We should count our blessings

Today, as we take off from work for yet another day, this time to celebrate the end of Ramadan, it should be a good day to count our blessings. We know the world out there is a mess, with a war on terrorism still raging, the anti ballistic missile treaty scuttled and a recession turning economies upside down. One thing is sure. There is no peace on this earth but Pinoys aren’t doing so badly.

According to President GMA, and she said it twice in an interview with showbiz interviewer Boy Abunda, Star City is enjoying 40 percent more sales. She reasoned that if Pinoys can go spend money in a carnival like Star City, they must have enough to put food on the table and to buy other necessities.

We should also be thankful that the Philippine economy is the only one in the region that has proven to be most resilient. Making sure that Boy Abunda understands what a resilient economy means, President GMA explained that most economies in the region are showing negative growth. Not only are we still showing positive growth, we have grown the highest among that unfortunate lot in our region during this time of crisis.

I guess Boy Abunda was impressed because he didn’t follow up that question. He could have disputed the President’s claim by citing China, a model of an economy’s resilience and growth in the region. Also, he might have pointed out that our economy might have seemed resilient in comparison with the region’s basket cases. But that was because our countryside is largely undeveloped, and out of the mainstream of world trade. As it turns out, this was our blessing. Our failure to develop turned out to be our blessing.

The President, however, is not without ammunition even if the showbiz talk show host turned out to be a bit more literate in economics. She would have told Mr. Abunda that things could have been worse.

Look at Argentina. The finances of this country is so f*cked up that its government was forced to issue an edict that prevented its citizens from withdrawing more than $250 a week, or just $1,000 a month, from their own savings account. That’s really getting screwed by your government. Imagine that – they can’t even get their own money out of the f*cking banks. Here, we are rushing to give government our money by buying those T-bills with interest rates so low, we still have to do productive work for a living.

And don’t complain about the daily devaluation of the peso, despite the infusion of Christmas funds from OFWs. Argentina’s peso is pegged one to one with the US dollar and it has only brought them woe.

The latest news from Argentina is sadder still. Government has had to postpone payments to 1.4 million pensioners because of a cash shortage caused by its mounting economic troubles. BBC News reports that tens of thousands of senior citizens who turned up at the banks as usual to collect their pensions were sent away and told to come back next week. That couldn’t happen here. SSS pensions are so insignificant, it won’t make much of a difference.

The Argentine government has promised to pay pensions before Christmas, but before then it has a series of other payments to make on its $132-billion debt. Think about it, $132-billion debt and here we are complaining as if it is the end of the world just because our government is racking up about P150 billion in budget deficits. What are a hundred billion or so of deficit in depreciated pesos compared with Argentina’s foreign debt? The interest on that debt alone should make Lito Camacho’s problem a piece of cake.

And that’s not all. I just caught some television news footage of the massive demonstrations and labor strikes in Argentina protesting the state of their economy. At least here, the leftist hotheads are unable to disrupt our lives with calls for similar self-defeating nationwide strikes even when the issues are so hot such as when those rapacious oil companies take advantage of our laws to gouge the public. Here, the leftist labor leaders are happy just to see their faces on the evening newscast.

We should also be thankful that the IMF is only trying to impose an increase in our social security contributions, something we really ought to do anyway. In Argentina, the IMF has made life so difficult but even as Argentina followed its prescriptions at the expense of the people, the IMF still cut them off. It does not seem likely Argentina will get a bridge loan of about $1.3 billion from the IMF any time soon.

To get that IMF aid restored, Argentina needs to slash $4 billion off next year’s budget. That makes the P10- billion John O cut off from the defense budget seem like a tea party. So, what are we complaining about?

There were understandably angry comments about the Argentinian government continuing to make interest payments to international creditors on its debts while pensioners went hungry. There is nothing new with that. When Tita Cory was at the Guest House, we volunteered to pay debts we could have gotten debt relief for. But our technocrats preferred to see our own poor go hungry, homeless and uneducated to keep foreign banks happy. Those spoiled Argentinians probably think just because their peso is theoretically equivalent to the dollar, they have all the entitlements American S & L owners had.

Count your blessings folks. Ate Gloria isn’t doing that badly, unless you are an Erap loyalist or Ping Lacson. Police statistics will show the crime rate is down. And only Sen. Serge Osmeña and that meddlesome priest Fr. Nacorda publicly believe that ransom has ever been paid to free Abu Sayyaf hostages. We might just as well add to the list of blessings the fact that air quality in Manila is stable (whatever that means), Nur Misuari voluntarily left the country (why our government wants him back, befuddles me) and not to forget the most important indicator for a certain Economics PhD, the Star City index of economic wellness is up.

Things could be worse. Remember Argentina.

Another one

It lived up to its name, a short-lived piece of space garbage that burns brightly for a moment before it is extinguished forever. The financier of this three-month old metro broadsheet has reportedly given up after burning some P13 million. One of his editors told us at Myther’s last Thursday that the staff had not been paid their salaries since last month. In this hard economic times, another one is about to bite the dust.

What baffles me is why their financier even bothered. He burned a small fortune before in two other publications, a morning and an afternoon daily, that are now history. He is financing a newsmagazine that must also be burning a hole in his pocket. I realize he made an obscene bundle when he sold his family’s stake in a large telecoms company, but there are better ways of unburdening yourself of unwanted cash.

Well, he could have put up a Foundation to keep sarcastic columnists happy. That would have been socially productive. Even P13 million of depreciated Philippine currency is a lot of money, for the likes of people like, well, me. Why would someone as savvy as he is flush a bundle like that down the tube for a paper, only to throw out the journalists on his staff just before Christmas?

Christmas crisis

An unidentifiable reader sent me this one.

It will be difficult to have a nativity scene this Christmas. This is not for religious or constitutional reasons or out of respect for Muslims. It is simply difficult to find three wise men and a virgin these days. There is no problem however finding enough asses to fill the stable, specially if you look for them in the legislatures.

(Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected])