DRUG WAR IN MEXICO: HEIGHTENED PARANOIA TOWARDS MAFIA

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

 

Good day to all fellow global citizens!

 

In a previous article, I wrote about the possibility of mafia states rising to power. As tackled, Belarus could very well be the start of such a mafia state should it get entrenched for long, so the events there are worth watching. Meantime, a drug war ensues in Mexico, and so let us do some reflections about that war.

 

Over 36,000 were already declared dead due to the drug war in the country of patriot Emiliano Zapata. The war that was declared by then president Calderon ensues ceaselessly, deaths thus rising in seemingly exponential fashion by the year. That war is proving too tragic for the NAFTA country, and bodes ill for the entire North America as both the USA and Canada are experiencing their own hotfires of economic malaise.

 

To recall, Colombia was the nest of drug cartels’ power just about a decade ago. With the effective clipping of the powers of drug lords there, drug lords’ lairs became more diffused thereafter, no longer to be ever concentrated in just one country in Latin America.

 

Mexico, Jamaica, Brazil, and other countries are now experiencing the growing powers of mafia lords in Latin America. Mexico seems to be the most vulnerable to entrenchment by the drug cartels since the country is just a step away from the United States that is the main drug market in the Americas.

 

Americans indeed are the most voracious drug users, so that one may wonder whether Americans are still holding own to their nature as humans—that they haven’t already tipped over to their demonic side. A research done in the early 1980s yet showed that as much as 40% of high school students admitted to having used a narcotic at least once, with 20% admitting to having used narcotics repeatedly.

 

That was the 1980s cited, and it is now 2011 or the 2^nd decade of the 21^st century. Drug use there has been growing steadily, and so it is safe to infer that over half of Americans are hooked into narcotics. Those heavy users of drugs may be less than 10%, but that still counts around 25 to 29 millions of Americans forever dependent on narcotics.

 

Next to America would be the European Union or EU. Nobody knows exactly the level and frequency of drug use there. But given the huge 450 million population, even just a 5% heavy usage would translate to 22.5 millions of Europeans heavily dependent on narcotics. At least over a hundred millions more are moderate or non-dependent users.

 

So it isn’t difficult to see why drug trade is so lucrative a business. In my country alone, drug production and trade is a whopping $10 Billion industry, and that estimate could well be under-estimated. Drug user count here is moving up the ladder too, while the Asian and American markets are also active destinations of drug exports.

 

Going back to Mexico, it may not be accurate to just cite the American market as the sole impetus for drug production and trade there. Mexico itself has a large population, enough to absorb a very large portion of locally produced narcotics. And there is South America that very well serves as a huge backyard in the Latino world for any salivating drug lord to flood with low prized narcotics, thus ensuring big bucks to the criminal honchos’ pockets.

 

With a string of conservative governments installed from the late 90s through the present, the paranoia towards drug cartels is understandable. The same conservatives unleashed the sword of a crusade versus the drug lords who are now being hunted down in the same way that heretics were tracked down and massacred by the Church during the infamous Inquisitions around the globe.

 

Insurgents used to be top national security threats in Mexico, but that fizzled out much later. The last insurgent group Zapatistas were a ragtag peasant group in an erstwhile urban-led Mexico, and that group’s potency fizzled out as soon as its uprisings were mounted.

 

Now the drug mafias comprise the major national security threat to Mexico, or that is what the Inquisitionist conservatives want Mexicans to believe. So huge is the anti-drug Crusade that the entire machineries of military and police are engaged in large-scale offensive operations that are akin to facing men-at-war in a conventional war between conflicting nations.

 

Keen observers are noticeably irked at the rather excessive force being used to stump out drug mafias in the country. The paranoia is simply too much, the force is excessive, and so expectedly the ‘collateral damage’ of the war is proving too much for ordinary citizens caught in between the violent fireworks.

 

Mexicans should better exert efforts to bring down that paranoia and bring back the Mexican central government to reality. Mafia groups ought to be stumped out all right, but the war need not be in the vogue of a full-scale war akin to engagement in a world war.

 

[Philippines, 03 February 2011]

 

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AFTER ARIZONA MASSACRE, WHAT’S NEXT IN ANGLO-SAXON AMERICA?

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Americans were shocked again by another event of mass murders done by an expectedly sociopathic man—a certain Mr. Loughner, 22 year-old White man. Just about a month ago, a White man in the east coast shocked Americans when he shot at a school board’s officials before shooting himself to death.

Aren’t Americans supposedly inured to such sociopathic murders already? Not only Americans, but White men and women shouldn’t be shocked at all over such tragic deaths, as White society has been showing increasing signs of madness over the last 150 years or so.

I’m sure nobody has forgotten Jack the Ripper. At the time the crimes of serial murders were done by the diabolical killer over a century ago, sociologists were busying themselves with studying the fragmentation of the collective mind in modern society, which has been the cause of crimes and suicides.

Just go back to the works of Emile Durkheim, George Simmel, Alexis de Tocqueville, Karl Marx, Max Weber, and you would browse for yourselves the painstaking inquiries and theorizing done by sociologists then to capture the fragmentary state that institutions and the collective mind were undergoing.

Onwards through the latter half of the 20^th century, Western (read: Caucasian) thinkers haven’t ceased to capture in theory what was going on behind society’s structures that was cause behind fractured minds and sociopathic behavior. Felix Guattari, Gilles Deleuze, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Julia Kristeva, Jacques Lacan, Jean Francois Lyotard, Jacques Baudrillard, to name a few luminaries, continued the tradition of studying the fragmenting society, psyche, and their expressions in symbolic constructs.

So, with the latest round of massacre expectedly by another White man, what else is new in Anglo-Saxon America? That gunner’s psyche is fragmenting, rendering him as a dangerous walking predator of sorts. Too many Anglo-Saxon men and women, followed by their colored people who were socialized into the Anglo-Saxon’s culture, are fragmenting in their psyche just as White society’s institutions have been disintegrating (read Baudrillard, Lyotard, Foucault).

Let’s get this straight: the phenomenon of sociopathic massacres is highest in the United States, though it is also prevalent in other Western countries. In contrast, such massacres are nearly absent in the ‘emerging markets’ that are today’s growth drivers of the global economy.

One need not even resort to using statistical correlates or chi square test to check whether being White man’s country is a predictor of such sociopathic murders. And among White man’s countries, the USA is topmost in the total incidence of such a ‘deviant’ or ‘abnormal’ behavior.

I did discuss the matter of mass massacres with my mother very recently. She acquired American citizenship and is already retired, though she chose to have a dual citizenship. She is very much aware of the social pathology that goes on in the USA, and was of the opinion that the next mass massacre is just around the bend.

So I raised the ‘research problem’ to my Mom about when would be the next massacre in case? Using intuitive forecasting, based on pass trends, I surmised that most likely over the next six (6) weeks at least, another massacre will take place somewhere in Anglo-Saxon America, and most likely it will be a White man committing the crime.

I won’t be surprised if my own estimate of one massacre in six weeks will turn out to be badly underestimated, that a couple or more will take place in the days ahead. A society that is in deep crisis—socially, culturally, economically, politically—is replete with possibilities of pathologically-induced massacres.

To comprehend their own states of being, I would counsel Americans (predominantly White Anglo-Saxon) to go back to the work of the late Pitirim Sorokin titled Crisis of our Age. Likewise read the works of Daniel Bell concerning the unfolding Post-Industrial society up North.

Well, there also was the late Jurgen Habermas who reflected on the ‘legitimation crisis’ and its attendant malaise in White societies. From Habermas you can branch out to the works of Erich Fromm, Herbert Marcuse, and Ernst Bloch.

But this is what Americans ought to think about: time is running out on America. Too many luminaries up North have written about the fragmentary society and psyche, yet Americans failed to grapple with the realities unfolding, failed to address the fragmentation process with ‘best practices’ done at all levels.  

Americans better be quick in altering the course of their history, for the compass of the unfolding history points towards sinking in quicksands of uncertainties, chaos, and a Dark Age.

[Philippines, 15 January 2011]

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RE-ECHOING KUDOS TO PRESIDENT ROUSSEFF OF BRAZIL

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Brazil and the world are all eyes today on the newly elected president who just took her oath as chief exec, the magnanimous lady Dilma Rousseff.

Rousseff replaces the very popular Lula da Silva who had to step down due to constitutional limits on presidential terms (2 terms only). Both leaders come from the same socialist party of Brazil, even as Rousseff once served as top cabinet aide of Lula, so we do expect a continuity of the redistributive policies of Lula.

A former guerilla, who was among the audacious patriots who dared to clash it out with the military dictatorships that were backed, or should we say installed by the U.S.A. She suffered incarceration and political torment, rose above those constrictions as democracy returned, and ascended to power like a phoenix.

To recall, Lula worked out to bring social equity to its fruition, the result of which enlarged the middle class in Brazil. Poverty alleviation programs have been churning out good results as more poor folks graduated to middle income status during his term. His government’s innovative cash transfer program is being copied by various countries in the world today including my own beloved Philippines.

Lula will surely be well remembered for his feats, and hopefully the socialist party that he belongs to will stand by those redistributive policies that were inspired foremost of all by socialist doctrines. For his feats, Lula became the world’s most popular and admired leader in the whole world, and put Brazil all the more at the center of the world’s global growth drivers.

We will all be missing Lula, the same way that we miss Mandela of South Africa. But no worry, there’s Lady Rousseff who will continue the Lula’s policies and programs and who will dare to innovate more in such areas as providing aid to developing countries that are in need. Rousseff will strengthen Brazil’s leadership in Latin America, enough to veer away the south from the hegemonistic bullying of the U.S.A.

I did echo my kudos to the honorable Rousseff after she won her electoral victory. Let me re-echo my greetings again:

Best wishes for you President Dilma Rousseff in your incumbency as chief executive of Brazil! Goodwill to all Brazilians! Mabuhay!

[Philippines, 04 January 2011]

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LOVE & LIGHT FOR AFRICA THIS YULETIDE!

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

The Yuletide Season is now here with us, Christmas is a globalizing special event, so let me say my yuletide greetings to my fellow global citizens.

For this piece, the greatest love and care I wish to share is for the peoples of Africa. The post-colonial efforts of Africans to establish strong nations, sustain economic growth, and graduate to middle income countries have been marred by colossal barriers. Such barriers are strongly external, a matter I’ve treated in past articles, so I pray and wish that Africans will be able to dis-entangle from those encumbrances.

As a matter of revelation, I’ve long wanted to serve Africa as a development expert. There were already two (2) occasions for me to offer my services to do enterprise development for the continent, one for the southern African region (I could have based in Madagascar) and another for the northern region (Ethiopia could have been my base).

Having drafted some project prospectus for each of those endeavors, I then prepared to fly to the continent. Just as when I was ready to move on, driven by my eagerness to serve the peoples there, something happened to my clientele sponsor.  Communications stopped on the African side, which left my consulting team and myself wondering what was going on there.

I guess that’s how tough it is to push through with agenda of change anywhere in the continent. From North to South, East to West, enormous obstacles are getting in the way of change programs. In the end, the marginal peoples of Africa suffer all the more from misery, hunger, alienation, and psyche fragmentation.

I invite my fellow global citizens to please pray with me for the welfare and growth of Africans and the African nations. Let us wish together that Africa would be able to salve its ailing problems of poverty, hunger, dreaded diseases/poor health, discrimination against women & children, ecological degradation, and low human capacities. Let us pray that 2011 would be a much better year, as new opportunities for human development will flourish.

Peace is a pre-requisite for prosperity, for nation-building. So may those guns of warring enemies across the continent be silenced somehow and give way to dialogues for cooperation and mutual help. May there be more procurement of peace and the building of peace zones across the continent in the years ahead.

Let us also pray with the Africans that European imperialism, which seeks to fragment Africa in order that Euro-oligarchs will be able to get back the continent and exploit its natural resources, will erode all the more. May Euro-imperialism be consigned to history in the short-run, thus enabling Africa more breathing space for nation-building, cross-national cooperation, and prosperity.

Finally, let us pray and wish that Africans will be able to forge greater cooperation and unity among the nation-states, and strengthen the continental union that took them painstaking efforts to construct. Let there be a united Africa in the long-run, thus ending millennia of conflicts and hatreds.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you Africans!

Love & Light!

[Philippines, 10 December 2012]

[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,
UNLADTAU: https://unladtau.wordpress.com,
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GLOBALIZING CHRISTMAS

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

 

Christmas is now nearing as of this writing. Christmas bell tolls, kids’ carols, merry songs & dances are now up in the air, inviting everyone else to share the spirit of fun and camaraderie.

 

A Christian and sectarian holiday Christmas is, no one doubts this. Granted that Christmas is a sectarian affair, is it possible to transform it into a global/universal, multi-cultural event? There are apparently two (2) perspectives that clash concerning the matter.

 

From the point of view of fundamentalist, ultra-conservative church practitioners, whether Christian or non-Christian, Christmas is a sectarian affair and should not veer into cultural spaces not meant for its observation. A Muslim fundamentalist would throw monkey wrench at any attempt to globalize Christmas, and the same may be true for those fundamentalists of other denominations.

 

From the vantage point of a non-fundamentalist, cosmopolitan person, Christmas is one occasion that Christians can share to others. It is a multi-cultural affair, and it belongs to the whole of humanity for that matter. Ergo, everyone on Earth better attunes to the Christmas spirit and feel the ‘family of mankind’ fraternal bonds that the affair espouses.

 

As to where I stand in that polarity of perspectives, I am among those who wish to share the Christmas spirit as a multi-cultural blessing. Born a Catholic, but now a freethinker who espouses post-church spirituality, I remain attuned to the Christmas holidays just the same for the reasons stated above.

 

Christianity is a cult of Jesus, and I will have nothing to do with following or propagating such a cult. Esoteric Christianity, however, isn’t the same as the folk Christianity of the flocks who regard Jesus as a cult figure, and I squarely stand on the grounds of this mystical version of Christianity.

 

Esoteric Christianity teaches universal brotherhood among its core lessons. Universal brotherhood, a battle cry of cosmopolitan esotericists, is still a very valid principle to stand up for. It is the ethos that permits a soul to go beyond the bounds of sectarian precepts, embrace fellow humans as co-family members, and build a culture of dialogue across the planet.

 

I do hope that the more cosmopolitan Christians would consciously invite non-Christians to be part of the holidays, truly embrace their non-Christian brothers and sisters, and allow the latter to participate in such year-end party rituals as gift-giving. And, invite the non-Christians to 24^th of December midnight gathering, where they can sit by the Christmas tree and partake of the food blessings for the occasion.

 

Non-Christians who may not be invited by Christians in their homes on the 24^th & 25^th of December can also go ahead and celebrate the affair with their families and friends on the said dates. Nothing is wrong for them to put up a Christmas tree at home and party on the 24^th midnight and on the 25^th of December. And, at the end of the month, celebrate New Year’s Eve too.

 

In the Philippines, the transformation of Christmas into a multi-cultural event has already been going on in the 60s till 1972. Unfortunately, the Mindanao War came, a Christian-Muslim schism was propagated, and Muslims became reluctant to celebrate Christmas with their brethrens among Christians.

 

I just hope that the tide of cleavages is now ebbing and ceasing. We formally recognize Muslim and Chinese occasions in this country, and so it would be fitting for all Filipinos including Chinese and Muslims to celebrate Christmas as well. By Chinese I refer to those Chinese who are Buddhist, Daoist, atheist, or non-Christian.

 

The occasions for Christmas parties are now going on, from one organization to another, and so it is best for us all to participate in these events. And, comes the 24^th-25^th of the month, celebrate Christmas at home as a ritual occasion to solidify family bonds. Then, comes the New Year’s Eve, celebrate with a Big Bang accompanying a party or gathering.

 

Peace be with you! Advanced Happy Holidays!

 

[Philippines, 08 December 2010]

 

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UNLADTAU: https://unladtau.wordpress.com,

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JUDICIAL OVERSIGHT IN DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS & BUSINESS

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

A relatively pleasant month it is in Filipinas this month of the year, though it showers intermittently as cold winds up north converge with warm equatorial winds. As the air becomes cooler, let us reflect on a raging issue worldwide concerning the extent of judicial power in economic & business concerns.

Filipinas is mired right now in questions about the said powers of our magistracy (Supreme Court) in regard to interventions in franchises and business operations. The executive (presidency) is particularly getting peeved at the seemingly Draconian powers the magistracy has been exhibiting, powers that could obstruct presidential initiatives in pushing through the new investments in big ticket projects.

There is now a perception peddled by the president’s spin doctors that the magistracy is turning into an obstructionist. Recognizing that the Supreme Court is no perfect institution, as the Justices’ decisions on business and project concerns could be tainted with corruption, to declare that it is obstructionist (i.e. it makes decisions for the sake of demonstrating its powers over the presidency) demands deeper reflections and deconstruction.

Presidential prerogatives could turn into bad curves every now and then, as they are used to favor certain market players over and above the Law. This is where our reflections should begin. The presidency (executive institutions) in the Philippines is particularly very corrupt and inept, and favors certain market players at the expense of fairness and constitutional regulations.

The abuses of presidential prerogatives on business franchises during the time of President Ramos, among others, have seen onerous franchises and contracts executed. The energy sector in particular became infested with greedy power producers who were favored over other players, palpable acts of felony that should have incarcerated the president himself.

But that’s not all. There were the Malaysian investors known for notoriety, who cornered whatever state companies and business concerns there were available in the 1990s for their portfolio investments to gobble up. The National Steel Corporation landed in the hands of the Hottick Group that never introduced any internal development in the company but which, in fact, closed the company up and sold it at five (5) times its purchase price much later (with state intervention in the transaction) to the Indian group Global Steel.

So many big ticket projects during Ramos’ incumbency were akin to the National Steel fiasco, while others were mired in corruption in the granting of the franchises. Ramos himself became a very wealthy man after he left office, yet he remains free amid the questionable presidential prerogatives his Office exercised then.

It is within the context of abusive presidential prerogatives that one should comprehend the exercise of judicial oversight with high-level intervention. The judiciary is a last bastion of fairness and rationality in project contracts and business franchises in a country with weak governance institutions, and so it flexed its muscles as provided for any way by the national charter as the Philippine case exemplifies.

No matter how well meaning the executive department may be, it has no monopoly of powers and wisdom to decide prudently about projects and franchises. President Aquino’s coterie of aides is pregnant with greedy and corrupt elements that include those who served as cabinet members in previous regimes. So why should the public leave everything to the presidency, when the presidential office is a classic nest of graft?

When the judiciary commits flaws that must be addressed, then they can be cited by a vigilant civil society and be addressed properly. One case in point is the issue of plagiarism hurled against a Justice by the professors of the University of the Philippines College of Law, with the concomitant demand for resignation by the plagiarist concerned.

While the magistracy continues to strengthen its own internal weaknesses, it must just the same exercise its oversight powers concerning developmental projects and business franchises. It will prove catastrophic if the incompetent presidential aides will hatch an operational modus aimed at destroying constitutional powers of judicial oversight, as such will become a new monstrosity that will lead to new rounds of corrupt acts by state and business mafias.

[Philippines, 04 December 2010]

[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,

UNLADTAU: https://unladtau.wordpress.com,

COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,

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WIKILEAKS ERODES REMAINING U.S. CREDIBILITY, WORLD POWER BULLYING IS OVER!

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Dusk has begun to envelop my space as I write this piece. The WikiLeaks has been receiving a crescendo of publicities recently, as the leaked secrecies of the US diplomatic community has reached the big media players, eg. The Guardian. The devastating impact of the WikiLeaks on US credibility is now gnawing at the morsel of US governance itself, further exacerbating the already fragmentary situation of US governance institutions.

As I’ve been elucidating in articles of mine, the new millennium opened up with a context of multipolar world order, an emerging context that demanded re-carving of foreign policy architectures and the actual diplomatic dealings of world and regional powers with other nations. Sadly, the United States faired very badly in adjusting to the emerging context, as it chose the hawkish path of brinkmanship, unabashedly exhibited superpower arrogance, and bullied other nations into submitting to its diktats.

Take the case of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Rather than use the United Nations as the platform to contemplate and decide on the fates of the so-called “rogue” states, the US bamboozled its allies into submitting to its hawkish diktats, compelled them to join the “coalition of the willing,” or be identified with those who are “against us.” The hubris and arrogance of America’s leaders was captured emphatically in the finger-pointing George W. Bush whose madness exudes a demonically behaving sociopath.

The WikiLeaks disclosures have revealed to the world the true and honest perceptions of Americans towards the leaders and peoples of other nations. America’s diplomacy is but putting superficially sweet-looking mascara on top of the real thing: Saxon condescension on all peoples and nations of the planet. For Americans are truly of Anglo-Saxon psyche: the same marauding, pillaging, plundering, and destructive Saxons of antiquity whose very culture and psyche the Americans have inherited en toto.

Over a hundred years ago, upon America’s invasion and occupation of the Philippines, its leaders and negotiators already manifested the sordid duplicity that is markedly demonic. Presenting themselves before then president Aguinaldo as allies who’d help the Filipinos flash out Spain’s imperial forces, the Americans eventually ended up showing their true intentions by invading the country, an invasion that led to the deaths of almost a million Filipinos nationwide.

Having planted themselves well on Philippine soil deep up through the hinterlands, the conquering Americans than sang with gusto “Brown Monkeys with No Tails in Zamboanga” everywhere they went. So demonically condescending, you’d wonder whether the Anglo-Saxon Americans have ever truly modified their behavior across time.

It now seems, as the WikiLeaks aptly reveal, that America’s leaders and probably seconded by most of its people regard all other leaders and peoples as ‘monkeys with no tails’. For even those White leaders of the West do not escape the derision and philistine condescension of the Americans, coming at a time when the USA’s own western allies need them badly to help salve their ailing economies and stave off the possibility of a continent-wide protest movement that could lead to a new round of Spartacist anti-oligarchic revolution.

The likes of WikiLeaks do speak of new innovative ways of tech-oriented non-conventional means to battle the global oligarchy, beginning with the Anglo-American oligarchs and their political, technocratic, and military subalterns. Not only the USA but other world powers as well will not be spared from the scrutinizing vigilant eyes of concerned citizens who will disclose internal defense, diplomatic, big business, and related classified information, the effects of which will deal devastating blows on the images, credibility, and institutional strengths of entities and powers concerned.

Not just world powers but, again, the financier oligarchy will be de-fanged by the non-conventional attacks that will be waged against them via unveiling WikiLeak-type information. For world powers are mere footstools of the oligarchs. How I wish that the same modalities of disclosures will reveal the evils of the global elites, led by the Houses of Rothschilds and Rockefellers. Sooner or later, the world’s peoples must be made aware of the real nature of the elites and the world/regional powers as their puppet footstools.  

The time for world power bullying has finally come to be reversed, with the advent of info-tech platforms for guerilla-type attacks versus the rich and powerful. America’s last bits of credibility are now being pulverized by the WikiLeaks disclosures, and it will just be a matter of time before those of other demonic world powers’ will follow.

[Philippines, 02 December 2010]

[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,

UNLADTAU: https://unladtau.wordpress.com,

COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,

BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,

ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]

U.S. GOVERNANCE FRAGMENTS, OBAMA’S RATIONALITY DWINDLES

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Good day to all ye global citizens! Magandang araw sa mga kapamilyang global!

The Republicans have recently slam dunked the Democrats in the House electoral contest. This update event has put a closure to Democrat dominance in US governance, an event that will highlight brinkmanship of a dangerously destructive path.

News have been disseminated worldwide that Obama fired his highly trusted economic aides. With no team to recline on in the White House, Obama is compelled by the situation to rely more and more on the likes of Gates of the defense community, Clinton for foreign policy, and other powerful figures inside the cabinet and senate other than the economic aides.

The people whom he relies upon at this time represent distinct voices of diverse ideological persuasions. The defense Establishment is very strongly neo-conservative (read: fascist), the diplomatic community is Wilsonian liberal (center to Left), and the Senate Democrats are liberal obscurantists.

The nationalists, or those articulators of regulation and protection of American economic interests in domestic and foreign policies, have been marginalized all of a sudden. Perhaps their advocacies will be taken over by the more Rightwing Republicans in congress and the bureaucracy, Republicans whose protectionist mindsets translate to protectionism for Big Business and the oligarchy.

Obama’s feat has been to curb the ceaseless economic downspin via the stimulus program. However, unemployment and poverty incidence continue to rise, indicating the flaws in social policies. Health care and war commitments continue to generate rabid detraction.

The question we’re raising this time is: how far governable is the government of the United States? The potency of governance institutions is being weakened by the year, and the direction of that weakening is towards a fragmentation of governance altogether.

I do recall having endorsed Obama’s candidacy to Filipino-Americans and their compatriots there. The reason was that being unencumbered to oligarchic interests, Obama can make a change in policy directions both domestically and internationally. A re-institution of New Deal policies, hopefully, can be effected by his regime, an audacious act that can be emulated by the other countries.

I expected that the Obama regime will re-carve U.S. policy environment towards re-structuring the economy, reviving the physical economy, and quashing predatory finance. Alas! Signs are aplenty that the feats didn’t go that far as expected!

Now the Republicans are back in the legislature and local governments, and so observers better anticipate brinkmanship jettisoning to higher altitudes. The result would prove catastrophic to America altogether, as the exacerbation of lowly governable state surfaces.

A similar fragmentation is now happening among European states and Japan, a development that could prove to be frightening. The situation will also be enormously puzzling to political scientists and sociologists who are deeply mired in ‘re-inventing governance’ paradigm line, a paradigm that is replete with flaws and imprudent peddler of the illusion of ‘end of ideology’.  

Political scientists and sociologists hold a similar contention that America’s civil society had badly fragmented. Such a lamentable situation has eroded the ‘social capital’ of citizens and folks, thus disabling their capacity for leveraging the state and market for greater social goods and services.

With state institutions and governance further weakened and an economy that has deteriorated across the decades, a weak civic life for Americans means they have to anticipate the worst yet to come in their access to social, economic, and public goods.

Obama’s very own sanity or psychological health could be deteriorating now, a fact that will undermine his own capacity to grasp grassroots reality and facts-of-life. Such a deterioration of psychic ‘wealth’ is the least that Americans expect nor dream of, and bodes a dark age for the Saxon power up north.

[Philippines, 29 November 2010]

[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,

UNLADTAU: https://unladtau.wordpress.com,

COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,

BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,

ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]

U.S. GOVERNANCE FRAGMENTS, OBAMA’S RATIONALITY DWINDLES

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Good day to all ye global citizens! Magandang araw sa mga kapamilyang global!

The Republicans have recently slam dunked the Democrats in the House electoral contest. This update event has put a closure to Democrat dominance in US governance, an event that will highlight brinkmanship of a dangerously destructive path.

News have been disseminated worldwide that Obama fired his highly trusted economic aides. With no team to recline on in the White House, Obama is compelled by the situation to rely more and more on the likes of Gates of the defense community, Clinton for foreign policy, and other powerful figures inside the cabinet and senate other than the economic aides.

The people whom he relies upon at this time represent distinct voices of diverse ideological persuasions. The defense Establishment is very strongly neo-conservative (read: fascist), the diplomatic community is Wilsonian liberal (center to Left), and the Senate Democrats are liberal obscurantists.

The nationalists, or those articulators of regulation and protection of American economic interests in domestic and foreign policies, have been marginalized all of a sudden. Perhaps their advocacies will be taken over by the more Rightwing Republicans in congress and the bureaucracy, Republicans whose protectionist mindsets translate to protectionism for Big Business and the oligarchy.

Obama’s feat has been to curb the ceaseless economic downspin via the stimulus program. However, unemployment and poverty incidence continue to rise, indicating the flaws in social policies. Health care and war commitments continue to generate rabid detraction.

The question we’re raising this time is: how far governable is the government of the United States? The potency of governance institutions is being weakened by the year, and the direction of that weakening is towards a fragmentation of governance altogether.

I do recall having endorsed Obama’s candidacy to Filipino-Americans and their compatriots there. The reason was that being unencumbered to oligarchic interests, Obama can make a change in policy directions both domestically and internationally. A re-institution of New Deal policies, hopefully, can be effected by his regime, an audacious act that can be emulated by the other countries.

I expected that the Obama regime will re-carve U.S. policy environment towards re-structuring the economy, reviving the physical economy, and quashing predatory finance. Alas! Signs are aplenty that the feats didn’t go that far as expected!

Now the Republicans are back in the legislature and local governments, and so observers better anticipate brinkmanship jettisoning to higher altitudes. The result would prove catastrophic to America altogether, as the exacerbation of lowly governable state surfaces.

A similar fragmentation is now happening among European states and Japan, a development that could prove to be frightening. The situation will also be enormously puzzling to political scientists and sociologists who are deeply mired in ‘re-inventing governance’ paradigm line, a paradigm that is replete with flaws and imprudent peddler of the illusion of ‘end of ideology’.  

Political scientists and sociologists hold a similar contention that America’s civil society had badly fragmented. Such a lamentable situation has eroded the ‘social capital’ of citizens and folks, thus disabling their capacity for leveraging the state and market for greater social goods and services.

With state institutions and governance further weakened and an economy that has deteriorated across the decades, a weak civic life for Americans means they have to anticipate the worst yet to come in their access to social, economic, and public goods.

Obama’s very own sanity or psychological health could be deteriorating now, a fact that will undermine his own capacity to grasp grassroots reality and facts-of-life. Such a deterioration of psychic ‘wealth’ is the least that Americans expect nor dream of, and bodes a dark age for the Saxon power up north.

[Philippines, 29 November 2010]

[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,

UNLADTAU: https://unladtau.wordpress.com,

COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,

BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,

ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]

YOUR ESTEEMED RECOGNITION OF THIS BLOGGER WARMS THE HEART, THANKS!

Prof. Erle Frayne D. Argonza

November 2010

Felicitous greetings to you all!

Let me continue to reverb the message of a most heartfelt gratitude to you enthused readers and fellow analysts/writers who appreciate my notes on society, wisdom, and self-development.

My own eyes continue to witness the rise of end-users and discussants, as I visited the search engines to monitory those sites that have quoted or discoursed on my writings. My social blogs ensue being esteemed among the world’s top sociology blogs, warming up my heart ceaselessly.

With your impeccable appreciation and support of my cyber-crusade, information about me on the internet expanded by several folds.

Special thanks to the following online news, magazines and portals for citing my notes as among the top blogs on cyberspace:

v  http://thedailyreviewer.com

v  http://humanitariannews.org

v  http://www.nonprofit.org

v  http://sociology.alltop.com

v  http://clpl-india.com

v  http://pul.se

v  http://asiafinest.com

v  http://newestnews.net

v  http://topcityblogs.com

 

Thanks too to the following sites that have cited, discussed and debated on various notes of mine about a diversity of topics and themes:

 

http://adamsmithlegacy.com

http://alltop.com

http://artsandsciencesfilipiniana.blogspot.com

http://asean-society.org

http://awakento1.org

http://bedico.multiply.com

http://benjaminmangubat.multiply.com

http://blissnbaguio.multiply.com

http://blog.searchaid.info

http://blog-yemek-tarifi.com

http://boardreader.com

http://botd.wordpress.com

http://cantbustme.com

http://castasiaforum.org

http://cc.bingj.com

http://cewek-cantik.com

http://conceptsinproduction.com

http://connect.in.com

http://csmotes.com

http://culturalrelativism.blogspot.com

http://deepmarket.com

http://domainsbyip.com

http://dprogram.net

http://dumiabimdanbella.info

http://eastasiaforum.org

http://eeeph.netbooks.ph

http://en.wasalive.com

http://esthernababan.blogspot.com

http://eternalgodliness.punt.com

http://ewss.ifrance.com

http://extrafastnews.co.cc

http://facetopics.com

http://forum.prisonplanet.com

http://forumpolis.com

http://fototoday.net

http://garneringrightideas.com

http://globalbalita.com

http://groups.google.it

http://hubpages.com

http://iamretromanila.multiply.com

http://jeffmahonc.com

http://jk22.blogspot.com

http://josephparton.com

http://koha.nip.gov.ph

http://lanaodelsur.inetgiant.com.hp

http://leathernews.myip.org

http://lovingenergies.spruz.com

http://luciotanwatch.blogspot.com

http://marketingkristin.ning.com

http://maryraab.wordpress.com

http://mixx.com

http://mmsnews.cz.cc

http://mountzion.ning.com

http://nisim-tw.com

http://nonprofits.info

http://nuip.net

http://omgili.com

http://online-profitsnow.com

http://opitslinkfest.blogspot.com

http://origin-bx.businessweek.com

http://paper.li

http://peacocksandlilies.com

http://penditasuvarmabhuni.blogspot.com

http://petites-phrases.com

http://pipl.com

http://pirs08.webs.com

http://politekon.blogspot.com

http://psychicdirectory.wallwack.com

http://pulitika2010.wordpress.com

http://revspeech.proboards.com

http://r-domain.net

http://shopswissskydiver.net

http://surchur.com

http://tibak.freeserver.com

http://trendbuzz.com

http://tweetmeme.com

http://webpac.lib.nthu.ed.tw

http://wordsdomination.com

http://www.123people.com

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com

http://www.aidworkers.net

http://www.answerbag.co.uk

http://www.asean-society.net

http://www.asiafinest.com.br

http://www.ask.com

http://www.blogged.com

http://www.blogsope.net

http://www.buildhome.tizo.pl

http://www.carboncapturereport.org

http://www.cnn.com

http://www.davidicke.com

http://www.deepmarket.com

http://www.drunkduck.com

http://www.elib.gov.ph

http://www.familycommitment.org

http://www.finir.org

http://www.fiskedepan.se

http://www.godlikeproductions.com

http://www.hcrefund.com

http://www.icerocket.com

http://www.iyou.me

http://www.jamesoo.com

http://www.linkedin.com

http://www.longislandrealestatecentral.com

http://www.lowongankerjajulis.com

http://www.mb.com.ph

http://www.mixx.com

http://www.mode.org

http://www.mynewsdigest.com

http://www.onlineobchody.com

http://www.pakspectator.com

http://www.peekyou.com

http://www.pep.ph

http://www.pointsdevente.com

http://www.politicaltaxes.com

http://www.psychantenna.com

http://www.pubsub.com

http://www.rehabfromdrug.com

http://www.samepoint.com

http://www.spiritbond.com

http://www.tapatt.net

http://www.theakan.com

http://www.toluu.com

http://www.topix.com

http://www.untitledarchive.com

http://www.usforcenews.info

http://www.wallcloud.net

http://www.wealthyauthority.com

http://www.westpalmferrari.com

http://www.wopular.com

http://www.yasni.co.uk

http://www.zitrend.com

http://www.zoominfo.com

http://www3.mbl.sp1.yahoo.com

http://vd.finline.2y.net

http://yasamkadin.com

http://yoga-experts.info

 

Gracious thanks to you all! Mabuhay!

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 1^st 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]

[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,

UNLADTAU: https://unladtau.wordpress.com,

COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,

BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,

ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]

PACQUIAO WINS, WILL BE MAN FOR ALL SEASONS

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Pacquiao just won his latest fight versus Margarito Teves. Kudos to our grand global champ!

What can I say of Manny Pacquiao, I can but think of a plethora of accolades for this humble fighter-turned-global athlete. Not only that, today he is also a legislator of the House of Representatives of the Philippine Republic or RP, where he is expected to champion advocacies for the marginal classes where he came from.

The fight was really a predictable one. Like Pacman’s fight with Clottey, analysts and sports forecasters were of the opinion that Pacquiao will take the throne for his 150-lb class, though the victory will be more of a decision win rather than a knockout.

Even before the fight began, I was already in a mood to pity the Mexican boxer, hoping that he won’t ever get whacked so bad in the head that can tragically take him down the canvass. I knew that he would become a veritable punching bag like most of Pacman’s past title adversaries, which indeed happened as forecast.

As to what was the key factor behind Pacman’s victories, this latest one included, let me re-echo what I’ve stated in previous articles about him: sports science was the cutting edge factor. Freddie Roach constituted a Team of experts, with him at the helm, who ensured a highly studied and calibrated training for Pacman.

Such a training is indubitably state-of-the-art, which is parallel to those trainings in other sports that are science inclined. Sports science calibrates everything, from nutrition/diet to the fight kinetics. I am very keen on this myself being a one-time competitive powerlifter, and I know the discipline needed to win in a competition.

Pacquiao at the commencement of his career was a “bara-bara” fighter whose training was more of a physical education or P.E. format. It took quite some time before he shifted his format, with the help of his trainer F. Roach who would become his permanent trainer and career counselor as well.

Pacman incidentally possessed a high level of emotional intelligence marked by excellent learning attitude. High E.Q. plus high physico-kinetic intelligence are his core inner traits that would match with the rigorous coaching and scientific training from Roach & Team Pacquiao.

Without doubt, Manny Pacquiao is the best boxer of all time, as he won world champ in a total of eight (8) divisions. His agility and acumen will be remembered for all time and will be the subject of boxing pre-fight studies in the future.

He is a much better boxer than Muhammad Ali, to my very own surprise and glee. Surprise because I’d never imagine a fellow Filipino gaining global prowess as he did. Glee since he makes me so proud of him and of my being a Filipino.

His career marks a turning point in Filipino sports trainings, demonstrating thus the enormous power of sports science as a cutting edge tool for winning. His ascent to global quality fighter has inspired many Filipino boxers to go his path to global fame too, a reality that undercut the Mexicans and Thais as the top contributors to world class boxers.

So prestigious has the Filipino boxer become that even in Mexico any top-ranked Filipino boxer is revered as a hero. And that, my friends, is another surprise phenomenon for me and my compatriots. Knowing how patronizing the Mexicans are toward their compatriot athletes, I really could hardly figure out how they’ve come to openly revere Filipino boxers who are welcomed to their places like heroic kings.

Conclusively, Pacman will end up as a man for all seasons. He will be well studied in sports science institutes and universities. Biographies after biographies of him will be writ by enthused writers. Even long after he’s gone, the tots who comprise his global fans today will be narrating Pacman’s feats to their great grand children. Gurus of success, the likes of John Maxwell, will also be discoursing on him as an exemplar of career and financial success.

Mabuhay si Manny Pacquiao! Mabuhay ang Pilipinas!

[Philippines, 15 November 2010]

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]

 

[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,

UNLADTAU: https://unladtau.wordpress.com,

COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,

BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,

ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]

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]

[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,

UNLADTAU: https://unladtau.wordpress.com,

COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,

BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,

ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]

$100B MEKONG INTEGRATED PROJECT TO BOOST ASEAN POTENCY

Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago

Magandang araw! Good day!

Around two (2) years ago, I articulated in one article the gigantic project that will rise in the Mekong River very soon. I was at that time already very supportive of the project, a support that I will re-echo at this moment.

For those unfamiliar with the project, a plan was hatched at the middle part of the decade for an integrated project along the Mekong River. Since the river begins upstream at the China side, China logically has to be involved in it. Finally, with blueprints for implementation on the go around 2007 yet, China committed to fund the projected cost of $100 Billion.

So huge a project, it will have couples of components into it. Power generation, irrigation, flood control, transportation, and tourism comprise the core sector components. A project of that size is four (4) times bigger than China’s own 3-Gorges Dam (it cost $23 at 2000 price index) and could be the largest that the world will ever have experienced once fully accomplished.

Benefiting approximately 300 million beneficiaries along its courses, the project is bound to spur development and generate incomes many folds larger than its total investments. If we use the econometric index of annual income yield that is 10X, then we can expect an annual income yield of $1 Trillion from out of the upstream and downstream industries induced by the project.

Since China is involved in it right now (as implementation is going on), then we expect China to receive the ROI (return on investments) in the widest expanse of benefits possible. That means, once fully operational, China will infuse more investments in the region to fully benefit from the project alone. The ROI will then be much greater than the original $100 accruing to China alone on an annual basis.

We can therefore hope for an excellent win/win situation for China and the ASEAN countries involved (Vietnam is the lead country executor). In the long run, we should hope that the same project would accrue to the growth & development of the entire ASEAN region that is bound to institute an economic union by 2015.

A win/win formula for the ASEAN itself is for it to use the Mekong project as exemplar to design and implement similar projects in other member countries, particularly in island southeast Asia. A particular office can be created in the ASEAN secretariat to oversee and help similar projects that can spin off in other parts of the region.

Since an ASEAN central bank is due for institution by 2015, let us expect that monetary instruments for financial packages can be had for gigantic infrastructure projects of the magnitude of the Mekong project. Probably an ASEAN Development Bank can also rise alongside the central bank, thus reinforcing the potency for launching gigantic projects that will be financed internally by the region itself.

If ever the ASEAN will wish to tap other countries for co-financing of the projects, it should be the emerging markets as top priority such as China, India, and Brazil, countries that will be more sympathetic to regional development. The option will help us veer away from the mal-intents of Northern banks that tied up developing countries in debt peonage and won at the expense of the developing countries.

As a matter of goodwill, ASEAN should better enter into the picture and look at other facets of the project that the future union can fund. The expansion phases of the Mekong project, for instance, can be taken over by the ASEAN itself, thus lessening dependence from external funders.

There are always pains to any large project, these being part of the costs of any undertaking. Nonetheless, the Mekong project should be supported and must go on until full completion. This will render it as an exemplar just right in time for the creation of the ASEAN economic union by 2015.

[Philippines, 05 November 2010]

[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,

UNLADTAU: https://unladtau.wordpress.com,

COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,

BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,

ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]