How Can Benign0 Of Get Real Philippines Expect Filipinos To Follow Simple Guidelines WITHOUT Addressing The ROOT CAUSE?!

After writing my rather late article on Jason VOORHEES' Pinoy DNA theory -- I'm going to hammer Benign0 yet again. I visited one of my older articles talked about how Filipinos can't expect progress IF they refuse to follow simple guidelines. It was during the reign of the late Noynoy Aquino when the tagline "It's More Fun in the Philippines" inadvertently became a slogan of dysfunction and the OPIUM OF FILIPINO SOCIETY. I was looking at Benign0's and his wife Ilda's older posts -- I remember how I was enamored with Get Real Philippines. I even wanted to join the writing team! However, I found out that the site has been focused on pessimism, feeding trolls, etc. Benign0 calls drawing FDI a "mentality of losers" and a "lazy development strategy". All the while, Benign0 stays in AUSTRALIA. Benign0 should really try telling what he wrote to SINGAPORE or any of the ASEAN countries!

As I looked into older articles -- I found Benign0's article where he says that rule of law can't be implemented until Filipinos learn to follow simple guidelines. I find the whole statement funny. Does Benign0 even think that Filipinos are "naturally inutil" and "naturally pasaway"? Apparently, Benign0 does and maybe that "justifies" why he even left for Australia. Now, to take a look at this statement:

Upholding ‘rule of law’ in the Philippines is a complicated, labour-intensive exercise. Take the tony enclave of Rockwell in Makati City. It’s got expensive zebra-striped pedestrian lanes painted across most of where its nicely-paved streets intersect. These markings give the impression to someone who does not know of the way things are in the Philippines that she can cross the street assured that approaching motorists will stop to make way for her. But then, as most island Filipinos know, that is not the way things are in the Philippines. Lane markings on Manila’s streets are really all just decorations. They give a nice “modern” look to Rockwell, for example, something desperately needed to justify the stratospheric property prices there.

A foreigner from Sweden, for example, who finds herself in Manila (on business, presumably) with her kids will appreciate the importance of briefing them carefully to ensure they are fully-aware of the way things are in the Philippines; specifically that pedestrian lanes are of no consequence to the average Filipino motorist. Commanders of the private security army of the principality of Rockwell are fully aware of this. You can see their troopers posted on most intersections there to ensure none of the many foreigners who inhabit the enclave naïvely step onto a zebra-striped lane thinking that these markings are normally honoured in the former US colony.

Having to tell your kids not to trust zebra striped lane markings in the Philippines after they had been raised in places where things generally make sense can be a bit complicated. As kids do, they will ask Why? And in the course of such a hypothetical dialogue on pedestrian lanes with a particularly cluey nine-year-old, the question will eventually come to this: Why paint them to begin with if they aren’t followed?

I even think that Benign0 may suggest something utterly stupid. Does Benign0 even suggest that the zebra-striped lane should no longer be painted because it's not followed? Benign0's logic probably even believes that we should just remove signs like "KEEP QUIET" or "NO SMOKING" if people don't follow the rules. Does Benign0 even say that lane markings should be removed because it's not really followed? If anything, Benign0 fails to see that the problem is the SYSTEM itself.

I was inspired to write this blog thanks to his wife. However, reviewing Ilda's article on Filipinos and simple guidelines -- I feel there are a lot of crazy assumptions written over here:

It is quite interesting to note that some Filipinos would rather act like idiots than follow the rules. They always want to find an easy way out of a situation. They want to make uncomplicated things complicated. This brings us to another world-renowned Filipino trait: “lack of discipline.”

Filipinos in general are incapable of any form of discipline because they focus more on form rather than substance. In short, they want to stand out. They lack the discipline to engage in discussions in a civilized way and lack the discipline to not turn a public forum into a circus. This is why issues do not get resolved. This is a consistent observation — from every Senate inquiry being broadcast to the Filipino public down to the most benign discussions in the blogosphere, Filipinos love honking their horns.

Worse, Filipinos in general feel a strong sense of entitlement to relax or “chill-out” even when there is still so much to do to move the country forward. Instead of discussing solutions seriously and in detail during their spare time, Filipinos would rather spend it fooling around — never mind that societies from great nations like China, Japan and South Korea have historically shown that being more serious and devoting more of their time to solving problems yields better results in the long term.

Does Ilda think that the problem is solely based on being Filipino rather than the SYSTEM that runs the Filipino? That's probably why Jason VOORHEES has been entertained or why Benign0 LOVES TO FEED TROLLS. I'm surprised that Jason VOORHEES hasn't responded yet. However, I'd love to assume that Jason VOORHEES may be packing up his machete and wants to butcher ANYBODY who disagrees with his nonsense. Benign0's writings and assumption might be best summarized is this, "The Philippines is the most hopeless nation in the world. The Filipino is the most inutil person in the world." Never mind that HE IS ALSO A FILIPINO! The real problem with Filipinos NOT following simple guidelines is NOT because of their Filipino identity or DNA. It's the SYSTEM that's been the problem!

 A study on Filipino ancestry would actually prove Benign0 DEAD WRONG:

The ethnically diverse people of the Philippines collectively are called Filipinos. The ancestors of the vast majority of the population were of Malay descent and came from the Southeast Asian mainland as well as from what is now Indonesia. Contemporary Filipino society consists of nearly 100 culturally and linguistically distinct ethnic groups. Of these, the largest are the Tagalog of Luzon and the Cebuano of the Visayan Islands, each of which constitutes about one-fifth of the country’s total population. Other prominent groups include the Ilocano of northern Luzon and the Hiligaynon (Ilongo) of the Visayan islands of Panay and Negros, comprising roughly one-tenth of the population each. The Waray-Waray of the islands of Samar and Leyte in the Visayas and the Bicol (Bikol) of the Bicol Peninsula together account for another one-tenth. Filipino mestizos and the Kapampangans (Pampango) of south-central Luzon each make up small proportions of the population.

Most Filipinos are of MALAY DESCENT. In other words, the great statesman Mahathir Mohamad would share the SAME KIND OF DNA with most of the "Indios" or most Filipinos! Why are most Malaysians succeeding while most Filipinos are failing -- when they have MORE OR LESS THE SAME DNA? Why are MOST Malaysian politicians doing better than MOST Filipino politicians when they have the same DNA? Can Jason VOORHEES even prove his statements or explain that? Can Benign0 even explain that? It's all because of the difference in the system between Malaysia and the Philippines! 

The big difference between CoRRECT Philippines and Get Real Philippines is this. CoRRECT focuses on getting real about the ROOT CAUSE. Get Real Philippines only focuses on "getting real" about the symptoms but rarely the root cause of the symptoms. CoRRECT Philippines highlights the REAL PROBLEM that Benign0 fails to see:

To those who may not know the whole story, Benign0 was once upon a time this writer’s friend and colleague. Together with another person, 3 of us created the “Get Real Squad” which aimed to wake Filipinos up to understand that there were some serious problems in the Philippines and in Filipino Culture that needed rectification. That group grew in number, with Ben Kritz joining in 2007 and a huge bunch of others joining in 2009.

While Benign0 wrote a lot of articles that essentially talked about the weaknesses inherent in the Philippines and pointed to Filipino Culture as one of its major (if not the major) causes, yours truly acknowledged those same things that Benign0 brought up but also sought to provide practical solutions that would in fact ameliorate the problems found in Philippine Society and simultaneously allow Filipino Culture to improve. One of those solutions was Constitutional Reform.

I argued that the Economic Liberalization aspect of Constitutional Reform (aka “Agenda number 1 of the CoRRECT™ Three Point Agenda”) would help solve the most glaring (but highly under-appreciated) problem of the Philippines today: Massive Unemployment and Underemployment. This reform initiative would entail getting rid of the anti-Foreign Investment provisions of the 1987 Constitution and thus allow Multinational Companies and Foreign Direct Investors to more freely come into the Philippines and create jobs for locally-based Filipinos.

I used the example of Singapore and many other countries in ASEAN whose efforts at fighting poverty and unemployment were all based on getting rid of restrictions against FDI and this immediately translated into higher FDI in-flows and eventually greater job-creation and real and sustainable GDP growth.

But Benign0 suddenly went out to attack that very solution I had suggested. His reason? He insinuates that Filipinos are not ready for the entry of FDI and that Filipinos must first “improve their culture” before FDI is allowed to come in.

(Did other countries in ASEAN even do that whole “everyone needs to change their culture before FDI’s come in” bit? Malaysia certainly didn’t. Indonesia didn’t. Singapore didn’t. Vietnam didn’t. Outside of ASEAN, China and India didn’t. In fact, it was the entry of FDI that changed their cultures to become more competitive!)

Apparently, he doesn’t understand how FDI works as seen in his inability to understand the difference between FDI and OFW Remittances. Worse, despite Benign0 touting himself as some kind of “Filipinos must improve their culture”-warrior, Benign0 has proven to be totally deficient when it comes to understanding what “culture change” requires.

See, it’s easy to tell Filipinos that they need to “improve their culture.” It’s easy to tell Filipinos that they’re “too spendthrift” and that “Filipinos need to learn to live within their means” or that “Filipinos need to learn how to handle money.” Those are the whining rants that have repeatedly come out of Benign0 ever since he decided to launch attacks on my attempts to complement his rants with my solution-proposals.

But Benign0 has never mentioned anything about how those culture changes he says must happen are supposed to happen. He thinks that blogging about it and simply telling Filipinos that “Filipinos are lousy at business” or “lousy at managing money” will cause Filipinos to improve their business acumen or learn to manage money better.

Benign0 seems to have forgotten that very often, the cultural inclinations of people are actually the end result of how their environment or their “eco-system” forces or induces them to act.

As I figured it out the hard way -- telling Filipinos to "improve their culture" and telling them "Don't go for noche buena if you can't afford it" PROVES TO BE FUTILE. You can get mad and shout, "Isn't why the Philippines never improves." The answer isn't in BEING THE FILIPINO but the SYSTEM THAT RULES OVER THE FILIPINO. I bet Benign0 would even dismiss the late Jesse Robredo's statement about systems and behavior because he apparently HATES Atty. Leni Loud Robredo. Sure, I'm no supporter of Leni Loud but there are times Leni Loud actually makes more sense than Benign0 or Atty. Kamala Harris. It's not enough to point out what Filipinos need to improve on. It takes a real change with the Rule of Law in the Philippines. A real change in the Rule of Law will force Filipinos to obey the Rule of Law. I ranted and ranted but most Filipinos live in the same BUBBLE OF FOOLISHNESS. It's really the system that's the problem and why most Filipinos behave that way. FYI the late Lee Kuan Yew also had to handle a nation of pasaways too!

Orion Perez Dumdum is RIGHT to say that Benign0 apparently doesn't even understand FDI and OFW remittances. Such ignorance can be seen in many of Benign0's articles. Benign0 fails to see that poverty is caused by a LACK OF JOBS. Even worse, Benign0 showed how clueless he is about economics (while HYPOCRITICALLY living in Australia) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Benign0 proposed that Filipinos must first learn to sustain themselves before FDI can be accepted. Did Australia even develop that way? Maybe, it's time Benign0 tells Australia that and he might even get his Australian status revoked. 

If Benign0 wants to get it real -- he needs to get the REAL CAUSE as to why Filipinos are inclined to be pasaway. It's really the SYSTEM and NOT THE FILIPINO that needs to be addressed first.