Many of my readers know that I have a significant interest in the Philippines ... in fact, sometime over the next few years I intend to make the country my permanent home. An acquaintance of mine publishes an interesting blog that frequently revolves around Philippine politics:
http://houseonahill.net/
While posting a reply to one of her recent blog entries on the rights of farmers in her country, I decided I'd repost the comment here to broaden its audience.
So many of us in today's world think only of GPS as a technogeek tool for business and personal pleasure, but GPS has the power to effect dramatic and dynamic change in people's and nation's lives. So here's my morning post to the "Sassy Lawyer"
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Very good topic, and good analysis, Sassy. For some reason we seem to have lost the focus on the economics of agriculture that is the true basis for a nations wealth.
The US did not become rich because of some magic after a group of generally poor rag-tag revolutionaries declared their independence, it became rich because it became the food supplier for the world, based on a political system that gave farmers substantial 'say' in government.
When I was a schoolboy and first became aware of the Philippines, it seemed a success story of a former commonwealth/possession becoming independent and feeding itself and a large portion of Asia.
40 years later the Philippines imports a huge fraction of its food and, as you point out, farmers are disenfranchised over huge segments of Philippine agriculture.
One of my technical specialties is the GPS and ways to apply its use to business and government. The first significant non-defense government use of the system I became aware of was a huge land reform program in Thailand where GPS was used to survey large land owner's holding for equitable distribution to tenant (serf) farmers. The large landowners had lobbied for years that the cost of breaking up the land by standard survey methods was cost-prohibitive. It may not be a coincidence that since significant land reform has taken place over the last 20 years in Thailand (synopsis here: http://tinyurl.com/be3y4), the rice import/export positions of the Philippines and Thailand have essentially reversed.
Although removing farmers from serfdom is a significant cause in and of itself, the benefits to the nation would prove tremendously larger than just the primary issue of 'doing the right thing' ... in spite of all the known and imagined defects of presidents and their governments the underlying cause of many of today's Philippine national 'ills' is rooted in the abject failure of Asia's best agrarian system being allowed to deteriorate to one of the worst.
All the Si's and Ayala's can not make the country whole unless there are 'common folk' with enough money to shop in the malls and subscribe to the telephone services.
Again. a worthy subject for future attention, should you feel so inclined.
Best regards
Dave
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