Recalling My American Dream Back in High School

Back in high school, I could remember whining about why the Philippines was the way it was. At first, I wrote an essay in my high school days about what I'd do if I were president. Just having turned 15 too soon, I remembered writing my stupid solution that I would discipline every single Filipino (read here). Eventually, I was asked why is the US rich and the people there aren't as disciplined as in Singapore. Even worse, I remembered how the K+10 system tried to achieve economic literacy in just one year in the fourth year of high school. Sure, my economics teacher was as brilliant as the late Miriam P. Defensor-Santiago, or MDS for short. However, my teacher who was as brilliant (and strict) as MDS could only impart theoretical knowledge. I only knew how economics was used in college. I still feel stupid (until now) because of that! I couldn't understand why the US was a powerful country (back then) and it was the American dream. I had that American dream in high school.

The American dream was something some wanted. In my case, I was doing poorly in a high-standard school. I felt I was intellectually stupid or challenged. I did start to resent my Chinese ancestry and having been raised Filipino. Not soon after, I really felt about moving to the US permanently. That's why I wanted to take Bachelor of Science in Information Technology (BSIT)--it's all about the hype of going abroad. Some were taking nursing in hopes of going abroad. I wanted to take BSIT never mind that the course was under the Mathematics department. Computer science requires a lot of mathematics. Strangely enough, I did dig into some applications of mathematics to make me forget I once hated the subject.

What was that American dream about? It was my dream to one day escape the Philippines and go to the US. It was something that came to my mind because I didn't like studying the Tagalog language subject. I also saw the Philippines as a hopeless case. I only saw that the US was a land of hope never mind the racist history it had. Fortunately, there were great people who helped fight racism such as how the late Bruce Lee taught Chinese martial arts to non-Chinese people. What amazed me was that Lee was married to a white American woman.

While typing this right now, I recall the problem of students' dream course to go abroad (read here). I was feeling insecure when some people had taken their nursing degrees. I wanted to be a doctor but dropped the desire because of my fear of human blood. Sure, I could handle frog dissection in high school biology class but frog blood is nothing compared to human blood. I even had some fear while I was about to have my eye operation. Why did I want to become a doctor before I dropped it? It was because of the desire to go abroad. It was the desire for the American dream. The desire to have greener pastures in America.

I started to look at the root of the problem in the Philippines. Was the problem solely to blame on the Marcos Sr. Regime and the 1973 Constitution? I discovered various sites like CoRRECT Philippines. The real problem had to be with ongoing economic protectionism. I'm amazed that Carlos P. Garcia is still hailed a hero. The real problem with the Filipino First Policy is that it has restricted jobs. Filipino First Policy is a democratic version of Mao Zedong's China first policy. There's no place for Filipino First Policy in the Asian 21st Century (read here). Taiwan and Singapore took a lead in the Asian 21st Century. The Philippines is still left behind because of again, Filipino First Policy.

Right now, we have the Asian 21st Century. The former dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, Kishore Mahbubani, is saying that Asia may be rapidly overtaking the West. I wonder if the American dream is still worth pursuing? Asia, once a poor continent, has developed thanks to world trade. Singapore became a model in development. No, Singapore didn't open to foreign direct investments (FDIs) only because of its lack of natural resources. Vietnam is rich in natural resources yet it only developed because of Doi Moi by the late Nguyen Duy Cong. China was once poorer than the Philippines but Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms led to its rise. However, it seems that Chinese President Xi Jinping might become China's biggest problem now.

Maybe, it's time to think of why the American dream became so prevalent. I remember the film Heaven and Earth which talks about the Vietnam War. It was based on a book by the Vietnamese author known as Le Ly Hyslip. The film was partly based on the real incident called the Vietnam War and Le Ly's life. Now, Vietnam is overtaking the Philippines. There are still Filipinos stuck with the American dream. The Philippines really should get serious about adopting what Singapore and Vietnam did. We would need to permanently get rid of Filipino First Policy. That way, more and more Filipinos could fulfill their dreams better without having to rely on the American dream.

Teaching Mandarin Through Meaningful Conversations, Not Meaningless Parroting Without Understanding

As I try to criticize the old way of teaching Chinese, I also recall why I didn't like studying it. I had an interest in learning the language but the approach was too much memorization. One of the many problems was turning children into robots and parrots . Eventually, I lost learning because getting a high grade was the end of it all. I compare that to the arcade experience where a game never ends. If you've played many arcade games in the 1980s--you may realize that the games are only focused on getting a high score rather than learning a curve. It would be different if people started talking about what they learned in studying the ethnic Chinese language (華語, read as Huáyǔ). What interest was there anyway if we only compared scores? I had a lot of what's called boi seng in Amoy (failing mark) because I didn't like to study because of extreme memorization . I found this basic conversation on how Boi Toi (termed as question or 問題, read as Wèntí in Mandarin)...

Why I Think the Old Sinjiang Textbooks Were Written The Way They Were (and Why They're NOT Ideal for Contemporary Chinese Education)

The Chinese New Year's first day is over but for China, it's until Day 15. I feel like visiting a childhood trauma (which I laugh at now while remembering all the failing marks I had) because the whole program was based on parroting over understanding (read here ). I even wrote about how the old Chinese textbooks can't be used for teaching Mandarin . Good thing that these dreaded textbooks are now out of print . My memories are Grade 2 Chinese was strict and Grade 3 Chinese was even stricter . The Grade 3 Chinese teacher got the nickname of either Teacher Turtle or Teacher Fierce . Grade 4 Chinese teacher was also called Teacher Minus because she often said in Hokkien, "I will minus!" That threat came every time the class would misbehave. If I'm not wrong, I tried getting a minus 20 (for always talking) which caused me to fail another quiz. Some people would move out of a Chinese school when their child fails either Grade 2 or Grade 3. In our case, Grade 3...

Filipino First Policy Linked with Crab Mentality

Having sea crab yesterday or just eating crab, I always think of that old commercial in the 1990s. It was called, "Iwasan ang crab mentality." or "Avoid crab mentality." This makes me recall a scene when I was a child. I saw a pail full of mud crabs (called alimango in Filipino) and if one crab got out, the others pulled it down. The TV commercial showed how if the crabs got together, they could all escape their grizzly fate of becoming eaten for human consumption. Chefs are just lucky crabs pull each other down. However, it also shows that the crabs would rather all be cooked together than let that crab escape. Unfortunately, crab mentality is one of the biggest problems in the Philippines. It's not all that unique among Filipinos. However, it doesn't Filipinos should ever take comfort in engaging in a crab mentality, just because other people do it . Here's an interesting excerpt from Inquirer by Jerry Peres de Tagle PhD: Studies in human behavior ...

Refuting the Claim That Workers, Not Entrepreneurs, Own the Means of Production

Another ongoing nonsense by leftists is that the workers, not the entrepreneurs, are the ones who own the means of production. This would be complete nonsense spreading on social media. Having graduated from the College of Commerce (now the School of Business and E conomics ) makes me cringe at the idea. I've had some business marketing classes, accounting classes, and operations management classes which can help refute this idea. I keep hearing, "If only the poor will unite altogether--you rich are no more." Well, let's try and think about how the idea of workers, not entrepreneurs, owning the means of production can't work. Defining what capital really means Image by Sabrina Jiang © Investopedia 2020 The sample income statement by Investopedia tells you the capital. Capital is defined by the Investopedia as: Capital is a broad term that can describe any thing that confers value or benefit to its owner, such as a factory and its machinery, intellectual property l...

It's A Myth: First World Countries Self-Industrialized and Only Opened to FDI, After They Succeeded

The Straits Times As the battle for economic charter change goes on, another lie often spread: "First world countries, first industrialized by themselves, before they opened their economy to FDI." I'm seeing it ironically on Facebook. I tell them, "If you hate foreigners so much, why don't you get out of the Internet?" Some of them give replies like, "We're not hypocrites for badmouthing FDI on Facebook. We're simply forced to use imported equipment because foreigners unfairly own the means of production (read rebuttal here )." When I ask for their sources, they give sources like people from Bayan Muna (Nation First), the League of Filipino Students, the IBON Foundation, Kabataan Partylist (Youth Partylist), the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT), and maybe even the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP). Most of these sources (not all) are the favorite sources of those going against badly needed economic cha-cha. I...

When the Education Cares TOO MUCH About Grades, Schools Produce Idiots Instead of Intellectuals

During the pandemic, I was left in limbo thinking about my poor performance under K+10. It was something to think about that a classmate of mine who was both a summa cum laude and an honor student, ended up posting on his wall, "Students cheat because the education system cares more about grades instead of learning." The class salutatorian of our batch even commented about the good old days. I always had that feeling of insecurity and envy towards people better than me. But as Warren Edward Buffet would say, "Don't hate successful people. Learn from them instead." One of them is currently a teacher and the other is in Canada. I thought about my insecurities especially when I used to believe I was descended from a fine scholar and my family was a family of scholars. I remembered the time I was taking MBA and got conned. I was asked, "Is that what MBA taught you?" I got touchy and ended up admitting, eventually, that I was only taking MBA for the presti...

Would You Rather Listen to Social Media Gossipers Over Warren Buffett for Financial Advice?

I'm amazed at all the gossip that I've been reading on Facebook . I guess social media gossipers really do what they do best--spread gossip . The comments that I read on Facebook are anything but sound. I'm afraid financial and economic illiteracy is rather high in the Philippines. Hopefully, economic reforms will help solve it but there are some social media gossipers who speak against it with blatantly stupid statements. These social media gossipers make terrible financial advisers (read here ) and terrible economists (read here ). I could care less even if these social media gossipers have a prestigious degree or graduated from a prestigious school--they're just like the educated but not learned scholars of the Indian folk tale, The Scholars and the Lion . The wise old man you need to listen to Instead, I decided to think about taking advice not just from any old person but the wise old person . Just because one is older doesn't mean one is wiser. A youth who li...

Soldier Flies as a Key in the War Against Organic Waste

I ran into DNews where I got the video (above) to share. The interesting fact is that flies can get a bad name. In business, there's the term that the place is simply visited only by flies, to show that business is bad . Flies love dirty places and they're carriers of germs. However, I was soon amazed to learn about maggot therapy a few years back. Maggot therapy is using disinfected larvae of flies that only lay their eggs on decaying tissue. These tiny maggots begin as much decaying tissue as possible. With that in mind, I even feel like if one day I ever get diabetic or have a slow-healing wound, I would certainly want that procedure! I would choose to have disinfected maggots on my wound, even if the idea sounds cross. That would be better than losing my foot! After showing interest in maggot therapy, I certainly find this procedure amazing! An interesting concept from Singapore that I wish I knew existed Singapore may be a first-world country but you can't get rid of w...

The Bad Economics of an Overspending Lifestyle

DebtWave Back in high school, I could remember how I often overspent during my teenage years. It wasn't "easy" to have thrifty parents but it was worth it. College came in and I remembered how I had to deal with different types of people at the University of San Carlos-Main Campus (USC-Main). It could be seen that various people of various classes were spotted. There were rich people who valued money, rich people who no longer became rich because of their bad money habits, poor people who manage money well and are no longer poor but not necessarily rich, and poor people who don't value money as much as the overspending rich. Spending is part of economics. However, too much spending is basically too much of a good thing and becomes junk. Junk food contains excessive salt and sugar--both of which are beneficial but end up damaging the body in excess. That's why it's called junk food. I think about the typical Pinoy spending habits and what went wrong. I confess ...

Are People Who Insist That Workers Own the Means of Production Be Willing to Open a Business Where Workers Own the Means of Production?

Last 2022, I wrote two articles on the means of production. One article I wrote refutes the idea that workers, not the business owners, own the means of production . Another article discussed whether or not anti-capitalists have no choice because capitalists own the means of production . The other day, I wrote a dare where I want people who insist on #SahodItaasPresyoIbaba economics (higher salaries, lower prices) to open stores that operate on that mindset . I'm afraid that what I wrote was merely the tip of the iceberg . With that in mind, I'd like to ask people who say that the workers own the means of production to open a business, where the workers own the means of production. What's their reasoning behind the logic that the workers own the means of production? The common logic is that because the workers did all the hard work they own the production. They say that the businessman can die but not the workers. It's because according to these smart alecks--it's b...

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