Wolves and their Flock

La Gloria is scheduled to meet El Dubya on the 24th of this month to discussion cooperation "on a broad range of areas, including ASEAN, Burma, counter-terrorism, defense reform, food security, and regional economic integration." Perhaps they will do an 'accounting' on Bush's war on terrorism front in the south. We are after all the largest recipient of US military aid in Asia since 9/11. Maybe El Dubya will ask her about her special relationship with China recently. Maybe they will play golf. In the meanwhile, big-name journalist Ces Drilon's kidnapping by the ASG sort of flies right smack in the face of these joint military efforts of the past few years. I do wonder at the timing. Maybe certain elements of the armed forces - the same ones who sell ammo to the enemy - informed the ASG in advance. Makes the case that our generals need more funding.

Read also:
A Tale of Two Letters
The Biznez of War
Why It Sucks to be a Filipino Muslim
Rape, Hypermasculinity and Philippine-American Relations

Angst

It is one thing to read about an acadamic piece as the excerpt below, it is another knowing that we are living it. Because I spent sixteen months without ads hounding me every time I leave the sanctuary of my home, I now feel oppressed by billboards and signs that cover every imaginable space in the city.

Manila is tarpaulin heaven.

Ha. Anyway, here it is, a (quasi) public good provided by moi, for your private consumption.


Globalisation, Class, Consumption and Civil Society in South-east Asian Cities by John Clammer Urban Studies, 40(2), pp 403-419, 2003

In Manila and other large Philippine cities, some analysts suggest that the middle class has diluted the old exclusive elites, but in doing so has moved from its orginal demands for political and economic democratisation to demands for public goods,
especially education...

This 'new urban enivronment' is their natural milieu. They wear ready-made clothing, eat in fastfood outlets, read fasion magazines and organise their lives around consumption. The public domain to such people increasingly seems a boring rrelevance, filled either with problems (the urban poor, crime) or with political venality and quite beyond their control. An enclave mentality is the result, with not only the elites but also the new middle classes effectively opting out of the public shpere which, as a result, degenerates even further...

To understand the nature of public space and the role of the new middle classes within it, attention then needs to be directed to three factors.

The first is clearly the economic - the productive forces that have given rise to this class, its position within the total economic constellation of each society (the co-existence of an affluent urban middle class with extensive and rising urban poverty) and its economic links to and dependency on the state, the corporate world and indeed on international capitalism.

The second is the political, and in particular the tendency of the mass of the new middle classes to support authoritarian regimes in the interests of their own stability and reception of public goods.

The third is cultural and involves both the ethnograpy of the emerging cultures of the middle classes...and a critical perspective on that culture, especially insofar as it is largely a culture of consumption and of highly selective participation in any wider public or collective culture.

...Much of civil society is indeed of middle-class creation in south-east Asia as elsewhere. However it is precisely this middle-class sector that is most susceptible to political co-option and manipulation by the state, given its own demands for expanding public goods rather than public culture or public spaces.

Ascribing the lack of vitality of civil society simply to some reified 'middle class' and its lack of political aspirations in any wide sense is clearly inadequate, since it only provides a weak account of why such politicisation is diminished amongst the middle classes when it is often high amongst the underclasses.

Anthony Giddens has argued that the basis of depoliticisation is not economic or social threat, but changes in the conception of the self in 'late modern' society, eventuating in the abandonment of public politics...and the corresponding rise of 'life politics.' For Giddens, this situation is a situation particular to the (over)developed world in which a form of socially sanctioned narcissism (concerned with self-identity and fuelled by consumption) drives out wider issues.

The moral of the story? Resistance is futile. Do not fight the power. It is ultimately useless. Know your place. Do your duty - work and consume. There is only one true path to happiness - our gigantic malls.

Mantra for the Rest of the Year....

Conceptual Innovation

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Methodological Rigour

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Rich, Substantive Content

Thank you for the tip Mssrs. Przeworski and Salomon.

Weird Wired World

Over coffee and cake, my little brother's eyes light up as he waxes poetic about his internet shop and gaming. There is a real underworld of zombie players, from little babies to full grown adults, who answer to the siren call of joints like his. For the life of me I still cannot quite understand the attraction. I was never into gaming, the closest I got to addiction was playing the Sims, and I didn't really even play - I just liked building, designing and decorating houses.

Apparently this little underworld is a lifestyle of sorts. He jokingly talks about the cult which often congregates in the shop across his. The players who come to his place come in groups. It is a social thing - this gaming. Where before boys congregate in the plazas to play basketball, socialise and test their mettle as young men, these days they battle it out in front of flickering screens.

I have been witness to this ritualistic behaviour. It is rarely ever quiet, with a lot of good-natured heckling. There is an entire generation of young people out there whose idea of leisure involve hand-eye coordination and tremendous cognitive mapping skills. The popularity of online gaming is such that it has spawned a real industry. I still can't quite wrap my head around the fact that the virtual economies of games like DotA have spilled into reality. The fact that someone will actually shell out real money to purchase a virtual sword to be used in a virtual world is mind-boggling. I noted the same bizarre thing when I tried to send a virtual gift to a friend the other day on Facebook. The pink birthday cake cost $1 dollar. I thought the price tag was just there for kicks. Imagine my surprise when, upon clicking on the image, I am prompted for my credit card details.

Like the fuzzy world of high finance, there is real value created in the virtual. In the case of Facebook, the $1 dollar birthday cake's value rests not on its utility but on its representation. It carries with it symbolic value - a code that lets the receiver of the gift know that the sender values their friendship. The difference between 'real' gifts and the Facebook cake is that the entire set of friends networked around the two also know of this symbolic gesture. Oddly these kinds of symbolic exchanges mirror pre-modern practices. For example Papua New Guinean tribes' highly ritualistic pig festivals - from the animal's slaughter, preparation, cooking and finally how it is eaten - communicate to the entire tribe a multitude of things. It serves to emphasise hierarchy by apportioning the best parts to the perceived most powerful member of the tribe and worst bits to the least important. It serves to reaffirm kinship ties between and among members - kinships which are almost always based on real economic ties. In today's weird wired world, the same principles still operate. Symbolic exchange is still embedded in real economic losses and gains.

Apparently betting is quite popular in gaming. Throughout the years my little brother has invested quite a lot of his lunch money (and I suspect a number of his "lost" cellphones) in practice playing and bets. The Philippine gaming industry is not yet as developed as South Korea's - which can actually support professional gamers. I have heard of cases where there are actual fights and fatal injuries where players are unable to cough up the money.

My brother talked about hackers inflitrating RF online and infecting its entire virtual economy. When he launched into technobabble (something about .dlls and .tlls or some such thingamajiggy), I was obviously lost in translation. Apparently this hacker (or hackers) opened up a discussion board somewhere and leaked the holes in the game. He said he suspects this guy (or guys) may be seeking employment in the same company that runs the game as a security person. How anyone can secure employment by keying in codes is almost mystical to me.

I suppose just as mystical is achieving rockstardom via YouTube (hat tip to Butch). First was Charice Pempengco. Now here is Arnel Pineda's 'journey' told on CBS' morning news:



On the way home from our jog this morning we saw a bright bold sign on one of the corner stores. Along with the requisite tingi-tingi goods sold in the sari-sari, they now sell mp3s at 2 Pesos per song.

French Film Fest 2008

The foreign film fest season has begun. From this month all the way to December, denizens of the city will be treated to films they will usually only encounter at their friendly neighbourhood pirate. See the French offerings and screening schedule at the Alliance website. Hopefully its still free! They will also be screening Brillante Mendoza's Serbis. Hopefully no cuts.

Fiona Apple - Paper Bag

Recuperation of the Filipino National Consciousness

National Artist for Literature Virgilio S. Almario, aka Rio Alma, will deliver a lecture about literature and its primary role in the formation of Filipino identity titled "Reklamasyon ng Pambansang Gunita," (Recuperation of the Filipino National Consciousness). This will be held on June 7, 2008 at 1:30 pm in Room 201 of the College of Arts and Letters in UP Diliman.

Linangan sa Imahen, Retorika, at Anyo (LIRA) sponsors the lecture as an opening event of its annual poetry workshop. LIRA, an organization of poets in Filipino, was established in 1985 and has produced respected poets like Michael Coroza, Jerry Gracio, Roberto and Rebecca Añonuevo, and Vim Nadera.

This lecture is open to the public. For details, contact En Villasis at 09224596365 or visit http://liraonline.org.

Why Do Some Countries Remain Poor While Others Grow Rich?

This is a question that has never stopped nagging me since the very first time I left this country eleven years ago. It is one thing seeing it on television growing up, it is another being in the First World yourself. Explanations by the likes of F. Sionil Jose - which basically say we are poor because of our culture - is simply unsatisfactory. Being a materialist, I believe culture (i.e ways of doing) is fundamentally determined by the material circumstances (i.e. the environment). The question of whether culture produces reality or reality culture is something that I have agonised over for quite a while now.

See:

Are We Poor Because We're Lazy or Lazy Because We're Poor?
In a Wowowee State of Mind
The Philippines as Open Pussy Country?
Excising Cinderella, Maria Clara and Inang Maria From Our Minds
AbsurdiTV

In explaining poverty I prefer being a materialist. In getting this politico-socio-economic unit out of poverty I prefer not being overly deterministic (i.e. we can still make choices that are not necessarily constrained by the economic).

Here is Dani Rodrik, an author I have only read, not heard or seen, delivering a short presentation that attempts to answer this question. I am surprised at how unassuming the man is. And how humble.



In the end its simple. Get the economics and politics right. And culture? Ah. Its probably that sticky, gooey glue that is lodged in between.

Outline:

1. Global income distribution
2. Decomposing global income inequalities to within - and between-countries components
3. Understanding why some countries produce so much more output per worker than others

Important points:

"Would you rather be rich in a poor country or poor in a rich country?"

- Most of Rodrik's students would rather be rich in a poor country. But in actuality, the poor in a rich country are better off.

- World inequality has gone from almost exclusively a "within" country to mostly "an "across" country phenomena.

- What produces GDP per worker?
a) factor endowments - natural resources, people
b) "efficiency factor" - how these endowments are organised in a society

a+b = total factor productivity

What accounts for the differences across countries? Factor endowments or Efficiency?

Illustration: Turkey vs. US factor productivity. Turkish factor productivity is only 1/3 of US. Why?

- Economic Dualism in Turkey: a modern industrial sector (high productivity) and a traditional agricultural sector (low productivity)

What are the social and structural bottlenecks that keep the two sectors from closing the gap in productivity?

a) Poor institutional environment - government effectiveness, political stability, over-all, regulatory mechanisms, "rule of law" (i.e. predictable, consistent) (the organisation of society)

b) Macroeconomic instability and overvalued currency - an overvalued currency tends to lower labour productivity. An environment with a competitive (i.e. low) currency value tends to move labour and capital to the more productive parts of the economy.

c) "Innovation" doesn't necessarily mean heavy investments in R&D. Innovation in a middle income country is success in removing the impediments to the structural transformation of the country.

----

What needs to be done is to organise society in a such a way that maximises wealth production per person - this is the economic part. How to do this 'organisation' is fundamentally political and bounded by our culture.

Oh. And I will take Rodrik's explanation over Jose's any day.

Refreshed

I went to UP today, to have a couple of things done at the shopping centre, and to have some isaw with Butch. I always feel good whenever I pass through. There were plenty of students walking around campus. It's probably reg week. I had never noticed before, but amazingly UP students look exactly the same a decade ago. Its not the uniform t-shirt and jeans they throw on carelessly. Its not the little details - funky earrings, a loud hairdo, and an occasional tattoo. Its not the walk that screams "I don't care, but I'm cool and I know I'm smarter than you ." Its not the walk that screams angas. Its the look on their faces. Its pride. This is perhaps the most priceless thing I took away from this university. Regardless of background, class or creed, UP instills in each and every one of its students pride. And its a pride earned entirely through merit. To my alma mater - a happy centenary.

Reality Bites

Nightdreamer twits, "What are most lives but a series of incomplete episodes?" What a postmodern thing to say. I've heard it all before. "This is the end of the season, you will meet a new set of characters." We are the children of this mediatised age. We make references to songs, to films, to television - forms of media that reflect to us our reality. Do we really live lives of fiction? Are we but characters in our scripts? That to me is a frightening prospect. For who writes the script?

I caught a nihilist bug in Australia. The set of values associated with that is woefully inadequate for survival in a still modernising Philippines. We cannot afford anomie just yet. To survive in this country - we need to convince ourselves there is something to hope for. To hope means believing in the future. To hope means believing that our actions matter, that there is progress, that we move forward.

Hunger is frighteningly real. My car's gasoline bills are frighteningly real. Grocery bills are frighteningly real. Inflation is frighteningly real. To give up that we cannot do anything to ease tha pain in our wallets, to give up that we have any say at all about what happens to our lives, is to concede that all we are are sheep - fed, fattened and readied for the slaughter.

I didn't like the nihilist I found in me. She was a selfish, unhappy little bitch.

Well

Its amazing
The rope is unspooling
So spectacularly
The narrative has left
Inexpressible regret
Inexpressible and yet
The song in words remains
Rhyme, rhyme, sing, sing
There is no escaping
No comfort in drink
Or smoke
Or love
Where is the bottom?
It didn't used to be this deep
When will I hit it?

Sidestepper - Deja

Sleep

Shed skin tonight
Leave nothing but bone
Peel each layer with abandon
Look deep, fear not
Lick those wounds tonight
Remember the flavour
The sweet, the bitter
The fiercely tender
Longing, malingering
Abandon hope tonight
Anticipate the scars
There will be no saviour
No solace, no surcease
No more, no más
No stopping fracture tonight
The end is no closer
The end is none sooner
The end is no clearer
Shut those eyes
Take leave of senses
Abandon the waking
Dream of sleep tonight
Dream of sleep.

Muse

Memory soothes the senses
Balm on cracked lips
On a dry day
On a dry spell
On a dreary blinding morning
Memory forgives sins
Of lost chances
Of failed attempts
At fancy plans and ordered moments
Extraordinarily brief
A little box of snippets
Of a most precious communion
Of a passing of time
In double vision
Twice as clear
Twice as muddled
Sharply drawn charcoal lines
In swimming technicolour motion
Memory mourns joy
In the precious few seconds
Of a clear bright blue sky
A brave face to the horizon
Memory borrows sorrow
In return, the ordinary
In return, the simple act
Of drawing breath again tomorrow.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs EP

I fell in love with Karen O in that MTV performance of Maps. Here is "Isis" from their latest EP Is Is. Enjoy.