1st and 2nd World Wars, add to the 37 millions that were killed due to America’s post-war military adventurisms.
The Western peoples should better forge a level of unity to solve problems by addressing the problems directly and reforming structural defects within their backyards. Nothing will be gained from flowing with their psychological defects that could lead to another round of mass terminations due to a global war that could explode soon.
[Philippines, 30 October 2010]
[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com,
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]
Saturday, October 30, 2010
MONTH-ENDER: OCTOBER FEST TO OCTOBER STORMS
Erle Frayne D. Argonza
October 2010
Good day to you all!
For this month, which was captured by the celebratory mood of the German Octoberfest, the world went through both tumultuous and celebratory moods.
I began this month with a publication of an article on “Fitness Program & Capacity-Building.” Being athletically and fitness-inclined, I began reflections with fitness & wellness as a way of reminding people about the supreme import of de-toxifying the body through a regular fitness program.
This analyst actually got sick by late September, an ailment that over-flowed till early October. I often get sick of severe allergic rhinitis, with the severity moving to acquiring inflammations with fevers.
So starting the month with physical wellness was also a way to remind myself to get back to the fitness game pronto, and go back to the gym as early as possible. By October the 5th I was back on the gym, back on a 4-day gym regimen, and back to long walks in the alleyways and nature sites of my work home south of Manila.
To reverb the times, storms hit the planet as usual, with Indonesia going through another flood episode. Indonesia seems to have solved its forest haze that was an issue sometime back, so we say our own kudos to the environmental precautions implementors in Jakarka and the ASEAN. Finally, there was the powerful 260 KPH typhoon that struck Luzon island of the Philippines.
The anti-terror campaign up North had found renewed vigor after the USA’s own celeb of the 9/11 event. This prompted me to write about concealed truths regarding the terrorist-makers of the USA and Europe, truth that trace such terror-makers right inside the Establishment of the two continents.
Meanwhile, we all watch as the North’s economies continue to flounder, with a 2nd recessionary dip threatening America altogether. Europe continues to wallow in the Jurassic flaks of the financiers (IMF-led) to institute austerity measures in the form of wage cut-backs, social services budgetary cuts, health benefits cuts, and so on.
Asia continued to kept the world in awe though, which is the positive side to the month. Asia’s stock markets continue to move up, defying patterns set in old fogey New York stock exchange (Dow Jones, Nasdaq). Asia’s growth patterns continue at sustained paces, with China on the lead, thus sustaining the global growth amid the downturns of the North.
In my own country, the patterns of growth have so far indicated the positive side. G.I.R. was at all time-high of $49.6 Billion (9-10 months imports), Balance of Payments or BOP stood at past $3B, exports & imports are back to high-growth times, unemployment remains checked at past 8%, and it was identified as the top investment area for Europeans to go to (per British financiers’ assessment).
The only black mark in RP’s growth pattern is the inability to meet the UN MDG target of cutting poverty by half by 2015 (poverty remains at 33% or more of the labor force). Aside from that, there’s the corruption low standing of the country in international yardsticks, something that chief exec Aquino should address very positively.
For the spirit of Octoberfest, Brazilian samba, and Asian world music, let’s celebrate our own growing sense of global brotherhood, peace and cooperation.
[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com,
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]
October 2010
Good day to you all!
For this month, which was captured by the celebratory mood of the German Octoberfest, the world went through both tumultuous and celebratory moods.
I began this month with a publication of an article on “Fitness Program & Capacity-Building.” Being athletically and fitness-inclined, I began reflections with fitness & wellness as a way of reminding people about the supreme import of de-toxifying the body through a regular fitness program.
This analyst actually got sick by late September, an ailment that over-flowed till early October. I often get sick of severe allergic rhinitis, with the severity moving to acquiring inflammations with fevers.
So starting the month with physical wellness was also a way to remind myself to get back to the fitness game pronto, and go back to the gym as early as possible. By October the 5th I was back on the gym, back on a 4-day gym regimen, and back to long walks in the alleyways and nature sites of my work home south of Manila.
To reverb the times, storms hit the planet as usual, with Indonesia going through another flood episode. Indonesia seems to have solved its forest haze that was an issue sometime back, so we say our own kudos to the environmental precautions implementors in Jakarka and the ASEAN. Finally, there was the powerful 260 KPH typhoon that struck Luzon island of the Philippines.
The anti-terror campaign up North had found renewed vigor after the USA’s own celeb of the 9/11 event. This prompted me to write about concealed truths regarding the terrorist-makers of the USA and Europe, truth that trace such terror-makers right inside the Establishment of the two continents.
Meanwhile, we all watch as the North’s economies continue to flounder, with a 2nd recessionary dip threatening America altogether. Europe continues to wallow in the Jurassic flaks of the financiers (IMF-led) to institute austerity measures in the form of wage cut-backs, social services budgetary cuts, health benefits cuts, and so on.
Asia continued to kept the world in awe though, which is the positive side to the month. Asia’s stock markets continue to move up, defying patterns set in old fogey New York stock exchange (Dow Jones, Nasdaq). Asia’s growth patterns continue at sustained paces, with China on the lead, thus sustaining the global growth amid the downturns of the North.
In my own country, the patterns of growth have so far indicated the positive side. G.I.R. was at all time-high of $49.6 Billion (9-10 months imports), Balance of Payments or BOP stood at past $3B, exports & imports are back to high-growth times, unemployment remains checked at past 8%, and it was identified as the top investment area for Europeans to go to (per British financiers’ assessment).
The only black mark in RP’s growth pattern is the inability to meet the UN MDG target of cutting poverty by half by 2015 (poverty remains at 33% or more of the labor force). Aside from that, there’s the corruption low standing of the country in international yardsticks, something that chief exec Aquino should address very positively.
For the spirit of Octoberfest, Brazilian samba, and Asian world music, let’s celebrate our own growing sense of global brotherhood, peace and cooperation.
[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com,
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]
Monday, October 18, 2010
OBAMA’S AIDES DEPART, WHERE BLOWS PUBLIC POLICY?
Erle Frayne D. Argonza
Magandang gabi! Good evening!
Obama’s aides—who have been with him all the way since electoral campaign days—are departing. We do hope to get to the bottom of the real reason behind the departures, such as those of his ideologue chief-of-staff, but it seems the answer will be confined to the White House as classified information.
What we ought to reflect on is, after the departures, where does the wind of public policy—domestic and international—blow for Obama’s government? Will the oversight/regulatory powers be reinforced somehow, to checkmate the intrusive manipulations of financiers in America’s economy? Will the Wilsonian inclination for democracy cum civil rights be sustained in foreign policy?
The North’s economists have already pronounced their evaluation of America’s and Europe’s economies, with pessimistic-to-gloomy forecasts of both continental economies over the next two (2) years. The stimulus package has clearly backfired, unemployment has ballooned to past 9% (may hit 10% by 2011), and poverty incidence has gone up to 15% (from the pre-crisis 12% level).
Meantime, Clinton is entrenched as foreign policy executor, and her presence bodes well for the Wilsonians who have always held sway in the state department. How much can Wilsonian clout remain till the rest of Obama’s term will be up for observation, more so that the midterm election is bound to erode the Democrats’ congressional seats.
To get straight to the point, with Republicans forecast to re-dominate both houses of legislature, both domestic and foreign policy directions are bound to alter. On the foreign policy front, the isolationism of traditional Republicans may come back, thus undermining the ‘engagement policy’ of the Obama regime in the short run.
How many Obama aides are bound to depart soon we can only surmise for now. But it seems that as a forecast fallout of Democrats increases by the day, so shall the Obama aides get to have some quantitative reductions too.
The quantitative reductions in aides could tip the balance inside the White House in favor of a certain policy initiative. So we observers have no choice but to stay glued to the changes right within Obama’s headquarters. We can only hope that a resurgence of the neo-conservatives, who hold sway in Pentagon & Defense, won’t be in the offing.
With the USA’s possible spiral down a 2nd recessionary dip, a return of the hawkish neo-cons to power (they’d be dictating terms for Obama behind closed doors) would spell the doom to America’s prestige worldwide. A neo-cons return would coincide with Israel’s unilateral plan to strike down Iran in hot warfare, an act that could take Obama down the global esteem ratings if he will resonate with the hawks.
The electoral campaigns are now heating up as the polls near, so let us monitor the events very closely in the USA. Just exactly who those Republican additions are in both houses will galvanize very soon, bringing along with them the Jurassic solutions of Reaganomics cum Bush tax cuts, along with Federal Reserve antique tool of interest rate intervention.
[Philippines, 06 October 2010]
[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com,
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]
Magandang gabi! Good evening!
Obama’s aides—who have been with him all the way since electoral campaign days—are departing. We do hope to get to the bottom of the real reason behind the departures, such as those of his ideologue chief-of-staff, but it seems the answer will be confined to the White House as classified information.
What we ought to reflect on is, after the departures, where does the wind of public policy—domestic and international—blow for Obama’s government? Will the oversight/regulatory powers be reinforced somehow, to checkmate the intrusive manipulations of financiers in America’s economy? Will the Wilsonian inclination for democracy cum civil rights be sustained in foreign policy?
The North’s economists have already pronounced their evaluation of America’s and Europe’s economies, with pessimistic-to-gloomy forecasts of both continental economies over the next two (2) years. The stimulus package has clearly backfired, unemployment has ballooned to past 9% (may hit 10% by 2011), and poverty incidence has gone up to 15% (from the pre-crisis 12% level).
Meantime, Clinton is entrenched as foreign policy executor, and her presence bodes well for the Wilsonians who have always held sway in the state department. How much can Wilsonian clout remain till the rest of Obama’s term will be up for observation, more so that the midterm election is bound to erode the Democrats’ congressional seats.
To get straight to the point, with Republicans forecast to re-dominate both houses of legislature, both domestic and foreign policy directions are bound to alter. On the foreign policy front, the isolationism of traditional Republicans may come back, thus undermining the ‘engagement policy’ of the Obama regime in the short run.
How many Obama aides are bound to depart soon we can only surmise for now. But it seems that as a forecast fallout of Democrats increases by the day, so shall the Obama aides get to have some quantitative reductions too.
The quantitative reductions in aides could tip the balance inside the White House in favor of a certain policy initiative. So we observers have no choice but to stay glued to the changes right within Obama’s headquarters. We can only hope that a resurgence of the neo-conservatives, who hold sway in Pentagon & Defense, won’t be in the offing.
With the USA’s possible spiral down a 2nd recessionary dip, a return of the hawkish neo-cons to power (they’d be dictating terms for Obama behind closed doors) would spell the doom to America’s prestige worldwide. A neo-cons return would coincide with Israel’s unilateral plan to strike down Iran in hot warfare, an act that could take Obama down the global esteem ratings if he will resonate with the hawks.
The electoral campaigns are now heating up as the polls near, so let us monitor the events very closely in the USA. Just exactly who those Republican additions are in both houses will galvanize very soon, bringing along with them the Jurassic solutions of Reaganomics cum Bush tax cuts, along with Federal Reserve antique tool of interest rate intervention.
[Philippines, 06 October 2010]
[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com,
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]
Monday, October 11, 2010
AMERICA’S & EUROPE’S TOP TERRORISTS ARE INSIDE ESTABLISHMENT
Erle Frayne D. Argonza
Magandang araw sa inyong lahat! Good day to you all!
The White House had recently delivered remarks concerning reports about the latest terrorists in the USA. The report from the top pinpointed supposedly independent small groups scattered across the continent and acting autonomously of each other, thus disseminating terror in far greater ways than before.
Across the Atlantic, Europe’s own leaders have already delivered the same line: that terrorists are independent groups scattered across the continent, sowing dread and damages at scales that are heretofore unprecedented.
We can observe in the bylines of the political-military elites a copycat version of each other. As Europe speaks of the line, so will America copycat it. If America says a line—about terrorism—Europe’s leaders will copycat it. Never mind all those semblances of independent-minded leaders across the Atlantic, that’s only a semblance as the leaders themselves have spin doctors behind them who come from the financier oligarchy of the West/North.
I wish I was born in the ‘cave man’s era’ to believe those sickening line about terrorists across the Atlantic. Having keenly observed global realities since my adolescent days yet (as a student of sociology and political economy), I know all too well that the terrorists who appeared in the political-military landscapes across the decades were criminal elements recruited and commanded by rouge elements within the Establishment.
The terrorists’ tactics may have varied across the decades, but one thing hasn’t varied at all: the financier oligarchs and their political-military subalterns were behind the recruitment, training, indoctrination, and deployment of the criminals-turned-ideologues whose missions shall come at their behest.
From the time of the radical Mazzini up through Russia’s Lenin & Trotsky, we have observed the same pattern: a circle of wealthy oligarchs utilizing operators for sleazy tasks to recruit assassins and malefactors who can be converted to ideologues. Lenin and Trotsky, as per research findings, were both funded by the Rothschildes and their elite circles, tasked with the mission to overthrow the Tsarist line for the refusal of the latter to succumb to the plan of creating a unified Europe under the Habsburg tutelage. Lenin & Trotsky then recruited malefactors of all kinds, notably from the rabble, and the rest was history.
Across the Atlantic, in the USA, the same phenomenon had flourished. White supremacist groups notably the Ku Klux Klan or KKK were directly manipulated by elite circles in the union, circles that added Nazi elites during the Great Depression era. Do you even want to believe that the KKK is dead at this time, supposedly as civil liberties have become granite rock solid since after the assassination of Martin Luther King?
Fast forward to the 9/11 event, and we have the same phenomenon being churned out to repack terrorists supposedly in a new cloth: Islamic jihadists. True, the jihadists came from outside the USA, but the spin doctors of the jihadists were well embedded within the Establishment. These are the true terrorists, those who have been calling the shots in defense and foreign policies particularly, whose faces remain behind masks till these days.
Move back to Europe, examine the likes of the Red terror cells, Carlos the Jackal, Irish Republican Army, and onwards to the jihadist cells, and you’d find the same pattern like some Xerox copies of the US precedents. In ecological language, we call that isomorphism in the politico-military niches.
Terrorists are important to the financier oligarchs for the following purpose: terror attacks in any part of the world create financial-monetary panic in that area, and induces heavy financial flows across borders. Since the financiers have portfolio exposures in that part of the globe, then expect that they will benefit the most from the ‘velocity of financial flows’ induced by the terror attacks.
With the stock markets of both the USA and Europe sputtering again recently, there needs to be a re-oiling of financial flows to take advantage of the situation. And that will be done precisely by unleashing terror groups in both continents to shore up their bourses and derivatives markets for that matter.
What has been alarming for me is that Obama himself seems to be inclined into believing the lie coming from his own spin doctors. Does Obama seriously know the consequences of his own pronouncements post-9/11 commemoration?
[Philippines, 02 October 2010]
[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com,
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]
Magandang araw sa inyong lahat! Good day to you all!
The White House had recently delivered remarks concerning reports about the latest terrorists in the USA. The report from the top pinpointed supposedly independent small groups scattered across the continent and acting autonomously of each other, thus disseminating terror in far greater ways than before.
Across the Atlantic, Europe’s own leaders have already delivered the same line: that terrorists are independent groups scattered across the continent, sowing dread and damages at scales that are heretofore unprecedented.
We can observe in the bylines of the political-military elites a copycat version of each other. As Europe speaks of the line, so will America copycat it. If America says a line—about terrorism—Europe’s leaders will copycat it. Never mind all those semblances of independent-minded leaders across the Atlantic, that’s only a semblance as the leaders themselves have spin doctors behind them who come from the financier oligarchy of the West/North.
I wish I was born in the ‘cave man’s era’ to believe those sickening line about terrorists across the Atlantic. Having keenly observed global realities since my adolescent days yet (as a student of sociology and political economy), I know all too well that the terrorists who appeared in the political-military landscapes across the decades were criminal elements recruited and commanded by rouge elements within the Establishment.
The terrorists’ tactics may have varied across the decades, but one thing hasn’t varied at all: the financier oligarchs and their political-military subalterns were behind the recruitment, training, indoctrination, and deployment of the criminals-turned-ideologues whose missions shall come at their behest.
From the time of the radical Mazzini up through Russia’s Lenin & Trotsky, we have observed the same pattern: a circle of wealthy oligarchs utilizing operators for sleazy tasks to recruit assassins and malefactors who can be converted to ideologues. Lenin and Trotsky, as per research findings, were both funded by the Rothschildes and their elite circles, tasked with the mission to overthrow the Tsarist line for the refusal of the latter to succumb to the plan of creating a unified Europe under the Habsburg tutelage. Lenin & Trotsky then recruited malefactors of all kinds, notably from the rabble, and the rest was history.
Across the Atlantic, in the USA, the same phenomenon had flourished. White supremacist groups notably the Ku Klux Klan or KKK were directly manipulated by elite circles in the union, circles that added Nazi elites during the Great Depression era. Do you even want to believe that the KKK is dead at this time, supposedly as civil liberties have become granite rock solid since after the assassination of Martin Luther King?
Fast forward to the 9/11 event, and we have the same phenomenon being churned out to repack terrorists supposedly in a new cloth: Islamic jihadists. True, the jihadists came from outside the USA, but the spin doctors of the jihadists were well embedded within the Establishment. These are the true terrorists, those who have been calling the shots in defense and foreign policies particularly, whose faces remain behind masks till these days.
Move back to Europe, examine the likes of the Red terror cells, Carlos the Jackal, Irish Republican Army, and onwards to the jihadist cells, and you’d find the same pattern like some Xerox copies of the US precedents. In ecological language, we call that isomorphism in the politico-military niches.
Terrorists are important to the financier oligarchs for the following purpose: terror attacks in any part of the world create financial-monetary panic in that area, and induces heavy financial flows across borders. Since the financiers have portfolio exposures in that part of the globe, then expect that they will benefit the most from the ‘velocity of financial flows’ induced by the terror attacks.
With the stock markets of both the USA and Europe sputtering again recently, there needs to be a re-oiling of financial flows to take advantage of the situation. And that will be done precisely by unleashing terror groups in both continents to shore up their bourses and derivatives markets for that matter.
What has been alarming for me is that Obama himself seems to be inclined into believing the lie coming from his own spin doctors. Does Obama seriously know the consequences of his own pronouncements post-9/11 commemoration?
[Philippines, 02 October 2010]
[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com,
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]
Wednesday, October 06, 2010
US ECONOMISTS WARN OF ANOTHER CRASH!
US ECONOMISTS WARN OF ANOTHER CRASH!
Erle Frayne D. Argonza
Magandang araw, mga kapamilyang global! Good day, fellow global family members!
Let me echo a theme that has been reverberating among circles of economists in the USA lately: a new cycle of economic crash. I’ve already begun to echo notes about whether the ‘stimulus package’ did its task as effectively as it can to deliver the goods, notes that connect to what the economists have been saying of late.
Among a leading light of the US economist circles is Joseph Stiglitz, former executive at the World Bank. A brilliant and dynamic mind in America, Stiglitz represents a coterie of rare experts who can be adjudged as independent-minded, for most of America’s experts are intellectual prostitutes whose purses are fattened by their loyal patronage of oligarchic and political interest groups.
America’s economists are again echoing the alarm calls about another round or cycle of recession which could lead the USA into a ‘double-dip recession’ the impact of which could be the worst that the U.S. work force will have ever experienced. The alarm call practically resonates with an identical forewarning by European economists on the bigger crash that could happen to Europe’s already burning economy.
The very same experts are very keen observers of the global economy aside from their deep grounding in their own domestic economies, and so the cautionary echoes include Japan’s and Canada’s economies as well. Practically all of the pillars of the Western economy—all powerful members of the OECD—have been receiving alarm calls from their own economists.
Maybe the media should better seek audiences with other experts as well, notably the sociologists and public policy as well, who have been keenly observant of the domestic (USA’s) and global economies. Why not consult the likes of Peter Evans and Theda Skocpol for instance, who have been doing works over the past decades that run parallel to what economists have been doing?
Chances are that the experts across a broad spectrum of the social sciences will end up with parallel if not identical evaluations about the impact of the stimulus package and the directions of the US economy and society.
The last round of financial reforms and a new stimulus package announced by White House recently just don’t seem to fit into the expectations of the noblesse experts who all trace the economic malaise of America to the effects of excessive liberalization reforms. Those reforms saw the diminution of the ‘real economy’, to note: (a) de-industrialization, (b) agricultural decay, (c) infrastructure neglect and collapse, (d) neglect of transport & communications sectors, and (e) decay/erosion of science & technology.
Whether the Bush & Obama stimulus package was able to shore up the collapsing ‘real/physical economy’ is now doubtful. The recent Obama-initiated reforms is only putting some caps on regulation problems for big business and ensuring some fairness in the games of the financial-monetary sectors. The coming tax cuts are added incentives to big business that do not necessarily ensure the revivification of the physical economy.
And that’s where the rub lies in America today. By the very fact that a new ‘stimulus package’ is being prepared in the pipeline means precisely the failure of the recovery program. As already shared by me in a previous article, the pronouncement of a new pump priming package is already causing jitters among portfolio and long-term investors.
With the investment field blurred anew in the USA, the resuscitation of employment to full employment level had been turned into an elusive dream. Whether tax cuts can induce new investments (inclusive of the realty sector), factoring the new financial reforms, will be a raging debate not only in America but among other global observers as well.
I am now of the opinion that Obama has been badly advised by his own economic team about the policy and institutional options for salving the structural ailments of the US economy. Bad advise means the resort to ‘bad economics’, a behavior that is ‘bad science’. Bad science breeds bad practice, and bad practice breeds disasters and catastrophes.
Will Obama and the policy-makers listen to the independent-minded economists this time?
[Philippines, 01 October 2010]
[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com,
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]
Erle Frayne D. Argonza
Magandang araw, mga kapamilyang global! Good day, fellow global family members!
Let me echo a theme that has been reverberating among circles of economists in the USA lately: a new cycle of economic crash. I’ve already begun to echo notes about whether the ‘stimulus package’ did its task as effectively as it can to deliver the goods, notes that connect to what the economists have been saying of late.
Among a leading light of the US economist circles is Joseph Stiglitz, former executive at the World Bank. A brilliant and dynamic mind in America, Stiglitz represents a coterie of rare experts who can be adjudged as independent-minded, for most of America’s experts are intellectual prostitutes whose purses are fattened by their loyal patronage of oligarchic and political interest groups.
America’s economists are again echoing the alarm calls about another round or cycle of recession which could lead the USA into a ‘double-dip recession’ the impact of which could be the worst that the U.S. work force will have ever experienced. The alarm call practically resonates with an identical forewarning by European economists on the bigger crash that could happen to Europe’s already burning economy.
The very same experts are very keen observers of the global economy aside from their deep grounding in their own domestic economies, and so the cautionary echoes include Japan’s and Canada’s economies as well. Practically all of the pillars of the Western economy—all powerful members of the OECD—have been receiving alarm calls from their own economists.
Maybe the media should better seek audiences with other experts as well, notably the sociologists and public policy as well, who have been keenly observant of the domestic (USA’s) and global economies. Why not consult the likes of Peter Evans and Theda Skocpol for instance, who have been doing works over the past decades that run parallel to what economists have been doing?
Chances are that the experts across a broad spectrum of the social sciences will end up with parallel if not identical evaluations about the impact of the stimulus package and the directions of the US economy and society.
The last round of financial reforms and a new stimulus package announced by White House recently just don’t seem to fit into the expectations of the noblesse experts who all trace the economic malaise of America to the effects of excessive liberalization reforms. Those reforms saw the diminution of the ‘real economy’, to note: (a) de-industrialization, (b) agricultural decay, (c) infrastructure neglect and collapse, (d) neglect of transport & communications sectors, and (e) decay/erosion of science & technology.
Whether the Bush & Obama stimulus package was able to shore up the collapsing ‘real/physical economy’ is now doubtful. The recent Obama-initiated reforms is only putting some caps on regulation problems for big business and ensuring some fairness in the games of the financial-monetary sectors. The coming tax cuts are added incentives to big business that do not necessarily ensure the revivification of the physical economy.
And that’s where the rub lies in America today. By the very fact that a new ‘stimulus package’ is being prepared in the pipeline means precisely the failure of the recovery program. As already shared by me in a previous article, the pronouncement of a new pump priming package is already causing jitters among portfolio and long-term investors.
With the investment field blurred anew in the USA, the resuscitation of employment to full employment level had been turned into an elusive dream. Whether tax cuts can induce new investments (inclusive of the realty sector), factoring the new financial reforms, will be a raging debate not only in America but among other global observers as well.
I am now of the opinion that Obama has been badly advised by his own economic team about the policy and institutional options for salving the structural ailments of the US economy. Bad advise means the resort to ‘bad economics’, a behavior that is ‘bad science’. Bad science breeds bad practice, and bad practice breeds disasters and catastrophes.
Will Obama and the policy-makers listen to the independent-minded economists this time?
[Philippines, 01 October 2010]
[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com,
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
RUDD AS AUSTRALIA’S FOREIGN MINISTER: A RUDE CHOICE!
Erle Frayne D. Argonza
Good Day from the Pearl of the Orient!
I am having a great time as storms haven’t come our way yet for almost two (2) weeks now. Showers do come once a day, and I’m glad the streets are swept clean by the cascading tropical waters. I just wish that the waters here can cleanse the political dirt down south too, and by south I mean the Australian subcontinent.
The news of former premier Rudd getting appointed as Foreign Minister of the new dispensation (premier Gillerd’s) in the southern Saxon country has already been out for some days. Knowing the hubris and arrogance of Rudd, exemplified by his rather shoddy treatment of Australia’s neighbors that he regards as huge backyards of ‘brown monkeys with no tails’ worth Australia’s Bomb preparations for future attacks, I find nothing worthwhile about Rudd’s comeback.
It seems we’re witnessing a series of premiers of the southern Saxon land who have begun to show the true colors of Anglo-Saxon imperialism, racial arrogance and fascistic hubris that lie underneath the genes and collective unconscious of the White occupants of the subcontinent. The premiers have been behaving as potentates of the Queen of England rather than the chief executives of a sovereign country.
While manifesting a modicum of cooperation towards their northern neighbors (largely Malayan and Indo-Mongolian populated ASEAN countries), there also is the overt exhibition of ambivalence about the latter. Why not examine for yourselves the heavy military preparations of Australia, prepared with the presumption of enemies to their north, the offensive planning thus rationalizing the acquisition of huge stockpiles of intermediate-range ballistic missiles?
We can only surmise, in fact, that the Australo-Saxon leaders’ behavior has been one of reptilian character that always regards its neighbors as pesky underlings. It is outright predatory behavior to even think of preparing for a large-scale war, when the international norm in the region has been one of cooperation marked by trade and cultural exchanges.
Australia indeed has failed to develop a true identity of its own, even as it continues to be administered by the governor-general representing the Queen of England. Australia remains as Saxon as ever, a truism that is shared by the USA, Canada and New Zealand, the very same Saxons that its own neighbors in ancient Europe dreaded for their predatory behavior.
If only Charlemagne were alive today, the world press should corner him for series of interviews to find out why the Franks were so ambivalent if now outrightly dreadful of the Saxons whom they chased and slaughtered with impunity and drove outside of the consolidated Frankish empire. The world press should likewise interview the Celtic king Arthur of Camelot, who was determined to hold back the Saxon occupation of parts of Britain during his aegis.
But destiny had its way, and destiny had built appendages of the British empire to the south of Southeast Asia. Those Saxons down there are cultural-psychic clones of the Anglo-Saxons, and like their Father race they can take the rouge step of plundering and marauding their neighbors if left unchecked by the norms of global civility and ‘dialogue of civilizations’.
As far as the financial-monetary markets are concerned, we can already see the shadow of a future looting of the Asian bourses and purses by Australian oligarchic operators upon the behest of the Anglo-European financiers. That is why Australia’s arrogant leaders are hurrying up the formation of APEC through which they can manipulate, loot and plunder Asia on behalf of their British sponsors.
Australia is pretending to be an Asian country which it is not, as its oligarchy and culture trace roots from the all-powerful British empire and its omnipotent oligarchic royalty. Australia’s leaders are prone to doublespeak, to Machiavellian pretensions of solidarity with their neighbors, a solidarity that is viewed from the ethnocentric Victorian hubris of White culture as the nadir of the long process of cultural evolution with the mission of civilizing other cultures.
To re-instate Rudd to government, more so to install him at the helm of foreign relations portfolio, is to bastardize the very norm of civility that we Asians have so cherished and fought for with our blood for so many millenia. Rudd is classic Saxon operator who knows only the language of bullying as a way to establish relations with non-White countries.
Rudd is the rudest choice for foreign policy post and should resign from his post, if he is sensitive at all to the opinions of ‘brown monkeys with no tails’ to the north of his deluded throne.
[Philippines, 17 September 2010]
[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com,
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]
Good Day from the Pearl of the Orient!
I am having a great time as storms haven’t come our way yet for almost two (2) weeks now. Showers do come once a day, and I’m glad the streets are swept clean by the cascading tropical waters. I just wish that the waters here can cleanse the political dirt down south too, and by south I mean the Australian subcontinent.
The news of former premier Rudd getting appointed as Foreign Minister of the new dispensation (premier Gillerd’s) in the southern Saxon country has already been out for some days. Knowing the hubris and arrogance of Rudd, exemplified by his rather shoddy treatment of Australia’s neighbors that he regards as huge backyards of ‘brown monkeys with no tails’ worth Australia’s Bomb preparations for future attacks, I find nothing worthwhile about Rudd’s comeback.
It seems we’re witnessing a series of premiers of the southern Saxon land who have begun to show the true colors of Anglo-Saxon imperialism, racial arrogance and fascistic hubris that lie underneath the genes and collective unconscious of the White occupants of the subcontinent. The premiers have been behaving as potentates of the Queen of England rather than the chief executives of a sovereign country.
While manifesting a modicum of cooperation towards their northern neighbors (largely Malayan and Indo-Mongolian populated ASEAN countries), there also is the overt exhibition of ambivalence about the latter. Why not examine for yourselves the heavy military preparations of Australia, prepared with the presumption of enemies to their north, the offensive planning thus rationalizing the acquisition of huge stockpiles of intermediate-range ballistic missiles?
We can only surmise, in fact, that the Australo-Saxon leaders’ behavior has been one of reptilian character that always regards its neighbors as pesky underlings. It is outright predatory behavior to even think of preparing for a large-scale war, when the international norm in the region has been one of cooperation marked by trade and cultural exchanges.
Australia indeed has failed to develop a true identity of its own, even as it continues to be administered by the governor-general representing the Queen of England. Australia remains as Saxon as ever, a truism that is shared by the USA, Canada and New Zealand, the very same Saxons that its own neighbors in ancient Europe dreaded for their predatory behavior.
If only Charlemagne were alive today, the world press should corner him for series of interviews to find out why the Franks were so ambivalent if now outrightly dreadful of the Saxons whom they chased and slaughtered with impunity and drove outside of the consolidated Frankish empire. The world press should likewise interview the Celtic king Arthur of Camelot, who was determined to hold back the Saxon occupation of parts of Britain during his aegis.
But destiny had its way, and destiny had built appendages of the British empire to the south of Southeast Asia. Those Saxons down there are cultural-psychic clones of the Anglo-Saxons, and like their Father race they can take the rouge step of plundering and marauding their neighbors if left unchecked by the norms of global civility and ‘dialogue of civilizations’.
As far as the financial-monetary markets are concerned, we can already see the shadow of a future looting of the Asian bourses and purses by Australian oligarchic operators upon the behest of the Anglo-European financiers. That is why Australia’s arrogant leaders are hurrying up the formation of APEC through which they can manipulate, loot and plunder Asia on behalf of their British sponsors.
Australia is pretending to be an Asian country which it is not, as its oligarchy and culture trace roots from the all-powerful British empire and its omnipotent oligarchic royalty. Australia’s leaders are prone to doublespeak, to Machiavellian pretensions of solidarity with their neighbors, a solidarity that is viewed from the ethnocentric Victorian hubris of White culture as the nadir of the long process of cultural evolution with the mission of civilizing other cultures.
To re-instate Rudd to government, more so to install him at the helm of foreign relations portfolio, is to bastardize the very norm of civility that we Asians have so cherished and fought for with our blood for so many millenia. Rudd is classic Saxon operator who knows only the language of bullying as a way to establish relations with non-White countries.
Rudd is the rudest choice for foreign policy post and should resign from his post, if he is sensitive at all to the opinions of ‘brown monkeys with no tails’ to the north of his deluded throne.
[Philippines, 17 September 2010]
[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com,
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]
Friday, September 24, 2010
CHINA’S 3-GORGES DAM: DAMNING ECO-FASCIST CATASTR0PHE DISCOURSE
CHINA’S 3-GORGES DAM: DAMNING ECO-FASCIST CATASTR0PHE DISCOURSE
Erle Frayne D. Argonza
Good morning to all ye global citizens! Goodwill and peace to you!
For this day I chose to peregrinate on the 3-Gorges Dam of China, a project that cost a whopping $23 Billion to build. The eco-fascist detractors of the project raised the specter of catastrophe that could result from a collapse of the dam infrastructure, so maybe its time to reflect about the giant energy project.
I just arrived from overseas assignment in 2002 when I had the opportunity to discuss the 3-Gorges dam in my social science classes in Manila. At that time, I was offered a Director post in a think-tank of the Augustinian sisters, a stint that gave me opportunity to mine enormous data about the latest development engagements nationally and globally. I also taught as lecturer while directing research, which surely offered me a privileged position to reflect about global issues.
Being one who has been involved in the planning works on ambitious development projects (e.g. industrial estate/free trade zone, economic support projects for marginal sectors worth hundreds of millions of dollars) as a practitioner, I was truly appreciative of the efforts of China’s state to tame the Yangtze and tap its power-packed waters for electrification, irrigation, and subsidiary purposes. Though environmentally-driven myself, I am not wont to deliver satirical and destructive remarks about such a project as the 3-Gorges Dam that can benefit a greater section of China’s population and economy.
There are always negative trade-offs to any big endeavor, such as the displacement of 1.4 million folks along the reservoir area of the dam. What project of such a stature in the world doesn’t have a downside to it anyway? The downsides are the ones highlighted the most by paid hacksters of the West’s financier oligarchs, notably the political greenies whose obsessive-compulsive reflexes are unmatched anywhere in the world.
The USA had its own taste of baptism of fire from destructive commentators when the FD Roosevelt regime built the Hoover Dam. A pioneering infrastructure and energy project during its own time, the project received enormous media detractions that were paid by Nazi oligarchs in the homeland who, not to say the least, owned and controlled America’s giant media outfits (they own media till these days). The detractors did everything in the books in fact to destroy FDR for his innovative New Deal measures that included massive infrastructures as pump priming tool to take out America from the Great Depression towards recovery and prosperity.
As one can see, the Hoover Dam stood the test of time, and it remains as one of the marvels of America’s public works. It is too early to say about what can happen to the 3-Gorges Dam, but it has parallelisms to the Hoover Dam and other ambitious infrastructure projects of the New Deal heydays, projects that the predatory financiers in America couldn’t play their hands with as they are primarily state-sponsored.
Understandly, the West’s financiers can not benefit directly from projects initiated by China’s government, even as it is now too late for destructive Western forces to take down China’s economy through massive looting of the financial markets the way they’ve done to their own domestic economies in the EU and USA. So they employ those civil society groups that receive funds from the financiers’ ‘corporate social responsibility’ coffers, with the expectation that the activist funds recipients would drum up the destructive impacts of projects they cannot control such as the 3-Gorges Dam.
In the event of heavy rainfalls however, there is reason to keep watch over the waters’ possible exceeding the 175-meter limit of the dam’s reservoir. As shown by our own precedents in the Philippines, the dam’s administrators used the contingency tool of releasing parts of the waters before the same could ever do damage on the dam through an overflow that could trigger a catastrophic burst of the infrastructure.
With decades of hydraulics experience behind our local experts here, this much I can say: so far so good! True, there were casualties who suffered from the inundations caused by the contingency releases of the rising floodwaters. But no single dam ever burst catastrophically yet, a catastrophe that could have resulted to higher casualties of at least a couple of millions of folks.
It’s now the start of the ‘ember’ months, and so far we are witness to the 3-Gorges Dam standing tall. So far so good! There are still three (3) more months to hurdle before the storms will bring heavy rainfalls, but so far the indications are the dam administrators can manage the hydraulic flows efficaciously.
If there is any message I can deliver to the eco-fascist blabbermouths, they should spread themselves across the world’s continents and plant trees in the de-forested boondocks. This behavior would be truly exemplary, as it will show that sociopathic groups and persons can also exhibit productive behavior during times of crisis.
[Philippines, 15 September 2010]
[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com,
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]
Erle Frayne D. Argonza
Good morning to all ye global citizens! Goodwill and peace to you!
For this day I chose to peregrinate on the 3-Gorges Dam of China, a project that cost a whopping $23 Billion to build. The eco-fascist detractors of the project raised the specter of catastrophe that could result from a collapse of the dam infrastructure, so maybe its time to reflect about the giant energy project.
I just arrived from overseas assignment in 2002 when I had the opportunity to discuss the 3-Gorges dam in my social science classes in Manila. At that time, I was offered a Director post in a think-tank of the Augustinian sisters, a stint that gave me opportunity to mine enormous data about the latest development engagements nationally and globally. I also taught as lecturer while directing research, which surely offered me a privileged position to reflect about global issues.
Being one who has been involved in the planning works on ambitious development projects (e.g. industrial estate/free trade zone, economic support projects for marginal sectors worth hundreds of millions of dollars) as a practitioner, I was truly appreciative of the efforts of China’s state to tame the Yangtze and tap its power-packed waters for electrification, irrigation, and subsidiary purposes. Though environmentally-driven myself, I am not wont to deliver satirical and destructive remarks about such a project as the 3-Gorges Dam that can benefit a greater section of China’s population and economy.
There are always negative trade-offs to any big endeavor, such as the displacement of 1.4 million folks along the reservoir area of the dam. What project of such a stature in the world doesn’t have a downside to it anyway? The downsides are the ones highlighted the most by paid hacksters of the West’s financier oligarchs, notably the political greenies whose obsessive-compulsive reflexes are unmatched anywhere in the world.
The USA had its own taste of baptism of fire from destructive commentators when the FD Roosevelt regime built the Hoover Dam. A pioneering infrastructure and energy project during its own time, the project received enormous media detractions that were paid by Nazi oligarchs in the homeland who, not to say the least, owned and controlled America’s giant media outfits (they own media till these days). The detractors did everything in the books in fact to destroy FDR for his innovative New Deal measures that included massive infrastructures as pump priming tool to take out America from the Great Depression towards recovery and prosperity.
As one can see, the Hoover Dam stood the test of time, and it remains as one of the marvels of America’s public works. It is too early to say about what can happen to the 3-Gorges Dam, but it has parallelisms to the Hoover Dam and other ambitious infrastructure projects of the New Deal heydays, projects that the predatory financiers in America couldn’t play their hands with as they are primarily state-sponsored.
Understandly, the West’s financiers can not benefit directly from projects initiated by China’s government, even as it is now too late for destructive Western forces to take down China’s economy through massive looting of the financial markets the way they’ve done to their own domestic economies in the EU and USA. So they employ those civil society groups that receive funds from the financiers’ ‘corporate social responsibility’ coffers, with the expectation that the activist funds recipients would drum up the destructive impacts of projects they cannot control such as the 3-Gorges Dam.
In the event of heavy rainfalls however, there is reason to keep watch over the waters’ possible exceeding the 175-meter limit of the dam’s reservoir. As shown by our own precedents in the Philippines, the dam’s administrators used the contingency tool of releasing parts of the waters before the same could ever do damage on the dam through an overflow that could trigger a catastrophic burst of the infrastructure.
With decades of hydraulics experience behind our local experts here, this much I can say: so far so good! True, there were casualties who suffered from the inundations caused by the contingency releases of the rising floodwaters. But no single dam ever burst catastrophically yet, a catastrophe that could have resulted to higher casualties of at least a couple of millions of folks.
It’s now the start of the ‘ember’ months, and so far we are witness to the 3-Gorges Dam standing tall. So far so good! There are still three (3) more months to hurdle before the storms will bring heavy rainfalls, but so far the indications are the dam administrators can manage the hydraulic flows efficaciously.
If there is any message I can deliver to the eco-fascist blabbermouths, they should spread themselves across the world’s continents and plant trees in the de-forested boondocks. This behavior would be truly exemplary, as it will show that sociopathic groups and persons can also exhibit productive behavior during times of crisis.
[Philippines, 15 September 2010]
[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com,
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]
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