Guest
Article by Edgar Lores
Joe,
I was trying to come up with a Unified Field Theory on corruption and poverty
but I soon realised I was waaay out of my depth. So instead of
a “theory of everything” I have this Bits-and-Pieces Theory…
To
begin at the beginning, you started your essay with the observation, “Poverty
is the big challenge.” How big a challenge is it?
The
quantification of poverty is not exact. The CIA’s “The World Factbook”
pegs the population living below the poverty line in 2006 at 32.9%. For
2009, the presentation by the National Statistical Coordination Board has it at
37.3% using the old methodology and at 26.5% using the refined
methodology. I am sceptical about changing metrics in midstream, thus I
will take the average of 31.9%.
There
can be no doubt about it. The problem of poverty is staggering: almost a
full third of the population (of 94.8 million people) is mired in
poverty. That is 30.2 million poor. That is greater than the
Australian population of 22.9 million.
In
comparison, for countries with similar populations, we have Vietnam (87.8
million) with a poverty rate of 14.5% (2010 est.); Ethiopia (84.3 million) at
38.9%; and Germany (81.8 million) at 15.5% (2010 est.). In perspective,
we are better off than an African nation but much worse off than a neighbouring
Asian nation and a European nation.
Why
is poverty so prevalent? And what is the solution?
The
President’s answers to both questions are crystal clear in his pithy campaign
slogan, “Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap”. Others see it
differently. The Legislature, as this blog has pointed out, mostly
ignores the question of corruption and sees poverty as a mainly economic issue;
it has proposed the solution of charter change to stimulate the economy by
increasing foreign participation and ownership. The Church appears to
agree with the President's view that corruption is a prime cause of poverty but
also cites unequal opportunities and distribution of wealth. It does not
accept the widespread truism, however, that overpopulation is a contributing
factor.
Still
others offer other causes. To name some: greed, elitism, indolence,
government system and mismanagement, misplaced priorities, political
hyperactivity, unemployment, colonial mentality, OFW culture and the Pinoy
mindset.
There
is something to be said for each of these, but I think there is great truth in
the President’s insight: Corruption is the killer.
To
analyse the problem of corruption, to pinpoint its origins, I think it would be
helpful to use Freud’s model of the human psyche comprised of the Id, the Ego
and the Superego. Just a brief recap: The Id is the unconscious source of
basic impulses and drives. The Superego is the moral component, of which
Conscience is a part. And the Ego is the conscious Self, which balances
the demands of the Id versus the overriding control of the Superego. I
will use the term Conscience as a substitute for the Superego.
Certainly,
there are other models that can be used. To examine poverty, for example,
we could adopt (Douglas) Adam’s model of Galactic Civilisation which has three
phases: Survival, Enquiry and Sophistication. The first phase is
characterised by the question “How can we eat?”; the second by the question
“Why do we eat?”; and the third by the question, “Where shall we have
lunch?” In this paradigm, the poor are in the first phase; the bloggers
and commentators belong to the second phase, some sipping tea; and the
politicians, judges, clergy and oligarchs fall into the third phase.
Seriously,
however, were I to encapsulate the Filipino psyche In Freudian terms, I would
simply state it thus: the Filipino Id and Ego run rampant and ignore any input
from the underdeveloped Superego.
Filipinos
have hardly any recognised internal limits, only external ones. To
illustrate:
- The Id says, “Let’s take a
ride on the motorcycle.” The Superego whispers “Wear a helmet” (or is
silent due to ignorance). But the Ego ignores the warning and immediately
exclaims, “Okay, let’s go!"
- For the politician, the Id
says, “Imagine what you can do with that money”. Again, the Superego
faintly whispers, “But, sir, that money is not yours”. But the Ego
suppresses the ethical reminder and exclaims, ”Awesome! I can buy that new
car and make myquerida Maria happy!”
- For the priest, the Id says,
"Hmm, what a pretty altar boy..." You get the point.
To
a certain extent, the Freudian model can be compared to the three branches of
government: Legislature (Id), Executive (Ego), and Judiciary (Superego). The
analogy is not quite perfect.
- Both the Legislature and the
Id are the sources of action: the Legislature in constructing laws, and
the Id in driving desires.
- Both the Executive and the
Ego are doers of the action: the Executive to execute the bills passed by
the Legislature, and the Ego to satisfy the Id’s desires.
- Both the Judiciary and the
Superego are controllers of the action. While the Judiciary applies the
law retrospectively and prospectively, the Superego applies control
prospectively but is able to review actions retrospectively. In this
manner the Superego acts like a temporary restraining order, one that
turns into a permanent restraining order when reason has judged the
proposed action to be harmful or unethical.
The
question then arises: How do we develop the Superego in the Filipino psyche so
that corruption is eradicated? To answer this, we must first identify the
forces that form the Superego.
I
think the primary forces or agents that influence the Superego are (in
descending order of importance):
- Parents
- Churches
- Schools
- Peers
- Media
These
agents are all-important especially in the formative years of the child.
All of these taken together comprise the cultural environment.
The
order of importance is primarily based on the hours spent by the child with
each agent. The child is exposed to parents 24 hours a day, to the Church
one day a week, to the schools five days a week, to peers as long as school
time and play time, and perhaps, the least to media. (At least until
adolescence after which they spend all hours on the computer.) The
Church, with fewer hours than School, has been positioned immediately after
Parents because of the magnitude of influence they exert on the Superego.
Have
we completely identified all the forces that influence the Superego?
I
am not certain we have. There may be other factors to be considered, such
as, for example, the geographical location of the country and its
weather. There could be more.
- The Philippines is a disaster
zone. The country lies on the very rim of the Ring of Fire and at
the very front of the typhoon belt. Volcanic and climactic disasters
have taken their toll and continue to do so. It can be posited that
these disasters engender both an attitude of fatalism and an attitude of
seasonal opportunism that is reflected in the idiomatic saying, “Make hay
while the sun shines.” These attitudes, it can be argued, lead to
the numbing of the Superego as evidenced by (Jose) Avelino’s famous 1949
quote “What are we in power for?” and (Renato) Corona’s infamous insight,
six decades later, that there are “benefits in working for the
government”. It cannot be gainsaid that the majority of politicians
have taken Avelino's advice to heart, one grasping generation after
another.
But
we cannot move the Philippines to a better location (unless the tilting of the
Earth’s axis is considered?), so we are forced to look for solutions within the
perimeters of the five-sided polygon delimited by the primary agents. I
do not intend, much less have the capacity, to give a comprehensive list of
solutions to be associated with each agent. I will simply and briefly
dwell on their relevance to this discussion. Some of the proposed
solutions are sourced from this blog and its commentators.
Parents
Parents
are the first to plant seeds in the Superego. They do this by setting
limits to bad behaviour. When I was growing up, the rod was not spared,
but this technique has become a contentious issue. Modern parenting is
now on the side of eschewing this method, at least here in the Antipodes.
This
blog has noted that a basic problem with parents is ignorance. It is not
that they do not teach their children at all but rather that they teach wrong
values only too well. As this blog has stated, “Kids watch what parents
do.” And parents can be bad role models.
The
solution is to teach the parents. But it is too late in the day to return
them to school, so re-education must be done through other means.
- In the Human
Development and Poverty Reduction (HDPR) Cabinet Cluster approach,
the front-end agencies of the government in direct contact with the people
must impart knowledge. In the RH Bill, for example, there is a
provision that recognises the responsibility of the government and LGUs to
provide reproductive health information.
- The commentator Jim-e has
proposed the idea of public service announcements and educational
campaigns that can be distributed through the mass media. These
announcements and programs must be carefully crafted, must not be used for
political advertising, and must select the best media to reach the widest
audience. Some of the primary issues that can be addressed
relate to basics such as sanitation and cleanliness - littering, spitting,
and pissing in public; neighbourly conduct; observance of traffic laws;
and sustainability.
- Parents must not only be
taught survival values like wearing bicycle and motorcycle helmets; they
must be taught moral values as well, like the pursuit of material wealth
should never be made at the expense of another, especially those of
children. The media reports that one of the latest hazing
victims was enrolled in a reputable school, and had both parents working
abroad. It is unconscionable that mothers, some trained as
teachers, have to work as maids in foreign countries. For
heaven’s sake, let us have some self-respect. And to think that
our not-so-glorious ex-president had a program to create
super-maids. It is enough to make one cry out in anger and in
sorrow: “It is NOT just the economy, stupid!”
Churches
The
Church is the second-most influential agent to the development of the
Superego. I have positioned the influence of the Church ahead of school
because religion provides the overarching world view (Weltanschauung) through
the different stages of man's life, from birth, through marriage, to
death. Moreover, on a yearly basis, religion supplies the peak
experiences in the spiritual dimension of life on earth in the celebrations of
Easter, Christmas, religious processions and fiestas (or Ramadan, Eid al-Fitr
and Eid al-Adha).
The
main contribution of the Church to the Superego would be the internalisation of
the Decalogue (or their equivalents in the Koran). Most of these
teachings are universal in character, in particular the fifth to the tenth
commandments, and can be made the basis of a secular code of ethics.
Sadly,
the churches are no longer seen as part of the solution but as part of the
problem itself. (As long as a century and a quarter ago, Rizal perceived
this but it is only now that the reality of his perception is beginning to sink
in.) The churches have not observed their own precepts, much less the
constitutional doctrine of the separation of the Church and the State.
The two dominant churches – the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) and the Iglesia ni
Cristo (INC) – have failed abjectly in their missions to act as promoters and
guardians of morality and to encourage believers to hew a life in touch with
the Divine. Indeed, both have been involved in unethical and undemocratic
behaviour, and both are now seen to be major stumbling blocks to the Daan
Matuwid.
It
is interesting to note that the incidence of sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic
Church is not limited to Filipino priests. It is a world-wide
phenomenon. One would suppose that the clergy, with their direct link to
the Divine, would have superior Superegos. I note this in passing (a) to
highlight the almost indomitable potency of the Id and Ego, and (b) to
emphasise how much conditioning the Superego requires to be effective.
The size and strength of the walls of Conscience must be more encompassing than
the Great Wall of China, which was easily breached by going around it, and more
like the dikes of the Netherlands.
Schools
Compared
to the Church, schools have smaller rites of passage in graduation ceremonies
from primary to tertiary levels in the preparation of young adults for careers,
jobs and self-sufficiency.
This
blog has touted the subjects of ethics and civics as mandatory. I
would add a couple more:
- Reasoning. The Mind
must be trained to think properly. This is crucial as the Filipino
mentality is caught in superstition, just a little above the African
mentality of magical thinking (witchcraft). This mentality is not
limited to the countryside but prevails also in urban areas as evidenced
by the recent brouhaha on the link between deity and disaster. The
absurdity of a lady candidate for senator proposing that the
rains-with-no-name is divine retribution for the pro-RH Bill stance shows
how blind our leaders are. Google "list of thought
processes" and Wikipedia enumerates more than a hundred processes
worthy of study.
- Mindfulness. As the
Mind is trained to think it also must be trained not to think too much.
Google offers employees its "Search Inside Yourself (SIY)
program. Mindfulness programs for children have been developed and
are now in place. The theory is that training the mind to pay
attention to the here and now is beneficial, and this has been
proved scientifically and in practise. The method is to focus
the Mind away from Time Past and Time Future into Time Present. It
is the power of Now (Tolle).
Of
the five agents, perhaps only schools can be claimed to have an unequivocal
positive effect on Conscience. It is not surprising, therefore, that the
HDPR cluster recognises education as the central tool for “investing in our
people, reducing poverty and building national competitiveness”.
Learning,
formal or otherwise, should not end after the schooling years. To this
end, the national government and LGUs must provide for libraries at least in
the urban areas. In the Australian city that I live in, population of
49,000, there are nine libraries. Apart from books, each library is
stocked with periodicals, local and international magazines, audio books,
eBooks, music CDs, movie DVDs, computers, comfortable furniture and – oh,
yeah – free coffee. It hosts community events, craft (knitting,
needlework) and writing lessons, specialised classes for kids and seniors, game
clubs (e.g. Scrabble) and book clubs (e.g. Sci-Fi & Fantasy fans).
Peers
In
the early years, children learn from their playmates, schoolmates and church
mates. In later years, they learn from office mates, club-mates and
bar-mates. The impact of peers on the Super-ego may be positive or
negative, may strengthen or diminish Conscience.
For
myself, it was negative, and on balance I can induce that this will be true for
most of us. You learn to swear, smoke and drink from mates. The
urge to experience life, to plumb the depths, is at its height in adolescence
when a child has gained some independence and is venturing out into the
world. Peer pressure at this stage may mislead to greater depths, such as
experimentation in sex and drugs, and to misconduct and substance abuse.
One
great danger to be wary of is social packs, whether they are gangs in da hood
or fraternities and sororities in da college. These organisations use
violence as a tool of membership and a tool against other organisations.
The violence is not limited to the physical, and members often tend to adopt
groupthink, sacrificing the integrity and judgement of the individual
Super-ego.
Peer
influence is often examined within the context of young lives. One
wonders though how much peer pressure affects the actions of government
employees, politicians and judges. The questionable decisions of the
Supreme Court judges on Midnight Appointments and the Truth Commission, for
example, reflect more herd thinking than individual judgement.
Media
The
media is all pervasive, from TV to computers to mobile phones, that
indispensable modern device that is calendar, clock, camera, entertainment
centre, web link, talking companion, and soon to be wallet. Media can
influence the Superego for good or for evil.
- Television was and perhaps
still is our largest window to the world. The child's exposure to TV
begins at a very early age, mostly it is hoped in educational programs for
children. But neglectful parents do not limit watching hours and the
child can witness things - in entertainment shows, in movies and in the
news - which he may not begin to understand. It can be argued that
to reveal the world-as-it-is to a young mind is a good thing, but the idea
is to buttress the dikes of Conscience, and exposing the young mind to too
much dirty floodwater may be counterproductive.
- The windows offered by the
technological revolution, in computers and mobile phones, is expanding at
a great rate. It has been less than two decades since Google was
created, but these devices have been used in aid of political revolutions,
as in the Arab Spring, and in political evolutions, as in the Corona
impeachment trial and now on the RH Bill. Blogs and social media
have stirred and raised community awareness. Both (r)evolutionary
and counter-(r)evolutionary sentiments have been voiced on the digital
platform in both gutter and elegant language, but as C.K. Louis has
observed, "All dialogue is positive".
In
the above discussion, the role of government has been touched on at several
points, and I am beginning to think that government can be considered to be the
sixth primary agent. In educational campaigns, such as anti-littering,
and in providing information on its services, such as health, the government
can exert beneficial influence on the Superego.
Beyond
the President’s campaign slogan, the causal link between corruption and poverty
has not been clearly established. But the theory is simple enough to
spell out: money not lost in corruption will remain in the government coffers
and can be channelled to the poor, directly and indirectly. Directly by
cash subsidies in several projects like the “Food for Work” and the “Rice for
Work” incentives and the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program, which is the
largest. And indirectly by additional funds for education, healthcare,
childcare and job creation.
Given
the above, it would be easy to agree with the President and conclude that
eliminating corruption will also eliminate poverty. On reflection, this
might be a vast simplification. It has been observed, for example, that
poverty grows apace with the economy. This phenomenon may be explained by
the probability that the number in hungry mouths grows in the same proportion
as the economic rate, but we will leave that paradox for the economists to
analyse. Poverty is not a single-solution puzzle. Yes, the
elimination of corruption helps. Yes, cash subsidies and welfare
incentives help. Yes, reducing ignorance helps. Yes, increasing the
middle class helps. But there is not one silver bullet to kill poverty.
With
respect to corruption, part of the answer may lie in the logic of the
heart. The expectation of the government’s sincerity in uprooting
corruption has, not so coincidentally, lifted the expectation of a better, if
not prosperous, life. These rising expectations are clearly evidenced by
the President’s approval rating in social surveys and in the volume of comments
on the Web. What is not yet clear is the effect they have had on the
poor, if any.
In
Australia, it is estimated that one in 11 live below the poverty line; in
comparison Switzerland, where no one is supposed to go hungry, has a rate of
6.9%. The numbers are not overwhelming, but the conclusion is
inescapable: Poverty is, and remains, a First World problem as well. Why
is this so?
In
Australia, the poor live a life of relative gentility compared to the squatters
on the riverside. Some have computers and almost all have mobile
phones. The Aussie poor generally belong to two categories: the homeless
and those on welfare benefits. The second category consists mainly of the
disabled, the unemployed, single parents burdened with children, and
bludgers. Important: while a portion of these people are true victims of
misfortune, a significant portion can be said to be poor by choice. For
one there are the professional bludgers. For another it is true that some
single mothers birth more than a single child to gain government subsidy which
increases with each newborn; and the subsidies remain in place until a child
reaches his 18th birthday. One can imagine the results if this
encouragement were available in the Philippines - Church or no Church.
No, no, I would rather not. It boggles the mind and I, for one, do not
want to imagine the nightmarish results.
Thus
we arrive at a paradox: in spite of living in countries filled with opportunity
and abundance, there are people who are poor in fact by choice.
Why? I believe it is because they are poor in spirit.
This
leads me to the conclusion that the issues of corruption and poverty are, in
the main, issues of consciousness. The Filipino Ego is too strong and is
deaf to the voice of Conscience that cries “Stop stealing!” and “Stop living
like animals!” At the end of the day, corruption and poverty can only be
diminished, not eliminated, by a rise in the individual and collective levels
of awareness and in the ensuing realisation of the responsibility that comes
with that rise. A good government, like the current administration, will
attempt to do its part, but the individual citizen = as parent, student,
worker, man of God, and poor soul - must do his as well.
The
wisdom of Greece, the cradle of democracy, continues to shine: “God helps those
who help themselves.”
