How to remember

I went to London for what my daughter Marta called a trip to “fulfill my nostalgic urges.” I could not quite get to remember as it was when I was an exile.

Take the house where we lived in Connaught Street a mere walking distance to Hyde Park. It was first stop for me. The street is lined with terraced houses as the British call houses no matter how grand if they are built connected to each other.

The houses are narrow, built vertically across five floors so you have small living rooms, small kitchens and small bedrooms. Terraced houses or at least the ones in Connaught Village were built at the turn of the 19th century and remain pretty much the same through the years because building regulations forbid changing the façade of houses.

  So from the outside I was returning to a house I had lived for 20 years that looked exactly as it was then from the outside.  By luck, the doors were flung open because it was being refurbished.  It was unrecognizable — walls were removed, the entire basement was transformed into a huge and open dining and kitchen, bedrooms opened to gardens. That was not my home in exile.

It was a refuge for Marcos opponents from Manila and US and called the Pedrosa Hilton because it was open to all — Jose W. Diokno and family were visitors, so were Sister Mariani Dimaranan and Max Soliven.

Today it has become in estate agents lingo more desirable because at the corner of Connaught Street and Connaught Square, former Prime Minster Tony Blair has bought three terraced houses, one for his residence, another for his office and another for staff. There are policemen in front of his house, the corner and at the mews just behind.

That revisit to the house we lived in for many years leads me to conclude that one can remember the past but the experience, always unique, cannot be repeated. Remembering was in the mind not in places.

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Having visited London, I find that there are even more immigrants than there were 20 years ago. There is some irony here. Great Britain might have been a successful colonial power but today the peoples of the countries they conquered are having their revenge and populating the country.

People walking the streets were of every hew and color. Filipinos were also among them who have married into the English community. The Filipino ambassador, Ambassador Manalo is married to an Englishwoman.

The writer Gore Vidal, in one of his essays wrote that this is the future of demography –there will be so much intermarrying that immigration policies to block that future will be futile.

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Here’s a rejoinder to my column yesterday on Asia. Although I did say that the future is Asia, there are warning signs that should be heeded.

An Asian Development Bank report says that it is premature to call it The Asian Century. The region accounts for 27 percent of the global economy and nearly 60 percent of the world’s population but there are signs that it must get its act together. Asians must work and plan hard for an Asian Century.

Philip Bowring for the Asia Sentinel writes that “Asia has capacity for economic supremacy,” the report maintains, but not certainty. Countries tend to fall into a “middle-income trap,” achieving annual per-capita income levels of up to $12,000 on a purchasing power parity basis, but then getting stuck, though South Korea and Japan are exceptions.

Asia’s economic fate could rest with China, though the workforce is no longer rapidly increasing and the shift from rural areas to urban centers has likewise slowed. To gain influence, Asia must address weaknesses: invest in education, women’s rights and technology; manage climate change’s effect on trade and economics; and combat wage inequality, poor governance and corruption.”

The report “Asia 2050: Realizing the Asian Century” was presented in the ADB annual meeting in Hanoi.

It warns “that progress could easily stall so that by 2050 instead of accounting for more than 50 percent of the global economy its share would be only a few points higher than its 27 percent today.

“It may be that by 2050 the Asian century will be almost at an end — that history will show that it started in 1960 and is already more than halfway through. 
For sure, the 50 years so far have seen a cascade of success, starting with Japan’s post-war revival, moving to the NICs – Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore – in the 1960s and1970s, on to Southeast Asia in the 1980s and early 1990s and hence to China. Indeed the sheer scale of China has both served to overshadow earlier successes elsewhere and to give many both in and outside Asia the idea that Asian progress towards world supremacy is almost inevitable.



But the ADB warns, without naming specific countries, of “the dangers of poor governance, which it said was deteriorating in some countries, and corruption. “

”Much greater efforts are needed to improve income distribution which is not only a matter of social justice but is a necessary to create the broad base demand to drive growth and ensure high standards of education across the community. Late starters like Vietnam and laggards such as Burma and the Philippines may increase the slower pace of growth in the more developed parts of Southeast Asia.” Bowring added.

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It is a shame we know little of Filipinos overseas making good in their chosen careers. They could do so much for the country if only they could be recognized.

One person I would heartily endorse is Maria Ronson who lived in London almost the same time I did. She has been promoted to vice president, Asia sales. She will be responsible for all AP international licensing revenue across Asia Pacific. Daisy Veerasingham, senior vice president and head of AP’s video business, said of Ronson’s appointment: “Maria’s excellent leadership of AP’s Asian business is well known. This promotion reflects the tremendous contribution that Maria and her team have made to growing AP’s revenue in the region and also the increasing importance of Asia to our business”.  And she is Filipina. Amen.

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Concerned citizens who want answers from Comelec about the computerized fraud in the elections of 2010 and 2013 are pushing hard. Dubbed a press conference, it is more an invitation to everyone to attend the town  hall meeting for everyone who has a question or would like to know why we had a failed elections are invited to go to the Kapihan sa Rembrandt on Monday Aug. 12 at 9 am.

Computer experts and political analysts will reveal in detail just how the electoral sabotage was done and how Comelec is covering it up. The presenters will then open the session to questions from the public.