enchantment101-blog1

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Reflection on the Confessions of an Economic Hitman

According to John Adams, “There are two ways to conquer and enslave a nation. One is by sword. The other is by debt.” This quote is in relation to the book of John Perkins “The Confessions of an Economic Hitman.” The book of John Perkins intends to expose a multi-faceted sytem of exploitation, by highligthing the role of intelligence agencies and the military, as well as the role of Economic Hit Men, and the rest of what he calls “the corporatocracy. Throughout the book John Perkins talks about the coincidences that a person goes through his life and how he got in, in the corpratocracy. At first, throughout his career, he believes that he is doing the right thing, because he is just doing his job but suddenly, there is a sudden realization in his cognitive mind that in the pit of his stomach he knew that he was doing more harm than good. He also spent several years in justifying his work because of his conscience but after that he still quit his job.

The confessions of an economic hitman is a real story of hired economic professional hit mans run by private multi national organizations and the government. They are the one’s who is responsible in creating a global empire and they work in many different ways. Economic hit mans role was to travel across the globe and identify countries with resources and corporation that are strategically important to the United States. After that , they will arrange huge loans from the world bank and other sister organizations for infrastructure development to make sure that the lucrative projects were contracted to U.S. corporations. On the other hand, world leaders are encourage to become part of a vast network that promotes and funnel U.S. commercial interest. Then, through a series of loan and exchanges and businesses the country ends up in debt to America so that those leaders would become tied up in a web of debt to ensure their loyalty. This could not have been done possible without persuasion and economic projection of the World Bank and other multi national organizations. Moreover, after receiving the money it can now be spent on developing infrastructure such as construction projects and electrical systems.

As stated on preface, p xiii, “this in return left these countries beholden to the United States ‘ economic and political interest, creating a “global empire” controlled by “corporations, banks, and government.” Obviously, when they introduce agreement their intention was just to manipulate the leaders by allowing multi national corporation to enter their country, use their resources, and eventually little by little they will be forced to surrender access to their natural resources to colonizing powers. As a result, large amount of debt will be left to them in which they could not repay as they entered in the agreement. To follow up, if the leader fails to accept these kind of deal the jackals are likely to show up, either to assinate those leaders or overthrow the government.

This is the saddest reality today, we are living in a world that only a few controls and benefit while the remaining suffers for being blinded by apathy and ignorance. The book of John Perkins proves how cruel and greedy are some people they were just only thinking for themselves. This only implies that if we do not step up and speak for the truth, we could end up being slave in our own territory.

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Are all politics dirty ?

When we say politics it do not only pertains to politicians or the one who is making and implementing the law. Politics could also be found in normal conversations like friends over friends in deciding where to eat, teacher over students when implementing school policies, and even to our self when we are choosing right decisions on our life. Politics do exist everywhere as long as there is an interaction. While, Politics in governing people needs political will and power. Power is the heart of politics and there is a tendency for it to be abused. That’s why we carefully elect political officials in distinct positions to avoid regrets and disappointments in the end. Looking up into today’s generation, people are now being wise voters, they know who will they elect despite bribes from desperate officials.

Politics for me, is dirty but not at all. Because it still depends on you’re intention wether to rule or to be ruled. We can say that politics is dirty when you are abusing you’re authority and using it as an advantage to deceive or manipulate other people. One example of dirty politics is the election specifically the 1986 election wherein Pres. F. Marcos manipulate the result of the votes to win the election against Cory Aquino. This particular incident during the snap election in which the Commission on Election declared Pres.Marcos as winner. This election sets history for being the dirtiest election ever recorded in the Philippines. The physical, mental, and morally abused citizens have arise their eagerness to oust Pres. Marcos and to end the martial law via People Power. The queen of Pork Barrel scam Janet Napoles is also part of a dirty politics because she was the mastermind of a multi billion pork barrel scams along with congressman and politicians. This event which led the senate to investigate involve officials with anomalies attached to their names. Allegedly 10 billion peso pork barrel fund where divided and distributed to congressman, senators and even government agencies. Until now, the case is still going, government officials who where involve are still working on the government though some are now imprisoned like, Ramon Revilla Jr., Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and many others topped the list of having bogus NGOs.

We as a citizen should not be happy and contented about this because those corrupt are still not paying for their sins because some of them bribe the people in charge, or in hospital arrest, or house arrest and many tarnished tactics for their comfort that they had maintained throughout their life. Sadly, this is our philipinne politics the people we expect to lift us are the ones who push us down. The people who are expected to make our lives better are the ones who benefits. Maybe , the only thing left for us is hope that someday, on the two sides of the coin the good politicians will dominate and the dirty ones would be eradicate. So that, all of us can experience better living and move forward. Furthermore, politics government otherwise, could also help us in attaining peace and prevailing justice. Although their are many corrupt officials there are still good officials out there who is fair, loyal, and truthful in servicing the republic. Like, Gina Lopez the former DENR secretary who strongly opposed abusive miners. Her strong will to remove this kind of abusive miners gained support from our President Rodrigo Roa Duterte. But that didn’t stop mining companies in fighting for their so called right. They filed a complain against Gina Lopez and this affect her appointment as the DENR secretary.

Retrieved from:

Bueza, M. (2015). Marcos vs Aquino, and past snap elections around the world. Retrieved from: http://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/83177-marcos-aquino-past-snap-elections-world

De Guzman, S.S. (2013). As a matter of fact. The Philippine Star. Retrieved from http://www.philstar.com/opinion/2013/08/05/1053441/pork-barrel-scam-perfect-model-corruption

Roly, K. (2014). Philippine HiStory Today: 1986 Snap Elections. Retrieved from : http://ffemagazine.com/philippine-history-today-1986-snap-elections/

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Capitalism

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Karl Marx was a journalist, revolutionary socialist, ecoonomist and philospher born in 1818. He was a great critique of capitalism and was responsible for developing marxism which has formed the basis of some truly overwhelmingly destructive political and economic philosophies. The fundamental principle of marxism is this, the capitalist state is responsible for perpetuating a system that encourages the welfare of upper middle class bourgeoisie to exploit the low wage industrial ploretariat in a class war.

So Marx mantained that the ploretariat must assume social economic control through means of revolution in order to create a classless and socialist societal order. Our capitalist system is based on the idea that the means of producion rest in the hands of private owners, the lead few who control industries, factories, businesses, shops, and corporations. The people who work for this businesses have no say in how they are run and do not share any kind of ownership. Marx had a problem with this setup and believed it only promoted inequality. Marx was convinced that only through a workers revolution could resolved this conflict and could restore some semblance of equality. The results was a system known as communism in which all means of production and enterprise would be owned by everyone. Marx also believed that modern industrial work was sterile, devoid of meaning, and alienating to most people. Because capitalism was primarily concerned with generating profits as efficiently as possible. Work became highly mechanized and dehumanizing were specialized assembly lined labor required no individuality or personal ingenuity or creativity. Therefore, it was easy for workers to become desolutioned with their occupation and concern that they could be easily replaced and made redundant if economic needs required it. In short, a capitalist system feel expandable.

The primary problem that Marx had with the capitalist was that their profits were in effect a form of theft. Because they did no little to no real work while their employees generated all of their wealth through their hardwork of labor. This he believed was nothing more than explotation of the labor class. His theories also proposed that capitalism was wasteful and produced over abundance of far more products that we could ever consume. Therefore, as proposed solution the means of production moved into smaller countries to avoid decingestion. Marx saw this as a sign that in a large and efficient industrial economic system, few people genuinly needed to work. This meant that the majority of people could enjoy more leisure time and shouldn’t be concerned with the negative conotation associated with being unemployed. While, a small number of people work others enjoy leisure and enjoy life. Furthermore, the end goal of Marxism is to remove the social stratification of classes and to establish a communal system wherein equality and justice prevails to each and every individuals that belongs to the society.

One example of the application of Karl Marx’s theory in Philippine context is the EDSA revolution. Where the people empowered themselves in order to overthrow the dictator, who is abusive to its power, and grabbed the freedom they deserve, leading to progress of the country. Since then Philippines was a democratic country and all the people have the equality and rights despite the different status in life. But then the conflict between the classes cannot be denied. It can be seen in the face of the country. The rich gets richer, the poor gets poorer. Despite the democracy, social stratification is still present in our society. People should have the voice in this kind of problems but it seems that most are drowned out by bigger names.

One concrete example of these abuses is during the establishing of the projects in the cities and towns. These projects should be the product of the taxes people pay from their income but many of these projects are only until wishful thinking. Many can be seen in the cracked roads, poor health services, not renovated government buildings and other infrastructures, etc. But worst of all, these dreamed projects come out during election periods, in order for the politicians to garner votes from the people. When they are in the position it’s easier to earn. The money the people worked hard for went straight to the pocket of the bourgeoisie. And most of the people have no say to these happenings even if in the first place, they are the one who have the perfect voice for it.

References:

John C. O'Brien, (1981) "Karl Marx, the Social Theorist", International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 8 Issue: 6, pp.2-66, https://doi.org/10.1108/eb013897

John Conway O'Brien, (2003) "The good society: the Illuminated, Karl Marx and Adam Smith", International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 30 Issue: 5, pp.598-612, https://doi.org/10.1108/0306829031047186

John E. Elliott, (1987) "Moral and Ethical Considerations in Karl Marx's Robust Vision of the Future Society", International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 14 Issue: 10, pp.3-26, https://doi.org/10.1108/eb014085

Tom Jeannot, (2010) "The enduring significance of the thought of Karl Marx", International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 37 Issue: 3, pp.214-238, https://doi.org/10.1108/03068291011018776

Thomas O. Nitsch, (1999) "Beyond Adam Smith and Karl Marx: visions and versions of future society", International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 26 Issue: 10/11, pp.1315-1326, https://doi.org/10.1108/03068299910292541

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Religion

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Religion is a well established bureaucratic institution that is part of the social paradigms. It is responsible for the development of values and ethics of the people. Furthermore, religions have a powerful role in shaping ideas of social justice and legitimacy, and also in responding to perceptions of injustice and illegitimacy—e.g., passively accepting human suffering and injustice as the will of God and a badge of moral merit, or actively opposing them, and if so, whether by violent or nonviolent means. One reason that religions are often so powerful in war or peace is that they carry the archetypes, images, and symbols of meaning and identity that inform people’s thoughts and actions at deep, often unconscious levels. To maximize the potential of religions to contribute to peace and minimize those that breed war requires understanding these deep, unconscious levels of knowing and cultural formation; this is more elusive and difficult than addressing direct or even systemic forms of violence. Moreover, religion specifically the calvinism is also the reason for the rise of capitalism. As cited by Weber, the religion imposed an ideology to its followers that in order for the, to attain salvation and a place in heaven they must work and work. This is the reason for the strong work ethic of the people they never reach the end because of the means.

Philippines is a religious country imbued with different values, practices, and beliefs. Furthermore, Philippines is also considered as the only Christian nation in the Asia Pacific region. Within the Philippine Catholic Church, hopes are often reposed that Christianization of the entire region might occur through its missionary activities. Conversely, Philippines also caters diverse religious groups such as muslims, mormons, iglesia ni christo and other more. Apparently, some of these religion experience discrimination like for muslims they have been stereotyped as terrorist. On the other hand, one issue about the catholic is the indulgences wherein you have to donate to the church in order to attain salvation. Primarily, during Spanish colonization Philippines suffered a lot specially the women because they were treated unequally and also the Indios.

References: References

Adisaputri Gianisa, Loic Le De, (2018) "The role of religious beliefs and practices in disaster: The case study of 2009 earthquake in Padang city, Indonesia", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 27 Issue: 1, pp.74-86, https://doi.org/10.1108/DPM-10-2017-0238

Kamel Fantazy, Alaa-Aldin Abdul Rahim A. Al Athmay, (2014) "Ethics and religion in higher education: Evidence from United Arab Emirates universities", International Journal of Commerce and Management, Vol. 24 Issue: 2, pp.180-196, https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCoMA-02-2014-0018

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Education

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How does the educational system in the Philippines work? What seems to be lacking with the Philippine Educational System ? Does it really help the Filipinos ? These are the kind of questions that sounds problematic to me. As a student, when you hear that kind of questions it connotes negatively because if it really does have benefits why would you question the system

Education has existed throughout the course of history in one form or another. The process of passing down accumulated information through oral and written from one generation to the next has been present in every human society, past up to the present. During the Spanish colonization, having an education is already a privileged because only few people specially well off families could afford it. Conversely, at present, this problem has already been addressed. More so, when it comes to the purpose of having an education is also different because before they want to be educated to fight gender inequality, class struggle, and the sovereignty of the country against the colonizers. At this point of time, Filipinos main purpose or objective of having an education is only to be successful, to be rich and live lavishly but they forget about the most important things like spending time with their family, enjoying a simple life and not clinging to the material things in this world. Unemployment, labor mismatch, and labor migration is one of the greatest problem of our Philippine educational system. As the society continuously changing the people also manifest changes. The cost of living in the Philippines at this time is indeed significant if you do not have a work then you might think of having a job right now. As the prices of all products and services increase you cannot afford to take it easily, you have to find a work or else you will starved.

Furthermore, education plays a significant role to everyone of us. As many said, it is the key to attaining success. Primarily, it is the core and wealth of every society. Conversely, if you are uneducated you will end up nothing and you will experience all the injustices. However, we cannot blame people who are uneducated because having an education is really expensive.

References:

Role of education in fight against racism. (2001).Education + Training, Vol. 43 Issue: 8/9, https://doi.org/10.1108/et.2001.00443hab.025

Violeta Orlović‐Lovren, (2011) "The role of education in protected area sustainable governance", Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal, Vol. 22 Issue: 1, pp.48-58, https://doi.org/10.1108/14777831111098471

Marina Z. Solesvik, (2013) "Entrepreneurial motivations and intentions: investigating the role of education major", Education + Training, Vol. 55 Issue: 3, pp.253-271, https://doi.org/10.1108/00400911311309314

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Social Injustice

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Social injustice by definition is a relative concept about the experiences of malpractices and inequalities in the society. Broadly, people and society has its own different point of view or worldview with regard to this matter. It involves different social phenomenon that circulates across the globe. Collectively, social injustice happens in any aspect of society wether you are rich or poor. Primarily, social injustice can be divided into two categories, although they are often co-dependent: Inter-Social Treatment and Unequal Government Regulation. Inter-social treatment involves treatment to a person or a group(s) of other people based on personally-held biases and prejudices. These prejudices most often manifest in sociological categories such as: race, gender, age, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, education, and mental or physical abilities. While, unequal-government treatment involves laws and regulations that purposefully inhibits, deregulate, obstruct, limit, or repressed wether implicitly or explicitly a person or a group of people due to political pre-dominance. As a result, conflict arise which by definition means the emerging platform different political parties or entities. Currently, these are the primary hot topics with regard to social injustice it includes: education, capitalism, poverty, and religion.

Our society today is a direct result of our country’s actions yesterday. However, the present state of our society cannot only be explained at one point, linear or one directional nor it has to be dynamic and reflexive. According to the book of C. Wright Mills, an individual should not be preoccupied by his personal milieux but look broadly and relate his personal troubles to public issues. Otherwise, we will forever be trapped with this atrocities happening in our modern world. Currently, these are the contributing social phenomenon that vanguards all other social realities it includes capitalism, religion, education, and power.

References:

David Tajgman, (1996) "Reflections on labour market deregulation in South Africa", International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 23 Issue: 7, pp.57-67, https://doi.org/10.1108/03068299610122425

Khalid Arar, (2018) "Arab women’s educational leadership and the implementation of social justice in schools", Journal of Educational Administration, Vol. 56 Issue: 1, pp.18-32, https://doi.org/10.1108/JEA-10-2016-0131

Kishor Thanawala, (2001) "Is there injustice in the international economy?", International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 28 Issue: 10/11/12, pp.852-860, https://doi.org/10.1108/EUM000000000612

Sealey, C. (2015) "Social exclusion: re-examining its conceptual relevance to tackling inequality and social injustice", International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Vol. 35 Issue: 9/10, pp.600-617, https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSSP-05-2014-0040