we begin with our future :- )

I could be wrong. But I could also be right :- )

Way back in the 80s, there was this management trade book called In Search of Excellence. It was a bestseller. USA's answer to the onslaught of Japanese management buzzwords entering the lexicon of corporate America at that time.

I read that book when I was still on my undergraduate years. Yes, I am a super freak when it comes to anything to do with business and management literature. And if there's one thing I remember about that book is this one liner to open a chapter - "Ready. Fire. Aim!".

The authors, Tom Peters being one of them, wanted to underline the fact that excellent companies are biased for action.

Check. Got that.

Fast forward to the Philippines. To my limited view of reality :)

Anything taken to extreme is a bad thing. Right?

I am amazed by the number of studies that inundate our local press. Studies done by all this foreign entities that pegs the Philippines, almost always, near the bottom of that study.

And because we are not rooted to who we truly are, as a people, we panic. And we do the next best and expected thing - we act. Because we are taught to be biased for action :-)

Nothing wrong with that per se.

But if our actions further leads us to the dependence of others and in so doing enabling them to have their way with us, then - the biased for action rule of thumb becomes a yoking tool. A very silent and carefully veiled form of enslavement :-)

There is one industry that I understand more than others, our local education industry.

I do not disagree with the drive that we should produce graduates readily employable with the demand of the developed world. This road has its use and socio-economic value. Some may even be called to walk and travel on this particular journey.

What I am worried about is when the message of the local industry is sounding like this is the only road.

Isn't it that the educational institutions are supposed to educate and enlighten? Though "employable graduates" is a very good metric to indicate education quality, is that the most important metric?

What happens when we "unwittingly" and "unknowingly" divert the best minds of our land to be of use to what is important in the developed world that we end up robbing our country with what it needs - someone who will "multiply" the abundant natural and endemic treasures of the Philippines, our soil, our land and our seas?

Are we not contributing to our further enslavement, to our further dependence when we do this? Which in turn "strengthens" our much maligned status quo?

Are we really and truly educating when we do this?

Are we truly biased for action? Or are we biased for action for the sake of simply being biased for action?

The West and the most developed part of Asia is either scrambling or well-entrenched in Information Technology (IT) or in anything manufacturing. First, IT to our generation is what the car manufacturing was during the time of Ford and of Alfred Sloan. And manufacturing is one business system that needs a lot of bodies to run. Both fields that China and India covet because of their population size.

Can we compete with them? Or should we simply continue with the niche strategy we have?

But as we hold fort in these fields and produce minds for this, who takes care of our version of Middle East oil - our very soil, our seas and our land?

I am not limiting this to the environment loving Maria Makiling spirit. This extends to how can we make the most out of our lands in a very sustainable way.

Our land is being bought/ leased by our cash-heavy Asian counterparts who understand how rich we are. Have we ever heard of a Saudi prince selling a part of Saudi Arabia to foreigners? This is what's happening to us as our limitly educated farmers are selling their lands.

Statistics say that by 2022, the world will have to support 7 billion people. Will we, the Filipinos, be a niche player in that socio-economic system? Still taking on calls of the West and supporting their back-end offices? Still adding only labor to the Supply Chain of multinationals?

Or will we choose to be the premier supplier to the food basket of the world?

This path is filled with fears and with uncertainties. But wasn't it the case also for those who cross the Atlantic to build America?

This path needs will. This path needs courage. And it starts with what future do we want to build.

This is the same spirit that drives our Western counterparts and the more economically developed Asians to say and demand from us, Filipinos, that they need researchers on this and on that. And that they need talents and competencies on this and on that.

They are building the future they want.

When will we begin to build the future we want?

"... why think like mere men?"