globalization

The fast pace of information and communications technology, goaded primarily a by business interests and a heavily responsive market, is changing global cultures and all facets of human activity. In his Media and Governance, Eli Cruz, a Salesian priest, writes how even politicians—debatably the more fortunate segment of society—galloped to comply with the unavoidable upgrades of mass communications.

At turn of the century, the concept of globalization has spontaneously bolted from the confines of discussion groups to the borderless highways of the world so much quicker than an epidemic. Now everybody has to face its implications which, if understood and given a human face, may bring about opportunities for an integral human development, albeit on a macro level. Dr. Lourdes J. Custodio writes about its challenges in her Globalization and Its Challenges to Education.

Globalization, regional economic crisis, the unmitigated hike in global commodities such as oil—and even the stars—have been finger-pointed time and again as culprits to domestic problems and governance. Curiously enough, the growing economies of Asia had worse scenario than any scapegoat could ever imagine. Vietnam, for instance, which has been ravaged by a senseless war some thirty years ago started from a below-zero economic benchmark. But now it is standing tall and coming in closer to the stature of Singapore, South Korea and Thailand.

In the Philippines, both the Executive and the Legislative Departments are one in understanding, intelligently or otherwise, that the Filipino is pitifully suffering because of a frail constitution and a wrong political system. Consequently, the proposed panacea to the national illness is to amend the Charter and to damp the democratic form government to parliamentary or whatever.

But of course, both the above departments are healthier than most Filipinos. Nobody should propose or even think of damping them to smithereens.