CENTRAL ASIA DEVELOPMENT UPDATES

CENTRAL ASIA DEVELOPMENT UPDATES
Erle Frayne D. Argonza
Good day from Manila!
Below are some updates on development efforts being done in Central Asia. A region most of whose states used to be part of the Soviet Union, Central Asia had lagged behind other regions of the continent after the collapse of the Union over twenty years ago.
Synergy among neighbors has been quite a tough thing going since then. The levels of distrust are pretty high within each state, distrusts that tend to downgrade the formation of civil societies that are largely found on trust.
This analyst welcomes efforts to improve on synergy, boost the physical economy, and strengthen governance institutions in the region.
[Philippines, 20 June 2011]

From: ADB – http://beta.adb.org/news
CAREC 2020: Boosting Trade, Transport and Energy in Central Asia
Date
8 Jun 2011

BAKU, AZERBAIJAN – Senior officials from the 10 member countries of the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Program, met today in Baku, Azerbaijan, and moved towards completing a strategic framework that over the next decade will help further develop regional transport networks, boost regional trade, and help secure reliable, efficient energy.
The Senior Officials’ Meeting took stock of the group’s achievements since its formal establishment in 2001, and put finishing touches to CAREC 2020, the strategy that will guide the partnership for the next 10 years. It will include a five-year plan of priority regional investments in transport, trade facilitation, and energy. CAREC 2020 will be formally adopted in November 2011 when CAREC countries gather again in Baku to mark the occasion of their 10th Ministerial Conference.
“This year is special as it marks the first decade of CAREC’s existence. It is a time to look back, celebrate, reflect, and—very importantly – to also look to the opportunities ahead,” said Juan Miranda, Director General of ADB’s Central and West Asia Department. “The CAREC countries are closer now than they have ever been, and CAREC 2020 will speed the process by which Central Asia reassumes its position as a pivotal crossroad for international trade and commerce.”
The CAREC partnership comprises 10 countries—Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, the People’s Republic of China, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan—and six multilateral institutions: the Asian Development Bank (ADB), European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, International Monetary Fund, Islamic Development Bank, United Nations Development Programme, and World Bank. ADB has served as the CAREC Secretariat since 2001.
CAREC promotes project-based cooperation in transport, energy, trade facilitation, and trade policy. To date, the regional group boasts more than $15 billion in CAREC-related investment in these sectors, including building and upgrading 3,600 km of roads and 2,000 km of railway; as well as ports and priority border crossings. CAREC has also improved energy security, efficiency and distribution throughout the region.

ASEAN LANGUAGE: MALAY IS STRONGEST CANDIDATE

ASEAN LANGUAGE: MALAY IS STRONGEST CANDIDATE

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Good day from Manila!

The matter of official language for the ASEAN is among the issues arising as the Southeast Asian confederation is tightening its reins towards a federation-type economic union by 2015.

The possibility of a political union will float to the surface once that economic union will be in place. Political integration will most likely see the constituencies galvanize across the region, people-to-people synergy will increase, and the need for a common language will be felt more strongly.

Among certain intellectual circles in the region, there are those who are now proposing that Malay be the language of ASEAN. Malay is spoken by the greatest number of ethnicities here, even as my country is marked by an overwhelming majority of people who speak Filipino, a Malayan language, more than English (common language during the American era).

Below is a summary report of the proposal.

[Philippines, 26 June 2011]

Source: http://www.brudirect.com

October 26th, 2010 10:40
Malay Can be “Language of Asean”

Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam – Malay language has the potential to become “language of Asean”, considering it is spoken in four-member countries.
The history of the language as one of the lingua francas and was once one of the predominant languages in the region, and is spoken by many minorities across the Southeast Asian region further strengthen its potential.
Dr Mataim Bakar, Director of Research, Development and International Affairs of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports, stressed this at “Language Dialogue: Malay language as the language for Asean” at the Language and Literature Bureau yesterday.
Aside from Brunei, Malay is also spoken in other Asean member countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and certain parts of Thailand.
The director said these conditions create an opportunity to introduce the language in-depth to Malay speakers and non-speakers in the region.
The General Secretary for the Riau Jakarta Community Association Indonesia, Dr Abd Azis Tabligh, said there was flexibility in the usage of Malay language.
The Acting Director of Language and Literature Bureau, Hjh Aminah Hj Momin, said to realise the concept of making Malay language as the language for Asean, “there was a need to pool our resources and capabilities to achieve the objective.”
“This resource pool should comprise literature figures as well as people from strategic and critical areas: economy, engineering, science and technology,” she said.
“We want to empower our language. This empowerment can be realised by wise, brave and strategic political will by the relevant authorities.”
Hjh Aminah suggested the need for a systematic channel that could encourage growth and stimulation of mind, musyawarah (discussion) and sharing of discourse.
She did not deny the need to learn other languages in an effort to gain as much knowledge as possible.
However, she emphasised that the knowledge should be conveyed or translated to Malay language.
“Malay language can play a role as the language medium for knowledge. Malay can expand to be a modern language with the concept of progressive nation based on an independent mind and strong identity of its people,” she said.
The acting director added: “Development in economic, politics, education, culture and social does not merely depend on English language. Malay language can be the basis for nation’s development and civilisation.”
Hjh Aminah asked all to look at countries such as Japan, German, Korean and Taiwan that practice their national language and became rich, developed and ambitious nations.
Meanwhile, Dr Abd Azis said the Malay language was the root of Bahasa Indonesia.
“Bahasa Indonesia is Malay language that is added with foreign languages as well as respective dialects in the provinces,” he said.
The nation’s vast population is also united by its language. The language’s significance can be seen in many national events, said Dr Abd Azis.
Dr Abd Azis said like many Malay-speaking countries, the development of ICT had created a crisis for the preservation of the language, where many use English language as the medium.
“Our duty is to (evoke) the feeling of pride for the Malay language and its usage in our community,” he said. Courtesy of The Brunei Times

CLIMATE CHANGE: PLANETARY OR GALACTIC?…ROCKET SCIENTIST BACKTRACKS GLOBAL WARMING

CLIMATE CHANGE: PLANETARY OR GALACTIC?…ROCKET SCIENTIST BACKTRACKS GLOBAL WARMING
Erle Frayne D. Argonza
We cannot deny, as shown by evidences, that Earth changes are taking place today. There are no fixed interpretations of the changes though, and the scientific community is the least unified about such interpretations.
Whether the fixed idea of ‘global warming is carbon-based monstrosity’ is fully accepted across the sciences and civic groups remains as a hot issue. It is, for one thing, too contentious, and in my opinion as a social scientist, too reductionist with pugnacious eco-fascist underpinnings.
Astronomers have recently reported updates about all planets of the solar system undergoing changes in their polar areas. Even the sun does not escape its own equivalent changes that have repercussions on the electromagnetic belt of our very own planet.
Unfortunately, global Establishment media and information niches have released the news in separate, isolated packets so that they won’t be noticed by the public, thus sustaining the rather erroneous and suspicious fixed idea of a carbon-based or human intervention-induced Earth changes.
Below is a news item about an Australian rocket scientist who was previously among the most vocal interpellators of a carbon-based global warming problematic. The same scientist has now backtracked on his previous statement, indicating as such the disagreements within the scientific community about the subject.
[Philippines, 27 July 2008. Thanks to the Executive Intelligence Review database news.]
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Former Global Warming Rocket Scientist Cools to Reality
July 18, 2008 (EIRNS)—
An Australian Greenhouse Office consultant from 1999 to 2005, David Evans, now slams the global warming theory he once supported. In an opinion piece in Rupert Murdoch’s national newspaper, The Australian, Evans stated that: I am the rocket scientist who wrote the carbon accounting model (FullCAM) that measures Australia’s compliance with the Kyoto Protocol, in the land use change and forestry sector.”We scientists had political support, the ear of government, big budgets, and we felt fairly important and useful (well, I did anyway). It was great. We were working to save the planet.”
Evans said he initially thought the evidence seemed “pretty good,” but had admitted it was not conclusive. Now he says straight out: “There is no evidence to support the idea that carbon emissions cause significant global warming. None. The Labor Government is about to deliberately wreck the economy in order to reduce carbon emissions. [They are] going to be regarded as criminally negligent or ideologically stupid for not having seen through it. And if the Liberals support the general thrust of their actions, they will be seen likewise.”
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MULTIPOLAR POWER ARRANGEMENT MUST BE ADVANCED!

MULTIPOLAR POWER ARRANGEMENT MUST BE ADVANCED!

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

The rugs under our feet are changing fast. Even before the changes, brought forth by globalization and rising new economic powers, took place in the early 1990s, this analyst was already of the mindset towards building a (a) strong ASEAN and (b) re-engineer the global context towards multipolarity.

At that time, the Soviet Union just collapsed, with Stalinist regimes crashing down infamy and erasure as once thriving states. ‘Tiger’ and ‘dragon’ economies of Asia were roaring sonorous waves that shuddered the enclaves of fascistic world powers. Open societies, multi-culturality, and new economic players were making waves world-wide.

By the late 1990s, the clamor for a multi-polar arrangement became stronger. That is where the world is heading to anyway, so the world powers may as well register in their elites’ mental banks the need to reconfigure the way they relate to developing countries.

Having witnessed how great powers—acting on the behest of their dominant elites (oligarchs, politicians, technocrats, military elites)—crash developing countries down to more appalling living conditions via public policy dictates, I could only but bite the bullet and feel ambivalent towards the North in particular. The northern elites have already ensured, using zero-sum game rules, that the south will never ever rise to economic prominence, much more to political prominence.

Philippines was made into a favorite guinea pig for IMF-sanctioned policies on currency decontrol, devaluation, and liberalization reforms. World Bank pressures ensured that PH can never install its heavy industries, notably steel, by shackling financing efforts from overseas to bankroll major industrial projects.

IMF austerity reforms lashed out with the fury of super-typhoons, tsunamis, and mega-quakes combined, assuring the rise of poverty to 60% when strongman Marcos was booted out in 1986. Virata & technocrats, all pro-World Bank-IMF, were the true power wielders in the country and made sure that the North gets its impositions going.

There is no better option than for the developing countries to do its best in surging ahead economically via sustained growth, equitable wealth distribution, and poverty reduction. Hence creating a large middle class, the DCs (developing countries) can then get together in global coalitions to promote mutual cooperation and protection against the predatory powers of the North.

Such are the reasons for my pro-ASEAN advocacy. Relatively sovereign as a confederation, the ASEAN can become a global power in the short run provided that the union and its policies develop a strong constituency where there is none today. The true constituents are the citizens of member states, they should develop the regional consciousness and the sense of responsibility for advancing and defending the nascent union.

The ancient days of world power hooliganism, which accompanied power relations with wars of destruction and sustained global chaos, should be put to rest. The North should quickly learn the emerging ways of the globalized community, and cease from treating the South as populated by sub-humanoids or ‘colored monkeys with no tails’.

China, India, Brazil, ASEAN are rising to global economic and political prominence. Old powers Britain, America, France, should better pay attention well to the emerging reality, while Russia can swing its allegiance towards the emerging powers (Russia is itself ancient).

Multipolarity will enable the further growth of cooperation, multi-national exchanges, trust and mutual respect. It should. The South is now showing the way for such ideal states to happen.

[Philippines, 03 June 2011]

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PH AN EMERGING POWER PER UK PRONOUNCEMENT

PH AN EMERGING POWER PER UK PRONOUNCEMENT

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Good day to you fellow global citizens!

Just recently, a team from the British diplomatic corps made an unusual pronouncement in Manila: that Philippines is an emerging power. For a world power that once conquered Manila during the world war between the empires of Spain and Britain, the UK remark is truly unusual.

Cordially and tactfully delivered, the remark hopefully could open up more floodgates for greater investments between the UK and PH. UK better bring in more investors—bringing in more FDIs (direct foreign investments) than hot money capital—and show sincerity in relating to its partner in the ASEAN.

Known for profligate engagements in derivatives operations and related speculations, UK has been the center of operations of known predatory financiers led by the Rothschilds and fronted by George Soros, a fact that has been causing chagrin on and ambivalence towards the British by developing countries. UK diplomacy better change that image and change it fast.

On the other hand, it is time for Filipino investors to move into London and Northern Ireland with greater capital intensity. Sure, there are a lot of Filipinos in the UK, with circa 200,000 located there, albeit largely for domestic work. It is time that the population composition of Pinoys in UK better change, with greater numbers of professionals, investors, and aid volunteers (to developing countries) deciding to seek domicile there.

As to the numbers of British citizens located in PH, the number is 10,000. Composed largely of retired seniors, the number is also reinforced by diplomatic professionals, business executives, philanthropic aid workers, artists and students. The composition may need to change soon, as PH is an open society and its multi-cultural environ is a plus factor for British and other Europeans to seek domicile here.

Let’s go back to the contention of emerging power. This contention was culled from the observation of PH as an emerging market, which together with other emerging markets will equalize the OECD powers by 2025 as per World Bank forecast. Emerging markets have large populations and significant middle income consumers (earning $6,000-$30,000 per annum).

PH has around 19 Millions out of its 94 Millions of warm bodies as comprising that global middle class. Small for now and seemingly stagnant, the 19 Millions can be made to grow, and the number is significant vis a vis the total population. All over the ASEAN, a total of past 100 Millions of people are in that category today.

The USA has 160 Millions in the global middle income category. It is no wonder that the World Bank made the forecast, knowing the sustained growth that the emerging markets have been showing. As the USA stagnates along the way, ASEAN will surpass it in terms of doubling its middle income to past the 200 Millions warm bodies before 2025 yet.

With Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam showing the way to what emerging markets are in the ASEAN, it is no wonder that traditional world powers are in a hurry to re-chart the directions of their foreign policies, aimed at creating long-term modus vivendi with the emerging markets.

PH political clout will most likely increase along the way as its economic clout also strengthens. The domestic stakeholders better take note of the new perceptions of OECD powers such as UK on PH, and widen that latitudes for rapid growth and wealth redistribution to accelerate the creation of a middle class past the 50 Million mark soon.

This time around, PH shouldn’t miss out on the emerging global opportunities and perceptions of multi-polarity. Stakeholders should put up or shut up in meeting the gargantuan challenges at hand.

[Philippines, 02 June 2011]
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LOIN EMPOWERMENT: CHURCH CRANKY POLITICAL DISCOURSE

LOIN EMPOWERMENT: CHURCH CRANKY POLITICAL DISCOURSE

Erle Frayne D. Argonza
Religious fundamentalism is among the mega-waves of the moment. Secularism, which was a 19th century wave yet, had reached its full circle around the 3rd quarter of the 20th century.
From 1980 onwards, with the advent of Islam Fundamentalism and Religious Right (Christian Right, Hindu Right), secularism has been taking the backseat as fundamentalism’s seductive new dogma delivered their devastating blows on erstwhile ‘enemies of God’. Catholic fundamentalism has been riding along this mighty wave since then, and had already dealt its own devastating blows on perceived God’s enemies:
(a) Irish Republic Army partisans killing thousands of children-women-aged ‘collateral damage’ folks;
(b) Croatian Army, armed by the Opus Dei, storming the Serbian bastion, killing thousands of ‘collateral damage’ folks, and declaring a separate republic, along a largely contorted notion of ‘nation’ (ethno-nation); and,
(c) Christian militias armed to the teeth in many parts of the globe, causing enormous damages and misery on the affected folks. More such violent genocidal campaigns will be fomented by Catholic crypto-fascists in the months and years to come yet.
This is not to count those hundreds of millions of deaths caused by the Crusades, Inquisition, imperial conquests of Catholic powers (Spain, Portugal, Bavaria, Hapsburg, etc). During the Philippine Revolutionary War against Catholic Imperial Spain, no less than half a million Filipinos died, while millions died more due to the forced labor, population resettlements, and abominable cruelties by the Catholic Spaniards.
If we reflect on all of those past genocidal campaigns done by the Catholics, and add the death tolls inflicted by contemporary terroristic adventurisms of Church partisans, we may wonder what ‘pre-emptive right’ do Catholic cryto-fascists possess that render them as indubitably clean, spotless, pure souls who cry wolf whenever issues concerning population control and/or reproductive health are raised, in the name of a new distorted moron one-liner ‘pro-life’.
The same puritanical quacks, none of whom lives a life that is unblemished and sagely worth our emulation, are again in the heat of raising the same fear-based ‘pro-life’ in the electoral campaign in America.
Here in Manila, the same puritanical quacks have been on the rampage over the legislative victory of the long-awaited Reproductive Health Bill, using the same pathetically bankrupt one-liner ‘pro-life’ spiced with highly nauseating lies about “the destruction of Philippine way of life” by the noblesse legislators. Nay, the same quackery has been raised by the fear-mongers to convince Filipino-Americans not to vote for Obama next week, for Christ’s sake!
Come to think of it, if we examine the underlying logic of the puritanical quackery, we can see the fear of Church Hierarchs & lay leaders in a rapid diminution of church devotees across the coming decades.
The political economy of church operations clearly reveals thus: the more people participating in church life, the greater the power of the purse of the Bishops, priests, religious orders, and lay organizations. This reality of political economy explains why the Church today remains very powerful, because it is the world’s wealthiest corporate entity taken in the aggregates, whose wealth no nation or corporate group can ever surpass.
To restate the thesis in another manner: loin power means purse power. Following from that logic, purse power means greater prestige and political power by the Church. A diminished loin power, due to the meteoric ascent of ‘reproductive health’ and/or ‘pro-choice’ discourse in the realms of legislation and administration also means the consequent decline of the purses of the Church operators.
As the issues and defenses are raised across partisan lines, Islamic partisans are mobilizing their forces of engagement, ready to start a World War III in their region, a war that could embroil the entire planet in another 30 Years War and see the eventual erasure of nations in a Post-Westphalia regime. Catholic militias and terrorists are increasing by the numbers across the globe, evidenced in my own country by the return of the infamous Tadtad and Ilaga groups that have regrouped and mobilized to engaged marauding Jihadist terrorists in their Mindanao backyards.
Since the Church is awash with cash, gold bullions, estates, and hedge funds anyway, every Catholic diocese may as well begin arming militias and related partisans who would be tasked to run after Catholic infidels or those who do not follow the faith in the manner so dictated by Paleolithic fogey dogma. In order to defend the ‘pro-life’ line, kill more, bomb more, cause miseries on more people, in the name of God! Praise be to God!
Urbanization is another mega-wave in our planet today, a wave that brings with it the ever-widening individuation of the human psyche. Herd discourse such as those peddled by the Pied Piper puritanical quacks, which induces a retreat to the folk spirit or folkgeist and is tantamount to retrogression of the species, has no place in an increasingly individuating psyche.
Spirituality may also increase with time, but this spirituality will be of the ‘seeker’ or ‘freethinker’ type, a spirituality that is not susceptible to mind-bending manipulation by the folk spirit Pied Pipers. This could be the reason why, in the Philippines, amid the much ballyhooed 86% membership of Filipinos in the Vatican church or corporation, the devotees have voiced a predominantly pro-reproductive health inclination according to official nationwide surveys.
Obama has got nothing to do with this inclination, the legislators’ pro-active measure on population & development has been in Congress for nigh two (2) decades now, but we do see the increasing individuation among an increasingly sophisticated urban habitué led by the urban boheme & intelligentsia.The same Catholic puritanical quacks are joined by Christian Right groups in the USA in waging a last-ditch attempt to derail the popular gains of Obama versus his contender McCain as per latest survey.
The same sickening discourse, characteristic of mental bankruptcy and mediocre “understanding” (sic!) of the human condition, is being mass-disseminated by a loose alliance of cryto-fascists, all working to subtly use loin power to keep their groups in hegemonic positions in the private sphere. What nauseating, pathetic buffoons these folkgeist progenitors are! If they have nothing worth talking about, nothing worth their ilk, they better wrap up and mobilize for armed partisans and face their infidels in the Middle East.
While the same puritanical quacks, both Islam and Christian, would be busy slaughtering each other, as they did hundreds of years back, the true peace-loving, life-loving, dialogue-wielding, universal love-driven citizens of Earth would be collaborating in their efforts for lasting peace and development worldwide.
[Philippines, 27 October 2008]
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SEXUAL PROMISCUITY: PROF. ARGONZA ON LOTHARIO @TAYUAN AT PANINDIGAN

SEXUAL PROMISCUITY: PROF. ARGONZA ON LOTHARIO @TAYUAN AT PANINDIGAN

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Good evening from the Pearl of the Orient!

I was just recently invited to guest at the news & info show Tayuan at Panindigan of TV5 (Ph) on the subject of Playboy. Hosted by Aida Uy, Lourd De Veyra, and Giselle Sanchez, the show is among the fast rising talk shows in PH today, and there’s a good reason for this: the platform is indeed informative, with a segment on analysis/reflection, and ethical standpoint declared by the hosts on the last segment.

The analysis/reflection is the segment that needs an expert. Being a sociologist with additional background on anthropology and social psychology, I was keen on discussing the topic of lothario phenomenon, and so I decided to say my nod to the invitation. I did decline previous invitations for one reason or another, so I better appear in this latest invite so as not to appear as a smug personality with ‘prima donna complex’.

The core questions asked of me involved the typical factors accounting for playboy behavior: cultural, genetic, psychological. These were often the standard variables popularly known as accountable for lothario behavior, so I delimited my discussions based on them. My expected task was to affirm whether such factors were indeed valid, deepening the articulation when warranted.

There was a sexist slant to the topic of course, as playboy behavior is just one side of the reality. There also are sexually promiscuous women, likewise are lesbians and gays affected by the phenomenon. Sexual promiscuity is the more generic phenomenon, and it is rising in fact in the context of postmodernity.

In the emerging context, there are two (2) other factors that account for sexual promiscuity: (a) drug subculture, and (b) predominance of the Primal.

Friends of mine who immersed in the drug subculture during their young adulthood, revealed to me how dope—with stimulant effect—can create a sex maniac out of someone who may not have manic behavior in the first place. I know of a former female staff of mine who got hooked into the sex & drugs circles, was impregnated and borne two (2) babies out of mere casual sex with men, and was treated psychiatrically for bipolar disorder. Welcome to the Primal era!

The 20th century saw the beginning of the rise of the Primal that tore down the last vestiges of Enlightenment’s reason-dominated discourse. The sexual revolution came and reached full circle during the last half of the past century. Postmodernity has a dark side to it, as it celebrates ‘drug is cool’ and ‘sex is cool’ clichés.

Not only that, even ‘evil is cool’ has become an in-thing in postmodernity. Notice many video games today, and kids killing other kids with bladed objects, even with mere ballspens (e.g. Vietnamese-American high schooler was stabbed to death inside an internet café in California). To rape and then kill the victim in such bizarre fashion is common everywhere in the urban planet.

Postmodernity is the culture of the emerging Post-Industrial economy, and so it dovetails into the cultural factor behind sexual promiscuousness. I prefer to discuss this factor in any forum about sexuality in fact, rather than go back to ancient cultures or socio-biological case factoring (e.g. male gorilla sexes 5X a day with different female gorillas to sustain homeostasis).

I am more of a present-to-future looking analyst and prognosticator, and this is what I can share as prognostication: sexual promiscuity will rise even sharply in the decades ahead. Unless that there is a reversal of sorts, as a new over-arching ethical regime will re-shape sexual conduct altogether. For now, that ethical regime is remote.

[Philippines, 19 June 2011]

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Come Visit E. Argonza’s blogs & website anytime!
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RIZAL / GURU OF NATIONHOOD

GURU OF NATIONHOOD
Erle Frayne D. Argonza
Good afternoon from Manila!
Is it possible to practice guru for nationhood? Everybody who knows the term ‘guru’ or teacher expects the role of somebody who mentors on the level of the individual psyche, or intervenes on the individual level. Let me shed light about the matter.
There are different levels of consciousness and awareness. Each one of us has an individual aspect to our consciousness, which sociologists call the ‘individual self’ or authentic self. The individual self is the repository of our personality, the totality of our behavior system that allows us to behave in many circumstances in a unique way. The mind of our unique self is called the ‘individual mind’ plain and simple.
As we move up the ladder of sociality, we encounter the ‘collective consciousness’. Sociologists used the terms ‘conscience collective’ (Durkheim), ‘social consciousness’ (Marx), and ‘social self’ (G.H.Mead) to refer to this level of consciousness and type of self. The rules that guide our behavior are deposited in our collective memory and operate through our ‘social self’.
The nation is a cultural being that comprises of a congregation or agglomeration of diverse ethnicities, races, social classes, genders, and other social identities. At the level of nation, collective consciousness operates and congeals as rules, national culture and identity. Nationhood therefore is no fixed thing, born from out of a silver platter, but is rather an entity that has to be collectively constructed.
It is in the task of constructing nationhood that diverse teachers do come to help mold minds of people towards accepting a common culture, identity and normative template as a people. Gurus are indeed sent from time to time, whose missions have to do with galvanizing collective consciousness towards an ‘enlightened society’ rather than focus on individual learning of the Teaching.
Among the various mystics who were sent forth by the Divine Hierarchy to focus on the collective consciousness formation, Jose Rizal and Mahatma Gandhi come to mind as the prototypes for modernity. Rizal, the Philippines’ national hero, practically expended his time and effort teaching his fellow islander Malayans in accepting an identity as ‘Filipino’ and learning the patriotic values and duties that go with practicing citizenship.
Mahatma Gandhi, who read Rizal and must have been aware of the mystic-guru side to the first Filipino, likewise embarked on the noble mission of teaching nationhood for his beloved India. Among the patriotic virtues that he taught, that of ahimsa (peace/non-violence) stands out as the most. He preached nationhood till the last breath of his physical body, and did a lot of punishing self-sacrifices just to prove his point. Even his profession and money pursuits he sacrificed in the last instance.
Both of them eventually lost their lives for the cause. Rizal was executed by the Spanish overlords of his beloved Philippines, while Gandhi was assassinated by a partisan fanatic. During that moment of death, what people don’t realize is that, as their respective souls departed, they made inner commitments to Cosmic Hierarchy that they partly shoulder the collective karma of their nation. In other words, they carried the cross for their nation, in the same way the Jesus carried the cross of the entire planet Earth’s humanity.
In a similar way, gurus who intervene on the level of individual consciousness do take a part of the karma of their respective individual disciples. Some of them suddenly acquire incurable cancer, some would lose their voice partly, while some others could die from absorbing so many vibrations and bad karmas of their disciples. That’s what it means to become a guru: take on the cross for others.
So, Fellows, let us please appreciate the noble works of gurus for nationhood for their selfless dedication to their thankless jobs. They more than deserve accolades for their sacrifices and gargantuan feats. No wonder why some people regard them as worth the cult worship, revere them like gods. They deserve enormous respect, to say the least.
[Writ 09 June 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]

ASEAN’S THORN IN THROAT: BRITISH & AMERICAN IMPERIALISTS’ DIRTY ENGAGEMENTS

ASEAN’S THORN IN THROAT: BRITISH & AMERICAN IMPERIALISTS’ DIRTY ENGAGEMENTS

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

It definitely feels great to see my country and region booming economically at this time, boom marked by strengthening currencies, bourses, and investment environments. However, the climb of ASEAN to economic prosperity is being hampered by the rouge manipulations of the Saxon Empire—British imperialism and U.S. hegemonism combined.

Western empires are on the decline now, and will continue to fragment in the years to come. However, the greedy oligarchs of the said empires, notably the Saxons’, will always have dirty things to hatch and manipulate client-states, relentless acts that can ensure the gravitation of the latter towards the power orbits of the former.

Take the case of the USA. Already declining as an economic power, it still nurtures the mad agenda of a future war versus China and Russia, and is so desperate to control the necks of Indonesia and the Philippines as its obedient client-states. Obama may be the civil libertarian that he was as a young man, but those days are over, and he is performing the presidential role of his imperialist Saxon nation.

As of the 1990s yet, the USA was already in the heat of nurturing client-states in the ASEAN, with the agenda of isolating China in the long-run. Signing of ACSA (acquisition & cross-servicing agreements) were done in flurries of diplomatic talks (read: subtle bullying) that resulted to the likes of Indonesia and the Philippines being hooked up anew to the USA’s militaristic pursuits (the Philippines already abrogated the Military Bases Agreement that decade, only to sign an ACSA treaty later!).

Meantime, the British Empire, led by Queen Elizabeth herself in behalf of the Anglo-Dutch oligarchy’s interest, had long held the necks of the Sultan of Brunei, Lee Kwan Yew & leaders of Singapore, and King Bhimibol & bureaucratic puppets of Thailand. Inside Myanmar there’s the puppet Aung San Suu Kyi, while in Malaysia there’s Anwar Ibrahim.

Now, knowing the links of Aung San and Ibrahim to the British oligarchy, you should not wonder why the Mahathir leadership of Malaysia jailed Ibrahim while Myanmar’s generals continue to house-arrest Aung San Suu Kyi. The media moguls of both the West, who are in league with Queen Elizabeth and the American elites, have done every demonizing they can versus Mahathir and Myanmar’s generals, but have told nary an expose about the connection of Ibrahim and Aung San Suu Kyi to the Anglo-American-Dutch oligarchy.

The greed of the British & American oligarchs is very insatiable, they already had a taste of such greed by attacking the currencies of East Asia in mid-1997. That dirty operations, to recall, was executed by George Soros and the Quantum group’s 99 or so financiers, a dirty act that began with the attack on the Baht and expanded like wild fire to take on the ringgit, peso, and other currencies of the region.

Almost overnight, the developmental gains that took the East Asians many decades to build were wiped out! In just a couple of weeks or so, around $1.5 Trillion were taken home by the Soros & greedy financiers, while more were taken out as ‘hot money’ investments in the ASEAN were rapidly withdrawn by the same circle of financiers.

ASEAN is to a great extent being consumed by the clientelism or imperialism of the British and Americans, a reality that contributes to both political and economic instabilities in the region. For as long as the member states of ASEAN will play fiddle with Saxon imperialism, the region will take time to arise as an autonomous economic and political power on the global front.

In some other writings of mine, I already delved into the drug traders in the region, a coterie of operators who are directly tied up to British financier interests. British drug traders are in a modus Vivendi with the Chinese mafia circles, a balance of trade that shouldn’t be offset so suddenly. This trade balance ensures unhampered British dirty drug operations in the ASEAN that is a portion of its drug operations in the entire Asia from East to West of the continent.

The same drug operators were identified by economic intelligence teams as having direct tie ups or representatives of the Inter-Alpha group of companies, a group that practically controls banking & finance in Europe and America. (See reports of the Executive Intelligence Review, The Guardian, and related news for the matter.)

In some other articles, I already articulated the British & Americans’ creation of jihad groups across the region and Asia. So much studies were already done on the matter, so many exposes of the link between Al Qaida and the British Intelligence & CIA already published by other observers. With jihad terrorists roaming the region, America thus has the rationale to stretch its muscles to intervene militarily in affected countries, thus reinforcing intelligence gathering by Americans at grassroots levels in ASEAN.

Empires are definitely tough to crack and knock out. Hence, ASEAN’s encounters of many thorns in the neck from the generic Saxon empire will ensue for some more time before it will be able to establish its secure autonomy.

[Philippines, 14 November 2010]
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ASEAN BETTER LAUNCH THE ASIAN MONETARY FUND NOW!

An ASEAN Monetary Fund was envisioned by the late PH strongman Ferdinand Marcos. That bank could have been financed by his gold. Today the said vision is becoming closer to reality, as Asian countries have legitimately accepted the concept. This article is hereby republished to drumbeat the need for the Fund.

ASEAN BETTER LAUNCH THE ASIAN MONETARY FUND NOW!

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Buoyed up by the positive economic performances and regional integration efforts of ASEAN member-states, let me ensue with the ASEAN agenda, and articulate this time the matter of the Asian Monetary Fund or AMF. What makes the urgency of constituting the AMF even more exigent is the recent pronouncement made by the Asian Development Bank or ADB about the same theme: launch the AMF now!

The idea of an Asian Monetary Fund actually began with the late strong man Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines. Awash with colossal hoards of gold, Marcos vouched for the creation of an Asian Monetary Fund that shall function as monetary stabilizer, steward of an Asian currency, and financer of bold development projects.

As per note from some of his own former close supporters (they were my fellow economists in the Independent Review, c. 1998 to 2000), Marcos was very eager to back up (securitize) the Asian currency with his very own gold hoards (they amount to hundreds of trillions of US. $ today).

It was too bad that Marcos had downside images among the global financiers, who conspired behind the scenes to overthrow him. They never liked the idea of an AMF that will compete with their stooge thug bank International Monetary Fund, and they were salivating to control his gold hoards. The Trilateral Commision in fact undertook steps toward aiding the process of social turbulence to unfold in the Philippines, turbulence that eventually overthrew the dictator.

It took some time before the AMF idea would resurface. The opportunity for resurfacing came with the Asian financial meltdown of 1997. That crisis saw the region’s currencies attacked by an insidious cabal of Western oligarchic financiers fronted by George Soros, who all rested happy from their criminal currency attacks that fattened their coffers by the trillions of dollars.

Thus came the technocratic and public policy responses to the crisis of that time, with the Asian Monetary Fund idea floating to the surface as a viable option. Necessarily, the stabilization of currencies will come with the institution of an Asian currency, which came alongside the AMF idea.

It then took many years of haggling and bargaining before a continental resolution was finally signed into a sort of a memorandum of undertaking. To recall, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives (Philippines), Hon. De Venecia, took much pains to legwork Asian leaders into finally signing the concordat and presenting the same to the Philippine state leaders for immediate action after accomplishing his mission.

This time around, it is the Asian Development Bank that has taken the cudgels for pushing for the urgent institution of the AMF. As articulated in a previous article, the ADB is among the continental institutions that can aid in launching an ASEAN central bank (circa 2015) as well as an Asian Monetary Fund.

Since the ASEAN is the most actively engaged regional formation among Asians, it is the most logical body that can facilitate the launching of the AMF. Its country members could easily role play the core membership of the AMF, with the quid pro quo that the latter will aid ASEAN in forming its regional central bank comes 2015.

As early as the late 90s yet, this analyst was very highly supportive of the institution of an AMF and Asian currency. The launching of the currency alone will catalyze the stabilization of monetary-fiscal environments, and can even out the very uneven cost of living situations across countries.

AMF would surely be of great help to insulating Asia’s emerging markets versus the destructive undercurrents of the economic crises of North America, Europe, and Japan. It can likewise aid enormously in regional trading efforts, precisely by securitizing and/of directly financing the pioneering and expansion efforts of exporters.

I would, however, add a caveat to the AMF’s formation: securitize the operations via a gold reserve standard or equivalent. The eradication of the gold standard in 1971 is among the factors behind monetary-financial instabilities and emergence of criminal financial predators over the last four (4) decades, predators that were responsible for de-industrialization, agricultural decay, and economic decline altogether.

The launching of the AMF shouldn’t be delayed a day longer. The global economic roof is collapsing due to the structural defects of the northern economies, and so as a measure of mitigation the region’s own economies be insulated from that crash through launching of the AMF, buffering financial collapse via collective money reserves for contingency uses, and instituting the Asian currency very soon.

To re-echo the theme: there is no better time to constitute the AMF than now. Act now, before it is too late!

[Philippines, 17 November 2010]

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CHINA BULLIES NEIGHBORS OVER DISPUTED TERRITORY

CHINA BULLIES NEIGHBORS OVER DISPUTED TERRITORY

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Good afternoon to fellow global citizens!

East Asia has been hit with the fever of the ‘China syndrome’ symptomatic of a giant that is just awakening. Vietnam, Philippines, Taiwan, Japan were the specific neighbors that complained about Chinese forces’ incursion into their claimed island territories.

China’s bullying of its neighbors is symptomatic indeed of a growing malaise in the awakening giant. Too far yet is that stage when China will become a wealthy over-developed economy, yet its state players have begun to flex muscles that are arrogant displays of colossal military might.

With a population of 1.5 Billion and a navy that is now on transition to a ‘blue water navy’ (capable of maneuvering in oceans past its water territories), the flexing of military muscles over disputed islands proves to be bothersome behavior for its neighbors. Southeast Asians built their mutual trust and esteem through cooperation and consensus for many decades, so that Chinese intrusive behavior just resonate with that built-in synergy among them.

So arrogant were the Chinese state players, particularly the chiefs of defense and diplomacy, that they lectured their neighbors with pontifications about territorial integrity and diplomacy, with the presumption of course that their neighbors were barbarians who lacked the savvy for understanding questions of ethical and political propriety.

For some time now, this analyst openly expressed his stand for a stronger ASEAN, precisely because a unified region comprising of small states can stand up to big neighbors such as India and China in case that the latter will bully their way to success. ASEAN was in ancient times the averred and esteemed Majapahit Empire, and it is time to reconstruct that ‘empire of the Sun’ that was the world’s wealthiest during its peak.

Within the frame of ASEAN military arrangement, an ASEAN-wide military which will have a command structure of its own distinct from the national armed forces of constituent nations, will prove to be very instrumental in securing the region against economic & military giants of the planet.

Meantime, the Asian countries bullied by China should become more assertive of their rights to their clamed territories by maximizing on the use of diplomacy and institutional channels such as the United Nations and attached agencies. Regional issues such as the present territorial disputes involving China should be converted to global issues so that the entire humanity will be involved in judging errant nations and making them tow the line of international law.

[Philippines, 13 June 2011]

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ASEAN ADOPTS RP’S NAUTICAL HIGHWAY

A nautical highway was designed and implemented with appreciable results in the Philippines. Today, the different islands are more interconnected. This article on ASEAN’s adoption of the PH project is hereby republished.

ASEAN ADOPTS RP’S NAUTICAL HIGHWAY

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Good day to you all! Magandang araw sa inyong lahat!

Let me return to the ASEAN, after delivering my kudos to Latin Americans and Brazilians over the presidential victory of the socialist Madam Rousseff there. How I wish that the ASEANians can emulate the audacious social policies of Brazil under the stewardship of the outgoing leader Lula and incoming Rousseff.

For the good news, the information has already been disseminated that the entire ASEAN is adopting the ‘nautical highway’ program of the Philippines. Accordingly, the planning stage for a regional nautical highway is now under way, with the program most likely implemented way before the 2015 economic integration here.

A brilliant idea, the nautical highway concept was actually hatched by Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the previous president of the Philippines. A technocrat-politician, Arroyo surely found a remedy to the sluggish and inefficient transit of people and cargo across the seas in the archipelago.

To recall, Arroyo was an economist and academic before she joined government. As president of the country, she achieved the feat of solving the fiscal problems and doubling national income within a 9-year span. The Philippines finally graduated to middle-income country status during Macapagal’s incumbency.

Infrastructures also expanded by many folds during Arroyo’s incumbency. Roads, wharves, airports, levees, dams, and diverse public works benefited immensely from the boom years of her aegis. Within the context of the transport infrastructure programs did Arroyo conceptualize the RORO (roll on-roll off) nautical highway.

Executed with very high success levels, the nautical highway proceeded to deliver the expected result of accelerating the transit of people and goods across the seas. The RORO also brought down the cost of ship transportation, hence engendering a more mobile poor folks who could nil afford long distance travels.

As already elucidated in a previous article, it would be excellent if the nautical highway would be interlinked with a forthcoming regional railway. More excellent if the nautical highway, roads, railways, and airports would be interlinked in such an exquisite design of transport hubs.

ASEAN-wide planning takes a longer time than national planning, as there would be a preference for consultative process in the planning exercise. Let’s just hope that the planning phase won’t take longer than 1 & ½ years at the most, with the final output passing through a last grassroots or community hearing for discussions and feedbacks.

That means that as early as 2012, the regional RORO will be implemented. Infrastructure, technology, and logistical support will need to be installed and/or allotted by the 1st quarter of 2012 to ensure fast implementation of the program.

With the program implemented, hopefully the poor folks in the coastal areas won’t have to travel to islands of other countries by risky motored banca or canoes. The RORO ships would bring down risks, travel costs, and make travels very comfortable for poor folks and monied middle class alike.

This analyst highly appreciates the latest ASEAN collaborative efforts for building a regional nautical highway. May the planning, implementation, and monitoring/evaluation of the future program come forth with stunning success.

[Philippines, 16 November 2010]
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ASEAN LAND BRIDGES & RAILWAY SYSTEM

Interconnecting ASEAN member countries via landbridge cum railway project has become an urgent need. It is viable. This article is hereby republished to stress that point.

ASEAN LAND BRIDGES & RAILWAY SYSTEM

Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago

Magandang umaga sa lahat! Good morning to everyone!

This analyst will continue on the ASEAN theme and will focus on road networks & railways for this piece. The region is now preparing the foundations for its conversion into an economic union by 2015, so it would be a productive engagement for citizens of the region to put forward their ideas about how to let the region grow and prosper, such as the idea about land bridges articulated here.

Each member country of ASEAN is now developing infrastructures at different paces, thus rendering each country with gaps in terms of road networks and railways. Such I gap, I believe, can be narrowed if the entire region will conceptualize, design, and begin laying down today the foundations of a region-wide road network.

The grand project can be dubbed as ‘land bridges program’ for the goal it can aspire to attain: that of linking all of the member countries into interfacing and interloping highways. There will be defining expressways in each of the countries that will then be integrated, expanded, and closed gap where certain spaces lack them, thus creating a seamless expressway serving as ‘land bridges’ across the entire region.

Running parallel or inter-linked with the road network would be a gargantuan railway system—of maglev technology—that will be part of the land bridging efforts. Transport hubs can be constructed in certain areas where the road facilities and railway can interface. Each member country can choose to link up its railways (running on electricity and diesel) with the regional maglev to comprise a yet another complex network with awesome potency for stimulating growth.

Such a grand project, which when interlinked further with the Mekong integrated project, will serve as multiplier effect in stimulating growth and development for all of the member countries without exception. The flow of peoples, goods and services, and investments across borders will thus increase by many folds, propelling further the generation of wealth for the union.

With the ASEAN central bank and ASEAN development bank running by 2015 and onwards, it becomes facile to fund the gargantuan land bridges project. The implementers will include private construction & development companies in the region as well as banks that can fund the project’s phases from the side of the private builder-constructors.

The project will enhance the synergy of trucking, train, and shipping down the ground and waters. Such effectively done, there will then be a reduction of moving people and goods by airplanes that can then have greater space for mobility.

The land bridges project can spur more ambitious civil engineering, so that civil works can move on to build tunnels beyond 2 kilometers below the ground. The same engineering efforts can then build tunnels across islands and help to ease out the burdens on ships as the link between island components of the road network.

The same project can also facilitate the inter-connection of the ASEAN to a new ‘silk route’ now rising across the Asian continent. The entry points will be India and China, which the union can cooperate with in building linking infrastructures. With such a possibility turned into reality, one can travel by road and trains from Luzon in the Philippines onwards to the Europe, permitting enjoyment of wonderful landscapes across many lands.

Movements of peoples, goods and services to and from the giant neighbors will also move up by many folds with the land bridge project linked up with the ‘silk route’. Ships and planes can be unburdened a bit by such a twist of development, and can then accommodate more goods & services for other continents and regions.

Regional institutions can be erected to design, manage, and regulate the conduct of construction as well as future traffic along the expressways and the railways flows. There should be transparency and efficiency in the bidding of contracts, so that early enough the governance components of the future political union can already be erected.

It is very likely that the project will be highly welcomed by the peoples of the region. The business sector, notably the constructors & developers, could hardly wait to dip their hands into it as soon as the call for participation by the ASEAN will be in place. It will surely leapfrog the region’s catching up with the developed world and with China, rendering it a potential global economic power in the foreseeable future.

[Philippines, 11 November 2010]
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ASEAN AEROSPACE PROGRAM

Republished article, to exacerbate S&T and industry cooperation among members of ASEAN, to be able to build a regional space program.

ASEAN AEROSPACE PROGRAM

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Magandang araw! Good day, most especially to fellow Southeast Asians!

For this piece I’m going to focus on the theme of an ASEAN-wide rocket industry-based aerospace program. ASEAN is about to integrate economically by 2015, so may the member states put in the list of agenda for action the launching of a regional aerospace program.

As the region’s member countries grow at immense rates, the middle class of the region will likewise grow that will serve as its sustaining consumption base. A large middle class will mean a higher demand for telecommunications infrastructures that will, in the main, depend on satellite and related facilities.

So, instead of each member country trying to outdo each other by launching their respective rocket industry-based aerospace programs, the countries better sit down together within the aegis of an ASEAN economic union, concur a binding agreement regarding the launching of an ASEAN aerospace program, and fund the entire program internally from ASEAN resources.

With an ASEAN central bank in place by 2015, it wouldn’t be so difficult to generate funds internally for all sorts of grand projects from infrastructures to aerospace. An ASEAN development bank would then be securitized by the central bank and allocate funds for the aerospace program.

Malaysia today is in the stage of research & development for a rocket industry and has begun training & development for its technical experts. It may be prudent for the ASEAN to assign to Malaysia a lead role in orchestrating the ASEAN aerospace, with the quid pro quo of compensating Malaysia for lending its expertise and certain aspects of the backward linkages for the future industry.

The aerospace program would largely be used to launch satellites and only secondarily for space research & development. The space R & D can come later, maybe at a time when the ASEAN will be prepared for political unification in the long run.

With a satellite industry in place, the ASEAN can then compete with other market stakeholders (countries & regions with satellite industry) to supply and launch the satellites of other developing countries. Project costs can be cut down at the satellite production phase, thus bringing down prices of ready-to-launch satellites and ensuring patronage by many developing countries.

All of the essential components—at the backward linkages—of satellite production are now present as running industries in the region. From metallurgy to computer software & hardware, name it and the region has it. Hence the viability of satellite industry is very high enough.

It is in the domain of rockets that the ASEAN would need to co-partner with other countries at the production phase. It can be an option for ASEAN to co-partner with Russia that can supply the rockets that will launch ASEAN’s satellites. China and India are other options also for supplying the rockets.

However, in the long run the economic union should work out to establish a strong rocket industry for itself. The rocket industry can spin off into a more comprehensive program later, one that can be extended to launching R & D in other planets and their respective moons, space tourism, and sending missions beyond the solar system.

Rocket technology can also be modified so as to integrate it into the mining industry, so that in the long term ASEAN can mine for metals in other celestial bodies. Environmental standards are getting to be stricter by the year, standards that can constrain the extraction of rare & precious metals regionally, so the alternative in such a context would be to mine for the metals in other celestial bodies.

The aerospace program is one developmental area that will prove the potency of a regional approach to launching it contrasted to country-initiated approach. Given the gargantuan level of funding that a rocket industry cum satellite industry will entail, funding that a member country will be hard put to supply, then regionalize the program altogether to circumvent country constraints.

[Philippines, 07 November 2010]
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ASEAN TRADE LIBERALIZATION, PREPS FOR 2015 UNION

Republished article, to drumbeat the need for more intratrade within the region. This is instrumental in creating the economic union by 2015.

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]
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