WILL PHILIPPINE INSURGENCIES END SOON?

WILL PHILIPPINE INSURGENCIES END SOON?

 

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

 

Magandang hapon! Good afternoon!

It is still poll day as of this writing, as the day’s polling time has been extended till 7 p.m. Poll-related incidence had accordingly dropped by 200% since 2004, an encouraging development amidst a backdrop of systemic violence.

What I’d reflect about this time is the insurgency question: whether the country’s decades-old insurgencies will cease after the installation of a new national leadership. The communist and Bangsamoro insurgents have been conducting peace talks with the Philippine state for a long time now, and there’s no question that insurgencies’ end is in the wish list of diverse stakeholders.

In a society where trust has been torn asunder by the prevalence of polarized mind frames for centuries now, it is understandable that insurgencies will persist for some time. Building mutual trust and confidence is therefore a sine qua non to the end of insurgencies.

Economistic apperceptions of insurgencies, such as to account them solely to high poverty incidence, would hardly hold water. Canada, for instance, is a prosperous country with good governance in place, yet a part of it (Quebec) almost bolted away from the Canadian state.

Addressing poverty, which is now at 33-35% incidence rate, is surely a must, added to food security. There is no denying that this has been on the agenda of peace talks, aside from the options for the livelihood of combatant insurgents when they go back to the mainstream in the case of a political settlement.

What we can see from the economistic discourse is that addressing poverty and social injustices would be good approaches to re-building trust and confidence. During the first two (2) years of the new political dispensation, there has to be a trickling down of incomes to enable poverty reduction, which should convince the insurgents of the sincerity and competence of the leadership in handling the socio-economic malaise of our society.

Furthermore, there has to be relentless efforts made by civil society, church, state, and philanthropic groups to build a culture of tolerance and peace. Peace talks shouldn’t be left to government and insurgents alone, in other words, but should involve the broadest sector of society.

The building of mutual trust, confidence, and contextual building of peace and tolerance, will redound to constructing greater civility and cooperation. A ‘dialogue of civilizations’ is a broad manifestation of a culture of peace and tolerance permeating the private sphere, which is a cherished human condition by the peoples of the world.

Insurgents are incidentally growing old, and are getting weary of the war itself. They want peace, and this is a boon to the peace talks. In our day-to-day conduct of affairs as a people, we should continue to build trust in the private spaces of our lives. This, we hope, would encourage insurgents to forge new social arrangements with us on a people-to-people basis, a step that would bring us closer to a high-trust environment.

We must also continue to exert pressure on the Phiippine state and insurgents to continue to dialogue and put a time limit to the peace talks. Peace talks have already dragged on for decades, so maybe it would prove fruitful to put a time cap on the talks. We can use organizational instruments that we have, such as professional, crafts, and civil society groups.

Let us hope that we don’t have a hawkish regime forthcoming. A regime of hawks would be anachronistic to the overall trend today of higher expectations for peace and a sustained dialogue between state and insurgents.

We are all running against time today, even as we citizens of an war-torn country are tired and weary of the wars. New weapons of mass destruction, such as the Tesla Earthquake Machine or TEM, are moving out of assembly lines, and sooner or later they would be traded via organized crime groups to hot-headed insurgent and jihadist groups locally.

A wish indeed, let us hope that the two (2) insurgencies will be settled finally, with the former rebels integrated into the mainstream to participate in parliamentary politics and civil society engagements. This will give us breathing spaces we need to concur more social cooperation and economic amelioration in the short run.

With the large insurgencies gone, the police & military forces can then focus their efforts on clamping down jihadist movements that we perceive as illegitimate or criminal groups. In no way should government negotiate with groups that possess warped sense of community and are unwilling to recognize the full import of dialogue and tolerance.

[Philippines, 10 May 2010.]

MY MOTHER’S NOBILITY BLOODLINE: MARCOS, BRUNEI KINGSHIP, MAJAPAHIT EMPEROR

MY MOTHER’S NOBILITY BLOODLINE: MARCOS, BRUNEI KINGSHIP, MAJAPAHIT EMPEROR

 

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

 

My Noble Pedigrees: Maternal & Paternal

 

This note concerns my bloodlines, which, to my own amusement, traces to ancient noble pedigrees, both on my maternal and paternal lineages. That I was birthed by parents who are both of noble roots is surely privilege enough, as the DNA (genetic) of ancient nobles –notably (a) Kingship and (b) Priestly classes—is of such profound construct, rendering it as one deep enigmatic mystery of antiquity that is being unlocked only in recent times.

 

My parents—Steve Narag Argonza and Felisha Nonesa Delago—were sired by mothers who are of noble pedigrees: my father Steve, from his maternal Narag lineage; and, my mother Felisha, from her maternal mother’s Nalundasan y Marcos lineage. I will focus this article on my maternal line [my father’s lineage will be treated in a separate article].

Oral tradition plus historical studies were the basis for me to infer conclusions about such bloodlines. That is, I based my conclusions on secondary information + anecdotal accounts, given the lack of financial resources on my family’s part to launch a thorough biographical research on the subject. It takes at least P2 Million to conduct a genealogical research with 6 months time frame today, or P4 Millions for both lineages, with the results published as quality books, an amount for an agenda that no one in my family could think about (Filipinos aren’t accustomed to spending for genealogy research).

Nalundasan y Marcos: Root of my Mother’s Grandmother Angela

 

My mother Felisha (she used Felisa in the 20^th century) is among children of Soledad Nalundasan Nonesa and Leopoldo Delago. The Nalundasans and Nonesas are from Ilocandia, while the Delagos are from the Central Visayas.

As per anecdote of my maternal kins (notably the Ilocos-based), my maternal grandmother Soledad was mothered by Angela Nalundasan y Marcos. She is a sibling of the late Julio Nalundasan y Marcos, gentry and politician, who was for some time a legislator in the Commonwealth Era Congress. As to how many siblings were the total, no data came my way. The knowledge bucket ends with the sibs—Angela and Julio—with no oral legacy about who were their parents, sibs, and related roots.

Tragedy marked the situation for the Nalundasan family, as Don Julio chose to slug it out with his 1^st cousin, Don Mariano Marcos, for the bailiwick of Ilocos Norte. Based in Batac town, the two gentry (i.e. Big Landowners) competed for the congressional seat at one juncture, whereby Don Mariano lost to Don Julio. That Nalundasan poll victory ignited a chain of events that saw Don Mariano’s brilliant son Ferdinand land in jail, blamed as he was for the assassination of Don Julio.

It was a double tragedy for my great grandmother Angela, as she chose to marry a commoner on top of the trauma of her brother Julio’s gory death due to political violence. The members of the Gentry class, to recall our history, comprised the nucleus of power that came from the Encomienda (Spanish era) who, prior to American occupation, comprised the exclusive Principalia town leaders of old. From ancient nobility were they rooted, and the Nobility held the protocol for marrying a member only to a member of another Noble family, or later of Gentry family. Strict adherence to such protocol was observed, which led any wayward member, more so a young woman, to lose her (a) inheritance of property, (b) expansive good breeding & High Culture, and (c) access to corridors of power and circles of esteemed friends and fellows.

Being a male-centered society, the mainstream Ilocandia gentry ensured that family authority, possessions and their dispositions were passed on to a male scion, notably the eldest male. Incidentally, no anecdotal data came my way as to whether Don Julio is the eldest scion, but one thing is sure: Angela is female, under-privileged as gender, and married to a commoner, or behaved contrary to the protocols of the class to which she belonged to. Not only did she lose a conferred title as Doña, all privileges to possessions, accessions, and esteem she likewise lost.

Royal/Priestly and Commoner DNA’s Differences, Curse of Breaking Protocol

 

As per my own deep studies into the ancient mysteries, the Benign Creators of ancient humanity ensured that the general population possess only a 2-strand DNA to delimit access to higher Divine connections and endowments. Such was truism for the folks or commoners, who were largely evolutionary Laggards, unfit to rule and make wise judgement for the common welfare. Save only for two classes, the Kingly and Priestly classes, whose DNAs went beyond 2 strands, the extra (out of a total of 12 human DNA strands) enabling them to connect to higher reality dimensions for greater knowledge, wisdom, and inspiration needed to perform their duties, for indeed great responsibility went along with rulership and administration of a realm.  

That was the reason behind the Caste System of antiquity: avoid the dilution of genetic structures, by dis-allowing any member of the noble Kingly and Priestly families to marry with the commoners. With the conditions set for good breeding and culture, the souls of persons with gifts for leadership, wisdom, intellect, and philanthropy embodied accordingly among the nobles. Neither should those from Kingly (Royal) family marry those from a Priestly family, as each class has certain special roles to perform and are of distinct temper meant only for their class. Yet in the conduct of affairs for the commoners, both King and Priest collaborated, for the good of all.

Breakage of the protocols of conduct by any young member of the nobility does not only mean a lost of access to properties, power, and esteem. Often than not, the aggrieved family plants curses on the betraying youngling, with the negative energy (‘jinx’) sufficient to bind the wayward and offsprings to existential misery till up through the seventh (7^th) generation thereafter. One cost of the betrayal is marring of offsprings’ genetic stream, rendering the Nobility traits recessive thus, and the birthing of simpletons, morons, abnormals, or persons whose later mediocrity would invite defamation more than esteem from the community and locality.

The offsprings who bear the Nobility DNA will hardly feel the special impact of such a treasure, as the special genes remain dormant. Not until a later descendant would, upon maturation, unintentionally marry a person who bears a similar Nobility DNA pool within. The long dormant recessive traits would then waken up, and serve as beacons to Higher Dimension Beings to birth children with artistic and luminary talents accorded a person who will be a future Civilization-Builder, or at the minimum, an Achiever worth the esteem of peers and community.

Marcoses Trace to Brunei Kingship and Majapahit Emperor, Gold Treasures Top!

It was during my studies about the Majapahit Empire and the vast treasures of the region that I stumbled upon knowledge of the gold of the Marcos family. Along the way did I discover that the Marcoses of Ilocos do trace descent from the ancient Brunei kingship. In turn, the Brunei kingship (+ princes & princesses) carried the bloodline of the founder Majapahit Emperor whose scions spread their seeds by cross-marrying with the noble bloodline members of Malayan kings and princes in the vast expanse of southeast Asia.

So vast is the treasure hoard—of the Malayan royal families—that enabled them to build High Culture for all Malays. Southeast Asia was avowed as the richest region of the world during the heydays of the Majapahit, with gold treasures so gargantuan that their quantities and prices today are overwhelming and mind-boggling. Upon the arrival of the conquering Western powers, the Emperor ensured that the treasures are well kept and safe, by distributing them among the diverse kingships and principalities of the Malayan realm. [Note: Ferdinand Marcos’ gold hoard was estimated by 1.33 million tons by the Limcaoco Committee tasked to do studies and treasure hunts so concerned.]

As to how the Brunei kingship connect to the Marcoses, I could at best hypothesize that a prince or princess of Brunei was married to an Ilocandia spouse who, in turn, belonged to the Ilocos nobility. That auspicious marriage amplified the process of depositing huge hoards of gold bars/treasures from Indonesia and Brunei through the Ilocos corridor [note: the local Nobility already had treasures prior to the marriage]. Such treasures were sufficient to propel food production boom and international trade in Ilocos, a fact that could have spilled over to the Ibanags of Cagayan who were also ruled by Nobles.

Today, the same Noble/Royal families are silently working out to envision grand projects that will end global poverty and see economic progress for all nations. Needless to say, the Nobles will bankroll the projects, with a global institution entrusted to solve global poverty and meet the needs of all. At one juncture, the late Ferdinand Marcos envisioned an Asian Monetary Fund and Asian currency, which will be bankrolled by his gold.

Looking at the composition of the Marcos family itself, being wise and conforming to the protocols of the ancient nobility, it’s no wonder at all to see luminary figures and professional champions among them. Ferdinand married a Romualdez (Imelda) who comes from the gentry likewise and, without doubt, is of ancient noble pedigree.

The Nobility DNA IS THE TREASURE!

 

For any person of excellent Breeding and High Culture, virtuous at the minimum, it would appear impeccable that possession of a NOBILITY BLOODLINE IS THE TREASURE foremost of all. For a person with little virtue, worldly, greedy and materialistic, the sight is upon the possessions as the foremost treasures of the family.

Possessing a Nobility DNA can have two consequences: (a) a well-bred & cultured person, grounded in solid virtues, will propel forces and attract person who will ensure success worthy of a High Achiever, if not a great Civilization-Builder of sorts; (b) a mediocre person, of low breeding and without culture, materialistic and greedy, will propel forces and attract persons of negativity, leading to the possible self-destruction of the person concerned.

As for my own kins in the Nalundasan y Marcos lineage, both of the Delago and Robles families that spinned off from Grandmother Soledad, it is up to them to choose their own paths to follow based on their perceptions about this Inner Treasure. The Nobility DNA will always remain intact, however it may be recessive now for us all, shall never be stolen, and waiting for that moment, by which shall come forth scions who will ennoble the family line and attract Graces from the heavens. This is not a promise, but a vast possibility brought forth precisely by that Treasure borne by all descendants of Angela Marcos-Nalundasan Nonesa.

[Manila, 03 August 2015]

PLANET NIBIRU: FLYBY, CATASTROPHE, CHALLENGES

PLANET NIBIRU: FLYBY, CATASTROPHE, CHALLENGES

Prof. ERLE FRAYNE D. ARGONZA

Manila Ph, July 2015

• Sociologist & Economist, Development Specialist, Spiritual Teacher/Initiate – Brotherhood of Light
• 4 Books & 56+ Academic/analytic articles published
• Blogs: IKONOKLAST- erleargonza.blogspot.com, ARGONZAPOEM – argonzapoem.blogspot.com, COSMICBUHAY – cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com, ASCENSIONGUARDIAN – ascensionguardian.blogspot.coms

BACKGROUND

Planet Nibiru or 10^th Planet (UB213) currently revolves back to the Sun, simultaneously as the Sun’s twin star returns. Upon flyby on Earth’s orbital (or near it) as both heavenly bodies return to far space beyond Pluto, catastrophe is the expected impact. Humanity is confronted with gargantuan challenges to survive, revive civilization, and surpass its present level of social and spiritual progress. [Nibiru revolves around the Sun every 3600 years, while the Brown Dwarf does so every 26,000,000 years.]

SPECIFICS

H.P. Blavatsky on 30 Planets. Initiate, Theosophical co-founder, 1^st Dispensation messenger. In her essay about “Planets Visible and Invisible,” she revealed that the Solar System has 30 total planets: 10 visible, 20 invisible (higher dimensional). She also mentioned about a sun/star behind Jupiter…Astronomers confirmed only 8 planets by the time HPB died in 1890. Later, Nemesis, twin star of Sun, discovered.

Blavatsky on Polar Changes. Across her writings, notably Secret Doctrine, she contended that the Earth’s poles change periodically. The time draws near when such a change takes place, shifting the locations of the poles and axis.

Search for Planet X, Pluto Discovered. At the turn of the century (20^th), the search for planet X was partly fulfilled as Pluto was discovered c. 1930. That, however, didn’t stop astronomers from searching for Planet X. In the 1950s alone, over 100 research articles dealt with Planet X (as per Gerald Clark’s report).

Dwhjal Khul Prophesies Visibility of Etheric Plane Planets prior to 21^st Century End. Initiate & guru, channeled his Wisdom contributions via Alice Bailey. Accordingly, people’s Etheric Body Eyes will open, enabling vision of etheric plane ecology, devas (violet), and planets. His 1918-48 messenger mission was to release 2^nd Dispensation of the Wisdom. [See Treatise on White Magic, and Treatise on Cosmic Fire]

Edgar Cayce Prophesies Polar Shift & Cataclysm. Initiate and healer, he revealed in his psychic readings (done 1938-42) that a planetary polar shift will happen, resulting to cataclysm, by end of period 1958-98. Landforms change as continental parts sink while new lands emerge from the oceans. Floods & submergence of Europe, Japan, India, U.S. coasts + interiors vividly described. California returns to the sea even before the shift. [See book of Jesse Stern, Sleeping Prophet]

Carlos Ferrada Predicts Planet Hercolobus & Dark Star Flyby, Catastrophe. Brilliant Chilean astronomer, predicted in 1940 that a 10^th planet (Hercolobus) and Sun’s twin star (Dark Star) will flyby Earth, resulting to catastrophe. 10^th Planet will be as near as 14 million kms on flyby. [See Marshall Masters’ & YowUSA report]

Dr. Zecharia Sitchin Releases Sumerian Tablets Study, Nibiru & 3600-Year Revolution. Cultural anthropologist, among few experts of hieroglyphics. Accordingly, Sumerians clearly described the Nibiru planet’s location, revolution, its races of Annunaki (who bred Earth humans), factional clashes (Enlil vs Enki), possible return very soon. [See book 12^th Planet, 1977]

USA Pioneer & Voyager Space Missions, Planet X Secrecy. Since after Apollo, USA sent off space missions to far space. Voyager mission purposes were tight-lipped. After preliminary findings from the missions, 100+ UG (underground) bases were built, using trillions of dollars. UG computer system launched, to compute precise calculations of a planet X. Puzzling UG facilities investigated, ending in cul de sac. [See Bob Fletcher reports]

Dr. Harrington (US Naval astronomer) Discovers Planet X! Top caliber astronomer, built observatory in New Zealand (south hemisphere). Requesting access to both Pioneer and Voyager telescopes in far space, he observed astounding presence and specs of a Planet X as it was approaching Solar System from behind Neptune & Uranus, with mass 5X larger than Earth’s. He publicly released his report in 1992, interacted with Sitchin who interviewed him for a documentary. In 1993, he died of cancer.

Vatican Accepts ETs, Observatory in Arizona, Ends Sci vs Spirituality Debate. Vatican built two special units, the astronomical bureau (managed by Cardinal Balducci) and Religion & Science bureau (directed by a sociologist). Vatican had since openly pronounced ET existence, life in other worlds, and ended Religion vs Science debates. It installed an infrared telescope observatory in Arizona (Nibiru observe!) to augment its two (2) earlier observatories. Philosophically it had advanced ahead of other churches and of most scientists. Its knowledge vanguardism is an offshoot of openness policy of Vatican II.

Russia, China, Europe Elites Build UG Shelters, Catastrophe Preparedness. Russia built 5000 UG bases, China built both small and extralarge bases, European elites built shelters in the Alps. Following the US precedence, these powers are catastrophe-prepared.

Sal Rachele Forecasts 2017 Wormwood Flyby, Catastrophe. Initiate, academic & guru, predicted nearly 10 years ago yet that the biblical Wormwood will flyby comes Year 2017. His time frame tallies with calculations of experts. He is among the 100 messengers of 3^rd Dispensation who were most emphatic on the planetary Ascension. [See www.salrachele.org]

More Scientists Join Research & Forewarnings! Led by astronomers, more experts have been coming forward about Nibiru & Brown Dwarf. Collaborating with astronomers are physicists, mathematicians, engineers, social scientists, communicators, independent researchers. Latest estimate is that Nibiru’s diameter is 22X larger than Earth’s (see Gerald Clark reports). 2017 is most likely flyby (crosses Earth orbital). YowUSA reports that Nibiru now revolves around Brown Dwarf among its 3 planets.

Cataclysms After 2^nd Q 2017 Nibiru Flyby. Electromagnetic excesses, dust storms, dark days & nights, monster quakes, superstorms, super-tornadoes, giant tsunamis, massive floods, polar shift. Japan, Europe, India, Korean peninsula, eastern Australia, US east & west coasts (150-km sea becomes of Mississippi River), Central America, vast parts of ASEAN (Ph 6/7 sunken), vast parts of Siberia, coastal China, Arabian peninsula possible bygones. New lands arise elsewhere. As per YowUSA, the tidal powers or pulls by Nibiru-Brown Dwarf-Other Planets suffice to empty an ocean and splash the gigantic tsunamis on land. E. Argonza visions past 100-meter tsunamis, totally destroyed cities & rural zones, Manila’s west sunken (west of Faultline below sea) though east can survive. Places nearest Equator expect tallest tsunami and sinkings.

*************************************************

NEO-NATIONALISM’S PREMISES & CONTENTIONS / Continuously open the market to external investors

NEO-NATIONALISM’S PREMISES & CONTENTIONS / Continuously open the market to external investors

 

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

 

National savings continue to hover at a pathetically low rate of seventeen percent (17%), which is significant but is way below the minimum of thirty percent (30%) to render it as ‘critical mass’, like that of our neighbors’. The problem cannot be addressed sufficiently than through a continuing inflow of capital from external investors. Note that in today’s global context, the term ‘foreign capital’ has already lost its meaning, as the boundary between ‘domestic’ and ‘foreign’ has been effectively erased. The cross-country partnering cum out-sourcing arrangements among diverse firms have become the norm of today’s business, rendering obsolete the previously sacrosanct notions of ‘domestic’ capital and ‘foreign’ direct investments. Not only that. Latest researches have verified that transnational corporations or TNCs now tend to create more values within their host countries and reinvest the profits locally than remit them back to their ‘home country’ (a term that has also begun to lost meaning).

This doesn’t mean though that such investors should be served ‘free lunch’, through very long regimes of tax havens or through spurious ‘strike-free zones’ (read: haven for wage freeze) which makes our laborers appear like wild jackals who need to be perpetually gagged. Some forms of valves (capital controls) should also be instituted, so that the capital investments and profits wouldn’t just flow out like hemorrhage the moment that the economy hits cyclical crisis. Surely, pro-active measures can be devised to let the said investors stay, more so for those that truly re-invest their ROI for their original and diversified business concerns, as well as to those that conduct dynamic R&D and truly transfer technology.

 

In today’s globalizing context, corporate ‘national champions’ have become obsolete. The bygone era of ‘national champions’ can still be observed in the names of certain firms, such as in the names Philippine Airlines, Philippine Long Distance Telephone, or in Bank of America, American Express. Asset re-structuring is the norm, and large corporations are becoming rapidly globalized. Mergers and de-mergers are happening at rapidly ‘chaotic’ paces. The circumstances challenge investors/stockholders to quickly grasp the lesson of   ‘thriving on chaos’ or else their ventures would face bankruptcies and foreclosures as what befell many former large ventures, inclusive of former ‘national champions’.

The thought that “foreign capital might harm national interest” is simply passé and out-of-context, in as much as the term ‘foreign’ has lost its meaning save for the antiquarian Old Nationalists who regard foreign things as essentially dangerous (but are they not using foreign frameworks in their perceptions of foreign things?). Let the investors come in, recombine their assets with our domestic investors’, extend their stock participation beyond the forty percent (40%) constitutional limit. Note that “our very own” big corporations are participating in ‘foreign’ countries, and their levels of investment participation go beyond forty percent (40%). It is high time that we readjust our thinking about the matter.

[From: Erle Frayne D. Argonza, “New Nationalism: Grandeur and Glory at Work!”. August 2004. For the Office of External Affairs – Political Cabinet Cluster, Office of the President, Malacaňan Palace.]

NEO-NATIONALISM’S PREMISES & CONTENTIONS / Continue to stimulate growth through the ‘physical economy’

NEO-NATIONALISM’S PREMISES & CONTENTIONS / Continue to stimulate growth through the ‘physical economy’

 

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

This writer strongly argues that the greatest driver of the economy must be the ‘physical economy’. By ‘physical economy’ we refer to the combination of (a) agriculture, (b) manufacturing, (c) infrastructure, (d) transport and (e) science & technology (S&T) whose results further induce ‘production possibilities’ in the sectors a-d. An economy that is prematurely driven by the service sector, growing at the expense of the physical economy, will create imbalances in the long run, failing in the end to meet the needs of the population. A premature service-driven economy would be subject to manipulations by predatory financiers, who would do everything to destroy the national currencies and consequently the physical economy of the nation as well. An economy driven by derivatives and every kind of speculative pursuit is a ‘virtual economy’ such as what has dominated the USA since the era of Reaganomics.

I would hazard the thesis that our national economy moved to a service-driven phase prematurely. Look at all the fiasco after our ‘physical economy’ had rapidly declined in GDP contributions since the early 1990s, as the service economy advanced in its stead! Relatedly, the over-hyped Ramos-era ‘Philippines 2000’ economy was largely a ‘bubble economy’ driven by speculation and portfolio capital, and was more in kinship with the ‘virtual economy’ than any other one. We have not fully recovered from the bursting of that bubble, even as we are now threatened with another bursting of sorts—of the debt bubble, leading to fiscal crisis.

It pays to learn our lessons well from out of the immediate past experiences. And the clear message sent forth is: get back to the physical economy and re-stimulate the concerned sectors, while simultaneously perfect those services where we have proved to be competitive, e.g. pre-need sector, retail, restaurant/f&b. We should also strive to learn some key lessons from other countries’ positive experiences such as China’s, whose economy continues to grow enormously, and grow precisely because it is the physical economy that primarily drives it up and lead it—at an enormously rapid rate—towards development maturity, permitting China to outpace the USA’s economy on or before 2014 (using GDP Purchasing Power Parity indexing).

[From: Erle Frayne D. Argonza, “New Nationalism: Grandeur and Glory at Work!”. August 2004. For the Office of External Affairs – Political Cabinet Cluster, Office of the President, Malacaňan Palace.]

NEO-NATIONALISM’S PREMISES & CONTENTIONS / Shift intervention from the ‘provider state’ to the ‘enabler state’

 

NEO-NATIONALISM’S PREMISES & CONTENTIONS / Shift intervention from the ‘provider state’ to the ‘enabler state’

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

The failure of neo-liberal policy regimes does not mean that the state should go back to a full interventionist role, performing a guardian regulator and ‘provider’ for all sorts of services. The problem with the excessive ‘provider’ role is that it had (a) bred rent-seeking on a massive scale among market players, (b) reinforced dependence among grassroots folks who have since been always expecting for a ‘Santa Claus state’ to provide abundant candies, (c) produced new forms of rent-seeking, with civil society groups serving as the beneficiaries, and (d) further reinforced graft practices in both the public and private sectors. Thus, the ‘provider state’ further reinforced the patron-client relations in the various spheres of life (‘feudalism’ is the term used by Maoists for clientelism), consequently dragging all of our development efforts into a turtle-paced sojourn.

In the new intervention mode, the state, armed with a leaner organization and trimmed down budgetary purse, performs a superb catalytic role. It engages various stakeholders in the growth & development efforts, challenges them to directly embark on development pursuits, and demonstrates unto them how welfare can be accessed to through alternative means other than through the state’s baskets. As the state continuously engages the stakeholders through dialogue and cooperation, institutions will also become strengthened along the way. The state will gain its esteem as an ‘activist state’, while at the same time receive acclaim as a truly ‘modernizing state’ as it propels society gradually away from clientelism towards a context marked by rule-based (modern) institutions, citizenry and dynamic/autonomous constituencies.

However, within a transition period from ‘maximum provider’ to ‘maximum enabler,’ the state should continue to perform a provider role in such areas as education, health and such other human development concerns that are, in the main, crucial to building national wealth. Combining state regulations and at the same time giving ‘fiscal autonomy’ in tertiary education and vocational-technical level would remain to be a fitful strategy of ‘minimal enabler’. A similar strategy will have to be applied to some other economic sectors to be able to advance gender equity, by recognizing rights of marginalized gender to education, employment, representation in managerial positions and other related concerns.

[From: Erle Frayne D. Argonza, “New Nationalism: Grandeur and Glory at Work!”. August 2004. For the Office of External Affairs – Political Cabinet Cluster, Office of the President, Malacaňan Palace.]

SCARCITY VERSUS ABUNDANCE: THE CONTINENTAL DIVIDE

SCARCITY VERSUS ABUNDANCE: THE CONTINENTAL DIVIDE

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

The Continental Divide—between Euro-America (Europe, North America, Latin America) and Asia-Pacific—is no mere geographical cleavage, but more importantly cultural-civilizational. In economic doctrines, the division lies in the core premise that underpins all other economic variables and the social class arrangements that constitute the base for appropriating the values of the totality of efforts of production, distribution, consumption and exchange. While Western thinkers premise economic realities on scarcity, the Eastern thinkers notably sages presuppose the same on abundance.

The foundational doctrines of Western political economy—mercantilism and physiocracy—were both premised on scarcity. All other doctrines that emerged thereafter, inclusive of socialism, neo-classicism and marginalism, proceeded from the same premise. The most popular socialist thinker, K. Marx, envisioned a society of abundance, rationalizing such a vision on the presumed reality of scarcity (of resources) and its attendant effect, mitigated by social structures, of pauperization on the proletariat. This ‘scarcity premise’ is indubitably a hallmark of Western discourse.

Eastern discourse raises questions about such a premise. Among all Eastern thinkers, it was Gandhi who most succinctly articulated the difference. To the folks of the East, daily living is a reality of abundance, such an abundance abetted by continuous resource materialization and allocation as graces from the transcendent spheres. With the caveat, to note, that people live according to their needs. Accordingly, the planet has more than enough for everyone’s needs, but not enough for everyone’s greed. What could be wiser today than the said dictum, so simple in structure yet so profound in substance? (Review also Buddhist economics, Sarkar’s ‘progressive utilization theory’, Sri Aurobindo’s vedic economics, Baha’i economics, Vivekananda’s socialist visions.)

I couldn’t but agree more with the Eastern discursive stream than with the Western ones. Why, let us query, do Filipinos keep on eating the whole day, sliding inputs down their stomachs as much as five (5) times a day? And why don’t the Filipinos save surplus money at all (many folks don’t even maintain back accounts)? That is because deep within their psyche, in the antechambers of their ‘collective unconscious’, resides the presupposition of abundance. Mother earth provides, the country provides, so why save for tomorrow, and why not consume that which is offered unto you when you arrive as a visitor amongst the town & country folks, such offerings being graces from God and His most divine minions?

Among ancient islanders, it was a vice to store resources (savings) for oneself, as this is a hoarding practice. Reciprocity then was the economic norm of behavior. When a household cooks nilupak, and a surplus of the delicacy is gathered after the eating, then the virtuous behavior is to share the excess nilupak among neighbors and kins rather than hoard it; and, conversely, it was a vice (read: very bad behavior) to throw away (surplus) that which has been provided for by Bathala and the anitos.

Surely, economic theorizing that is so deeply steeped in Western streams will never get to the bottom of the reality of Filipino economic behavior. Flawed premises breed flawed models that consequently produce flawed explanatory constructs and flawed practices on the developmental sphere. To a great extent, the Filipinos continue to retain, rather unconsciously, the reciprocity-based ‘systems’ of antiquity, contributing in no small measure to their bayanihan mode of adaptation. This reciprocity helps them to survive disasters and permits them to adapt quickly to new environments that are strongly cash-based, such as urban centers. It is also the basis for creating Filipino ‘social capital’ (Peter Evans had articulated well on the principle) as human asset accretions arising from networks of volunteer social groups (civil society), the kind of capital that is a catalytic factor in various development endeavors.

New Nationalism may have to find an effective bridge between the two. What is sure for now is that the exchange systems of redistribution (feudalism) and markets (capitalism), both imposed upon the islanders by Western empires, have undermined the Asian or ‘Islander Way’ of reciprocity premised on abundance. During the time of Gat J. Rizal, the islands were able to provide more than enough for everyone else, no matter how harsh the Latin-Hispanic feudal system was to the folks who were subsumed in its enclaves. Today, with over eighty (80) million people populating the archipelago, reality had assumed the scarcity mode, making us believe that scarcity has been the premise since antiquity.

The bridge between the East and West will be institutionalized through the popularization of a needs-based philosophy. However, the consumerism that is the hallmark of a revivified market strongly erodes a needs-based discourse. There surely is a dynamic tension between ‘basic needs’ and consumerism, and such a tension will be a chief definer of the premise’s compass in the succeeding decades.

[From: Erle Frayne D. Argonza, “New Nationalism: Grandeur and Glory at Work!”. August 2004. For the Office of External Affairs – Political Cabinet Cluster, Office of the President, Malacaňan Palace.]

ECHOING THE NEO-NATIONALIST THEME

ECHOING THE NEO-NATIONALIST THEME

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

This paper echoes the emerging discourse referred to as New Nationalism. Note that various writers have formulated theories anchored on New Nationalism. Their theories out-rightly impact on public policy and development practice, such as the framework articulated by Robert Reich (see The Work of Nations). Here at home, economists such as Emmanuel De Dios have begun to echo themes of harmonizing nationalism and globalization.

The framework base of this paper will be (a) political economy combined with (b) institutionalism. The current approach of comparative political economy had proved to be a very instructive one, this being the most central framework in development studies and public policy studies, with its analytics carried out through cross-national methodology. This approach will also be integrated with the emerging cross-disciplinal trend of institutionalism, a framework that was actually started by sociologists, and is particularly strong in studies on civil society & development, state-society synergy and organization theory.

Being an Asian, this analyst will also liberally subscribe to core tenets of Asian thinkers, notably Mahatma Gandhi’s. New Nationalism should as much as possible integrate the Eastern and Western theoretical streams to be able to find meaningful anchorage in the whole of the Asian continent.

It is hoped that the article will be of use to various end-users for reflective purposes, particularly to advocacy groups and state agencies that are in the process of rethinking paradigms & issues revolving around public policy.

[From: Erle Frayne D. Argonza, “New Nationalism: Grandeur and Glory at Work!”. August 2004. For the Office of External Affairs – Political Cabinet Cluster, Office of the President, Malacaňan Palace.]

ZAIBATSU GLOBALIZATION ‘VOODOO ECONOMICS’ BOWING OUT

ZAIBATSU GLOBALIZATION ‘VOODOO ECONOMICS’ BOWING OUT
Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Magandang hapon! Good afternoon!

Let me share to you at this moment some notes regarding the ‘globalization’ experiment and the flawed policies that sustained it. There has been much ballyhoo about the global economy’s integration, over the last three (3) decades, as having been carved out supposedly by the Anglo-Saxon policy architects, using Thatcher & Reagan as the face for the ‘neo-liberal’ policy regime they installed.

Little do peoples across the globe, including experts who are so mired in their own parochial perspectives, know that the liberalization of country economies has a great deal to do with the Zaibatsu offensive. The West should better accept the facts: that their technocrats and policy shapers have run out of fresh ideas since the 1970s onwards (i.e. mentally bankrupt), a gap that they filled up by looking up to Japan and the NICs (newly industrializing countries) for copycat purposes.

Reaganomics, as neo-liberal policies of ‘privatization’ was dubbed (Thatcher of the UK preceded Reagan by a year), is as voodoo as one can get, seductive as any enchanting mantra-resonating principle can be, and was indeed potent in erasing the vestiges of the Regulated Economics doctrines that preceded the era. In the emerging markets, they were dubbed as ‘structural adjustment policies’ or SAPs, were imposed by the IMF-World Bank Group on debtor nations, and can be summed up as follows:

• Core principles: Privatization, Liberalization, Deregulation
• Subsidiary Principles: Tax reforms, trade liberalization, free floating exchange rates, diminished state subsidies for welfare, increased utility prices (revenue generation)
• Governance Principle: Decentralization (local government autonomy)

Such policy reform measures, as far as developing countries or DCs were concerned, came in as very harsh, cruel ‘austerity measures’ imposed by the IMF. We citizens from the ‘margins’ can never forget these measures, the pauperization that they effected, the dislocation of marginal producers, the decline of health services and rise of morbidity rates, and so on. In the Philippines, our very own capital goods industries were either delayed or un-implementable (such as integrated steel), as the money allocated for their purposes simply dried as dictated by the World Bank.

But there’s another set of policy architecture that wasn’t Anglo-Saxon, and didn’t receive their inspiration from the classicists (Smith, Ricardo) and the monetarists (Friedman, Hayek). This set of liberalization policies came from Zaibatsu country, and were crafted by Japanese technocrats. Not only policies, but also institutions were addressed by them, giving rise to the globalized economy that we have today.

Chief among those technocrats was Kenichi Ohmae, who in the 1980s was a think-tank executive. Further down the line were many other technocrats, who were organically linked to the Zaibatsus (landlord-industrialist-financier oligarchs), taking up cudgels for Ohmae.

Globalization, as one better realize, was never meant as any ‘win/win’ formula for nation-states in the arena of international trade as the liberal thinkers came to defend it later. It was outright a strategy to pre-position Zaibatsu corporate interests outside of Japan, notably the U.S. and European markets.

At that time of conceptualization, Zaibatsus have already efficaciously penetrated the Asian markets, and had leveraged their investments’ entry via aid and technical knowledge diffusion (including sponsoring Developing Country scholars in Japanese universities & special institutes). The old doctrine of ‘Asia Co-prosperity sphere’ was finally won, without firing a shot this time (unlike Imperial Japan era expansionism).

In the 1980s, the clamor for mooring investments and trade in the Western markets became ever stronger. The offensive tactic adapted was rather two-pronged, which made the new voodoo mantra even more potent:

• On the micro-level, permeate other markets with new concepts such as ‘Theory Z’ (decentralized authority, see W. Ouichi), total quality management or TQM, new tools for strategic planning, mergers and de-mergers. Till these days, the tools are considered sacrosanct in all sectors of society, including the Catholic Church that now uses ‘bottom-up’ planning added to strategic planning (my observations done in 2001-02 in a California diocese).

• On the macro-level, blend the Reagan-Thatcher ‘structural adjustments’ with the ‘globalization’ doctrine. The Zaibatsu technocrats fanned out across the globe, some of whom were positioned inside international bodies, and sweetened liberalization via a supposedly ‘win/win’ growth strategy for participating countries. This brilliant blending, which Western thinkers didn’t perceive at all as any subtle tactic by a predatory class (Zaibatsu), soon caught up fire and became buzz word for nigh three decades.

Before long, the Japan Inc. was being bandied across the globe as worth any country’s emulation. Southeast Asia and Korea went for it. Even the former presidents of the USA admired the Japanese Inc. doctrine of renewed private initiatives and shift from macro- to micro-economics as stabilization and growth measure. Bill Clinton of the USA spoke so fondly of ‘globalization’ like some captive fan of an economic icon, and moved to negotiate the NAFTA.

Little do unsuspecting, gullible peoples across the planet, more so the policy experts of the West, realize that the Japanese voodoo economics was largely intended to permit Zaibatsu investments to breed and morph inside their economies. Using merger and buy-in tactics, the Zaibatsu agents made it appear that their sponsors came in for benign purposes or so. If there is any group in the world today that is enjoying its last laugh, it is the Japanese militarists of the past, who finally saw the success of their nation’s offensives and the decline of the West via ‘organized chaos’.

Around 1994, the magic of the Japan Inc. began to cramble. Recession came, and before long many banks and investment houses were catching fire. That was the origin of the bankrupt and immoral Bush-Paulson ‘bailout’, which began with the ‘crisis management’ tactic in Japan to save ailing banks and financial institutions. Eventually, Zaibatsu technocrats were forced to revive the Western tool of ‘interest rates’ intervention, to the extent of bringing down interest rates to zero percent and sustaining it there for many years.

There also came that moment, in the late 1990s through 2006, when Zaibatsu financiers suddenly were so awash with funds (liquidities), at a time when Western economies reached low growths. The ‘yen initiative’ package was therefore conceptualized as another last-ditch voodoo tactic, which was implemented by loaning out large funds at zero or low interest, which Western financiers than re-loaned at profitable interest rates. Many such funds reached the USA& EU realty subprime mortgage markets, to recall. Again, note the seemingly benign nature of the financial gesture.

Just as when the realty markets were beginning to sneeze in America, the last voodoo measure was pulled out. The ‘crisis management’ was already folded up earlier, as Japan’s economic growth was propelled up anew by the Asian markets notably China’s. Just as when USA & EU needed the Zaibatsu loans very badly, and ditto for portfolio investments, they were pulled out, thus ensuring the crash of both economies.

Japananese voodoo economics is now bowing out, as the compass of policy initiatives at present is pointing to the reconstruction of macro-economic, New Deal type measures intended to attack problems both on short-term (bail out on productive sectors) and long-term basis (induce physical economy rather than predatory finance). But the withdrawal of the voodoo regime is not being done without witnessing its catastrophic results.

That’s surely tragic for the West or North. I wonder how Zaibatsus & technocrats perceive peoples outside their borders: whether they regard the latter as human beings worth co-partnering with, or as hungry lizards that must subsist on crumbs of investments & finance from Japan that have been buttressed by enormous tons of gold acquired through production and plunder of occupied lands, across the 2,000 years of Japan’s existence from kingdom to nation.

Honestly, I don’t know the answer. But if the Zaibatsus are receiving flaks from outside their borders, it wouldn’t be a surprise. There are no more borders for Zaibatsus by the way, just an entire planet with seamless web, cocooned in all corners by their corporate money.

[Philippines, 14 November 2008]

GLOBAL TOTALITARIAN POLICE-STATE & TECHNOTRONIC SOCIETY: EXTENDING CAPITALIST LIFE

GLOBAL TOTALITARIAN POLICE-STATE & TECHNOTRONIC SOCIETY: EXTENDING CAPITALIST LIFE
Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Let me go back to the question of what lies ahead of us—when ‘late’ capitalism dies and yet capitalism will be extended. I am not discounting the possibility that capitalism’s life span will be extended, but this will no longer be ‘late’ capital, just to remind everyone.

You better fasten your seat belts, as the stormy days ahead will come for sure, and as this heraldry from me will sound as stormy already as those times ahead. Stormy heraldry, because (a) you will not come to like it and that (b) its impact will be so nauseating and revolting that you’d rather sedate yourself most quickly with wine, liquor, pot or anything that can reduce that revulsion. I forgot, for the fundamentalists, you’d pray for hours to allay your fears.

By the time ‘late’ capital arrived up to the current juncture, or roughly the whole of the post-Great Depression era, the following developments have come about:

• State intervention/planning was infused into the system. Post-war former colonies proceeded on their industrial development tracks along this dirigist market model. The USA and Europe were saved from collapsing, emerging markets appeared.

• Market reforms were later introduced, bringing back free market and free trade principles. Centrally planned economies China and Vietnam infused market reforms to construct a ‘social market’ model, while former socialist states folded up in Eastern Europe and 3rd world states.

• The era of ‘mad economics’ resulted from the system integration efforts of ‘instrumental reason’. The dividing line between the rational and the mad in decision-making and system maintenance was effectively deconstructed and erased. In esoteric-mystical argot, this era is the period of the Demonic Mind, the era of Anti-Christ.

• ‘Virtual economy’ based on predatory financial practices of creating values from out of money flows (rather than from concrete production) was exemplified by ‘bubble economies’. Bubble bursts were followed by destructive, catastrophic crises and shrinkages of affected economies.

• Nation-states’ economies came to be integrated into a single economy, via globalization. A planetary economy was already institutionalized, yet no planetary state exists to regulate conduct of commerce and business at a global level. The contradiction between the norms of the planetary economy and the interests of the nation-state has led in no small measure to the fragmentation of nation-states and emergence of mini-states. Globalization has been undermining the nation-state in general.

• All of such developments will hyper-converge in the months ahead in a general system crisis characterized by hyper-inflation, great depression, and total system collapse. As the economist Lyndon LaRouche correctly perceived, that collapse phase is now taking place at a rapid rate.

• Wars and hostilities are intensifying across the globe. Surrogate wars of world powers have also been rehearsed, such as the Georgia-Russia conflict. All of these conflicts will hyper-converge in a World War III or intercontinental war, the duration of which no one can forecast so easily.

So, going back to the issue, if the ‘virtual economy’ cannot be sustained and its collapse will bring the final death blow on ‘late’ capital, is it possible to extend capitalism’s life span? Yes, the possibility is very likely. But the context emerging from the resolution of the general global crisis will hardly resemble what you’ve ever seen before nor imagine.

First of all, the consolidation of the system and attempts to prolong it can never take place without draconian police state tactics. As Lenin correctly emphasized, the dividing line between liberalism and fascism is a superficial one. Neo-fascism will become the political modality in order to save capitalism and bring it to its next phase. State terror heretofore untold will unravel the old order of things and bring the ‘new world order’ into place, resulting to pogroms that will dwarf both Hitler’s ‘final solution’ and Stalin’s ‘purges’ combined.

The possibility of a global state will finally become granite rock, with the United Nations most likely the base for creating that global regulatory mechanism governed by a demonic ‘world rule of law’. This global state will have its own military and police forces, and will have no qualms in quelling dissent and enforcing global fiats in order to bring forth the ‘new world order’.

The global corporations of the moment, whose assets and revenues are already so huge that they dwarf those of nation-states’, will all the more become gigantic. The same corporations will then declare their respective turfs among region-states and city-states that will be created from the dismantled nations. Each mega-corporation will be endowed with its own private army, akin to the British East India Company or BEIC of old, of professional mercenaries beholden to no state but to the corporation, but which can be mandated by the global state to engage hostile forces in other regions and cities.

The era of New Feudalism will then ensue from the social and urban-ecological arrangements emerging. The era of ancient Florence, Venice, or city-states with their own respective armies and ruled by powerful commercial families, will come back though in more sophisticated vogue.
The competing powerful & wealthy city-states will then give rise to new conflicts in the form of ‘wars of the cities’, much akin to the ancient Greek city-states’ conflicts. Before this century’s end, no more nations shall exist, but rather a world of cities and regions integrated largely through the mediative and regulative planetary state. Weaker cities and regions will become the vassals of powerful cities and corporate groups, at a time when technology will even be more revolutionary. The New Feudalism will be based on an integration of capital and information, contrasted to the Old Feudalism that was based on land.

As soon as 3rd phase cybernetics will conclude, and probably a 4th phase will begin, which will all the more erase the barrier between human and machine, the envisioned Technotronic Society will become the manifest order. Cyborgs and machines will then become perfected and endowed with quasi-human intelligence, while those humans with weak minds will be totally controlled via perfected chips, mega-computers, and new cybernetic systems. Large numbers of subhuman ‘Manchurian candidates’ or MCs will become the docile slave labor of the day, well fed and provided for, but whose behavior will be totally programmed and re-programmable.
That technoronic society of the neo-feudal capitalist ‘new world order’, or simply Technotronic capitalism, was fitfully described and forecast in the film series Matrix and Terminator. As 3rd phase cybernetics is advancing today in laboratory incubators of the North, cybernetics that will dismantle the barrier between human and machine, the possibility of an early arrival of that dreaded machine-controlled ‘new world order’ has become concrete. The question is no longer ‘will technotronics come’, but rather ‘when will it come’? Matrix and Terminator are no film fantasies but are rather scientific extrapolations based on existing and developing cybernetic principles.

So, fellows out there, would you count yourself among the fanatical supporters of ‘capitalist life-span extension’, or would you rather opt for a new economy & society other than the ‘new world order’ that has been engineered by the global oligarchy? Or, would you rather be silent about the matter, as the ‘silence of the lambs’ means the Keynesian “In the long run, all of us will be dead!” Caput!

Let me now end here. Suffice that I shared my notes about the possible extension of the favorite economy of the pro-capitalists or the most abhorred society by capitalism’s detractors. At least I didn’t fail to show you the possibilities, I being a sociologist and economist who learned from my thinker mentors the craft of social forecasting or ‘futurology’.

Till next writing! Adios! Adieu! Paalam! Farewell!

[Philippines, 23 August 2008]

MAHARLIKA MOVEMENT SURGES AS OPPORTUNITIES BROADEN

MAHARLIKA MOVEMENT SURGES AS OPPORTUNITIES BROADEN

Prof. Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Social Scientist, Development Consultant,

Life Coach

Initiate – Brotherhood of Light

 

In 1989, my provocative essay titled “On The Somnambulism of the Filipino” began to circulate in diverse publications. I cogitated then that the Filipino suffers from a collective somnambulism, which explains the lack of directional sense of purpose of our countrymen. To salve the ailment, a Filipino Renaissance must be waged, which will see the explosive innovations in the sciences, philosophy, and the arts. Thanks heavens, the Renaissance has begun, as manifested by (a) thousands of patents and copyrights registered every year and (b) by very noble works in all human endeavors.   

 

As the Renaissance was beginning to shape up in the mid-90s, the Maharlika Movement morphed and grew. Along the way, I authored a book in 2000, titled 13^th Gate Unveiled: the Glorious Destiny of the Philippines and Southeast Asia. In that book, I argued, based on my mystical visions and forecasts, that the Philippines is destined for greatness due to one awesome factor: Earth’s solar plexus chakra is here, in Mount Banahaw, which will house the Planetary Chi during the Aquarian Age. In 2004, the Planetary Chi moved from its previous location in Glastonbury, England, to Mount Banahaw, signaling the beginning of an aegis marked by glory, genius, and grandeur.  

 

Where that Planetary Chi goes, it magnetizes great souls to embody. Peoples of neighboring countries likewise experience the same. As a result, the Philippines, just like England during Pisces, will be showered with blessings manifesting as grand works of genius and abundant economic wealth unparalleled in history.

 

Even now, opportunities for growth and development and the initial results of our collective efforts, already point to the Philippines rising  to 1^st World status by 2025-2030. Our nation is the world’s 4^th largest shipbuilder, fashion & design center of Asia, as some instances of grand feats. HSBC and its allied think tanks already announced the forecast that the Philippines will be the largest economy of ASEAN by 2050. To those who will witness events unfold over the next decades, mark my words: “you ain’t seen nothing yet!” For grandeur will ascend and prevail for the whole of Aquarius’ 2,000 years.

 

Going back to the 13^th Gate Unveiled, I likewise tackled the problematic of the meanings of the names Philippines and Maharlika to find out whether there is strong reason to opt for Maharlika as the nomenclature of the nation. Combining methods of linguistic analysis and esoteric symbology, I proceeded to chop down the two names into their basic morphemes. From there I found out the following underlying meanings:

 

• PHILIPPINES. Phi is Phallus or masculine aspect. Lip is referent for the female organ’s lip or feminine aspect. Masculine & Feminine together reveals Wholeness and balance. Philippines is thus a positively potent name, derived from Philip that many kings themselves borrowed to signify a showering of vast opportunities.

 

• MAHARLIKA. Ma is maternal element, feminine aspect. Har is the Life Force, or Haj, the masculine aspect. Li refers to act of movement or transfer. Ka is referent for revolutionary spin, which means change. The bisyllabic Mahar, feminine & masculine conjoint, refers to ‘great’ or ‘major’, with the same Wholeness explicitly conveyed. In sum, Maharlika means Great Force for Revolutionary Change.

 

As I was disseminating the 13^th Gate Unveiled, I was shown visions of the Marcos gold hoard. As per findings in the late ‘80s by a palace body tasked to study the gold, a staggering 1.33 million tons is in the custody of the late dictator. A fellow Initiate (Rachel S.) informed me that Marcos entrusted the gold to his illegitimate children. Fellows, that gold is just but a fraction of the vast treasures left by the Majapahit Emperor and his royal scions many of whom are in the Philippines. I argued in some controversial blogs of mine that the Philippine gold will bankroll the new economy of the Golden Age humanity, thus eradicating poverty and enabling abundance for all.

 

Furthermore, in the months of November-December 2008, I was shown visions of the galactic hyperspace portal. Closed for eons by both Evil and Light Forces, the galactic portal was finally re-opened by the Light Forces in late 2008 through early 2009, thus marking the end of long isolation of Earth from its own cosmic family of worlds. The portal is located in 5^th Dimension of Palawan, and cuts short the travel time to and from distant stars from decades or centuries to merely 15 minutes to 1 hour. That factuality made me infer that the Philippines is the Mother’s Womb on Earth, as the umbilical cord-like hyperspace is moored in the Philippine landmass.

 

 

Before I end this message, let me share to you this anecdote. Upon the publication of the 13^th Gate Unveiled, I immediately secured copies for donation to university libraries, the National Library, and esoteric societies. It was Bro. Ben Arguelles who received it for Theosophical Society. During our brief chat, Bro. Ben revealed to me that, as per direct knowledge channeling from the Mahatmas, El Morya will be the Manu of the emerging 6^th Root Race (Meruvians). He hastened to add before I left, a stunning revelation from Above: that the Filipinos are being prepared to become the 6^th Subrace of the 6^th Root-Race. Bro. Ben, an arhat (4^th Degree Initiate), surely handed to me a datum that was overwhelmingly staggering and mind-boggling, and made me leave the TS wide eyed and ecstatic.

 

Fellows, what I just shared to you sums up the opportunity field of our nation. There is much to be done for our people, culture, and social institutions. Popular empowerment, poverty eradication, mainstreaming of marginal sectors, good governance, values formation, institutional development, and restoring ecological balance remain as huge challenges that need to be addressed. Grassroots movements such as Maharlika Movement and civil society groups are direly needed to address those challenges and make their marks as contributors to a great future. It may be time to change or modify the nation’s name to Maharlika or to an integral Maharlika(n) Philippines to signify the change of compass towards that historic grandeur ahead of us.

 

Conclusively, the Maharlika Movement is surging at this juncture, which gladdens me all the more. Fellow advocates of Maharlika, for our own collective goal attainment: carpe diem! Mabuhay!

 

22 February 2014

 

[Delivered as a talk during the recently held Maharlika Summit, 22^nd February 2014, GT Toyota Ctr – Asian Studies Ctr, University of the Philippines in Diliman.]

EMERGING MARKETS: GLOBAL GROWTH DRIVERS, FIREWALL ECONOMIES

EMERGING MARKETS: GLOBAL GROWTH DRIVERS, FIREWALL ECONOMIES

 

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

 

Global economic growth has shown a sputtering pattern over the last couples of years. The EU-USA-Japan 1^st World corridor has particularly been the lackluster topguns, mired as they are in vicious cycles of recession, near zero growth, and ‘virtual economy’ strategies that only deepened their entrapment in the cul de sac they’re in.

 

Salving the global economic health since the opening yet of the new millennium are the Emerging Markets. Learning the lessons from the 1^st World’s mistakes, the Emerging Markets instituted regulatory measures and related strategies that enabled them to build ‘firewall’ economies.

 

A ‘firewall’ economy is sealed from the global economic turmoils emanating from the 1^st World countries. Remaining unaffected as such, they are able to sustain growth patterns that are impeccable manifestations of their trajectories of ‘virtuous circle’ of growth & development. Growing in unison, though at variance in total aggregate growth, they altogether keep the global economy afloat, thus saving many workers in the developing world from the devastating blows of market conflagrations which the 1^st World countries are tragically situated.

 

Emerging Markets are largely 2^nd World or Middle Income economies, a fact that many blind simpletons in their own backyards and the 1^st World fail to see nor understand. Once an economy breaches the U.S. $1,000 per capita, it qualifies as 2^nd World economy. Another criterion is the population composition: over half are in services and industries. Industrialization is, of course, rapid.

 

Emerging Markets are unique in that (a) each one of them has large populations and (b) very significantly large percentage of Middle Income earners among their people (i.e. family earning $6,000-$30,000). Large populations fulfill their labor needs at all times, and the total aggregate values of goods produced by such large populations make total national income consistently large, assuming sustained significant-to-high-level growth.

 

Top qualifiers that are recognized as ‘lead countries’ of the Emerging Markets are the BRIC:

• Brazil
• Russia
• India
• China

 

Following closely behind the BRIC are the Next 11, namely:

• Bangladesh
• Egypt
• Indonesia
• Iran
• Mexico
• Nigeria
• Pakistan
• Philippines
• South Korea
• Turkey
• Vietnam

 

South Korea is the only odd one out, as it’s economy is already 1^st World or ‘overdeveloped’ in stage. It is one of the Dragon Economies of East Asia that includes, to recall, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore. It’s close ties to the Developing Countries or DCs, from which it came from, remains though, as exhibited by trade and cultural interactions with the DCs.

 

Other DCs that are smaller in populations, though nonetheless part of the developing world and contributors to global growth, are the Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, South Africa, Argentina, and Chile. Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore are engaged members of ASEAN that will unify into a common market next year, which will make the entire region a gigantic growth corridor that is indubitably among the world’s topguns.

 

To sum up the broad strategies of the Emerging Markets + Tiger & Dragon Economies that enabled ‘firewall’ against global turbulence, these are:

• Putting breaks on predatory finance via monetary and capital controls.
• Consistent, persistent, yet resilient reliance on the ‘physical economy’ as basis for wealth production—agriculture, manufacturing, infrastructure, transport & communications, science & technology—that are their domestic economic drivers.
• Shoring up their Foreign Exchange Reserves at levels sufficient to effect elasticity against global turmoils and buy several months worth of imports.

 

Needless to say, the Emerging Markets will be graduating to 1^st World economy status one by one across the coming decades. By 2030, their collective wealth put together will more than surpass the combined wealth of the EU-USA-Japan. Enabled to aid other developing countries move up the ladder of success, they are exemplars of ‘inclusive growth’ that hopefully will eradicate poverty across the globe well before 2050.

 

Contrast that to the ‘exclusive growth’ of the North 1^st World (EU-USA-Japan) powers that industrialized and enriched themselves at the expense of the developing countries or DCs that the former encumbered via investments, trade, and aid. The Northern powers in particular have histories of destroying nations and populations via two (2) world wars and many more conflicts, or using coercive instruments disguised as “soft power” or maintaining “peace”.

 

As the Emerging Markets have been showing the way, new models of development are now available for the poorer DCs which the West/North just can’t destroy any longer via IMF austerity programs (IMF is a stooge institution of predatory financiers). Rest assured there will be wider breathing spaces for comfort & prosperity in the long run by the working peoples of both Emerging Markets (& DC allies) and those of the 1^st World as well who seems to have been excluded from prosperity by their own greedy politicians and elites.

 

[Manila, 08 January 2014]

POWER SHIFT FROM WEST TO EAST NOW COMPLETE

POWER SHIFT FROM WEST TO EAST NOW COMPLETE

 

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

 

Gracious Day to you fellow global citizens!

 

“Young Man, Go East!” was John Naisbitt’s challenging call unto the youth of the west who are eager to search for opportunities in life. In the late 90s yet, he released his social forecast book Megatrends Asia, which sums up macro- trends happening in Asia that all point out to the compass of economic and cultural growth of the 21^st millennium: East will be center of global development.

 

Futurologists or social forecasters from the West, beginning with Oswald Spengler and Arnold Toynbee a century ago, forewarned the West of the eventual decline in the future. Toynbee used a cyclical wave model to show that a civilization or ‘high culture’ lasts only for 2,000 years, after which it will decline rapidly.

 

Indo-European ‘high cultures’ were nearing the end of that 2000-year cycle in the early 1900s, which prompted futurologists to write daring forecasts of what’s in store for the West in general. Though accordingly the West will sustain the momentum towards high levels of technological development, the overall civilizational maturity has been reached as was nearing the terminal end phase.

 

The American sociologist Daniel Bell followed up on the social forecasts in his brilliant discourses on the Post-Industrial society. Writing in the 1950s yet, upon seeing some Asian economies jettison their amazing industrial growth, predicted that the end of the Western prominence, both techno-economically and culturally, is already at hand. He daringly registered that the year 2013 will be the precise year of the civilizational shift.

 

It took yet younger social forecasters, notably Alvin Toffler and John Naisbitt, to follow up on the emerging global developments and observe the amazing rise of Asian ‘dragons’ and ‘tigers’. By the 1990s, both thinkers held the convergent opinion that Asia will be the trend-setter techno-economically and culturally in the forthcoming 21^st century.

  

To complete the picture of global rise to prominence of Asia, Immanuel Wallerstein, then president of the American Sociological Society, explained in the late 1990s that civilization was actually moving towards the East by the 16^th century yet. Tragically, the Western powers intervened to undercut that process, colonized the East via imperious methods of encumbrances, and ended what could have been a gargantuan awesome experience of East-led global development.

 

As Western imperialism, colonialism, and hegemonism considerably declined by the latter part of the 20^th century, so was the momentum of techno-economic, political, and cultural development propelled in the East.  By the latter years of the 1990s, there was no more doubting the predictions made by social forecasters that indeed the compass of civilization will soon move to the East.

 

Upon the catastrophic entrapment of the economies of Europe, USA, and Japan in short recessions that congealed into a Great Recession in 2007, the momentum was finally lost on the West. Japan was only partly saved due to its Asian location and trade positioning strategies, though its economy was flat since 1994 yet. By early 2008, Western global observers released their consensual evaluation that Asia already overtook the West in cutting edge technologies by the end of 2007.

 

By global observers I mean those coming from international magazines, thinktanks, and academe. The economic analysts of the Time Magazine, Far Eastern Economic Review, The Guardian, and Newsweek, for instance, came up with that very upbeat observation, as Asia was growing while the West was stagnating technologically and crashing down economically.

 

It’s now 2014 and many developments that boggle the mind did happen since 2007. As far as wealth production from the ‘physical economy’ is concerned, Asia is leading and showing the way towards keeping the global economy afloat. The West, on the other hand, is mired in ‘bubble economy’ or ‘virtual economy’ cul de sac, which promises only short-cycle growths that can burst again in the near future.

 

The power shift is now complete, though the shift doesn’t mean that the East will supplant the West in global importance. The Eastern mind thinks in terms of inclusive development, in contradistinction from the Western mind that is binary/dichotomous, zero-sum in practice, and pursues development at the expense of the small nations of East and South.

 

Western peoples better accustom themselves to the emerging reality and cease to be bellicose and hostile towards the Eastern peoples whom they pejoratively condescended upon for centuries as “monkeys” or “halfway between man and ape.” Civilization’s root word is ‘civility’, and that means if some nations become prosperous, so must all nations be some day, all marching together in a global ethos of goodwill and cooperation rather than destroying the weaker ones.

 

[Manila, 01 January, 2014]

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 24th 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 24th & 25th 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 24th midnight and on the 25th 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 24th-25th 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]

SOCIAL CAPITAL FOR MINING

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

[Note: The author is a political economist and social development consultant. The paper was delivered in a panel lecture at the Kamayan Forum, Kamayan Restaurant, Manila, 12 noon-2 pm, 19 November, 2004. See also: http://raefdargon.blogspot.com]

This paper advocates for an alternative framework regarding mineral resource extraction. It begins with the contention that mining must be considered as primarily a community undertaking, whether the community be national or local. As such, mining must necessarily depart from market-driven models of extraction, or from state-centered models of development, and proceed to a community-oriented or constituency-based engagement.

To be able to comprehend the theme of this paper, let me begin with a story. About four (4) years ago, a former university student of mine at the University of the Philippines Manila informed me that a mining engineer wished to establish a (mining) foothold in the Cordillera. Accordingly, the engineer heard about my mystical background, and was interested to know if there are indeed precious metals in the proposed project site. That is, the engineer expected me to communicate directly to the invisible elemental entities in the area and ask their permission to establish a mining project.

Not only that. Having heard about my background as a political economist, with diversified interest and studies in indigenous culture, the mining firm he represented wanted to know what acceptable methods to employ in flushing out the indigenous people residing in the area.

To cut the story short, I declined the offer, even as I registered my vehement opposition to the sordidly profit-oriented venture of this engineer. If mining has to prosper at all, it must begin with the reality that there are people who have been settled for many epochs in the area of extraction. A win-win solution to the mining problem must be executed, not by expelling the local residents but precisely by involving them in the venture.

Let me now share to you another story. In 1998, at the height of the Asian financial crisis, my consulting firm then, the Phoenixkonsult, contracted a project with a client. The project was about yellow clay extraction, with Bicol as the project site. In a small town in Bicol is found yellow clay, a rare material that has various industrial applications as well as aesthetic uses. Incidentally, the area also has some Aeta-related residents as well as marginal peasants.

Being then the board chair of the corporation, or being in a central position to direct the developmental strategies of the firm, I strongly proposed that the project involve the residents in a number of ways.

First of all, in the feasibility study preparation, the residents can be tapped as eco-scanners to identify possible sites where the material was highly concentrated. Also, the same residents will be constituted into a cooperative, properly trained in social entrepreneurship, and invited to be co-investors in the mining project through their cooperative. A third involvement would be to tap those residents who are physically capable enough as human resource for the extraction and production activities.

Such a scheme is what social scientists and development practitioners like myself refer to as tapping ‘social capital’. Mining should not just be regarded as investment capital, but should also consider the vast wealth of social networks—‘social capital’—that can wield tremendous powers of production. Studies in comparative political economy have shown that developmental pursuits that tapped ‘social capital’ ended up more appreciably better than those that failed to do so.

The development experiences of Brazil are particularly instructive. As documented by such social science luminaries as Peter Evans (see Evans’ works on ‘state-society synergy’), those projects in agriculture, irrigation and urban-based infrastructure and housing in Brazil where a state-civil society partnership was consistently used, turned out really good in results. On the other hand, those projects that were largely state-centered or market-driven and insulated from the community networks eventually faltered, as indicated by typical experiences in most Third World economies.

In today’s evolving global context, state-centered development has become ridiculously passé. In this old framework, the state performs the role of a ‘provider state’—giving out everything such as candies and shelter units to helpless people waiting for the ‘Santa Claus’ dole outs. Such a framework had proved to be disastrous in results. Not only did it reinforce a strong dependency syndrome among the people, it also led to vicious poverty instead of eradicating this malaise. It need not be stressed that much money went to the pocket of state officials and contracting firms’ managers through this old framework.

The new framework delimits the state’s role to that of an ‘enabler state’. In this framework, development efforts are properly the tasks of market players, who possess the investment capital, and civil society players, who possess the vast social networks of ‘social capital’. The state then builds the policy environment and strong institutions that can support and sustain various developmental efforts.

I strongly contend for a ‘social capital’ approach to mining. In this approach, the first thing to do is to recognize the institutional capacity building efforts of people who live in the areas of resource extraction. Stewardship agreements must be concurred between market players and community or social enterprises of the folks, with the state serving as a mediator or facilitator. I am very optimistic about the positive results of this scheme, compared to market-driven and state-centered approaches.

You see, when people, through their social enterprise groups, are motivated to co-direct development projects, the people themselves will do so much to zealously guard and monitor the entire project or enterprise venture. The bonus for indigenous peoples is that they have easy access to the spirit world, to the nature beings in the area (called ‘elementals’ by mystics), beings that can also be tapped to guard the project.

Now, go back to the cranky old models (market-driven and state-centered), and remove the indigenous peoples from the scene of a gargantuan development effort. What will you have?

It would be instructive to recall the Celophil and Chico dam projects, both Cordillera-based, that proceeded from the old frameworks. The disastrous offshoots of the projects became the fuel for insurgent groups, largely peopled by the I.P.s, to wage zealously bloody campaigns against the colossal projects.

There is no further reason today for the likes of the Celophil and Chico projects to be repeated. We must have learned lessons from their failures at this juncture. But it seems that those who now wish to revive a mining sector that has been in the doldrums for two (2) decades to go the route of Celophil and Chico.

I wish not to further highlight the folly of any idea today that wishes to pursue development by expelling people like they were deadly toxins. Many advocates of win/lose pursuits are well placed in government even as they dominate the corporate sector. They simply couldn’t see the folly behind their antiquated approaches, blinded as they are by greed.

As a final statement, let me declare that the framework elaborated in this brief paper is not an official policy framework of state. Rather, it is a policy framework that should be discussed among various quarters and social sectors, the state included. The state after all comprises of a plurality of framework trends operating in a vast array of bureaucratic mechanisms. There is no such thing today as a monolithic state with a singular framework dominating the policy environment. Rather, the state is a fluid field for contestation by various interest groups that are all aiming to influence the shaping of the policy environment.

But this I am optimistic about: if given a chance to prosper, a ‘social capital’ framework for mining will sell like very hot cake. I am very sure about this forecast. And may the communications enclaves allow this idea of ‘social capital’ for mining to germinate and percolate, because whether we like it or not this will be the direction of resource extraction in the foreseeable future. Bar it from crystallizing, and the result will be more resentments leading to more vicious insurgencies. Permit it to galvanize, and the whole nation becomes heroic in the eyes of the international community for setting new precedents. So, which option is the better choice?