June 08,2021 - 08:30 AM
But knowing too little is even more dangerous than ignorance. Case in point are the well-meaning yet underinformed folk who claim to have discovered the magical solution for all our national troubles based on some tourist visit to or impressionistic study of our more successful neighbors or, at times, of totally incomparable nations across the oceans.
Perhaps the fundamental reason why our country can’t coalesce around a shared collective memory is the shared frustration with the persistent state of crushing poverty, haunting injustice, and overall underperformance of the Philippines. In response, we either create imaginary “golden ages” under previous leaders, especially dictators, or blame the latest ex-president for all our national tragedies.
Our fundamental national tragedy is instead the absence of inclusive development, thus the double-digit underemployment among our adults and double-digit malnutrition among children. Is it the “form” or “system” of government? That also fails to explain why extremely divergent regimes from communist Vietnam to liberal democratic Taiwan and New Zealand have been similarly successful, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.