Achieving Happiness

Wo-hoh! Economic progress is now a reality. I need my medication, because I can’t seem to feel or see what this progress the government is talking about. Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo recently unveiled her new vision, and she’s calling it ‘8 in 08′. Actually, she should call it  ‘0
in 08. She’s merely recycling her old economic blueprint and formula. In her agenda,
Arroyo cited job creation, cost of living improvement, a strong peso,
increasing investments, pro-poor education, health care/housing/ending hunger,
a green Philippines and a strong anti-terror campaign; but these are the very issues  — welfare and livelihood in particular- that she has  failed to address and eradicate. Instead of an anti-terror campaign, she should be cracking the whip against the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) for the massive human rights violations; but hey, she’s as guilty as they are, so…

Eight in 08. New name, same old policies that will not result in any
genuine improvement in the lives of ordinary Filipinos.  Arroyo and her
spin doctors have come up with admittedly catchy-sounding slogan for the
government’s economic program, but there’s nothing new about it. These
projections are being made in self-defense, against the assertions of the
Genuine Opposition and other critics
that the basic sectors have benefited nothing government programs. Same old
promises, and given the Arroyo government’s track-record of economic and fiscal
failure, the results will be the same: 0
by 08.

Macapagal-Arroyo is high on projection but very poor on the
follow-through. It’s impossible to achieve genuine economic progress using her
blueprint and formula because they completely ignore what’s necessary for the
Philippine’s economic development: the creation of strong and independent basic
industries, and genuine agrarian reform. Nowhere in her economic program is the
land distribution to farmers mentioned; and the country remains highly
dependent on exports.  In
nominal terms, the country has had a 211% increase from debt service levels in 2001. under Arroyo, the
country has suffered and continues to suffer the worst ever fiscal crisis. Public debt
payments are on an all-time high, and the country is in the deepest debt hole
in all of its history.

Sonny Africa of IBON Foundation wrote a very good feature on
what lies ahead for the economy given how the government’s budget spending and
allocation patterns.Over-all, he cited the failure of the government to utilize collected taxes to strengthen
social services for the Filipinos and to generate secure and sustained
employment.

  In 2006, because of the
implementation of the reformed value-added tax (RVAT), the government
amassed P978.7 billion in tax and
non-tax revenues, the amount going beyond the set target. , readily surpassing
the target. The RVAT which raised the VAT rate from 10% to 12%, allowed the temporary hike in corporate income tax rates from 32% to 35%.
VAT exemptions on oil and electricity were also removed.

Despite the increase in tax revenues however, government
implemented cut-backs on the budget allocations for social services. The provisions for social services were already
measly to begin with; but instead of pumping funds into them using the
collected taxes, allocations were skimmed. Real public spending on education fell to P1,331 per Filipino in the
recently-approved 2007 budget. In 2002, the highest allocation for education
was pegged at P1,503 in 2002. Health
spending was leveled to a sickly P111.78 per Filipino.

Decreasing allocations for the very same services that Macapagal-Arroyo is citing
for improvement in “8 for 08” has been the norm under her administration. Pres.
Arroyo claims to prioritize education, but Department of Education records
point out the lack of 20,517 teachers
(assuming a ratio of 45 students to one teacher), 45,775 classrooms (assuming
45 students to a classroom), 3.2 million seats and 67 million textbooks during
the previous school year 2006-07.

Filipinos are also ill-equipped to deal with the high costs
of health services. “The Arroyo government has also reduced total health expenditures Records show
that the national and local government’s
share in total health expenditure was 40.6% in 2000. By 2004 the figure dropped
to 30.3%. The continued privatization of
health and education services will forever keep them out of the reach and
access of ordinary Filipinos.

Taxes still
went into payments to creditors as well
as to assure foreign investors. Only last year, P854.4 billion went to total
public debt service. This means that every Filipino was forced to shoulder P9,935 each in contribution to the payments.
The amount for total public dept payments is seven times combined spending on
education and health.

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The AFP scores Prof. Jose Ma. Sison for dancing  with actress Ara Mina. She didn’t even know who the heck he was, tapos sasabihin that the party was organized by the Communist Party of the Philippines. Andun din pala yung mga officials ng Philippine embassy (o consulate, whichever).Yeah, well, Gloria Arroyo flatters and makes promises to US President/war criminal/international human rights violator/idiot George W. Bush. She’d probably sing him lullabies to sleep if she could.

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I like it when I am able to share things I’m really interested in with my friends. I seldom see them these days what with everyone being so easy with the elections, etc.

The other day Walkie dropped by (to borrow DVDS of SmallVille, hahaha!) and I let her listen to a few tracks from Avenue Q and Wicked, and she completely flipped. Walkie herself has an amazing voice, and in another life she could have given the likes of Lea Salonga a run for her Tony award. It was fun to listen to Broadway musical songs with her because, well, I could imagine her singing some of the songs and it would all sound so beautiful.

Walkie is also a voracious reader. When I think of her reading habits, the image is of a literal bookworm — eating and consuming pages and pages of high quality fiction. She reads anything and everything, and she gets affected by the things she reads. Upon finishing this book about the feudal traditions of olden China like foot-binding, etc, she said it felt like someone sat on her chest and the weight was crushing her. How’s that for imagery.

Gossiping with Walkie is also fun because it’s almost like we’re on tv and we’re a pair of old ladies sipping tea while being upset over the lives of others. In truth, we hate talking about other people’s lives because there’s so much sadness and we both get upset because there’s nothing we can do to help (imagine us talking about Kris Aquino….)

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Am glad about the new doughnut brands (no, doesn’t include Krispy Kreme. Expensive hype. It’s just like Go nuts Donuts, anyway) like Happy Haus, Hot Loops, and this Australian brand which for the life of me I can’t remember right now. They’re very good, and best of all, they’re cheap.

Top 5 favorite doughnut flavors

1. Blackraspberry of Dunkin Donuts

2. Chocolate Butternut of Mr. Donut

3.Chocolate Butternut of Dunkin Donuts

4.Yema of Go Nuts Doughnuts

5. Black forest of Hot Loops.

 Maple-Glazed Sour Cream Doughnuts with Sugared-Walnut
Streusel, Pumpkin Doughnuts with Powdered
Sugar Glaze and Spiced Sugar Doughnut Holes Raised Cappuccino Doughnuts with Espresso Cream Filling na lahat wala dito sa Pilipinas!!!

Am off! Suddenly hungry with all this doughnut talk.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 3rd, 2007 at 9:23 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.