The Problem Of Viewing Competition As A Battlefield

It should really be a call for national shame in the incident where Gilas got into an ugly fight with an Australian basketball team. I may not be into sports myself and I don't really care about the number of wins or losses any nationality plays -- but this is where I feel like the need to write about the problem where people tend to view competition as a battlefield. Yes, that one. The Gilas players broke out like angry, rage-filled teenagers in a petty quarrel against the Australian team. They could have just avoided the fight but they decided to further aggravate it. This ends up showing yet another problem in the Philippines -- the problem of viewing all competition as if it's a battlefield.

We can't deny that there are scenarios where you need to win. In a war, you need to win it especially if it's against an invading force that could destroy your country. But that is not always the case with competition. Competition doesn't necessarily mean it's a battle. How would competition be defined? You can have friendly competitions and unfriendly competitions. You can have healthy competition and unhealthy competition. Unfortunately, unhealthy competitions feels like it's the mindset of many Filipinos even before the dawn of the 1987 Constitution or the Marcos Years. Take note that it's not exactly exclusive to Filipinos either but please don't make it an excuse to persist in this kind of mindset. 

I remembered the time I was reading through the rather long tedious argument in Get Real Philippines between Marius and Peke Aeta when it came to the issue of a weakening Philippine peso. I either had a headache or a good laugh at that sore loser who uses the screen name Aeta. I was thinking about the idiocy of Aeta where he starts to blame the foreign investors, tourists, Chinese businessmen (both foreign and Filipino) for all of the Philippines' problems -- all the while he's probably pretending to own up to his contribution to the problems while he does seem proud of it. It also shows the hostile communication between both of them. It was laughable at best to see how Aeta is really that much of an ignorant sour grape in more than one level. His argument shows how the prevalence of viewing all competition as a battlefield is indeed a common Filipino trait -- a trait that must not be prevalent if Filipinos are to succeed in life and country.

Take for example the problem of how the countrymen view the competition of Filipino businesses vs. foreign businesses. Since 1973 to 1987 up to present -- the Philippines has suffered from crony capitalism which forms the oligarchy. The Marcos cronies all got away and are still in power. Some of them even owed the government billions of pesos in taxes. If it's not the Marcos cronies in the oligarchy then you've got the Aquino cronies or other cronies. The idea of having a win-win scenario whenever possible is somehow almost non-existent in the Philippines. In fact, the very idea of 60/40 is that certain industries are subjected to 40% only ownership while others aren't even allowed to own any percentage at all. Some even say that it's to protect the country from an invasion of foreign investors which is just bogus. If they read the history of international marketing then they need to understand this -- when you trade in that country then you must follow all the rules and regulations of that country. They only fear the threat but they fail to look at the opportunities presented by foreign investors in a win-win scenario.

It's also a problem that lot of Filipinos aren't exactly business-minded either. Sure, some can understand the basic concepts like you need constant innovation if you expect to survive (which is true) but do they understand that competition is what brings forth innovation? Try to share a post about business opportunities (local and foreign) and you may get very less shares. Share something like Noynoy Aquino getting beheaded in Saudi Arabia and you may get massive shares in less than an hour. Sad isn't it? As said, great minds discuss ideas and events more than they will discuss about people while small minds will discuss more about people than anything else, right? I mean, how many people tune in on ABS-CBN and GMA-7 to watch the business-related programs? Most of them would rather watch those idiotic gossip shows and mind-numbing teleseryes than educational and business TV programs. Shouldn't they even start watching some finance management tips shows so they could at least learn to manage their money than overspend it?

Should it also be considered that there's the problem of hating competition while bragging about how great one is because one is a Filipino? Do they even see the purpose of competition? It's competition that placed competent Filipinos to where they are or got them to reach their goals of winning certain prices. Having healthy competition motivated them to do their best. The economist Adam Smith considered competition as a tool to keep an economy efficient. Yet, as long as people have the mindset that's hostile to competition or view it as a battlefield then they will never want to have or even consider that there's possibly a win-win scenario. They would rather want it to be where it as (1) Filipinos win--foreigners lose or (2) Filipinos lose--foreigners win when there could be the event of (3) Filipinos win--foreigners win. Instead of thinking of how to create a win-win scenario when there's a common good -- they would rather have their own continuous hostility towards competitors even if the competition is meant to be friendly. Isn't it any wonder why the Philippines has been been backwards for decades?