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What Financial Crisis?

October 23, 2008

What financial crisis?

SHESPEAK: By Fiscal/Sai/Mami  Eldred Cole

The worldwide financial industry nearly collapsed (and is still in danger to really wither) during the last few weeks and caught hundreds of millions of

people off guard; creating panic in the market that threatens worldwide recession. We have
already seen shut downs of hundreds of small businesses as well as the loss
of hundreds of thousands of jobs in medium and large scale national and
multi-national firms, local or abroad, and mergers and more shut downs are projected and the numbers of the homeless, the needy, the unemployed, the

poor, in other words, practically every Filipino, are expected to swell. In fact, our biggest export, manpower, or we refer to them as the new heroes aka

OFWs are greatly affected.

The expected fall out of such crisis prompted the World leaders to demand urgent steps to contain the global financial crisis and a sweeping reform of

multilateral institutions, to avoid a repeat of the recession in October 1987 when a stock collapse of unprecedented size lopped 22.6 percent off the Dow

Jones Industrial Average. The collapse, larger than that of 1929 or the Great Depression and the recession that followed, was short-lived and the stock

market began to quickly recover. I remember feeling the after effects of that crisis, and hoping that I would not be able to experience it again in my lifetime.

But wishes are wishes, and here we go again.

Reacting to the crisis, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said that while hoping for the best, her administration is preparing for the worst to ensure that

the country’s economy remains resilient in the face of the financial turmoil roiling the world.
She assured that the Philippine “economy is strong enough to withstand this external turmoil.” Such big words coming from a small package, forgive my

pun.

She assured that she has directed her economic team to draw up a contingency plan to safeguard ordinary Filipinos, particularly women, from the effects

of the global economic slowdown and a feared recession in the US. But she forgot to direct her Congress to do the same. Although some would argue

that Congress of course is independent from the Executive, and so on and so forth, but do we really have proof they are not into each others pockets?

Oh, well, be that as it may, the Philippines have a unique way of dealing with such crisis, haven’t you noticed? We always do when confronted by any

predicament that threatens the disintegration of our country. When we wanted to get rid of a dictator, we did not go to war and get violent; we went to the

streets to remove him and put in his place a woman to clean up the mess he left behind. When we were governed by an incompetent president, we went

to the streets again and removed him, replacing him again with a woman to clean up after him.   It was just unfortunate that this time, the woman held on

too tight to the power she was bestowed and will not let go of the rein and further created a mess than she was originally supposed to clean up.

And can you count how many times there has been a coup d’etat and attempted coup d’etat since 1986? Let me count the ways; but wait, I’m running out

of fingers!  Wonder of wonders, we even elect to congress the masterminds of those so-called rebellions. We always do things our way, anyway, no

wonder Frank Sinatra’s song is a “killer” song, and you know what I mean. Now here’s the world financial crisis coming our way, and just look what our

Congress did in order to cushion the impact of the crisis: a member of our esteemed house of representatives moved for the regulation of town fiestas

and other local celebrations because of the financial hard times, can you beat that? His goal would have been admirable if it is doable, but can you

legislate culture? Or customs and traditions? Or is there no other brilliant way of cushioning the impact of the world crisis other than thinking small? Pork

really is not good for your health, especially if the surname attached to it is barrel; it clogs a sane man’s mind with a lot of bad cholesterol.

Another brilliant idea is to file a bill that seeks to limit the practice of body piercing and tattooing only to licensed specialists; while it is agreed that

guidelines has to be followed to ensure the safety of the people who want to get piercing or tattoos, but is there an onslaught of Filipinos trooping to the

tattoo parlors to have tattoos and piercing in order to survive poverty and cope the absence of food on the table that it has to be addressed now? And to

top it all, members of the minority bloc of the House of Representatives is set to file a new impeachment complaint against the president (yeah, for the

hundredth time), although said “fresh” complaint includes a menu of old scandals, such as the $325-million National Broadband Network deal,

P728-million fertilizer fund scam, and illegal disbursements under the Ginintuang Masagana Ani program, ad infinitum. The complainants have to hurdle

the disarray among opposition legislators in Congress who were supposed to endorse the complaint when Congress resumes from the Halloween break

on November 10, and you should know that the principal author of such impeachment complaint is no other than the son of former speaker of the house

Jose de Venecia, the fallen favored son, or is he one of the complainants? Either way, it is as if political turmoil in our country would help stabilize the

economy, and impeaching the president without clear contingency plan who is going to govern after her and steer us into the right path of development is

the solution. This is what we get by electing the “best” minds to Congress. So, what financial crisis are we talking about? Our congress is busy legislating

economic laws, investigating crimes like prosecutors and debating on the floor like delivering lines in B-grade movie and boycotting sessions like children

when they don’t get what they want.  Mama mia!  (For comments and violent reactions e-mail me at coi_416@hotmail.com)

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