Sunday, April 24, 2011

Get Real Post

It pleases me to see a new development in the Philippine blogosphere. Get Real Post is a re-invigorated compilation of blogs by Benigno and fellow contributors. Gone are the acerbic and one-dimensional Anti-Pinoy rants against President Aquino. In its stead are thoughtful blogs dealing with real subjects: economics, technology, show business and Philippine culture.

Beningo has always been one of the deepest thinkers dealing with the Pinoy condition and it is refreshing to see him enlarge his scope and embrace a more constructive effort to pull apart the ways and means of Philippine life and governance, in search of more productive thinking and acts.

Articles by contributors Orion, Ilda and BenK provoke thoughtful reflections, if not harmony. Already vigorous debates on the fringe of hostility have emerged regarding foreign investment and freedom of speech. And, yes, the unmoderated site gets immature outbursts by the occasional name-caller, but the name-callers are automatically diminished when their diatribes appear within reams of thoughtful debate. I am convinced that if such comments are simply ignored, they will find their rightful place in oblivion.

I grew dismayed with the collection of great minds on Anti-Pinoy limiting their scope to a simple grouse agenda about President Aquino and all things Filipino. It mirrored the Ego-based, tear-down culture so prevalent in the Philippines, and so unconstructive.

I have nothing against agendas. Indeed, I hope some specific agendas emerge from Get Real Post that have a chance to revitalize the Philippine way. Articulating a clear position on foreign investment would be wonderful. Also, pointing out ways to get more bang for the economic buck would be valuable. For example, I am convinced that positioning Customs as primarily a taxing agency, operating within the Department of Finance, is counter productive when Customs could be an agent for change, for significantly stepping up Philippine imports, exports . . . and jobs.

I’d simply transfer Customs from the Department of Finance to the Department of Trade and Industry and give them a primary charter of helping importers and exporters compete. Such a simple step. Such a profound change . . . for the better.

It would be nice to see a short checklist of a few positive acts emerge from the dialogue so that participants are not just writing and reading ideas, but working for real change. I suspect they would get to the Aquino administration, as I sense that the President’s motives are good, even if his expertise suffers from lack of experience and “applied vision”.

It would be great to see Get Real Post work on “applied vision”.

16 comments:

  1. Thanks, Joe. Believe it or not, there's no "editorial policy" or anything at work here, this is just the bunch of us -- and Ilda and benign0 more than anyone -- being ourselves.

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  2. in what sense is B0 profound? what statement of his was, to you, profound?

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  3. Hi Joe! I am glad you liked the new blog of those great people over at Get Real Post. I myself enjoy their writings as always. We at Antipinoy.com have also moved on from the Noynoy Aquino stuff and have a young, energetic and fresh crew of writers we are breeding. They have a lot of new ideas which we are incorporating and this can possibly evolve into some new focuses for the site. I suggest you stay tuned for new AP articles and we do look forward to you hanging out there in the future and give us your inputs on how we can do better. We are in the constant process of improving our site and our content so we can contribute to giving our people progress through our on line as well as our real world efforts. I always enjoy reading your writings. Cheers! Rafterman (Chuck) of AP.

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  4. Chuck, thanks for the invite. I’ll read AP now and then, on your recommendation. It will be the third time I have tried to join the comment threads there. The prior times were let-downs, especially the last, during which I gained the distinction of being the only person I am aware of who had his comments moderated (deleted then put back under protest). I was subjected to a great deal of ridicule for believing in a more forgiving style of patriotism than most of the writers there showed.

    GabbyD, I don’t wish to be drawn into your method of questioning rather than making your point affirmatively. If you don’t find Benigno profound, that’s fine. I’ve written both positives and negatives about the man, and find several of his latest articles in Get Real Post to be rich with insight . . . to me. I may be in a different place on the continuum of the search for higher knowledge than you. I don’t know if it is ahead or behind.

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  5. i just wanna know what is profound in his writings, in the name of curiousity.

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  6. Hi Joe. I shall make sure that fairness prevails in the comments sections. I am promoting the idea of minimal interference with commentators. Looking forward to more of your insightful articles!

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  7. GabbyD, you have to figure that one out for yourself. I am not open to personal investigation. If you have an issue, let's discuss it.

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  8. personal investigation? you're making it sound like i want to feel you up!

    i'm merely asking you for your opinion.

    sadly, i cant figure it out, unless you tell me, coz thats your opinion.

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  9. GabbyD,

    You know my opinion. I think Beningo is profound. You want to investigate why I think that way. It is a subjective opinion based on reading numerous articles by Benigno. I think he has a depth of perspective that few others possess. I can only guess from your query that you disagree, and I don't mind. I know Benigno can irritate people because he speaks sharply.

    I also read a lot of your comments here and there. I agree with you a lot, and disagree with you occasionally. I know your style is to start with a question of the other party, and to dig and dig and dig. You stand back safe and let the rest of us put our thinking out there for you to grill.

    I don't really want to play that game. It is an Ego game in a way, something that is not particularly constructive or kind. And I don't appreciate the "feel you up" remark. It is unnecessarily personal and rude.

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  10. i stand back out here safe? look, if you want my opinion, you can ask. i'm not gonna presume you want it, and just offer it.

    i know you think he is profound. i can read.

    what i dont know is how you arrived at that conclusion.

    yes i disagree -- otherwise, i would not have asked the question! one asks questions about things one doesnt understand, right? thats obvious, no?

    i dont know if thats considered a "style". i live and think simply -- if i dont get something, i ask. isnt that the natural thing 2 do?

    so i dont know how that can be an ego game. by asking, i am EXPLICITLY SAYING i dont understand. and asking you to HELP ME.

    if thats EGO, i dont know what ego is.

    i'm sorry if you didnt like "feel you up". it was a joke, brought about by your "personal investigation".

    i dont to investigate you. i'm curious, its that simple

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  11. Profound: penetrating or entering deeply into subjects of thought or knowledge; having deep insight or understanding.

    So you think he is not penetrating and is shallow of thought, with little insight or comprehension.

    I tend to think statistically. What is the norm, and how many standard deviations left (shallow) or right (deep) might Benigno be on the scale of human insight and comprehension.

    The dude is grammatically impeccable, sees things that I don't with my various college degrees and life's experience, phrases things in ways that have impact (often insultingly), and makes me think.

    If he does not do these things for you, what does it matter?

    He is, in my experience well separated from shallow. Now take "likeable" and we may agree that he often is not. I somehow suspect he does not care.

    So on what basis do you find him shallow?

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  12. benign0 doesn't irritate me. I irritate him. I titillate his senses. I provoke him to think outside of his box. He threaten me with "you don't know what I'm capable, dude" Wow! How he hates my englsicht. As you know by now, Filipinos are so arrogant and snooty when they write englsicht. They think they own the whole world and they are the only authrotiy because they have goot prose and poetry. Unbeknownst to benign0 people has different writing styles. How he hates my "tiling-tiling" style. 'til now I still do not know what tiling-tiling is. Sure, I can compress his 1,000 words into one short paragraph.

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  13. Mariano, ahahahahahahahaha. Keep up the old tiling-tiling commentary. Perhaps it's an Aussie term meaning really irritating . . . but smart . . .

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  14. B0 writes well, most of the time. technically, he is fine. sometimes, he's too obtuse, given his simple messages (see below).

    in many ways, that counts for alot.

    but profound? hmm... i have 2 reactions when i read him:
    1) he's obvious
    2) he assumes ALOT without much thought

    RE #1) to me, when he is "right", he is right only in the most obvious way, in that his point is obvious.

    example: he claims that poverty is when you make promises you cannot fulfill (i'm paraphrasing)

    at some level, this is extremely obvious. in fact its tautological. it brings nothing new, and in fact, it might even obscure issues. i.e. "promises" implies agreement with someone, which is clearly wrong....

    which leads me to #2)

    he assumes too much. in my latest query, i asked him why he agrees with ilda that the nurses in cali that sued over the use of filipino were victims.

    how does he know that? he says, they sued and didnt try to talk to mgt.

    i ask, how do you know THAT?, at which point, he merely says " how do you (gabbyd) knows that they didnt?"

    he assumes WAY too much, and uses it to make generalizations that dont pass muster.

    but he is consistent -- he makes his assumptions to make them consistent with his original points.

    ex: filipinos are victims. why? coz they sued. why didnt they try to arbitrate? coz they are victims... (tautology)

    his assumptions, which he never proves/questions, will naturally lead to the conclusions.

    this is certainly NOT a good way to make an earnest argument. it IS propaganda. tho.

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  15. "he makes his assumptions to make them consistent with his original points"

    Interesting point, for sure. I must be more aware. I use a lot of generalities, too. They are useful to make a point when the facts are not known, but the trend seems obvious. Generalities indeed are not fair to a lot of people, but I think that Benigno's are consistent with my own observations most of the time. Indeed, he often provides the glue that sticks some of my random thoughts together.

    One of my generalizations, drawn from the fact that I never see Filipinos carrying books, is that they don't read as much as they ought to if they wish to be a more productive society.

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  16. yeah, this is what i thought is what you might have meant by profound -- as in, i agree with his arguments.

    in this sense, "B0 is profound" is like the statement "the beatles are the greatest band that ever lived.

    its just a statement of personal preference.

    in this case, thats fine.

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