“It is better to be envied than pitied.” — Herodotus

Not many nations pity Israel. On the contrary, Israel is more feared, admired, and envied for its monumental achievements and instinct for survival in a hostile neighborhood, poor soil, and rich history.

The next Philippine president must endeavor to make this country an object of envy and beauty rather than pity and mendicancy with every visiting calamity.

Moreover, the travails of the nation are exacerbated by excessive preoccupation with partisan politics, opportunism, self-pity, leadership shortcomings, corruption, and the inability to pursue and materialize the national vision owing to the absence of continuity and consistency.

Price control?

Whose bright idea was it to freeze oil product prices to their October 15 levels using the devastation of successive typhoons as the basis for price control?

Now, the government may have to eat humble pie, so to speak, and gradually and partially lift the freeze order since it is a no-win situation.

Ever since oil was discovered, size, ruthlessness, and monopoly have always been the hallmark of the oil industry.

These transnational petroleum giants are traditionally uncompromising and ruthless in the pursuit of the profit motive and efficiency.

For these reasons, price or exchange controls have invariably been unsuccessful in the long-run, and there is no way that small import-dependent nations, such as, the Philippines can challenge or defy these oil conglomerates, and get away with it.

The solution is dig for oil, or go nuclear.

* * *

We never learn

The Philippines is a tropical paradise in the vicinity of the equator that is encircled by a “ring of fire” which surrounds the Pacific Ocean basin.

It means that the country is regularly and constantly visited by devastating rain and wind-driven typhoons, volcanic explosions, unpredictable earthquakes, and tsunamis along the coastlines.

On the one hand, we have never learned our lessons from these regular visitors and events even if it is just to minimize damage to property and spare lives.

On the other hand, as in Taiwan and other places, small rubberized ponds are scattered everywhere to trap rainwater for irrigation and in preparation for EL Niño.

Further, where you have volcanoes, you will have geothermal power and volcanic soil is the richest in mineral nutrients.

Filipino scientists are highly knowledgeable on these matters, but due to politics, politicians are laid back and unconcerned unless there is media mileage to be made.

Moreover, Visayas and Mindanao belong to the “land below the wind” which is typhoon-free and extends all the way to Indonesia.

Therefore, why not re-arrange or tailor our agriculture and factors of production to these natural comparative advantages?

Again, it is common knowledge that the topography of the Philippines is 70 percent mountainous and unsuitable for large economies of scale agriculture, and the balance is alluvial, or at sea-level like Manila and other cities which are, therefore, prone to floods and landslides.

Sadly, while Manila was once a small Venice of canals and navigable esteros, these have become gigantic garbage dumps and home to informal settlers and massive flooding which the government is helpless to solve or alleviate.

When all is said and done, the whole nation is beset with all kinds of travails, heartaches, ruin, shortages, and frustrations that the Philippines has become an object of pity, and not of envy.

That is why this nation needs a President of giant stature and intellect for the tasks ahead.

We can do it.

You be the judge. (For comments and views, please e-mail: chaff_fromthegrain@yahoo.com.ph)