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At least there is visibility
Michael Alan Hamlin
The idea that any visibility is good visibility will be put to the test tomorrow as Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo comes calling on US President Barack Obama, the first Southeast Asia head-of-state invited to do so. While the visit is likely to draw attention to the Philippines’ relative resilience to the global financial crisis and its free-wheeling democracy, its inability to match its neighbors’ rate of growth and development, endemic corruption and poverty, and chronic rebellion in the context of increasing political turmoil will more likely be the media’s focus.
In fact, as early as Sunday the conservative The Washington Times criticized Mr. Obama for extending the invitation, suggesting that it would provide a level of credibility undeserved by Mrs. Arroyo’s administration. “The choice of Mrs. Arroyo for this honor was a mistake because Mr. Obama is being used to give political cover for the Philippines president’s troubles back home,” the paper argued.
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Posted
7/29/2009 3:29:25 PM |
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Now, more than ever
Michael Alan Hamlin
Late last week, I attended the 155th Commencement Rites of De La Salle University, which marked the formal graduation of my daughter and-according to university officials-1,099 other graduates. Over the years, I’ve sat through quite a number of commencement speeches. This time, I enjoyed them all. But one truly moved me, which I am-with permission-reproducing in abridged form, here. It was delivered by Nicole Marie R. Villarojo, the outgoing student council president.
“A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of spending time with 31 brilliant Filipino minds-the future movers and shakers of this country. I went there thinking I was well above everyone else-a city girl who came from a well-to-do family who studied in one of the most expensive private universities in the country. However, the experience proved to be humbling. The stories I was told were burned into my heart.
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Posted
7/22/2009 1:17:07 PM |
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On the backs of overseas workers
Michael Alan Hamlin
Veteran investigative journalist Greg Rushford writes in “Clan Warfare Hobbles the Philippine Economy” in the July issue of Far Eastern Economic Review that last year’s rise in Philippine gross domestic product (GDP) “was earned on the backs of nine million to 11 million overseas workers who mostly toiled as servants in Singapore and Hong Kong, sending some $16 billion in remittances to their families.” Mr. Rushford was reacting to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s recent statement during a state visit to Japan that, “the Philippines is finally unlocking its full potential.”
He continued, suggesting that if we were to “subtract those remittances, which amount to roughly 10% of GDP (not to mention the foreign aid from the World Bank, the ADB, the Americans, Norwegians, Canadians, Germans, Swedes, Australians and Japanese), the Philippine growth would plummet.” Mr. Rushford argues that the Philippines’ potential won’t be realized as long as economic growth is held back by “the unhealthy confluence” of a weak state and powerful political oligarchies that hobble economic opportunity.
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Posted
7/17/2009 12:09:01 PM |
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A not-so-boring forum
Orly Mercado
Normally, attending a foreign policy forum can be as boring as diplomacy itself, much like watching paint dry. The recent ASEAN Secretariat Policy forum, organized by its brilliant and articulate SecGen, Dr. Surin Pitsuwan, proved to be as lively as it was stimulating.
It was the comments of Dr. Rizal Sukma of the Jakarta-based Center for Strategic and International Studies that stirred up some interesting reactions. He has called for a “post ASEAN foreign policy” for Indonesia. He has written a piece in the Jakarta Post advocating a hard line on human rights. ASEAN has been struggling to negotiate the terms of reference for its nascent Human Rights Body. After hard bargaining, nine nations have come to some agreement accommodating concerns of human rights advocates. The high level panel working on the terms of reference (TOR) feels it essentially includes Indonesia’s concerns. It is admittedly a product of compromise. Such negotiations rarely produce a clear “winner”. The HRB is obviously being built one block at a time. Indonesia’s position may result in no TOR at all, and no Human Rights Body formed.
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Posted
7/15/2009 1:38:57 AM |
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CSR S.O.S.
Michael Alan Hamlin
How fares corporate social responsibility (CSR) in this time of economic and political uncertainty? For the answer to that question, join this year’s annual CSR expo and conference tomorrow and Friday (July 9-10). The theme for this year’s conference, appropriately, is “Business Unusual: Skills, Opportunity, Sustainability,” or S.O.S. Raising the S.O.S. will be top executives from Philippine and multinational corporations, CSR authorities from here and abroad, journalists and non-government organization officials.
The conference, which will take place at the SMX Convention Center, intends to focus attention on economic development that demonstrates economic democracy, or greater and more dignified quality of life for the majority of Filipinos who struggle to feed and educate themselves. William Kramer, a featured speaker, is the founder and president of the Global Challenge Network (GCN), whose mission is to “create environmentally sustainable, equitable, and inclusive growth. Sustainability challenges are today’s most critical business issues and main political issues,” according to the GCN website.
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Posted
7/8/2009 2:59:52 PM |
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Country brand visibility
Michael Alan Hamlin
Will those billions materialize?
The Philippines had quite a run of international visibility over the past week. Thanks to the untimely passing of “King of Pop” Michael Jackson, inmates at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center enjoyed another round of international publicity. The Huffington Post reported that the inmates’ original 2007 performance of Mr. Jackson’s “Thriller” has received more than 24 million hits on YouTube, “with nearly a million of them in the 24 hours since news of Jackson’s death spread.” (Update: As of this posting, views have increased to almost 28 million.)
The performance was carried by media around the world, including CNN. The report in The Huffington Post quoted two inmates incarcerated-one who has been on trial for a year-for drug-related offenses. That might have reinforced another perception of the Philippines, that as one of the top methamphetamine producers in the world. The United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC) released a report last week showing that the Philippines was number five in legal seizures of the drug-popularly known as shabu-in the world after China, Thailand, the US, and Taiwan.
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Posted
7/2/2009 10:50:52 AM |
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Digital and analog politics; Getting it right
Paul Bograd
Let’s not get too George W. Bush about this issue. It is not a simplistic good and evil choice. It is complex and the stakes are quite high.
My colleague Mike Hamlin had a terrific filing about Twittering Regime Change; and he his right on target. He uses a number of examples that are visionary, inspired and even heroic.
Ok. Ok. Maybe not visionary, inspired and even heroic; but at least interesting for a quiet Saturday morning. Consider the example of David Cohen, a former Bush administration official in the Department of the Interior, posting a status update on Facebook Monday morning Manila time urging Twitter users to set their locations to Tehran and their time zones to GMT +3.30. The reason? “Security forces are hunting for bloggers using location/timezone searches,” Cohen wrote.
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Posted
7/2/2009 9:32:04 AM |
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