Globalizing The Philippines
Globalization is an historical event in the making. In it’s ancient form it was the imperialist expansion of Western Europe throughout the rest of The World. It tapered off with the Industrial Revolution, but began again with The Information Age. I would mark that date as Thomas Friedman does, as November 9, 1989, with the fall of The Berlin Wall, the collapse of communism. Thus, today, we are nearly 15 years into the modern Globalization movement.
By “movement” I do not mean that globalization is the conscious product of people actively pursuing some globalization agenda. Globalization is part of the evolution of mankind. While politicians may be for or against globalization and may assist it or hinder it, globalization is not a political process. Short of some world-wide totalitarian government that would have the capacity to keep the countries of The World separated, globalization is simply history in the making, it is the future, it will happen in my lifetime, and the processes that will take place between now and then will change the world politically, culturally, and economically more than anything that has previously happened on this Earth.
Whole nations will be swept along in the wave of globalization whether they are willing or not. Those nations that recognize the coming changes and embrace them will fare far better than those that fight this overwhelming tide.
The Philippines has a history of embracing change. Divided in the past by the seas, the various and many islands supporting different chiefdoms in opposition to each other, made The Philippines as a whole vulnerable to outsiders as the various island states lacked unity. Filipinos always looked for any advantage that outsiders brought in order to take that advantage against other islands. Today, with a modern unified nation, The Philippines is in a prime position and is already embracing the changes and advantages of globalization. That very same tendency of Filipinos to embrace change and outsiders in the past that brought their defeat to Chinese and Spaniards traders and invaders will make The Philippines one of the fastest nations to benefit from globalization. It is already happening.
The largest obstacle for Filipinos to fully benefit from globalization is the lack of equal application of law. To that end, here, locally, in The Philippines, politics must play a role. To be integrated into the rest of The World to full advantage this nation must cease to be perceived as corrupt to its core. The entrenched ruling class, to survive, must adopt reform to bring a cleansing to this nation, otherwise the mindless tide of globalization will sweep it clean.
I would much rather see Filipino politicians be globalization enablers than to fight the change. To enable it, they are going to need to be visionaries, with greater scope than anything I have yet to see demonstrated here.